-Aaron:
from American
Tract Society Bible Dictionary:."The
son of Amram and Jochabed, of the tribe of Levi
and brother of Moses and his sister
Miriam:.Exodus
6:20. Born about the year B.C.E.
1574, he was three years older than Moses:.Exodus
7:7. He was the spokesman and assistant of Moses in bringing Israel
out of Egypt:.Exodus
4:16. His wife was Elisheba,
daughter of Amminadab and his sons were, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
He was 83 years old when God summoned
him to join Moses in the desert near Horeb.
Cooperating with his brother in the
exodus from Egypt, he held up his hands in the battle with Amalek:.Exodus
17:8-16. Aaron ascended Mount
Sinai with his brother Moses to see the glory of God:.Exodus
24:1,2,9-11.
"Aaron's chief distinction
consisted in the choice of him and his male posterity for the
priesthood. He was consecrated
the first high priest by God's directions:.Exodus
28:1 to 29:46; Leviticus
8:1-36."
-Abijah:
Son of Jeroboam
I. Jeroboam I was a king of Israel before the
split. Abijah, his son, died young and much beloved and lamented,
for in him there was found 'some good thing towards the Lord':.1Kings
14:13.
He never got to reign as
king.
On account of Abijah's severe
illness when a youth, his father Jeroboam I sent his wife to consult the
prophet.Ahijah
regarding his recovery.
Abijah's mother disguised
herself.(didn't
want anyone to recognize her as the king's wife who had this issue with
her child's health).and
went to Ahijah the
prophet
to inquire whether her child should recover from his sickness.
The prophet, though blind
with old age, knew the wife of Jeroboam I as soon as she approached, because
God revealed to the prophet who it was that was on the way to see him.
Ahijah announced to her that inasmuch as in Abijah, her son, alone of all
the house of Jeroboam there was found."some
good thing toward the Lord", he would come
to his grave soon, but in peace, as compared to what was to happen to others
of the house of Jeroboam, Abijah was to have a proper burial.
What was this good thing
toward the Lord that others noticed in this child if not the innocence
and peace from birth which carried on as he continued to grow? Innocence
and peace are of the
high consciousness of God. The verse also shows he would die anyway,
not from anything he did, but the weight of his parents' lives would affect
him. How
could this have been different?
In mercy Abijah was taken
from the coming judgment on Jeroboam I and his house, all in it, including
his other offspring.
As his mother arrived back
home from her trip seeing the prophet Ahijah and came to the threshold
of the door, the child Abijah died: 1Kings
14:1-17. With his death, the hope of the dynasty
perished.
-Abijam:
Second of the kings
of ancient Judah.(map),
also called.Abijah.and
in the New Testament he is called Abia:.Matthew
1:7.
His father was Rehoboam,
whom he succeeded:.1Kings
14:31 "And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his
fathers in the city of David.
And his.(Rehoboam).mother's.(actually
his grandmother as Naamah was one of the many wives of Solomon:.1Kings
11:1).name
was Naamah, an Ammonitess. And.Abijam.his
son reigned in his stead."
In the parallel
account in Chronicles, Abijam is called Abijah:.2Chronicles
12:16 "And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried in the city
of David and.Abijah.his
son reigned in his stead."
Rehoboam was the first king
of Judah and a son of Solomon,
who was a son David, so
Abijam was a great-grandson of David.
Abijam began to reign in
the eighteenth year of Jeroboam
I.and
reigned only three years. He followed the evil example of his father and
Abijam's mother Maachah was not much of an influence for good either:.1Kings
15:1-3. Note the conflicting names of
the mother; in 1Kings 15:1-3 she is called Maachah and above where she
is called Naamah. Actually Naamah was his grandmother.
Abijam had eighteen wives,
which may have been a snare to him:.2Chronicles
11:21.
2Chronicles
13:1-2."Now
in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam
I, king of.Israel.(B.C.E.
958) began
Abijah to reign over Judah. He reigned three years in Jerusalem.
His mother's name also was Michaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And
there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam."
