WHILE the kingdom of Israel thus came to an end, that of Judah seemed to have taken a fresh lease of vitality. At the close of the wicked reign of Ahaz, his son Hezekiah succeeded to the throne, B.C. 726, and proved one of the best of the monarchs of the line of David. His first act after his accession was to set on foot a thorough religious reformation. He removed the high places, brake down the images, and even destroyed the Brazen Serpent, the ancient relic of the Wanderings, which had become an object of idolatrous worship, under the name of Nehushtan414 (2 K. xviii. 4). He then cleansed and purified the Temple, and re-opened it with splendid sacrifices, conducted by the reinstated priests and Levites (2 Chr. xxix. 20–36), and resolved to celebrate a peculiar Passover, and invite to it all throughout the land of Palestine, who bore the Hebrew name (2 Chr. xxx. 1–10).
To this end he dispatched messengers throughout Judah, and northwards through Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun. The remnant of the once powerful house of Joseph treated his invitation with scorn, but all Judah and many of the smaller tribes assembled at Jerusalem, and took part in the great national rite, which was celebrated at an unusual but not an illegal period415, and lasted upwards of 14 days. The associations awakened by this ancient ordinance roused the people to a becoming zeal for the true God, and on their return from Jerusalem a general destruction of idolatrous images and temples was set on foot throughout Judah and Benjamin, and even some portions of the northern kingdom (2 Chr. xxxi. 1).
Seconded in his pious efforts by the noble-minded prophet Isaiah, the king proceeded to carry out other religious reforms, and was rewarded for his zeal by a large measure of prosperity. Venturing to assume the offensive against the Philistines, he not only recovered the territory which his father had lost, but gained other important advantages (2 K. xviii. 7, 8). This success emboldened him to throw off the Assyrian yoke, and to decline forwarding the usual tribute. The late capture of Samaria by the Assyrians would render probable a speedy vengeance for this defection. But the wealthy city of Tyre, now the head of the Phœnician kingdom, was first to feel the weight of the Assyrian arms, and its inhabitants made such a stubborn resistance, that after operations extending over 5 years416, the design was given up as impracticable.
The time thus gained was not thrown away by Hezekiah. He used every effort to strengthen his capital against the expected invasion; repaired the walls; built towers; set captains over the host; stopped up the wells; diverted the water-courses (2 Chr. xxxii. 3, 4); forged weapons of war; and while most of his people trembled at the certain coming of the great Assyrian conqueror, and many of his advisers would have made an alliance with Egypt, the monarch was exhorted by Isaiah not to lose his confidence in God. At length in the 14th417 year of his reign (2 K. xviii. 13), the invader appeared418. Sennacherib, the successor of Sargon, came up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them (2 K. xviii. 13). Thereupon Hezekiah thought it prudent to avert his wrath by a promise of submission, and consented to pay 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold, to raise which enormous sum he was obliged to spoil the Temple of many of its treasures, and even to strip the gold from the gates (2 K. xviii. 14–16). The respite thus obtained was only temporary. Two years had barely elapsed before Sennacherib, resolved to conquer the now flourishing kingdom of Egypt, commenced a second expedition through the dominions of Judah. While one of his generals attacked and captured Ashdod, he himself marched through Palestine, and laid siege to Libnah and Lachish, cities in the maritime lowland of Judah, and at this time subject to Egypt. From Lachish, however, he sent the Tartan or his “commander-in-chief,” the Rab-saris or his “chief eunuch,” and the Rab-shakeh, his “chief cupbearer,” with a large force to Jerusalem, to demand its surrender. On this occasion, the “chief cupbearer” seems to have been at the head of the embassy. Standing by the conduit of the upper pool and speaking in the Hebrew tongue, he proclaimed to the advisers of Hezekiah and the people assembled on the city walls the message of the king of Assyria, exhorting them not to look for deliverance from Egypt, or even to place any confidence in their God, for what god had yet been able to deliver his land and people out of the hand of his master? (2 K. xviii. 33, 34).
By command of Hezekiah his scornful message was received in profound silence. The king himself, on being informed of the purport of the Assyrian embassy, with clothes rent and robed in sackcloth, repaired to the Temple, and sent his minister similarly attired to Isaiah, to entreat him in his perilous hour to lift up his prayer in behalf of his people. That undaunted prophet in reply bade his master defy boldly all the efforts of the enemy. That God, whom the Assyrian had blasphemed, would avenge His insulted honour; He would send a blast upon him, and he should hear a rumour, and should return to his own land, there to fall by the sword. These trustful words encouraged both king and people, and the Assyrian ambassadors finding it impossible to terrify the capital of Judah into subjection returned to Sennacherib, whom they found at Libnah, having taken or raised the siege of Lachish (2 K. xix. 8).
