1. Solomon after a reign of 40 years87 was succeeded by his son Rehoboam, who, through the adoption of evil counsel, brought on a great rebellion and division which resulted in the formation of the two kingdoms—one of Judah, with its chief city at Jerusalem, and the other of Israel, with its capital at Shechem. Jeroboam soon removed to Tirzah, where the capital, or royal residence, remained for many years until Samaria became the capital, and continued to be so until the captivity, 1 Kings 16:23.
This city has been identified with a village now inhabited and which is called Teiasir, eleven miles north by east of Shechem and twelve miles east-northeast of Samaria. It is 995 feet above the Mediterranean on the main road to Beth-shean. But formerly Tirzah was, by Dr. Robinson, supposed to be found in a village called Telluzah, six miles due east of Samaria, built upon a hill 1,940 feet above the Mediterranean and commanding a magnificent view eastward. This place, in its position, well deserves the name “Tirzah,” which means “beauty.” It is probably referred to in the Song of Solomon, 6:4. It was thirty-four miles a little east of due north from Jerusalem. But neither of these places can with certainty be called the Tirzah of this history.
Samaria was private property at this time, having no settlement upon it until nearly fifty years after the division of the kingdom, when it was bought by Omri, king of Israel, from Shemer, and, after him, named Samaria.
2. There is a great chronological difficulty in adjusting the reigns of the kings of Judah and of Israel.
It arises, in some degree, from the fact that the number of months is omitted in the statements of the years during which the reigns continued, for the whole number of years only is given. Moreover the statements are not always clear in relation to the epoch from which the number given is to be counted. But more recently collateral history, both Egyptian and Assyrian, has supplied certain data whereby considerable aid has been furnished in the settlement of some of the difficulties.
Under the supposition that the commonly accepted chronology is correct and that the division of the kingdom, at the death of Solomon, took place B. C. 975, the kingdom of Israel lasted 253 years and the kingdom of Judah 387 years, that is from B. C. 975 to B. C. 722 for Israel and from B. C. 975 to B. C. 588 for Judah.
3. The captivity of Israel took place B. C. 722, at the taking of Samaria by Sargon, the general of Shalmaneser. In the book of Kings we have the account of the attack of Shalmaneser upon Samaria, 2 Kings 17:6; 18:10. In the last passage, the phrase “they took it” appears to refer to the fact that both Shalmaneser and Sargon laid siege to Samaria, for although the former began the siege, he died suddenly before the city was taken, and Sargon, who had seized upon the throne of Assyria, immediately returned and completed the siege.
Sargon’s own account of the siege and of the captivity remarkably agrees with the statement in the book of Kings. These facts are derived from the Assyrian tablets.
4. In regard to this king of Assyria, Sargon by name, the verse in Isaiah 20:1 was for twenty-five centuries the only known evidence of his existence. It was not until recently, when the mound which covered his palace was excavated, that the name came to view. It was then discovered that he was one of the greatest kings of Assyria, and his history was recorded upon the large alabaster slabs which lined a part of his palace.
Judah was carried into captivity B. C. 588. The whole number of rulers, from Rehoboam the first king to Zedekiah the last, inclusive of both, was 20, of which number there was one queen, Athaliah, who reigned six years.
5. The line of descent of the Messiah passed through Judah and through all its kings except the last (Zedekiah), and the third and fourth from the last, namely, Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim. The kings of Israel were none of them in this line. It was for this reason that the tribe of Judah was the most important and prominent of all the tribes.
6. The captivity of Judah took place under Nebuchadnezzar, called also Nebuchadrezzar, Ezek. 29:19. This king succeeded to the throne of Babylon B. C. 604. His father was the first king of Babylon after the fall of Nineveh and death of its king Assur-bani-pal, the Sardanapalus of the Greek historians.
