Antiquities of the Jews — Book 9, Chapter 8

1. Now Hazael, king of Syria, fought against the Israelites and their
king Jehu, and spoiled the eastern parts of the country beyond Jordan,
which belonged to the Reubenites and Gadites, and to [the half tribe of]
Manassites; as also Gilead and Bashan, burning, and spoiling, and
offering violence to all that he laid his hands on, and this without
impeachment from Jehu, who made no haste to defend the country when it
was under this distress; nay, he was become a contemner of religion, and
a despiser of holiness, and of the laws, and died when he had reigned
over the Israelites twenty-seven years. He was buried in Samaria, and
left Jehoahaz his son his successor in the government.

2. Now Jehoash, king of Jerusalem, had an inclination to repair the
temple of God; so he called Jehoiada, and bid him send the Levites and
priests through all the country, to require half a shekel of silver for
every head, towards the rebuilding and repairing of the temple, which
was brought to decay by Jehoram, and Athaliah and her sons. But the high
priest did not do this, as concluding that no one would willingly pay
that money; but in the twenty-third year of Jehoash's reign, when the
king sent for him and the Levites, and complained that they had not
obeyed what he enjoined them, and still commanded them to take care of
the rebuilding the temple, he used this stratagem for collecting the
money, with which the multitude was pleased. He made a wooden chest, and
closed it up fast on all sides, but opened one hole in it; he then set
it in the temple beside the altar, and desired every one to cast into
it, through the hole, what he pleased, for the repair of the temple.
This contrivance was acceptable to the people, and they strove one with
another, and brought in jointly large quantities of silver and gold; and
when the scribe and the priest that were over the treasuries had emptied
the chest, and counted the money in the king's presence, they then set
it in its former place, and thus did they every day. But when the
multitude appeared to have cast in as much as was wanted, the high
priest Jehoiada, and king Joash, sent to hire masons and carpenters, and
to buy large pieces of timber, and of the most curious sort; and when
they had repaired the temple, they made use of the remaining gold and
silver, which was not a little, for bowls, and basons, and cups, and
other vessels, and they went on to make the altar every day fat with
sacrifices of great value. And these things were taken suitable care of
as long as Jehoiada lived.

3. But as soon as he was dead [which was when he had lived one hundred
and thirty years, having been a righteous, and in every respect a very
good man, and was buried in the king's sepulchers at Jerusalem, because
he had recovered the kingdom to the family of David] king Jehoash
betrayed his [want of] care about God. The principal men of the people
were corrupted also together with him, and offended against their duty,
and what their constitution determined to be most for their good.
Hereupon God was displeased with the change that was made on the king,
and on the rest of the people, and sent prophets to testify to them what
their actions were, and to bring them to leave off their wickedness; but
they had gotten such a strong affection and so violent an inclination to
it, that neither could the examples of those that had offered affronts
to the laws, and had been so severely punished, they and their entire
families, nor could the fear of what the prophets now foretold, bring
them to repentance, and turn them back from their course of
transgression to their former duty. But the king commanded that
Zechariah, the son of the high priest Jehoiada, should be stoned to
death in the temple, and forgot the kindnesses he had received from his
father; for when God had appointed him to prophesy, he stood in the
midst of the multitude, and gave this counsel to them and to the king:
That they should act righteously; and foretold to them, that if they
would not hearken to his admonitions, they should suffer a heavy
punishment. But as Zechariah was ready to die, he appealed to God as a
witness of what he suffered for the good counsel he had given them, and
how he perished after a most severe and violent manner for the good
deeds his father had done to Jehoash.

