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overthrown; their king flieth to Kirharaseth; and being besieged, according to some expositors, burnt his son on the walls as a sacrifice, whereat the three kings, moved with compassion, returned and left Moab, wasting and spoiling that region. Others, as it seems, with better reason, understand the text to speak of the son of the king of Edom, whom they suppose in this irruption to have been taken prisoner by the Moabites, and that the king of Moab shewed him over the walls, threatening, unless the siege were dissolved, that he would offer him in sacrifice to his gods. Whereupon the king of Edom besought those of Judah and Israel to break off the siege for the safety of his son; which when the other kings refused to yield unto, and that Moab, according to his former threatening, had burnt the king of Edom's son upon the rampire, that all the assailants might discern it; the king of Edom, being by this sad spectacle enraged, forsook the party of the other kings; for want of whose assistance the siege was broken up.

After this the king of Aram sent to Joram, to heal Naaman, the captain of his army, of the leprosy. The answer of Joram was, Am I God to kill, and to give life, that he doth send to heal a man from his leprosy? adding, that the Aramite sought but matter of quarrel against him. Elisha hearing thereof, willed the king to send Naaman to him, promising that he should know that there was a prophet in Israel; and so Naaman was healed, by washing himself seven times in Jordan. Elisha refused the gifts of Naaman, but his servant Gehazi accepted a part thereof; from whence the sellers of spiritual gifts are called Gehazites, as the buyers are Simonians, of Simon Magus.

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Afterwards Benhadad, king of Aram or Damascus, having heard that this prophet did discover to the king of Israel whatsoever the Aramite consulted in his secretest council, sent a troop of horse to take Elisha: all whom Elisha struck blind, and brought them captives into Samaria. Joram then asking leave of the prophet to slay them,

• 2 Kings i. 5.

Elisha forbade him to harm them, but caused them to be fed and sent back to their own prince in safety.

The king of Aram, notwithstanding these benefits, did again attempt Samaria, and brought the citizens to extreme famine. Joram imputeth the cause thereof to the prophet Elisha. Elisha, by prayer, caused a noise of chariots and armour to sound in the air, whereby the Aramites affrighted fled away and left the siege; an act of great admiration, as the same is written in 2 Kings vii. After this, when Azael obtained the kingdom of Syria by the death of his master, Joram, entering upon his frontier, took Ramoth Gilead; in which war he received divers wounds, and returned to Jezrael to be cured. But whilst he lay there, Jehu (who commanding the army of Joram in Gilead, was anointed king by one of the children of the prophets sent by Elisha) surprised and slew both him and all that belonged unto him, rooting out the whole posterity of Ahab.

Jehu, who reigned after Jehoram, destroyed not only the race of his foregoers, but also their religion; for which he received a promise from God, that his seed should occupy the throne unto the fourth generation. Yet he upheld the idolatry of Jeroboam, for which he was plagued with grievous war, wherein he was beaten by Hazael the Aramite, who spoiled all the countries to the east of Jordan; in which war he was slain, saith Cedrenus, whereof the scriptures are silent. Jehu reigned twenty-eight years.

Joachaz, or Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, succeeded his father, whom Azael and his son Benhadad often invaded, and in the end subjected, leaving him only fifty horse, twenty chariots, and 10,000 foot; and, as it is written in 9 the scriptures, he made them like dust beaten into powder. Joachaz reigned seventeen years.

After Joachaz, Joas his son governed Israel; who, when he repaired to Elisha the prophet as he lay in his deathbed, the prophet promised him three victories over the Aramites; and first commanded him to lay his hand on his bow; and Elisha covered the king's hands with his, and

92 Kings xiii.

bade him open the window westward, (which was towards Damascus,) and then shoot an arrow thence-out. He again willed him to beat the ground with his arrows, who smote it thrice, and ceased. The prophet then told him, that he should have smitten five or six times, and then he should have had so many victories over the Aramites as he gave strokes. And so it succeeded with Joas, who overthrew the Aramites in three battles, and recovered the cities and territory from Benhadad the son of Azael, which his father Joachaz had lost. He also overthrew Amazia king of Juda, who provoked him to make the war; whereupon he entered Jerusalem, and sacked it with the temple. This Joas reigned sixteen years, and died; in whose time also the prophet Elisha exchanged this life for a better.

