men," rulers of Jerusalem, a party whose mischievous influence
continues to meet us till they brought ruin on the kingdom and
temple (2 Kings xviii. 1-8; 2 Chron. xxix., xxx., xxxi.).

On the other hand, Hezekiah was well sustained by the oracles
of God delivered through Isaiah ; nor did the prophet shrink from
reproving the king's faults. The history of the second half of his
reign is occupied with his miraculous recovery from a mortal ill-
ness, his relations with Babylon, and his deliverance from Assyria ;
and here a chronological confusion, which has crept into the text
of " Kings " and "Isaiah," can be set right from the newly-deci-
phered annals of Sargon and Sennacherib. " The 14th year of
Hezekiah" (B.C. 713-712), which was the 10th of Sargon (who
reigned till B. c. 704), does not mark the epoch of Sennacherib's
great invasion, but that of the expedition which Sargon sent against
Ashdod, which gave occasion to Isaiah's prophecy against Egypt
and Ethiopia and the Jewish party which relied on Egypt (Isa.
xx.). 1 The annals of Sargon afford no reason to suppose that he
attacked Judah on this occasion ; but he returned to resist Mero-
dach-baladan, king of Babylon, whose history is closely connected
with Hczekiah's.

The mortal illness from which Hezekiah was miraculously raised
up in answer to his prayer, when for a sign the sun went back ten
degrees upon the dial of Ahaz, must have been in that same 14th
year of his reign (B.C. 712); for 15 years were added to his life,
and he reigned 29 years (2 Kings xx. 1-11 ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 24 ;
Isa. xxxviii.). But this signal favor was too much for his humil-
ity, and he brought on himself as signal a rebuke. MEROI>ACH-
BALADAN, the champion of Babylonian independence, whose acces-
sion at Babylon was contemporary with that of Sargon, was now
forming a confederacy against Assyria. It appears to have been
in pursuance of this design that he sent ambassadors to congratulate
the king of Judah on his recovery ; and to them Hezekiah made a
display of all his treasures. Upon this, Isaiah was sent to warn
Hezekiah of the destined destruction of Jerusalem, not, however, by
Assyria, but by the very power he was now coui'ting. Hezekiah
humbled himself before God, and was comforted with the assurance
that the judgment should not be executed in his days (2 Kings xx.
12-19 ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 31 ; Isa. xxxix.). Meanwhile Merodach-
baladan was driven out of his kingdom by Sargon (B.C. 710-9).

1 For the details, as well ns the whole relations of Assyria and Egypt since
the accession of Sargon and the capture of Samaria, see the " Smaller An-
cient History," chap. xxiv.



B.C. 726-586. REIGN OF IIEZEKIAH. 203

The latter years of Sargon were occupied with troubles at home,
while Egypt was rent by internal divisions. 2 Hezekiah took the
opportunity to throw off' the yoke of Assyria, and to drive back the
Philistines as far as Gaza (2 Kings xviii. 7, 8). This drew upon
him the famous assault of SENNACHERIB the one Assyrian king, as
Nebuchadnezzar is the one Babylonian, who was the great enemy
of Judah. Having succeeded his father Sargon in the 23d year of
Hezekiah (August, B.C. 704), and having been occupied for three
years with the affairs of Assyria and Babylon, he made a great ex-
pedition for the recovery of Phoenicia and Palestine (B.C. 701-700).
We learn from his annals that the people of Migron, a city on the
Philistine border, had expelled their king, Padi, a devoted friend of
Assyria, and given him up to "Hezekiah, king of Judah." Sennach-
erib, marching down the maritime plain to attack the city, found
the whole forces of " the kings of Egypt " and of" the king of Ethi.
opia " arrayed against him ; and he defeated them in the decisive
battle ofAltakou (in SS. EltekeK). Now it was that " Sennacherib,
king of Assyria, came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and
took them " (2 Kings xviii. 13 ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 1 ; Isa. xxxvi. 1) ;
and he himself records the capture of forty-four wajled cities and
an infinite number of towns by the force of fire, massacre, battles,
and besieging towers, with the captivity of 200,150 persons, be-
sides innumerable cattle. Hezekiah set Padi free, but "did not
submit himself," and the siege of Jerusalem was formed "I shut
him up in Jerusalem, the city of his power, like a bird in his cage."
The king's manful preparations for defense, encouraged by Isaiah,
nnd his noble exhortation of the people, may be read in the Second
Book of Chronicles (xxxii. 1-8). His firm resistance saved the
city, but at the cost of a heavy ransom, which, with the injuries
inflicted on the country, were the penalty of his former pride ; and
there is a striking agreement between the Scripture narrative and
the Assyrian annals respecting the amount of the gold and silver
paid by Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii. 13-1 G : comp. 2 Chron. xxxii. 25).