4. However, it was not long before the king suffered punishment for his
transgression; for when Hazael, king of Syria, made an irruption into
his country, and when he had overthrown Gath, and spoiled it, he made an
expedition against Jerusalem; upon which Jehoash was afraid, and emptied
all the treasures of God and of the kings [before him], and took down
the gifts that had been dedicated [in the temple], and sent them to the
king of Syria, and procured so much by them, that he was not besieged,
nor his kingdom quite endangered; but Hazael was induced by the
greatness of the sum of money not to bring his army against Jerusalem;
yet Jehoash fell into a severe distemper, and was set upon by his
friends, in order to revenge the death of Zechariah, the son of
Jehoiada. These laid snares for the king, and slew him. He was indeed
buried in Jerusalem, but not in the royal sepulchers of his forefathers,
because of his impiety. He lived forty-seven years, and Amaziah his son
succeeded him in the kingdom.

5. In the one and twentieth year of the reign of Jehoash, Jehoahaz, the
son of Jehu, took the government of the Israelites in Samaria, and held
it seventeen years. He did not [properly] imitate his father, but was
guilty of as wicked practices as those that first had God in contempt:
but the king of Syria brought him low, and by an expedition against him
did so greatly reduce his forces, that there remained no more of so
great an army than ten thousand armed men, and fifty horsemen. He also
took away from him his great cities, and many of them also, and
destroyed his army. And these were the things that the people of Israel
suffered, according to the prophecy of Elisha, when he foretold that
Hazael should kill his master, and reign over the Syrians and Damscenes.
But when Jehoahaz was under such unavoidable miseries, he had recourse
to prayer and supplication to God, and besought him to deliver him out
of the hands of Hazael, and not overlook him, and give him up into his
hands. Accordingly God accepted of his repentance instead of virtue; and
being desirous rather to admonish those that might repent, and not to
determine that they should be utterly destroyed, he granted him
deliverance from war and dangers. So the country having obtained peace,
returned again to its former condition, and flourished as before.

6. Now after the death of Jehoahaz, his son Joash took the kingdom, in
the thirty-seventh year of Jehoash, the king of the tribe of Judah. This
Joash then took the kingdom of Israel in Samaria, for he had the same
name with the king of Jerusalem, and he retained the kingdom sixteen
years. He was a good man, 17 and in his disposition was not at all like
his father. Now at this time it was that when Elisha the prophet, who
was already very old, and was now fallen into a disease, the king of
Israel came to visit him; and when he found him very near death, he
began to weep in his sight, and lament, to call him his father, and his
weapons, because it was by his means that he never made use of his
weapons against his enemies, but that he overcame his own adversaries by
his prophecies, without fighting; and that he was now departing this
life, and leaving him to the Syrians, that were already armed, and to
other enemies of his that were under their power; so he said it was not
safe for him to live any longer, but that it would be well for him to
hasten to his end, and depart out of this life with him. As the king was
thus bemoaning himself, Elisha comforted him, and bid the king bend a
bow that was brought him; and when the king had fitted the bow for
shooting, Elisha took hold of his hands and bid him shoot; and when he
had shot three arrows, and then left off, Elisha said, "If thou hadst
shot more arrows, thou hadst cut the kingdom of Syria up by the roots;
but since thou hast been satisfied with shooting three times only, thou
shalt fight and beat the Syrians no more times than three, that thou
mayst recover that country which they cut off from thy kingdom in the
reign of thy father." So when the king had heard that, he departed; and
a little while after the prophet died. He was a man celebrated for
righteousness, and in eminent favor with God. He also performed
wonderful and surprising works by prophecy, and such as were gloriously
preserved in memory by the Hebrews. He also obtained a magnificent
funeral, such a one indeed as it was fit a person so beloved of God
should have. It also happened, that at that time certain robbers cast a
man whom they had slain into Elisha's grave, and upon his dead body
coming close to Elisha's body, it revived again. And thus far have we
enlarged about the actions of Elisha the prophet, both such as he did
while he was alive, and how he had a Divine power after his death also.

7. Now, upon the death of Hazael, the king of Syria, that kingdom came
to Adad his son, with whom Joash, king of Israel, made war; and when he
had beaten him in three battles, he took from him all that country, and
all those cities and villages, which his father Hazael had taken from
the kingdom of Israel, which came to pass, however, according to the
prophecy of Elisha. But when Joash happened to die, he was buried in
Samaria, and the government devolved on his son Jeroboam.