Manasseh, over Jordan. He then invadeth Judah, and took Gath; but by gifts from Joas he was averted from attempting Jerusalem: for he presented him all the "hallowed things which Jehosaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Juda had dedicated, and which he himself had dedicated; and all the gold which was found in the treasuries of the Lord, and in the king's house. This was the second time that the temple was spoiled to please the Adads of Damascus: for Asa did present Benhadad with those treasures when he invited him to war upon Baasha, king of Israel. And notwithstanding this composition between Joas and Azael, yet a part of his army spoiled the other provinces of Judæa, and slaughtered many principal persons. Lastly, y Azael vexed Joahas the son of Jehu, and brought him to that extremity, as he left him but fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen of all his people.

SECT. III.

Of the latter kings, and decay and overthrow of their power. AFTER Hazael, Benhadad the second, or rather the third of that name, the son of Hazael, reigned in Damascus, who fought against Israel with ill success: for Joas, king of Israel, the son of the unhappy Joachaz, as he was foretold by a Elisha the prophet, beat Benhadad in three several battles; and he lost all those cities to Israel, which his father Hazael had taken violently from Joachaz.

After this Benhadad, the son of Hazael, there succeeded three others of the same name, of whom the stories are lost; only Nicholaus Damascenus, cited by bJosephus, makes mention of them and in one of these king's times it was, that Jeroboam the second, the son of Joas, recovered Damascus itself to Juda, saith the Geneva; but better in Junius, utque recuperabat Damascum, et Chamatham Jehudæ, pro Israele; that is, " and how he recovered for Is"rael, Damascus, and Chamatha of Judæa ;" for these cities,

n

2 Kings xii.

1 Kings XV.

y 2 Kings xiii. 7.

22 Kings xiii.

a Joseph. Ant. c. 9.

b Joseph. Ant. 1. 7. c. 6.

c2 Kings xiv. 28.

sometimes conquered by David, did of right belong to the tribe of Juda.

And it is likely that this conquest upon the Adads was performed; the first of these three Adads then living, of whom there is no story. For when as Jehoas, the king of the ten tribes, had thrice overcome the Syrians in the time of Benhadad, thé son of Hazael, and had recovered the cities which Hazael had won from Israel, and so left his kingdom to his son Jeroboam the second; it seemeth, that this Jeroboam without delay, and having nothing else left for him to enterprise, instantly followed his father's good fortune, and invaded Damascus.

Razin, or Rezin, after Josephus Rases, after Zonaras Raason, the tenth Adad, maketh league with Pekah, or Phacas, king of Israel, against Achaz, king of Juda; both carry away a great number of prisoners. After this they both besiege Achaz in Jerusalem, but in vain. Then d Adad alone invadeth Elath; and beating out the Jews, maketh it a colony of Syrians. Wherefore Achaz brought Teglatphalassar against Razin, who took him and beheaded him, and won Damascus; with whom ended the line of the Adads and the kingdom of Damascus; the Assyrians becoming masters both of that and Israel. These Adads, as they reigned in order, are thus reckoned :

e

1. Adadezer the son of Rehob.

2. Rezin the son of Eliadad, or Razin.

3. Hezion.

4. Tabremmon.

5. Benhadad, who invaded Baasha.

6. Benhadad the second, taken prisoner by Achab.

7. Hazael, whom Elisha foretold with tears of his advancement; the same who overthrew Joram, king of Israel, at Ramoth Gilead. And that there was a second Hazael, which preceded Benhadad the third, it is not improbable, because that Hazael which took Geth, and compounded the war with Joas, made the expedition thirty years, and perchance more, after the first Hazael, which stifled his master d 2 Kings xvi. 5. e Isaiah vii. Joseph. Ant. 1. 9. c. 12.

Benhadad, and had slain Joram the son of Achab, king of Israel. For Joas began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, king of Israel; and after he had reigned twenty-three years, the temple was not yet repaired; after which (and how long we know not) it is said, that Hazael took Geth, and turned his face towards Jerusalem. It is also some proof that Hazael, which took Geth, was not the same with Hazael that murdered Benhadad, because he could not at that time but be of good years, being, as it seemeth, the second person in the kingdom, and commander of Benhadad's men of war. To this Hazael, be he the first or second, succeeded,

8. Benhadad the third, whom Joash, king of Israel, thrice overthrew.

9. Resin, or Rezin the last, who joined with Pekah, king of Israel, against Juda, at which time Achaz, king of Juda, waged for his defence Teglatphalassar.

