6

Jerusalem in the Days of the Divided Kingdom, 921-721 B.C.

When the northern tribes of Israel learned that Rehoboam intended to increase the oppressive taxation and conscripted labor of his father, Solomon, 1 they declared themselves independent from the Judah-based monarchy. 2 Things might have proceeded differently had the Israelites understood the wisdom in a principle later taught by Jesus: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand" (Matt. 12:25). Notwithstanding the justifications for partitioning the kingdom, the division of Israel was clearly effected under the direction of the Lord himself; Israel's God has always been directly involved in the destiny of his people: "Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee[Jeroboam]: (But he shall have one tribe for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel:) But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand, and will give it unto thee, even ten tribes" (1 Kgs. 11:31-32, 35).

The northern tribes called on Jeroboam, one of Solomon's former officers in charge of the royal services in the tribes of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh), to lead them. Jeroboam had been promised kingship over ten of the Israelite tribes by a prophet from Shiloh (see 1 Kgs. 11:28-40), and because Solomon had sought to kill him, he had fled to Egypt and remained there under the protection of Shishak, king of Egypt, until Solomon died.

The northern tribes declared independence at Shechem. Jeroboam built his capital there, along with a Transjordanian center at Penuel (see Bible Map 9). He soon rearranged the religious priorities of the kingdom as well. While in Egypt, Jeroboam had seen the apis bull used in Egyptians' cultic practices, and he attempted to secure the loyalty of his Israelite subjects by instituting this perversion of the true religion. To divert religious traffic from Jerusalem, the rival capital, he built shrines at Dan and Bethel, on the northern and southern frontiers of his new kingdom of Israel. His imitation of true religion included "two calves of gold" and a non-Levitical priesthood and sacrifices and holy days (see 1 Kgs. 12:26-33). These aberrations were known for centuries thereafter in the writings of historians and prophets as "the sin of Jeroboam."

Our present biblical text (1 Kgs. 12:20) indicates that only the tribe of Judah followed the house of David, but the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, includes Benjamin in the southern kingdom (see footnote b to 1 Kgs. 12:20; cf. 2 Chron. 11:12; 15:9). The tribe of Simeon had also been assimilated into Judah by this time (see Bible Map 9), and Levites and others from the various northern tribes had fled the apostate corruptions in the north, seeking spiritual refuge in Jerusalem. "The priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to [Rehoboam]. . . . For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem: for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest's office unto the Lord. . . . And after them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem" (2 Chron. 11:13-16). That may explain why Lehi and his relatives from the tribes of Joseph were later living at Jerusalem (see also 1 Chron. 9:3; 2 Chron. 15:9-10).

The southern kingdom of Judah, however, was not without its own apostate practices. "They also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel" (1 Kgs. 14:23-24). The Israelites' abandonment and provocation of Jehovah had immediate and dire consequences for both kingdoms.

Invasion of Pharaoh Shishak

Not long after the division of the Israelite kingdom in the later part of the tenth century before Christ, the Libyan-Egyptian pharaoh Shishak~ 3 invaded Canaan with twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand cavalry, and "innumerable" foot soldiers. "In the fifth year of king Rehoboam Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord . . . and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house; he took all: he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made" (2 Chron. 12:2, 9). Shishak's campaign in Canaan is the basis for the film Raiders of the Lost Ark, which supposes that if the pharaoh took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, then the Ark of the Covenant was also taken to Egypt (though there is no historical evidence that the Ark was removed from Jerusalem at this time; it may well have been hidden by Temple officials).

The names of cities conquered by Shishak are carved into the walls of the Karnak Temple in Upper Egypt. 4 Jerusalem is not included in the lists. Shishak's armies apparently threatened the city at its outskirts and were bought off by Temple treasure, which further impoverished the formerly prosperous capital. Rehoboam had set up a line of defensive fortresses on the west, south, and east to protect the heartland of his kingdom (see 2 Chron. 11:5-12). His fortifications proved ineffective at their first test. Rehoboam refused to establish any kind of fortified barrier on the north because of his hope of someday restoring the northern tribes to his kingdom. 5

Overview of the Period

During the two hundred years between Solomon and Hezekiah, when the two kingdoms coexisted, the northern kingdom of Israel had nineteen rulers from nine dynasties, eight of which began by violence, and seven of those by assassination. Judah had twelve rulers in the same period, only one of whom came to the throne by violence—the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. Judah survived 130 years longer than Israel and still had only twenty rulers, one more than Israel, and all but the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel from one dynasty. David was promised a royal lineage, and he received it. Jeroboam was promised the same, but because he turned away from the Lord and did not repent, the promise was not fulfilled.

