He soon died, in the year 725, when only
thirty-six years old, leaving his crown to Hezekiah, then only sixteen,
the king whose heart was more whole with God than had been that of any
king since his father David, and whose first thought was to purify the
Temple, and to destroy all corrupt worship, breaking down idols, and
destroying the high places and groves, which had stood ever since
Solomon's time.
Hoshea, too, was the best King of Samaria that had yet reigned, for he
encouraged his subjects to go to worship at Jerusalem, whither Hezekiah
invited them to keep the Passover, and that feast had not been held so
fully since Solomon's time. They came back full of zeal, and destroyed
many of the idols; but the reformation came too late; the measure of
Israel's sin was full. Hoshea offended Shalmaneser, who had succeeded
Tiglath Pileser, by making friends with So, King of Egypt, and the
Assyrian army came down upon Israel in the year 722, and killing Hoshea,
carried off all the people as captives, settling them in the cities of
the Medes, never more to dwell in their own land. Sargon seems to
have dethroned Shalmaneser about this time, and to have completed the
conquest of Israel, of which he boasted on the tablets of a great palace
near Nineveh, which has been lately brought to light.
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