20 KEV. JOHN URQUHART, ON THE BEARING OF RECENT 



modern critical scholars to di:;pcn(l upon them in the study of 

 Hebrew history." 



Tiie unexpected testing; of tliese Books by oriental discovery 

 has resulted in wliat must be desciibed as a contrary verdict. 

 Perhaps the most striking illustration of this occurs in the 

 I'eferences to King Uzziah of Judab. It is to the Clironicles alone 

 that we are indebted for any notice of the vnst importance of 

 that monarch's reign. We are told tbat " he went forth and 

 Avarred against the Philistines, and brake down the wall of 

 Oath, and the wall of Jabneh, and tbe wall of Ashdod ; and he 

 built cities about Ashdod, and among the PhiUstines. And 

 Ood helped him against the Philistines, and^ against the 

 Arabians that dwelt in Gur-Baal, and the Mehunims. And the 

 Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah: and liis name spread abroad 

 ■even to the entering in of Egypt ; for he strengthened himself 

 exceedingly. . . . Moreover Uzziah had an host of 

 fighting men, that went out to war by bands, according to 

 the number of their account by the hand of Jeiel the scribe 

 and Maaseiah the ruler, under the hand of Hananiah, one of 

 the king's captains. Tlie whole number of the chief of the 

 fathers of the mighty men of valour was 2,600. And under 

 their hand was an army, 307,500, that made war with mighty 

 power" (2 Chron. xxvi, G-13). The account concludes with a 

 reference to the " engines invented by cunning men " for the 

 defence of Jerusalem, which were able " to shoot arrows and 

 great stones withal." 



In the above there is a complete departure from the earlier 

 narrative in Kings. The information given by the Chronicler 

 is entirely new. \Ye are thus furnished with a crucial test as 

 to the historical value of liis independent statements. Tiglath- 

 Pileser III. of Assyria was at this time subjugating the nations 

 of the West. His monuments were mutilated by a successor ; 

 but there is now no doubt that he was one of the altlest and 

 most resolute of the Assyrian kings. Tiglath-l^ileser's is 

 described by Dr. Pinches as " one of the most importvint reigns 

 in Assyrian history." It was supposed that, in a tablet which 

 has come to us only in Iragments, Azariah, or Uzziah, is 

 named by the Assyrian king as one of his tributaries ; but that 

 reading has not been sustained. The references to the Jewish 

 king convey an entirely different impression. Judah was 

 apparently too strong to permit of an Assyrian invasion. 

 There was a confederacy against Assyria among the Western 

 peoples of which Uzziali was a supporter, if not the instigator 

 and chief. The confederates were subdued and punished ; 