Now between Benhadad the third, and Rezin the last, Nicholaus Damascenus finds three other kings of the Adads, which make twelve in all.

For the rest of the princes of Syria, which were but reguli, as those of f Emath and Gessur, we find that Tohu was king of Emath, or Chamath, in David's time, to whom he sent his son Joram with presents, after David's victory against Adadezer. Also & Sennacherib speaketh of a king of Emath, but names him not.

SECT. IV.

Of other lesser kingdoms of the Syrians, which, being brought under the Assyrians, never recovered themselves again.

OF Gessur we find two kings named, to wit, Talmai, and his father Ammihur. To Talmai, whose daughter David married, it was that Absalom fled, who was his maternal grandfather. Of the kings of Sophena or Syria, Soba or Colesyria, there are two named, Rehob, or Rochob, the father of Adadezer, and Adadezer himself; and it is plain, that after his death the seat of the kings of Soba was f 2 Sam. viii. 9.

8 Isaiah xxxvii.

transferred to Damascus, a city better fitting their greatness. After, Rezin became lord of both principalities: and the race of these kings of Syria, (which became so potent, and joined Soba, Damascus, Emath, and the desert of Arabia, with other provinces, into one, under Rezin the second of the Adads,) as it began with David, so it ended at once with the kingdom of Israel. For Ahaz, king of Juda, waged the Assyrian Teglatphalassar against Pekah, king of Israel, and against Rezin, the last king of Damascus ; which Teglath first invaded Damascena, and the region of Soba, and took Damascus itself; and did put to death Rezin the last, carrying the inhabitants captive. This was the second time that the Assyrians attempted Israel: for first Phul Belochus entered the borders thereof, (Menahem governing Israel,) who stopped the enterprise of Phul with a thousand talents of silver; for this Phul Belochus, whose pedigree we will examine hereafter, being scarce warm as yet in his seat at Babylon, which he, with the help of his companion Arbaces, had wrested from Sardanapalus, having besides this king of Syria in his way, who seemed to be a great and strong prince, was content to take the composition of a thousand talents of the king of Israel, for that present time. But his son Teglath, following the purpose of his father Belochus, and finding so excellent an occasion as the war begun between Israel and Juda, Pekah commanding in the one, and Achaz in the other, his neighbour Rezin being also wrapt in that war, and wasted in strength thereby, did willingly accept the offer of Achaz king of Juda, his imprest and entertainment. So first attempting Damascus, which lay in his path towards Israel, he carried it, (as is before remembered,) and then with great ease possessed himself of the cities of Nephthalim, leading with him a great part of the people captive. And his son Salmanassar, whom Ptolomy calleth Nabonassar, after the revolt of Hosea, forced Samaria, and rent that kingdom asunder. So as the line and race of Ninus in Sardanapalus, whom Belochus supplanted ; the race and monarchy of the Syrian Adads in Rezin, whom Teglath slaughtered; the kingdom of Israel in Ho

sea, whom Salmanassar overturned, happened near about a time; that of Ninus in the days of Belochus, and the other two in the days of Teglatphalassar and Salmanassar his son. For Sardanapalus perished, Osia ruling Juda; and the other two kingdoms were dissolved, Achaz yet living.

Lastly, The kingdom of Juda itself being attempted by Sennacherib, the son of Salmanassar, in vain, and preserved for the time by God miraculously, was at length utterly overturned: Jerusalem and the temple burnt, an hundred and thirty-two years after the captivity of Israel and Samaria; the destruction of Israel being in the ninth year of Hosea; that of Juda in the eleventh of Zedekiah. Now the emperors of Assyria and Babylon held also the kingdom of Syria, from the eighth year of Salmanassar to the last of Baltassar, whom Herodotus calleth Labynitus; in all about two hundred years. After these the Persians, from Cyrus to Darius their last king, held Syria about two hundred years.

Then Alexander Macedon took this among other provinces of the Persian empire; and his successors the Seleucidæ reigned therein, till it became subject unto the power of the Romans, from whom it was wrested long after by the Saracens, and remaineth now in possession of the Turk, as shall be shewed in due place. Thus much of the nations bordering upon the Israelites, with whom they had most to do, both in war and peace, being the only people whose history in those ancient times carried an assured face of truth.

CHAP. XII.

Of the tribe of Benjamin, and of Jerusalem.

SECT. I.

Of divers memorable places in the tribe of Benjamin, whereof Jericho, Gilgal, Mitspah, Bethel, Rama, Gobah, and Gibha.

OF the tribe of Benjamin, the twelfth and youngest son of

Jacob, whom he had by Rachel, there were mustered at