Abijam tried unsuccessfully
to bring back the
ten tribes into one nation again. Judah had the regular temple service
and priesthood.(2Kings
23:1,2), whereas Israel had made
golden
calves their idols and had cast out the priests; therefore Abijam said
in his address to Jeroboam I."fight
not you against the Lord God of your fathers, for you shall not prosper".
400,000 men are assigned
to Abijah's army, 800,000 to Jeroboam's. His address to."Jeroboam
and all Israel",.before
encountering them in battle, is worthy of being specially noticed:.2Chronicles
13:4-12. It was a very bloody battle, no fewer than 500,000 of Jeroboam's
army of Israel having perished on the field.
God had given the kingdom
to David and his sons forever."by
a covenant of salt":.2Chronicles
13:5. As such, a win by Jeroboam would have not been in accord
with the split of Israel into two nations continuing as it was, as God
wanted and expressed through
the prophet Ahijah. As it ended up after the battle and victory by
Judah, things remained as they were before. The split remained.
Elated
by success of battle, not by success of amalgamation,,
Abijah multiplied his wives like Solomon
had done earlier and by Abijah's 14 wives taken from those conquered, he
had 22 sons and 16 daughters in addition to what he already had:.2Chronicles
11:21.
Abijam started off young,
well and good and with the name Abijah:.2Chronicles
13:1,2. But, he soon allowed evil to creep into his life and became
known as Abijam:.1Kings
15:1-3; 1Kings 22:52,53.
2Chronicles
14:1 "So Abijah slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city
of David and Asa
his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years."
-Ahab:
means 'father's brother'. The son of Omri,
whom he succeeded as the seventh king of Israel:.1Kings
16:29,30.
1Kings
16:28 "So Omri slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria and
Ahab his son reigned in his stead."
Ahab's history is recorded
in.1Kings
chapters 16-22. He reigned B.C.E.
918 to 897. His son was Jehoram/Joram.
His wife was the bitch Jezebel
who exercised an evil influence over him:.1Kings
19:1,2. To the calf worship introduced by Jeroboam
I he added the worship of Baal.
The cult
of the Asherah,
a form of Canaanite.idolatry
was introduced by Ahab:.1Kings
16:33.
He was severely admonished
by Elijah for his wickedness. Elijah
was regarded as the 'troublemaker' of Israel back then. Ahab's anger was
on this account kindled against the prophet
and Ahab sought to kill him.
Ahab undertook three war
campaigns against the Syrians
who were ruled by the.horribly
corrupt.Ben-hadad
II, king of Damascus:.1Kings
20:1-28..
In the first two, which were
defensive, he gained a complete victory over Benhadad.(a
common
name for kings of Syria), who fell
into his hands and was afterwards released on the condition of his restoring
all the cities of Israel he then held and granting certain other concessions
to Ahab.
After three years of peace
and for some cause, Ahab renewed war.(1Kings
22:3).with
Benhadad by assaulting the city of Ramoth-gilead, even though the prophet
Micaiah
warned him that he would not succeed and that the 400 false prophets who
encouraged him were only leading him to his ruin.
Micaiah was imprisoned for
thus venturing to dissuade
Ahab from his purpose. Ahab went into the battle disguised,
that he might if possible escape the notice of his enemies, but an arrow
from a bow 'drawn at a venture'.(1Kings
22:34).pierced
him and though
he stayed up in his chariot for a time he died towards evening and Elijah's
earlier prophecy to Ahab.(1Kings
21:19), before Micahah's, was fulfilled.
That
rather.h u
m
o
r
ou
s
s t
o r
y.is.here...
Ahab reigned twenty three
years. Because of his idolatry, lust and covetousness, Ahab is referred
to as a wicked king:.2Kings
8:18;
2Chronicles 22:3;
Micah
6:16.
The pronouncements
God made through Elijah were in part deferred
by Ahab's later humiliation:.1Kings
21:25-29.
1Kings
22:40 "So Ahab slept with his fathers and Ahaziah
his son reigned in his stead."
-Ahaz:
This Ahaz was the son of the prophet Micah/Micaiah,
the prophet who
advised Ahab
regarding his going up to battle:.1Kings
22:8-18.