During those two centuries, Jerusalem lost its standing as the capital and the center of religious worship of all of Israel. When the northern kingdom ultimately fell to the Assyrians, however, Jerusalem once again became the unrivalled political and religious center of the Israelites. Following are the twelve rulers in Jerusalem during this two-hundred-year period: 6

Names	Years Ruled	Comments
Rehoboam	921-915 b.c
Abijah, or Abijam	915-913
Asa	913-873
Jehoshaphat	873-849
Jehoram, or Joram	849-842	Married Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel; introduced religious perversion
Ahaziah	842
Athaliah	842-837	The only female ruler in Israel or Judah and the only one not of the royal Davidic dynasty
Jehoash, or Joash	837-800
Amaziah	800-783
Uzziah, or Azariah	783-742
Jotham	742-735
Ahaz	735-715

The Struggle to Control the Benjamin Plateau

For two hundred years the political histories of Israel and Judah were inextricably linked and filled with frequent hostilities—especially in the border land of Benjamin just north of Jerusalem: "And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life" (1 Kgs. 15:6). "And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually" (2 Chron. 12:15). Those disputes persisted for generations. One border feud involving Abijah of Jerusalem is described in 2 Chronicles 13:1-8, 13-20; another one, a generation later, involving Asa of Judah and Baasha of Israel, is recounted in 1 Kings 15:16-22. "And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days" (v. 16). Baasha attacked Judah's northern border and built up Ramah, just five miles north of Jerusalem, to control traffic between the two kingdoms. "Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house, and delivered them into the hand of . . . Ben-hadad . . . king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus" (v. 18), with the request for Syria to attack Israel and thereby alleviate pressure on Judah's northern border. The Syrian king was glad to comply with Asa's handsomely paid plea and invaded northeastern Israel. Asa seized Baasha's building stones at Ramah and built up Geba and Mizpah to secure his own position on the border. (The locations of all that action may be seen just north of Jerusalem on Bible Map 9). 7

Both the northern and the southern kingdoms viewed control of the border region immediately north of Jerusalem as vital to their own interests. Surrounding peoples, such as the Syrians (Hebrew, Arameans) of Damascus, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the Philistines, took advantage of this internal dissension and broke away, reestablishing their own independence and reducing the Israelite kingdoms' prominence internationally.

Elijah the Prophet, Holder of Priesthood Keys

Shechem and Tirzah had been capitals of the northern kingdom of Israel, but Samaria was established as its capital and rival to Jerusalem during the reign of Omri in the first half of the ninth century before Christ. "Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove [an asherah, a fertility goddess]; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him" (1 Kgs. 16:30-33). During the reign of one of the most infamous figures ever in Israel came one of the greatest, one sent of God to decry the depravity of Israel's king.

Some scholars and historians claim that after Moses, Elijah was the greatest man in Israel's religious life. And some regard him as the most popular personality in Hebrew history. Although there are no extant writings from Elijah himself, historians have preserved his story in 1 Kings 17 through 2 Kings 2. Elijah's first recorded use of the sealing power was to shut up the heavens, causing a dearth of rain for three and a half years. His purpose in stopping the rains was the same as that expressed by Nephi, son of Helaman, in the Book of Mormon: "O Lord, do not suffer that this people shall be destroyed by the sword; but . . . rather let there be a famine in the land, to stir them up in remembrance of the Lord their God, and perhaps they will repent and turn unto thee" (Hel. 11:4; compare Amos 4:6-11).

The severe famine that resulted caused Elijah himself to flee to the brook Cherith to find drinking water. That brook has traditionally been identified with Wadi Kelt, which is east of Jerusalem and flows down to Jericho.

A most dramatic event in Elijah's prophetic career was his encounter with Jezebel's priests and prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. That site, between Phoenicia and Israel, was the geographic meeting point between Phoenicia's Baal and Israel's Jehovah. The contest on Mount Carmel was to see whose deity could bring rain and fertility back to the land after the three and one-half years of drought brought on by Elijah's sealing the heavens. Baal was supposed to be a storm god, a fertility god. But the true God Jehovah sent the rain. His mighty control of the elements was evidenced by the ensuing fierce winds and pounding rain (see 1 Kgs. 18:41-46).

