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In this way the increased importance of Judah after the fall of Samaria
accrued in the first instance to the benefit of the capital
and its sanctuary, especially as what Judah gained by the fall
of her rival was not so much political strength as an increase
of religious self-consciousness. If the great house of God
upon Mount Zion had always overtopped the other shrines in Judah,
it now stood without any equal in all Israel. But it was the prophets
who led the way in determining the inferences to be drawn from the change
in the face of things. Hitherto they had principally had their eyes
upon the northern kingdom, its threatened collapse, and the
wickedness of its inhabitants, and thus had poured out their wrath
more particularly upon the places of worship there. Judah they
judged more favourably, both on personal and on substantial
grounds, and they hoped for its preservation, not concealing their
sympathies for Jerusalem (Amos i.2). Under the impression produced
by their discourses accordingly, the fall of Samaria was
interpreted as a judgment of God against the sinful kingdom and in
favour of the fallen house of David, and the destruction of the
sanctuaries of Israel was accepted as an unmistakable declaration
on Jehovah's part against His older seats on behalf of His
favourite dwelling on Zion. Finally, the fact that twenty years
afterwards Jerusalem made her triumphant escape from the danger
which had proved fatal to her haughty rival, that at the critical
moment the Assyrians under Sennacherib were suddenly constrained
to withdraw from her, raised to the highest pitch the veneration
in which the temple was held. In this connection special emphasis
is usually laid-- and with justice--upon the prophetical activity
of Isaiah, whose confidence in the firm foundation of Zion