-Ahaz:
12th king of Judah
B.C.E.
742-727, son and successor of Jotham.
He ascended the throne at twenty years of age and reigned sixteen years:.2Kings
16:1,2,20. Some say he ascended the throne at 25 years of age, but
that's an error by the transcriber.
2Kings
15:38 "And Jotham slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers
in the city of David his father
and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead." 2Kings
16:1 "In the seventeenth year of Pekah.(of.Israel).the
son of Remaliah.(a
captain in the Syrian
army), Ahaz the son of Jotham king
of.Judah.began
to reign."
He was distinguished
for his idolatry and contempt
of the true God. Here's the story in scripture:.2Chronicles
28:1-27.
He erected molten images
for Baalim,
made his children pass through the fire.(burnt
them to death in the fire as a sacrifice to his satanic God).to
idols and gave himself up to open idolatry:.2Kings
16:2-20; 2Chronicles 28:1-5.
He introduced the Syrian
Gods into Jerusalem, altered the
temple after the Syrian model and even closed it altogether. Having
thus forfeited
the aid of the true God, he met various repulses
in battle with Pekah
and
Rezin. The Edomites
revolted and the Philistines
harassed his borders.
He turned yet more away
from God in his distress and sought aid from Pul,
king of Assyria. The further he went from God, the more his trouble
increased. He became tributary
to Pul and to Tiglath-pileser
successor of Pul. Ahaz was reduced to great extremities
in buying off the Assyrians, but became more infatuated
in idolatry
and dying in his impiety
at the age of thirty-six, was refused a burial with the kings his ancestors:.2Chronicles
28:27.
Many of the prophecies of
Isaiah
deal with Ahaz in the time of Pekah, both of whom are named in it, beginning
at.Isaiah
7:1. The spiritual and moral deterioration of the people under Ahaz
is the frequent theme of Isaiah's prophecy. Isaiah was prophet
in the days of Ahaz, but the king heeded not his instructions.
At the age of thirty-six
Ahaz died in B.C.E. 715:.2Kings
16:20. His son Hezekiah
was one of the best kings ever, thanks to the mother..
-Amaziah:.2Chronicles
25:1,2. The eighth king of Judah, son of Jehoash/Joash
and reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem from his accession
to the throne in the 25th year of his life, B.C.E.
838-810. He had with a good heart at the commencement
of his reign, but decided on an evil course later.
2Kings
14:1 "In the second year of Joash
son of Jehoahaz
king of Israel reigned Amaziah
the son of Joash
king of Judah."
There was a Joash king of
Israel and a Joash king of Judah.
2Chronicles
25:25 "And Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah lived after
the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel fifteen years."
2Kings
14:1-4 "In the second year of Joash
son of Jehoahaz
king of.Israel.reigned
Amaziah
the son of
Joash
king of.Judah.
He was twenty and five years old when he began to reign and reigned twenty
and nine years in Jerusalem. And
his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. And he did that which was
right in the sight of the Lord, yet not like
David
his father. He did according to all things as Joash
his father did. Howbeit the
high places were not taken away, as yet the people did sacrifice and
burnt incense on the high places."
There's a lesson for us
in Amaziah's life about trusting in God.
He did well in the sight
of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart. Having established himself in
his throne and slain the murderers of his father.(2Chronicles
25:3,4), he mustered
a host of 300,000 men of Judah and hired 100,000 men of Israel, for a war
upon Edom.
These hired forces he reluctantly.dismissed
at the command of God, who gave him the victory without their aid:.2Chronicles
25:5-13. One doesn't need massive armies when trusting in God:.Judges
7:2-7. Is there anything God can't do?.(*)
Feeling on top of things,
he makes another mistake in addition to the one about not removing the
high places; this one being that of getting Judah into idolatry.
He carried home with him
the
idols of Edom and set them up to
be his Gods:.Exodus
20:5; Numbers 14;22. For
this defiance
of God, he was threatened with destruction.(2Chronicles
25:15).by
a prophet of the Lord and soon after, went headlong into war with Israel,
in which he was defeated and humbled:.2Kings
14:8; Fifteen years after, he was slain by conspirators after hightailing
it off to a city called Lachish to escape them:.2Kings
14:19; 2Chronicles 25:27,28.