But Sennacherib had no intention of finally sparing the city ;
and, while he himself pressed on the siege of Lachish, the key of
the high-road to Egypt, lie sent three of his great officers, the chief
jrencral (Tartan), the chief eunuch (ftab-saris), and the chief cup-
bearer (Rah-shake/i), to Jerusalem, to summon the people to submit
to l>e removed to a land better than their own. Three different

4 Respecting the state of Egypt under her numerous petty prinooe, nnd the
supremacy acquired by Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia, see the " Smaller
Ancient History," chap. xi. See also in the same work (chap. XXT.) the ac-
count given in the annals of Sennacherib of the occasion of hia attack on
" Hezekiah, king of Judnh."



204 SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. XVI.

passages of Scripture give the details of that memorable defiance of
the God of Judah, to which Hezekiah, encouraged by Isaiah, gave
no answer. The messengers returned to Sennacherib at Libnuh,
whither he had marched from Lachish on hearing that Tirhakah,
king of Ethiopia, was coming again to meet him. Here, near the
Egyptian frontier, occurred the miraculous destruction of his army,
when "the angel of Jehovah went out and smote in the camp of the
Assyrians 185,000 men ; and when they arose early in the morning,
behold they were all dead corpses." Sennacherib returned to Nin-
eveh, and reigned 20 years longer before he was murdered bv his
two elder sons (2 Kings xviii. 13-xix. end ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 1-22;
Isii. xxix.-xxxvii.).

After receiving the gifts and congratulations of his neighbors on
this great deliverance, Hezekiah reigned two years longer, " magni-
fied in the sight of all nations" (2 Chron. xxxii. 23). Then he
"slept with his fathers, and they buncd him in the chiefest of the
sepulchres of the sons of David ; and all Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem did him honor at his death " (2 Chron. xxxii. 33 : for
the details of his wealth, and his works at Jerusalem, sec ibid. 27-
30).

XIV. MANASSEJI succeeded at the age of 12, and reigned 55
years (B.C. 697-(J42). His mother. Hej>lizi-bah (" delightsome ;" see
Isa. Ixii. 4, 5), seems to have been married by Hezekiah after his mi-
raculous recovery. The reign of Manasseh was a period of fatal
religious reaction, which has been compared to that of Mary in our
own history. The description of his idolatries includes every form
of false religion and abominable vice that Israel had ever learnt
from the heathen nations ; and for the first time an idol was set up
in the sanctuary itself. In vain were prophets sent to denounce
upon Judah and Jerusalem the fate of Israel and Samaria by the
most striking images (2 Kings xxi. 10-15). The king tried to si-
lence them by the fiercest persecution recorded in the Jewish an-
nals, till "he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood." Among
these martyrs tradition says that ISAIAH was " sawn asunder" (see
Heb. xi. 37). At all events, he must have died about this time ;
tnd the prophetic voice was henceforth silent for a whole genera-
tion, till the reign of Josiah.

