PRINCETON, N. J.
Shelf.
Division . . riK^.-rrr?. «*). ( . Sec/ion . . .«. .fe . >5. i. ^ . Number Vj.,J?.
HOUES WITH THE BIBLE
THE SCRIPTURES IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN DISCOVERY AND KNOWLEDGE
O^ohr. CUNNINGHAM GEIKIE, D.D.
VICAR OF ST. MABT MAGDALEKE, BABNSTAPLZ, DETON
VOL. VI.
FROM THE EXILE TO MALACHI, COMPLETINa THE OLD TESTAMENT
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK
JAMES POTT & CO., PUBLISHERS
12 AsTOR Place
1884
HOURS WITH THE BIBLE;
The Scriptures in the Light of Modern Discotfery and Knowledge.
Vol. I, From Creation to the J*atriarchs. '* II. From Moses to the Jiulges. " III. From Samson to Solomon. " IV. From IteJioboatn to Hezehiah. <* V. From Manasseh to ZedeUiah. *' VI. Completing Old Testaments
12n-io, Cloth, with Illustrations. $1.50 each.
Sold separately, and each complete and distinct in itself.
PREFACE.
With this volume the Old Testament series of these " Hours '' is complete. Thank God for the health that has enabled me to keep at this part of my task for five years past ! If I be spared, the New Testament series will follow in due course.
Meanwhile, I would gratefully thank my brother clergy of every rank ; the ministers of all sections of the Church, and the reading public, for the kindly reception given to my books throughout the English- speaking world. The favourable recognition they have met in so many lands, as shown by the language of the public press, and by private letters from correspondents in all positions, has been most grateful to me.
No attempt, so far as I am aware, has hitherto been made to incorporate the utterances *of the prophets with \
VI PEEPACE.
the special incidents of contemporary history to which so many of them relate. Eichhorn, alone, has to some extent followed this course, but in his case, each discourse has been treated in a distinct and isolated chapter. The light thrown on writings often so difficult as they stand in our Bibles, by introducing them in their historical connection, must be evident. They become again, what they originally were — the pulpit literature of the day in which they were spoken, and, as such, at once reflect light on the sacred narrative and are illustrated by it.
In the translations I have offered, great care has been taken to keep closely to the Hebrew text, but such ex- pansion has been made throughout as seemed necessary to explain allusions, connect the argument, or make clear the meaning.
And now may the blessing of the All-loving One go forth with my book.
Barnstaple,
April 12th, 1884
CONTENTS.
CHAP. FAQB
I. A Voice from Chebar, against Judah • • • 1-20
II. The Crisis as it appeared to Ezekiel , , . 21-41
III. The Eve op the Siege of Jerusalem. . , . 42-56
IV. The Investment of Jerusalem 57-79
V. During the Siege 80-108
VI. The Fall of Jerusalem 109-118
VII. The " Lamentations " of Jeremiah .... 119-141
VIII. Edom and the Nations Round 142-166
IX. The Murder of Gedaliah, and the Siege of Tyre . 167-189
X. The Jewish Colonies in Egypt 190-208
XI. On the Chebar 209-229
XII. The Vision of the Future 230-258
XIII. At Babylon 259-287
XIV. Comfort Ye My People 288-309
XV. The Fifth Gospel 310-371
XVI. Redemption Drawing Nigh 372-403
XVII. The Return 404-420
XVIII. Hagoai and Zecharlah 421-444
XIX. Queen Esther 445-473
XX. Ezra and Nehemiah 474-515
XXI. The Prophet Malachi 616-630
Index . • • • • 531
Tl!
ILLUSTRATIONS.
pxeu
Sandals ,',.,.. 11
Ancient Sepulchres in the Valley of Hinnom .... 78
Assyrian Funeral Urns for the Ashes of the Dead . , 81
Siege of a City by the Assyrian Army . . . . . 110 The Assyrian King Blinding a Manacled and Fettered Prisoner, WHO with the two others is further secured by a metal
ring through the lip 114
Wailing Place at the Walls of the Temple, Jerusalem . . 124
Guest House 175
Modern Tyre 180
Assyrian Embroidered Robes 181
IsTAR, Astarte, or Ashtoreth 193
Syene (Assouan) during the Overflow of the Nile . . . 203
The God Amon 208
Judgment Scene from Egyptian " Book of Death " . . . 228
The Assyrian Tree of Life 254
Cuneiform Inscription — Warka 262
Ancient Hieratic, or Sacred Writing, Inscription — Warka . . 263
Interior of an Assyrian or Babylonian Palace .... 268
A Grove of Palms 272
A Player on the Egyptian Guitar, Assyria 282
Threshing Sledge 806
The Plane Tree 308
Children Carried on the Side 855
The Great King attended by his Courtiers and Genii . . . 388
The Great King Hunting the Lion 400
Darius Receiving Prisoners 402
Teraphim, or Household Gods . 418
The Seven-Branched Candlestick, and other Spoil from the
Temple . , 441
Persian Noble 449
The Persian King.— Behistan . . . . . . . 450
Cupbearers at the Ancient Persian Court 489
Bowing the Head . ♦ , 506
Roll of a Book •••• 507
vui
HOUES WITH THE BIBLE.
CHAPTER I.
A VOICE FROM CHEBAR^ AGAINST JUDAH.
NOTHING was more fatal to the religious life of tlie exiles in Chaldea, or their brethren still left in efudah, than the confident air of members of the order of prophets, who held out hopes directly opposed to the warnings of men like Ezekiel and Jeremiah. The result had been a general disbelief in prophecy. It had become a common saying that " The days of trouble are long in coming ; all prophecy is deceit." ^ Men who thus misled the community by audacious misrepresentations made in the sacred name of God, needed to be openly assailed, and Ezekiel, therefore, determined thoroughly to expose them. Referriug to the proverb so current, he informed his fellow-captives that Jehovah commanded him to ad- dress them thus, in His name : —
23 I will 2 make this proverb cease, so that it will no longer be used in Israel. Say to them: The days of visitation and of the fulfilment of every prediction are at hand. 24 For there shall no more be lying vision, or false flattering divination, in the House
1 Ezek. xii. 22.
2 Ezek. xii. 23-28.
VOL. VI.
22 A VOICE FROM CHEBAR, AGAINST JUDAH.
of Israel. 25 But I, Jehovah, will speak, and what I speak will come forthwith to pass; it will be no longer delayed. In your own days, O House of Disobedience, I will both speak and fulfil My word, says the Lord Jehovah !
Another saying, current everywhere, was not less un- worthy. Men sneeringly insinuated that ""^the visions which Ezekiel* saw were for the long future; his pro- phecies, for distant tiraes.'^ In contradiction to this, they were now told from Jehovah Himself, that none of His words, spoken through His true prophets, would fail of present fulfilment. The pretended prophets who spoke '^according to their own hearts," were next directly attacked.
3 Woe^ — cried Ezekiel — to the impious ^ prophets, who follow not Jebovah, but their own fancy, and give out visions that they have not seen ! 4 Thy prophets, 0 Israel, these impious prophets, have not built up the tottering stare, but have brought it nearer its fall, as foxes, burrowing in rotten walls, undermine them daily ^ 5 Ye have not gone out before the gaps of the tottering jedar,^ to defend it; nor have ye tried to build it up and repair it, round Israel, or taken your stand in the van of the battle in the day of Jehovah !
1 Lit., "this one."
2 Ezek. xiii. 1-5.
^ Folly and impiety were related ideas among the Hebrews; the word here primarily means " foolish."
■* Wilton {Negeh, p. 138) thinks the jackal is intended; but the word Shual is from Shaal = *'to go down into the depth," in allusion to the burrowing of the fox in the earth.
^ Heb. gadair. For meaning of jedar, see vol. iv. p. 218. The loose wall of dry stones round the vineyard had been undermined by winter storms, for the prophet has changed his figure, but these men have not, like faithful keepers of the vineyard, stood outside the gaps by night to keep wild beasts from breaking in, nor have they filled them up and strengthened the weak and shaking jedar, to make the vineyard safe.
A VOICE FROM CHEBAR, AGAINST JUDAH. 3
Instead of this, they had promised a happy future, in lying oracles —
6 They have seen a mock vision ^ and spoken iahe predictions, when they said, "Jehovah saith," without His having sent them, and that they mi^^ht hope to fulfil their words. 7 Is it not true that you have pretended to see a mock vision, and spoken false divinations, saying, "Jehovah speaks," when I, Jehovah, have not spoken ?
8 Therefore, thus says the Lord Jehovah; Because ye have spoken falsehood, and pretended to see lies; behold I atn againsn yon, says the Lord Jehovah. 9 And My hand will come on tho prophets who see falsehood and divine lies. They shall not be the counsellors of My people, nor shall they be inscribed in the Book of the House of Israel, nor come into the land of Israel aD the Return— that ye may know that I am the Lord Jehovah — 10 because they have led astray My people, saying " All is well," though all is not well. For if my people build a wall,^ behold, these prophets smooth it off with plaster ; if they have delusions, these men confirm them in them. 1 1 Say to these plasterers up of lies, that these lies will fall. For a deluge of rain is coming ; and ye hailstones, fall ye; thou hurricane, break loose ! 12 And, lo, when your wall has fallen, will they not say to you, " Where is that which you plastered over?" 13 Therefore, thus says the Lord Jehovah, I will let loose a hurricane wind in My fury, and a rain, sweeping all before it, will come in My anger, and hailstones in My destroying wrath ! 14 And I will cast down the wall that you have plastered up, and throw it to the earth, laying bare its very foundation, and it will fall, and you will perish under it, and you will know that I am Jehovah l^ 15 I will let loose my fury on the wall and on them that plastered it over,^ and it will be said of
1 Ezek. xiii. 6-16.
2 Tliar. is, dream of safety and protection as the result of plots, alliances, and the like. The expression is like our "castles in the air."
^ The wall is Jerusalem itself; the plaster is the illusory promising of the false prophets which faced the badly built wall, and seemed to give strength; the bad building is the moral corruption of the city. * With " white plaster " = lime.
4 A VOICE FROM CHEBAR, AGAINST JUDAH.
yon, i6 "The wall is no more, neither they who plastered it over — the prophets of Israel, who prophesy visions of peace to her though there is no peace," saith the Lord Jehovah !
But false prophets were not the only enemies with whom their faithful brethren had to contend. While these deceived the people as a whole, false prophetesses misled individuals, and snared souls by unholy arts, promising life and prosperity where God had denounced death. They, therefore, are next assailed.
17 Likewise,^ thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy people who prophesy after their owti heart, for gain, and with heathen spells. Prophesy thou against them, 18 and say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah; Woe to the women that sew together magic ornaments for every joint of the hand," and make magic coverings for the heads of persons of every age, to snare their souls. ^ Will you thus hunt down the souls of My people to preserve your own sonls alive, 19 dishonouring Me before My people for a few handfuls of barley and for bits of bread, for your
» Ezek. xiii. 17-19.
2 In verse 20 they are said to be on the arms.
^ De Wette and Ewald seem to have hit on the most reasonable explanation of this passage — Smend agreeing with them. De Wette fancies magic bauds and fillets are meant. Ewald thinks the magic ornaments were mirrors (very probably small in size), which these female dabblers in the black arts carried, as he supposes, on their arms or in their hands, as other women carried their ordinary mirrors. Ewald, Die Propheten, vol. ii. p. 261. Rosenmiiller has anticipated this solution in his wonderful Scholia. Some, says he, think the words refer to the magic rites of these women — by which, through placing such ornaments or things (whatever they were) on the person of those consulting them, they wished to make them more fitted to receive their divinations. Theodoret supposes pillows are mentioned as a figure for smooth and seductive discourse ; soft pillows inducing quiet and ease, and soft words, though false, pleasing and sooth- ing in a similar way, while instilling every kind of perversion into the mind.
A VOICE PROM CHEBAR, AGAINST JUDAH. 5
maintenance; slayin*^ souls which should not die, and keeping others alive which should not live^ — by lying to those of My people who listen to your fulseliood?
20 Therefore, thus says the Lord Jehovah ; ^ Behold, I am against your magic knots and bands, by which ye snare souls, as if they were quarry to strike down; and I will tear them from your arms, and will set the sonla free — the souls that ye hunt as if they were quarry to strike down.* 21 And I will tear off your magic mantles and head coverings, and deliver My people out of your hand, that they may no longer be in your hand to be hunted down ; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah ! 22 Because ye have falsely made sad the heart of the righteous, though I have not made him sad, and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not turn from his wicked way, so as to save his life — 23 therefore you shall no more have lying visions, nor speak any more false divinations, and ye shall know I am Jehovah !
If, however, it was imperative to denounce those who thus led the people astray, it was no less so to expose the sins of the people themselves, which made them an easy prey. Advice and consolation were sought from the true prophets, but there was still a hankering in the depth of the hearts of most, after their old corruptions, the high places and their idols. Their homage to the prophet was thus only outward and worthless. But such hypocrisy
* Smend has, " preserved the souls of others alive " — destroying the godly by the terror of their rites, and keeping alive the godless, their supporters. Bat this seems far-fetched. De Wette says, "preserving alive the souls who belong to you." Rabbi Dr. Arnheim says, "that you may preserve your own life." E-osen- miiller paraphrases the verse thus, "Shall I at all permit that yon should destroy My people, by your laying on them yonr lying oracles, predicting all misfortunes and evils to them, while you cheer your own kind by promising them every happiness? The end will be different from what you think; good fortune will not come to the ungodly, as you say, but every evil will light on you and those who listen to you." Ezechiel, in loc, vol. i. p. 355.
2 Ezek. xiii. 20-23.
' De Wette renders it, " to make them fly to you."
6 A VOICE FROM CHEBAE, AGAINST JUDAH.
was utterly hateful to Jehovah, and entailed on those guilty of it, His severest indignation. To root it from the bosoms of the people. He threatened to visit them with the sternest punishments. Thus alone could His ancient relation to Israel be restored. The enforcing these truths was now the task of Ezekiel, and an occasion soon pre- sented itself. Taking advantage of a visit from some elders of the people, he thus addressed the community through them. The Divine Voice had warned him of their secret leaning to heathenism. " Son of man/' ^ it had said, ''these men cherish their loathsome gods ^ in their hearts, and set before their eyes, as the object of their worship, the images which are the stumbling block that causes their iniquity. Should I be inquired of at all by such as they ? '' He was therefore told to say to them : —
4 Thus saitli the Lord Jehovah, Every man of the House of Israel that cherishes his loathsome gods in his heart, and sets bot'ore his eyes the idols which are the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I, Jehovah, will answer him as he deserves, with the punishment due for his multitude of loathsome gods; 5 that I may visit home the heart sins of the House of Israel,^ because they are all alienated from Me through their loathsome gods.
6 Therefore.'* say to the House of Israel: Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Repent and turn back from your loathsome gods, and turn your faces from all idols, abominations as they are ! 7 For every one of the House of Israel, and of the foreigners sojourning in Israel, who separates himself from Me and cherishes his loathsome gods in his heart, and sets up before his eyes the stumbling block which causes his iniquity, and yet comes to a prophet, to ask him to inquire of Me on his behalf, I, Jehovah, Myself will answer. 8 And I will set My face against that man,
1 Ezek. xiv. 1-5.
- •' Loathsome," lit., " filth-gods ' and so throughout.
3 Lit., " take them in their heart." '^ Ezek. xiv. 6-8.
A VOICE FROM CHEBAR, AGAINST JUDAH. 7
and make him a sign and a proverb, and cut him off from tlie mi(ist of ^[y people; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.
9 As to the prophet who lets himself be peisuaded,' and speaks a Word for his own ends as if from Me; I, Jehovah, who know the heart, will not hinder him that he should not be persuaded. 2 And I will stretch out My hand against him, and destroy him from the midst of My people Israel. 10 They will each bear the punish- ment of his iniquity ; the punishment of the prophet shall be the same as that of him who has inquired of Me through him ; 1 1 that the House of Israel may no more go astray from Me, or pollute themselves any more by all the misdeeds of such offenders, bub be My people, and I their God, saith the Lord Jehovah!
The affairs of Jerusalem seem to have been almost as well known among the exiles as in Judea. In spite of all warnings, the Egyptian party was gradually forcing the weak Zedekiah into a league with the Pharaoh, which involved the breach of his solemn oath '^ by God," to be a true vassal of the Chaldean king. Such faithlessness, Ezekiel felt, was certain to bring down the severest punishments on the land. Like all the ancient Hebrews, he firmly believed in temporal rewards for godliness, and penalties for sin. It was, howev^er, a difficulty with many, that he should have predicted the escape of some of the idolatrous people of Jerusalem from the judgments impending on their fellows. He therefore shows them that, while the fear of God preserves alive the worthy, as seen in the cases of Noah, Daniel, and Job, the land that sins must suffer. Nor is the fact that some of the ungodly of Jerusalem would be spared, any contradiction to this, for they are preserved only to vindicate God's righteousness, by letting the heathen see their vileness, and thus recognise the justice of the Divine judgments inflicted on their city. The Word of Jehovah, says he, came again to me, saying : —
1 Ezek. xiv. 9-11. 2 Eichhorn.
8 A VOICE FROM CHEBAR, AGAINST JDDAH.
13 Son of man,* when a land sins against Me by gross unfaith- fulness, ^ and I stretch out My hand against it, and break the staff of its bread, and send on it Famine, and cut off man and beast from it. 14 Though these three men, Noah, Daniel,^ and Job were in it, they would save only their own lives by their righteousness, says the Lord Jehovah. 15 If I let Wild Beasts come into a land, and they bereave it of its children, so that it become such a desert that no one can pass through it any more, because of these beasts ; 16 though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord Jehovah, they would save neither sons nor daughters ; they, them- selves, only, would be saved, but the land would be desolate. 17 Or, should I bring War on that land, and say, " Sword, go through that land," and should cut off man and beast from it; 18 though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they would save neither sons nor daughters ; they, themselves, only would be saved ! 19 Or, if I send Pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, cutting off from it man and beast ; 20 were even Noah, Daniel, and Job in it, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they would save neither son nor daughter; they would save their own lives only, by their righteousness.
21 Now, says the Lord Jehovah ; * How much more will this be the case when I send My four sore judgments on Jerusalem — the Sword, Famine, Wild Beasts, and Pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast ! 22 And, behold, if a few should be spaied in it, and led away captives, both men and women, it will be that they may be brought among you,^that you may see their way and their doings, and be comforted concerning the evil I have brought on Jerusalem, and all I have done against it. 23 For they will satisfy your minds respecting Me, when you see their ways and their doings, and you will know that I have not done without cause, all that I have done in it, says the Lord Jehovah !
Another fragment of EzekiePs utterances in these years strikes keenly at the self-complacency of his brethren, and
1 Ezek. xiv. 12-20.
2 Evvald thinks the breach of the oath by Zedekiah is referred to. ^ Daniel was at the time a captive in Babylonia. The inversion
of names may rise from the fact of the case of Job seeming like a climax. See Heb. xi. 32. 4 Ezek. xiv. 21-23. » In Babylon, among the exiles.
A VOICE PROM CHEBAR, AGAINST JUDAH. 9
must have galled their pride. They boasted of being the noble vine planted in Canaan by God. Prophets had often compared them to one, ^ though they had spoken also of its having degenerated and grown rank and useless. But in the present case the worthlessness of the wood of the vine, so much softer and more crooked than many other kinds, is the only point brought forward. They might, indeed, be a vine, but, now that they bore no fruit, of what worth was their wood ? The Word of Jehovah, he says, came to him, saying : —
2 Son of man, - what better is the wood oE the vine than other kinds of wood? Or what is the vine-branch among the trees of the yaav ? ' 3 Can you take wood from ir, to make into aiiy thing ? or do they take even a pin from it, to hang any vessel upon?
4 See, it is given for food to the fire ! The flame has burnt off its two ends, and scorched the middle."* Is it go )d for anything?
5 Even, when it was whole, it was good for nothing ; how much less will it be good for anything when the fire has burnt and scorched it !
6 Therefore, thus says the Lord Jehovah; I will make the in- habitants of Jerusalem like the wood of the vine, which I have given like that of the other trees of the yaar, as food for the fire. 7 I will set my face against them. They came out of the fire, when I brought them from Egypt, and fire will now finally con- sume them, and ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I set My face against them, 8 and make the land desolate, because they have committed unfaithfulness ! saith the Lord Jehovah.
Ceaseless in his endeavours to rouse his fellow-country- men to a sense of their true position, as apostates, to a lamentable extent, from the religion of their fathers, and as morally degenerate and corrupt, Ezekiel tried every
^ Hos. X. 1, Isa. v. 1. Jer. ii. 21. 2 Ezek. XV. 1-8. =* See vol. iv. p. 358.
* Is this an allusion to the calamities already endured by the Twelve Tribes ?
10 A VOICE PROM CHEBAR, AGAINST JUDAH.
style of address in turn. An allegory, long and minute, was his next attempt to influence them for good. Jeru- salem is personified as a new-born female child, exposed at her birth, but graciously taken under His protection by Jehovah, and ultimately united with Him in a marriage contract, and tenderly cared for. Her conduct, how- ever, is ungrateful and wicked in the extreme, so that, in the end, He has to threaten her with the severest punishment for her unfaithfulness, which is shown to have been greater than that of the worst of her neigh- bours.
The Word of Jehovah, he says, came to him, directing him to " cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,^' and this he does as follows.
3 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to Jernsaleni ; * Thy origin and birth (as regards thy spiritual history) were of the land of the Canaanites; thy father was an Arnorite and thy mother a Hittite; (for when taken by David thou wast a heathen Jebusite city — Amorites and Hittites forming a hirge part of thy f)opu]ation). 4 In the day of thy birth thou wast not cared for ; ^ thou wast not washed with water, nor rubbed with salt,^ nor wrapped in swaddling clothes. 5 No eye pitied thee, to do any of these things for thee, or had compassion upon tliee ; but thou wast cast out, and exposed on the open field, on the day of thy birth ; so much wast thou loathed.
This refers, by a change of allusion, to the wretched condition of Israel in Egypt. But Jehovah had pity upon the helpless outcast.
1 Ezek. xvi. 1-5.
2 I paraphrase the clause of the original.
* Infants were rubbed with salt in the idea that it hardened the skin. To this day this is done to every new-born infant in Palestine, before it is wrapped round with swaddling clothes — that is, plain bands of calico about six inches wide by three yards in length. Neil, p. 41 .
A VOICE FROM CHEBAR^ AGAINST JUDAH.
11
6 Then ^ent I, Jehovah, by thee, ^ and saw thee lying' in thy blood, and said to thee — "All wretched^ as thou art, live; " yes, I said to thee, " All wretched as thou art, live." 7 Ten thousand- fold increise, like that of the shoots of the field, I gave thee, and thou didst multiply, and wax great, and thou earnest to have beaut}' of cheeks, and thy bosom became womanly and thy hair grew long, though once thou hadst been naked and bare. 8 And as I passed by I saw thee, and loved thee, and made thee My spouse by solemn covenant, * and took thee under my protection, throwing as it were My mantle over thee as sign that I did so,* saith the Lord Jehovah, and thou bec;imest Mine. 9 Then I washed thee with water, and cleansed thee from all the shame of the past, and anointed thee with oil. 10 I clothed thee with broidered work of many colours, and shod thee with san- dals of seal leather,^ and wound a girdle of the finest linen round thee, and hung on thee a silken veil,' to thy feet. Ill decked thee with ornaments ; I put brace- lets on thy wrists, and a gold chain round thy neck. 12 I hung a ring on thy nose, and earrings on thine ears, and set a fair coronet on thy brow. 13 Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was of the finest linen, and silk, and many coloured embroidery, and thou atest the
Saxdals.
* Sprawling. Henderson.
1 Ezek. xvi. 6-14.
3 Lit., "bloody."
* Under Moses and Joshua, especially at Sinai. * Rath iii. 9.
^ Lit., *'Tahash leather." See vol. ii. pp. 110, 292.
' It is not quite certain that the Hebrews knew of silk in Ezekiel's day. But see Gesen., Thesaurus, s. v. Meshi. Jerome calls it •' a garment so fine as to seem equal to the finest hair." See also Movers, vol. ii. pp. 3, 363.
12 A VOICE FROM CHEBAR, AGAINST JUDAH.
finest bread, and honey, and oil; and thou wast indeed passing fair, and didst come to be a queen, ^ 14 and thy fame went forth among the nations, for thy beauty, which was perfect, through the splendour in which I had arrayed thee, saith the Lord Jehovah !
But, thougli tlius divinely favoured, Israel had been unfaithful to G-od. Following the example of Hosea, Ezekiel represents this by the figure of conjugal infi- delity. All alliances with heathen nations had been thus denounced by the earlier prophet, but the special guilt of Ezekiel's day was the idolatrous worship that had prevailed since the time of Manasseh, involving even human sacrifice. Interrupted, in a measure, during Josiah^s reign, it had broken out afresh after his death.
15 But thou didst trust to thy beauty ,2 and thy fame seduced thee to lewdness, and thou gavest thyself up to uncleanness with every passer by, and becamest his ! ^ 16 Thou didst take thy robes and made many-coloured Asherah tents with them, and committedst impurity under them ; a thing that should never have happened.''
17 Thou didst also take thy ornaments, of My gold and silver that I had given thee, and making them into images of men,* com- mittedst impurity with these. 18 And thou tookedst thy many- coloured robes and arrayed the idols in them, and didst seB My oil and incense before them. 19 Thou didst, further, set before them, for a sweet savour, My bread that I had given thee ;^ fine flour, and oil, and honey with which I fed thee, saith the Lord Jehovah !
20 Still worse,^ thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hadst borne to Me, and didst offer them to thy idols, to be destroyed in their honour. Were thy other sins so small 21 that thou shouldst also slay My sons, and give them up to pass
1 Lit., " kingdom." ^ Ezek. xvi. 15-19.
3 Thou didst coquette with every form of idolatry. "* Text apparently corrupt. Ewald translates the clause, " 0 shame and disgrace ! "
* The idols were of human shape, for the most part. « Lev. xxi. 6. ^ Ezek. xvi. 20-25.
A VOICE FROM CHEBAR, AGAINST JUPAH. 13
throngli the fire, for these idols ? 22 And, amidst all thy abomina- tions and lewdness, thou hast forgotten the days of thy yonth, when thou wast naked and bare, and lay, cast out, in thy detile- ment.* 23 But after thou hadst committed all these iniquities, Woe, woe, to thee ! sairh the Lord Jehovah, 24 thou hast also built a canopy for an altar, and made a high place, in every street.^ 25 At every meeting of the roads thou didst build tliy high places, and didst dishonour to thy beauty, and disgraced thyself before all, and multiplied thy idolatry.
The introd action of Egyptian, Assyrian, and Babylo- nian heathenism was notorious.
26 Thou hast also' borrowed idolatry from the Egyptians, thy neighbours, foul in their heathenism,'* and hast increased thy sins, to provoke Me to anger. 27 And, behold, in consequence of this, I stretched out My hand against thee, and diminished thy allotted food-supply, and gave thee over to the will of thy enemies, the daughters of the Philistines*^ who, heathen as they are, blushed at thy sins. 28 Thou didst sin also with the Assyrians, still craving more idols ; thou didst copy their heathenism also, and still, thou wast not satisfied. 29 Thou didst therefore, further, increase thy idolatry by adopting that of Chaldea — the land of traders, and, even then, thou wast not satisfied.
The prophet now breaks out into irony. Israel, he says, is different from others. They may act for reward ; she has been urged only by love of her sins.
30 How loving is thy heart ! ^ saith the Lord Jehovah, that thou doest all this, like a woman who is her own mistress, with none to check her! 31 that thou buildest the canopy for thy altars at every meeting of the roads, and raisest thy high place in every street, and yet wast non like a harlot, since thou hast not sought pay. 32 0 thou adulterous wife, who takest up with strangers instead of keeping to thy hu>band ! 33 A price is given to every harlot, but thou, instead, hast bestowed thy gitts on all thy lovers,
» Lit., "blood." 2 lya. Ivii. 8.
3 Ezek. xvi. 26-29. •♦ Lit., " great of flesh."
5 Ezek. xvi. 30-34.
14 A VOICE FEOM CHEBAR, AGAINST JUDAH.
and hafst hired them to come to thee from all parts, to commit ■wickedness with thee.^ 34 Thou hast been the opposite of other women in thy sins ; thoa hast not been gone after, but thyself hast gone after thy lovers ; thou hast given pay, not gotten it ; thou art, indeed, different from others !
The husband, thus outraged beyond example, cannot, after all this, allow his faithless partner to escape the punishment she has deserved, but must insist, on many grounds, that the severest penalties be inflicted. Those with whom she had sinned are to be the instruments of her shameful and terrible sentence. She must be put to a disgraceful death, as the law demands.
35 Wherefore, 0 harlot," hear the word of. Jehovah. 36Thussaith the Lord Jehovah, because thy sin was poured out, and thy shame revealed, by thy idolatries with the religions thou lovedst, and with all thy abominable disgusting gods, and by the blood of thy children which thou gavest to them; 37 Behold, therefore, I will gather all who have seduced thee from Me, thy God, and those whom thou hast sought to please, and all whom thou hast loved, with all, also, whom thou hast hated ; I will gather them round thee, and disclose thy sin to them, that they may see all thy guilt. 38 And I will judge thee as women are judged who break wedlock and shed blood, and I will shed thy blood, in My fury and jealousy. 39 I will give thee, also, into their hand, and they will throw down thy canopies, and break down thy high places ; they will strip thee of thy robes ; take away thy fine ornaments, and leave thee, once more, naked and bare, as I found thee ! 40 They will, further, bring up a multitude against thee, and stone thee with stones, and hew thee in pieces with their swords. 41 And they will burn thy houses with fire, and execute judgments in thee, before the eyes of many women,' and I will make thee cease from playing the harlot, and thou shalt give no more unholy hire. 42 Thus will I cool My fury on thee, and My jealousy, which thou hast excited, will turn from thee, fully avenged, and I will have
^ A thrust at their sending after foreign idolatries. 2 Ezek. xvi. 35-43. » Other nations.
A VOICE FROM CHEBAR, AGAINST JUDAH. 15
peeice, and be no more angry. 43 Because thou hast forgotten the days of thy youth, atid stirred up My indignation by all thy doings, behold, I will let the punishment of thy conduct rest on thy head, saith the Lord Jehovah. Thou wilt not be able to increase thy oflfences by any new deed of shame.
Jerusalem is, in fact, really a heathen city. Canaan may be called its father and mother ; Samaria and Sodom its sisters. In its desperate ungodliness it has even transcended these guiltiest of cities, and must think of this when it suffers a fate as terrible as theirs.
44 Behold,* every proverb-monger will repeat this saying against thee : " As is the mother, so is the daughter ! " 45 Thou art the true daughter of thy mother, who dishonoured her husband and her children : and thou art the true sister of thy sisters, who dis- honoured their husbands and their children ; ^ thy mother was a Hittite and thy father an Amorite.* 46 Thy elder sister is Samaria, with her daughters, the towns of her territory, who dwell north from thee : thy younger sister, who lives south from thee, is Sodom and her daughters — the towns connected with her. 47 Yet thou hast not contented thyself with walking in their ways, nor in copying their abominations; that was too little for thee to do: thou hast shown thyself still more corrupt than they, in all thy ways ! 48 As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, Sodom, thy sister, and her daughters, have not done as thou and thy daughters — the towns of Judah — have done ! 49 Behold, the sin of thy sister Sodom was this — pride, through superabundance of the comforts of life, and the corrupting influence of undisturbed security, marked her and her daughters, and she did not help the poor and needy.* 50 They were haughty, and committed abomination before Me; therefore I put them away, as thou hast seen.