But while he was thus employed, news reached the ears of that monarch that Tirhakah, or Tarakos, a powerful king of Ethiopia, was on the march against him. On this he resolved to make one more effort to terrify Hezekiah into submission, and sent a second embassy to him, with a letter demanding in the most peremptory terms the surrender of the city, recapitulating the cities whose gods had been powerless to deliver them out of his hands, and bidding him dismiss the notion that he could escape. On receiving this vaunting letter, Hezekiah again repaired to the Temple, and there spread it before the Lord, entreating in words of singular pathos and beauty the aid of the God of Israel, Who dwelt between the Cherubims (2 K. xix. 15).
His prayer was heard. Isaiah was commissioned to assure the king that the Virgin, the daughter of Zion, might laugh to scorn all the efforts of the invader. True it was that the Assyrian monarch had laid waste many cities into ruinous heaps, but it was only because Jehovah Himself had so willed it, and had raised him up to be an instrument for the accomplishment of His own purposes. And now He would put His hook419 in the Assyrian’s nose, and His bridle in his lips, and turn him back by the way he had come, nor suffer him even to approach the city, or shoot an arrow there, or cast up a bank against it (2 K. xix. 32).
His words were destined to have a speedy and terrible fulfilment. Having reduced Libnah, Sennacherib appears to have pushed forward towards Pelusium420, anxious to crush an Egyptian army under a native prince, named Sethos, before the dreaded Ethiopian monarch Terhak or Tirhakah could come to his aid. Within sight of each other the Assyrian and Egyptian hosts lay down, awaiting the morrow’s battle, but that very night the angel of the Lord, probably by a sudden pestilence, or some more awful manifestation of Divine power, poured contempt on all the pride of the Assyrian monarch. As they slept, a sudden destruction fell upon his hosts, and when he awoke next morning, behold 185,000 corpses lay dead in his camp421! On this Sennacherib fled with the shattered remnants of his forces to his own land, where, 17 years after, or B.C. 680422, he was assassinated by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nisroch his god, leaving his throne to another son Esarhaddon (2 K. xix. 37).
At some period after, or as some think, before423 this signal deliverance, Hezekiah was seized with a serious illness and was warned by the prophet Isaiah to put his house in order, for the decree had gone forth that he must die. This announcement caused the greatest distress to the good king. He had striven to set a good example while he lived, and had done much to reform his people and their religion, and now in the very midst of his work he must die! With many tears, therefore, he turned his face to the wall, and pleaded his case with God, praying that the prophet’s words might not be so immediately fulfilled. His prayer was heard. Isaiah was bidden to assure him that his life would be prolonged for a space of 15 years, and as a sign to confirm this assurance, the shadow on the great dial of his father Ahaz went 10 degrees backwards, and by the application of a plaster of figs, often used medicinally in such cases, his malady was healed. News of his recovery, and of the astronomical marvel accompanying it, was conveyed into many lands, and various ambassadors with letters and gifts came to his court. Amongst the rest came those of Merodach-Baladan424, king of Babylon, who with their retinue were escorted over the royal treasures. For the pride and ostentation with which he displayed his rich stores, Hezekiah was rebuked by Isaiah, who foretold that a day was coming, when all these treasures would be carried away into the country of the very king whose ambassadors had now come to congratulate him, and that his sons would be compelled to serve as eunuchs in the Babylonian court (2 K. xx. 17–19).
The remainder of Hezekiah’s reign appears to have been spent in peace and security. His treasury was full; the agricultural resources of the country were developed; various new and useful improvements were carried out in his capital; and on his death, lamented by all Judah and Jerusalem, he was buried with especial honour in the chiefest of the sepulchres of the sons of David, B.C. 698 (2 Chr. xxxii. 27–33).
ON the death of Hezekiah, his son Manasseh succeeded to the throne at a very early age, having been born in all probability twelve years before his father’s death, B.C. 710. His mother, whose name was Hephzibah425 (the delightsome one, Isai. lxii. 4), was descended from one of the princes of Jerusalem. His own name is remarkable, and was borne by no one else in the history of the kingdom of Judah. It is the name of the tribe second only to Ephraim in hostility to Judah, and has been supposed to have been given to him in remembrance of the fond hope of his father to unite the remnants of Manasseh and other northern tribes in a common worship and faith426.
