his own servants, it is said to have been "for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest." The public sentiment was also expressed by the denial of a place for his remains in the sepulchre of the kings. 2 Chron. xxiv. 15—25.

Under his son Amaziah, a great disaster and deep disgrace befel Jerusalem. His wanton and unprovoked challenge of Jehoash the king of Israel, was rebuked not only by the stern and becoming answer of that monarch, but by defeat in the battle of Beth-shemesh. He was himself taken by the enemy, and the justly exasperated conqueror brought him as a prisoner to Jerusalem, which he sacked and pillaged, not even sparing the sacred vessels of the temple. As a memorial of his triumph, he even broke down 400 cubits of the city wall;* and then returned to Samaria, leaving his humbled rival to repair his shattered fortunes as best he could, and soon after to become the victim of the well-earned disaffection of his subjects. 2 Chron. xxv. He was succeeded by

*The breaking down of a portion of an old wall as a sign of triumph, was as effectual for a memorial as the erection of a monument; for, when repaired, it would necessarily exhibit a different appearance from the other portion of the wall, and for many generations this would be known as the portion of the wall which king Jehoash overthrew.

his son Uzziah, who, upon the whole, reigned well and prosperously. He was a great builder and improver; and Jerusalem seems to have largely benefited by his measures. It is certain that he built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, at the valley gate, and at the turning of the wall; and he even brought new inventions to bear upon the defences of the city: for we are told that "he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal." Uzziah's fame spread abroad—“ he was marvellously helped till he was strong:" but, alas! "when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction;" and a most presumptuous attempt to invade the priestly office by offering incense in the holy place, was punished by sudden leprosy, which afflicted and constrained him to live in seclusion and separation to the day of his death. 2 Chron. xxvi.

His son Jotham inherited the tastes of his father, and paid much attention to the improvement and strengthening of his kingdom. In Jerusalem "he built the high gate of the house of the Lord, and on the wall of Ophel he built much," 2 Chron. xxvii. 3. This "high

gate," or "higher gate" as it is called in 2 Kings xv. 35, is supposed to be that which lay between the temple and the king's palace, and which led thereto. This was first built by Solomon, and must, therefore, have been merely repaired or rebuilt by Jotham. It is called "the new

gate" in Jer. xxvi. 10, and xxxvi. 10. It occupied the same place with that which was afterwards called the gate of Nicanor and the east gate, as say the Jewish writers.

Ahaz, the son of Jotham, proved the most corrupt monarch which the house of David had hitherto produced. He began by reviving the worship of Baal, and set up images of that idol, whose horrid rites and inhuman sacrifices defiled the valley of Hinnom. Then when the Lord in judgment suffered him to be smitten and brought low by the Syrians, he argued in this insane fashion:-" Because the gods of the kings of the Syrians help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me." The sacred writer adds, "But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel." Ahaz stripped the temple of all the precious metal, which had been introduced by his father and grandfather to repair the ravages of Jehoash king of Israel, to send as a subsidy or gift to Tiglath-pileser, king

of Assyria. Next, and probably to repair his exhausted means, he took away even all the brass which was not indispensable to the sacred services; and, among the rest the bases of the lavers were taken away; and even the brazen sea was taken off from the backs of the twelve brazen oxen, and set upon a pavement of stone. All this he probably sold for his own profit, or possibly, he caused the metal to be employed in casting his "molten images," and in forming the great brazen altar, fashioned after one he had seen at Damascus, which he set up in the court of the temple, in the place of that which had been occupied by the altar of Solomon. Eventually he caused the temple to be shut up altogether, while he multiplied altars to his Syrian idols in every part of Jerusalem. 2 Kings xvi.; 2 Chron. xxviii.

The repair of these ravages occupied for many years the care and solicitude of his son, the excellent Hezekiah, who ascended the throne in 725 B.C., and in the very first month of his reign re-opened the temple for Divine service. It is greatly to his credit that he not only extirpated the more gross foreign idolatries, but spared not the most venerable memorials which seemed likely to be abused to idolatrous uses;

and thus, when the Israelites manifested an inclination to bestow undue reverence upon the brazen serpent which Moses had lifted up in the wilderness, and which had hitherto been preserved in the sanctuary, he without hesitation ordered it to be destroyed, offering by that noble and decisive act a lesson and an example which the relic-worshippers of Christendom have been slow to learn and reluctant to follow. Hezekiah also enforced the celebration of the annual feasts, being alive to their importance in the Mosaical polity. They seem to have fallen much into disuse; and it was not without great exertions that the people, or even the Levites, were roused to a sense of their duty in this respect. At length, the first passover of this reign was celebrated with a degree of solemnity and on a scale which had not been witnessed since the days of David and Solomon. Hezekiah, on that occasion, "spake comfortably unto all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the Lord;" and the people were encouraged by the present of “a thousand bullocks and seven thousand sheep" from the king, and a thousand bullocks and ten thousand sheep from the nobles, on which they feasted during the days of unleavened