After Elijah supervised the execution of hundreds of Jezebel's priests and prophets, the queen sought to kill Elijah. He fled south for more than a hundred miles to Beersheba and continued on to Horeb (Mount Sinai). The discouraged prophet needed encouragement. At Mount Sinai the Lord told Elijah he had work to do, to get a companion, and be assured that many other righteous souls had not embraced the worship of Baal. Elijah was not alone. It is noteworthy that Elijah did not flee to Jerusalem, to the House of the Lord. Perhaps, for a righteous prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel, Jerusalem no longer had religious significance. 8 Elijah was the last prophet in Old Testament times to hold the keys of the sealing powers of the priesthood. 9 Because Melchizedek Priesthood holders were generally not functioning in the Temple at Jerusalem, perhaps Elijah fled to an earlier holy place, to Mount Sinai, where the God of Israel had made his last known appearance to a prophet. 10

Athaliah, the Evil Queen of Jerusalem

Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram married the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, 11 probably as a political marriage to help improve the relationship between Samaria and Jerusalem. Having lived all her life under the influence of Baalism, "that wicked woman" Athaliah (as she is called in 2 Chron. 24:7) introduced the worship of Baal to the holy city of Jerusalem.

That both Israelite kingdoms adopted some of the Canaanite religious practices is evidenced by Israel's prophets frequently condemning the "groves" (the asheroth, or fertility goddesses) and the baalim. What the prophets denounced says something specific about the ills of their society. God's prophets reproved the Ammonites for worshipping Moloch, the Moabites for sacrificing infants to the fire-belching Chemosh, and the Philistines for trusting in their grain or fish god, Dagan, but they also rebuked their own Israelite nations for whoring after the gods of the Canaanites. Fertility was a dominant motif in Canaanite art. Figurines and statuettes, found in great numbers even in Jerusalem and near the sacred Temple Mount, often have greatly exaggerated sexual features. There were elements of remarkable crudity in ritual prostitution. Canaanite temples included rooms where young women sacrificed their virginity to strangers as a sacrifice to the goddess of fertility. Israelites had been warned of the perversions they would encounter in the land of Canaan, and they were constantly admonished to avoid any contact with such profane abuses (see Ex. 34:11-17; Judg. 2:3, 11-13; 3:7). 12

Besides promoting Baalism, Athaliah tried to destroy the Davidic dynasty by killing all male descendants of David, but a counterrevolution by the priests eliminated the queen and reinstalled the Davidic line in the person of the young prince Joash (or Jehoash), whom they had hidden in the Temple and the priestly precincts for the six years of the queen's rule (see 2 Kgs. 11:2-3). Once the queen was executed near the royal palace and the priests and shrines of Baal were destroyed, the Temple priests, the king, and the people joined in a solemn covenant to worship and obey Jehovah (see 2 Kgs. 11:17-18). Joash later carried out extensive repairs to the Temple. 13 King Joash continued loyal to the Lord as long as the faithful priest Jehoiada lived, but after the priest's death, the king rapidly apostatized and refused to repent. He even had Jehoiada's son, Zechariah, murdered in the court of the Temple. He later met the same fate at the hands of his own servants in his palace bedroom (see 2 Chron. 24:20-25).

The Rise of Assyria

Some of the most dramatic and long-remembered events in the history of ancient Israel resulted from their contacts with Assyria. The name Assyria derives from the name of its oldest capital city, Asshur, which is situated along the Tigris River south of Nineveh and Calah (see Bible Maps 2 and 10). The heartland of the Assyrian kingdom lay in northern Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq). Its chief cities were built along the Upper Tigris and at the foot of the Zagros Mountains, which separate it from the Iranian Plateau to the east.

Assyria developed into a flourishing state and empire during the later part of the second millennium before Christ. Its prosperity and independence fluctuated periodically with the success or failure of military exploits against its western neighbors, Mitanni and Aram. By 1100 B.C. Tiglath-pileser I had crossed the Euphrates twenty-eight times in attempting to control the Arameans (Syrians), who frequently attacked Assyria. A period of Assyrian decline followed.

In 911 B.C. Adad-nirari II reorganized the political structure of the kingdom, and the Neo-Assyrian empire began. With the renewed expansion, Assyria became directly involved with people and places mentioned in the Bible. Ashurnasirpal II conducted wars of plunder and conquest; and in the year 859 B.C. his son, Shalmaneser III, pushed Assyrian imperialism westward. In 853 an alliance of Levantine states—including Cilicians, Phoenicians, Arameans, Ammonites, Arabians, Egyptians, and Israelites—met the Assyrians at Qarqar on the Orontes River, and blocked the Assyrian advance. 14

Israel versus Syria

Assyria and Syria, though seemingly related terms, are two totally different entities and names. Assyria is Greek for the Hebrew word Asshur. Syria is Greek for the Hebrew Aram. Both Syria and Aram are used in the Bible. Several Aramean states lay northeast of Israel, including Aram-Zobah, Aram-Beth-Rehob, Aram-Maacah, and Aram-Naharaim (Greek, Mesopotamia), but the most often mentioned state is Aram-Damascus—that is, Aram, or Syria, with its capital at Damascus (see Bible Map 7). Ben-hadad, meaning "son of [the storm-god] Hadad," was the name-title of several kings in Damascus during the centuries of the divided kingdoms of Israel.