The accession of this king at the early age of 12 years was the signal for an entire revolution in the religious policy which his father had so consistently carried out. It has been suggested that the idolatrous party, which had sided with Ahaz, and had only been repressed during the reign of Hezekiah, now recovered its old ascendancy, and exercised a baneful influence over the youthful monarch. Whether this was so or not, the spirit of loyalty to Jehovah which Hezekiah had evinced was exchanged for a more general adoption of heathen modes of worship than had disfigured even the idolatrous days of Ahaz. Not only were the high places restored, but the worst enormities of Ahab were introduced into Jerusalem. Altars were erected in honour of Baal and Ashtaroth and all the host of heaven, even within the sacred precincts of the Temple (2 Chr. xxxiii. 4, 5). The king himself, not only observed times, and used enchantments, and witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards (2 Chr. xxxiii. 6), but even dedicated some of his sons in the fire to Moloch, and slaughtered others (Ez. xxiii. 37–39). The cries of human victims offered in honour of this hideous deity of the Ammonites re-echoed throughout the valley of Hinnom, and the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were practised with impunity in that city where Jehovah had said that he would put His Name for ever (2 Chr. xxxiii. 4). The consequent moral degeneracy was fearful. The old faith was everywhere neglected and despised. The altar of Jehovah was broken down (2 Chr. xxxiii. 16), even the ark was displaced (2 Chr. xxxv. 3), and so systematic was the destruction of the Sacred Books, that fifty years later the discovery of the Book of the Law was an event exciting wonder and astonishment (2 K. xxii. 8), while the Sabbath, the sign between the elect nation and Jehovah, was polluted (Isai. lvi. 2; lviii. 13), and under the influence of the king and his idolatrous advisers, the people did more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel (2 K. xxi. 9).
Meanwhile the voice of the prophets was not hushed. Heedless of the doom they incurred, the Lord’s true servants bore their faithful testimony against the deeds of the king. They predicted the coming of such judgments on Judah and Jerusalem, that whoever heard of them, both his ears would tingle (2 K. xxi. 12). The line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab should be stretched over the capital of Judah, and it should be wiped as a man wipeth a dish, and its people should be delivered into the hands of their enemies (2 K. xxi. 13, 14). These outspoken rebukes met with their natural reward. It was now, according to the ancient Jewish tradition, that the aged Isaiah was sawn asunder427, while of other less known but no less faithful servants of Jehovah, such numbers were murdered, that the streets of Jerusalem ran with blood (2 K. xxi. 16).
Such a policy brought its inevitable punishment. Risings of the Philistines, Moabites, and Ammonites (Zeph. ii. 4–15; Jer. xlvii.–xlix.), were speedily followed by an invasion of the territory of Judah by the Assyrians (2 Chr. xxxiii. 11). The captains of Esarhaddon, who had crushed the rebellion of Merodach-Baladan, invested Jerusalem428, took Manasseh captive, and carried him off to Babylon429, where loaded with fetters he was cast into prison. But in the solitude of his dungeon the Jewish king repented of the awful wickedness he had committed, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, who in His infinite mercy listened to his petitions for forgiveness. His defection was pardoned by Esarhaddon430, and he was permitted to return to Jerusalem (2 Chr. xxxiii. 13). The lessons learnt in captivity were not forgotten by the restored monarch. He set himself to effect so much of a religious reformation as his previous character would allow. The worship of Jehovah was renewed, sacrifices were once more offered in His honour, and the heathen altars within the sacred precincts of the Temple were destroyed. But the change was naturally but partial (2 Chr. xxxiii. 17). During his long reign of 55 years the evil he had done had sunk too deeply to be easily removed. The recollection of the innocent blood he had shed was never forgotten, and at his death he was not laid in the sepulchres of the kings, but in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza, B.C. 643 (2 K. xxi. 26).
Amon his son now succeeded to the throne, and, after a short reign of 2 years, fell a victim to a conspiracy and was slain in his own palace. The people, however, put the conspirators to death, and secured the throne for his son Josiah, now only 8 years of age, B.C. 641. Young as he was, the new king displayed a remarkable spirit of loyalty to Jehovah, and surpassed even the best of his predecessors in his zeal for the true faith. In the 12th year of his reign (2 Chr. xxxiv. 3), B.C. 629, he commenced a great reform. In Jerusalem itself he removed the altars dedicated to Baal and all the host of heaven, and burnt the symbol of Ashtaroth at the brook Kidron, and the sacred horses that had been dedicated to the Sun. He then commenced a personal tour, not only throughout his own dominions, but throughout Simeon, Ephraim, Manasseh, and even distant Naphtali (2 Chr. xxxiv. 6). At Bethel he visited Jeroboam’s chapel, and agreeably to the remarkable prophecy of the disobedient Prophet, uttered 300 years before431, broke down the altar and high places that king had set up, exhumed the bones from the sepulchres in the neighbouring mount, and scattered them over the altars. A little further, one of the sepulchres attracted his attention, and in answer to his enquiries, he learnt that it contained the remains of the old prophet of Bethel and his victim the man of God from Judah. On this he directed that the sepulchre should be spared, and the venerable relics carefully preserved (2 K. xxiii. 15–19).
