170 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1868- 



of the kingdom of Ephraim is tumultuous and confused. 

 Again and again the throne is gained and lost by violence. 

 A truly national policy never appears. Pekah alone felt 

 himself strong enough in combination with Syria, the old 

 enemy of Israel, to attack the kingdom of Judah. But 

 this attempt at a bolder policy only served to drive Judah, 

 too, into the hands of Assyria. 1 The fall of Damascus 

 brought the outposts of the king of Nineveh close to the 

 land of Canaan, which seemed now no more than the 

 &quot; bridge of battle &quot; between the rival empires of the Nile 

 and the Tigris. Pent up between two such monarchies, 

 the most daring politician could not hope for the in 

 dependence either of Judah or of Ephraim. The only 

 importance of the land lay in the strength of the almost 

 impregnable mountain fastnesses which Egyptians and 

 Assyrians alike were eager to secure. The utmost that 

 the Hebrew princes could hope for was to maintain a 

 partial independence by holding these fortresses in the 

 interests of one or the other powers. Thus all political 

 life, at least in the northern kingdom, resolved itself into 

 a struggle between an Egyptian and an Assyrian party, 

 whose every step was guided from without, and whose 

 alternate victories were marked by more than one bloody 

 revolution. At length King Hoshea threw himself with 

 decision into the cause of Egypt. Then came the final 

 heroic struggle with Nineveh. The last energies of the 

 people were concentrated in the defence of Samaria, and 

 the fall of the city marks the disappearance of the ten 

 tribes from history. 



If the last years of the kingdom of Ephraim showed us 

 nothing more than the passionate death-struggle of a long- 

 forgotten monarchy, we might claim for this narrative a 

 tragic interest, but hardly a place among the great events 

 of the world s history. But, side by side with the political 

 parties that we have sketched, there existed in Israel a 

 third party, which stood so far apart from both the others, 



1 2 Kings xvi. ; Isa. vii. 



