Hoshea the son of Elah - in the twentieth year of Jotham - There are many difficulties in the chronology of this place. To reconcile the whole, Calmet says: "Hoshea conspired against Pekah, the twentieth year of the reign of this prince, which was the eighteenth after the beginning of the reign of Jotham, king of Judah. Two years after this, that is, the fourth year of Ahaz, and the twentieth of Jotham, Hoshea made himself master of a part of the kingdom, according to 2 Kings 15:30. Finally, the twelfth year of Ahaz, Hoshea had peaceable possession of the whole kingdom, according to 2 Kings 17:1."

A.M.

3265 B.C.

739
made

2 Kings 15:10,25 And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and smote him before the people, and slew him, and reigned in his stead...

and smote

Hosea 10:3,7,15 For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the LORD; what then should a king do to us...

reigned `After an anarch for some years.' in the twentieth `In the fourth year of Ahaz, in the twentieth year after Jotham had begun to reign.'--Usher

2 Kings 15:32,33 In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel began Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign...

2 Kings 16:1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.

2 Kings 17:1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.

2 Chronicles 28:4-6,16 He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree...

Isaiah 7:1-9 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria...

Isaiah 8:6 For as much as this people refuses the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;

A Living Book
[Illustration: (drop cap T) Symbol of "Asshur", the principal Assyrian idol.] There is only one Book that never grows old. For thousands of years men have been writing books. Most books are forgotten soon after they are written; a few of the best and wisest are remembered for a time. But all at last grow old; new discoveries are made; new ideas arise; the old books are out of date; their usefulness is at an end. Students are the only people who still care to read them. The nations to which the …
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making