51 Neither has Samaria.* committed half of thy sins. Thou hast
1 Ezek. xvi. 44-50.
2 The Canaaiiites and Samaria and Sodom alike turned from God and gave up their children as sacrifices to idols.
3 Jerusalem has shown itself to be in respect to religion a true child of the Canaanites.
* Lit., " take hold of the hand of." * Ezek. xvi. 51-52.
16 A VOICE PROM CHEBAR, AGAINST JUDAH.
multiplied thy abominations above hers, and hast made her and her daughters appear rigjliteons, through the excess of abominations thou hast commir,ted. 52 Bear, then, thy shame, thou who hasb condemned thy sisters,' though thine own greater sins, which made thee an abomination, make them seem righteous in com- parison ! Blnsh, and bear thy shame, because, by thy greater sins, thou hast made thy sisters, with all their guilt, appear righteous !
Since, thus, Samaria and Sodom were comparatively less guilty than Jerusalem, there is still hope even for them — that is, for the heathen, of whom they are made the representatives. Jerusalem will be restored, but her return to favour will follow that of the nations she has been wont to despise. In this also she must be utterly humbled.
53 And I will bring back again ^ their banished ones to their homes — the banished ones of Sodom and her daughters, and the banished ones of Samaria and her daughters— and then I will bring back again thy banished ones also, in the midst of them — 54 that thou mayest bear thine own disgrace, and be ashamed for all that thou hast done, by the consolation thou givest them when they see thee also punished for thy sins, and find themselves restored through thy means. 55 Tiiy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will return to their former position, and Samaria and her daughters will return to theirs, and thou and thy daughters will return to thieirs. 56 Yet thy sister Sodom's name was not heard in thy mouth in the day of thy pride, befoie thine own wickedness was made known, 57 (and thou didst despise her) as, at the time of the Syrian oppression, thou thyself wast the reproach of the daugh- ters of Syria, and of all the nations round, who despised thee on every side — the daughters of the Philistines doing so especially.^
^ Eichhorn translates this difficult clause — " Bear thou the shame which thou thoughtest well deserved by thy sisters," and thinks it is an allusion to the carrying off the inhabitants of Sa- maria atid of the east of the Jordan by Tiglatli Pileser.
2 Ezek. xvi. 53-57.
^ This is Smend's idea of the meaning of this passage. Ewald refers it to the then present position of Judah. But thougli the
A VOICE FROM CHEBAR, AGAINST JUDAH. 17
58 But now ' thou must bear the punishment of thy lewdness and of thine abominations, saith Jehovah ! 59 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I will do with thee as thou hast done to Me. IJecanse thou hast despised the solemn oath taken by thee, breaking the covenant tliou hadst made with Me:'- I, now, hold My covenant made with thee as broken!
But God will not cast off His people for ever. He will hereafter make a new, everlasting covenant witli them. Jerusalem shall once more be the head of the new theo- cracy, into which Sodom and Samaria will be received ; but this glorious restoration will be due solely to the sovereign favour of God, and thus, as bounty to the undeserving, will call forth humiliation at the remem- brance of the guilty past.
60 Yet I will hereafter ^ remember My old covenant with thee, in the days of thy youth, and I will establish -with thee an everlast- ing covenant. 61 Then wilt thou think of thy former ways and be ashamed, when thou takest to thee thy sisters — the elder and the younger,-* whom I will give thee for daughters, though thou hast uo claim to them by thy covenant.^ 62 And I will establish My covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah; 63 that thou mayest ponder, and be humiliated, and never more open thy mouth, because of thy shame, when I forgive thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord Jehovah !
Another utterance of Ezekiel, of this time, returns to the special and crowning sin, which was bringing down the last calamities on Judah — the faithlessness of Zede-
Syrian kingdom of Chaldea (as it might be called) was against it, the PhiHstines had long beeu crushed. Eichhorn thinks it alludes to the oppression of Assyria, which at the time held Philistia also. But Smend's idea seejns best. The Philistines were still very troublesome in the time of the distinctively Syrian war, before the fall of Samaria.
1 Ezek. xvi. 58, 59. 2 Ezek. xvi. 8.
^ Sodom and Samaria. ^ Ezek. xvi. 60-63.
* Or, " though they be not of the covenant."
VOL. VI. a
18 A VOICE PROM CHEBAR, AGAINST JUDAH.
kiah to his treaty with Nebuchadnezzar. His threatened revolt was clearly self-destruction. He might enjoy a quiet, though inglorious reign, by keeping his oath. To rise against Chaldea meant ruin, not only to himself, but to the kingdom. Nor was it treacherous only. To break an oath made by Jehovah was a high offence against the Divine Majesty, and must bring down bitter punishment. The prophet begins in figurative language, but lays it aside as he goes on.
I The word of Jehovah ^ came to me, saying: 2 Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable to the Honse of Israel, 3 and say: Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, The great eagle - with huge wings of vast spread, full of feathers of different colours, came to Lebanon, and took off the topmost branch of a cedar.^ 4 He plucked away the highest of its twigs,^ and took it to the Land of Traders,^ and set it in the city of business men.^ 5 He took also a vine of the plants of the laud,^ and planted it in a fruitful field,^ a shoot be- side abundant waters ; planted it near them, like a willow. 6 And it sprouted and became a trailing vine of low growth, and its branches twined themselves towards the eagle, and its roots were under him. So it became a vine-stock, and gave off runners, and shot forth tendrils.
7 And there was another great eagle,^ with huge wings and many feathers,^" and, behold, the vine began to bend its roots and shoot out its branches towards him, from the beds on which it was planted, that he might water it. 8 It was set in good soil, beside abundant waters, to shoot out runners, and bear fruit, and become a goodly vine.
9 Say thou^i — Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Will it thrive? Shall Nebuchadnezzar not tear up its roots and strip off its fruit,
1 Ezek. xvii. 1-6. 2 Nebuchadnezzar.
^ Judah, Jehoiachin was the topmost bough or twig.
* Its chief men who were made captives. ^ Chaldea.
^ Babylon. This refers to Jehoiachin's captivity.
7 Zedekiah. s ju^ah. ^ Ezek. xvii. 7, 8.
'° Pharaoh Hophra. The Egyptian alliance is here referred to.
" Ezek. xvii. 9, 10.
A VOICE FROM CHEBAR, AGAINST JUDAH. 19
SO that it •will wither, all its shooting leaves drying up, so that no great power or strong army will be needed to pluck it up from the very root P lo Look there ! this newly-set plant — will it thrive? Will it not, if the scorching east wind ^ touch it, wither up wholly ?
Will it not wither away in the beds in which it grows ?
Another Word that came to Ezekiel on the same subject runs as follows : —
12 Say now to the House of Disobedience : - Know ye not what these things mean ? Say : Behold the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and took away its king^ and its princes, and brought them, to himself, to Babylon. 13 He further took a man of the king's blood,"* and made a covenant with him, and took an oath of him. He carried away, also, the mighty of the land, 14 that it might be weakened, and not rebel, but keep its covenant and stand. 15 But the man revolted, sending ambassadors to Egypt to ask that it might give him cavalry and a strong army. Shall he prosper in bis treachery ? Will he escape that acts thus ? Shall he break his covenant and yet escape? 16 As I live, says the Lord Jehovah, he shall certainly die a prisoner in the midst of Babylon, where the king lives who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke. 17 And Pharaoh will do nothing for him in the war, and will send no great army and great multitudes of men, as he has promised, when the mounts are thrown up and battering rams are raised against Jerusalem, to slay many! 18 Zedekiah has despised his oath, and broken his bond, when, lo, he had given his hand for it, and having done all this, he shall not escape! 19 Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, as I live, I will surely repay ^ on his own head My oath that he has despised, and My covenant that he has broken. 20 And I will spread My net over him, and he shall be taken in My snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and reckon ^ with him there for his treachery that he has committed against Me. 21 And
^ The Chaldeans. For the east wind, or sirocco, see vol. v. p. 381. ' Ezek. xvii. 11-21.
^ Jehoiachin. ■* Zedekiah.
* Lit., " lay." « Plead.
20 A VOICE FROM CHEBAE, AGAINST JUDAH.
all his chosen ones, and all his forces, shall fall by the sword, and those who escape shall be scattered to every wind, and ye shall know that I, Jehovah, have spoken.
But though God will thus bring on Zedekiah and Judah the punishment of their revolt against Chaldea, as a sin against His own Majesty — the oath by Him having been dishonoured — He will, hereafter, restore the king- dom of David — under the long promised Messiah — and all men will see that, though He seemed to have stood aloof, and to have left Israel without His care. He has, through all the incidents of its bitter experience, been guiding the course of things so as to bring about the final glory of His kingdom among men.
22 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah : ^ I will further take of the highest branch ^ of the cedar, and will plant it : from the highest of its young shoots I will pluck oft' a tender one, and plant it on a high and lofty mountain.^ 23 In the lofty mountain of Israel will I plant it, and it will send forth boughs and bear fruit, and be a noble cedar, and all birds of every kind will dwell under it; in the shadow of its branches will they dwell. 24 And all the trees of the field ^ shall know that it was I, Jehovah, who have brought low the high tree and exalted the humble one,^ and have made the withered tree to flourish again. I, Jehovah, have spoken and will do it.
1 Ezek. xvii. 22-24.
2 " Foliage," Mulilau und Volch. The royal house of David is meant— the Messiah so long expected being especially referred to.
^ Zion. "* The heathen nations.
5 The high tree is Zedekiah, and includes also Jehoiachin. The humble tree is the promised Messiah
CHAPTER II.
THE CRISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL.
THE great question of the Divine relations to man's conduct in this life had long been the subject of agitating discussion and reflection, since social and na- tional trouble had darkened the life of Judah. Asaph had recorded his perplexities regarding it in his famous psalm/ and others had followed in the same strain. The Book of Job embodied the difficulties that clouded pious minds, and gave the true solution, but to the mass of men the problem was still dark and anxious. Among the multitude, alike in Judah and on the Chebar, the ways of Providence were bitterly arraigned as unjust. The present generation, they maintained, though not so guilty as others before it, were punished, while their fathers had escaped. "The fathers," they said, in a sententious way, "ate sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." ^ Nor ^ere specious arguments wanting to support this self-righteous commentary on
* Psalm Ixxiii.
^ Lit., "blunted, dulled." Unripe grapes are still much eaten in Syria, 'with the result that a sensation of discomfort in the teeth always follows for a short time. Delitzsch, Hioh, xv. 33. Prov. X. 26. In Hor., Od., III. vi. 1, the same sentiment is ex- pressed.
81
22 THE CRISIS AS IT APPEAEED TO EZEKIEL.
the experience of the nation, in these, its last years. The godly Josiah had died in his early prime, and Zedekiah, who was sinking amidst the ruin of his country, had characteristics that drew forth the sympathy of even such men as Jeremiah.^ The prophets, moreover, often spoke of the Divine judgments impending, as the results of the conduct of Manasseh,^ and the threats of other parts of Scripture to visit the punishment of sin on the third and fourth generation, seemed to be exactly fulfilled on Josiah and his sons — the grandson and great-grandsons of the wicked king.^ Nor was this confined to individuals. The people at large appeared as if doomed to suffer for the sins of their ancestors. Josiah's Reformation, it might be said, had brought no blessing, since public mis- fortune dated from his reign. The doctrine of hereditary punishment for ancestral guilt, had sprung from a mis- conception of some verses of Scripture, and was at once old and popular.* A wider study of the sacred books would, indeed, have led to juster views,^ but men were too Wretched to think calmly ; too bitter to weigh their words. Like us all, they were glad to blame others rather than themselves, and to take the air of being treated unjustly.
It was of great moment, for the vindication of the eternal justice of God, that such thoughts, whether honest or afiected, should be challenged, and the great lesson enforced that men were,^n reality, responsible only for
* Jer. xxxviii.
- 2 Kings xxiii. 26; xxiv. 3. Jer. xv. 4; xxxii. 18. Lam. v. 7.
3 Exod. XX. 5 ; xxxiv. 7. Lev. xxvi. 39. Num. xiv. 18-33. Deut. v. 9. Isa. xiv. 21 ; Ixv. 7. Jer. ii. 9.
^ Gen. ix. 25. 2 Sam. xxi. Ps. cix. 14 Job. xxi. 9. Matt, xxvii. 25. John ix. 2. Jer. xviii. 19.
^ 2 Kings xiv. 6. Deut. xxiv. 16.
THE CRISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL. 23
their own sins. This Ezekiel did in the next fragment of his preaching that remains to us.
I The word of Jehovah,^ came to me again, saying: 2 What do you mean by this proverb in the Land of Israel : '* The fiithers ate sour grapes and the teeth of the sons are set on edge " ? 3 As I hve, saith the Lord Jehovah, Ye shall not use this proverb any more in Israel. 4 For all souls are Mine ; as the soul of the father, so that of the son, is Mine. The soul that sins, it will die !
5 But if a man be just," and do what is lawful and right ; 6 if he have not eaten heathen sacrifices on the high places on the hills, nor lifted up his eyes in worship to the loathsome gods of the House of Israel, nor defiled his neighbour's wife, nor approached an unclean woman, 7 nor oppressed any one ; if he have returned to the poor debtor the pledge given by him ; ^ if he has taken goods from no one by fraud and injustice,"* if he has given his bread to the hungry, and covered the naked with clothing ; 8 if he has not lent on usury,^ or taken interest ; ^ if he has kept back his hand from iniquity, and has given honest judgment between man and man, in their disputes ; 9 if he has walked in My laws and kept My commands, acting truly in all things — he is just; he will surely live, saith the Lord Jehovah !
10 If, however,'' such a man beget a violent son, a shedder of blood; though he, the father, has done all that has been said, 1 1 yet if he, the son, has done none of all this, but has, instead, eaten idol-meats at the high places on the hills, defiled his neigh- bour's wife, 12 oppressed the poor and needy, taken away men's goods by fraud or injustice, lifted up his eyes in worship to the loathsome gods, committed abomination, 13 lent money on usury, and taken interest ; shall he, then, live ? He shall not live ! He has committed all these abominations. To death with him! His blood lies on himself !
14 But if this ungodly son ^ beget a son who sees all his father's
1 Ezek. xviii. 1-4. 2 Ezek. xviii. 5-9.
3 Exod. xxii. 25. Deut. xxiv. 12. Amos ii. 8. '* Lev. vi. 4.
^ Advances to men on their crops, etc., are meant.
^ This was forbidden, at least between Israelites. Ezek. xviii, 18. Neh. V. 7, 10 ff. See also Exod. xxii. 24.. Deut. xxiii. 20. Lev. XXV. 36. Prov. xxviii. 8. Ps. xv. 5.
7 Ezek. xviii. 10-13. ^ Ezek. xviii. 14-17.
24 THE CRISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL.
sins which he has done ; sees them, and keeps from doing them ; 15 if he has not eaten idol-meats at the high places on the hills, nor lifted up his eyes to the loathsome idols of the House of Israel in worship, nor defiled his neighbour's wife, 16 nor oppressed any- one, nor kept back any pledge, nor spoiled any of his goods by fraud or injustice, but has given his bread to the hungry, covered the naked with clothing, 17 kept back his hand from iniquity, taken no usury or interest, but has kept My commands and walked in My laws ; He shall not die for his father's sin. He shall surely live !
18 His father, however,* because he cruelly oppressed, robbed his brother Hebrew by fraud and injustice, and did what was not good among his fellow tribesmen,^ behold, he shall die for his iniquity.
19 But do ye still say,^"Why does not the son bear a share of the father's sin ? " I answer, If the son has done only what is lawful and right, and has kept all My laws, and obeyed them, he shall surely live !
20 The soul that sins,^ it shall die. But a son shall not bear any part of his father's sin, nor shall the father bear any part of the son's sin. The righteousness of the righteous shall rest on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall rest upon hmi.
21 But if the wicked^ turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keep all My laws, and do what is lawful and right — he shall surely live. He shall not die. 22 All his transgressions that he has committed shall not be remembered against him. He shall live, for the righteousness he has done. 23 Have I any pleasure, do you think, in the death of the wicked ? saith the Lord Je- hovah. Would I not much rather that he turn from his ways and live ?
24 When, on the other hand,^ the righteous turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, doing according to all that the wicked does— shall he live ? No ! All his righteousness that he has done shall not be remembered. For his unfaithfulness that he has committed, and for his sin that he has sinned, for them — he shall die.
1 Ezek. xviii. 18. 2 l^v. xix. 16.
3 Ezek. xviii. 19. < Ezek. xviii. 20.
5 Ezek. xviii. 21-23. ^ Ezek. xviii. 24.
THE CRISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL. 25
25 Nevertheless ye say:^ The way of the Lord is not right." Hear, now, O House of Israel, is not My way right ? Are not your ways wrong? 26 If the righteous turn away from his righteous- ness, and commits iniquity, and dies for it — then he dies for the ini- quity that he has committed. 27 But if the wicked turn away from the wickedness that he has committed, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall preserve his soul alive. 28 Because he sees and turns away from all his transgressions that he has com- mitted, he shall surely live — he shall not die. 29 Yet the House of Israel says — " The way of the Lord is not right." 0 House of Israel, are not My ways right ? Are not your ways wrong ?
30 Therefore, I will judge you, ^ every one according to his ways, saith the Lord Jehovah. Kepent, and turn from all your trans- gressions, that your sin may not cause your punishment. 31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, in which you have sinned, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit ! For why will ye die, 0 House of Israel ? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of Him that dies, saith the Lord Jehovah. Therefore, turn ye — and live!
In these anxious, agitated years, when the exiles in Babylonia, like watchers by the death bed of the State, could think or speak of little else but the land they had left for ever — its old glories, its present sorrows — their poets doubtless sang the bright memories of the one, and the touching story of the others, in many a lyric and lament. Ezekiel, a true patriot, like all the prophets, unburdened his heart in a lament over the two kings of his race then captive; the one in Egypt, the other in Babylon, .and over the city which, like every Jew, he loved with a passionate tenderness. He had spoken of the inevitable ruin of his fatherland through its sins, and the fate of the country brought up in his mind that of its princes — the living dead — whose glory had faded, whose
1 Ezek. xviii. 25-29.
- Lit., "evenly poised." It may mean — "consistent at all times." 3 Ezek. xviii. 30-32.
26 THE CRISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL.
eyes should never again behold Jerusalem, whose palace had been exchanged for a prison ! In a touching elegy, he compares Judah, the mother of kings, to a lioness lying down amidst others of its kind — the kingdoms round it. Her successive generations of young and brave princes are lions^ whelps, coming on in due time to full growth, as crowned kings. Two, in particular, arrest his thoughts — each in his turn snared by the hunters and carried off captive — Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin, or Zede- kiah, one hardly knows which.
2 What was thy mother, O Judah ? — he sang ^ — A lioness which lay down among lions, and nourished her young amidst other young lions. 2 3 There, she brought up one of her whelps till he grew to his strength,^ and learned to catch prey, and became a man-eater. 4 Bat the nations heard of him; he was taken in their pit,^ and they brought him with rings in his jaws ^ to the land of Egypt.^
5 Then,-^ when she saw that her Hope was lost and gone, she took another of her young, and brought it up, and it, also, be- came a young lion. 6 And he went to and fro among the lions, and was himself a young lion,^ and learned to catch prey, and became a man-eater. 7 He searched through their palaces,^ and
1 Ezek. xix. 1-4.
2 The kings of Judah were not behind the princes of other countries round.
^ Gen. xlix. 9, lit., "a young lion." The "young lion" is the animal in its first splendour of young vigour.
"* A common way of taking lions.
^ Isa. xxxvii. 20. See vol. iv. p. 457. Wild beasts were led by rings in their nostrils or jaws, and captives whom it was specially wished to insult were treated in the same way. See vol. v. p. 90; also Ezek, xxxviii. 4, xxix. 4; 2 Kings, xix. 28 ; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11.
^ Jehoahaz is alluded to. He was carried off to Egypt by Necho, after his father Josiah's death at Megiddo.
? Ezek. xix. 5-7. ^ A crowned king.
' Arnheim. No other meaning of this clause seems tenable.
THE CKISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL. 27
laid waste their cities; the land was desolate; its multitude flee- ing in terror at the noise of his roar.^
8 Yet the nations,'- from many ^ countries, set themselves against hira round about, and spread their net over him, and took him in their pit. 9 Then they put him in a cage, with rings in his jaws, and brought him to the king of Babylon ; they brought him into a lofty stronghold, that his voice should no more be heard on the mountains of Israel.'^
Sucli was the fate of the kings ; that of the people was to be equally disastrous. Israel had been a powerful nation, ruling for a time from the Euphrates to the Medi- terranean, and boasting a line of kings, who, in Judah, had sat on the throne, in continuous descent from David, for nearly five hundred years. Its pride and sin, how- ever, had brought terrible punishment. Ten tribes, out of twelve, had been exiles in a distant land for nearly a hundred and fifty years, and Judah itself had seen the flower of its people carried off to Babylonia. What re- mained of its glory was fast waning; the now feeble State was tottering to its final ruin.
These ideas the prophet embodies in his former image of the fatherland as a once lordly vine, the wood of which had been so massive as to serve for kingly
^ This could hardly be applied, except by poetic license, to Jehoiachiu (Jeconiah), who reigned only three months. Zede- kiah may have been engaged in wars ; his predecessors had no opportunity for them. If, however, the language be taken as that of poetry, the lament would suit Jehoiachin better than Zedekiah, for the former was appointed king by his countrymen ; the latter was a Chaldean nominee. Ezekiel, moreover, seems to have regarded Jehoiachin as the legitimate king on this account. Ezek. xvii. 1. Besides, he bitterly denounced the breach of oath by Zedekiah, and on this ground showed him no respect.
2 Ezek. xix. 8, 9. 3 Li^., " the."
* Nothing is known of the place of imprisonment of either Jehoiachin or Zedekiah in Babylon.
28 THE CRISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL.
sceptres. In its pride it had shot out its branches far and near, but the burning sirocco had been let loose on it ; its stout branches had withered and been broken off, and fire had consumed it.
lo Thy mother,^ O Judah, mightest thou further compare to a vine 2 planted by the waters. She was fruitful and had many branches by reason of the abundance of water ; 1 1 its boughs grew so thick they made sceptres for rulers, and its height rose tower- ing amidst the clouds ; so glorious did it seem in its loftiness, in the multitude of its branches ! ^
12 But the wrath of God, like a tempest from heaven, rooted it up, and cast it to the ground, and the burning sirocco from the desert dried up its fruit ; its strong branches were broken off and withered ; the fire consumed them. 13 And, now, it is planted in the wilderness,'* in a dry and thirsty land, 14 and fire has gone from its branches, so rich in shoots, and has devoui'ed its fruit, so that it has no longer any lordly rod for a sceptre to rule.
1 Ezek. xix. 10-14.
2 This clause is variously translated; different emendations being given of the words, " in thy blood," which are apparently a corruption of the text. I adopt the rendering of De Wette.
^ *' It was seen far and near from its height and the multitude of its branches." — Smend. The ancient sceptre (Shabet) and the staff" (Matteh), used as a sign of rank by heads of tribes, clans, and encampments, by judges and others, was a simple rod, in its natural state — the leaves and twigs only removed. The Arab Sheiks and the Mahomedan Mufti and Ulemas — the equivalent to our clergy — still carry such a rude staff, as high as themselves, never appearing in public without it. When office is hereditary, as in the case of Sheiks, the staff passes from father to son till it is worn quite thin where the hand has grasped it. It was this ancestral chieftain's staff on which Jacob leaned in worship (Gen. xlvii. 31) ; and the rods of Moses and Aaron were, in the same way, the ordinary signs of official dignity. Tamar de- manded this Matteh from Judah — knowing its special worth as an unmistakable means of identifying him, and even with this he parted for the time. Gen. xxxviii. 18. See Neil, pp. 160 ff.
4 Exiled.
THE CRISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL. 29
All this may well raise a song of lamentation, now and hereafter !
A long discourse^ delivered by Ezekiel in August, B.C. 592/ the fourth year before the destruction of Jerusalem, and the seventh of the captivity of king Jeconiah, has fortunately been preserved. As was tbeir custom from time to time, since the propbet did not appear in public, some of the elders of the Hebrew settlement on the Chebar came to him, '' to enquire of Jebovah '^ ; sitting down, in Eastern fashion, on the mats on the floor of the room, while he rested on the divan or sofa-like ledge that ran along its side. He had previously told them,- that God would have no relations with insincere worshippers, outwardly paying Him homage, while, in heart, idolaters, and he repeated this now.^ As long as they were still heathen in spirit, they could expect no communications from Jehovah, through His" prophet. The opportunity to bring their sins, and those of the people at large, once more under notice was, nevertheless, too favourable to be lost. The impulse " to judge them,'' by rehearsing anew the sins laid to their charge, and proclaiming afresh the certain result, was irresistible. How best to rouse their conscience must have been a matter of anxious thought ; perhaps if he recalled to their minds the sins of their fore- fathers and its terrible punishment, the vivid parallel to their own case might arrest them. Addressing them, therefore, he thus began, speaking in the name of God, —
5 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; ^ In the day that I chose Israel, and lifted up My hand in an oath to the seed of the House of Jacob, that I would be their God, and revealed Mjself to them in the land of Egypt,^ when I lifted up My hand to them, swearing
^ Smend says B.C. 590. ^ Ezek. xiv. 1-11.
3 Ezek. XX. 1-4. '» Ezek. xx. 5-8.
6 Exod. iii. 8 ; iv. 31. Deut. iv. 34.
30 THE CEISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL.
by Myself, " I am Jehovah your God ; " ^—6 even in that day when I lifted up My hand thus to them, promising that I would lead them forth from Egypt,^ to a land I had looked out for them — a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands ^ — 7 I said to them — " Cast ye away, every man, the abominable gods to which he looks, and do not defile yourselves with the loathsome gods of Bgypt.^ I am Jehovah, your God." 8 But they were disobedient, and would not hearken to Me; they did not, every man, cast away the abominable gods to which they looked, nor did they forsake the loathsome gods of Egypt. For this, therefore, I threatened to pour out My wrath on them, and to let loose My anger against them, in the land of Egypt.
9 Yet I acted ^ for the honour of My own name, so that it should not be dishonoured before the heathen, in whose midst they were, in whose sight I had revealed Myself to them, as about to bring thera forth from the land of Egypt.^ lo I led them, therefore, forth from the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilder- ness. 1 1 And there, at Sinai, T gave them My laws, and made known to them My statutes, by which, if a man do them, he shall live.^ 12 I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that it was I, Jehovah, who sanctify them by these holy seasons ; bringing them thus into special communion with Myself.^ 13 But the House of Israel rebelled against Me in the
1 Exod. XX. 2.
2 Exod. iii. 8-17. Deut. viii. 7, 9. Jer. xxxii. 22. ^ Ps. xlviiii. 2. Dan. viii. 9. Zech. vii. 14.
"^ Lev, xvii. 7 ; xviii. 3. ^ Ezek. xx. 9-13.
^ Exod. xxxii. 12. Num. xiv. 16. Deut. ix. 28.
^ Lev. xviii. 5. Deut. xxx. 16.
^ Wellhausen {Gesch. Israel, vol. i. p. 117) would have us believe that the Sabbath was originally a day of festivity, and only gradually darkened into gloom under priestly influence during the exile. The agony of the Shunammite widow at the death of her son (2 Kings iv. 22), leading her to order her ass for an instant journey to the prophet, is taken as a proof that journeys longer than were legal on Sabbaths were then common, and that daily occupations were not forbidden. For does not the servant answer that it is neither new moon nor Sabbath? In Hos. ii. 11 it is said, " I will cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new
THE CRISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL. 31
wilderness; they did not follow My laws, and they despised My statutes, by which a man shall live, if he do them ; and they grossly dishonoured My Sabbaths, so that I said I would pour out My indignation upon them in the wilderness, to destroy them.
14 But I acted for the honour ^ of My name, so that it should not be dishonoured before the heathen, in whose sight I had brought them forth from Egypt. 15 Yet I lifted up My hand to them in the wilderness in solemn asseveration, that I would not bring them into the laud which I had given them — a land flowing with milk and honey— the glory of all lands ! 16 I did this because they des- pised My statutes and did not walk in My laws, and dishonoured My Sabbaths, for their hearts went after their loathsome gods. 17 But My eye spared them, so that I did not utterly destroy them, or make an end of them altogether in the wilderness. -
18 But though the fathers were condemned to die in the wilder- ness, I said to their sons, " "Walk ye not ^ in the laws of your fathers, nor observe their statutes, nor defile yourselves with
moons, her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts." In Amos the extortioners of Samaria long for the Sabbath to sell their grain (viii. 5). Are not these, we are asked, proofs that the Sabbath was anciently a day of rejoicing and worldly business? As if a modest joy were incompatible with the right observance of the Sabbath, or the worldliness of extortioners an illustration of its proper use ! That it is said, moreover, in Exodus and Deutero- nomy, that the labourer and his beast are to rest on the Sabbath, while it is not said (?) that the master should rest ! shows that the idea of the day as one of universal rest must be later ! It is on such arguments as these that the origin of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, — or nearly the whole of them — during the Cap- tivity, is assumed as demonstrated. As if the lax practice could not naturally come in by degrees, and be uprooted only by a reaction ^uch as the exile produced ! Of course, however, while repudi- ating the insinuation that the ancient Jewish Sabbath was a mere boisterous holiday, I do not forget that the superstitious and painful slavery, which the Eabbis invented as its proper observ- ance, was then unknown.
1 Ezek. XX. 14^17.
2 Only that generation was to perish in the wilderness.
3 Ezek. XX. 18-21.
32 THE CEISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL.
their loathsome gods. 19 I am Jehovah, your God; walk in My laws, and keep My statutes, and do them ; 20 and hallow My Sabbaths, that they may be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I, Jehovah, am your God." 21 Yet these sons, like their fathers, rebelled against Me, and did not walk in My laws, or keep My statutes, to do them, by which, if a man keep them, he shall live, and they dishonoured My Sabbaths. Then I told them that I would pour out My indignation upon them, and let loose My anger against them in the wilderness.
