01_Dubovský_321_346 28/10/14 10:32 Pagina 329 WHY DID THE NORTHERN KINGDOM FALL? 329 dom tended to increase 19. Whereas the description of Shallum’s conspiracy is very concise (9 words), Menahem’s revolt contains more details (13 words) and lastly, the description of Pekah’s con- spiracy is the longest description of a conspiracy we have in this chapter (19 words). Giving more room to the description of each following insurrection, the problems of Israel can be interpreted as a growing surge of successive uprisings. Finally, comparing the coups d’état of Shallum, Menahem and Pekah with that of Hoshea, we can observe some differences. The coup d’état of Hoshea is described in a very concise way similar to that of Shallum. However, it displays some important differ- ences. All revolts and conspiracies are inserted between introduc- tory and concluding regnal résumés 20. These résumés set the outer limits of the event-accounts and enable us to determine the length of the narrative in terms of the number of words and types of motifs used for describing the coups d’état. The coups d’état are inserted into the reign of the king against whom the coup d’état was organ- ized and not into the reign of the king who organized the coup d’é- tat. The following table presents four cases from 2 Kings 15: In the thirty-eighth year of King Azariah of Judah, Zechariah son of Jer- oboam reigned over Israel in Samaria six months. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his ancestors had done. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he caused Israel to sin. Shallum son of Jabesh conspired against him, and struck him down in public and killed him, and reigned in place of him. Now the rest of the deeds of Zechariah are written in the Book of the An- nals of the Kings of Israel. (2 Kgs 15,8-11 NRS) Shallum son of Jabesh began to reign in the thirty-ninth year of King Uzziah of Judah; he reigned one month in Samaria. Then Menahem son of Gadi came up from Tirzah and came to Samaria; he struck down Shallum son of Jabesh in Samaria and killed him; he reigned in place of him. 19 J.L. SKA, “Our Fathers Have Told Us”. Introduction to the Analysis of Hebrew Narratives (SubBib 13, Roma 1990) 7-8. The notion of narrated and narration time stems from German literary criticism, cf. G. MÜLLER, Erzählzeit und erzählte Zeit. Morphologische Poetik. Gesammelte Aufsätze (Hrsg. E. MÜLLER) (Darmstadt 1968) 268-269. 20 B.O. LONG, 2 Kings (FOTL 10; Grand Rapids, MI 1991) 172.