In the 22d year of Manasseh, ESAK-HADDON, the king both of
Assyria and Babylon, sent a force to Jerusalem, who carried Ma~
nasseh in fetters to Babylon, on a charge of treason. The severity
of his imprisonment brought him to repentance ; and, being re-
stored to his kingdom, he effected a partial religious reformation,
and repaired the defenses of Jerusalem. When he died, he was bu-
ried in the Garden of Uzza, attached to his own house, not in the



B.C. 726-586. AMON. JOSIAH. 205

sepulchres of the kings ; and his memory is held in detestation by
the Jews (2 Kings xxi. 1-16 ; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 1-20).

XV. AMON succeeded his father at the age of 22 ; and after a
reign of two years (B.C. 641-640), during which he followed Ma-
nasseh's idolatries, without sharing his repentance, he fell the victim
of a court conspiracy, and was buried with his father, in the Gar-
den of Uzza. The conspirators were slain by the people, who raised
Josiah, the infant son of Amon, to the throne (2 Kings xxi. 19-26;
2 Chron. xxxiii. 21-25).

XVI. JOSIAH was eight years old at his accession, and reigned
31 years (B.C. 639-608). His reign marks the last dying glory of
the earthly kingdom of David. The deep corruption that prevailed
during his minority is drawn in the blackest colors by ZEPHANIAH
and JEREMIAH, who, as well as HABAKKUK, began to prophesy in
his reign. But, in the 16th year of his age, he " began to seek af-
ter the God of David his father," and at the age of 20 (in the 12th
year of his reign) he made a progress not only through Judah, but
through parts of northern Israel, to put away all objects of idolatry.
His zeal was quickened by the high-priest's discovery, in the temple,
of the Book of the Law, which was read before the king and people,
with the force of a new revelation. Its terrible denunciations led
Josiah to consult the prophetess Huldah,vfho confirmed the fate of
the city and kingdom, but promised that the evil should not come
in his time. Having held a solemn assembly, for the public read-
ing of the law and the renewal of the people's covenant with Je-
hovah, the king resumed the work of reformation, the details of
which must be read in Scripture. At Bethel he fulfilled to the
very letter what had been said of him, by name, by the prophet who
denounced the idolatry of Jeroboam, licturning to Jerusalem in
the 18th year of his reign, he kept the greatest Passover since the
time of Moses the last united act of religion before the Captivity.

The first in the train of events, which now led- rapidly to that
end, was the disastrous death of Josiah at Megiddo, whither he had
gone out to oppose the march of PHARAOH-NECHOH towards the Eu-
phrates, and where lie was mortally wounded by the Egyptian arch-
ers. He was carried back to Jerusalem, and buried in the sepulchre
of the kings. 3 The last real king of Judah fell on the same field
where the hopes raised at the election of the first king of Israel
Had been extinguished ; and, as David mourned for Saul, so much
more bitterly did the people echo the dirge of Jeremiah for Josiah :
" The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Jehovah, was taken in

3 For the events which caused the march of Pharaoh-nechoh to the Eu-
phrates, and the whole story of the fall of Nineveh and the rise of the Baby-
lonian empire, see the " Smaller Ancient History," chaps. ziL, xxvfii., xsix.



206 SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. XVI.

their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow shall we live among
the heathen." Even after the Captivity, " the mourning of Hadad-
rimmon in the valley of Megiddon " was the type of the deepest
national affliction (2 Kings xxii., xxiii. ; 2 Chron. xxxiv., xxxv. ;
Jer. Lament, iv. 20; Zech. xii. 11).

The reigns of Josiah's four successors form but as many steps in
the destruction of the kingdom, which we must be content to trace
very briefly, leaving the somewhat intricate details for future study/'
To follow the events of these twenty-two years, we must have a clear
view of the family of Josiah, the stem of which is as follows :

JOSIAH.

I

Johanan Ehakim Mattaniah Shallum

(JEHOAHAZ?). (JEHOIAKIM). (ZEDEKIAH). (JEHOAIIAZ ?).



JMIOIACHIN or JECONIAU (CouiAii). ZEDEKIAH (according to some).