22 Nevertheless,^ I held back My hand, and acted for the honour of My name, that it should not be dishonoured in the sight of the heathen, before whom I had brought them forth from Egypt. 23 But I lifted up My hand to them in the wilderness once more, and solemnly swore that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the lands, ^ 24 because they had not obeyed My statutes, but had despised My laws, and dishonoured My Sabbaths, and their hearts had gone after the loathsome gods of their fathers. 25 And since they would not ob- serve My good laws, I afterwards, when they had entered Canaan, gave them laws that were not good, as Mine are, and statutes by which they should not live — statutes leading to death, not to life, as Mine do — 26 that is, I left them to follow the heathenism of Canaan, and polluted them in their own offerings, by giving them up to sacrifice their firstborn sons to Moloch, that I might appal them at their own conduct, and that they might know that I am Jehovah ! ^
1 Ezek. XX. 22-26. 2 L^y ^xvi. Deut. xxviii.
^ Smend actually ventures to quote this verse as proving that Jehovah instituted human sacrifices ! Ewald very justly refers the hard laws to the claim by Jehovah of all the firstborn (Exod. xiii. 11-13), " which the prophet speaks of as a defiling, because it was a short step from this to offering firstborn sons to Moloch (see ver. 31), and because this often happened" through a perver- sion of the Divine law, which imposed only a slight redemption money on the parents, in lieu of the claim on their child. See Lev. xviii. 21 ; Deut. xviii. 10. Compare, for language similar to that of Ezekiel, Rom. i. 24; Acts vii. 42 ; 2 Thess. ii. 11. Jerome says, " God gave them, when dispersed among the nations, laws that were not good — that is. He gave them up to their own
THE CRISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL. 33
27 Therefore,^ speak to the House of Israel, O son of man, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Your fathers still further sinned against Me by acting treacherously towards Me. 28 For, when I had brought them into the land which I had sworn to give them," they looked with idolatrous eyes on every high hill and ever}'- thickly leaved tree, and there oflfered their sacri- fices, and presented the bitter offence of their offerings : ^ and burnt their sweet smelling incense, and poured out their drink oflferings to their idols, 29 till men came to say, " What is the Bamah — the high place ? It is that to which the Baim — those going to commit uncleanness — betake themselves," and thus its name is Bamah (in this sense) to this day.*
30 Therefore,^ say to the House of Israel, Thus says the Lord Jehovah : Are you polluted in the same way as your fathers ? Do you commit uncleanness with your abominable idols ? 31 Do you defile yourselves to this day with all your loathsome gods, presenting them your offerings, and making your sons pass through the fire to them — and shall I allow Myself to be en- quired of by you, 0 House of Israel ? As I live, says the Lord Jehovah, I will not allow Myself to be enquired of by you. 32 And what you think in your minds, "that you will be like the heathen — like the people of other countries — and worship wood and stone," shall not come to pass. 33 As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I will be King over you, yes, with a mighty hand, and an outstretched arm, and with an outpouring of fierce indignation ; 34 and I will lead you forth from among the peoples, and gather you from the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with an outpouring of fierce indignation, 35 and will bring you into the wilderness of
thoughts and desires, that they should do what was not for their good," ad loc. As to the relation of God to human sacrifices, see Jer. vii. 31 ; xxxii. 35, and other passages. . 1 Ezek. XX. 27-29.
2 Lit., " lifted up My hand." » Their " corban."
^ Baim, from the verb " to come," was taken in a bad sense, as implying " coming to commit fornication," and was used in this way as a verbal play on the word "Bamah," a high place. To go thither and to commit uncleanness were assumed as identical.
5 Ezek. XX. 30-38.
VOL. VI. D
34 THE CKISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL.
the nations,^ between this Canaan and Babylon, and there will I hold judgment on you, face to face. 36 As I held judgment on your fathers in the wilderness between Canaan and Egypt, so, I will hold judgment on you, saith the Lord Jehovah ! 37 And I will there carefully separate the good from the bad, as a shepherd, standing at the gate of the fold, lets his sheep pass out under his staff one by one, to count their number and see their state ; and I will bring you under the yoke of My new covenant,^ 38 and I will separate from among you the rebellious, and those who sin against Me. And I will bring those from the land of their sojourning, where they are exiles,^ but these shall not enter into the land of Israel ; that ye may know that I am Jehovah !
But God will not cast off His people for ever !
39 As for you,'* O House of Israel ; thus saith the Lord Jehovah : Go, serve every one, his loathsome gods ; yet, hereafter, ye will surely hearken to Me, and not pollute My holy name any more with your idolatrous offerings, and with your loathsome gods;^ 40 for on My holy mountain, Zion ; on the lofty mountain of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah; there, shall all the House of Israel serve Me, all of them in the holy land ; there, will I receive them
^ Where many peoples — Syrians, Arabs, and others, from all parts — pass and repass.
2 This, which is the literal rendering as the text stands, does not appear to some a suitable sense. Various emendations have therefore been proposed. Hitzig proposes, " into the purifying crucible." The Sept. reads, " I will bring you in by number," Smend conjectures that the words should run, " I bring you, when numbered, or by number, into the land."
^ Bosenmilller. Schroeder.
4 Ezek. XX. 39-44.
^ The text demands this emendation, which is supported by Ewald, Havernick, Keil, and Smend — that is, by men of all Shades of opinion. Arnheim renders the passage, " Go and serve every one his idols, since ye will not listen to Me ; only, dishonour not My holy Name any longer by your gifts and your idols!" So Noyes, and De Wette. The Sept. has, " put away each one his evil ways, and hereafter, if ye hearken to Me, then ye shall no more profane My holy Name by your gifts and your doings (ways)."
THE CKISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL. 35
generously when they approach Me in worship, and there will I Myself call for their heave offerings, and your choicest gifts, of all you consecrate to Me.^ 41 With a sweet odour of rest and delight will I accept you, when I lead you forth from the nations, and gather you out of the countries in which you have been scattered, and I will show myself holy in My dealings towards you, in the eyes of the heathen. 42 And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the land which I swore^ to give to your fathers. 43 And then ye shall remember your ways, and all your doings, by which ye have defiled yourselves, and ye wilh loathe yourselves in your own eyes, for all your sins that ye have committed. 44 And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I deal with you in mercy, and for My Name's sake; not according to your corrupt doings, 0 House of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah!
But it was of no avail that Ezekiel preached thus on the Chebar, or Jeremiah in Jerusalem. The Egyptian party had gained the upper hand, alike in Babylonia and in Judah, and Zedekiah was being steadily pushed to open revolt. Another series of appeals of the banished prophet to his fellow-exiles has come down to us_, and shows that the people still cherished a vain hope of shaking off the Chaldean vassalage. The addresses seem to have been delivered in the third and second year^ before the fall of the Holy City, when Babylon was already on the eve of marching against his rebellious countrymen. What none had believed when foretold by him, was now, at last, plainly close at hand. Roused to pitiless fury by the ingratitude of Zedekiah, his creature, and by his faithlessness, Nebuchadnezzar was preparing to burst from the north-east, where Ezekiel lived, like a destroying storm, on Judah, far to the south. Yet as a man, a Jew, a priest banished from his country and
1 Choicest = lit, "first of all you consecrate to me," "of all your holy things."
2 " Lifted up my hand." » That is in B.C. 691 and 690.
36 THE CRISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL.
its temple, the calamity, though so long anticipated, well nigh overpowered the prophet as it approached. The march of the Chaldean army seemed before him, in its successive stages. He almost counted the hours till it should invest Jerusalem. Might there not be some repentance even yet — if not in the doomed city, at least among the exiles ? Alas, it was hopeless. A great blow in his own household was to bring the sad truth home to him, and teach him that he was henceforth to be silent till the inevitable judgment had fallen. His wife, whom he dearly loved, died suddenly at this time, and her death was used as a Divine sign. He was not to weep for the dead ! She was gone ! And, so, his brethren might spare their laments for their country ; nothing could save it !
In the first of these new utterances the prophet pictures Judah, with its towns and villages, as a forest in the south — for it lay in that direction from the Chebar. Fire, kindled by God Himself, through His instru- ment Nebuchadnezzar, breaks out in it, and no one can quench it.
45 The word of Jehovah came to Me;^ 46 Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and speak southwards, against the forests of the open country, 47 and say to the southern forest : Hear the word of Jehovah! Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; Behold, I kindle a fire in thee, and it will devour every green tree in thee, and every dry. Its flaming fire shall nob be quenched, and every face, from south to north, will be lighted up by it. 48 And all flesh shall see that I, Jehovah, have kindled it, and that no one can quench it !
Eagerly clinging to their wild hope for their country, the exiled community afiected not to understand these
1 Ezek. XX. 45-49. The 21st chapter begins here in the Hebrew Bible.
THE CRISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL, 37
metaphors and parables, so natural to Ezekiel, but they had no cause of such a complaint in a discourse delivered to them a little later.
2 Son of man,^ said the Inner Voice to him, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and pour out thy words towards the holy places, and preach against the land of Israel, 3 and say to it : Thus saith Jehovah — Behold, I come against thee and unsheathe My sword, and destroy from out of thee both the righteous and the wicked ! 4 Therefore, because I have resolved to destroy both the righteous and the wicked from out of thee. My sword will go forth from its sheath against all flesh, from south to north of the land ; 5 that all flesh may know that it is I, Jehovah, who have drawn My sword out of its scabbard, and that I will not sheathe it again. 6 Sigh, therefore, thou son of man, as if thy loins were breaking; sigh bitterly before their eyes ! 7 And when they say to thee, "Why sighest thou?" Say, "For the report that has come to my ears!" For every heart shall melt, and all hands fall down, and every spirit despair, and all knees shake." Behold, what has been foretold, is come, and is being carried out ! says the Lord Jehovah.
The same terrible warning was soon after repeated in a different form. The destruction so imminent had been pictured as a great conflagration; it was now pre- sented as a grand carnival of the sword ! " The word of Jehovah " again came to the prophet, saying : —
9 Son of man, ^ prophesy, and say : Thus says Jehovah : Say, A Sword, a Sword is sharpened and whetted; 10 sharpened to make a sore slaughter; whetted that it may flash like the lightning ! Woe to thee, O Staff, the sceptre of my son Judah — this sword despises all such weak rods ! ■* 1 1 It has been whetted that it may
1 Ezek. xxi. 1-7. 2 -^q\^ into water. ^ Ezek. xxi. 8-13.
■* This passage is so corrupt that any rendering of it must be conjectural. Gesenius translates it, " It is sharpened against the prince of the tribe of my son (Judah) who despises all wood " — that is, all the lighter punishments of the past. Ewald, " No weak rod of my sou, the feeblest of wood." Wellhausen, " Not
38 THE CEISIS AS IT APPEAEED TO EZEKIEL.
be grasped in the hand ! Yes ! it is sharpened and whetted, to give it to the hand of the slayer! 12 Cry and howl, O son of man ! for it is about to descend on My people ; on all the princes of Israel! They are reserved for the sword, along with My people ! Smite therefore on thy thigh, in sign of great sorrow ! ^ 13 For the sword has been proved, and what has it shown itself? As if it were a weak rod ? No ! verily not ! ^
14 Thou, therefore, ^ son of man, prophesy, and smite your hands together in despair; the sword doubles, aye, trebles its fury ; it slays the multitude ; it slays the great ; it searches into the inmost chamber.'* 15 That their hearts may despair, and that many may fall, I have set the flashing sword before all her gates ! Ah ! how it glitters like lightning ; how it is whetted for the slaughter! 16 Up, Sword! smite eagerly on the right! turn swiftly to the right ! turn swiftly to the left ! Turn whither- soever thou art appointed! 17 I, Jehovah, will smite My hands together against them, in fierce indignation, and let loose My wrath ! I, Jehovah have said it.
Hitherto Ezekiel had spoken in figures, but the time had come to speak plainly. His countrymen are to be
weak as the rod; not the most contemptible of all wood." Arnheim, " A glittering terror ; a scourge that makes men howl ; sparing no tree." Noyes, "Or shall we make mirth? The staff of my son depiseth every rod." De Wette, substantially as in the text above. Eichhorn, "Ah thou (Zedekiah), who bearest the kingly staff, the sceptre of My people ; the sword laughs at every such bit of wood ! "
^ To smite on the thigh is often used as a token of great trouble of mind. See Jer. xxxi. 19. Iliad, xii. 162; xv. 397. Plutarch also tells us, that when Fabius saw his men flee, he gave a great groan and smote on his thigh.
2 Ewald. Eichhorn's rendering of this passage, which is so corrupt in its text as to defy translators, is, " The proof is made : how ? should not the sword mock at the mere rod ? "
3 Ezek. xxi. 14-17.
4 Eichliorn. De Wette is virtually the same. Only a guess at the meaning can be made in this, as in the other instances of defective text I have noted.
THE CRISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL. 39
told that Nebucliadnezzar is_, already,, virtually, on the march, against Judah and Ammon, which have both thrown off their allegiance. It was a question, to which he would first turn ; the people of Jerusalem hoping that he would march against Ammon before attacking their own city, and thus give them full time to prepare, and to summon to their aid ^ the Egyptian army on which they depended. But, contrary to this, the prophet announces that Jehovah will send the Chaldean king directly against Jerusalem. He is, therefore, pictured as standing at the parting of the roads to Ammon and the Holy City, uncertain which to enter, and consulting his oracle for direction. But Jehovah gives the answer. Even this warning, however, may fall on deaf ears ; if so, the heavier will the fearful vengeance of the Almighty burst on the perjured Zedekiah and on his princes.
i8 The word of Jehovah came to me again, saying : - 19 Son of man ! Fix ^ on two roads by which the sword of the king of Babel may come; let both run out from one country, and hew thee a fingerpost"* such as stands at the head of the way to a city. 20 Let it point in one direction so that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, ° and in the other, that it may come to Judah and the strong-walled Jerusalem ! 21 For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the roads, at the head 'of the two ways, to use divination as to which he should take. He shakes in a quiver the two arrows, ^ marked Ammon and Jeru- salem, to see which will be drawn out first by one blindfolded ; ^ he consults his idols ; he looks at the liver of the sacrifices.'^
1 Ezek. xvii. 2 Ezek. xxi. 18-23. 3 Li^., " make thee."
4 Lit., " cut a hand." ^ gee vol. iii. p. 251.
® This was a common form of divination among the heathen Arabs. Perceval, Essai sur Vhistoire des Arahes, 1847, vol. ii. p. 310. On divination by the liver, see Lenormant, La Divination, n.bS.
7 Smend. ^ Cic, De Div., i. 16 ; ii. 13. Diod., ii. 49.
40 THE CRISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL.
22 In his right hand — the fortunate one — is already the arrow marked "Jerusalem" which has been drawn by him from the quiver. He orders forward the battering rams, to open a breach by breaking down the wall ; ^ he commands that the loud battle cry be given ; that the battering rams be set up at the gates ; that an enclosing mound be raised ; that a tower be built, to sweep the top of the wall. 23 To the people in Jerusalem all this seems a false prophecy ; they think they will have weeks upon weeks of respite ; ^ but Jehovah will call their iniquity to remembrance that they may be taken !
24 Therefore, ^ thus saith the Lord Jehovah ; Because ye bring your iniquity to remembrance, so that your transgressions come to the light, and your sins, in all your conduct, appears ; because ye bring them to remembrance, you will be taken by His hand ! 25 And thou, wicked, falling '* prince of Israel, Zedekiah, whose day is come — the day of thy uttermost punishment ! 26 As to thee, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, " Take off his royal turban ! Off with his crown ! " This humbled and ruined kingdom is not the kingdom to come hereafter — that of the promised Messiah ! The low shall be exalted and the high abased ! 27 I will bring the city to ruins, to ruins, to ruins ; what has been shall be no more, till He come whose right it is ; to Him will I give it !
In the troubled time of Jehoiakim's reign the Am- monites, in common with the Moabites and Edomites, had shown their hereditary hatred of Israel, by joining flying»columns of Nebuchadnezzar's troops in harassing and plundering Judah.^ Since then, they, like others, had felt the heavy pressure of the Chaldean yoke, and, in common with the different kingdoms of Palestine, had plotted a rebellion. Envoys from their king, as we have seen, had met ambassadors from Edom, Moab, Tyre, and Sid on, at Jerusalem, to form a league against Babylon ;
1 Schrader. Be Wette.
2 Ewald. 8mend. The Heb. for oath, Sheba, means also a week, and the form in the text is capable of both renderings.
3 Ezek. xxi. 24-27. * = doomed to be slain. ^ 2 Kings xxiv. 2.
THE CRISIS AS IT APPEARED TO EZEKIEL. 41
Egypt having promised to aid them. Zedekiah had, doubtless, relied on this support, especially as Ammon had compromised itself deeply by its truculent bearing towards the Great King. But Ezekiel knew how worth- less this confidence would prove. Hastening to submit, on the first approach of the invader, Ammon and the other Palestine states of the south and east, would throw themselves into the contest as the allies of the Chaldeans and the exulting foes of Judah. For this they, too, would receive heavy punishment at the hand of God. Lying prophets in Ammon itself had predicted its safety when the storm should burst, and in anticipation of this it had already shown its insincerity. A short time before, the fawning ally of Judah, it now aSected to treat her with scorn. Under these circumstances, Ezekiel was com- missioned to denounce its king and people.
28 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah concerning the Ammonites,* and concerning the scorn they pour on Judah : Say thou, the sword, the sword, is drawn for the slaughter : it is whetted to the uttermost, to flash destruction ! 29 Thou trustest to deceitful visions of thy prophets, and lettest lies be declared to thee, that the sword will descend only on the neck of Israel, as doomed to fall for its wickedness — Israel, whose day, thou sayest, approaches, when its sin shall receive final punishment ! 30 Put thy ^word back into its sheath ! In your own land, whence you sprang, the land of your birth, I will judge you. 31 And I will pour out my wrath on you; I will blow on you the fire of My indignation,- and give you into the hand of wild men, skilled in destroying. 32 You shall become food for fire : your blood shall be poured out on the earth. You will be no more remembered, for I, Jehovah, have said it !
1 Ezek. xxii. 28-32.
" The wrath of God is conceived as breathing forth flames against His enemies.
CHAPTER III.
THE EVE OP THE SIEGE OP JERUSALEM.
THE guilt which was about to bring down the ruin of the Jewish State had been, as we have seen, the constant theme of Jeremiah and Ezekiel for many years ; but the hope of future reformation so entirely depended on its being kept before the public mind, with all its terrible results, that no repetition seemed too frequent. It was, in fact, by this unwearied presentation of the truth, to the minds of their contemporaries, however much they disliked it, that these great preachers ultimately awakened the national conscience, and led to that amazing reaction from the idolatry of the past, of which Judaism, in its later development, became the embodiment.
Never in the history of nations, so far as appears, has a sacred order anywhere risen, so earnest, so self-sacri- ficing, so noble in their purity of life, so lofty in their realization of the true and eternal, so bravely faithful in their battle with sin, as the Hebrew prophets. They, in fact, believed what they said, and spoke accordingly. No fear of the great, or of the multitude, could silence them. Appointed to proclaim the whole truth, without circumlocution or mitigation, they did so, however in- vidious, "vulgar,^^ *^^ censorious,^' unpopular, or perilous the duty. Fashionable preachers of the day there were
THE EVE OF THE SIEGE OP JERUSALEM. 43
in abundance ; toning down the Word of God to suit their audiences ; astutely careful to let abuses lie undis- turbed, to flatter the great, to avoid whatever was dis- agreeable to their patrons, and, like keen and crafty men of the world, to make sure of as much of this life as they could, lest they should by any chance come short in the other. The fidelity of the true prophets was ill calculated to promote their worldly interests, but their names live for evermore ; their self-sacrifice was the regeneration of their race, and they remain for all ages the ideal of true preachers. Does our nineteenth century realize the lesson of their example ?
In the enumeration of the sins of his contemporaries, Ezekiel had laid especial stress on their idolatry; but the general corruption of the times had not escaped his lash. One sin, however, among many, had not been denounced as yet with the same fulness as others. The treatment of their banished brethren, by those who remained in Palestine, had been shameful. They had been piteously cheated and over-reached in the forced sales of their goods and property when hurried ofi*. This was now to be laid to the charge of the extortioners. The new lords of the city, moreover, had proved as lawless as their pre- decessors; anarchy reigned ; the streets were daugerous from the number of murders, and society was dissolving into its elements. The men who had been banished for their sins had, in fact, been better men than those left behind. A stern indictment of such a state of things was demanded.
I The word of Jehovah — he tells us— came to him, saying : 2 Son of man, ^ if you judge the bloody city, Jerusalem, do it so as to show her all her abominations ! 3 Say to her, Thus says the Lord
I Ezek. xxii. 1-5.
44 THE EVE OF THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM.
Jehovah : 0 city, in whose midst blood is poured out, drawing on the time of thy doom ; O city, defiled by the loathsome gods she makes for herself : 4 Thou art guilty through the blood thou hast shed, and art defiled by the loathsome gods thou hast made for thyself ; thou hast brought near the days of thy punishment, and hastened the years of thy retribution ! Because of thy sins I will make thee the contempt of the heathen ; the mockery of all lands ! 5 The near and the far off will alike deride thee, and call thee "thou city of a stained name, and of restless confusion !"
6 Behold,^ the princes of Israel, thy aristocracy, have sought, every one, to shed blood in thee to his utmost. 7 Men have de- spised father and mother in thee ; the stranger has been treated unjustly in thy midst ; the fatherless and the widow have been oppressed in thee. 8 Thou hast despised My holy things by thine idolatry. Thou hast dishonoured My Sabbaths ; 9 men seeking to murder by spreading slanderous lies, are in thee. Thy people eat idol sacrifices on the mountains ; lewdness is committed in thee ; 10 men expose their father's shame,- and go near her who is legally unclean.^ 1 1 One commits abomination with his neigh- bour's wife ; another basely defiles his daughter-in-law ; another humbles his sister, his father's daughter ! 12 Men shed blood in thee for hire; thou takest usury and increase; thou hast over- reached thy fellow-citizens, and wrung unjust gain from them by violence, and hast forgotten Me, says the Lord Jehovah !
13 Behold,^ for this, I clap my hands together in indignation at thee, when I think of the dishonest gains thou hast made, and of the blood that has flowed in thy midst. 14 I laugh at the folly of thy sin, knowing how near is thine end ! Will thy heart bear up, or thy hands keep their strength, in the days when I deal with thee! I, Jehovah, speak, and will act! 15 I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee through the lands, and destroy thy uncleanness out of thee, 16 and punish thee so that I shall seem dishonoured in the sight of the heathen, in bringing such suffering on thee,^ and thus thou shalt know that I am Jehovah !
1 Ezek. xxii. 6-12. 2 ^^^ ^^^^i q_i>^ . ^x. 11. 1 Cor. v. 1.
* Lev. xii. 2 ; xviii. 19. " Ezek. xxii. 13-16.
* This clause may be read, " thou shalt be polluted in thyself," or, "by thine own story." But this hardly suits the context and is not so striking.
THE EVE OF THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM. 45
Such was the wicked city ; but its day of reckoning was at hand. Its fine gold had become dim_, its silver, dross; what pure ore there was must be separated from the mass of worthless alloy, and this the miseries of the siege, like the flames of a refiner's furnace, would effect !
1 8 Son of man,^ said the secret Divine Voice, the House of Israel has become dross to Me.^ They are all of them brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the smelting furnace ; the dross of silver. 19 Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah : Because ye have all become dross, throughout Judah, behold I will throw you into the midst of Jerusalem, as into a furnace, to purify you by the flames of the siege.^ 20 ^s they cast silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the furnace, to blow fire on it and smelt it ; so will I cast you into the furnace of war, and smelt you, in my anger and fury. 21 Yes ! I will gather you together into Jeru- salem, and blow on you with the flames of my wrath till ye be melted down in it. 22 As they smelt silver in the furnace, so shall ye be melted down in the midst of Jerusalem, and ye shall know that I, Jehovah, have poured out My fury upon you !
All ranks in Judah were hopelessly corrupt ; prophets, priests, nobles, and people. Even the king did nothing to save the state. It only remained to leave it to de- struction.
24 Son of man,'* say ro Judah : Thou art barren and unfruitful, like a land which has no rain or moisture in the day of wrath ! 25 Her princes^ in her midst are like^ a roaring lion greedy for prey ; they devour souls ; seize property and goods ; and multiply the widows in her midst ! 26 Her priests violate My law and profane My holy things ; they make no diSerence between the holy and common ; they teach no distinction between clean and
I Ezek. xxii. 17-22. 2 jga i. 22.
^ They would flee to Jerusalem at the approach of the Chal- deans.
4 Ezek. xxii. 23-31. 5 ^g^^. x'eiZ. See ver. 28.
* The change of one letter gives this sense.
46 THE EVE OF THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM.
unclean, and hide their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them ! 27 Her chief men are like greedy wolves, eager to shed blood, to destroy souls, to win gain ! 28 Her pro- phets deceive them with mock hopes,^ giving pretended visions and predicting lies to them, saying, " Thus says Jehovah," though He has not spoken ! 29 The people of the land practise violence, and commit robbery, oppress the poor and helpless, and do illegal wrong to the stranger ! 30 I sought, therefore, for one among them all that would fill in the gaps in the wall, and keep out My wrath, and that would stand in the breach before Me, by prayer and holy life, to save the land, and turn Me back from destroying it ; but I found none ! I will, therefore, pour out My indignation upon them; 31 I will consume them in the flames of My wrath ; I will pour their doings on their own head, saith the Lord Jehovah !
Sucli a moral reformation as these utterances de- manded was hopeless, so long as idolatry — the source of all debasement — was cherished in Judah. To restore the sincere worship of Jehovah was imperative, if a purer and better state of things were to be attained. Now, therefore, once more, at the eleventh hour, Ezekiel re- turned to the subject in a vivid allegory, in which Samaria and Jerusalem, the representatives of Israel and Judah, are delineated under the figure of two sisters, whose career had been shameful. The name of Aholah, the elder, showed the difference between the Ten Tribes and Judah, for it meant, " She hath her own tent," or temple, in allusion to the Northern Kingdom having framed a new religion, and repudiated, from the first, the pure faith of Jehovah. The name of the younger, Aholibah, "My tent, or temple, is in her,"*^ marked the special glory of Jerusalem. By a usage familiar in the prophets, the idolatry of the two is denounced as adultery; Jehovah being regarded as their husband. The division
* Lit., " daub them with white plaster."
THE EVE OF THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM. 47
into two kingdoms is represented as practically dating from the Egyptian bondage, though historically so much later. In a former address Ezekiel had reminded his people of the idolatry of their forefathers in the distant past ; ^ he now recalls their recent history, in its relation to the heathenism of Assyria, Babylon and Egypt. To our Western ideas his sensuous imagery seems strange, but the Children of the Sun have in all asfes had modes of speech very different from those of the people of colder lands.
I The word of Jehovah 2 went forth to me again, saying : 2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughter of one mother, ^ 3 and they committed sin in Egypt; behaving shamefully even in their youth. 4 Their names were Aholah, the elder, and AhoHbah, her sister, and I became their husband, and they bore sons and daughters : Aholah became Samaria, and AhoUbah, Jerusalem.'*
5 But Aholah'5— that is, Samaria— played the harlot, although she was now Mine, and she sighed^ after her lovers ; above all, after the warrior Assyrians, ^ 6 clothed in blue or violet purple — pashas^ and rulers,^ all of them handsome men, in their early prime, cavaliers riding on horses. 7 And she gave herself up to sin with them — with the chosen sons of Assyria ; and defiled herself with all the loathsome gods, after which she sighed. 8 Yet she did not give up her idolatries brought from Egypt,"^ for in her youth she had yielded to them. 9 For this reason I delivered her into the hand of those she loved, into the hand of the Assyrians, after
* Ezek. xvi. - Ezek. xxiii. 1-4. 3 garah.
* They were already fallen when Jehovah took them as His. 5 Ezek. xxiii. 5-10.
^ Loved inordinately, looked amorously towards, made eyes to.
' The Hebrew word for "neighbours " is almost identical with that for " war," and this in the plural seems to give the best sense.
^ Prefects of divisions of Satrapies.
^ Sagans = Assyrian, Sakan. It means one "appointed" "com- missioned " from the king. Schrader, Keilinsclirift'en, p. 270.
^° Exod. iii. 13; xxiii. 4. Josh. xxiv. 14. Ezek. viii. 7-10; xvi. 26 ; XX. 4.
48 THE EVE OP THE SIEGE OP JERUSALEM.
whom she sighed, lo and they dealt shamefully with her, took her sons and her daughters into captivity, and slew her, herself, with the sword, and thus she became a warning^ to women, for the Assyrians carried out My judgment upon her.
Instead, however, of being warned by the example of the Northern Kingdom, Judah sinned still more than sbe. Not content with introducing Assyrian idolatry, she adopted that of the Babylonians also, and even, in the end, went after that of Egypt with more greediness than ever. Thus, tbe measure of ber sins was at last fuU.
II But though her sister Aholibah^ — Jerusalem — saw this, she became even viler in her wickedness, and worse in her idolatries, than Aholah had been. 12 For she, too, sighed after the warrior Assyrians, pashas and rulers, gorgeously arrayed cavaliers riding on horses, all of them handsome men, in their early prime. 13 Then I saw that she, also, was defiled ; that both sisters took one way; Aholibah — 14 Jerusalem — even increased her sins. For when she saw pictures of men on her house walls, ^ likenesses of Chaldeans painted with vermilion, 15 with splendid girdles round their waists, and many-coloured turbans on their heads, the ends hanging down behind — all like lords to look at — the pictures of the sons of Babylon, whose birthplace is Chaldea — 16 when she saw these with her eyes, she forthwith fell in love with them, and sent messengers to them, to Chaldea."* 17 And the sons of Babylon came to her, and they defiled her with their idolatry, and she was polluted by them. But ere long she was not con- tented ev^en with them, and her mind was alienated from them. 18 She became shameless, in fact, and set on all kinds of
1 Lit., " a name." 2 Ezek. xxiii. 11-18.
^ An allusion to the introduction of paintings on the walls of the mansions of Jerusalem, in imitation of the custom in Babylon. Eastern women shut up in their harems could only thus be ac- quainted with strangers, at first.
^ She sent messengers to learn their religion and bring it back with them.
THE EVE OP THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM. 49
idolatry. Then My mind, also, was alienated from her, as it had been from her sister, Samaria,
19 Yet she still multiplied her sins,^ bethinking herself of the days of her youth, when she had played the harlot against Me in Egypt. 20 And she drove unchaste love with the idolatries of Egypt," idolatries rank as the flesh of he-asses; gods lustful as stallions. 21 Yes! thou soughtest again the sins of thy youth, committed when, of old, thou wentest after the idols of Egypt.
22 Therefore, Jerusalem,^ thus saith the Lord Jehovah. : Behold, I will stir up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is now alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side, 23 the sons of Babylon and all the Chaldeans ; its supreme power, its nobles, and princes,* and all the Assyrians with them; all handsome young men, pashas and rulers, lords, and men of name,* all of them cavaliers on horses. 24 They shall come against thee — not now, as lovers, but with the tumult of war chariots and clashing wheels,^ and with an army of different nations, who will press against thee on every side, in full armour, with the large shield covering the whole body, the small target on the arm, and the helmet. And I will commit matters to them, and they will judge thee by their pitiless laws of war. 25 And I will let my jealousy come on thee, and they will deal cruelly with thee; for they will cut off thy nose and thine ears ; '' the survivors of thy manhood will fall by their sword ; they will Ifearry off your young sons and your daughters, to sell as slaves, and what men are left of thee will perish in the conflagration of the city. 26 They will also strip off thy clothes, and plunder thee of thy fine array
1 Ezek. xxiii. 19-21. 2 lj^., " her (Egyptian) paramours.*'
3 Ezek. xxiii. 22-27.
^ Miililau und Volck. Gesenius. Keil. Hengstenherg. Pekod = "infliction of punishment." An allegorical name for Babel in Jer. 1. 21. Shoa = noble, Koa = prince. Lit., a " stallion or breeding camel," which must be of noble blood.