And being tricked by the
hubris
of his
ego, he makes
yet another mistake:.2Chronicles
25:17.
2Kings
14:13 "And Jehoash
king of.Israel.took
Amaziah
king of.Judah,
the son of.Jehoash.(also
known as Joash).the
son of Ahaziah,
at Bethshemesh and came to Jerusalem
and brake down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim unto the
corner gate, four hundred cubits." 2Chronicles
25:23 "And Joash the king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the
son of Joash.(also
known as Jehoash), the son of Jehoahaz,
at Bethshemesh and brought him to Jerusalem and brake down the wall of
Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits."
Amaziah's son was Azariah.(also
known by the name of Uzziah; see at the Azariah link):.2Kings
15:1-3 "In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam
I king of Israel began Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah
to reign. Sixteen years old was he when he began to reign and he reigned
two and fifty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jecholiah
of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord,
according to all that his father Amaziah had done." 2Chronicles
26:1 "Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah,
who was sixteen years old and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah."
-Ammonites:
The descendants of Ammon also called Ben-Ammi, a son of Lot,
Abraham's
nephew. Moab
and Ammon were the sons of Lot by an incestuous
relationship on the part of his daughters:.Genesis
19:30-38.
The Ammonites have a history
of cruelty:.1Samuel
11:2; Amos 1:13.
The Ammonites destroyed an
ancient race of giants called Zamzummim
and seized their country which lay east of Judea.(map):.Deuteronomy
2:10,11,20,21.
From the very beginning of their history till they
are lost sight of, the Ammonite tribe is closely associated with the Moabites:.2Chronicles
20:1; Zephaniah 2:8. Both
of these tribes hired
Balaam
to curse Israel.
The Ammonites were probably more of a predatory
tribe, moving from place to place, while the Moabites
were more settled. They inhabited the country east of the Jordan and north
of Moab and the Dead Sea.(map),
from which they had expelled the Zamzummims
or Zuzims.
The Ammonites are known as the Beni-ammi:.Genesis
19:38. The main God these people gave obeisance
to was Ammi or Ammon. They were of Semitic
origin and closely related to the Hebrews
in blood and language. They showed no kindness to the Israelites when passing
through their territory. They became hostile to Israel:.Judges
3:11-14. Jephthah.(the
ninth judge of the Israelites).waged
war against them and."took
twenty cities with a very great slaughter":.Judges
11:32,33. They were again signally defeated by Saul:.1Samuel
11:1-11. David also defeated them and their allies the Syrians:.2Samuel
10th chapter. One of Solomon's wives was Naamah, an Ammonite. She was
the mother of Rehoboam.
The national idol worshipped by the Ammonites was
Molechor
Milcom, at whose altar they offered human sacrifices:.1Kings
11:5,7,33. The high places built for this idol by Solomon, at the instigation
of his Ammonitish wives, were not destroyed till the time of
Josiah.
-Anger:.In
Isaiah
57:16 God shows us that He is always in complete control, though He,
like
us, sometimes gets angry. On God's anger:.Ephesians
4:26.
Our
anger comes from dissatisfaction with self, even though expressed towards
an object removed from the self. More
It is born of immaturity
and small mindedness. There is also an 'anger' where you are upset that
another may be hurting his life. This is born of concern for another. The
anger of the Creator comes from displeasure that man just refuses to 'come
up higher' sometimes, as Moses,
who 'just didn't get it'.
-Anna:.means
grace.
An aged widow of Old Testament times, the daughter of Phanuel. She was
a 'prophetess',
like Deborah,
Huldah
and Miriam.
After seven years of being
with her husband, he died and during her long widowhood she daily attended
temple services. When she was eighty four years old, she entered the temple
at the moment when the aged Simeon.(Luke
2:25-27).uttered
his memorable words of praise and thanks to God that He had fulfilled His
ancient promise in sending His Son into the world.