Jeroboam, the third from Jehu, followed Joas his father, an idolater, as his predecessors; but he recovered all the rest of the lands belonging to Israel, from Hamath, which is near Libanus, to the Dead sea, and reigned forty-one years.

Zacharias, the fourth and last of the house of Jehu, slain by Shallum his vassal, who reigned in his stead, governed six months. Shallum held the kingdom but one month, being slaughtered by Menahem of the Gadites.

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Menahem, who took revenge of Shallum, used great cruelty to those that did not acknowledge him, ripping the bellies of those that were with child. This Menahem being invaded by Phul, s bought his peace with 10,000 talents of silver, which he exacted by a tribute of fifty sheckles from every man of wealth in Israel. Menahem governed twenty years.

Pekahiah, or Phaceia, or, after Zonaras, Phacesia, succeeded; and after he had ruled two years, he was slain by Phaca, or Pekah, the commander of his army, who reigned in his place. In this Pekah's time, Phulassar, or TiglatPhylassar, invaded the kingdom of Israel, and won Ijon, Abel-Bethmaaca, Janoach, Kedesh, Hasor, and Gilead, with all the cities of Galilee, carrying them captives into Assy* 2 Kings xiv. 2 Kings xvi. 19. t 2 Kings xv. 29.

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ria: he was drawn in by Achas, king of Judæa, against Pekah, and Rezin the last of the Adades. For Achas, being wasted by Pekah of Israel and by Rezin of Damascus, did a third time borrow the church riches, and therewith engaged the Assyrian who first suppressed the monarchy of Syria and Damascus, and then of Israel; and this inviting of the great Assyrian was the utter ruin of both states, of Israel and of Judæa. Pekah reigned twenty years.

Then Hoshea, or Osea, who slew Pekah, became the vassal of Salmanassar; but hoping to shake off the Assyrian yoke, he sought aid from So, or Sua, or Sebicus, king of Egypt; which being known to the Assyrian, he cast him into prison, besieged Samaria, and mastered it; carried the ten idolatrous tribes into Nineveh in Assyria, and into Rages in Media, and into other eastern regions, and there dispersed them; and replanted Samaria with divers nations, and chiefly with the Cuthæ, (inhabiting about Cutha, a river in Persia, or rather in "Arabia Deserta,) and with the people Catanei bounding upon Syria, and with those of Sepharvajim; (a people of Sephar in Mesopotamia upon Euphrates, of whose conquest Sennacherib vaunteth;) also with those of Ava, which were of the ancient Avins, who inhabited the land of the Philistines in Abraham's time, dwelling near unto Gaza, whom the Caphtorims rooted out; and at this time they were of Arabia the Desert, called Havæi, willing to return to their ancient seats. To these he added those of Chamath, or Ituræa, the ancient enemies of the Israelites, and sometime the vassals of the Adads of Damascus, which so often afflicted them. And thus did this Assyrian advise himself better than the Romans did; for after Titus and Vespasian had wasted the cities of Judæa and Jerusalem, they carried the people away captive; but left no others in their places, but a very few simple labourers, besides their own thin garrisons, which soon decayed: and thereby they gave that dangerous entrance to the Arabians and Saracens, who never could be driven thence again to this day.

Ptol. 1. 5. Isa. xxxvii.

And this transmigration, plantation, and displantation, happened in the year of the world 3292, the 6th year of Ezekiah, king of Judah; and the 9th of Hosea the last king of Israel.

A catalogue of the kings of the ten tribes.

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Of the memorable places of Dan, Simeon, Judah, Reuben, Gad, and the other half of Manasseh.

SECT. I.

Of Dan, whereof Joppe, Gath, Accaron, Azotus, and other

towns.

Now following the coast of the Mediterranean sea, that portion of land assigned to the tribe of Dan joineth to Ephraim, whereof I spake last; of which family there were numbered at mount Sinai 62,700 fighting men, all which leaving their bodies with the rest in the deserts, there entered the Holy Land of their sons 66,400 bearing arms. The first famous city in this tribe on the sea-coast was Joppe, or Japho, as in Joshua xix. 46. one of the most ancient of the world, and the most famous of others on that coast, because it was the port of Jerusalem. From hence Jonas embarked himself, when he fled from the service of God towards Thar

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