7. Immediately after the fall of Nineveh, B. C. 626, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, Nabopolassar, founded the independent monarchy of Babylon, B. C. 625, and at the death of Nabopolassar, B. C. 604, Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne. He was a general of great energy and enterprise and became so well known, even to the Greeks, that according to Josephus,88 he was compared with Hercules for his valor and deeds.89 The prophet Jeremiah compares him with an eagle swooping down on his prey,90 and Ezekiel represents him as a great eagle with great wings.91 He was intrusted by his father with the entire management of the attack upon Nechoh, who had come up from Egypt in battle against the city Carchemish on the Euphrates, B. C. 606. This city was over five hundred miles northwest from Babylon on the west bank of the river.
8. With a fine army he attacked Nechoh, and defeated him with so dreadful a slaughter that the Egyptian king retreated rapidly to the Nile. Nebuchadnezzar followed him through Palestine to Pelusium, a city on the sea-coast frontiers of Egypt, about seventy miles east of the Nile. At this place he heard of the death of his father, at Babylon, and committing the army and his prisoners into the hands of his trusty generals, he left and, with a small escort, crossed the desert and arrived at Babylon, 700 miles distant to the east. Here he found that the chief of the priestly caste of the Chaldæans had held the government for him since the death of his father.92 He then peaceably succeeded his father.
9. But the kingdom of Judah had not yet submitted to Nebuchadnezzar. He, therefore, after settling the new order of rule at Babylon, returned to Syria, B. C. 602, and attacked Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and placed him under tribute. Three years had not passed before this Hebrew king, counting on help from the king of Egypt, rebelled against the king of Babylon, and dying soon after, left the odium of the rebellion, together with the regal succession, to his son Jehoiachin.
10. This king of Judah had reigned only three months when Nebuchadnezzar sent an army into Judah and soon after arrived in person; and the king of Judah was forced to submit to the king of Babylon, and, with 10,000 of his best citizens, he was taken prisoner and carried to Babylon. The uncle of the king of Judah, whose name was changed to Zedekiah, that is, “the righteousness of Jehovah,” was placed upon the throne by Nebuchadnezzar. His previous name was Mattaniah, that is, “gift of Jehovah,” and Nebuchadnezzar, in giving him this new name, evidently intended it as a suggestion to the king that he was expected to sustain the truthful character of that Jehovah whom he professed to serve; for the king of Babylon had made Zedekiah promise by oath and covenant, swearing by his God, to be faithful to him, 2 Chron. 36:13; Ezek. 17:13, B. C. 599.
In the same manner Pharaoh-nechoh changed the name of Eliakim to Jehoiakim, when he advanced him to the throne eleven years before, B. C. 610. 2 Kings 23:34. He simply changed the ordinary name, El, god, to that most holy name of the Israelites’ divinity, namely Jehovah.
11. After eleven years of reign Zedekiah rebelled, and then the final siege of Jerusalem took place, and the Jews were forced by starvation to yield to the king. During the delay required by the siege, Nebuchadnezzar remained at a place called Riblah (now Ribla) 200 miles north of Jerusalem and 70 miles northeast of Beirût, pleasantly located in the valley between the Lebanon ranges and on the east side of the river Orontes. This place was made sadly prominent eighteen years before by the imprisonment of Jehoahaz, the successor of Josiah, king of Judah. He was taken captive and removed from Jerusalem and left at this place by Pharaoh-nechoh when he was on his way to his terrible defeat by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish, B. C. 606. But on his retreat he carried Jehoahaz to Egypt, where he died, 2 Kings 23:33, 34.
12. When the generals of Nebuchadnezzar had taken Jerusalem, they brought Zedekiah and the royal family to Riblah, where it appears that the king of Babylon upbraided Zedekiah for his violation of his oath, and then slew his sons before his eyes. This was his last and dreadful vision, for immediately after, according to the custom of these kings depicted upon the monuments, “he put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him with fetters of brass and carried him to Babylon,” 2 Kings 25:7.
13. The king of Babylon now left the completion of the destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of captives to one of his chief army officers, called “the captain of the guard.” This officer sent off all the treasure of the Temple and of the various palaces, and then having burned the Temple and all the chief houses, he broke down the walls and so completely destroyed the city that the ruler, who was left to take charge of the few poor remaining, resided at Mizpah,93 a village, not certainly but very probably, identified with a place on a high hill five miles west by north from Jerusalem.