Having dealt with the more ominous threat of Assyria at Qarqar, Israel's king, Ahab, convinced Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to join him in trying to regain from the Syrians the town of Ramoth in Gilead, formerly held by the Israelites. The battle with Ben-hadad of Damascus resulted in the death of Ahab—as prophesied by Elijah.

When Ahab, the northern kingdom's most powerful king, was killed in battle, Moab broke away from the political and tributary impositions of Israel. Second Kings 3 describes a coalition formed among Israel, Judah, and Edom to end the rebellion. Nevertheless, Moab succeeded in throwing off the yoke of Israel and reconquering what they considered their homeland. "In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel; from Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan" (2 Kgs. 10:32-33).

"Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it: and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem. And Jehoash king of Judah took all the hallowed things that . . . his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of the Lord, and in the king's house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem" (2 Kgs. 12:17-18).

Prosperity under Uzziah

Damascus was later captured by Assyria, which allowed Israel, under Jeroboam II, and Judah, under Uzziah, their greatest expansion in the history of the divided kingdoms. Uzziah had already conquered Edom, rebuilt Elath on the Red Sea, and subjugated much of Philistia. Then, while Assyria and their northern and western antagonists were involved in their own local conflicts and internal revolts, Israel and Judah united to win back all of Transjordan and expand to the size of the former Davidic kingdom. 15 In Judah, Uzziah strengthened his army, built new fortifications, prepared new siege engines and weaponry for the walls of Jerusalem, and fostered extensive projects of agriculture, viticulture, and husbandry (see 2 Chron. 26:6-15). 16

Sometime during this period, Jerusalem expanded northwest to include about 150 more acres, making it much larger than any other Judahite town of the time—Lachish, for instance, the second largest city of Judah, was only twenty acres in size. Two new commercial and residential districts are now mentioned in the histories: the Makhtesh (the "hollow"), in the Central or Tyropoeon Valley, and the Mishneh (literally, the "second"; the new Second Quarter of the city), which encompassed the entire Western Hill. 17 Later in his long reign, Uzziah contracted leprosy and lived in a separate house; it appears that he reigned during his final years with his son Jotham as co-regent (see 2 Kgs. 15:1-7). 18

The many years of military victories and territorial expansion resulted in prosperity, pride, and a false sense of security. Prophets appeared to condemn the moral and spiritual failings of the Israelites. The warning voices of Amos, Isaiah, Micah, and Hosea were heard in the lands of Israel and Judah. They pronounced with emphatic clarity that Assyria was the greatest political threat to Israelite existence (see Isa. 7:17; 8:4, 7; Hos. 8:9; cf. Amos 5:27). 19

Assyrian Expansion Westward

The great expansionist Tiglath-pileser III, the "father of the Assyrian Empire," reigned from 745 to 727 B.C. He began the systematic, permanent absorption of foreign territories as provinces of Assyria by deporting people from one part of the empire to another.

Assyrians were infamous for their barbarous conquests and treatment of captured enemies. They forced captives to parade through the streets of Nineveh with the severed heads of other captives around their necks. The Assyrians were masters of torture, cutting off noses and ears and yanking out tongues of live enemies. They flayed prisoners—skinned them while they were still alive. The reliefs commemorating the siege at Lachish show Judahites impaled outside the walls of that city of Judah. No wonder Jonah had no interest in serving a mission to the capital city of Nineveh! 20 When the Lord called him to go northeast to his mission field, he fled in the opposite direction.

The Political Background of Isaiah 7:1-9 and 8:4

Around 735 B.C. Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel, tried to form a new coalition of Levantine states to stand against Assyria—their only chance, they thought, for national survival. When Judah refused to join them, Syria and Israel planned to invade Jerusalem and replace the Davidic king Ahaz with someone who would support them (see 2 Kgs. 16:5). 21

The great prophet Isaiah called a meeting with Ahaz 22 at the Gihon Spring to warn him not to fear the "two tails of these smoking firebrands" (Isa. 7:4) and to refuse to join their losing effort. Furthermore, Isaiah warned him against forming any kind of alliance with Assyria, who was an infinitely greater threat. Against Isaiah's advice, Ahaz turned to Assyria for help. He took treasures out of the House of the Lord and out of the king's house and sent them to Tiglath-pileser with a request that the Assyrian king rid him of his adversaries to the north. 23 Tiglath-pileser was more than pleased to accommodate Ahaz, of course. He subjugated Philistia in 734 B.C., the northern and eastern lands of Israel in 733, and Damascus in 732, deporting their peoples to other parts of the Assyrian Empire. The Bible records:

In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria. (2 Kgs. 15:29)

So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me.