Returning to Jerusalem, in the 18th year of his reign he empowered a special commission to restore the Temple, and to levy contributions for this purpose. In the course of the repairs, Hilkiah the high-priest found a roll containing the Book of the Law, probably the Book of Deuteronomy, which he delivered to Shaphan the scribe, or royal secretary. By him portions were read in the ears of the king, who struck with alarm at its awful denunciations, rent his clothes, and directed that the Divine Will should be instantly consulted, that the wrath of heaven might not descend on the apostate nation. The High-priest and the rest thereupon sought the advice of a prophetess named Huldah, the wife of Shallum, keeper of the royal wardrobe, who resided in one of the sacred cloisters of the Temple. In reply, she assured them that the Divine judgments would certainly be fulfilled, not indeed in the reign of Josiah, whose early piety had found favour with Jehovah, but after he had been gathered to his fathers. This answer was in due course returned to the king, who instantly repaired to the Temple, and caused the awful denunciations on idolatry to be publicly read in the ears of the assembled people. The effect was very great. The people, conscience-stricken and appalled, made a solemn covenant, and promised to adhere thenceforward to the worship of the true God, and agreed to a still more thorough reformation. After a restoration of the ancient Levitical service in the Temple, a national celebration of the Passover was decreed, and was carried out with a grandeur and magnificence exceeding anything that had been seen on any former occasion (2 K. xxiii. 21–23).
BUT the religious reformations of the pious king could not ward off the destined destruction of his kingdom. At this period the great Assyrian empire had considerably declined432, while the kingdom of Egypt under a powerful monarch named Necho433, had recovered much of its ancient glory. This king now resolved to gain possession of Carchemish434, which commanded the passage of the Euphrates. From motives which cannot be certainly divined, Josiah resolved to oppose his progress through his own territory, and, in spite of an embassy from the Egyptian monarch begging him not to interfere, drew up his forces at Megiddo, and, as though with a presentiment of his doom, disguised himself before entering into the battle. His fears were verified; struck by the Egyptian archers, he was removed from the field to die before he reached Jerusalem, where he was committed to the grave amidst the profoundest grief of his people, and especially of the prophet Jeremiah, who composed a funeral elegy over this last and best of the kings of Judah, B.C. 610 (2 Chr. xxxv. 25; Lam. iv. 20).
His son and successor Jehoahaz or Shallum (Jer. xxii. 11), only held the throne for 3 months. On his return from Carchemish, Necho condemned the land to pay a tribute of 100 talents of silver, and a talent of gold, and sending for the new king to Riblah435 in the land of Hamath, put him in bonds, and thence removed him to Egypt, where he died (2 K. xxiii. 34). His brother Eliakim was now permitted by the Egyptian monarch to ascend the throne, and in obedience to the same authority changed his name to Jehoiakim. In the 4th year of his reign, or B.C. 606, Nebuchadnezzar, placed by his father Nabopolassar at the head of the Assyrian armies, marched forth to avenge the Egyptian invasion. In a pitched battle at Carchemish (Jer. xlvi. 1–13) he utterly defeated Pharaoh-Necho, and recovered Cœlesyria, Phœnicia, and northern Palestine. Then advancing into Judæa he drove all who had no fenced cities—and amongst the rest the Rechabites (Jer. xxxv. 11)—to Jerusalem, captured that city, placed Jehoiakim in fetters, rifled the Temple, and carried off to Babylon some of the sacred vessels, and many of the principal Hebrew nobles, including Daniel and his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Dan. i. 1–6).
On promise, however, of faithfulness to his liege lord Jehoiakim was suffered to retain his kingly dignity, at least in name, for 3 years longer. At the close of this period he had the hardihood to try and throw off the yoke, and rebelled against his suzerain. But this only involved his kingdom in deeper misery436. Unable to take the field in person, Nebuchadnezzar sent a numerous force against him from his now subject provinces of Chaldæa and Syria, as well as Moab and Ammon (2 K. xxiv. 2). These overran the whole country, and reduced it to the lowest degree of wretchedness and misery.