14. Judah was now finally carried away captive, and the seventy years of captivity foretold by the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 24:11; 29:10) are to be reckoned from the first captivity, B. C. 606, when Daniel and others were carried to Babylon in the third year of Jehoiakim, 2 Kings 24:1, 2. These seventy years terminated when Cyrus, in the first year of his reign at Babylon, B. C. 536, made his proclamation permitting the Jews to return to Palestine and rebuild the temple, Ezra 1:11.
15. About 50,000 accepted the invitation, but a large number preferred to remain, as we shall more fully explain hereafter.
1. Of the twenty sovereigns of Judah, Manasseh reigned the longest, namely fifty-five years. He was the fourteenth king and began to reign at twelve years of age, B. C. 698.
The shortest reigns in Judah were those of Jehoiachin and Jehoahaz, who reigned only about three months each, near the close of the kingdom, B. C. 600 and B. C. 610. Both of these kings were deposed by foreign kings.
2. Of the nineteen sovereigns of Israel, the one who continued longest upon the throne was Jeroboam, the second of that name. His reign continued forty-one years, from B. C. 825 to B. C. 784. He was the thirteenth king.
The shortest reign was that of Zimri, who committed suicide by burning himself in his palace at Tirzah, with all its riches, B. C. 930, when he found he was about to be taken. He usurped the throne and held it only seven days. He was the fifth king.
3. Of the twenty sovereigns of Judah, twelve were continually idolatrous. They seemed to be entirely unmindful of the previous history of the nation and of the claims of Jehovah upon their reverence or gratitude. The Temple service seems to have been continued by the priests at Jerusalem, but, from the warnings of the prophets, it appears that even the priests proved faithless and frequently allowed themselves to be led in accordance with the passions and violence of the kings, so that irreverence and sacrilege were common.
The treasures of the Temple, those vessels, ornaments, and trophies which were sacred to its use, or placed there in commemoration of victories and in honor of the Lord, were repeatedly seized by the kings and given to their enemies, or used for private purposes, and, in some instances, removed to give place for idolatrous practices. Parts of the Temple considered sacred to the name of Jehovah were desecrated by altars built for the worship of the hosts of heaven, and graven images were erected upon the Temple grounds, in defiance of the law.
4. The kings themselves frequently gave public examples of their contempt for Jehovah by the service and worship of the gods of surrounding nations, by erecting temples and altars and by planting groves upon high places and setting up images of Baal and Ashtoreth throughout the land and in prominent towns, so that the people were constantly drawn into idolatry and their children made to dwell in the presence and under the influence of idolatrous emblems, as seen throughout the kingdom.
5. The above mentioned facts are specially applicable to twelve kings out of the twenty of Judah, but the character of the reigns of Israel was even worse. Of its nineteen kings, not one was free from idolatry. At the very beginning of their history the first king, Jeroboam, who had spent about five years in Egypt at the court of Shishak, erected a golden calf at Bethel and one at Dan in the north, and invited the people to worship at these shrines in preference to the “house of the Lord,” the Temple, at Jerusalem.
6. This worship of the golden calf was a repetition of the same worship which was performed 500 years before at Mt. Sinai, soon after the Israelites came out of Egypt, and Jeroboam the king in instituting it repeated the words which were uttered at Mt. Sinai,94 namely, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,” Exod. 32:4.
7. The selection of the calf was suggested by the prominence which that animal,95 as the symbol of divine power, attained in Egypt. The costly adornment and preservation of the sacred living bull, or Apis, and the magnificent funeral ceremonies and entombment of the dead Apis are frequently alluded to on the monuments of Egypt. Long before the departure of the Israelites from Egypt the veneration of the sacred bull had been exhibited in services and obsequies, so general throughout Lower Egypt, and so imposing, that the effect upon the population must have been far more solemn and impressive than anything we can conceive of at the present day. The costly burial places, called “Serapeums,” some of which yet exist, and the granite sarcophagi show beyond any question how reverent and imposing the worship of the bull must have been.