XVII. JEHOAHAZ, the son of Josiah and Hamutai, was placed on
the throne by the people on Josiah's death, only to be deposed by
Pharaoh-nechoh on his return from taking Carchemish. He was
carried a prisoner to Egypt, where he soon died (2 Kings xxiii. 30-
33 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 1-3 ; Jer. xxii. 10-12).

XVIII. JEHOIAKIM was the new name given to Eliakim, the son
of Josiah and Zebudah, who was placed on the throne by Pharaoh-
nechoh as a tributary to Egypt. He was then 25 years old, and
reigned most wickedly for 11 years (B.C. 608-597). During the
whole of that period, as well as to the fall of the city, JEREMIAH was
constantly denouncing the crimes and evil policy of the court and
nobles, especially of the Egyptianizing party, amidst the opposition
and persecutions recorded in the Book of his prophecies (2 Kings
xxiii. 34-37 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 4-8 ; Jer. xiii.-xix., xx., xxii., xxvi.,
etc.).

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim (B.C. 605), NEBUCHADNEZZAR,*
the son of NABOPOLASSAR, the founder of the Babylonian empire,
drove the Egyptians out of Carchemish, and at one blow destroyed
the power of Egypt in Western Asia. Advancing in pursuit he
took Jerusalem, and carried off the vessels of the temple to Babylon,
With a number of captives. Among several royal and noble youths,

4 A fuller account, with the needful discussion of difficulties, will be found
in the "Student'8 Old Testament History," chap. xxv. (Comp. the "Stu-
dent's Ancient History," chap, xv.)

* The form Nebuchadrezzar, used by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, more nearly rep-
resents the Babylonian Nabv^kiuluri-vzur. The name is commonly given
toy the Greeks as Nabuzhodonosor.



B.C. 726-586. SUCCESSORS OF JOS1AH. 207

selected to be trained in the learning of the Chaldseans, were DANIEL,
and his three companions, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, whose
striking history under their Chaldaean names of Belteshazzar, Sha-
drach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, is related in the book of Daniel.
This, which was the First Captivity of Jiululi, is reckoned as the
beginning of the Seventy Years' Captivity, which Jeremiah had
prophesied, together with the Fall of Babylon and the Return of the
Jews, during the advance of Nebuchadnezzar. So clear is this proph-
ecy, that Daniel was enabled to calculate from it the exact date
of the promised restoration, which was fulfilled by the decree of
Cyrus, in B.C. 536 (2 Kings xxiv. 1 ; Dan. i. 3-7 ; Jer. xlvi. 1-12 ;
xxv. : comp. Dan. ix. 1, 2 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 22 ; Ezra i. 1). Mean-
while the death of Nabopolassar hastened the return of Nebuchad-
nezzar to Babylon, where his accession is fixed to the epoch of Jan.
21st, B.C. 604.'

Jehoiakim himself was at first deposed and bound, to be carried
to Babylon ; but Nebuchadnezzar replaced him on the throne as a
vassal. In three years he rebelled, in vain reliance on aid from
Egypt (B.C. 602) ; but "the king of Egypt came not again any more
out of his land ; for the king of Babylon had taken, from the river
of Egypt unto the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of
Egypt" (2 Kings xxiv. 7). For some reason, it was not till the sev-
enth year of his reign that Nebuchadnezzar marched against Jeru-
salem, and put Jehoiakim to death, treating his body with indignity,
as Jeremiah had predicted (2 Kings xxiv. 1-6 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 5-8 ;
Jer. xxii. 18, 19 ; xxxvi. 30).