And, about Anna:.Luke
2:36-38.
-Asa:
The third king of Judah after Solomon,
so, he was great grandson to him and grandson to Rehoboam.
Asa was the third king of Judah after the separation
of Israel into what became the two nations of Judah and Israel.
2Chronicles
14:1 "So Abijah slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city
of David and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was
quiet ten years."
Asa was son and successor
of Abijam:.1Kings
15:8 "And Abijam slept with his fathers and they buried him in the
city of David and Asa his son reigned in his stead."
He began to reign B.C.E..951
and reigned forty-one years at Jerusalem:.1Kings
15:9,10. Asa was a good king in
spite of his bad mother Maachah:.1Kings
15:11-13.
The first part of Asa's reign
was peaceful and prosperous:.2Chronicles
14:1 to 15:2.
He restored the pure worship
of God and expelled those who displayed contempt for the things of God
by prostituting
themselves in honor of their
false Gods.
He purified Jerusalem from
the infamous
practices attending the worship of idols and deprived his mother Maachah,
the queen mother, the wife of Rehoboam and Asa's grandmother, of her office
and dignity of queen, because she erected an idol to Astarte:.1Kings
15:12,13.
In the eleventh year of his
reign, God gave him the victory over the vast army of the Cushite Pharaoh
king
Zerah.
The prophet
Azariah encouraged him to go on in his work of reform:.2Chronicles
15:1-3. And yet, when Baasha.king
of Israel opposed this very work.(1Kings
15:17), Asa sought aid not from
God, but from heathen Syria.
There was ill-will and strife
between Asa and Baasha.(1Kings
15:16), as there was also earlier
between these two kingdoms, with Rehoboam
and Jereboam
I:.1Kings
15:6.
As Asa aged and since he
must have felt he did the best he could, he disliked any criticism
in this regard
and flew into a rage
when God sent a message to him by way of Hanani the seer:.2Chronicles
16:7-11.
In the latter part of his
life, he became diseased in his feet and Scripture reproaches
him with having had recourse to the physicians, rather than to the Lord:.2Chronicles
16:12. Asa died after a reign of 41 years.
Yet his reign was, on the
whole, one of the happiest which Judah enjoyed and the.Bible.repeatedly
commends
his
piety as an
example:.1Kings
22:43; 2Chronicles 20:31,32.
Asa's funeral rites were celebrated with special magnificence:.2Chronicles
16:14.
-Assyrian
Empire:
Descendents
of ancient Egypt, Assyria and Israel.(and
a map here.outlining
what included ancient Assyria).will
become top nations in the age we are moving into now:.Isaiah
19:23-25. Assyria expanded greatly during its historical growth and
is known very approximately
today as outlined in this map.
Assyria is traced
to the various spellings of Asshur, Ashur, Assur:.Genesis
10:9-11. Asshur was a son of Shem.(map
of Shem's location). In the Hebrew
it is the same original for Asshur as it is for Assyria.
Assyria was an ancient empire
in western Asia in the region of the upper Tigris River, located in what
is now northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey.(map).
Assyria had a string of strong kings, such as Tiglath-pileser
III, Sargon II, Sennacherib
and Esarhaddon. The Middle
East area from Egypt to the Persian Gulf was ruled by the Assyrians.
The last great Assyrian ruler was Ashurbanipal.
Asshur built the ancient
city of Nineveh as well as other cities.
Also a city after his name,
Asshur, was the first real city, B.C.E.
2300, now Ash Sharqâþ.
The connection with the parent
country Syria
was close, circa
B.C.E. 2000.
Hammurabi,
an Assyrian king in B.C.E. 1760, was over Assyria's area in the northern
part of present day Iraq, where ancient Babylon
was located. The Greeks called the area Mesopotamia.
Shalmaneser
I reigned over Assyria in B.C.E. 1274-1244. Together with Tukulti-Ninurta-I.(Assyrian
ruler, reigned B.C.E. 1244-1207), was
successful in extending the Assyrian boundaries and in keeping at
bay their powerful neighbors, the Hittites.(Exodus
34:11), the Babylonians
and others.
