The later writer thus accounts for the folly and overthrow of this valorous and hitherto eminently pious king. Certain it is, as we shall narrate in the next chapter, that, in spite of warning, he had the temerity to challenge to battle the warlike Joash ben-Jehoahaz of Israel, grandson of Jehu. The kings met at Beth-Shemesh, and Amaziah was utterly routed, with consequences so shameful to himself and to Jerusalem that he was never able to hold up his head again. He could but eat away his own heart in despair, a ruined man. After this he "lived" rather than reigned fifteen years longer.[285] The wall of Jerusalem, broken down near the Damascus Gate, on the side towards Israel, for a space of four hundred cubits, was a standing witness of the king's infatuated folly. His people were ashamed of him, and weary of him; and at last, seeing that nothing more could be expected of one whose spirit had evidently been broken from impetuosity into abjectness, they formed a conspiracy against him. To save his life he fled to the strong fort of Lachish, a royal Canaanite city, in the hills to the south-west of Judah.[286] But they pursued him thither, and even Lachish would not protect him. He was murdered. They threw the corpse upon a chariot, conveyed it to Jerusalem, and buried it in the sepulchres of his fathers. The people quietly elevated to the throne his son Azariah, then sixteen years old, who had been born the year before his father's crowning disgrace. What became of the conspirators we do not know. They were probably too strong to be brought to justice, and we are not told that Azariah even attempted to visit their crime upon their heads. FOOTNOTES: [276] Νήπιος ὃς πατέρα κτείνας υἱοὺς καταλείπει. Comp. Q. Curtius, vi. 11: "Lege cautum erat ut propinqui eorum qui regi insidiati cum ipsis necarentur." Cic., _Ad Brut._, 15. [277] 2 Kings viii. 20-22. [278] Amos i. 11. [279] The Valley (_Gê_) of Salt is "the plain of the Sabkah," about two miles broad, between the southern end of the Dead Sea and the hills which separate the Ghôr from the Arabah (Seetzen, _Reisen_, ii. 356; Robinson, _Researches_, ii. 450, 488). David had won a great victory there (2 Sam. viii. 13; Psalm lx., _title_). [280] Selah, "a rock" (Πέτρα). Eusebius calls it Rekem. [281] It is the name also of a city of Judah (Josh. xv. 38). [282] 2 Chron. xxviii. 17; Jos., _Antt._, XII. viii. 6. [283] 2 Chron. xxv. 5-10, 13. [284] Κατακρημνισμός. This mode of execution prevailed till quite recent times in the little republic of Andorra. [285] 2 Kings xiv. 17. The phrase that "he _lived_ fifteen years" is unusual, and seems to imply that the historian saw,-- "In more of life true life no more." [286] Josh. x. 6, 31, xv. 39; 2 Kings xviii. 17; 2 Chron. xi. 9. CHAPTER XVI _THE DYNASTY OF JEHU_