There still remained the priests of Baal.Jehu let it be known that he had no quarrel with them and felt rather kindly disposed towards their religion.He therefore asked them to meet him in their temple that they might discuss what ought to be done.They came,believing that he had spoken the truth.As soon as they were all inside the building,the doors were closed.When night came,the Sun-worshippers without exception had all been killed.
With a single blow,Jehu had made an end to the danger of a foreign domination.
The house of Omri had been exterminated.
The Baal priests were gone.
Jehu ruled as King in Israel,and Elisha rejoiced.
The triumph of Jehovah was complete.
But soon it became evident to all the people that this victory,based upon murder and bloodshed,had accomplished very little for the good of the country.
It is true that Jehu was brave and reckless,but he lacked both wisdom and a sense of proportion.He was clay in the hands of a number of religious leaders who now rallied around his throne that they might put into execution their own narrow ideas of a perfect state.
Their fear of everything foreign,both gods and men,was so great that they would not tolerate any one within the country who was not of pure Jewish blood.They erected an imaginary barrier around Israel and Judah which kept away all those who had been born outside the Jewish pale.They frowned upon “entangling alliances”with other powers and declared that treaties with other powers (who did not recognise Jehovah)were odious in the sight of their own God.
But as both Israel and Judah were too weak to survive without the help of a few good friends in the east and in the west,this insistence of the prophets upon a holy separation proved a disastrous innovation,and it came at the very moment when all the professional fighters (the princes of royal blood)had been exterminated and when the army had been deprived of eighty per cent of its higher officers.
In the eyes of the faithful,the great revolution of Jehu had purged Israel and Judah from all barbarian influence.Henceforth the two countries were to be really “holy ground.”It was a noble ambition,but it was doomed to failure.
Nothing has ever been accomplished in this world by murder.
Even such pious people as the Prophets Amos and Hosea were to recognise this fact ere very long and were to express their regret at the shedding of so much innocent blood.But when they spoke,it was too late.
Israel had already been conquered by the nations of the east.
In Aram,too,there had been a revolution.There Hazael,a Syrian general,had murdered his master,King Benhadad Ⅱ,and himself had mounted the throne.
He had increased the strength of Damascus,but when Shalmaneser Ⅱ,the son of Ashurnasirpal of Assyria,attacked the Aramean domains,there was a sudden end to the glory of Hazael,the usurper.His armies were defeated near Mount Hermon,and Damascus was captured.When news of this disaster reached the coast of the Mediterranean,the rulers of Sidon and of Tyre and of Israel hastened to accept such terms as the Assyrian conqueror would grant.They knew that they had found their master.
We possess certain Assyrian documents of that era which state that the battle of Mount Hermon took place in the year 842B.C.,and that Jehu,the son (which meant the successor)of Omri,himself paid tribute to Assyria.To make up for his losses,Hazael,as soon as Shalmaneser had returned to Nineveh,overran the northern part of Israel and consoled himself with several Jewish districts.He exterminated whole tribes,killed the men,stole the women,threw the children from the rocks and repopulated the region with immigrants from Aram.
Jehu,not knowing what to do,called upon Shalmaneser,whose vassal he now was.But before the Assyrians could come to his assistance,the Arameans (informed of his treachery)had overrun Israel for a second time,had destroyed the armies of Judah for good measure,and together with the Moabites and Edomites and Philistines had plundered both countries to their heart's content.
Those who had been spared by the sword of the invader and had not died of hunger,accepted slavery.
Samaria was the only town which remained in Jewish hands.
In this hour of disaster,Elisha came to the rescue of his ruler.Together,the King and the Prophet defended their city until help could reach them from Assyria.
From a purely patriotic point of view,they were the saviours of their country.The Assyrians defeated the King of Aram,took Damascus,and in this way relieved the pressure upon Israel.But when this had been done,they presented their bill for services rendered.
They expected Israel to pay,and pay heavily,and insisted on an annual retainer which was little more than a bribe for their continued good will.
The Israelites spent the whole of the next century trying to get rid of this self-imposed yoke,and sometimes with a fair degree of success.
Jehoahaz,the son of Jehu,was fortunate in his war for independence.He took Damascus and his troops pushed almost as far east as the town of Nineveh.
His son,Jehoash,also was lucky as a warrior.He allowed Elisha to guide him and remained a devoted supporter of the great prophet until the latter died.Jehoash was faithful in his religious duties.His respect for Jehovah,however,did not prevent him from plundering the temple of Jerusalem when the opportunity offered itself.
But it remained for Jeroboam,the son of Jehoash,to give Israel a last taste of independence and glory.
To the contemporaries of this great king,it seemed that the wonderful old days of Solomon had returned.Their country,so they flattered themselves,was on the point of resuming its ancient position among the nations of the East.
They were to be sorely disappointed.
That brilliant sky did not proclaim the coming of another day.It was the last red glow which preceded the setting of their national sun.