* Councillors, Keil.
* Smend. Miihlau und Yolck render it, "with weapons of attack."
7 This has always been and still is the practice in war, in the East. See Winer, art. Leihesstrafen. In Egypt, the nose of adul- terers was cut off. Biod. Sic, i. 78.
VOL. VI. B
50 THE EVE OF THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM.
of ornaments. 27 Tims, if no other way, since thou refusest all warnings, I will root out thy idolatry from thee, and tby heathen- ism, brought from the land of Egypt, so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes to them, or think on Egypt any more.
28 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah : ^ Behold I' will give thee into the hand of those whom thou once lovedst, but now hatest : into the hand of them from whom thy mind is now alienated.
29 And they will treat thee with hatred— and take away all thy gains, and leave thee naked and bare, and the shame of thy idolatry shall be exposed ; thy unfaithfulness and thy heathenism.
30 I will do this to thee because thou hast sought after the idols of the heathen, and because thou hast defiled thyself with these loathsome gods. 31 Thou hast gone in the steps of thy sister, Samaria; therefore I will give thee her cup into thy hand!
The mention of the cup of God's wrath leads the pro- phet to dwell on the figure.
32 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah i^ Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup — the cup of misery, deep and wide, which holds much, and will make thee be laughed to scorn and had in derision. 33 For thou shalt be filled with the drunkenness of grief and sor- row; with the cup of desolation and ruin ; with the cup thy sister Samaria has drunk. 34 Thou wilt drink it up and drain it to the dregs; craunching up its very pieces, as a wild beast does the bones of its prey, and tearing thy bosom ; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah. 35 Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jeho- vah : Behold thou hast forgotten Me, and cast Me behind thy back ; bear thou the punishment of thy unfaithfulness and idolatry !
The guilt and deserved fate of both kingdoms is now recapitulated with still greater minuteness. They have served idols ; given their children to Moloch ; profaned even the temple by heathenism, and gone to distant lands for new gods. Their sin must be sorely punished !
36 Jehovah said, farther, to me : ^ Son of man, step forth as
1 Ezek. xxiii. 28-31. 2 Ezek. xxiii. 32-35.
3 Ezek. xxiii. 36-39.
THE EVE OF THE SIEGE OP JERUSALEM. 51
accuser of Aholah ^ and Aholibah, and show tliem their abomin- ations— yj that they have committed spiritual adultery; that blood is on their hands ; for they have committed adultery with their loathsome gods, and have even given up their children, whom they bore to Me, as offerings to these idols, burning them I 38 Still more, they have done this : they have defiled My sanctuary, on that day when they offered up their children, and have pro- faned My Sabbaths. 39 For when they had slain their children, as offerings to their loathsome gods, on the same day they entered My temple, polluted as they were, and thus profaned it ; lo, they practised idolatry even in the midst of My house !
40 Yes, thou sentest for men ^ to come from distant lands, de- spatching a messenger to them, and, lo, when they came, thou bathedst thyself for them, paintedst thine eyes,^ and arrayed thyself with thy jewels. 41 And thou satest thyself upon a grand couch, and set out a table before them,'* and didst put on it My incense and My oil.^ 42 And the loud tumult of voices was hushed as they sat at it, and to the mixed crowd of these men were brought others, deep drinkers, from the wilderness,^ and they put bracelets on the arms of the two sisters, and magnificent coronets on their heads. 43 Then said I to her that was worn out with adulteries — Aholah, the elder sister, long given to idolatry — " Will these people now commit adultery with your younger sister also, and she with them ? Will she also give herself up to idolatry ? " '^ 44 But they came to her also, as to a harlot ; thus they came to both Aholah and Aholibah, the unchaste women !
^ Ezekiel here speaks against Samaria, nearly 150 years after its destruction.
2 Ezek. xxiii. 40-44.
3 In the East the eyelids are painted on the inner edges with Itolil, a dark powder (Heb. puk), a mixture of lead and zinc. This made the white of the eyes more striking, and seemed to increase their size.
■* The idol altar. * Which should have been offered to Me.
^ Masoretic note— Sobim = drinking men, or drunkards. Dent, xxi. 20. The men represent idols, which Jerusalem and Samaria adopted. Some of these, of wilderness tribes, may be called drunkards, from wine being offered them.
^ The text is apparently corrupt. But this seems the meaning
52 THE EVE OF THE SIEGE OP JERUSALEM.
45 But righteous men ^ shall judge them, as adulteresses and women that shed blood are judged,^ because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands. 46 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah : I will bring a multitude against them, and give them up to ill-treatment and plunder. 47 And its host will stone them with stones, and hew them in pieces with swords ; they will kill their sons and daughters, and burn their houses with fire. 48 Thus will I make idolatry ^ cease out of the land, that all nations^ may learn not to do after their sin. 49 And they shall pay back on you your iniquity, and ye shall bear the sins of your loathsome gods, and shall know that I am Jehovah
The long-suffering patience of God was now, at length, exhausted, and no more appeals or warnings from Him disturbed the doomed capital. But the voice of the prophet was to be heard once more, though only to pro- nounce final sentence on his brethren, in the name of God. The day chosen for this word was ominous ; the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah, about the tenth of December, B.C. 591 ; ^ the very day on which the army of Nebuchadnezzar sat down before Jerusalem to besiege it.* The form of a parable, so frequent with Ezekiel, is used. The citizens had done their best to prepare for a hard siege, but they felt that, at best, they were like flesh in a cauldron, to be sodden by the fires of war.''' Ezekiel, moreover, had told them that their own chief men had, themselves, made the city a flesh-pot, by the innocent blood shed by them in it, and that these guilty ones would on that account be given to the foe.^ A caul- dron is now again seen on a fire, and, after being filled
1 Ezek. xxiii. 45-49.
2 All the honourable men of a village were summoned to try an adulteress, and condemn her to death by stoning, if guilty.
3 Lit, "lewdness." '' Lit., "women."
* Smend has B.C. 587 for the fall of the city. Most say B.C. 688.
* 2 Kings XXV. 1. Jer. lii. 4; xxxix. 1. Zech. viii. 19. 7 Ezek. xi. 3-7. » Ezek. xi. 7-11.
THE EVE OF THE SIEGE OP JEKUSALEM. 53
with the best pieces of flesh, is made to boil fiercely. But it is found to be foul with rust, and is ordered to be emptied. The population will indeed sufi'er intensely, but they will not all perish in their city ; they will be led forth to captivity. The metaphor is in some degree mixed, as a double sense was intended. The boiling was to remove the rust, that is, the siege was to reform the people ; but failing to do so, banishment must follow.
2 Son of raan,^ said Jehovah, write down the exact date of this day, for the king of Babylon has on this very day begun the siege of Jerusalem. 3 And utter a parable to the House of Disobe- dience, and say to them : Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Set on the cauldron, set it on, and pour water into it. 4 Put the pieces to be cooked into it, every good piece, the thigh and the shoulder ; fill it up with the best bones. 5 Take only the best sheep, and lay a pile of wood under it ; let it boil well, that the bones in it may be thoroughly seethed.
6 Of a truth, thus saith the Lord Jehovah : Woe to the city of blood ! to the cauldron full inside with rust; the old rust of which is not cleansed out of it ! Take out piece by piece ; let no lot be cast to take one and leave another ! 7 For blood was shed by her, in her midst. She let it flow on the naked rock, where it lies uncovered, calling for vengeance ; she did not let it run on the ground, that it might be hidden by the dust. 8 To rouse fury and kindle revenge, I have let the blood shed in her be thus poured out on the naked rock, that it might not be covered !
9 Therefore,- thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe to the city of blood ! I will make the pile of faggots under thee great. 10 Heap on wood, fan up the fire; make ready the flesh, boil well the broth, let the bones be burnt ! 1 1 Then set the empty cauldron on the coals, that its brass may be hot and glowing, that its filthiness may be melted in it, that the rust may be consumed.
12 With weary toil has Jehovah laboured, but in vain ; its thick rust has not been cleansed from it ; let the fire burn the rust !
13 Because of thy filthy lewdness ; because, though I would have made thee clean, thou wouldst not be made so, thou shalt be no
> Ezek. xxiv. 1-8. 2 Ezek. xxiv. 9-14.
54 THE EVE OP THE SIEGE OP JERUSALEM.
more clean till I have poured out my wrath upon thee. 14 I, Jehovah, have spoken ib; it shall come to pass ; I will do it ; I will not go back from it ; ^ I will not spare or show pity. Accord- ing to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall 1 2 judge thee, saith the Lord Jehovah.
Hitherto, Ezekiel,^ though forced to refrain from speaking in public, by the hostility of his fellow- captives, had had the unspeakable consolation of a happy home. His wife, the desire of his eyes, made sunshine to him under his humble roof, if there were clouds and darkness outside. But whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and His faithful prophet was no exception to the universal rule. The same day on which he uttered these last words over the guilty and doomed Jerusalem, the very day on which its siege, afar off, began, was memorable to him on a sadder ground. His address having closed, and his audience having left his chamber, the little heaven of his private life, hitherto so unclouded, was in a moment darkened. An intimation, communicated we know not how, that his wife was to die suddenly, chilled his soul. The light of his life was not to wane by a slow setting, but to go down at midday, leaving him without his one comforter and friend ! Nor was even this all. He was told that to make this terrible sorrow a lesson to the community around, no customary sounds of loud wailing were to rise from his dwelling ; he was not, like others, to mourn for the loved one by uncovering the head and strewing ashes on it ; * or to go barefooted ; ^ or to put on black sackcloth, or to cover his face to the mouth, as others did,^ as a sign that he wished to be left
* Gesenius, " absolve " the guilty. ^ Sept., and all Versions. 8 Ezek. xxiv. 15-20.
* Isa. Ixi. 3. Lev. xxi. 10. ^ 2 Sam. xv. 30. Isa. xx. 2. « Mic. iii 7. Lev. xiii. 45. Jer. viii. 21. Job ii. 12, 13.
THE EVE OF THE SIEGE OP JERUSALEM. 55
in silence; or even to eat t"be food brought on sucli occasions by relations and friends.^ On the contrary, he was to put on his turban — the usual head dress of a priest ; - to wear his sandals, and his ordinary dress ; to refrain from covering his lips with his robe ; to eat every- day food and not that of mourners ; to bear himself, in short, as if the calamity were too overpowering to be expressed by the common symbols of grief.
He had spoken in the morning to the people who had come to him, and then, all had been well in his lowly home, but the evening fell on the pale face of his dead wife.
Yet Ezekiel, strong-minded, and nobly acquiescent in the good pleasure of Jehovah, even when it demanded most at his hands, appeared next morning, as he had been directed, without any display of the emblems of sorrow. No cries of lament rose from his desolated home; he sought no seclusion. Sympathizers, flocking to condole with him, and to pay the wonted rites to the dead, were confounded. What did he mean ? He was a. prophet; his action was no doubt designed. How could he thus shock public feeling ?
21 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah,' answered the heart-broken man, Behold, I am about to profane My Sanctuary, your greatest pride and the desire of your eyes, and the delight of your soul;"* and your sons and your daughters, whom you have left behind you in Judah, will fall by the sword. 22 But, when all this shall have happened, ye shall do as I have done, now, in my great sorrow. You will not cover your lips' with your mantle, nor
* 2 Sam. iii. 35. Dent. xxvi. 14. Hos. is. 4. Jer. xvi. 7.
2 Ezek. xliv. 18. Exod. xxxix. 28.
3 Ezek. xxiv. 21-24.
* Mic. iii. 11. Jer. vii. 26. Ezek. xiv. 21.
* Lit., "beard."
56 THE EVE OP THE SIEGE OP JEEUSALEM.
eat the bread of mourning. 23 Your turbans will be on your heads, and your sandals on your feet, as at other times ; you will make no loud lamentation nor weep, but you will be overpowered by such a penalty for your sins, and shall moan to each other in speechless grief. 24. Thus, Ezekiel is a sign to you, in his present action. You yourselves will do, in that day, as he is doing now, and when this happens ye shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah !
The fall of Jerusalem had been the great event to which all Ezekie?s predictions had pointed_, and vsrould be a complete vindication of his high commission as a true prophet. His opponents would be silenced, and no further hindrance on their part, to his free speech, would be possible. The news brought by one who had escaped from the final slaughter of the storming would be the overthrow of those opposed to him, and would establish his prophetic authority.
25 Yerily, O son of man,* on that day when I take from them the temple, which was their confidence, their supreme boast, the desire of their eyes and the delight of their souls — when I take from them, also, their sons and their daughters — 26 in that day will one that has escaped, come to thee, to tell the awful tidings in thine ears. 27 Then, in that day, thy mouth, so long sealed, will be opened like that of the fugitive, and thou shalt speak as a prophet to the people, and no more be forced to keep silence, and thou wilt be seen to have been a sign to them ; and they shall know that I am Jehovah !
1 Ezek. xxiv. 25-27.
CHAPTER IV.
THE INVESTMENT OP JERUSALEM.
WITH the twenty-fourtli chapter of Ezekiel our in- formation respecting the Hebrew captives on the Chebar ceases for a time_, and we have to return to Jerusalem, now closely invested by the army of Nebu- chadnezzar, drawn from many subject nations. It would seem, indeed, that contingents had been furnished, at least before the close of the siege, by Ammon, Moab, Edom and the Philistines, while the Phenicians, if they did not actively aid the Chaldeans, were bitterly hostile to Judah in feeling.^ So little had come of the projected league of all Palestine against Nebuchadnezzar. His ap- proach had dissolved it, and let loose all the deep-seated hatred towards the Hebrews, which had for a time been dissembled.
The investment of Jerusalem began in the early months of the ninth year of Zedekiah — about December, B.C. 591. As in similar cases, the population had been greatly increased by fugitives from the country round ; but large supplies of provisions had been laid in, and the citizens trusted that Pharaoh Hophra, who had just
^ Ezek. XXV. and xxvi.
57
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ascended the throne of Egypt,^ would speedily raise the siege by an army sent to their relief.
The new Pharaoh was^ indeed, a man from whom much might be hoped. Fond of war and impatient of a quiet life, he was a great patron of the mercenary Greek soldiers who, under captains of their own race, hired themselves, like the free lances of the Middle Ages, to any prince willing to engage them. Hophra made Egypt more than ever their richest harvest-ground, and their bands formed the strength of his army. His father's successful campaign against Nubia showed that, since the great disaster of Carchemish, the country had regained its military spirit. Yielding to his personal ambition and the counsels of his mercenaries, he resolved to re- turn to the policy of Necho II., and once more attempt the conquest of Syria, now held by the Babylonians. The times seemed propitious. Wearied, as we have seen, of the vassalage to the Chaldeans, all Palestine was ready to rise. In Jerusalem, especially, a strong party had forced Zedekiah into an Egyptian alliance. Trusting to Hophra, all the land was in revolt, a few months after his accession. But Nebuchadnezzar, with the swift decision that marked him, hastened from the Euphrates, by forced marches, on the first report of the rebellion ; uncertain which of the petty kingdoms to attack first. To use the language of Ezekiel, the Great King stopped his chariot at the point where the two roads, to Ammon and Jerusalem, branched off, and only decided on taking the latter after consulting his oracles.^ Jerusalem was the soul of the coalition against him. Its territory united the confederates of the coast to those of the east of Jordan and of the desert, and formed a link
1 Lenormant says in B.C. 589. Brugsch, in B.C. 591.
2 Ezek. xxi. 21.
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between Egypt and southern Syria. One Chaldean army was sent, therefore, to ravage Phenicia and commence the blockade of Tyre, while Nebuchadnezzar himself turned, with the bulk of his troops, against Jerusalem. Not daring to oppose such a force in the open field, Zedekiah forthwith shut himself up in his capital, and the siege began. Judah had been spared twice before, but the Chaldean was now resolved to destroy it. That its king, whom he had raised to the throne, should have perjured himself, after having sworn by his own God, and that his people, though weakened by the exile of the leading spirits of the kingdom, should have proved so resolutely troublesome, determined Nebuchadnezzar to use the harshest measures. He therefore desolated the country at his leisure, delivering his captives to the cruel mercies of the Philistines and Edomites, and appeared, at last, on the north plateau of Jerusalem, only after he had laid waste the whole land with fire and sword. ^
Under these circumstances, the credit of Jeremiah as a true prophet necessarily increased, till even the vacil- lating Zedekiah, — breaking loose for a moment from his counsellors,- and imitating the example of Hezekiah, who consulted Isaiah, the great prophet of that day, in a time of similar peril,^ — deigned to send two of his oflficials, Pashur and Zephaniah, priests of high rank/ but of the Egyptian faction, and thus opposed to Jeremiah in politics,* humbly '' to enquire of Jehovah,'' through him,
^ Ijenormant, Hist. Ancienne de V Orient, -p. 4<92. Masvero, p. bOO.
' Jer. xxi. 1, 2. ^ 2 Kings xix. 2.
* 1 Cliron. xxiv. 9. Malchiah, the father of this Pashur, was head of the fifth course ; Zephaniah was the deputy high priest. He is often mentioned, and was at last slain by Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah. See Jer. xxix. 25 ; xxxvii. 3; hi. 24. Another Pashur is mentioned in Jer. xx. 1. * Jer. xxxviii. 1, 4.
60 THE INVESTMENT OP JERUSALEM.
respecting the future.^ The envoys found the seer in the temple ; but his answer to them was dispiriting in the extreme. The king should hear the truth, however painful. Shut up in the city, without the possibility of escape, how few men would have taken their lives in their hands, by braving the anger of a despot and his court, through whom he had already suffered much. But Jere- miah knew no fear when he had to speak for God.
To the question whether the king of Babylon would be driven away from Jerusalem by a miracle, like that by which the city had been saved from Sennacherib, in the reign of Hezekiah, he forthwith replied, —
4 Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel,^ Behold, instead of turning back the weapons of war in the hands of the Chaldeans, I will turn back those in your own hands, with which you fight on the walls against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans, who besiege you outside, and will cause you to assemble with them, for a last struggle, in the very heart of this city. 5 I, Myself, also will fight agaicst you, with an outstretched hand and a strong arm, with anger, and fury, and fierce wrath. 6 And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, man and beast ; they shall die by a sore pestilence. 7 And afterwards, says Jehovah, I will deliver Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his servants, the court, and the people left in this city from the pestilence the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and of them that seek their life, and he will slay them with the edge of the sword : he shall not spare them, nor have pity or mercy.
He then proceeded to point out to the citizens the only means of safety.
8 As to the people, say to them,^ Thus saith Jehovah, See, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.^ 9 He that stays
1 Jer. xxi. 1, 2. See the parallel cases of Hezekiah and Josiah, 2 Kings xxii. 13.
2 Jer. xxi. 3-7. » Jer. xxi. 8-10. * Deut. xxx. 19.
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in this city shall die by the sword, the famine, and the pestilence. But he that goes out and gives himself up to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live ; his soul shall be his share of the booty, to carry off. lo For I have set My face against this city, for evil and not for good, says Jehovah ; it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.
Then followed a warning to the royal family.
II And as to the House of the king of Judah,* hear the word of Jehovah : 12 O House of David — king and royal family together — thus saith Jehovah, Do your duty as your forefathers did," by sitting in the gate of the city every morning, to do justice, as the judges of the people, and to snatch the man that is being plundered from the hand of his oppressor; that My fury may not burst out against you like fire, and burn unquenchably, because of the evil of your doings !
Jerusalem, as a whole, has roused the anger of God.
13 Behold, I am against thee,^ O Jerusalem, inhabitress of the valley beneath the temple, and of the table-land rock •* beyond,^ saith Jehovah — who says to herself — " who shall come down from the neighbouring heights against us ? Who shall enter our secure retreats ? " 14 But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith Jehovah ; and I will kindle a fire in the forest-like dwellings of your city, and it will devour everything round it.^
1 Jer. xxi. 11, 12. 2 2 Sam. xv. 2-4 ^ jer. xxi. 13, 14.
"* Lit., "the rock of the Mishor." Mishor is the name for the smooth upland downs of Moab (Deut iii. 10 ; Josh. xiii. 17 ; xx. 8 ; Jer. xlviii. 8, 21). Derived from the root yasliar, " even, level, plain," it naturally came to be used figuratively for equity, right, righteous, and uprightness (Mai. ii. 6 ; Isa. xi. 4; Ps. xlv. 7; Ixvii. 5; cxliii. 10), and thus the name was equivalent to "the rock of justice, righteousness, or equity " — a name in which the people prided themselves.
* Zion and the rest of the city is beneath surrounding hills, and is called table-land,
^ The word used for " forest " is yaar (see vol. iv. p. 858). Por- tions of this are even now constantly set on fire by the charcoal burners, who thus often burn down a whole hillside. Neil, p. 206.
62 THE INVESTMENT OP JEEUSALEM.
Then followed a final command to take a message to the king personally.
I Thus saith Jehovah,^ Go down from this temple hill to the palace of the king of Judah, and speak this word there, 2 and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, 0 king of Judah, that sittest on the throne of David — thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter into this temple by these gates : 3 Thus saith Jehovah, Execute justice and righteousness, as supreme judge of the state, and snatch the man that is being plundered from the hand of the oppressor ; and do not yourself oppress or do violence to the stranger,^he fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place ! 4 For if you really act thus, kings sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, shall pass through the gates of the palace — they and their servants and their people. 5 But if you will not hear these words, I swear by Myself, says Jehovah, that this house, the temple, shall become a desolation !
6 For thus saith Jehovah,^ to the House of the king of Judah : Thy lofty cedar palaces, crowning Mount Ziou — though fair and proud as the trees on the hills of Gilead, or on the top of Lebanon — will be made a desolation, like cities that are depopulated and deserted. 7 I will set apart destroyers against thee, every one with his weapon, and they will cut down thy best cedars, and throw them on the fire. 8 And many peoples will pass by this city, and say each to the other, " Why has Jehovah done thus to this great city? '' 9 And they will answer, " Because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah, their God, and worshipped and served foreign gods ! "
The sins of the kings had been too surely one of the causes of the ruin of his country to permit Jeremiah to spare the throne in his preaching. Yet the glorious anticipation of the advent of a true Messianic king lighted up the future; and while he felt compelled sternly to denounce the rulers of his own and of past days, he
1 Jer. xxii. 1-5.
2 Jer. xxii. 6-9. The rest of the chapter is given at vol. iv. pp. 380-2. It is apparently of an earlier date than these verses.
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was too true a patriot, and too zealous for the final tri- umph of the kingdom of God, to keep back this cheering prospect.
I Woe to the shepherds^ — cried he about this time— who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture ! saith Jehovah. 2 Therefore, thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, respecting the shepherds that feed My people : Ye have scattered and driven away My flock, leading them into idolatry, and bringing exile upon them, and have not visited them for good, or cared for them. Behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings, saith Jehovah. 3 But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries, whither I have driven them, and bring them back again to their pastures, and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4 And I will set up shepherds over them who shall feed them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor be lost, saith Jehovah !
A singularly distinct prophecy of the Messiah follows.
5 Behold the days come,^ saith Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, who will rule as King, and act wisely, and execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel dwell in security, and this is the name by which He shall be called — " Jehovah our Righteousness."' 7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that they shall no more say, **By the life of Jehovah, who brought up the
* Kings. Jer. xxiii. 1-4. 2 jer. xxiii. 5-8.
' Bishop Thirlwall proposes that this be read, " Jehovah is our Righteousness." from the analogy of Jehovah Shammah = Jeho- vah is there (Ezek. xlviii. 35. See ThirhvalVs Bemains, vol. iii. p. 471). It would then imply that in the times of the Messiah, Jehovah would be the righteousness of Jerusalem, bestowing righteousness and all its blessings on her people. Keil, De Wette, Naegelsbach, pronounce for the name as in the A. V. Ewald, Arnheim, Streane, Hitzig, for the other rendering. The Jews un- derstand the name as referring to the Messiah. Barclaifs Talmud, p. 38. To my own mind there is no doubt that the A.V. is right, since the Messiah, not Jehovah in His invisible personality, is the great theme of prophetic hope.
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sons of Israel from Egypt/' 8 but " By the life of Jehovah, who brought up and led the seed of the House of Israel from the land of the North, and from all lands whither I have driven them," and they shall dwell in their own land.
Next to the false kings^ the false prophets had been the main cause of the ruin of the country. These, there- fore, Jeremiah fitly passes on to denounce.
9 My heart within me is broken,^ all my bones shake ^ for terror; I am like one drunk, like a man overpowered by wine, before Jehovah and His holy words. lo For the land is full of adulterers ; yea, the land withers under a curse ; the pastures of the wilderness dry up, for the conduct^ of the people is evil; they are strong, not to do right, but to do wrong ! 1 1 For both prophet and priest are unholy. Even in My own house, the temple, have I found their wickedness, saith Jehovah.^ I2 There- fore, their way will be slippery to them in the darkness ^ that is coming ; they shall be driven on and fall in it. For I will bring evil upon them, the year of their punishment, says Jehovah. 13 I saw folly ^ among the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in the name of Baal, and led My people Israel astray. 14 But I have seen among the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing ; they commit adultery,'' and walk in lies, and strengthen the hands of evil doers, so that no one turns from his evil way ; all the people of Jerusalem are become to Me as Sodom, all its inhabitants like those of Gomorrah !
1 Jar. xxiii. 9-14. 2 lj^., " are loose, or weak."
* Course.
** Since prophets are mentioned along with priests as being in the temple, Dr. R. Smith assumes that " the official prophets were part of the establishment of the temple," and because Jeremiah was put in the stocks, he adds, " they were subject to priestly discipline." Yet not only prophets, but people frequented the temple, and punishments were not restricted to any class. An offender of any kind was exposed to the tender mercies of the temple police. See Bihle in the Jewish Church, p. 286.
^ Land and Booh, p. 78.
* The word means " tasteless, unsalted," hence " irrational." ' Idolatry.
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15 Therefore, thus saith Jehovah of Hosts ^ concerning the pro- phets : Behold, I will feed them with wormwood and give them poison-water to drink,- for, from the prophets of Jerusalem, pollution has gone out through the whole land. 16 Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts : Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They deceive you ; they speak a vision of their own inventing ; ^ not out of the mouth of Jehovah. 17 They say continually to them that despise Me : " Jehovah has said, Ye shall have peace," and to every one who walks in the imagina- tion of his own heart they say : '* ISTo evil shall come upon you." 18 But who of them has stood in the counsel of Jehovah, to see and hear His Word ? Who of them has marked and heard My Word?
19 Behold a whirlwind of Jehovah,^ a storm of wrath, is gone forth, a rolling hurricane; it shall whirl round the head of the wicked. 20 The wrath of Jehovah will not turn back till He has carried out and performed the thoughts of His heart. At the end of the days ye will understand it perfectly. 2 1 I have not sent their prophets, yet they ran ; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied ! 22 But if they had stood in My counsel, they would make known to the people My words, and bring them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
The impossibility of false prophets escaping detection and punishment is evident.
23 Am I a God only over what is near at hand,^ saith Jehovah, and not, also, a God who sees and reigns afar off .P 24 Can any one hide himself in secret places, so that I shall not see him ? saith Jehovah. Do I nob fill heaven and earth .P says Jehovah. 25 I have heard what the prophets say, who prophesy lies in My name, saying, " I have dreamed, I have dreamed." 26 How long will it be in the hearts of the prophets to prophesy lies, and to be prophets of falsehood of their own invention ? ^ 27 They think they will make My people forget My name, through their dream s,^
1 Jer. xxiii. 15-18.
2 See vol. V. pp. 205, 208. See also Jer. chap. viii. 14.
3 Lit., "heart." ^ Jer. xxiii. 19-22. 5 Jer. xxiii. 23-29. e Heart.
7 There were true prophetic dreams, sent from Jehovah. VOL. VI. F
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which they tell each to the other, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal. 28 Let the prophet who really has a dream from Me, tell it ; let him who has received a word from Me, speak it faith- fully. These dreams of the false prophets are as different from true revelations from Me as straw is from corn, saith Jehovah ! 29 Is not My word like a fire that consumes all such deceptions, and like a hammer that breaks in pieces all who utter them ? '
30 Therefore, I am even now coming down^ in wrath upon the prophets, saith Jehovah, that steal My word one from the other. 31 Behold, I am even now coming down in wrath on the prophets, saith Jehovah, who use their tongues, and, without authority from Me, repeat the phrase of true prophets.^ 32 Thus saith Jehovah : Behold I am even now coming down in wrath on them that prophesy lying dreams, saith Jehovah, and repeat them, and lead astray My people by their lies and by their boasting of com- munications from Me. Yet I did not send or commission them, and they are no good whatever to this people, saith Jehovah.
;^^ And if this people, or one of these false prophets, or base priests, ask you : " What burden^ have you received from Jehovah
Num. xii. 6. 1 Sam. xxviii. 6. 1 Kings iii. 5. Job iv. 13; vii. 14; xxxiii. 15. Joel ii. 28. The dreams meant here, are pre- tended dreams, published as sent from Jehovah or from idols, and interpreted by heathen methods. In this case the pretending dreamer and interpreter were to be stoned. Deut. xiii. 2-12. See Lenormant, La Divination, p. 147.
^ Eichhorn. " Let the prophet who has a dream tell it as a dream; and let him who has My word repeat it exactly. What has straw to do among corn ? says Jehovah. Does not My word burn like fire ? Does it not break in pieces the heart as the iron hammer does the rocks ? "
2 Jer. xxiii. 30-40.
3 It is striking to notice how the bitter divisions of the day united the most opposite parties against the old national faith. The aristocracy found themselves supported in their heathen and Egyptian bias by the bulk of the priests and even of the prophets, who as an order were the natural antagonists of the moribund priesthood.
* The Hebrew word is Massa. For its meaning, see vol. v. p. 429, also Neil, p. 25.
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to-day? " say to them: "What burden have I received to-day? " This: "I will cast you off (as an intolerable burden)," says Jehovah ! ^ 34 And the prophet, the priest, and the people who talk lightly of "The burden of Jehovah," I will punish that man and his house. 35 Ye shall speak thus, each, to liis neighbour, and each to his brother: "What has Jehovah answered? and what has Jehovah said ? " 36 But ye shall no more use the phrase, "Burden of Jehovah," for it shall itself be a burden of guilt to every man who uses it, for ye misuse and pervert the words of the living God, Jehovah of Hosts, our God, of which this phrase is one. 37 You shall say also to the prophet, "What has Jehovah answered thee? and what has Jehovah said?" 38 But if you speak of "The burden of Jehovah," thus saith Jehovah: Because you use this phrase, "The burden of Jehovah," in ridicule of His true prophets, and I have sent to you, saying, "You shall not say, ' The burden of Jehovah,' " 39 I, even I, will take you up as My burden, and cast both you and the city which I gave to you and your fathers, far from My sight, 40 and bring everlasting shame on you, and perpetual undying contempt.
