1881.] 41d [Lesley. 



■ To return now to the Kings of Judah ; Abijah or Ahijam walked in all 

 the sins of his father, that is, did not worship Jehovah ; or, at least, wor- 

 shiped other deities also. 



Asa, son and successor of Abijam, had one of the purest of Egyptian 

 names ; a name borne by the Fourth Pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, called 

 " the good Assa," and by the Eighth of the same dynasty, called simply 

 "Assa," with the forename Tatkara. The word meant, in Egyptian, 

 image or statue. Queen Hatasou called the temple she built to Hathor, 

 Assassif. 



It is an odd but characteristic clerical error in 1 Kings xv, 10, that the 

 scribe repeats of Asa what he had before said of his father, Abijah, that 

 his mother (not grandmother) was MaacJiaJi, daughter of Abishalom. The 

 chronicler (2 Ch. xi, 30) says that Maachah was Abijah's mother, and 

 says nothing about Asa's mother. But he lets us into the state of Jehovah 

 worship thus : Azariah went to meet Asa returning from a great victory 



over the Cushites, and said "Jehovah is with you... . .Now for a long 



season Israel (hath been) without the true God, and without a teaching priest 



and without law When Asa heard these words he put away the 



abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin and re- 

 newed the altar of Jehovah," &c. The baby Asa might well bear a pure 

 Egyptian name. 



Jehoshaphat was the son and successor of Asa. Both he and his mother, 

 Azubah daughter of Shilhi, have therefore Hebrew names ; aad he seems 

 to have followed his father's faith in Jehovah, and to have been in fact 

 a zealot, establishing a sort of colportage system throughout the south 

 country, and appointing clerical judges (Shophetim) everywhere. 



Jehoram, Jehoshaphat's son and successor, had six brothers ; and all 

 seven had honest Hebrew names. But Jehoram slew his six brothers ; 

 married Ahab's daughter ; and let loose idolatry again in Judah. After 

 a long and disastrous reign he is made to die, like the apostate Julian, of 

 some horrible bowel complaint, as a punishment for his defection from 

 Jehovah, and was refused burial in the royal tombs (an Egyptian punish- 

 ment). 



Ahaziah, son of Jehoram, reigned but one year, and was murdered by 

 Jehu, the usurper of Israel. All his family were then destroyed by his 

 mother, Athaliah, except little Joash, who was concealed by the high 

 priest, Jehoiada, in the temple for seven years ; and then a revolution 

 placed him on the throne, which he rededicated to Jehovah. 



Joash, is certainly Hebrew for Theodore, "God given." The name was 

 borne not only by this eighth King of Judah, but also by the twelfth King 

 of Israel, which secures its Semitic character. His mother's name was 

 Zibiah of Beershebah. After Jehoiada's death, this king plunged into the 

 indulgence of all the popular idolatries ; and among the violences which 

 occurred were : — the famous stoning of the prophet Zechariah ; the slaying 

 of Jehoiada's sons ; the victorious invasion of the Syrians; and the assas- 

 sination of Joash. 