And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.

And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive . . . and slew Rezin. (2 Kgs. 16:7-9)

The Fall of Israel

Hoshea, the last king of Israel (a vassal king), decided to ally himself with Egypt to throw off the Assyrian yoke (see 2 Kgs. 17:4). Assyria's response was rapid and terminal. Shalmaneser V (724-722 B.C.) besieged Samaria, the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel, for three years. "In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes" (2 Kgs. 17:6). The phrase "and carried Israel away into Assyria" seems to refer to the king of Assyria mentioned, but such is not the case. Shalmaneser besieged Samaria from 724 to 722 B.C. and in September of 722 he finally captured the city. He apparently died in December of the same year. Sargon II (721-705 B.C.) succeeded Shalmaneser on the throne of Assyria, and he is the one responsible for carrying away the northern Israelites—the lost (ten) tribes—and making Samaria a province of Assyria. He boasted full credit for the conquest and deportation of the Israelites in one of his annalistic inscriptions: "I besieged and conquered Samaria, [and] led away as booty 27,290 inhabitants of it." 24

The historian of 2 Kings sadly began Israel's epitaph: "For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord . . ." (17:7).

Sargon followed Tiglath-pileser's policy of deporting conquered peoples, doing as his predecessor had done to the Transjordanian and northern Israelites ten years earlier. But he took it a step further. He initiated a policy of "transpopulation," that is, deporting one people and then importing people from other conquered lands to take their place. Sargon brought to Samaria foreigners from Babylon and Cuthah in southern Mesopotamia and from Hamath, north of Damascus (see Bible Map 10). The eventual intermarriage of these foreigners with the Israelites who remained in the land produced the people who came to be known as "Samaritans."

The kingdom of Judah submitted to Assyria and was spared destruction, becoming instead a vassal kingdom of the empire.

Isaiah, Seer of Jerusalem's History and Prophet of Her Destiny

Whether interpreting Jerusalem's past, decrying her present, or revealing her future, the most imposing figure during the days of the divided kingdoms was Isaiah the prophet. That prophet-statesman had unquestionably the greatest effect on Jerusalem's history of all the prophets from David to Christ. Later, during the reign of Hezekiah, he even rallied the city from the verge of destruction by the sheer strength of his solitary faith. Despite the outward prosperity and security of the kingdom of Judah during the early years of his life, Isaiah knew that the time was fast approaching when no kingdom of the Levant would, for ages to come, exercise political importance or influence; the empires of the east (Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian) and the west (Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine) would in turn dominate the Mediterranean world for more than a thousand years.

At his call to the prophetic office, Isaiah saw the Lord. 25 Isaiah was an eyewitness. His vision dispels the sectarian notion of a God without body, parts, and passions; the Lord was sitting on a throne and his train (the skirts of his robe), symbolic of his glory, filled the Temple. The new prophet was instructed to likewise fill the streets of Jerusalem with the voice of warning, to identify the sins of the people and command repentance in the name of the Lord. He lamented the depths of their fallen condition: "How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers" (Isa. 1:21). In the first five chapters of his writings Isaiah itemizes the dark list of sins: rebellion, apostasy, oppression of the poor and innocent, corruption of court and legal processes, thievery, bribery, idolatry, sorcery and wizardry, materialism, pride, haughtiness, collapse of social order, juvenile gangs, delinquency, lawlessness, violence, insolence against elders, immorality, drunkenness, and riotous living. 26 He even compared the city to Sodom! 27

There were particularly inexcusable problems in the religious establishment. Isaiah denounced the ceremonies and ordinances of the Temple and its officiators. They portrayed some semblance of religiosity but were at the same time hypocritical; they had a form of godliness, but their hearts were far from the Lord. Isaiah cried, "Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me [literally, "When you come to see my face," that is, "When you come to my Temple"], who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? [We might say, 'Why have you come here—just to improve statistics?'] Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; . . . it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood [of sacrifices, but also of murders]" (1:10-15).

On another occasion Isaiah condemned those who "swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness. For they call themselves of the holy city" but do not trust in their God (48:1-2).

According to Isaiah all the ills in Jerusalem's society would result in a host of ills in the once-great city: "The daughter of Zion 28 is left as a cottage in a vineyard, . . . as a besieged city" (1:8); "Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen" (3:8); "I will lay it waste" (5:6); "as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them" (5:24-25). Isaiah pointedly identified the executor of God's judgments on his people: "The Lord shall bring upon thee . . . days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah [from the division of Solomon's kingdom]; even the king of Assyria. . . . And many among [you] shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken" (7:17; 8:15).