XIX. JEHOIACHIN, JECONIAH, or, by abbreviation CONIAH, the
young son of Jehoiakim,' was raised by Nebuchadnezzar to his
father's throne, apparently under the guardianship of his mother,
Nchushta. It appears to have been the renewed intrigues of the
queen and the princes of Judah with Egypt that brought down, in
the short space of three months (March to June B.C. 597), the ter-
rible prophecy which Jeremiah hangs upon the meaning of the king's
name, "appointed of Jehovah " (Jer. xxii. 24-30 ; xxxiii.). Jeru-
salem was saved from storm by the surrender of Jehoiachin, with his
mother, his harem, and all his princes and officers. These, and all
the warriors and skilled artisans, were carried to Babylon, to the
number of 10,000 ; with all the remaining treasures of the temple
and palace. Among the captives were the prophet EZEKIEL, and
the grandfather of Mordecai. None were left behind but the poor-

We now obtain a definite chronology from the way in which Scripture
dates by the years of Nebuchadnezzar as well as of the kings of Judah. Bze-
kiel dates by years of the Captivity, that is, of the Second or Great Captivity,
the epoch of which is June, B.O. 69T.

T His age is given differently in Kings and Chronicles as 18 or 8.



208 SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. XVI.

eat sort of the people. This is called the Great Captivity (2 Kings
xxiv. 10-16; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9, 10).

The strange forbearance of Nebuchadnezzar in not destroying
Jerusalem after this third rebellion may probably be accounted for
by the fact that he had already received the h'rst of those great les-
sons of Jehovah's power and majesty, which are recorded in the
book of Daniel ; for the rebuke of his dream of universal empire by
the vision of the colossal image was in the third year of his reign,
B.C. 603 (Dan. ii.).

XX. The last king of Judah was Mattaniah, the son of Josiah
and Hamutai, whose name was changed to ZEDEKIAH ("Justice of
Jehovah "), doubtless as a pledge of the solemn covenant to which
" Nebuchadnezzar made him swear by God," and which he shame-
lessly broke. His reign of 1 1 years (B.C. 597-586) was one series of
intrigues with Egypt and with the captive Jews in Babylon, against
the remonstrances of Jeremiah and his prophecies of the fatal end,
which were echoed by Ezekiel from the banks of the Euphrates.

At length his detected conspiracy with the rash and arrogant king
of Egypt, Pharaoh-hophra, brought up Nebuchadnezzar against Je-
rusalem, with "all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion."
The city was in vested on the 10th day of the 10th month (Thebet)
of the 9th year of Zedekiah, which is to this day a Jewish fast
(about Dec. 20th, B.C. 589), and the siege lasted a year and a half;
but not without a gleam of delusive hope. Pharaoh-hophra march-
ed to its relief with a great army, and took Gaza ; but on the
approach of Nebuchadnezzar, he retired to Egypt, and the Chal-
damns, who had left Jerusalem, re-formed the siege. At length,
on the 9th day of the 4th month (Thammuz= June- July) in Zede-
kiah's llth year, B.C. 586, a breach was made, and the city taken ;
and Zedekiah was caught in an attempt at flight, and carried to
Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, in Hamath. Having seen the slaugh-
ter of all his sons and the princes of Judah, his eyes were put out,
and he was sent to Babylon, where he remained a close prisoner till
his death, each particular of his fate having been minutely predict-
ed by Jeremiah. After the remaining spoil had been collected, Je-
rusalem and the temple were given to the flames, and the walls
razed to the ground, on the 10th day of the 5th month (Ab), in the
19th year of Nebuchadnezzar, which is still observed as a fast only
second to the great Day of Atonement. The miserable remnant left
to till the land, with whom the prophet Jeremiah remained, were
afterwards carried into Egypt, and "the land lay desolate and kept
her Sabbaths, to fulfill three-score-and-ten years." Even this great
catastrophe is lighted up by the redeeming idea of rest, to prepare
for the promised restoration (2 Kings xxiv. 17-xxv. 26 ; nd the
corresponding passages of Jeremiah and Ezekiel).




The Katr, or remains of the ancient Palace at Babylon.



CHAPTER XVII.

THE CAPTIVITY AT BABYLON. B.C. 586-536.