8. In the expression used at Mt. Sinai and by Jeroboam the word “gods” has the force of the singular number, being that word sometimes applied to Jehovah and always used in the plural number, called “the plural of excellence;” so that while translated in this phrase “gods,” to the Hebrew it was the same as “god;” hence there was only one calf-image at any place.
It is both remarkable and memorable that notwithstanding the bold and careless manner in which Jeroboam’s contempt for the worship of Jehovah was exhibited, yet in the later history of his life, when a bitter sorrow was coming upon him, he acted the part of Saul and applied for help to the prophet whose counsel he had abused. The results were the same and the record is in 1 Kings 14.
9. It should be remembered that while the kings and many of the people departed from their covenanted service of Jehovah, and the land was full of idolaters, there were, at all times, those who in the privacies of their homes were faithful servants of the Most High.
This fact was brought out in the time of the prophet Elijah; for when the prophet in his despair supposed he was the only surviving worshipper of God, the Lord revealed to him the truth that at that very moment there were 7,000 in Israel who had never bowed the knee to Baal, but were faithful to Jehovah, 1 Kings 19:18. Even in the household of the idolatrous Ahab there was one who held so persistently to the ancient faith in Jehovah, that, despite the cunning, power, and vengeance of Jezebel, he succeeded in hiding and feeding one hundred of the prophets of the Lord, probably in several caves. This man, Obadiah by name, was governor of Ahab’s house, 1 Kings 18:3, and not the prophet, who lived about 587 B. C.
10. Frequently, during the darkest times of the two kingdoms, there suddenly appeared an antecedently unknown messenger of God, who bore with him the evidence that he was a member of a reserved force of faithful ones whose existence had never been published in the annals of the kingdom; and these unknown servants existed in both kingdoms alike, and were of both sexes, as we find in the cases of Huldah, whose knowledge of the law made her worthy of consultation by the king, and of Hannah before her, and of that nameless woman dwelling in the walled city Abel, who, although “peaceable and faithful in Israel,” had power enough simply by her wise counsel to turn back the fierce army of Joab, 2 Sam. 20:19.
This place was also called Abel-beth-maachah. It was upon the level land twelve miles north by west of the waters of Merom, lake Huleh, and is now called Abl. Abel means “meadow.” The village is over 1,000 feet above the lake Huleh (1,074 feet), and is a Christian village.
11. It is, therefore, reasonable to suppose that although at court and by the kings the law of the Lord was little known and read, it might yet have been thoroughly studied and observed by many in private.
1. But a most remarkable feature of the times of the kings, both of Judah and Israel, appeared in that religious body called the Prophets.
The name “prophet” was originally given by God to Abraham, Gen. 20:7, and seemed to imply a familiarity with God, or that the one to whom it was applied had divine authority to speak for God. The prophets, therefore, were not confined in their utterances to a mere foretelling of events, but, in addition, were made the messengers of God and uttered commands as well as advice by his appointment and in his stead.
2. They received divine messages in several ways: (1) by impulses, commanding and influencing their thoughts while awake, as in the case of Elisha, 2 Kings 3:15; (2) by audible sounds, as in the case of Samuel when a child, 1 Sam. 3:10, and when older and a prophet, as recorded in 1 Sam. 9:15 and in other passages; (3) and by visions, or dreams, as in the cases of Isaiah, Isa. 1:1, Micaiah, 1 Kings 22:17, and Daniel, Dan. 10:1, 7.
3. There was a class who were officially known as prophets, whose lives were chiefly devoted to this office, and these were distinguished by a term which has come down to the present time and is in use among the Arabs in the regions of Palestine and Syria. This is the term “Neby” used by the natives as a title of a sacred person and associated with tombs throughout these lands, and it is the same word used in the times of Abraham, Gen. 20:7.