During its bitter struggle
for existence, Assyria became the scourge and terror of the entire Middle
East. Assyrian rulers began to make Assyria the center of a new empire
by incorporating the conquered lands into their domain.
Ashurnasirpal
II, the son of Tukulti-Ninurta-II.(who
was son of Adad-nirari-II), ruled from
B.C.E. 884 to 859 and extended Assyrian rule to the north and east.
In B.C.E. 745 the throne
was occupied by Tiglath-pileser
III, a ruler who consciously and deliberately decided to build Assyria
into a world empire. He began by reasserting the authority of the throne
and reducing the power of the troublesome court nobles.
He established a permanent
army, consisting largely of foreign contingents and planned his campaigns
with the objective of annexing enemy territory. The peoples he conquered
were deported and resettled within the Assyrian domains in order to break
their national consciousness and cohesion. He relieved Assyria from the
pressure of the Aramaean tribes that were menacing the valley of the central
Tigris, expelled the Urartians from Syria,
annexed
the Aramaean states of Arpad and Damascus,
subjugated
the cities of Palestine
and made himself the ruler of Babylonia.
Sargon
II ruled B.C.E. 722-705 and reigned 17-years. He followed Tiglath-pileser
III's successor, Shalmaneser V,
B.C.E. 727-722, to the throne, extended Assyrian domination in all directions,
from southern Anatolia to the Persian Gulf.
At the beginning of the reign
of Sargon II he deported
the population of Israel, which Shalmaneser
V had conquered shortly before his death.
Sargon II delegated
some of his own power to his son Sennacherib
in B.C.E. 705-681. Toward the end of his reign Sargon II built a new city,
Dur Sharrukin, erected his palace astride its city wall and adorned it
with impressive bas-reliefs.
He established a library in Nineveh
and trade and agriculture were encouraged throughout the empire.
Under Sargon II the Assyrian
Empire was more powerful and extensive than ever before. The peoples were
closely knit in language and culture.
The city of Assyria was founded
about B.C.E. 1700. At a later date the capital was shifted to Ninua or
Nineveh,
now Koyunjik, on the eastern bank of the river.
This was in in the time of
Abraham
and Moses. Tiglath-pileser
III was a king of Assyria at this time.
Concise
Bible Dictionary:."Babylon
and Assyria are much blended together in
history, sometimes being independent one of the other and at other times
being tributary.to
one another. In B.C.E. 745 Tiglath-pileser may be said to have founded
the later kingdom of Assyria and among his victories he became master of
Babylonia,
as the kingdom of Babylon was called."
The Semitic
Assyrians proceeding
out of Babylonia
founded Nineveh long after the Cushite
foundation of the area called Babylon. The Babylonian shrines were those
at which the Assyrians thought the Gods most accessible, regarding Babylon
as the true home of
their
Gods.
According to the Greek historian.Herodotus
and the Babylonian historian Berosus, we can infer
the Babylonian empire began about B.C.E. 1228, 520 years before its decay
through the revolt of subject nations, the Medes,
etc.
The Assyrians knew the arch,
the lever, the roller, gem engraving, tunneling, drainage. Their vases,
bronze and ivory ornaments, bells and earrings, show considerable taste
and skill. But their religion was sensual and their government rude.
The Assyrians through her
various kings such Tiglath-pileser
III, Shalmaneser,
Sennacherib
and Sargon served as God's scourge
of Israel.(Isaiah
10:5,6).and
they prepared the way for a more centralized and better organized government
and a more spiritual religion, such as the Medo-Persians
possessed.
However,
never again did Assyria rise as a nation, for God had said."there
is no healing of thy bruise":.Nahum
3:18,19. The last Assyrian king was Ashur-uballit II who reigned B.C.E.
612-609.
Assyria was used by God as
to awaken ancient Israel and Judah from their wayward
paths by sending them into captivity and this happened many times, as they
would slip back into their old ways:.2Chronicles
36:10.
For more see.Shaff/Herzog
Encyclopedia of Biblical Terms, available free with the free
Online Bible, that you can put on your own computer and not need to
be online to use it.