THE cruel policy of transplanting conquered nations common
to the Assyrian and Babylonian kings was mitigated by the degree
of freedom allowed to the captives. There was enough and more
than enough of hardship to add bitterness to the loss of their free
country, their paternal homes, and, especially in the case of the
Jews, their sacred rites at the House of God. Those required for
field and domestic service were doubtless ruthlessly enslaved ; and
the whole mass had to give forced labor on the great works with
which Nebuchadnezzar strengthened and embellished Babylon.
But the intervals of labor were their own ; they lived together on
lands allotted to them under the rule of their own elders : they
built themselves houses, and planted vineyards and gardens (Jer.

O



210 SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. XVIL

xxix. 28) : and, unless at some great festival in honor of Bel or Nebo
(Dan. iii.), they were not required to worship the gods of their con-
querors. Those conquerors were even curious to hear the solemn
chants and cheerful songs which had been used in the worship of
Jehovah a sort of composition of which they themselves were very
fond 1 and their demand called forth that exquisite complaint which
we read in the 137th Psalm. The " rivers of Babylon " of that
Psalm are very probably the great canals whicli the captives were
employed to dig, and beside which they sat down to rest at the
close of the day's labor in one of the hottest plains on the face of
the earth ; and the river C/tebar, where Ezekiel saw his earlier vis-
ions, is thought to be the great Nahr Malc/ia, or " Royal River,'
which connected the Tigris with the Euphrates. Many passages of
his prophecies attest the liberty left to the Jews in relation to their
own affairs. That qualifications of mind or person could as is
usual in Eastern kingdoms raise the captives to the highest posi-
tions, is seen in the case of Daniel and his three companions ; and
in those of Nehemiah, Esther, and Mordecai, under the Persians.
Their history contains the few facts that we know about the Jews in
the land of their captivity. The Prophecies of EZEKIEL, though
uttered in Babylonia, are chiefly concerned with the events in Ju-
dasa and its neighborhood during the reign of Zedekiah, and with
the future restoration. All that we are told of the interval before
the fall of Babylon, except the concluding passage in the " Second
Book of Kings," is contained in the Book of Daniel, and has almost
more to do with Nebuchadnezzar and his successors in the Empire
of the East than with the state of the captive Jews.

In one word, the great conqueror was taught the limits of his
power the vanity of those dreams of empire in which the conquer-
ors that were to overthrow his empire would in their turn also in-
dulge and the final triumph of that God whom he thought he had
conquered, but of whose will he was proved to be the helpless in-
strument. He learned this in three great lessons, each coming
nearer and nearer to his own person ; and he learned them all
through the captive servants of Jehovah. It was the policy of
Eastern monarchs to devote the best of the persons, as well as the
substance, of conquered peoples, to their own state and pleasure.
Thus we have seen that, in the first stage of the Captivity, some of
the noblest, fairest, and cleverest of the Hebrew youths were select-
ed to wait upon the king, and to be trained in " the learning and
tongue of the Chaldeans" the priestly caste, who possessed all
the secular and religious knowledge of the age, and practised the

1 The most conspicuous remains of the oldest Babylonian literature, now
brought to light by the cuueiform discoveries, are hymns in honor of the gods.



B.C. 580-536. THE CAPTIVITY. 211

arts of magic, divination, and interpreting of dreams. Four of
these youths, Daniel and his three companions, refused the wine
and royal dainties provided for them, and persuaded the officer, in
whose care they were placed, to allow them, after a fair experiment,
to drink water and to live on pulse or grain. On this diet they
grew as much fairer in person as they excelled all their comrades
in learning; and, when they were brought before Nebuchadnezzar
7t the end of the three years' probation, " he found them ten times
oetter than all the magicians and astrologers that were in his
realm." They were fully enrolled in the Chaldaean order, of which
Daniel was afterwards made the chief (Dan. ii. 48) ; and the new
names given to them are (as usual) significant of dedication to the
gods of Babylon (Dan. i.).

It was about the very time of their first appearance before Nebu-
chadnezzar, that Daniel proved that the inspiration of Jehovah put
to shame all the art of the Chaldajans, by interpreting Nebuchad-
nezzar's Drenm of the /'our Great Empires of the World, which
were to fall before the unseen power of unknown origin " the