The God whose Temple was in Jerusalem was the God of all peoples, and he used other nations to accomplish his purposes with his covenant people. Assyria was the "rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath" (Isa. 10:5-6). "Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant" was later brought up against the people of Jerusalem and did "utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations" (Jer. 25:9; cf. 27:6). And still later, the Lord said of Cyrus, as Isaiah wrote, "He is my shepherd [in the next verse he is called 'his anointed'], and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid" (Isa. 44:28).

As far as Jerusalem's immediate future was concerned, Isaiah prophesied that if the people did not believe and hearken to the Lord's words, they would not be established permanently in the land (see Isa. 7:9). Isaiah proclaimed that the people who walked in darkness would see a great light (see Isa. 9:2). After the severe, dark blow of foreign foes, a Light would come, a Child would be born, a Son would be given. Though the tribes of Israel were carried off and lost to Israelite history, the tribe of Judah would not be completely destroyed. A remnant must return to their homeland, for the Messiah was to come through Judah and be born in the land of Jerusalem.

Following the prophetic pattern, Isaiah prophesied of doom but also of hope. 29 As did other prophets of Israel, Isaiah pronounced strong warnings of doom, desolation, and destruction, but he also announced that after the discipline of exile would come reinstatement, restoration, and redemption. Isaiah's prophecies of the ultimate destiny of "my holy mountain Jerusalem" (66:20) are the glorious outpourings of faith in a brighter day. Jerusalem would someday rise to its exalted status as the Holy City of God:

It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (2:2-3)

In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.

And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:

When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof . . .

And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night. (4:2-5)

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. (27:13)

For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. (30:19)

Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. . . .

O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! (40:2, 9)

Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; . . . that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.

Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. (52:1, 7-9)

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee.

Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the [wealth] of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought.

The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.

Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. (60:1, 10-11, 14-15, 21)

But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. (65:18-19)

Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her . . . ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. (66:10, 13)

Notes

^1. Pressure from his young counselors and Rehoboam's own pride seem to have caused his stinging response to northern Israelites' complaints: "Now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions" (1 Kgs. 12:11).

^2. The division of Israel must have pleased the Egyptian government, as the pharaoh was planning some imperialistic moves of his own.

^3. Sheshonk I in extrabiblical texts, founder of Egypt's Twenty-second Dynasty.

^4. For details of Shishak's route of conquest and archaeological evidences of his invasion, see Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 397-98. A fragment of a monumental stela apparently erected by Shishak and bearing his name was discovered in excavations at Megiddo.

^5. Cf. Aharoni and Avi-Yonah, Macmillan Bible Atlas, Maps 119-20.

^6. Dates of the kings' reigns given here are based on the work of W. F. Albright. See also the chart in Jackson, 1 Kings to Malachi, 487, which is based on Bright's A History of Israel; contemporary kings of Israel may be seen there and in the chronology chart of the LDS Bible Dictionary, 637-38. Be aware that other scholars' lists include wide-ranging dates, differing by as much as fifty years. For example, our list has Rehoboam beginning his reign late in the tenth century before Christ, around 921, which allows for only six years in his reign, and 1 Kings 14:21 specifically states that he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem. Virtually all attempts at producing accurate chronological tables this early in Israelite history reflect serious difficulties and differences.

^7. See Aharoni and Avi-Yonah, Macmillan Bible Atlas, Map 123.

^8. Smith, Jerusalem, 2:96.

^9. Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 172.

^10. Elijah went to Sinai to seek the Lord's face, to approach and talk with the Holy One of Israel. His predecessor and mentor in the prophetic office, Moses, had there talked with God face to face (see Ex. 33:11; Deut. 34:10; Moses 1:2). At the end of his mortal mission Elijah journeyed to the place where Moses was taken up without tasting death; Moses and Elijah were translated at the same place—just east of the Jordan River, opposite Jericho (see Deut. 34; 2 Kgs. 2). They appeared together on the Mount of Transfiguration to bestow the keys of the kingdom and sealing power (see Matt. 17) and again in 1836 at the Mountain of the Lord's House in Kirtland, Ohio, for the same purpose (see D&C 110).

^11. There is some question about whether Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel or Ahab's sister or half-sister. For additional information, see Jackson, 1 Kings to Malachi, 34.

^12. For more on Baalism, see Ogden and Chadwick, Holy Land, 76-78; Rasmussen and Ogden, Old Testament, 2:69.

^13. Stonemasons, carpenters, and others were paid with money collected in contribution boxes in the Temple, after the money had been carefully audited. See 2 Kgs. 12:4-16.