4. There was, however, another class of prophets who seem to have been used for special occasions and who were commissioned for one prophetic act, after which they do not appear again in history, 2 Chron. 9:29; 1 Kings 16:1–4; 2 Chron. 19:2; 15:1–8, and elsewhere. These, however, may in some instances have been chosen from one of those collections, or schools, of the prophets which existed from the time of Samuel to a period several centuries later, 1 Sam. 19:18, 19. “Naioth” in this passage alludes to the “habitations” in Ramah, which appear to have been “colleges” of the prophets. There were such colleges or schools at Bethel and Jericho, 2 Kings 2:3, 5. In these schools the law was studied, and perhaps psalmody, as we find that in some passages references are made to the instrumental performances of the prophets, 1 Sam. 10:5.
5. Of all the prophets the utterances of only sixteen have come down to us in distinct books. Of these it is customary to speak of four as THE GREATER, or major, prophets, and of twelve as THE MINOR prophets, but these terms have reference only to the extent of their writings. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel are included in the term major, and their prophecies, as written, are composed in the following order, only as to the number of verses in each prophecy as that prophecy appears in the English authorized version: Jeremiah (including Lamentations, which has 154 verses) 1,518 verses, Isaiah 1,292, Ezekiel 1,273, and Daniel 357.
6. Of the minor prophets, the order, in point of number of verses in each book, is as follows: Zechariah 211, Hosea 197, Amos 146, Micah 105, Joel 73, Habakkuk 56, Malachi 55, Zephaniah 53, Jonah 48, Nahum 47, Haggai 38, Obadiah 21.
The prophecy of Jeremiah, including Lamentations, ranks, in order of number of verses, next after Genesis, which contains 1,533 verses.
This analysis of the books of the major prophets shows not only their comparative importance, as to size, among the sixteen prophetical books, but also among all the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament; for Genesis, in point of number of verses, is second only to the book of Psalms, and Jeremiah’s writings are the third in this order.
7. In point of time, there seems to have been an entirely uninterrupted line of such prophets as we have described from the age of Samuel to the return from the captivity, an era of nearly 750 years (from B. C. 1141 to B. C. 397).
Some of even the greatest of the prophets, as Elijah and Elisha, never committed their prophecies to writing. In a very large degree, however, their words and acts are recorded in various histories, as the historian had need to make reference to them in explaining certain events he was narrating in the history of the kingdoms of Judah and of Israel.
Of those prophets whose prophecies are given in distinct books, Jonah was the first mentioned in point of time, and Malachi was the last, probably B. C. 397.
After the death of Malachi the prophetic institution, as an order, seems to have closed, and it was so understood by some of the ancient Jewish writers, as appears in the apocryphal books.96
B. C. 588–397(?).
1. By the words “the captivity” is generally meant the final captivity of Judah, which was the last of a series of captivities both of Israel and of Judah. As a knowledge of these captivities is not only important in the study of Jewish history, but has a bearing upon the authenticity of the Scripture, they should all be carefully distinguished. We therefore give a full list as follows.
2. The first captivity, B. C. about 733, was that of the tribes east of the Jordan, by a king of Assyria bearing two names in Scripture, which were formerly supposed to be the names of two distinct kings. But a recently discovered list of Babylonian kings shows that the two names are those of the same king, and therefore the reading of the verse, 1 Chron. 5:26, is correct in which the two names of this king, namely, Pul and Tilgath-pilneser, are spoken of as in the singular number.
Pul seized the throne B. C. 745, and died 727.97 The dates in our marginal references (2 Kin. 15:19) are too early. This king carried away “the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah and Habor and Hara and to the river Gozan,” 1 Chron. 5:26; see also 2 Kings 15:29.
3. Halah is probably identified with a mound now called Gla, on the river Khabour, which is a tributary to the Euphrates. It is about 430 miles northeast of Jerusalem and 330 northeast of Babylon.
Habor was probably on the river Khabour, but its site has not been identified.
