to
chap, vii., chaps, viii.-ix 6. xi 1-9. xxii. 1-11; i. 4-9,
18-32; to these Kuenen adds chap, xxiii. 1-8

[Illustration: 282.jpg MAP THE KINGDOM OF DAMASCUS]

At one time he had found himself so hard pressed that he invoked the
aid of the Syrian gods, and made his eldest son pass through the fire in
order to propitiate them:* he collected together all the silver and gold
he could find in his own treasury or in that of the temple and sent it
to Tiglath-pileser, with this message: "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."**

* 2 Kings xvi. 3 (cf. 2 Chron. xxviii. 3). There is nothing
to indicate the date, but most historians place the event at
the beginning of the Syrian war, a little before or during
the siege.

** Kings xvi. 7, 8; cf. 2 Chron. xxviii. 16, 20, 21.

Tiglath-pileser came in haste, and Rezin and Pekah, at the mere tidings
of his approach, desisted from their attack on Jerusalem, separated, and
retired each to his own kingdom. The Assyrian king did not immediately
follow them up. He took the road leading along the coast, after leaving
the plains of the middle Orontes, and levied tribute from the Phoenician
cities as he passed; he then began by attacking the western frontier
of Israel, and sent a body of troops against the Philistines, who were
ceaselessly harassing Judah. Hannon, King of Gaza, did not await the
attack, but fled to Egypt for safety, and Ahaz breathed freely, perhaps
for the first time since his accession. This, however, was only a
beginning; the real struggle took place in the following year, and was
hotly contested. In spite of the sorry pass to which its former defeats
and present discords had brought it, Damascus still possessed immense
wealth, and its army, when reinforced by the Arabian and Israelite
contingents, was capable of holding its own for a long time against
the battalions of Assyria, even if it could not hope to conquer them.
Unfortunately for its chances, Eezin had failed to inherit the military
capacity of his great predecessors, Ben-hadad and Hazael; he allowed
Tiglath-pileser to crush the Hebrews without rendering them any
effective assistance. Pekah fought his best, but he lost, one after
another, the strongholds which guarded his northern frontier--Ijon,
Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, and Hazor; he saw the whole