^14. See Aharoni and Avi-Yonah, Macmillan Bible Atlas, Map 127; Beitzel, Moody Atlas of Bible Lands, 132.

^15. The mention of "Uzziah king of Judah" and "Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel" in the prophecy of Amos clearly places that prophet in the middle of the eighth century before Christ. His preaching is also dated as beginning "two years before the earthquake." Though seismic disturbances are anything but rare in the land of Amos, this very earthquake, the only one explicitly mentioned in the Bible, was apparently so severe that it was used for some time to date historical events. It was of such unusual intensity and inflicted such devastation that the memory of it survived for more than two and a half centuries. In Zechariah 14:5, this earthquake in the days of Uzziah served as a pattern of extremely intense and destructive earthquakes: "And ye shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah." The earthquake in the days of Uzziah caused damage over a wide area; evidence of it has been discovered in archaeological excavations from one end of the country to the other, particularly at Hazor in the north, Deir-Alla in the Rift Valley, and Beersheba in the south. Yadin dates the earthquake to approximately 760 B.C.; Hazor, 113, 181. Ben-Dov also notes evidence of this earthquake in excavations at Jerusalem's Temple Mount; see In the Shadow of the Temple, 55.

^16. See Aharoni and Avi-Yonah, Macmillan Bible Atlas, Map 142.

^17. Avigad, Discovering Jerusalem, 24; Ben-Dov, In the Shadow of the Temple, 34-35; Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 417-24; Emerton, Congress Volume, 2; New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations, 2:705-8. Compare Broshi, "Expansion of Jerusalem in the Reigns of Hezekiah and Manasseh," who explains that the great expansion occurred because of the influx of immigrants from the north after the fall of Israel in 721 B.C.; Mazar draws the same conclusion. See Levine, Jerusalem Cathedra, 2:18.

^18. Compare the Chronicler's account of the king's transgression in the Temple by attempting to usurp priesthood power (see 2 Chron. 26:16-21). An item of archaeological interest relates to the death of Uzziah: a tomb plaque dating from the Second Temple period has been found in the ancient cemetery on the Mount of Olives. The stone plaque bears an Aramaic inscription explaining that the bones of King Uzziah had been transferred from their original burial place to a new plot on the Mount of Olives. See 2 Chron. 26:23; Amiran, Urban Geography, 14; Bahat, Illustrated Atlas of Jerusalem, 50; see also photograph of the inscription in Thompson, Bible and Archaeology, 336.

^19. Amos counseled that God will do nothing concerning his people without first revealing his will to his prophets (see Amos 3:7; cf. 2 Ne. 25:9: "Never hath any of them been destroyed save it were foretold them by the prophets of the Lord"). Amos' central message was to "look to God and live"; Amos 5:4. The names Isaiah and Hosea are forms of the Hebrew word meaning "Jehovah saves," "salvation" or "deliverance." As is the case with other prophets, Hosea's name has something to do with his message. In Hosea 12:10 the Lord tells us that he has spoken by the prophets, and multiplied visions, and "used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets" (emphasis added). Just as the great Abrahamic test was in similitude of God and his Only Begotten Son (see Jacob 4:5), so Hosea's life may have been a similitude, a living drama, of the Lord's relationship with his bride to whom he was married—his covenant people. As Abraham would have some understanding of the Father's sacrifice of his Son, so Hosea would have some understanding of the Lord's merciful caring for his unfaithful people.

^20. The brutality of the Assyrians is graphically documented in Bleibtreu, "Grisly Assyrian Record of Torture and Death."

^21. See Aharoni and Avi-Yonah, Macmillan Bible Atlas, Map 144.

^22. King Ahaz by this time had reinstituted the worship of Baal in Jerusalem. He was worshipping at all the high places and was even carrying out child-sacrifice rituals in the Hinnom Valley. He also set up a replica of a heathen altar he had seen in Damascus and ordered changes in the sacred vessels and procedures in the House of the Lord (see 2 Kgs. 16).