The message sent to the king closes v^^ith a parabolic vision, like that seen by the prophet Amos.- The date at which it was first spoken is stated to have been some time after Nebuchadnezzar had carried off King Jehoia- chin and the chief men of the nation, with the carpenters, smiths and other artisans of Jerusalem, as prisoners, to Babylon. The population left in the city fancied they had been spared as better than those so heavily punished ; but Jeremiah tells them that the very reverse was the fact. He saw in spirit, two baskets of figs set before the temple ; ^ one specially good, like the delicate June fruit which anticipated the harvest in August ; ^ the other
^ Or, "Ye are the burden, saith Jehovah." This reading is obtained from another division of the words in the Hebrew, with' out any change of letters.
- Amos viii. 1-3. ^ jer. xxiv. 1-3.
* Isa. xxviii. 4. Hos. ix. 10. Mic. vii. 1. Nah. iii. 12.
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SO bad as to be uneatable ^ — and he recognised in tlie two a striking picture of the true condition of the kingdom. On the one side, the young king, full of promise, had been led off into captivity with the noblest, bravest, and most useful men of the city. The hope of the future rested on these. On the other hand, there was the weak vassal-king Zedekiah, with the feeble and cor- rupt remnant of the population left behind ; untaught by the terrible lesson of the fall of their brethren, and unteachable. Some of the choicest spirits of the nation were now on the banks of the Chebar — such as Daniel, his three companions, and the prophet Ezekiel — and they would kindle a better life in their fellow-captives. But in Jerusalem there was no such prospect of spiritual revival. The word of Jehovah, that accompanied the vision, ran as follows : —
5 Thus saith Jehovah, ^ the God of Israel : As one looks with pleasure on good fruit, and guards and preserves it, so will I look for their good upon the captives of Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6 For I will set My eye on them for their good, and will bring them back again to this land, and I will build them up and not destroy them ; I will plant them and not pluok them up. 7 And I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am Jehovah; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.
8 And ^ as men throw away bad, uneatable figs, verily, so, says Jehovah, will I treat Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his princes, and the remnant of Jerusalem, and those that remain in this land, and also those dwelling in the land of Egypt. 9 I will make them an object of shuddering pity, and give them up to calamity in all kingdoms of the earth ; and will make them a contempt, a
^ The bad figs may have been those of the sycamore, which contain a bitter juice, or they may have been decayed or rotten, Tristram, Nat. Hist, of Bible, p. 399.
2 Jer. xxiv. 4-7. ^ Jer. xxiv. 8-10.
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byword, a mockery and the butt of cursing, in all places whither I drive them. lo And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence upon them, till they are wholly consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.
The moral corruption and social anarcby of Jerusalem must have been extreme, to call forth such denunciations from one of its own citizens ; a man not censorious or cynical, but full of tender loyalty to his fellow-country- men. But amidst all this evil there were still some of *' the poor " and " meek '* of the land, who clung to the religion of their fathers, and yearned for the revival of faith in Jehovah and obedience to His law. With them, among the remnant in Judah, lay the future of the Church of God. They were the true Israel, and, as such, Jehovah was mindful of His covenant with their fathers. To sustain them amidst the gloom, around and before them, an assurance of the certain realization of the Divine promises was only what might be expected from the gracious God whom they so faithfully served. Jeremiah, as the centre of this feeble evangelical brotherhood, felt his warmest sympathies drawn out towards them, and gladly turned aside from his terrible condemnations, to announce the future salvation prepared by God for His true people, after they had been purified by exile. The whole chosen race, so far as it returned to its allegiance to Jehovah, would, one day, be restored. They would come back to their own land, and a new spiritual covenant, written, not on tables of stone, but on their hearts, would be made with them, and they would forget their past misery. Jeremiah was, therefore, commanded to write in a book " all the words " which Jehovah thus condescended to communicate for the comfort of His hidden ones ; " For, lo,'' ^ He said, " the days come that ^ Jer. XXX. 1-3.
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I will bring back again the captivity of My people Israel, and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers_, and they shall possess it.""
The consolation thus graciously vouchsafed, is thrown, in its introductory sentences, into a dramatic form,^ for greater effect. A future generation is pictured as hearing, from afar, the bitter cry of the exiles, amidst the judgments on the heathen around them, and Jehovah is introduced as ministering words of cheer to them, by a promise of their future deliverance.
5 {The people) We hear the ory of terror and dismay, and, as yet, there is no deHverance ! (The prophet) 6 Ask and see. A man cannot bear a child ; why then such wails, like those of a woman in trouble? Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, like a woman in her pain, and all faces turned pale? 7 {Exiles) Alas, for that day of Jehovah, often predicted! The day of His judgments, is great ; it is a time of distress to Jacob. {Jehovah) But he shall be saved from it.
The great theme of the discourse — the deliverance from exile — now begins.
8 In that day, ^ says Jehovah, I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon from off thy neck, 0 Israel, and burst asunder thy bonds, and aliens shall no longer make thee their servant. 9 But Israel shall be the servant of Jehovah, his God, and of David, his king, whom I will raise up to him.^
10 Therefore, fear thou not, ^ 0 My servant Jacob, saith Jehovah, and be not dismayed, 0 Israel ; for, lo, I will save thee from the
1 Jer. XXX. 4-7. ^ Jer. xxx. 8, 9.
^ The Messiah is spoken of as David in other passages. See Ezek. xxxiv. 23 ; xxxvii. 24. Hos. iii. 5. From this, and similar passages, the Kabbis invented a doctrine of a double Messiah — temporal and spiritual. Buxtorff, Lex., p. 1273. Oehler, in nerzog,Yo\. ix. p. 440. But see Hengstenberg's ChristoL. 2te Auf., p. 471.
* Jer. xxx. 10-14.
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far distant land of thy exile, and thy children from the land of captivity, and Jacob shall return, and rest in peace, no one dis- turbiniT him. 1 1 For I am with thee, says Jehovah, to save thee ; for I shall make an utter end of the nations among which I have scattered thee, but I will not make a full end of thee ; yet I will chastise thee according to justice, for I cannot leave thee un- punished. 12 For, thus saith Jehovah, thy wound is past healing ; the blow that has struck thee is desperate. 13 No one cares for thy state; thou hast no medicines for thy so^'e, to press it to- getlier or bind it, or any plaster. 14 All thy lovers, with whom thou sinnedst, have forgotten thee; they do not ask after thee; for I have struck thee down with the blow of an enemy, with bitter chastisement, for the multitude of thy transgressions — for thy sins were many.
Judah and Jerusalem are now specially addressed.
15 Why criest thou out for thy sufferings?' Because thy punishment is terrible ? I have done these things to thee for the multitude of thy transgressions, for thy sins were matiy. 16 But, because I have pity upon thee, therefore all that devour thee shall themselves be devoured; all thy oppressors, every one of them, shall go into captivity; they that plundered thee shall themselves be spoiled, and all who have robbed thee will I give as a prey to robbers. 17 And I will lay a healing plaster on thy wound, and heal thee of the blows thou hast received, saith Jehovah, because they call thee an " Outcast," — " Zion, whom no man asks after."
Jerusalem shall be in favour with God, and shall prosper.
18 Thus saith Jehovah,^ Behold, I will turn again the captivity of the tents of Jacob, and have mercy on his dwelling-places, and Jerusalem shall be rebuilt on its own hill,^ and the palace be
1 Jer. XXX. 15-17. 2 Jer. xxx. 18-22.
* The word in the Heb. for "hill" is Ttl. It olteu forms part of the name of a city, us in Telassar, Tliela>sar (ii Kings xix. 12; Isa. xxxvii. 12), Tel Haresha = Tel Harsa, and Tel Melah (Ezra ii. 59 ; Neh. vii. 61), Tel Abib (Ezek. iii. 15). Most eastern cities were built on eminences, to protect them from inundation and against the foe.
72 THE INVESTMENT OF JERUSALEM.
inhabited by a king in royal state.^ 19 And out of the tents of Jacob and the chambers of the city shall rise thanksgiving, and the voice of them that rejoice, and I will multiply them, and they shall not be diminished, and I will bring them to honour, and they shall no longer be lightly regarded. 20 Their sons shall flourish as in times of old, and their community ^ be firmly established, and I will punish all that would oppress them. 21 And their king will come forth from their own race, their ruler from the midst of themselves ; they will no more serve the foreigner : and I will bring him near and allow him freely to approach Me, even in the Holy of Holies, to plead for you — a boldness of access permitted to no one else.^ For who is he who would risk his life by ap- proaching Me? 22 Thus will you be My people, and I will be your God.
The wicked, however, will be consumed in the flames of God's wrath.
23 Behold there comes a tempest from Jehovah,^ a bursting forth of wrath ; a sweeping hurricane will whirl round the heads of the wicked. 24 The fierce indignation of Jehovah will not turn aside till he has finished and carried out the thought of His heart. At the end of days ye will understand this !
This storm of wrath against the enemies of Israel will at once prove God to be the God of His people, and will bring about the deliverance and reassembling of all its twelve tribes as one nation.
1 At the same time, says Jehovah,^ will I be the God of all the twelve tribes of Israel, and they shall be My people. 2 Thus saith Jehovah, The remnant of the nation which lias escaped from the sword has found grace in the wilderness. Israel is now coming
* Lit., " after its manner."
2 Congregation.
^ A promise of the greatness and glory of the Messiah. Not even David had such a privilege. None but the high priest, and he only once a year, could enter the Holy of Holies; but the Messiah, being the very Son of God, and Himself Divine, had freedom of approach to the Father at all times.
* Jer. XXX. 23, 24. ^ Jar. xxxi. 1-6.
THE INVESTMENT OP JERUSALEM. 73
to its rest !^ 3 It now says in its penitence, " Jehovah appeared from afar— from Zion— unto me." Let Me therefore tell its sons,
I have indeed loved thee, Israel, with an everlasting love, there- fore have I continued My lovingkindness to thee. 4 I will, farther build thee up again, and thou sbalt remain prosperous," 0 Virgin of Israel. Thou shalt again ornament thy timbrels,^ and go forth in the dances of them that make merry. 5 Thou shalt yet plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria, and they that plant them shall gather their fruit. 6 For the day is coming when the watchmen on the mountains of Ephraim shall announce the new moons that proclaim the approach of the great yearly feasts, and shall call out—" Up ! let us go up to Mount Zion, to Jehovah, our God! "
7 For thus saith Jehovah i^ Sing for gladness about Jacob ! Sing songs of jubilee about her that was the chief of the nations !^ Sing aloud, and cry to God, " Jehovah, save Thy people ! the remnant of Israel ! " 8 [Then will come His gracious answer] : Behold, I bring them from the land of the North, and gather them from the farthest sides of the earth — the blind and the lame, as well as the strong; the woman with child, and she that is about to bring forth, together. A great community are they as they return ! 9 They will come with weeping and with suppli- cations, as I lead them. I will guide them to streams of water, by a smooth path, on which they will not stumble, for I will be a Father to Israel, and Ephraim shall be my firstborn.
10 Hear the word of Jehovah,^ O ye nations, and tell it to the farthest coasts and islands, and say : " He that scattered Israel will gather him, and will guard him as a shepherd doth his flock."
II For Jehovah has redeemed Jacob,^ and ransomed him from the
^ Ewald refers this to the favour shown Israel after its escape from Egypt. Others think it is spoken of the remnant of the tribes who have survived the Assyrian captivity. But Babylon, or Assyria, was a wilderness to the fancy of the Jew, compared with his own land. The explanations of the last clause are nume- rous. I have given what seems to me the best translation.
= Heb., " built."
^ Heb., toph ; Arab., duff, or diff; our tambourine. See "tim- brel " and " tabret," in Concordance.
4 Jer. xxxi. 7-9. 6 Amos vi. 1. Ezek. xix. 5.
6 Jer. xxxi. 10-14. 7 The Ten Tribes.
74 THE INVESTMENT OF JERUSALEM.
hand that was stronger than he, 12 and they will come and sing on the height of Zion, and stream to the blessings of Jehovah, which He shall give them in the fatherland — to the wheat, and to the wine, and to the oil, and to the young sheep and oxen ; and their soul shall be as a garden rich in waters, and they shall not droop or pine away any more. 13 Then shall the virgin enjoy herself in the dance;* young men and old will rejoice together; and I will turn their mourning into joy, and comfort them, and make them glad, after their sorrow. 14 And I will satiate " the priests with fatness,^ and My people will be satisfied with My bounty, saith Jehovah.
An exquisite passage now comes, in which the long dead Rachel, the mother of Joseph, and thus the an- cestress of the great tribe of Ephraim, the representative of the Ten Tribes^ is seen risen from the grave and lamenting their loss, at Ramah, the lofty hill on the boundary between the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, whence she could look afar over the now desolate home of her northern children. But Jehovah Himself comforts her as she weeps. Let Israel repent of his sins, and he will surely return.
1 5 Thus saith Jehovah : '' A voice is heard in Ramah,' loud cries of sorrow and bitter weeping. Rachel weeps over her children and refuses to be comforted, because they are not.
But Jehovah appears to console and cheer her.
16 Refrain thy voice from weeping '^ and thine eyes from tears,
^ The maidens danced by themselves.
2 Lit., " water or refresh."
* The number of the finest beasts offered as sacrifices will be very numerous, so that the share of the priests and their families — the wave breast and heave shoulder (Lev. vii. 31-34) — will more than supply them. ^ Jer. xxxi. 15.
^ Now Er Ram, five English miles N. of Jerusalem. It is on the top of a detached hill commanding a wide view to the north.
6 Jer. xxxi. 16-17.
THE INVESTMENT OF JERUSALEM. 75
says the All-merciful; for thou shalt still have a reward of thy motherly sorrow and care— thou guide of the youth of Joseph — thou who gavest thy life to give Benjamin his — thou who didst so yearn for children — thy sons shall come back again from the land of the enemy. 17 There is hope for thy future, saith Jehovah; thy sons shall return to their own borders !
Repentance is needed on the part of Israel^ to secure its deliverance from captivity ; but this is not wanting.
18 I have assuredly heard Ephraim lamenting his sins :^ " Thou hast chastised me," said he. " I received correction like an ox unbroken ; turn me, that I may turn, for Thou, Jehovah, art my God. 19 For after I had turned away from Thee I repented ; and after I came to my right mind I smote on my thigh, for grief at my sin ; I blush and am ashamed that I should bear such reproach for the guilt of my youth."
At this confession of sin by Ephraim^ the old love of Jehovah for him rekindles.
20 Is Ephraim, then,^ a dear son to me ? Is he a son I de- lighted to caress ? For, often as I spoke against him, I still thought of him fondly. Therefore, my heart sighs for him; I will surely have mercy on him, saith Jehovah.
Preparations for his safe return across the wilderness, from Assyria to Palestine^ are therefore to be made.
21 Set up stones to mark the way;^ raise heaps of stones to point it out : turn thy thoughts to the road thou hast to take : the same road by which thou wast led into captivity : return, 0 Virgin of Israel, return to these thy towns ! 22 How long wilt thou hesitate to take the right way, 0 backsliding daughter ? For Jehovah has created a new thing in the earth ; it is the part of a man — the stronger — to protect and care for the woman ; but thou, the woman — the bride of Jehovah — wilt be allowed to pro- tect Me, by protecting My temple, My worship, and My honour,'*
I Jer. xxxi. 18, 19. " Jer. xxxi. 20. 3 jer. xxxi. 21, 22.
* See on this explanation, Keil, Jeremiah, pp. 331-2. A great variety of opinions may be read in Rosenmiiller, Scholia, ad loc. "To compass " = to cherish and protect.
76 THE INVESTMENT OF JERUSALEM.
Judah^ also, shall be restored from captivity.
23 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts,^ the God of Israel : They shall again use this speech in the land of Judah, and in its towns, when I bring back their captivity : ** Jehovah bless thee, 0 habitation of righteousness ; thou holy mount ! " ^ 24 And therein will all Judah dwell, with all the population of its towns ; some as hus- bandmen, some going forth with flocks. 25 For I will refresh the weary soul, and satisfy him that languishes.
The prophet had seen and heard all this while in a sleep-like trance/ but the joy it gave him broke the spell, and he now awakes and sees things around, as one restored to his normal state. No wonder that he adds, "My sleep was sweet unto me.^' But, ere long, his thoughts fell back to the same train, and the happy future of Judah and Israel, as a nation once more united, rose in vision before him.
27 Behold, the days come ^ (said the heavenly Voice), when I will sow the House of Israel, and the House of Judah, as if they were a fruitful field, with the seed of man and with the seed of cattle. 28 And as I have been wakeful over them, to pluck up and root out, to destroy, and consume, and harm, so will I be wakeful over them to build and to plant, saith Jehovah.
There will, then, be no longer the disposition to blame the sins of the fathers and overlook their own, as the cause of all they have suffered in exile.
29 In those days they will no longer say, as ye do constantly now, " The fathers ate sour grapes and the teeth of the sons are set on edge." ^ 30 But every one shall die only for his own sins ; every man who eats sour grapes, his teeth, only, shall be set on edge.
A community thus realizing the responsibility of its piembers for their spiritual condition and acts, would
^ Jer. xxxi. 23-25. 2 tj^^ ^^^^ ^j Judah.
8 Jer. xxxi. 26. « Jer. xxxi. 27-30.
* Ezek. xviii. 2. See page 21.
THE INVESTMENT OP JERUSALEM.
77
necessarily be actuated by a higher motive than the mere wish to honour God by outward service. Grateful for His restoring them to their own land, obedience to Him would be a willing homage of love. A New Covenant, written, not like the former, on tables of stone, but on the "fleshy tables of the heart,^' would, therefore, be made with them by Jehovah.
31 Behold, the days come,^ saith Jehovah, when I shall make a new Covenant with the House of Israel, and with the House of Judah ; 32 not like the Covenant I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand, to lead them out from the land of Egypt, which. My Covenant, they have broken, though I had become their husband,- saifcli Jehovah.
33 But this is the Covenant ^ that I will make with the House of Israel, after those days, saith Jehovah ; I will put ^ my law^ in their inmost parts, and write it on their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 And they will no longer need to teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, "Know Jehovah"; for they shall all know Me, from the least to the greatest, saith Jehovah ; and I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.^
The covenant made at Sinai, written on stone, had been instituted amidst every circumstance of awe, and hence, fear, rather than love, had been associated with its observance. But the New Covenant of the Messianic times, written on the heart, would rest on love; and holy love is, like the soul, immortal. The moral nature
» Jer. xxxi. 31, 32.
2 The word in the Heb. means to become their " Lord," or "husband." It is used in the same sense in Gen. xx. 3; Dent, xxi. 13, xxii. 22, xxiv. 1; Isa. Ixii. 4, 5, liv. 1, 5; Jer. iii. 14; Mai. ii. 11. In 1 Chron. iv. 22, and Isa. xxvi. 13, it is rendered "to have dominion over."
3 Jer. xxxi. 33, 34. « Lit., " give." ^ Torah.
^ Gratitude for sin forgiven will lead them to seek to know Jehovah, and will keep them faithful to Him.
78
THE INVESTMENT OE JEEUSALEM.
would, in fact, be renewed, as of old the world had been from chaos, and the laws of the new spiritual creation woutd prove as permanent and unchanging as those of the material universe.
35 Thus saith Jehovah, ^ who appointed the sun for light by day ; the ordinance of the moon and stars for light by night ; who throws the sea into a commotion so that its waves roar ; Jehovah of Hosts is His name: 36 If these ordinances fail from before Me,
Ancient Sepulchees is the Valley of Hinnom.
saith Jehovah, so also will the seed of Israel cease to be a nation, before Me, for ever! 37 Thus saith Jehovah: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth beneath be searched out, I will also reject all the seed of Israel, notwith- standing all that they have done, saith Jehovah.
Jerusalem would be rebuilt and flourish in those days. 1 Jer. xxxi. 35-37.
THE INVESTMENT OF JERUSALEM. 79
38 Behold the days come, ^ saith Jehovah, that the city Jerusalem will be rebuilt for Jehovah, from the Tower of Hananeel " to the gate of the corner. ^ 39 And the measuring line will go still farther, straight forward, over the hill Gareb,"* and bend towards Goath.5 40 And the whole of Benhinnom, the valley of corpses ^ and ashes," defiled now as the scene of the horrors of Moloch worship,^ and all the space east to the Valley of Kidron, to the corner where the Horse Gate is, at the south-east angle of the wall, will be holy to Jehovah, and shall no more be rooted up or destroyed for ever !
» Jer. xxxi. 38-40.
2 At the north-east of the city wall. Neh. iii. 1. Zech. xiv. 10.
^ At the north-west corner of the town ; north or north-west of the present Jaffa Gate. 2 Kings xiv. 13. 2 Chron. xxvi. 9. Zech. xiv. 10.
^ Gareb = the place of the lepers. An unknown height on the west of the city.
^ An unknown spot on the south-west of the city. The re- stored Jerusalem would include spaces lying outside the old city. It is called in the Talmud " The heifer's pool."
^ Carcases of criminals and of animals were thrown out in the Valley of Hinnora.
7 Part of the valley was set apart for the mingled ashes and fat of the sacrifices, to consume which an " unquenchable fire " was kept always burning.
® 2 Kings xxiii. 10.
CHAPTEE V.
DUEING THE SIEGE.
JEREMIAH was fortunate enougli to preserve his liberty for some time after the siege had begun, but it was in danger from day to day. Nebuchadnezzar's army, including, besides Chaldeans, contingents from every land subject to him/ had full possession of the country outside the gates of Jerusalem, and were besieg- ing not only Jerusalem, but also, at the same time, Lachish and Azekah, fortified towns belonging to Judah, on the Philistine plain. ^ The stubborn tenacity of the capital, however, remained unbroken, and its hope that Egypt would send a force to relieve it was unshaken. Amidst such excitement, to run counter to the popular feeling was dangerous in the extreme, and would have been made an excuse for silence by ordinary men. But Jeremiah knew that resistance was vain, and lost no opportunity of proclaiming this, even to the king in person. Zedekiah had already consulted him, as we have seen, as to the future ; but this did not content the prophet. Seizing opportunities of meeting him, either by penetrating to his chambers in the palace, or when he came abroad, Jeremiah sought, again and again, to warn him of the madness of further resistance.
* Jer. xxxiv. 1. ' Jer. xxxiv. 1, 7.
DURING THE SIEGE.
81
" Thus saith Jehovali/' said he, on one occasion when he had made his way into the royal presence.^
2 Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Baby- lon, that he may burn it with fire. 3 And thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and delivered into his hand ; and thine eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Babylon and thy mouth will speak with his mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon." 4 Yet, hear the word of Jehovah, 0 Zedekiah, thou king of Judah. Thus says Jehovah respecting thee. Thou shalt not die by the sword. 5 Thou shalt die in peace, and they will burn spices at thy burial,^ as they did at the burial of thy fathers, and they will raise over thee the usual lament, "Ah, lord!" — for I have spoken the word, says Jehovah.
One of the forms of op- pression a- gainst which Jeremiah and other prophets constantly de- claimed, was the retention of free-born Hebrews of both sexes, in slavery, contrary to the law. It was illegal to hold any one as a household slave for more than six years, though field slaves, under special circumstances, might be kept as such till the year of Jubilee.* Both classes, however, were to be treated as kindly as if they were hired servants.^ But the rich men of Jerusalem ignored these provisions of the law,
1 Jer. xxxiv. 2-7.
2 Jer. lii. 11 ; xxxii. 4. Ezek. xii. 13.
^ It was usual with other nations to burn aromatic perfumes at the burial or burning of great persons. Pliny, Hist. Nat, xii. 18. The Assyrians seem to have in some cases burned the bodies of the dead, but the Hebrews buried them.
* Exod. xxi. 2. Dent. xv. 12, * Jer. xxv. 39-55.
VOL. VI. Q
AsSTBIAir FUXEBAL TTbNS 70B THE ASHBS OF THE DSAD.
From Gosse's Assyria.
82 DUEING THE SIEGE.
aud held numbers of household servants in perpetual slavery. The imminent danger of the city now, how- ever, for the moment, roused the conscience of the king in favour of these helpless victims. Jeremiah's words had sunk into his heart, and he resolved to take one step, at least, in the right direction, by setting all the Hebrew slaves in Jerusalem free, apparently without regard to the length of time they had served. The need of all possible help in the defence may, perhaps, have been, in part, a consideration, and also, the prudent wish to avert disaffection among the oppressed, when hearty union was so imperative. Amidst the terrors of the siege, therefore, a great assembly of the citizens was held in the temple,^ and acquiescence in a decree of emancipation wrung from all slaveholders ; their formal assent to this reform being solemnly confirmed by a covenant ratified by the usual sacrifices.^ The decree of enfranchisement was then published, and, even amidst the perils of the hour, the great act of justice spread a momentary gladness through all bosoms.^
But reforms carried in a paroxysm of excitement are apt to be short lived. News reached the Chaldeans, very soon after, that an Egyptian army, destined for the relief of Jerusalem, had invaded the south of Palestine,* thus creating a danger to the besiegers which forced them to abandon the investment of the city for a time, and march against the new foe. To lead a large force down the steep and narrow defiles, from the table land to the coast plains, was no easy matter, and secured for the capital a respite of at least two or three months. Hopes forthwith ran high among the citizens, that the disappearance of their assailants was final ; the victory of Pharaoh Hophra
* Jer. xxxiv. 15. " Jer. xxxiv. 18.
3 Jer. xxxiv. 8-10. * Jer. xxxvii. 5.
DURING THE SIEGE. 83
being confidently assumed. But he was soon driven back to Egypt ; if, indeed, as some accounts say, he did not retire at once without fighting, on the approach of the Chaldeans.
The interval of fancied security was ruinous to Jeru- salem. The slaves so lately set at liberty were once more seized, and deprived of their brief freedom.^ Vio- lence reigned as cruelly as in the worst days of the past. The wildest agitation prevailed. Even a semblance of order could only be maintained by the clubs and spears of the retainers of the slave-holding lords. Jerusalem was rent by the bitterest of all feuds, the struggle of a despairing proletariat for its personal liberty. Amidst this fierce uproar and commotion, the voice of Jeremiah, fearless, as always, in defence of the rights of the poor against the injustice of the rich and privileged classes, was heard denouncing the oppressor, and sympathizing with the downtrodden.
13 Thus saith Jehovah,^ the God of Israel, — cried the noble tribune of the people, — I made a Covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the House of Slaves, saying: 14 At the end of seven years,^ ye shall set free, every man. bis brother Hebrew, who has sold himself to thee ; he shall !?erve thee six years, and then thou shalt let him go free. But your fathers hearkened not to Me, neither inclined their ear. 15 Ye, however, changing this recently, did what was right in My sight; proclaiming liberty,
^ Jer. xxxiv. 11. . * Jer. xxxiv. 12-16.
3 At the end of six years. The first and last dates were both reckoned by the Hebrews. Thus the Jubilee was, strictly speaking, the 49th year, nob the 50th. So also Circumcision, which was said to be on the eighth day, was, by our way of reck- oning, on the seventh; and our Lord's Kesurrectiou, which by the Jewish counting was to take place on the third day, was by ours to be on the second.
84 DURING THE SIEGE.
every man, to his neiglabour ; and made a Covenant to this effect before Me, in the House which is called by My name. i6 But ye have now changed again, and have polluted My name, and have taken back every one his man slave and every one his woman slave, whom he had set free of his own will, and have forced them once more into bondage.
17 Therefore, thus saith Jehovah,^ since ye have not hearkened to Me, by keeping true to your proclamation of liberty to your brothers and neighbours ; behold, I now proclaim liberty to you, saith Jehovah; liberty to the sword, the pestilence, and the famine, to ravage you ; and I give you up to be a shuddering to all the kingdoms of the earth ! 18 And I will make the men who have broken my Covenant given of old, and have not kept this present one which they but as yesterday swore before Me, like the calf which they cut in two, and between the pieces of which they passed," when these Covenants were made. 19 The princes of Judah and of Jerusalem, the courtiers and the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the pieces of the calf, 20 I will give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life, and their dead bodies shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. 21 And Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his princes, will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of the array of the king of Babylon, which has for the time withdrawn from Jerusalem. 22 Behold, I will command, saith Jehovah, and bring them back to this city, to fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire; and I will make the towns of Judah a desolation, without an inhabitant !
The relief enjoyed by the temporary retirement of the Chaldeans from the siege, however misleading to others as to the final issue of the struggle^ did not for a moment change the fixed convictions of Jeremiah. Divinely illuminated, he knew that Egypt would be defeated and ultimately crushed by Nebuchadnezzar, and this he sought to get his fellow-citizens to believe, that they might save at least their lives and the town, by timely submission to the Chaldeans.
1 Jer. xxxiv. 17-22. ^ Gen. xv. 10.
DURING THE SIEGE. 85
The word of Jehovah^ he announced, had come to him,
14 Declare ye in Egypt, publish it in Migdol,^ make it known in Noph and Tahpanhes ! - Say : Stand forth and prepare thyself, for the sword has devoured the nations round about you. 15 Why is thy Mighty One overthrown ? ^ He could not stand, for Jehovah has cast him down. 16 He causes many to fall; yea, one falls on the other; the bands of the mercenary troops say : " Up ! let us return to our own people, to the land of our birth, from the exterminating sword." 17 They call Pharaoh,'' the king of Egypt,
1 Jer. xlvi. 13-19.
2 Migdol, or Magdolon (a military " watch tower "), was twelve miles from Pelusium, or Avaris, the north-east frontier town of Egypt. It lay S.W. from Avaris on the only road. Tahpanhes (see vol. V. p. 146), lay eight or ten miles fiirther to the S.E., on the same road. Noph, contracted from Menoph, is Memphis, the ancient capital of Lower Egypt. Its ruins lie south of the present Cairo, on the west bank of the Nile. See vol. ii. pp. 13-16. See also Brugsch's Map.
3 The adjective translated in the A. V. "valiant" is plural, but the verb and the pronouns in the clause are singular. It has hence been thought that the adjective, also, should be singular; the only change needed to make it so being the omission of the letter Yod, the smallest in the Hebrew alphabet, which may have been inserted by a copyist to suit the plural verb, etc. The Septuagint, treating it as singular, refers it to the sacred ox Khaph— Apis or Hapi — the supreme god of Memphis, translating the phrase, "Why has Apis, thy chosen one, fled? " But other towns besides Memphis are named, and Apis was worshipped in Memphis alone. He was indeed "The Mighty One" of that city; jnst as Jehovah was " The Mighty One of Israel." The plural of the adjective, it may be added, is used of strong oxen, but the singular never stands for an ox. On the whole, the singular seems likely to be correct, and may be applied either to the king of Egypt or to the god Apis, as is thought best by the reader. Ewald translates the passage " Thy Ox is carried off."
* The Sept., Syriac and Yulgate, by the change of the vowel in the Hebrew, read " the name of " for " these."
86 DURING THE SIEGE.
" a ruined man " ; for he has let his season of grace pass away ! i8 As I live, says the King, whose name is Jehovah of Hosts: Verily, as a Tabor among the mountains and a Carmel on the Sea, will the invading destroyer come.^ 19 Make ready thy packing, in preparation for being carried off captive, ye citizens of Egypt; for Noph shall be waste and desolate, without an inhabitant.