Hara is about 100 miles northwest of Gla and is supposed to be the same as Haran, to which Terah and Abraham migrated from Ur of the Chaldees. It is situated upon the river Belik, which runs southward about seventy miles and then joins the Euphrates.
The river Gozan was probably the same as the Khabour, as the province of Gozan, through which it ran, seems to be identified with the Gauzanitis of Ptolemy. Its mouth is about 100 miles east of that of the river Belik, which also empties into the Euphrates. After the Khabour no other river is tributary to the Euphrates for 500 miles of its course. The mouth of the Khabour is 300 miles northwest of Babylon.
4. The second captivity, B. C. 721. Twenty years afterward, at the siege of Samaria, the Assyrian king Sargon carried off a larger and more important number. This king gives an account of this siege, in remarkable corroboration of the Scripture history, and states that he “carried off 27,280 of its citizens.” Nevertheless a large number remained in the region around and many fled who returned afterward, 2 Kings 17:6.
5. “The cities of the Medes” here spoken of had been only recently conquered by Tiglath-pileser. In an inscription, towards the end of his reign, he mentions Parthia (parts of Media), Nisæa, and other places that paid him tribute. It was in 736 B. C. that he made a great expedition in the east, farther than any of his predecessors, reaching the frontiers of India. He was succeeded by Shalmaneser, B. C. 727, who died and was succeeded by Sargon, B. C. 721, the year of the capture of Samaria.98 The war of the first captivity (page 158) was carried on between B. C. 733–731 by Tiglath-pileser, and it was then that the first recorded instance occurred of the practice of transplanting the whole people of a conquered country to places far distant from their native land and replacing them by other captives.99 Such was afterward the act of Esar-haddon in regard to Samaria, as stated in Ezra 4:2. This king reigned B. C. 681–668.100
The captivity B. C. 721 was the last captivity in any form of Israel, which is known as “the northern kingdom,” in contradistinction from Judah, “the southern kingdom.” It comprised “the ten tribes.”
6. The third captivity, B. C. 606. Of the captivities of Judah, the first happened when Daniel and others were carried off to Babylon, B. C. 606, 2 Kings 24:2; 2 Chron. 36:6; Dan. 1:3, when but a few were sent to Babylon.
7. The fourth captivity, B. C. 599–598. The second deportation to Babylon from Judah was in B. C. 599–598, when 10,000 captives were taken from Jerusalem, 2 Kings 24:12, and from the surrounding country 3,023, Jer. 52:28. The king Jehoiachin was also taken captive.
8. The fifth and final captivity, B. C. 588. In the third great captivity of Judah Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem by burning the Temple and pulling down the walls and the houses.
Perhaps in all 100,000 were carried off at various times. While this number was comparatively small, it represented the very strength of the kingdom of Judah, with which tribe the promise of the Messiah alone rested, and it was of this tribe that the majority of those who returned to Palestine were composed.
The captives of Judah remained in or around Babylon during the entire term of their captivity.
9. The captivity of Manasseh. In this connection there is another captivity merely referred to in one verse in 2 Chron. 33:11. It is the captivity of Manasseh by the king of Assyria. In this verse it is said that this king of Judah was carried captive to Babylon, and for a time it was thought by some critics that this was an incorrect statement, since the king of Assyria was at Nineveh. But among the inscriptions at present in the British Museum were found those of the history of Esar-haddon, who reigned from B. C. 681 to B. C. 668. In this history it is stated that he went to Syria and conquered and destroyed Sidon and held court at Damascus, summoning twenty-two kings to meet him there; and second among the names is that of “the king of Judah.” This was in the year B. C. 672.101 It is recorded that he rebuilt Babylon, and we find that both he and his son held their courts and judged vassal princes like Manasseh at Babylon.102 Esar-haddon gathered men from Babylon and other places and planted them in Samaria, and hence we have the account given us in Ezra 4:2, 9, 10.