During the period of degradation that now ensued, Jehoiakim, either in a contest with some of his many foes, or owing to a rising of his oppressed subjects, came to a violent end. His body lay ignominiously exposed upon the ground, and was buried with the burial of an ass, without pomp or ceremony, beyond the gates of Jerusalem, B.C. 599 (Jer. xxii. 18, 19; xxxvi. 30).
Jehoiachin his son, also called Jeconiah and Coniah, was now placed upon the throne (2 Chr. xxxvi. 9), but after a reign of 3 months and 10 days, Nebuchadnezzar’s army appeared before Jerusalem, and the young king and his court surrendered at discretion. The Temple was again pillaged of such vessels that yet remained, the king himself, the nobles, and chief artisans were removed to Babylon437, and none, save the poorest of the population, were left behind (2 K. xxiv. 8–16).
Mattaniah, the uncle of the captive king, was now placed by the Babylonian monarch in charge of the exhausted kingdom, and took the name of Zedekiah. In defiance of the dictates of common prudence, and of the advice of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. xxvii. xxviii.; Comp. Ezek. xvii. 12–21), he was foolish enough to court an alliance with Pharaoh-Hophra, or Apries, a new and enterprising monarch in Egypt438. Instantly the Babylonian armies were put in motion, and overran all Judah, while Jerusalem together with Lachish and Azekah alone held out. A temporary delay was caused by an effort of the king of Egypt to relieve his ally, and the necessity of first repulsing the Egyptian forces. This achieved, the Chaldæans again presented themselves before the walls of the Holy City, and besieged it for upwards of 16 months. The wretched inhabitants were reduced to the most fearful straits. Famine prevailed throughout the city (2 K. xxv. 3); the tongue of the sucking child clave to the roof of its mouth for thirst, the young children cried for bread, and no man brake it unto them (Lam. iv. 4); nobles that had ever before fed delicately, searched even dunghills for any remnants of food that might be found (Lam. iv. 5); and mothers boiled their own children (Lam. iv. 10). The Lord at last poured upon the city the cup of His fierce anger for all its iniquities, and its Day of Doom was come. At length the Chaldæan armies effected a breach in the strong walls, and made their way into the city. With a few of his troops Zedekiah effected his escape to Jericho, but was pursued, captured, and sent to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah. Judgment was then passed upon him (2 K. xxv. 6), and his sons having first been put to death before his face, his eyes were thrust out439, and laden with fetters he was removed to Babylon, B.C. 588.
Punishment having thus been inflicted on the king, Nebuzar-adan, an officer high in the confidence of the Babylonian monarch, was dispatched to Jerusalem, to carry out the complete destruction of the city. By his orders, the Temple, the royal palace, the houses of the wealthy, were set on fire; the walls were broken down; the sacred vessels of the once glorious House of Jehovah were plundered; the brazen pillars were broken up; the chief priests were put to death; and the rest with the greater part of the inhabitants were removed to Babylon. A scanty remnant was permitted to remain in their native land to be vine-dressers and husbandmen (Jer. lii. 16), under the superintendence of Gedaliah, who with a Chaldæan guard (Jer. xl. 1, 2, 5) was stationed at Mizpeh440 (2 K. xxv. 23; Jer. xl. 6), a strong fortress 6 miles north of Jerusalem. Declining the offer of a retreat at Babylon, Jeremiah resolved to share the lot of this miserable remnant in his own land (Jer. xl. 6). But even the late terrible misfortunes could not calm the spirit of faction. Gedaliah was assassinated under circumstances of revolting treachery by Ishmael, a man of royal blood, together with some of the Chaldæan guard (See 2 K. xxv. 25; Jer. xli. 1–10). Johanan, one of the captains of the army of Judah, who had in vain warned Gedaliah of his danger (Jer. xl. 13–16), gathered a force and pursued the assassin as far as Gibeon, but he effected his escape beyond Jordan to the country of the Ammonites (Jer. xli. 15). Then the little remnant of Jews, fearful of the vengeance of the Babylonian monarch, contrary to the advice of Jeremiah (Jer. xlii. 7–22), fled into Egypt, and after first settling at Tahpanhes (Jer. xliii. 7), were scattered throughout the country at Migdol, Noph, and Pathros (Jer. xliv. 1), whither also Jeremiah accompanied them, to share their fortunes and to die441.