20 EgypL^ is like a wondrously fair heifer, but a deadly gadfly* comes out of the north to destroy her ! 2 1 Her foreign hired troops also, in her midst, men like fatted bullocks, even they turn their backs and flee together, and will not face the foe ; for the day of their destruction has come on them ; the time of their punish- ment. 22 The voice of Egypt, bowed and humbled to the dust, ia like the rustle of a serpent gliding off in alarm through the fallen leaves of a wood ; for her enemies march against her in strength, and come with axes against her, like men that hew down trees; 23 and they will hew down her forest,^ saith Jehovah, for their number is countless, they are more than the locusts, they are innumerable. 24 The daughter of Egypt is put to shame, she is given into the hand of the people of the North. 25 Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel : Behold, I will visit Amon, the god of No — that is, Thebes ^ — and Pharaoh, and Egypt ; its gods and its kings ; the Pharaoh and those who trust in him ; 26 and I will give them into the hand of their deadly foe, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants. Yet, afterwards, it will flourish ^ as in the days of old, saith Jehovah.
27 But fear not thou, 0 my servant Jacob,^ and be not dismayed 0 Israel ! For, behold, I will deliver thee from the far-off land,
^ His awful might will rise high over that of all around him, as Tabor and Carmel above the landscape at their feet. Tabor is 1,805 feet above the sea level, 1,350 feet above the plain below. Carmel sinks into the Mediterranean in a steep cliff more than 500 feet in height. Bohinson.
2 Lit., " daughter." ^ jer. slvi. 20-26.
* Miililait- und Volch. Gesenius, Sup2J. to Thes., p. 111. Ewald translates it " a monster." Graf and others, as in the text.
5 Jer. xxi. 14. Isa. x. 18, 33. ^ See vol. ii. p. 14
7 Lit. " be inhabited." « Jer. xlvi. 27, 28.
DURING THE SIEGE. 87
and thy seed from the land of its captivity, and Jacob shall return, and be at rest and secure, no one disturbing him. 28 Fear not thou, 0 Jacob, My servant, says Jehovah; for I am with thee; for
1 will make an utter end of all the nations whither I have driven thee, but I will not make an utter end of thee, but only chasten thee according to right, and not leave thee unpunished.
Intercourse between Jerusalem and the exiles on the Chebar was still swift and constant in these years, and false hopes of the triumph of Egypt, cherished among them as much as in Palestine, needed no less to be discouraged. Hence, on the twelfth day of Tebet,^ nearly our January, in the year 588, Ezekiel addressed his fellow- captives in words very similar to those of Jeremiah in the far-off capital.
I The word of Jehovah has come to me^ (cried he), saying:
2 Set thy face against Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. 3 Speak, and say : Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I come against thee, 0 Pharaoh, king of Egypt, thou great crocodile, lying in the midst of the canals of the Nile, who hast said, " My Nile stream is my own ; I made it what it is for myself, by canals, dams, sluices, and reservoirs." 4 But I will put a ring in thy jaws, and will make the fish of thy streams — that is, the people of thy laud — cleave to thy scales, and I will drag thee up out of the midst of thy canals, and all the fish in them will stick to thy scales, 5 And I will throw thee out into the desert, thee and all the fish of thy canals ; thou wilt fall on the open ground; thou shalt not be lifted up nor buried; for I give thee for meat to the beasts of the earth and the fowls of heaven. 6 And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am Jehovah, because they are a staff of brittle reed to the House of Israel. 7 When its sons take hold of thee with the hand thou snappest across, and tearesb off their whole shoulder ; when they lean on thee thou breakest so that their whole body shakes.
8 Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I bring on
* Lit., in the 10th moon ; the 12th day of the moon. 2 Ezek. xxix. 1-12
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thee, 0 Egypt, the sword, and destroy from thee man and beast. 9 And the land of Egypt will be made waste and desert, and they shall know that I am Jehovah.
Because Pharaoh has said, " The Nile stream is mine, and I have made it," lo behold, for this, I am against thee, and against thy canals, and. I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desert, from Migdol on the farthest north-east, to Syene on the farthest south, that is, to the borders of Ethiopia. No foot of man or of cattle will pass through it, nor vp^ill it be inhabited for forty years. 1 1 And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation above all desolate lands, and her towns will be a desolation above all desolate towns for forty years ; and I will scatter the Egyp- tians among the nations, and disperse them through the lands.
13 Yet,^ thus says the Lord Jehovah : At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples whither they were scattered. 14 And I will bring back the captives of Egypt, and will restore them to the land of Pathros," the land of their birth, and there they shall be a weak kingdom. 15 It will be the weakest of kingdoms, nor will it exalt itself any more above the nations ; for I will make them weak, that they may no more rule over the nations. 16 And Egypt will no longer be the trust of the House of Israel, bringing their sin in remembrance before God by their thus turning away from Him to look to them. And they shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah.
Three months later/ when the siege of Jerusalem was near the end of its fifteenth month,* perhaps after the receipt, from Palestine, of news that Pharaoh^ s attempted relief had been defeated, Ezekiel once more addressed the exiles on the engrossing subject of the prospects of future help to Judah from the Nile. The word of Jehovah, he tells us, came to him saying, —
21 Son of man! I have broken the arm of Pharaoh, king of
1 Ezek. xxix. 13-16.
2 Egypt. Petores = South-country, Upper Egypt ; the Thebais of the Greeks and Romans.
3 Ezek. XXX. 20-26.
* See date in Ezek. xxiv. 1, 2; comp. with that in Ezek. xxx. 20.
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Egypt, and, lo, ib has not yet been set,^ so that salves might be applied to it, or a bandage wrapped round it, to make it strong to hold the sword again. 22 Therefore, thus says the Lord Jeho- vah: Behold, I will come to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and break both his arms — the strong one and that which has already been broken— and will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. 23 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and dis- perse them through the countries.^ 24 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put My sword into his hand, and will break the arms of Pharaoh, so that he shall groan before him like a deadly wounded man. 25 I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down ; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I give My sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, that he may stretch it out against the land of Egypt. 26 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries ; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.
The excitement in Babylonia as tlie siege of Jerusalem drew near its termination^ must have been intense, and the increasing certainty that it would result in the utter destruction of the Jewish State,, as the prophets had foretold, must have intensified the public feeling against Egypt, as the temptress that had led it to its ruin. It is not, therefore, matter of surprise that Ezekiel turned again to the subject,^ in the very last days of the Holy City, and denounced the Pharaoh afresh. Most of this utterance, however, has already been given,* and need not be repeated. The glory of Assyria had been like that of the grandest cedar of Lebanon, exciting the envy of all the trees, even of Eden. Yet it had fallen. Egypt, therefore, which had no such lordliness of which to boast, could not hope to escape God^s judgments. The Pharaoh
^ Lit., " bound."
- This was done to the vast crowds of prisoners taken by Nebuchadnezzar. 3 Ezek. xxxi. 1-18. * See vol. v. p. 332,
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iilso would be cast down to tlie trees of Eden — the great ones of Assyria — in the Underworld ; he would lie in the midst of the uncircumcised — that is, the godless heathen — who had been slain with the sword. This, adds Ezekiel, is the fate of Pharaoh and all his multitude : so says the Lord Jehovah.
The raising of the siege, as has been said, had filled the citizens with new hopes of ultimate deliverance, for men cling to their cherished dreams in the face of every improbability. All classes trusted that the storm had passed over, and that the predictions of Jeremiah would remain unf alfilled. Even religious feeling, in a dull and imperfect way, was revived. Jehovah, the national God, must be consulted. His prophet must be asked to inter- cede with Him for the city. He would perhaps hear so faithful a servant. Two dignitaries therefore, Jehucal or Jucal,^ apparently one of the princes of Judah, but a bitter enemy of Jeremiah, even to the length of wishing to kill him," and Zephaniah, the Sagan or second priest, who, as commandant of the temple, had been appealed to from Babylon to punish the prophet,^ and had once be- fore been sent to him by Zedekiah,^ waited on the seer, as a new deputation from the palace, to ask him, in the name of the king, to pray for his fellow-citizens.
But, as might have been anticipated, the mission was a failure. Intercession with God was not to be bought either by threats or cajoling. Humble repentance on the part of the king and his people alone could secure it, and this was wanting. Incorruptible amidst a degenerate community, the prophet answered the king's messengers as the spokesman of a higher than their master.
* Jer. xxxviii. 1. ^ Jer. xxxviii. 4.
» Jer. xxix. 25, 26. * Jer. xxi. 1.
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7 Thus saith Jeliovab^ the God of Israel (said he to thern): Speak thus to the kiug of Jiidah, that sent you to enquire of Me. Be- hold, the army of Pharaoh which has marched to relieve you, shall return to Egypt, their own land. 8 And the Chaldeans will come back, and fight against this city and take it, and burn it with fire.
9 Thus saith Jehovah : ^ Do not deceive yourselves, thinking that the Chaldeans are finally gone, for they will not go. lo For if ye should smite the whole army of the Chaldeans which fights against you, and only some wounded men remained of them, even these would stand up, every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.
With this dismal message, the courtiers were forced to be contented, but it roused to the uttermost their hostihty to the prophet, and speedily led to active mea- sures against him. Availing himself of the temporary withdrawal of the besieging army,^ he had resolved to go out to his native village, Anathoth, about four miles to the north,* apparently to secure his share of the tithes and produce of the Levitical glebe of the village, due to him as one of its priests ; the distribution being made, it would seem, in pubHc, at stated times.^ Knowing that the Chaldeans would return, it was imperative that he should obtain the means of subsistence, to take back into the city, so soon to be beleaguered afresh.^ A pretext
» Jer. xxxvii. 6-8. 2 jgr. xxxvii. 9-11. 3 jgr. xxxvii. 11-15.
* Did. of the Bible. ^ " In the midst of the people," A.V.
^ This is the best explanation of this verse (Jer. xxxvii. 12). Some think he went to claim a portion of land, but this seems a matter not likely to trouble him at such a time. The words translated " to separate himself," lit. mean " to take his por- tion." Hitzig thinks it was a Sabbath year, during which nothing had been sown, and that Jeremiah went out to claim his strip of ground by seeing that the boundary stones were right, before the soil was broken up for a new crop. The prophet's answer is lit., " It is a lie ! I am not deserting," etc.
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for violence towards one so unpopular was eagerly wished, and this supplied it. No sooner, therefore, did he reach the gate on the north of the city, known as that of Benjamin or Ephraim,^ from leading to the ter- ritory of these tribes, than the officer in charge of it arrested him, as intending to desert to the Chaldeans — though these were now away on their march against Pharaoh Hophra. In vain did Jeremiah repudiate this accusation with Oriental bluntness, though it was ridicu- lous on its very face : he was led off at once to the princes or privy council. These, unfortunately, were no longer the same as had befriended him so warmly under Jehoiakim.^ Thei/ had probably been carried off to Babylon with Jeconiah.^ From the present officials, whom he had compared to rotten figs,* he could expect no favour. Glad to see their enemy caught at last, they broke out into a storm of rage when he appeared, and summarily ordered him to receive forty strokes save one, of the stick,^ a terrible punishment, and then to be thrust into an underground dungeon in the house of one of their number, Jonathan the scribe, perhaps their secretary.
How long the prophet lay in this " house of the pit,^' or underground '^ vault,^' ^ is not known. It is probable that the house with which it was connected stood in the temple precincts, or near the palace on its south side. If so, one of the countless hidden arches, by which the
^ Jer. xxxviii. 7. Zech. xiv. 10. 2 Kings xiv. 13. Neh. viii. 16.
2 Jer. xxvi. 16 ; xxxvi. 19.
* Jer. xxiv. 1 ; xxix. 2. * Jer. xxiv.
^ The text says " smote him." Forty stripes were the legal maximum of a public scourging (Deut. xxv. 3). But only thirty- nine were given, for fear of exceeding the lawful number.
6 Jer. xxxvii. 16-21.
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surface was raised to a level along the rough sides of Mount Moriah, may have been his prison; for the whole of the plateau of both temple and palace is honeycombed with a series of vaults and cisterns, one of the former extending 150 feet from north to south. ^ But wherever the dungeon was, the sufferings of the prophet were intense from cold or neglect, or both ; so in- tense, indeed, that he felt himself sinking under them.- It must have been with no common delight therefore that, at last, he received an order brought to him from the king, to come secretly to the palace, and cheer the monarch's despair, if he possibly could, by some words of comfort from Jehovah. Virtually powerless in the hands of his court, the phantom ruler dared not consult him openly. Weak and irresolute, he could not brave its anger by acting, even in so small a matter, as became his office. Most men, after such an imprison- ment, would have been glad to give as favourable an answer as they could. But no personal consideration weighed with the prophet. Brought face to face, in some private chamber, with the man who held his life or death in his hands, he calmly told him : " There is a word from Jehovah, for He has said. Thou, Zedekiah, shalt be delivered into the hands of the king of Baby- lon.^' Then, seizing the opportunity of being in the presence, he went on, " In what have I sinned against thee, or against thy servants, or against this people, that thoQ shouldst put me in prison ? Where are thy prophets who told thee that the king of Babylon would not come against thee, or against this land? Bring them hither that they may justify their lying predictions? Therefore since I, not they, have pro-
' ^ Captain Warren. Recovery of Jerusalem, p. 17. * Jer. xxxvii. 20.
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phesied truly, hear me, my lord king, and let ray en- treaty before thee, I pray thee, be granted ; and do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there/' Coming at such a time, when the awful dignity of his office surrounded the petitioner, this request could not be refused. Orders were, therefore, issued to transfer him from the dungeon he so much feared, to the court of the guard at the palace, and to give him a piece of bread each day, from the Baker's Street,^ as long as any was left in the city. Fear of the nobles, and perhaps of the people, might prevent his being set free, but his detention should henceforth be at least less painful than hitherto.
The comparative liberty of the prophet brought him, however, into fresh danger.^ Chained, it may be, to the wall of the court, he had free intercourse with the soldiers and people,^ and as nothing would induce him to keep silent as to the issue of the siege, his words spread far and near. That their enemy should thus be more influential than ever, infuriated the nobles of the council.^ It was reported to some of them, among others to Jucal, who had recently visited the prophet from the king, and Pashur,^ the son of Malchiah, who had been
^ The bread was made in round pieces, about eight inches across, and an inch thick, and three of these were required for a meal (Luke xi. 5). One was, therefore, barely enough to support life (1 Sam. ii. 36). Public bakers are mentioned in Hosea vii. 4, 6. As with other trades in the East, bakers lived in one street in Jerusalem. We read of the *' Tower of the Ovens," Neh. iii. 11 ; xii. 38 (furnaces A.V.).
2 Jer. xxxviii. 1-3. s Jqj.^ xxxviii. 1, 32 ; viii. 12.
* Jer. xxxviii. 1.
^ Jucal and Pashur were confidential officers of the king. Jer. xxi. 1 ; xxxvii. 3. Of Shephatiah we know nothing. Gedaliah was perhaps a son of that Pashur who put Jeremiah in the stocks. Jer. xx. 1, 2.
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one of the first deputation to him from Zedekiah/ that he had said, " Tlius saith Jehovah, He who remains in this town will die by the sword, the famine, and the pestilence; but he that goes out to the Chaldeans shall live ; he will have his life for his share of the spoil, and shall not die. Thus saith Jehovah, This town shall, assuredly, be given into the hand of the army of the king of BabyloD, and will be taken by them/'
The resolution of the council was speedily formed.^ Going to the king, they demanded that the prophet should be put to death, since his words were dispiriting the fighting men left in the town, and the people at large. He was a traitor, they maintained, seeking the hurt of the city. Zedekiah might have reminded them that no blame could attach to the prophet, since he only repeated words put in his mouth by God Himself ; words which he was bound to deliver. But to play the man was beyond him. Cowed by their bearing, he at once gave way, telling them that Jeremiah was in their hands, since they ruled, not he. Thus authorized, they ordered their victim to be seized forthwith and put into the underground rain-cistern of Malchiah, a member of the royal family, in the court of the guard, where he then was. Tying cords round him, therefore, he was let down, through the funnel-shaped mouth,^ into this hideous dungeon. Fortunately, there was no water in it ; but the bottom was covered with deep mud, into which the prophet sank. It was clear that his life was to be taken, with every aggravation of previous misery ; for the cold and wet must soon have killed him, had not help been at hand.
Among the officials * of the palace was a eunuch from the
* Jer. xxi. 1. • Jer. xxxviii. 5, 6.
» See vol. i. p. 449; vol. iii. p. 303. * Jer. xxxviii. 7-13.
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heart of Africa/ apparently the keeper of the royal harem, whose title only — Ebed Melech, ''the king's slave/' — has been preserved. News of the prophet's treatment having reached him, he hurried to Zedekiah, who, at the moment, was engaged on some public duty in the vacant space inside the North or Benjamin Gate, and told him what had happened, boldly denouncing it, and adding that the sufferer would die of hunger in the cistern, since there was now no more bread in the town. " Take thirty men with you,'' replied the king, with unwonted decision, '' to guard you in the task, and get him out of the cistern before he die.'' As quickly as possible the kindly eunuch was at the mouth of the loathsome prison, to cheer the prophet by announcing his deliverance. Ropes passed down, with rags to put under the armpits, to prevent the strain from chafing them, soon did the rest, and Jeremiah once more saw the light and took his old place in the court of the guard. The spasmodic vigour of Zedekiah in this incident was touching. The want of moral courage alone, had, apparently, brought him into all his trouble. Baulked and overridden by the Egyptian party, he had wanted strength of mind to turn against them and free himself. He had sub- mitted to break his oath to Nebuchadnezzar, and make an alliance with Egypt, against his own convictions, and he could not act decisively even now, though his life was in the balance. Jeremiah saw his position exactly. A mere puppet in the hands of his council, he had only to flee to the Chaldean camp, and tell the truth, and it would be recognised, to his personal acquittal. The guilt of the revolt would at once be shifted to the right shoulders, those of the imperious Egyptian faction, who now in effect reigned. Zedekiah, unlike them, respected Jeremiah * Negro eunuchs are still very common in the East.
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as a true prophet, and was not without reverence towards Jehovah. But he had no force of character. Eager to consult the prophet, he had not courage to act on his advice when given. A proof of this was soon shown. ^
With a town now reduced to famine and even cannibal- ism,2 and decimated by the plague ; the houses full of the sick and wounded ; bloody fights between contending parties, as to surrendering or holding out, crowding the streets with fresh horrors ; the roar of the siege night and day filling the air ; Zedekiah was fain once more to seek the prophet as one whom he held to be in special relations to Jehovah. But he could only venture to see him privately.^ A covered passage leading from the palace to the temple* afforded the opportunity, and thither, where no one could witness the interview, the pro- phet was brought. Stout-hearted in words, Zedekiah, now while no one saw or heard, would have nothing hidden from him. Jeremiah might speak out fearlessly the whole truth. But the terrors of the recent past, and his knowledge of the king^s fickleness and effeminacy, had made him also cautious. " If I tell you all that God has said, will you not kill me ? '^ replied he. " And is it not the case, that even if I do counsel you, you will not hear me ? '' But Zedekiah, in mortal anxiety, was ready to give any assurances. He swore, " by the life of Jehovah, who created our life in us,'' that he would neither him- self kill him, nor deliver him up to the men who sought his life. Thus assured. Jeremiah repeated what he had so often said, that if Zedekiah gave himself up to the Chaldeans, he would save his life, and that of his house, and Jerusalem would not be burned ; while, if he did not,
1 Jer. xxxviii. 14-19. ^ Lam. iv. 10. ^ j^j. xxxvii. 17. ^ The " third entry" (Jer. xxxviii. 14) seems to have been such a passage.
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the city would be destroyed and he himself would fall into the hands of the enemy. He took care, however, not to say that the '' princes " who had stirred up the revolt would in any case escape.
But the " I will and I will not " of moral weakness held the doomed man like a spell. ^ He was afraid, he said, that the Chaldeans would hand him over to the Jewish deserters in their camp, and that these would maltreat him. ''They will not deliver you up to them,^' replied Jeremiah. " Obey, I beseech you, the voice of Jehovah, which I speak to you, and it will be well with you, and your soul will live. But if you refuse to go out of Jerusalem and give yourself up to the Chaldeans — this is the word that Jehovah has revealed to me. Behold, all the women of the harem that are left in your palace — wives, concubines, and attendants — shall be brought out as prisoners to the generals ^ of the king of Babylon, and they will mock your weakness, singing —
" ' Your friends, 0 king Zedekiah,— the court party— have led
you astray And have made a puppet of you : ^
Your feet sank in the slough into which they had led you, And now, instead of helping you, they draw back, And leave you to get out as you best can.'
" Thus * they will bring out all your wives and your children to the Chaldeans, and you, yourself, will not escape out of their hands ; you will be captured by the king of Babylon, and your refusal to obey God's voice will cause this city to be burned with fire.''
The fate of the weakling hung in the balance,^ but his irresolution and cowardice weighed down the scale
1 Jer. xxxviii. 19-22. 2 Princes. ^ Overpowered you. * Jer. xxxviii. 23. ^ Jer. xxxviii. 24-28.
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against him. Fear of the tyrannical oligarchy un- manned him. They must on no account know that he had spoken to the prophet ; nothing that had been said between the two must be repeated. He had, moreover, the meanness to draw back from his oath, so far as to say that it would be kept only if perfect secrecy were main- tained, and he even stooped to ask Jeremiah to equivo- cate. Should the princes, hearing of the interview, threaten him with death if he did not tell what had passed at it, he was to answer, that he had asked not to be sent back to the prison in Jonathan's house. No doubt this favour had been requested, else Jeremiah would not have said so, yet it was by no means the whole truth. But Jeremiah felt himself free to act on the king's recommendation. He was not bound to tell his mortal enemies everything, and he did not do so. When, therefore, they came, he had the adroitness to put them off with this answer, and was left without further annoyance, a prisoner in the court of the guard, till the city was taken.
While these events were passing, the Chaldean army had returned and recommenced the siege ; Pharaoh. Hophra having been driven back.^ But though the prophet knew that the city must fall, he abated nothing of his calm assurance that it would hereafter rise from its ashes, and that Judah would once more flourish. He felt that his race was the chosen people of God, and that the promise of the Messiah implied such a restora- tion. The expected golden age might, indeed, be long delayed, but Jehovah had promised it, and that was enough.
An opportunity for showing this confidence, so well- fitted to cheer true followers of the ancient religion, * Jer. xxxii. 1-5
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strangely offered itself while the immediate prospects of the State were sinking to the lowest.
A cousin of Jeremiah, Hanameel/ son of Shallum, the prophet's uncle, a priest like himself, had a plot of ground in the neighbourhood of Anathoth,^ which he wished to sell. Jewish law, however, prohibited free sale, and required that ground in the market should be offered to the next of kin, that it might still remain in the family.^ The lands strictly belonging to the tribe of Levi could not be sold, as they were held in common,* but Hananeel may have inherited this piece through his mother,^ and having no children,^ may thus have been free to dispose of it, like Barnabas the Levite, in later times.'''
Jeremiah being the next heir, and as such holding also the right of redemption in the Jubilee year,^ had the ground from any cause been sold to a third party, Hanameel naturally came to him, to offer him the option of purchase. We do not know why he wished to sell, but the darkness of the times was reason enough. His proposal was at once recognised by the prophet as in accordance with a Divine pre-intimation received before- hand, and a bargain was forthwith struck. The price was small according to our notions — only seventeen shekels^ — about two guineas — but the peculiarities of
1 Jer. xxxii. 6-15.
2 It must have been within 2,000 cubits of the village. Num. XXXV. 6.
3 Lev. XXV. 24, 25 ; Enth iv. 6. Keil, Bih. Archceol, p. 208.
4 Lev. XXV. 34. See Grotii, Annot. on Jos., 24, 33.
5 Num. xxvi. 8. ^ This is implied. 7 Acts iv. 37. « Lev. xxv. 23-28.
3 In the margin the Heb. is correctly translated " seven shekels and ten pieces of silver," a form of expression which has led to the idea that the seven shekels were golden. This, however, is a
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the Jewish land laws, and possibly the pressure of the times, may have affected its value. Two copies of a deed were duly written, and witnesses having been called, the money was weighed out in the scales, as is still the custom in the East. One deed having been left ^ open for reference, and the other carefully sealed up, both were handed to Baruch, the constant friend of the prophet, before Hanameel and the witnesses who had signed the documents, and of all the Jews who sat as prisoners in the court of the guard, with the request that they should be put into an earthen vessel for pre- servation, for " houses and lands and vineyards shall one day be again bought in the land.'^ Jehovah had said it. The whole transaction was striking, at such a time. We extol the patriotism of the Roman, who bought at its full price the land on which HannibaFs camp was pitched, outside the gates of Rome,^ but it was even nobler, in the son of a feeble race like the Jews, to buy a field at the moment in the hands of a mighty power like Babylon, knowing, as he did, that before the purchase could be of value, his people must expiate their sins by captivity for two generations in a far distant land.
That he should have acted thus derives an additional moral grandeur, as an act of passive obedience to Divine command, in the face of overwhelming perplexity as to the possible realization of the hopes it implied. Jeremiah knew that Jerusalem would hereafter rise from its ashes,
mere conjecture. We do not know the size of the piece of ground, which may have been very small, and it is to be re- membered that the purchase was, in reality, only that of its crops, till the next year of Jubilee, which may have been not far off. Besides, silver was very much more valuable then than now, Araunah's floor was bought for 50 shekels. 2 Sam. xxiv. 24. ^ Liv., xxvi. 11. Florus, ii. 6.
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and Judah again be peopled, because God had said it ; but to reconcile this with the further knowledge that the city, and even the temple, would, within a short time, be burned to the ground, and the population of the whole land be carried off to Babylon, was beyond his powers. Under such circumstances he betook himself, as godly men have done in all ages, to Him who alone could make darkness light. Prayer, to him, as to us, was the natural language of the earthly child to his Heavenly Father.
When, therefore, he had delivered to Baruch the two title-deeds, he sought relief to his soul in its difficulties by asking light from God.^ Bowing low, it may be before all, in the court of the guard, fettered as he was, he breathed out to Jehovah the deep cry of his heart ; speaking, we may fancy, like Hannah, in his soul only; the lips moving, but no audible words escaping them.
17 O Thou, Lord Jehovah I^ Behold, Thou hast made heaven and earth by Thy great power and Thine outstretched arm ; nothing is too hard for Thee! 18 Thou showest loving kindness to thousands, and payest back the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them : ^ 19 Thou great and mighty God, Jehovah of Hosts is Thy name. Great in counsel, and mighty in deeds ; whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give every one according to his ways and accord- ing to the fruit of his doings ! 20 Thou didst signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and doest them even to this day, both in Israel and to men at large, and hast made Thyself, even now, a name ! 21 And Thou leddest forth Thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, and a strong hand, and a stretched out arm, and with great terror to their enemies ; 22 and
1 Jar. xxxii. 7-16. 2 jer. xxxii. 17-25.
3 The language is borrowed from the custom of pouring grain or the like into the lifted up fold of the outer garment, which is made, as it were, into a bag for the time. Euth iii. 15. Prov. xvii. 23. Num. xi. 12. Isa. xl. 11 ; Ixv. 6, 7. Luke vi. 38.
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gavost them this land, which Thou hadst sworn to their fathers to give them — a land flowing with milk and honey. 23 And they came in, and took possession of it ; but they obeyed not Thy voice, neither walked in Thy law : ^ they have done nothing of all that Thou commandest them to do — therefore Thou hast let all this evil come upon them.
24 Behold ! the mounds ^ of the enemy reach to the town, to take it ; the city is given, by sword, famine, and pestilence, into the hands of the Chaldeans who besiege it, and what Thou hast .said is come to pass : Thou, Thyself, seest it ! 25 Yet Thou hast said, to me, O Lord Jehovah, Buy the field for money, and take witnesses to the purchase — though the city is already, as it were, given into the hands of the Chaldeans.
A prayer so lowly and fervent had favour with God. The still small voice of the Almighty presently answered it in the soul of the prophet.
27 Behold, I am Jehovah,^ the God of all flesh : is there any- thing impossible to Me ? 28 Therefore, thus saith Jehovah, Behold I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he shall take it. 29 The Chaldeans who fight against it shall come in, and set fire to it, and burn it, and with it the houses on whose roofs they burned incense to Baal, and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke Me to anger. 30 For the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have done only evil before Me from their youth as a people. For the sons of Israel, as a whole, have done nothing but
1 Torah.
* The first step in a siege was probably to advance the battering ram. If the castle was built, as in the plains of Assyria and Babylonia, on an artificial eminence, an inclined plane reaching to the top of the height was formed of earth, stones, or trees, and the besiegers were thus able to bring their engines to the foot of the walls, and also to escalade the walls, the top of which might otherwise have been beyond the reach of their ladders. Layard's Nineveh, vol. ii. pp. 36-7. See Isa. xxxvii. 33 ; 2 Kings xix. 32. The Egyptians followed the same plan. Ezek. xvii. 17.
3 Jer. xxxii. 26-35.
104 DUEING THE SIEGE.
provoke Me with the work of their hands,^ saith Jehovah. 31 This city, Jerusalem, also, has been to Me a provocation ^ of My anger and of My fury, from the day that they built it^ to this day — demanding that I should put it away from before My face 32 on account of all the evil of the sons of Israel and of the sons of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me to anger ; they, their kings, their princes,'* their priests, and their prophets ; the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33 They turned their back to Me and not their face, and though I earnestly and un- weariedly taught them through My true prophets, they would not listen, to receive instruction. 34 Instead of that, they set up their abominable idols in the House which is called by My name, to defile it, 35 and built high places to Baal in the Valley of Benhinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Moloch — which I neither commanded them to do nor ever had it in my mind to permit their doing ; causing Judah, as it did, to sin.
36 Now, therefore, ^ thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, con- cerning this city, of which you rightly say that *' it will be de- livered into the hand of the king of Babylon, by sword, famine, and pestilence," 37 Behold ! I will, hereafter, gather them from all lands whither I have driven them, in My anger and in My fury and in My fierce wratli. And I will bring them back to this place, and cause them to dwell securely in it, s^ and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. 39 And 1 will give them one heart and one way, so that they shall fear Me for ever, ^ for their own good and that of their children after them. 40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not draw back from them, or from doing them good ; and I will put My ■fear in their hearts, so that they may not again turn away from Me as in the past. And I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly ^ plant them in this land, with My whole heart, and with My whole soul.
42 For thus saith Jehovah : ^ As I have brought all this great
1 Their idols. Chap. x. 3, 9. Deut. iv. 28. 2 Kings xix. 18.
2 A burden on My auger, demanding indignation being shown.
3 2 Sam. V. 6, 7. * Leading men.
5 Jer. xxxii. 36^1. « Deut. iv. 10; vi. 24.
7 Heb„ in truth. ^ Jer. xxxii. 42-44.
DWRINQ THE SIEGE. 105
evil on this people, so will I bring to them all the good that I have promised them. 43 And the open country shall be bought in this land, respecting which ye say, " It is desolate, without man or beast ; it is given into the hands of the Chaldeans." 44 Men will once more buy fields * for money, and sign deeds, and seal them, and call witnesses to the purchase — here, in the land of Benjamin, and round about Jerusalem, and in the towns of Judah, and in the towns in the hills, and in those of the Shephelah, and in the towns of the Negeb. For I will put an end to their captivity, and restore them to their own country, saith Jehovah.