10. Although the “seventy years” of captivity pronounced against Judah by the prophet Jeremiah (25:12; 29:10) are supposed to begin B. C. 606, yet the destruction of Jerusalem and the last deportation of Judah, B. C. 588, closed up the list of captivities both of Judah and of Israel. Both communities now existed, but, with small exception, only as captives in Assyria or as exiles in various other lands.
1. As a people, the Jews of the northern kingdom never were so warmly attached to the Temple worship as those of the southern, and hence all the Psalms which alluded to Jerusalem103 and the Temple are supposed to have been written by the exiles of Judah, that is of the southern kingdom, who went into captivity B. C. 588 under Nebuchadnezzar, and were settled in Babylon or its vicinity. For the entire seventy years the people of Judah and those of Israel were separated by several hundred miles of country.
2. During the many years of captivity, Israel, that is the ten tribes, probably mingled with other nations in their midst and became very largely estranged from the father-land. There were fewer of the ties of religious faith with them than with Judah. Even the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, when they returned from the captivity and entered into their city Jerusalem and into the cities and lands surrounding, brought wives from the heathen about them,104 the very priests and Levites being also guilty, Ezra 9:1, although the Mosaic law prohibited such marriages.
3. Such heathen intermarriages among the members of the tribes would, after 185 years, be less objected to than among the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and would naturally be followed by not only indifference to any return, but also by forgetfulness of the land and of the history of their origin, and it is not surprising that when the tribes of Judah and Benjamin accepted the permission granted by Cyrus, the king of Babylon, to return to Palestine, the ten tribes, as a whole, remained in Assyria and never returned, but probably became lost by being absorbed into the nations with whom they associated.
4. During the captivity the Jews in Assyria and Babylonia were allowed great privileges. They were considered more in the light of colonists than of slaves, and from the histories, both sacred and secular, we learn that, as stated in the books of Nehemiah, Esther, and Daniel, they were occasionally employed in high positions in the state and at court. Nehemiah, though born at Babylon during the captivity, was a Jew of the tribe of Judah, but was cup-bearer to the Persian king, Artaxerxes Longimanus, at Susa. Ezra also enjoyed great consideration at the Persian court during the reigns of several of the kings of Persia. And from the book of Esther it is evident that the Jews prospered greatly during the reign of Xerxes.
5. The prophets, during the captivity of Judah, were earnest in their endeavors to preserve the integrity and reverence of the people, and it was largely due to them that many of the observances of the Mosaic law, and a loving remembrance of the Temple and of Jerusalem, prevailed so far as it did in spite of the idolatries of the people by whom they were surrounded. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, with Obadiah, were the prophets of the captivities.
6. Before the captivity Jeremiah105 had foretold the captivity of Judah, for seventy years, in Babylon, Jer. 25:8–12, and also the fall of Babylon (verses 13–38). His faithfulness endangered his life, and when Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem he found Jeremiah in prison and released him, offering him a residence in Babylon. The prophet, however, chose to remain with the remnant of Judah who were not carried away, and when this remnant fled to Egypt, for fear of Nebuchadnezzar, they took Jeremiah with them. See the account in Jer. 43:6.
7. A recent remarkable discovery has been made, in Egypt, of the palace of Pharaoh-hophra, the Egyptian king who reigned at the time Jeremiah was carried to Egypt, about B. C. 585. The prophet protested against the departure to Egypt of the remnant of which we have spoken, and forewarned them that Nebuchadnezzar would go to Egypt and would overcome Pharaoh-hophra and would pitch his tent in the court of this palace. Several clay cylinders have been picked up in the vicinity bearing the name of Nebuchadnezzar, and proving that he had been here, and the brick pavement, or court, before the palace, which seems to be alluded to in Jer. 43:9, has been uncovered. It was here that the prophet hid the stones at the place he foretold as that where Nebuchadnezzar should set his pavilion. The palace was at Tahpanhes (pronounced tah´-pan-heez), Jer. 43:8–13.