^23. This pillaging of the treasures of the Temple and the royal treasures of the king's palace is beginning to sound like a routine ultimate recourse; over these two centuries, Rehoboam gave treasures from the temple to Shishak (see 1 Kgs. 14:26); Asa, to Ben-hadad (see 1 Kgs. 15:18); Jehoash (Joash) of Judah, to Hazael (see 2 Kgs. 12:18); and Ahaz, to Tiglath-pileser (see 2 Kgs. 16:8). Another episode was the incursion of Jehoash of Israel into Jerusalem (see 2 Kgs. 14:13-14), where, as it is written, the king of Israel broke down part of the wall of Jerusalem and carried away the treasures of the House of the Lord and the king's house to Samaria—the only time on record that Israel ever plundered the Temple. The Temple was the repository of the wealth of the kingdom; "from the analogy of other ancient temples, they also comprised the Temple funds, and deposits by private persons. The sanctuaries of those days were banks. . . . The Temple was growing in material wealth. Its treasures were accumulating, and when these were taken from it to meet some national emergency, they seem to have been quickly restored. To other Temples, kings repaid their forced loans by gifts of lands or new treasure, and that this happened also in the case of the Judaean Temple appears from the fact that there were always funds in it when they were required." Smith, Jerusalem, 2:109, 111.

^24. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 284ff; in Hayes and Miller, Israelite and Judaean History, 433. Archaeological evidence of the destruction of Samaria by the Assyrian army is presented in Kenyon, Royal Cities of the Old Testament, 129-34. Second Kings 17:6 says that Sargon placed them in Halah (unknown), in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. Bible Map 10 shows Gozan, west of Nineveh in Upper Mesopotamia. A river flows right by Gozan. In the regular and small editions of the Bible that river is not named for lack of space, but in the large-print edition it is; it is called the Habor. The word by in verse 6 is italicized. Italicized words in the King James Bible are not there in the original Hebrew text; they have been supplied to give the passage more sense in English. Sometimes italicized words have been incorrectly supplied, however, as is the case here. The phrase should actually read that Sargon deported them and placed them along the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes (the northern part of modern-day Iran). Thus the initial locations of the "Lost Tribes" are known.

^25. This is probably the experience Nephi referred to in 2 Ne. 11:2.

^26. An example of the vanity of Jerusalem's leadership is later given in Isaiah 22:15-19. Shebna was some kind of "secretary of state," and he had apparently misused city funds by carving out for himself an elaborate sepulchre in Jerusalem's necropolis. In recent decades the "Royal Steward's Inscription" was found in the hillside east of the City of David, and it appears to be an inscription referring to this very man—the only contemporary individual condemned specifically in the book of Isaiah. Verse 18 records that although he had carved out a sepulchre in Jerusalem, he would be buried elsewhere. For more information on the plan of the tomb and photo, see Shanks, "Tombs of Silwan," 47-49; see also Stern, New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations, 2:712-13; Yadin, Jerusalem Revealed, 64.

^27. Not only did the Lord condemn the male leaders of Jerusalem but he also rebuked the "daughters of Zion." The pride and haughtiness that goad men in their vain ambitions are manifested often in women through their outward adornment and apparel. The women of Isaiah's day were concerned about their physical appearance, and they were devoted to drawing attention to it. The Lord's first epithet was "haughty"; he went on to detail their offensive behavior (Isa. 3:16-24). The following is from archaeologist Gabriel Barkay's 1986 report of his excavations along the west side of Jerusalem's Hinnom Valley. He describes findings from the richest tomb opened, which gives tangible documentation of what Isaiah wrote regarding Jerusalem's fine society women: "The abundant jewelry found in the tomb provides the first material evidence to support the frequent allusion in the Bible to the wealth of Jerusalem during the First Temple period. Isaiah had mocked the ostentation of Jerusalem's society ladies when he wrote: 'On that day the Lord will take away the finery of their anklets, the head bands and their crescents; the pendants, the bracelets and the scarfs; the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes and the amulets; the rings and the nose jewels.' The tomb produced six gold items and 95 silver items as well as jewelry made of rare stones, glass and faience—many of them of great beauty including earrings, rings, beads and pendants. This is the first time that a representative selection of jewelry worn by the women of Jerusalem at the end of the First Temple period forms part of an archaeological assemblage." (Rabinovich, "Word for Word," 11.) Of all the treasures discovered by Barkay, the one receiving the most publicity is two solid silver amulets which contain the priestly benediction, almost identical in wording to Numbers 6:24-26: "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." The name of God was etched three times onto the tiny amulets—the earliest mention of the name of God, the Tetragrammaton (YHWH), ever found in Jerusalem. This represents the first time in one hundred fifty years of excavations in Jerusalem that the Hebrew form of the name of God has been discovered. (See also Barkay, "Divine Name Found in Jerusalem," 14-15; Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 524; New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations, 2:715; Geva, Ancient Jerusalem Revealed, 99-106.)

^28. Several times Isaiah identifies Jerusalem as the "daughter of Zion." Zion was a name of the former City of Holiness—the city of Melchizedek; now her offspring or successor is called the daughter of Zion. Cities were often labelled as a feminine entity.

^29. For examples of this pattern from other Old Testament writings, see Jackson, 1 Kings to Malachi, 59-60.