But the " Hearer of Prayer '^ was not content even ■with this fall answer to His servant's petition. Not long afterwards, amidst the terrible progress of the siege, when many houses near the walls had been pulled down for materials of defence, and the prophet was still a prisoner in the court of the guard, " the Word ^' came to him a second time.
2 Thus saith Jehovah,^ who does what He hath purposed; Jeho- vah who determines what He wills, and carries it out ; Jehovah is His name ! 3 Call upon Me and I will answer thee, and make known to thee great and secret things ^ which thou dost not know !
4 For thus says Jehovah, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, Jerusalem, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which have been pulled down for material with which to strengthen the town wall against the battering-rams,"* and to build up new defences against the swords of the storming columns :
5 The citizens will advance to fight with the Chaldeans ; but they will only fill the houses with the bodies of men, whom I have slain in My anger and in My fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid My face from this city.
But still God has not finally cast off His people.
6 Behold,^ I will lay on the wounds of the people a bandage and
^ Lit., " the field," i.e. land over the country.
2 Jar. xxxiii. 1-5. 3 l^^^ <« unapproachable,"
< Lit., •' mounts." « Jer. xxxiii. 6-9.
106 DUEING THE SIEGE.
healing salve, and will cure them, and I will pour down * on them a fulness of peace and truth. 7 And I will bring back the captives of Judah and Israel, and will build up the state, as of old. 8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity that they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their sins that they have com- mitted, and in which they have fallen away from Me. 9 And Jerusalem shall, again, be to Me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, who shall hear all the good that I do to it; and they shall fear and tremble ^ with awe, at all the goodness and all the prosperity that I prepare for it.
10 Thus saith Jehovah,' There shall again be heard in this place, of which you say, " It is desolate, without man and without beast"— in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are about to be left desolate, without men and without in- habitants, and without beast, 1 1 the sounds of joy and gladness ; the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride,** and the words of singing:—
" Give thanks unto Jehovah of Hosts ; for Jehovah is good. For His mercy endureth for ever ! "
the chant of them that bring the thankoffering into the House of Jehovah ! For I will bring back the captives, and restore things as in your happiest times, saith Jehovah.
12 Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, ^ Again, in this place which is about to be desolate, without man and without beast, and in all the towns of Judah, shall be a gathering place of shepherds, lead- ing their sheep to rest. 13 In the hill towns, in the towns of the Shephelah, and in those of the Negeb, in the land of Benjamin
» " Roll down." 2 « A fearful joy."
3 Jar. xxxiii. 10-11.
* A sound of music, shrill and sharp, announces the approach of a nuptial procession. In front, march the players on fifes and tambourines, and next two lines of women and girls, in the middle of whom is the bride, walking between two elder women. Four men hold over her head a dais of pink gauze, and a woman waves before her a large feather fan. She is entirely covered with a veil, and has on her head a red cloth, surmounted with a coronet of gold. The whole party utter cries of joy. Bovet's Egypt, etc., p. 43. 5 jer. xxxiii. 12-14.
DURING THE SIEGE. 107
and in the parts round Jerusalem, and in the town of Judah, the sheep will again pass under the rod ^ of him that counts thera, saith Jehovah. 14 Behold the days come, saith Jehovah, when I will perform that good word which I have spoken concerning the House of Israel and the House of Judah !
In those days of the Messiah the kingly and priestly offices will be restored.
15 In those days"^ and at that time, saith Jehovah, I will cause a Branch ^ of Righteousness to grow up from David,^ and He will execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely ; and for this men will call Him, Jehovah our Righteousness.
17 For thus saith Jehovah :'" David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the House of Israel. 18 Nor shall the priests, the Levites, ever want a man before Me, to ofler burnt offerings, to kindle the fire on the altar for flour offerings, and to burn sacrifices to Me, for ever.
This covenant with David, and with the priests, would be as sure as the order of nature.
20 Thus saith Jehovah : ^ If ye can break My covenant with the day and with the night, so that there shall be no longer day or night in its season, 21 then may, also. My covenant with David My servant be broken, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne ; and My covenant with the Levites, the priests, My ministers ! 22 As the hosts of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of David My servant, and of the Levites, who minister to me.
The glorious assurance thus given respecting the throne and the altar, is next extended to the people as a whole.
» Lit., " hands." s jer. xxxiii. 15,16.
^ Lit., " a shoot, or sucker."
^ Of David's race, from his root or stock. Verses 15 and 16 are the same as Jer. xxiii. 5, 6.
5 Jer. xxxiii. 17, 18. « Jer. xxxiii. 19-22.
108 DUEING THE SIEGE.
24 Have you not seen what the people say ^ — " The two families, Judah and Israel, whom Jehovah chose, He has cast oflP." With, such words they dishonour My people, declaring that it is no longer a nation in their eyes. 25 Thus saith Jehovah, If I have not estab- lished My covenant with day and night, or ordained the ordi- nances of heaven and earth, 26 then will I also cast off the seed of Jacob, and of David My servant, and take no more rulers from his seed, to be over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ! Bub I will cause the captives to return and will have mercy upon them !
Thus darkly, in a Jewish dress, which alone, for cen- turies to come, could in any measure be intelligible to those who would ponder his words, did Jeremiah foretell the spiritual reign of the Messiah. Veiled in the imagery of the existing economy, their supreme significance must have been as mysterious to the prophet as to others. He had been directed to say, at former times, that the king and the priest would both perish from Israel,^ and yet the Divine Voice now announces, through him, that both will endure for ever. To passages like this, above all, St. Peter must have referred when he spoke of the earnest search and inquiry of the holy men of old, as to the full meaning of the oracles which they uttered through the Spirit of God.
1 Jer. xxxiii. 23-26.
2 Jer. xxii. 30; xxx. 21; iii. 16; xxxi. 33.
Note to p. 101. — " It would seem from Jer. xxxii. 10, 11, that clay came to be used in Judah as a writing material, as at Nineveh and Babylon— the inner clay record of a contract being covered with an outer coating — on which was inscribed an abstract of its contents, together with the names of the witnesses. Jeremiah's deed of purchase, moreover, was preserved in a jar, like the numerous clay deeds of the Egibi banking-firm, which existed at Babylon from the age of Nebuchadnezzar to that of Xerxes. These jars served the purpose of our modern safes." — Sayce's Fresh Lights, etc., p. 105.
CHAPTER YI.
THE FALL OP JERUSALEM.
The siege of Jerusalem had begun on the 10th of the month Kislew, nearly our December, in the year B.C. 591, but had been interrupted for two or three months by the departure of the Chaldeans, to repel the advance of Pharaoh Hophra. This effected, the struggle had re- commenced with more fury than ever. But the Jews, like all Orientals, were stubborn in their resistance behind the walls of a fortress, and held out bravely against the tremendous superiority of their assailants. Nothing could subdue their courage. They had trusted in Hophra relieving them, but fought none the less man- fully when they found their expectations deceived. Jeremiah, a prisoner in the court of the guard, in vain counselled surrender, as the only means of preserving the city, or the lives and liberties of its citizens. He was assailed by charges of treachery, and by threats for damping the spirits of the population. That a place, in all probability, of not more than 20,000^ inhabitants should have kept at bay the whole strength of Nebu- chadnezzar for nearly eighteen months, shows a noble defence, even admitting the natural strength of the posi-
* This is the estimate of Thenius, B. d. Konige, p. 466.
109
110
THE FALL OP JERUSALEM.
tion. Two thousand citizens of the best families, it is to be remembered, and a thousand skilled mechanics, with seven thousand of the bravest fighting men, had been carried off to Babylon ten years before.^ But the fall of the city was only a question of time. The besiegers had invested it on every side, so that no provisions could enter, and they had possession of the whole country, far and near. Lachish and Azekah, in the Maritime Plain, had succumbed, and 3,023 persons of both sexes had been seized and led off to Babylon.^ The thud
Siege op a City by the Assykian Aemy.
On the left, soldiers in mail are throwing down the wall with crowbars. On an upper tower are women ; one apparently wailing, the other encouraging the defenders. On the right is a battering ram with a tower over it, from which the Assyrians in armour shoot from the level of the top of the wall. The garrison are throwing over stones, etc., on soldiers who are guiding the ram. Archers kneel on the ground at the side of the battering ram. The general and his attendant, drawn in large size, are on the right; the attendant holding a shield before his master.
of the battering rams shook the walls day and night: archers made the defence increasingly hard, by con- stant showers of arrows from high wooden forts ; cata- pults of all sizes hurled stones into the town with a force as deadly as that of modern bullets, and darts tipped
^ 2 Kings xxiv. 14-16.
' Jer. lii. 28, for seventh year read seventeenth.
THE PALL OP JERUSALEM. Ill
with fire kindled the roofs of houses ; mines were dug under the walls, and attempts at escalade by ladders were renewed at every favourable opportunity.
But the besieged were not behind in their resources of defence. Houses were demolished, that new walls might be built of their materials, inside each spot weakened by the battering rams.^ The ramparts were vigorously defended by archers and slingers, equal in bravery to those of the Chaldeans. The rams were caught, when possible, by doubled chains or ropes, to weaken their blows, or, if it might be, to capsize them. Lighted torches and firebrands were thrown on their roofs, and on those of the catapults, to set them on fire. The gates of the town were zealously defended against the efforts of the enemy to burst them open, or to burn them.2 Nothing, however, could prevent the final cata- strophe. Famine within the walls aided the besiegers without, and it was speedily followed, as is always the case, with an outbreak of pestilence. Food was well nigh gone. There had long been no bread. ^ Mothers were, at last, driven to murder and eat their children.* The richest citizens wandered about searching for scraps in the dunghills. Effeminate nobles, whose fairness and personal beauty had been their pride, were reduced to black-faced ghosts by hunger. To make matters worse, feuds broke out in the city. Some were for surrender, others for holding out to the last, and every street be- came a battle field. ^
Yet, amidst the roar of war, the wail of mourners,
* Jer. xxxiii. 4.
2 For this description of a Chaldean siege, see Layard's Nineveh, vol. ii. pp. 367 ff.
3 Jer. xxxvii. 21; xxxviii. 9; lii. 6. Ezek. v. 10.
* Baruch ii. 3. Lam. iv. 10. * Lam. iv. 12-15.
112 THE PALL OP JERUSALEM.
the shrieks of the wounded and the despairing, and the tumult of intestine strife, Jeremiah never lost his self- possession, though forced to sit helpless in the midst of so much danger and privation. His deliverance from the cistern prison, in which, according to Josephus, the mire had reached up to his neck,^ had put him under lasting obligation to the black eunuch who had rescued him. He was, moreover, now free to move about in the court of the guard, to which Ebed-melech frequently came, in passing out of the palace, and he repaid his kindness by cheering words, telling him that God would preserve him amidst all the dangers around, as a return for the favour shown to His servant.
i6 Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel (said he), Be- hold I will bring My words upon this city for evil and not for good, and they shall be accomplished in that day, before thee. 17 But I will save thee, in that day, saith Jehovah ; and thou sbalt not be given into the hand of the men whom thou fearest. 18 For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for booty to thee, because thou hast trusted in Me, saith Jehovah.2
At last came the end. The siege had lasted within a day or two of eighteen months,^ but a practicable breach now invited the stormers. Waiting for the cover of darkness, the Chaldean force detached for this service moved out of their camp towards midnight, on the ninth of the month Tammuz, nearly our July, and, after a fierce struggle, Jerusalem was in their hands. Marching in by the Middle Gate of the inner wall, dividing Mount Ziou from the Lower City, their generals took up their quarters near it,* as a point from which both the Upper and Lower
1 Jos., A7it., X. vii. 4. - Jer. xxxix. 15-18.
^ Jer. lii. 4. Comp. with Jer. xxxix. 1 ; lii. 6. * Jer. xxxix. 3.
THE FALL OP JERUSALEM. 1]3
City could be most easily controlled. The names and titles of some of them still survive, the latter, by their high rank, implying a large force to have been engaged, and thus showing the desperateness of the defence. Fore- most, amidst a brilliant cavalcade, rode Nergal Sharezer — " Nergal, protect the king ! '' the name of a former monarch of Babylon — Samgar-Nebo, '^ May Nebo be pro- pitious^'— Sarsechim, one of the two chief eunuchs/ — a second Nergal Sharezer, the chief of the royal magi, or " deeply learned " — Nebuzaradan, " Nebo, grant me children,^' the commander of the personal guard^ of Nebuchadnezzar ; and Nebushartan, " Nebo, deliver me ! '^ the second chief of the eunuchs.^
The shout of the conquerors was the signal to Zede- kiah that all was lost. Only flight could save him. The breach had been made in the north wall, where alone close access to the fortifications was possible, and the Hill of Zion, on which the palace stood, was not yet in the hands of the Chaldeans. The south gate, close to the royal gardens, was still available. It lay at the south- east corner of the city, between the inner wall and that which ran across from the Tyropoean valley to Ophel, joining that spot to Mount Zion, and was known as the Horse Gate.* If Zedekiah, and the fugitives who might escape with him, — many of them deeply compromised in the revolt, — could reach Gilead, they might be safe. They therefore made for the Arabah,^ south of the Dead Sea, striking across the wild stretches of the wilderness of Judah, to the south-east. But flight in that direction
* Rabsaris means this also.
2 The guard that stood before Nebuchadnezzar. Jer. lii. 10. » For the meaning of the names, see Schrader, Eeilinschriften, pp. 273-276.
* Keil. Neh. iii. 28. Jer. lii. 7. » Jer. lii. 7. Deut. i. 1. VOL VI. I
114
THE FALL OF JERUSALEM.
proving impossible in the darkness, they turned towards the plain of the Jordan, north of their intended route. Meanwhile, the alarm was given, that the king and a strong band of men had broken through the Chaldean outposts, on the south-east of Jerusalem, and instant pursuit was ordered. The steep pass of the Kidron forth- with swarmed with troops pushing down towards Jericho, with only too fatal haste. Before the panic-stricken
The Asstbian King blinding a Manacled and Fettebed Peisonee, who with the two othees is fubthee secuebd by a metal eing theough the lip.
«
fugitives could cross the Jordan, they were overtaken, and the mere approach of the enemy was enough. Zedekiah was instantly deserted, and, with a number of his chief men, fell into the hands of the pursuers.^ His daughters, who may not have been with him, were, however, fortu^
> Jer. xxxix. 5 ; lii. 8.
THE FALL OP JERUSALEM. 1J&
nate enough to escape, but only to fall into the hands of one Ishmael, a member of the royal family, soon to prove an arch traitor.
Thrown into chains at once, the captive king was led back to Jerusalem, and sent on, thence, to Eiblah, ten days journey to the north — for it stood about thirty- five miles north of Baalbek. There, Nebuchadnezzar awaited him. Brought before the Great King, with the other captives, he was met with a storm of only too well-deserved reproach for his broken oath, and soon found that he could expect no mercy. All the princes taken with him were at once ordered to be slain. Then, with a refinement of cruelty, his own sons were put to death before him — the last sight he was ever to behold ; for a spear, thrust into his eyes, most probably by Nebu- chadnezzar himself, presently blinded him for ever. But this was only the beginning of his humiliation. Chained hand and foot, with a ring through his lips as if he were a wild beast, he was put into a cage, and carried off to Babylon, to lie in a dungeon till death put an end to his sufierings.^ How long he survived is unknown, but he was apparently dead when Jehoiachin, his predecessor, was freed by Evil Merodach, the successor of Nebu- chadnezzar, twenty-six years from this time.- Three kings of Judah were now captives in the hands of their enemies — Jehoahaz in Egypt, and two others in Babylon. The sins of the nation had been heavily punished ; but it was to be purified by these trials, and fitted for the great work still before it, in preparing the way for the true spiritual kingdom of God. Such multiplied calamities sank into the heart of the race. Future generations forgot the weakness of Zedekiah, as they forgot the faults of his royal companions in misery, and thought of him 1 Ezek. xix. 9. « Jer. lii. 31.
116 THE PALL OF JERUSALEM.
only as gentle and righteous.^ A fast is still held on the 10th day of the 5th month to bewail his fall.
The Temple and the Upper Town held out, after the Lower City had fallen, and detained the Chaldeans for another month. Not till then did the townspeople yield, when utterly overpowered. The Temple was defended to the very last, the bravest of the warriors left perishing vainly in its courts. All classes, indeed, fought with desperation. Young men and women, veterans past their prime, and not a few who were stooping with years, fell with their faces to the hated foe.^ The storming of a town, or indeed any of the wild and infamous scenes of war, have in all ages been the same.
" The gates of mercy, then, are all shut up, And the flesh'd soldier, rough and hard of heart, Ranges, in liberty of bloody hand, With conscience wide as hell." ^
But, at last, all resistance was crushed, and Jerusalem lay at the mercy of Nebuchadnezzar.
The defence had, however, been too resolute, the re- bellion too troublesome, to leave any hope of pity. Such a focus of revolt must be ruthlessly destroyed. The town was given up, therefore, to plunder, and then burnt ; the mansions of the rich and the lowly dwellings of the poor, sharing the same fate.* The walls, moreover, were levelled with the ground.^ Nebuzaradan had been left in command, and he had no mercy. The last month's defence had infuriated him. The worst calamity that could overtake a nation in antiquity was inflicted on the con- quered ; their temple was burnt to the ground, and the remnant of the garrison, and of the inhabitants of both
* Jos., Anty X. vii. 5. ^2 Ohron. xxxvi. 17. ^ Henry V. * Jer. xxxix. 8 ; lii. 10. * Jer. lii. 14.
THE PALL OF JERUSALEM. 117
sexes, carried off to the Chaldean camp to await their doom. Everything worth taking had been brought out of the sanctuary before it was set on fire ; the metal work of all kinds, which was of too great an amount to weigh, and the sacred utensils remaining since Solomon's time, forming the special booty.^ The poorer classes, in town and country, were spared, in a measure, the fate of the more prosperous ; only the strength of the population, apparently, being carried off. Hence, besides those who had escaped beyond the reach of the enemy, and waited their departure to return, a large proportion of the peasantry remained, to keep the land from reverting to desolation. The immediate appointment of a Jewish governor over them, show their numbers to have been considerable. The Great King, while determined to crush all rebellion, had no desire to turn one of his provinces into a wilderness.^
The campaign over, Nebuchadnezzar set up his throne of judgment. Marched to Riblah, the final crowd of prisoners were brought before him. Among these were Seraiah, the high priest, grandfather or great-grand- father of Ezra ; ^ Zephaniah his deputy,^ whom we have more than once met in the story of Jeremiah's life ; * the keepers of the temple gates, who were dignified priests,^ next in rank to Zephaniah ; the commandant of the garrison, who had held out for a month after the fall of the Lower Town ; seven, of the confidential advisers of Zedekiah, members of the oligarchy who had forced him to his ruin ; the chief scribe of the local militia, from which
* 2 Kings xxvr. 13-17. Jer. Hi. 17-23.
3 2 Kings XXV. 12. Jer. xxxix. 10 ; lii. 16.
3 Ezra vii. 1. 1 Chron. v. 40. Eivald, vol. iii. p. 807. Jer. lii. 24.
* Jer. xxi. 1 ; xxix. 25 ; xxxvii. 3.
* Jer. xxxviii. 14.
118 THE FALL OP JERUSALEM.
all fighting men were drawn — an officer like our adjutant- general ; and, with them, sixty survivors of the gallant band which had fought to the last.^ All these were at once put to death. The rest were added to the long train of earlier captives, and marched off to Babylon. At the beginning of the siege, as has been said, 3,023 persons had been seized and led away to the Euphrates ; during its progress 832 had been added to the number; but how many were taken at the fall of the city is not told. All its sufferings, however, had not finally crushed the spirit of the nation ; for it was found expedient, four years later, to carry off 745 prisoners, in addition to all deported before.^
In the midst of these overwhelming disasters, Jeremiah remained not only unharmed, but protected. He had, long before, prophesied the ultimate downfall of Babylon, but this was not known. His services, in counselling surrender to the Chaldeans, on the contrary, must have been in all mouths. Orders were therefore issued by the Great King, himself, to see that he was cared for. Set free from the court of the guard, he was given into the care of Gedaliah, a prominent member of the Chaldean party in Jerusalem, who had been left in the country to govern it, for Nebuchadnezzar. Under his protection the prophet retired to Anathoth, and lived quietly among the remnant of the inhabitants.^
» 2 Kings XXV. 18-21. Jer. Hi. 24-27.
2 Jer. lii. 28-30. The Temple was burned in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 2 Kings xxv. 8. The seventeenth and eighteenth years must therefore have been the first and second of the siege.
3 Jer. xxxix. 11-14.
CHAPTER VII.
THE survivors of the destruction of Jerusalem, left in Judah after the banishment of their fellow- country- men to the Euphrates, seemed, for the time, overwhelmed by the calamities that had befallen their nation. The Temple they had thought invulnerable was burnt to the ground ; Jerusalem, in which they had gloried as " the joy of the whole earth ^' was a waste of blackened ruins. The town gates seemed to have sunk into the ground ; ^ the roads to Zion, once thronged with pilgrims, lay un- travelled ; no concourse gathered outside the walls, for gossip or business ; even the walls themselves were thrown down, and jackals haunted the Holy Hill ! ^
That such crushing disaster should have found varied expression in the verses of contemporary poets was in keeping with the genius of the race. For ages past every great event in their national history, whether glorious or sorrowful, had been commemorated in lyrics handed down from generation to generation. The defeat of Pharaoh, the triumph over Sisera, the death of Saul and Jonathan, the overthrow of the Northern kingdom, and the destruction of the army of Sennacherib, had been
* Lam. ii. 9. ^ Lara. ii. 8; i. 4 ; v. 18.
119
120 THE "lamentations" op jeremtah.
sung in poems known to every Hebrew child. So, now, was it to be with the crowning catastrophe of the fall of Jerusalem, carrying with it, as it did, the temporary ex- tinction of the Jewish State. The seventy-ninth Psalm ^ seems to preserve to us such an outburst of religious and patriotic emotion ; a wail, one might say, from the bleeding bosom of the nation !
Elohim ! the heathen have thrust themselves into Thy in- heritance;
They have defiled Thy holy temple ! They have laid Jerusalem in ruins !
They have given the corpses of Thy servants as food to the birds of heaven ;
The flesh of Tliy Hasidim ^ to the wild beasts of the earth !
They have poured out their blood like water round Jerusalem, and no one buried them !
"We have become a reproach among our neighbours,
A scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
How long, Jehovah (wilt Thou be angry)? Wilt Thou keep
wratli for ever? Pour out Thy wrath on the heathen, who do not know Thee ; On the kingdoms that do not call upon Thy name ! For they have devoured Jacob : they have laid waste his pastures. Oh remember not against us the sins of our forefathers ; Let Thy tender mercies speedily come to us, for we are brought
very low !
Help us, 0 God of our salvation, for the honour of Thy name ! Save us and forgive ^ our sins, for Thy name's sake. Why should the heathen say, " Where is their god ? "
^ Delitzsch assigns Pss. Ixxiv. and Ixxix. to the time of Antiochus, 2 Mace. viii. 1-4 (c. B.C. 167). Moll thinks Ps. Ixxix. refers to the destruction of the Temple, B.C. 588. So also does Dr. Kay. The fact is, the dates of the Psalms in many cases are conjectural.
- = afterwards, to *' Zealots."
^ Lit., " cover " — then " forgive " — "accept an expiation for," etc.
THE "lamentations^' OF JEREMIAH. 121
May the revenge of the blood of Thy servants, which has been
shed, Be made known among the heathen, before our eyes !
Let the groans of those lying in chains come before Thee; According to the greatness of Thy might ^ preserve Thou those
appointed to die ; ^ And render back to our neighbours, sevenfold, into their bosom,^ Their reproach, with which they have reproached Thee, O Lord ! So we. Thy people, and the flock of Thy pasture Will thank Thee for ever, and will speak forth Thy praise to all
generations !
The eigbty-third Psalm may also be a remembrance of this sad time.* It specially dwells on the hostility shown to Judah by the neighbouring peoples, who should have helped her in her straits. Instead of doing this, they had joined the enemy against her.
Elohim ! give Thyself no rest : be not silent : be not still, 0 El ! For, lo, thine enemies rage loudly; they that hate Thee carry
their heads high ! They have planned crafty schemes against Thy people ; They have consulted together against those who are under Thy
protection : They say, " Up ! let us destroy them from among the nations, That the name of Israel be no more remembered " !
For with one heart have they consulted together; they have made a league against Thee. The tents of Edom and of the Ishmaelites ; of Moab and the Hagarenes ; ^
^ Lit., •' arm." 2 lj^., «' sons of death." ^ Vol. v. p. 380.
* It has been assigned by different critics to the J\[accabean age, that of Nehemiah, that of Jehoshaphat, and that of Nebuchad- nezzar. It appears to suit the last period as well as any other, though the mention of Amalek, unless introduced by the license of poetry, seems to iiint at an earlier date.
* These races were all more or less tent dwellers, living in the regions south and east of Judah.
122 THE "lamentations'' of JEREMIAH.
Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants
of Tyre : Geshur,^ also, has joined itself to them: it has lent its arm to
the sons of Lot.
Do to them as Thou didst to Midian ; As to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the torrent-stream Kishon;* They were destroyed at Endor,^ they lay like filth on the ground, Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb ; "* All their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,*
Who said, in their day, " Let ns take possession of the pastures of Elohim ! " «
My God, make them like whirling dust; like stubble before the
wind ! As fire burns the yaar, as flame kindles the mountain forests So chase them with Thy storm ; overwhelm them with Thy
tempest ! Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek Thy face, O
Jehovah ; Let them be confounded and overwhelmed for ever; Let them be put to shame ^ and perish, that they may know That Thou — whose name is Jehovah ; that Thou, alone, Art the Highest over all the earth !
It is, however, in the short series of elegiac poems, known in our English Bible as " The Lamentations of Jeremiah," that we realize the intensity of the sufferings which Jerusalem had to endure before its fall, and the bitterness and sorrow with which its citizens lamented its fate. In the Hebrew text no author of these com- positions is named, but a very old tradition ascribes them to Jeremiah. Already in the Septuagint translation, made from one to two centuries before Christ, the state-
» Lagarde. The Hebrew has Assyria, but a very small change is required for the emendation in the text.
2 Judges V. 21. 3 Near Tabor. Judges v. 19. ^ Judges vii. 25. 5 Judges viii. 5. ^ Pastures or " homesteads " of Elobim. 7 Lit., *' grow red."
THE "lamentations" OF JEREMIAH. 123
ment is prefixed to the Book, that " It came to pass, after Israel was taken captive, and Jerusalem made desolate, Jeremiah sat weeping, and lamented this Lamentation over Jerusalem," and to this the Vulgate^ adds, "in bitterness of heart, sighing and crying." The Arabic version quotes the words of the Septuagint, and the Targum begins with the statement that " Jeremiah the prophet and great priest " was the author. It is only in recent times that critics have questioned the uniform belief of the Jewish and early Christian Church, and ascribed the Lamentations to some other author.^ Nothing tbat is urged, however, need shake our con- fidence in these touching laments being the production of the great prophet. The grotto in which he is said to have written them is still shown in the face of a rocky hill, on the western side of the city. But whether this tradition be correct or not, they show, in every verse, the signs of fresh and irrepressible sorrow, as if the scene still lay beneath the eyes of the poet^ and the events commemorated were still agitating the heart. Nor is it any valid objection that the form of the diff'erent poems of which the book consists appears artificial. The first, second, third, and fourth chapters are written in verses,
^ Fourth century after Christ.
2 Ewald supposes Lamentations was written by Barucb, or some other of Jeremiah's di-sciples, and Bunsen follows him, as he does generally. Xaegelsbach thinks that Jeremiah was not the author. Thenius fancies that different poets wrote different chapters. This, Eeuss opposes, ascribing the Book to some un- known composer. But the grounds of this scepticism as to Jeremiah's authorship seem slight when closely examined. Nor is it a matter of any serious moment who was the inspired author. The Book dates from immediately after the siege of Jerusalem, whoever wrote it. The question is curious, but of no real practical weight
124
THE '^LAMENTATIONS OF JEEEMJAH.
each of which commences with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the third chapter consisting of verses of three lines, each beginning with the same letter, while the order of two of the letters is reversed in the second, third and fourth.^ The fifth, though not alpha- betical, is composed in twenty-two verses, the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. But no one ever thought of challenging the authorship of a hymn, because the
Wailing Placb at the Walls o» the Temple, Jekttsal'em;
versification was peculiar. As a help to memory, the alphabetical structure may have been of great use ; or it may have been chosen as best suited for a theme de- serving, above all others, to be enshrined in a measure apparently esteemed in the writer's day.
The " Lamentations" are still read yearly by the Jews, to commemorate the burning of the Temple. Every
» The letters Pe and Ayin (s and y.)
THE "lamentations" OF JEREMIAH. 125
Friday, Israelites, old and young, of both sexes, gather at the wailing place in Jerusalem, where a few of the old stones of the Temple still remain in the wall, and recite these sad verses and suitable Psaluis, amidst tears, as they fervently kiss the stones. On the ninth of the month Ab, nearly our July, this dirge, composed about six hundred years before Christ, is read aloud in every synagogue over the world.
The first poem describes the miseries of Jerusalem and Judah during and after the siege.
I ah, how she sits there, lonely,^ the town once so rich in
people ; 2 How is she become like a widow, who was great among the
nations ! The queen of the lands ^ around — how has she become a poor
slave ! Bitterly weeps she by night — tears hang on her cheeks, None has she to comfort her of all those who loved her; All her friends have betrayed her and turned to be her foes.
3 Gone into exile is Judah — worn down by sorrow and slavery,** Finding no rest where she now sits among the heathen.
All her pursuers came up with her, (the hunted bind), when her way closed in before her.^
4 Desolate, the roads to Zion mourn ; no throngs now come to
her feasts ; All her gates are desolate ; her priests sigh ; Her maidens are led away,^ and she herself is in bitterness ;
' Emptied of her inhabitants. ^ Lam. i.
^ Lit. '' provinces," perhaps in allusion to the other provinces of Babylon, or to the former empire of Israel.
^ Her long sufferings at the hands of Assyria, Egypt, and Chaldea.
^ Lit. " between the straits," or narrows, from which escape was impossible.
^ Sept. by a slight change of the Hebrew. The rendering " afflicted," in the A. V., from the Heb., if right, may refer to
126 THE " LAMENTATIONS " OF JEREMIAH.
5 Her ^ foes have become her masters: her enemies enjoy quiet
prosperity,
For Jehovah has sunk her in trouble for her many trans- gressions.
Her tender children are led away captive by the oppressor.
6 Vanished from the Daughter of Zion is all her glory ; Her princes are come to be like deer that find no pasture,^
So that they fled, no longer swiftly strong, before their pursuers.
7 Zion ^ thinks sadly of the days of her misery and forced
wanderings, Of all her pleasant things that she had in the old days, Before her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and she
had no helper. The oppressors saw her, and mocked at her calamities.^
8 Heinously has Jerusalem sinned ; therefore has she become an
abhorrence. All who once honoured, despise her, for they have seen her
shame ; She, herself, also sighs, and turns away her face.*
9 Tainted and foul are her skirts, for she had not thought of the
sure end of her sins,^ Therefore she sank thus wondrously, and has no one to comfort
her: " See, 0 Jehovah," cries she, " my sorrow ; how proudly the
foe deals with me."