8. Tahapenes, also written Tahpanhes, Jer. 43:7, 9, or Tehaph´nehes, Ezek. 30:18, was an Egyptian city on the east of the Delta, seventy-eight miles east-northeast from the present Cairo, and upon the most eastern branch of the Nile. In 1886 Mr. Petrie discovered, at this place, the palace above alluded to, at which the Pharaoh (Hophra) then reigning probably received king Zedekiah’s daughters, to which there seems a reference in the traditional name “Castle of the Jew’s daughter.” The place is now called Tell Defenneh, but there exist only ruins covered by a mound.
9. Daniel went into captivity six or seven years before the captivity of Ezekiel, when Nebuchadnezzar first laid siege to Jerusalem, B. C. 606. At this time the king of Babylon took captive Daniel and his companions, who were young and of noble families, and had them sent to his palace to be educated for the king’s service. The Assyrian records show that it was a custom among the kings to select young men of talent and educate them at royal expense, that they might be special officers at court. Daniel was so chosen, with three others, and they were “taught the learning and the tongue of the Chaldæans,” Dan. 1:4. Their great skill and wisdom roused a jealousy among the princes of the court against the companions of Daniel, and while Daniel was absent on some commission, or other duty, his companions were condemned to be burned alive, but were delivered by divine interference, Dan. 3.
10. The prophet Ezekiel went into captivity with Jehoiachin king of Judah, eleven years before the final captivity, and was placed with a Jewish company at the river Chebar, which may be the same as “The royal Canal,” just north of Babylon, and which was dug by Nebuchadnezzar to unite the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris. This prophet was skilled in the law and a faithful priest and teacher, and his influence was great among the captives.
11. Obadiah was the fourth prophet, whose prophecies seem to have been delivered about B. C. 587, or during the captivity of Judah and soon after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. He appears as specially commissioned to foretell the punishment of the Edomites for their pride and insulting rejoicing at the destruction of Jerusalem and the distress of the Jews. According to Josephus, this warning received its fulfilment about five years after the prophecy.
12. Of the kings of Assyria and Babylon during the captivities the first mentioned in Scripture is Tiglath-pileser, of whom and his successors we have already spoken, pages 159, 160. These kings were active only in the captivities of Israel. Nebuchadnezzar was connected with the captivities of Judah.
Nebuchadnezzar began to reign B. C. 604. During his reign of forty-three years Babylon rose to its highest splendor and remained a magnificent city until his death in B. C. 562. His madness, spoken of by Daniel, is not distinctly stated in Assyrian history, but an inscription, now in the East India House at London, gives an account of the various works of Nebuchadnezzar, and abruptly says that his heart was hardened against the Chaldæan astrologers. “He would grant no benefactions for religious purposes. He intermitted the worship of Merodach, and put an end to the sacrifice of victims. He labored under the effects of enchantment.”
This last sentence seems to accord with the statement of Daniel (chapters 1–4). The record referred to was found in the ruins on the Tigris.
13. The son and successor of Nebuchadnezzar was Evil-merodach, B. C. 561. He released the captive king of Judah, Jehoiachin, and treated him as a prince and with special favor. His sister’s husband, Neriglissar, succeeded him B. C. 559. He is mentioned in 2 Kings 25:27; Jer. 52:31.
14. This Neriglissar, or, as the monuments present it, Nergal-Sharezer, held the throne only three years, and was followed by his son, a minor, who perished in a conspiracy of the nobles after a reign of only nine months. One of these nobles, Nabonidus by name, ascended the throne and held it till the city was captured by Cyrus. It was his son, Belshazzar, who, as eldest son, reigned with his father when Babylon was taken, his father having entrusted him with the care of the city while he, with the main part of the army, was engaged with Cyrus, eight miles off at Borsippa.
15. Cyrus did not assume the rule of Babylon immediately as its titular king. He was supreme over all Asia from India to the Bosphorus, but, for some reason, a Median prince was established for a time as nominal king, although Cyrus retained all the power. That prince was Darius, the son of Cyaxares, a childless man of sixty-two years of age. When, two years after his appointment, he died, Cyrus assumed the power and became king of Babylon.106