10 yea, he stretched out his hand over all her ancient treasures. She has seen the heathen enter her sanctuary ; ^
Them, whom Thou hast commanded never to come into the congregation.
1 1 Craving for bread, all her people wearily sigh ;
their no longer having a share in the religious festivities. Exod. XV. 20. Jud. xxi. 19-21. Ps. Ixviii. 25.
1 Soft H.
2 A reference perhaps to the flight of Zedekiah and others.
3 Heb., Jerusalem. ** Not, at her " Sabbaths." * Lit., *' turns backwards." ^ Deut. xxxii. 29.
7 The Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites, as part of the besieging army, had entered even the Holy of Holies for plunder. Deut. xxiii. 3, 4. Ps. Ixxix.
127
They gave their dearest things away for food, to keep them
alive.* " See, Jehovah, and behold, how I, Jerusalem, am despised! '*
12 Little, s^eems it to you, all ye passers by the way ? Behold
and see. Is any sorrow like that inflicted on me. Me, whom Jehovah has troubled in the day of His fiery
wrath ?
13 My bones hath He filled with fire from on high ; it glows
through them.2 He has spread a net for my feet; he has driven me^ into it
(like a hunted deer), He has made me desolate, and sick at heart all the day.
14 Now is the yoke of my sins bound on me by His hand; Twisted into strong bonds, they are come on my neck ; He has
bowed down my strengtli; Jehovah has given me into their hands, before whom I cannot resist.
15 Slighted* by Jehovah have been all my mighty men in my
midst; A solemn feast was proclaimed against me — to crush my
young braves; Jehovah has trodden, as in a wine press, the virgin daughter
of Judah.
16 At ^ these things my eyes weep — my eyes, running with tears, For they who should comfort me, they who should quicken
me to life again, are far from me. My children are destroj ed, for the foe has prevailed !
17 Pleading hands are stretched out by Zion, yet has she no
comforter.
* Lit., '* to bring back their life." ' Ewald, by an emendation.
* Lit., " turned me back into it when I was trying to escape."
* Thus, Gesenius and De Wette. "Surrendered," "given up," Keil and Ewald.
* A for Ayin in the Heb. alphabet. We have no letter exactly similar.
128 TH
Jehovah has commanded that those round Jacob * should be
his foes ; Jerusalem has become a loathing among them.
i8 "Truly 2 Jehovah is only righteous, for I have rebelled against His word; Hear, therefore, all ye nations, and behold my sorrow. My maidens and my young men are gone into captivity.
19 Coldly did my lovers betray me when I called to them ; My priests and my elders perished of hunger in the city, Seeking for food to bring back their life.
20 Rise and behold, O Jehovah, how deep is my grief; my souP
glows within me. My heart beats quick* in my bosom, for I have greatly
rebelled ; The sword makes me childless without; within, there is death.
21 Sighing* aloud * I have no comforter,' my trouble is heard ; All my foes have learned of my sorrow; they are glad Thou
hast caused it ; But Thou bringest on the day Thou hast foretold, when they will be as I am.
22 To Thy throne rise all their wickedness !
Do to them what they have done to me, for all my trans- gressions ; For many are my sighs and my heart is faint."
A lament over the Divine judgments on the city, and the desolation of Judab, and a touching supplication on their behalf, succeed.
I Ah ! ^ how has Jehovah covered the Daughter of Zion with His anger, like a cloud ! He has cast down the glory of Israel from heaven to the earth, And has not remembered His footstool in the day of His wrath !
1 The nations round Judah. ^ The T should be Ts.
3 Lit., " my inner parts." * Lit., " turns," " is greatly moved.'
« Should be Sh. ^ Lam. ii.
THE "lamentations'^ OP JEREMIAH. 129
2 (Blasted and) destroyed are all the homesteads of Jacob by
Jehovah, nor has He piiied them ; He has thrown down, in His wrath, the strongholds of the
Daughter of Judah ; He has cast them to the ground; He has dishonoured the
kingdom and its princes.
3 Grimly fierce, He has cut off every horn ^ of Israel ;
He has drawn back His right hand from the face of the enemy. And burned up Jacob, like flaming fire that consumes all round it,
4 Drawn has He His bow, like an enemy; standing (to aim) with
his right hand, like a foe ; And has slain all that was pleasant to the eye; He has poured out His fury like fire in the tent of the Daughter
of Zion.
5 He, Jehovah, has become like a foe : He has destroyed Israel ; Destroyed all her castles; broken down all her strongholds, And heaped up groans and sighs on the Daughter of Judah.
6 Violently has He destroyed His Temple,^ (in its sacred grove)
as if it had been a common garden ; He has destroyed the
place of His Feasts. Jehovah has caused feasts ^ and Sabbaths to be forgotten in
Zion. And rejected in His fierce anger both king and priest.
7 (Zealous against us), Jehovah has cast aside His altar; He has
profaned His sanctuary ; He has given the walls of her castles into the hand of the
foe. They raised a wild noise in the House of Jehovah, as if it had
been one of our festivals !
8 (He), Jehovah, had purposed to level the wall of the Daughter
of Zion : He stretched out the measuring line : He did not hold back His
hand from destroying. He made rampart and wall to lament — sunk in ruins together.
9 (Torn down or burnt), her gates have, (as it weie), sunk into
the ground ; He has destroyed and broken her bars.
^ Every means of defence. - Lit., " Tent," or " covert."
* " Appointed seasons." VOL. VI. K
Her king and her princes are among the heathen ; the Law is
no more. Even her prophets obtain no longer a vision from Jehovah.
10 In silence, the elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the
ground ; They have cast dust on their heads; they are girded with
sackcloth; The virgins of Jerusalem have suiik their heads to the earth.
11 Closed by much weeping, my eyes fail ; my whole body
glows ; My liver is poured on the earth, at the destruction of the
Daughter of my people, For the children and sucklings perish for hun ger in the streets
of the city :
12 Lying in the streets of the city, dying, like the mortally
wounded. They cry to their mothers " Where is the corn and wine? "^ Their souls breathing themselves out, meanwhile, on their
mother's bosom.
13 (Maiden) daughter of Jerusalem ! what (message of comfort)
shall I give thee ? to what shall I liken thee ? What shall I compare to thee, for thy consolation, O virgin
daughter of Zion ? Thy trouble- is great as a sea; who can heal thee?
14 Nothing but lies and deceit^ have thy false prophets spoken
to thee ; They have not laid open thy sin, to prevent thy being led into
captivity ; They prophesied to thee only false *• burdens," deceitful and
ruinous.
15 Still, as men pass by, all clap their hands together at thee in
scorn ; They hiss, and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jeru- salem.
^ These two represent food and drink generally.
2 Lit., " breach, or " wound."
3 Lit., "whitewash," "plaster," "pretence."
" Is this the city," say they, *' that men call ' The Perfection of Beauty,' * The Joy of the whole earth ? ' "
16 (Pleased' at thy fall) thine enemies open their mouths -wide
at thee ; Hissing (in contempt) and gnashing their teeth (in rage) they
say, *' We have destroyed her ! This is the day for which we hoped — now we have found and
seen it ! "
17 All that Jehovah had determined has He done ;
He has fulfilled His word, ordered in days of old— He has
destroyed without pity; He has let the foe rejoice over thee ; he has raised the horn of
thine oppressors.
18 Their" heart cried in sorrow to Jehovah!
Let thy tears flow down day and night like a stream,^ 0 wall
of the Daughter of Zion ! Give thyself no rest;* let not the apple of thine eye cease
weeping !
19 Cry out in the night, rising up; in the beginning of the
watches " Pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord; Lift up thy hands to Him, for the life of thy children, That perish for hunger at every corner of the streets.
20 Regard, 0 Jehovah, and behold, to whom hast Thou thus
done ! Shall women eat the fruit of their womb — the babes of their
nursing ? Shall the priest and the prophet lie slain in the sanctuary of
the Lord ?
21 Shall the boy and the grey-haired man lie dead on the ground
in the streets ?
* In the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chapters the Hebrew letter Pe comes before Ayin.
2 T should be Ts. ' A mountain rain- torrent.
* In prayer. Lit., "grow not cold."
5 In the beginning of each watch. In Jeremiah's time there were three night watches of four hours each. Exod. xiv. 24. Ps. Ixiii. 6.
132 THE " liAMENTATIONS " OP JEREMIAH.
My virgins and ray young men have fallen by the sword; Slain by Thee in the day of Thy wrath, slain without pity ! Thou callest my terrors round me, like the crowds on the day
of a feast ; None of my children escaped or could flee, in the day of the
wrath of Jehovah ; Those I had nursed and brought up has my foe destroyed.
Now follows a touching poem on the sufferings and the consolation of the godly .^ It is written in verses of three lines, each verse beginning in all its lines with the same letter; and the successive verses following the Hebrew alphabet in regular order — perhaps to impress the poem more easily on the memory. It is put in the mouth of an imaginary singer — a survivor of the siege.
1 Alas ! I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of
His wrath !
2 Alas! He has guided and led me through darkness— not
through light!
3 Against Me has He turned, again and again, His hand, all the
day long ;
4 Bruised ^ has He my flesh and my skin ; He has broken my
bones ;
5 Built up, round about me, poison and travail,
6 Brought me into darkness, Hke the long dead !
7 Girded me round has He, with a wall, that I cannot get out,
He has made my chain heavy.
8 Gives no ear to my prayer when I cry and call.
9 Girded round my paths with a wall of squared stones ; He
breaks up my paths.
10 Dread is He to me as a bear, or a lion hidden in secret.
11 Dumb with terror has He made me; driving me from my
ways, and letting the wild beasts tear me in pieces.
12 Drawing His bow. He has set me as a mark for the arrow.
13 He has let the sons of His quiver ^ pierce into my loins.'*
1 Lam. iii. 1-21. 2 Lit., " rubbed away."
3 i.e. arrows. * Lit., " kidneys."
OF JEEEMTAH. 133
14 Held in derision am I by all my people : their scoff all the
day.
15 He has filled me with bitterness and made me drink
wormwood.
16 With gravel stones has he broken my teeth ; He has
strewn me with ashes.
17 Withheld has He, my soul, from peace: I have forgotten
prosperity.
18 Withered for ever, said I, is my strength, and my hope
from Jehovah.
19 Set^ before Thee my affliction and my misery ; the wormwood
and the poison ;
20 Set before my soul are they; it is bowed down within me ;
21 Seeing therefore I thus keep them before me, I will hope (for
God's mercy).
Now follow words of contrition and hope.
22 Wholly" of Jehovah's mercy is it that we are not consumed,
because His compassions fail not.
23 (His mercies) are new every morning ; great is Thy faithful-
ness.
24 He, Jehovah, is my portion, says my soul : therefore will I
hope in Him.
25 To those who cling to Him, Jehovah is good : to the soul that
seeks Him ;
26 To work patiently for the salvation of Jehovah is good;
27 To bear the yoke (of trouble) in his youth is good for a man.
28 If Jehovah bow him with sorrows, let him sit alone in silence;
29 If, perchance, there be hope, let him kiss the dust meekly;
30 If even it bring reproach, let him give his cheek to the smiter.
31 Cast off the Lord may, but not for ever !
32 Cause grief He may, but He also pities, in the multitude of
His mercies.
33 Contraiy to His heart is it to afflict or to grieve the children
of men.
' Here and in the next two lines the first letter should be Z. Set before" is used as = " remember." 2 Wh should be H.
134 THE '^ LAMENTATIONS '^ OF JEEEMIAH.
34 Lord ! to tread in pieces under one's feet all the prisoners
of the earth —
35 Lord ! to turn aside the right of a man in his dispute before
the face of the Most High —
36 Lord ! to defraud a man in his cause — is not pleasing to
Theel^
Having uttered these words of submission and hope, the prophet breaks out afresh into expressions of suffer- ing; his grief being still irrepressible, notwithstanding his trust in the justice and goodness of God. All things are in His hands. Evil as well as good is by His ap- pointment : the former coming on man for his sin ; the latter, as the gift of heavenly bounty. But amidst all the trials of his country, the Throne of Grace is ever open ; to that let the mourners humbly repair ! Nor let them complain if they receive chastening from the Lord; the just punishment of their offences!
37 Man never was, who could speak, and it came to pass, if
the Lord had not commanded ;
38 Mast not evil as well as good proceed out of the mouth of the
Most High?
39 Man, left alive, must not sigh, but reform; for why sigh over
deserved punishment of one's sins?
40 No, let us, rather, prove and search our ways, and turn to
Jehovah !
41 Not only our hands, but our hearts, also, be lifted up to God
in the heavens !
42 Not one of us but has sinned or rebelled, and Thou hast not
pardoned.
43 Sore offended. Thou hast put on wrath, like a garment, and
punished us; slaying us without pity.
44 Supplication cannot pass through to Thee, for Thou hast hid
Thyself in a thick cloud.
1 I have changed the person in this verse from the third to the second, to meet the exigencies of the alphabetical structure.
135
45 Sordid offscourings and refuse hast Thou made us, in the
midst of the nations.
46 (Proudly) have all our enemies opened their mouths at us,
47 Panic alarm, and the pit of destruction,* have we round us;
devastation and ruin.
48 Pouring down from my eyes, flow streams of tears, for the
destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 Always, without intermission; tears trickle down without
ceasing;
50 Always, till Jehovah look down and behold us, from heaven.
51 At the thought of all the daughters of my city my eye troubles
my heart.
The prophet here interrupts the narrative of the sorrows of his people, by recalling his own sufferings at their hands.
52 Terribly 2 have my enemies hunted me without cause, like a
bird
53 They tried to cut off my life in a pit^ and put a stone on its
mouth. ■*
54 The waters flowed over my head, so that I thought, " I am
lost."
55 Calling on Thy name, 0 Jehovah, I cried out of the depth'
of the cistern ;
56 •* Close not thine ear to my voice, to my sighing, to my cry."
57 Come near, didst Thou, in the day when I called, and saidst,
** Fear thou not."
58 (Righteous) Lord, Thou didst defend my life;^ Thou didst
save it !
* In which wild animals are taken.
2 T should in this and the two following lines be Ts.
3 The same word as that for the pit or cistern in which Jere- miah was confined.
■* A reference, apparently, to the putting the heavy stone lid, over the cistern in which Jeremiah was imprisoned. Jer. xxxviii. 6. * Lit, " lowest depths."
6 Lit., " plead the suit for my Hfe."
136 THE '^LAMENTATIONS^' OP JEREMIAH.
59 Begarded hast Thou, O Jehovah, my wrongful treatmeiifc —
judge Thou my cause!
60 Revenge taken on me by them, Thou sawest it all ; and all
that they plotted agamsfc me !
61 Shame cast on me by them, Thou didst hear, 0 Jehovah; all
that they plotted against me !
62 Sayings of those that rose up against me, and their murmured
schemes for my hurt, all the day.
63 See, at their sitting down together and their rising up, I am
their scoff!
64 Take vengeance on them, 0 Jehovah, according to the works
of their hands ;
65 Their heart, do thou blind it* — let Thy curse rest upon them;
66 Turn on them and destroy them, in wrath, from under the
heavens of Jehovah !
These three laments not having calmed the emotion of the prophet at the remembrance of the awful sufferings of his people, he adds a fourth, in which the miseries endured in the siege are painted in the most touching detail. Comparing the citizens to fine gold and to the stones of the sanctuary,^ he bewails their fate under the figure of the dimming of the one and the throwing down of the other.
1 Ah ! how is the gold grown dull !^ the finest gold changed ! How are the holy stones thrown down, at every corner of the
streets."*
2 Burghers of Zion, the noblest; men to be weighed against
finest gold, Ah ! how they are treated as if they were common earthenware pitchers, the work of a potter's hands !
3 (Gaunt) she- wolves^ offer the breast to their young and suckle
them ;
1 Lit.. " cover " hence " blind." 2 2ech. ix. 16.
* Lam. iv. "* Lam. ii. 19.
5 See note on the word " tannin," vol. v. p. 45. It means really any fierce beast, or monster; here, nearly all understand "the she- wolf " to be intended.
THE "lamentations'' OF JEREMIAH. 137
But the daughter of my people has grown lieartless as the ostrich in the wilderness, (which forsakes its young when alarmed by the hunter).^
4 Dried up by thirst, the tongue of the suckling cleaves to the
roof of its mouth; The young children ask bread ; no one breaks it to them.
5 Hollow-cheeked, those wont to eat dainties wander in the
streets, Those brought up wearing scarlet, are glad to make dunghills their couch.
6 "Worse is the punishment of the sin of the daughter of my
people, than that of the sin of Sodom : It was destroyed in a moment ; the hands of the foe did not rest on her (as on us).
7 Zion's princes shone white as snow ; they were whiter than
milk; They were more ruddy in body than corals ; their form was lovely as that of a well-cut sapphire.
8 (Hideous now !), their faces blacker than darkness with
famine ; they are not recognised in the streets ; Their skin cleaves to their bones ; it is dried up like wood.
9 Those slain with the sword are better ofE than their neigh-
bours, that perish of hunger! For these die, gnawed through by famine, for want of the fruits of ihe field.
10 Infants, and these their own, have been boiled by mothers,
till then full of pity. Such babes were their food, in the downfall of the daughter of my people.
Jerusalem has been utterly destroyed.
1 1 Carried out to the uttermost by Jehovah is His fury ; He
has poured forth His burning wrath. And kindled a fire in Zion that has devoured even its founda- tions.
» Tristram, p. 238.
138 THE ^'^ LAMENTATIONS " OP JEREMIAH.
12 Little would the kings of the earth, or the inhabitants of the
world ^ have thought, That the foe and the oppressor would enter into the gates of Jerusalem ! ^
The sins of the prophets and priests were the great cause of the fall of the city. A strong faction, led by members of these orders, confident in the speedy return of their brethren from exile, had raised fierce tumults during the siege, to prevent surrender; many citizens perishing in the contests thus excited.
13 Mainly for the sins of her prophets and for the iniquities of
her priests, Who shed the blood of the just in her midst, ^ (has this cata- strophe come on her)
14 Numbers of them wandered blindly through the streets, soiled
with blood, So that no one could touch their clothing.
15 *' Stand back !" men cried out to them, " ye unciean ! " "stand
back! stand back ! Touch us not!"* Yet they strove,* and roamed about, saying "The exiles will not sojourn long among the heathen."
1 An Oriental hyperbole for "any one."
2 The Jews thought their capital impregnable, in spite of its having been repeatedly spoiled by enemies. Perhaps the defeat of Sennacherib led to this fancy ; but the belief that Jehovah would defend it as " His seat," the locality of His Temple, was undoubtedly the main ground of confidence in its security.
2 Jer. vi. 13 ; xxiii. 11 ; xxvi. 8 ; etc.
^ They were warned off like lepers. Lev. xiii. 45. They should have raised the cry, but not doing so, the people raised it. This verse shows that the law of the leper, in Leviticus, was then well known.
5 The Hebrew word used here may be derived from a verb meaning " to strive," as well as from one meaning " to flee away," and the sense seems much better.
THE ^'lamentations'' OF JEREMIAH. 139
i6 (Proud ones), the glance of Jehovah scattered them: He no longer paid respect to them : and so The citizens regarded not the faces of priests, and had no reverence for the Elders.
17 As for us, (the besieged), our eyes pined away, looking in
vain for help, (from Egypt or elsewhere). Our weary watching has all been for a nation that could not help ns !
18 The foe, from their siege works, kept their eyes on our very
footsteps, so that we could not walk in the streets ; Our end is near, our days are completed ; yea, our end is come!
19 Keener in their swiftness than the eagles of heaven were our
pursuers ; They hunted after us on the mountains : they lurked for us in the desert.
20 (Royal Zedekiah), the breath of our nostrils, the Anointed of
Jehovah, was caught in their pits, ^ Of whom we said, "Under his shadow shall we live among the nations."
The treacherous part taken in this time of Jrouble by Edom, a nation related to Judah, had sunk into the heart of the Hebrews.
21 Sing and be glad, O daughter of Edom, inhabitress of the
land of Uz ! But the cup will come to thee, also ! Thou, too, shalt b« drunk with the shame of ruin : thou, too, shalt expose thyself to contempt !
22 Tliy punishment" is over, 0 daughter of Zion : Jehovah will
no more carry thee away into captivity : But He will hereafter visit thee for thy iniquity,^ O daughter of Edom : He will lay bare thy sins !
* As before, a figure from the pits in which wild be;»sts were taken.
2 Lit., " thy iniquity," the cause being put for the penalty.
3 Same word in Heb. as is translated " punishment " in the line above.
140 THE "lamentations'^ of JEREMIAH.
The last poem in this series is an earnest prayer to God not to forsake His people for ever. The agonies of the siege, and of the storming of Jerusalem, had been already painted in vivid colours^ but they had so burnt themselves into the memory of the prophet, that he cannot refrain from reciting them once more. This done, however, he lifts his voice to Jehovah, the one sure Help and Saviour, and closes his lament by leaving the fate of his nation to the infinite pity of its Heavenly King. The artificial structure of the vervses, beginning with suc- cessive letters, is now discontinued, but their number is the same as that of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
1 Remember, Jehovali/ what lias happened to us; behold, and
see our reproach!
2 Our inheritance is made over to foreigners, our houses to
aliens.
3 Orphans are we, without a father; our mothers are as widows.
4 We drank our water only for money ; we got our fuel only for
payment.
5 We were pursued, with the hand of tbe foe on onr necks : we
were worn out and had no rest.
6 We gave ourselves up^ to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians,
for enough to eat.
7 Our fathers sinned and are not : we bear the punishment of
their sins.
8 Slaves — the court eunuchs of Egypt and Chaldea — have ruled
us : no one delivers us out of their hands.
9 "We reap our grain ^ at the risk of our lives, from the sword of
the Arabs of the desert.
10 Our skin burns like an oven with the feverish blast of famine.
11 Tlie women of Zion were dishonoured: tlie maidens in the
towns of Judah.
* liam. V.
^ Lit., " gave the hand," as a sign of submission.
* Lit., " sret our bread."
THE "lamentations^' OP JEREMIAEI. 141
12 Princes were hung up by the hand (on the cross) : the faces
of the Elders received no respect.
13 They took our strong young men to grind their mills; our
lads staggered under loads of fuel.
14 Elders no longer gathered at the gate: young men gave up
their songs.
15 The joy of our hearts has ceased : our dancing is turned into
lamentation.
16 The crown of our head — our honour— has fallen off: woe to
us that we sinned !
17 For this, our heart is faint: for this, our eyes grow dark —
18 For Mount Zion, because it lies waste: the foxes run over it.
Then follows an earnest prajer.
19 Thou, Jehovah, reignest for ever: Thy throne, from genera-
tion to generation.
20 Why wilt Thou forget us for ever ? why wilt Thou forsake us
so long?
21 Lead us back to Thee, O Jehovah, that we may truly return
to Thee : renew our days as of old !
22 Thou wilt not surely wholly forget us? Thou wilt not be
angry with us beyond measure ?
Thus wailed the genius of Hebrew poetry over the desolation of Judah and Jerusalem ! Other cities and countries have had their minstrels to lament their public sorrows, but the national elegies of the Jew alone have spread among all races of the earth and remain fresh after twenty-five centuries. Nor are they even yet without deep and practical interest, recording, as they do, the catastrophe that awaits any community, however highly favoured, which forgets that public and private righteousness, alone, secures permanent prosperity.
CHAPTER yill.
EDOM AND THE NATIONS ROUND.
THE psalms and laments in which Judah sighed over its national ruin became sacred among all the widely-dispersed race, from their first appearance, and at once deepened the grief over the fall of their country, and made it abiding. But with tearful regret were mingled other feelings. The " delightsome land " had ceased to be theirs ; in part, as we have seen, through the treachery of the communities round it, many of whom were kindred in blood to the sufferers.^
Edom had even sent troops to assist the Chaldeans in the siege, and these had shown a bitter and remorseless hostility, greater than that of the army they aided. The fiercest mutual hatred had, indeed, for centuries, thrust apart the brother races of Jacob and Esau. The refusal of a passage through Mount Seir to the Hebrews, under Moses, in their march from Egypt, nine hundred years before, had entailed the long sufierings of the wilderness life, and had never been forgotten. Fierce war had raged between the two peoples since the time of David's temporary conquest of Edom. Under Joram, Amaziah, and Uzziah, in succession, it had been virtually
1 Ezek. XXV. 3, 8, 12, 15; xxvi. 2.
142
EDOM AND THE NATIONS ROUND. 143
a Jewish province, till the reign of the weak Ahaz.^ Tho destruction of Jerusalem, however, had at last given the Edomites a chance of revenge, and they had indulged it to the uttermost. More cruel than the Chaldees, they had demanded that the city be razed to its foundations.^ After the final assault, they had eagerly helped to plunder it, and had openly rejoiced when the citizens were carried off into slavery, boasting loudly of their share in the catastrophe.^ Still worse ; they had cut off the retreat of such as had escaped massacre at the storming, and were making their way to the friendly shelter of Egypt. To destroy these, they had beset the southern roads, killing or taking prisoner as many fugitives as possible ; the captives being afterwards handed over as slaves to the Chaldeans.^ Nor had the depopulation of Jerusalem and Judah contented them. They had taken possession of a large part of the Hebrew territory.^ No wonder that, henceforth, an inextinguishable hatred, deepening with each generation, filled every Jewish bosom at the very name of Edom.^
A striking illustration of this deadly abhorrence of the race survives in the short prophecy of Obadiah, the briefest of all the books of the Old Testament. We know nothing of the personal history of the writer, and even the period at which the oracle that bears his name was first uttered, has been disputed. As in the case of Joel, some have fancied him the earliest of the prophets ; others, the latest; a lesson enforcing diffidence in historical criticism. That there are various coincidences
1 2 Sam. viii. 14. 2 Kings viii. 20. 2 Kings xvi. 6. 2 Chron. xxviii. 17.
2 Ps. cxxxvii. 7. Jer. xxxv. 11. Lara. iv. 21. Jer. xhx.
3 Obad. 11-13. " Obad. 14. « Ezek. xxxvi. 5. * Geikie's Life and Words of Christ, vol. i. p. 246.
144 EDOM AND THE NATIONS ROUND.
with Joel may be seen in any reference Bible, and there are passages more or less parallel with others in Jeremiah.^ But we know how frequently one prophet borrowed from another, sometimes indeed from one whose age and name are unknown/ and it is in Obadiah's case a question which was the borrower. The omission of the name of the Chaldeans, or the exile to Babylon, proves nothing in so short a composition, nor can much stress be laid on the position of the book after Amos, in the Hebrew Bible, since Canticles stands next after Job, and Joel, which the new critics allege to be very late, is put before Amos. The balance of probability seems strongly in favour of the prophecy having been uttered by one who had seen the destruction of Jerusalem, and the conduct of Edom which it denounces.^ Obadiah may have been one of those carried off to Babylon, or possibly he may have been a fugitive in Egypt or in Phenicia ; in any case, he seems have been a later contemporary of Jeremiah.
Apart from the malignity shown by the Edomites, at the final crisis of the Hebrew state, there were special grudges between the two races on subordinate grounds. The people of Mount Seir, always vaunting and truculent, stirred the jealousy of their brother-race. They boasted, not without reason, of the wisdom of their great men,*
* See a reference Bible. ^ See Isa. chaps, xv. and xvi.
^ Obadiah has been supposed by different critics to have lived before Joel, or under Joash, Jehoram, Uzziah or Pekah ; some even assigning him so late a date as B.C. 312. That widely separate centuries should thus have been honoured, shows the utter uncertainty oi the subject. But the concurrence of such men as De Wette, Bleek, Rosenmiiller and Ewald, in thinking the oracle refers to the fall of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar, is ample vindication for assuming that it does so.
* Obad. 8.
EDOM AND THE NATIONS EOUND. 145
and had all the iasolence of wealth, secured by the posi- tion of their territory in the route of commerce from north to south. The apparent strength of their position, moreover, in a region of lofty and tangled mountains, increased their haughtiness ; for their capital, Selah or Petra, lay in a ravine, approachable only by difficult and easily defended mountain passes and narrow gorges.
Their wisdom, prosperity, haughtiness, and fancied security, however, were doomed to a terrible eclipse. Josephus tells us^ that Nebuchadnezzar, some time after the destruction of Jerusalem, turned his arms against Moab, Ammon, Southern Syria and Edom, and utterly crushed them for the time, though Edom, at least, sur- vived, as a vassal territory, under the Jews and Romans, till after the fall of Jerusalem. Then, at last, the curse of Obadiah and other prophets was fulfilled.
The prophecy opens with an outburst of rejoicing from the remnant of the Hebrews, at the news that vengeance was about to overtake the race they so fiercely hated.
I "We heard a rumour from Jeliovah,- a messenger was sent among the nations, to say — " Up, let us rise against Edom in war ! " 2 " Behold," says Jehovab, " I will make thee small (0 Edom) among the nations ; thou shalt be utterly despised. 3 The pride of thy heart has deceived thee, thou who hast thy dwelling in the clefcs of the rocks ; thy seat on the mountain heights; ^ who sayest in thy heart, " Who shall cast me down to
* Jos., Ant, X. ix. 7. ^ Obadiah.
3 The Edomites inhabited the range of Seir — " the rough " hills on the east side of the Arabah, or depression south of the Dead Sea. It stretches south, towards the Red Sea, in a succession of wild granite, porphyry, and sandstone masses, seamed with count- less intricate valleys, not even yet explored. Rising steeply on the west, it sinks gradually into the desert on the east. Full of caves, the hills were originally inhabited by the Horites, or cave men, but that race was driven out by the Edomites (Deut. ii. VOL. VI. L
146 EDOM AND THE NATIONS ROUND.
the ground." 4 If thou wert to soar as high as the eagle, and to set thy nest among the very stars, I wilt hurl thee down from thence, says Jehovah !
Nothing could resist a foe whom Jehovah had appointed as His instrument. Ordinary raids of plundering tribes might be beaten off, with only a partial loss, but the attack of the terrible Chaldean would bring utter ruin.
5 If a thieving horde ^cnme upon thee, or night-plunderers (attracted by thy wealth), ^ they would carry off only as much as satisfied them ; ^ but now, alas, how utterly art thou destroyed! If grape-gatherers came on thee, would they not leave some gleanings ? 6 But, now, how is Esau searched through in every part! How are his most secret chambers ransacked!
Chaldea would plunder it utterly, nor would it have a friend or ally to help it in its distress.
7 When thy fugitives flee from the invader, to neighbouring friendly states, all these tliy allies'* will drive them back again, within their own borders ; tiie communities at peace with thee^ will betray thee, turning against thee and overcoming thee ; thy
12, 22). Petra, or Selah, the capital, consisted mainly of dwellings hewn out of the sandstone of the defile in which it lay ; the many rich colours of the rock giving the whole place great beauty. Its ruins, if the word may be used, show splendid temples, and a great amphitheatre cut out of the living rock ; but these are of a comparatively late period. See vol. iv. pp. 173, 408.
1 Obad. 5. 2 Diocl, xix. 94, 95.
3 Eichhorn translates these lines : " If thieves or midnight robbers came on thee, how quietly miglitest thou have awaited them; would they have stolen more than they could carry off?" Jer. xlix. 9, from which the verse is taken, runs thus in the A.Y. " If grape-gatherers come to thee, would they not have some gleaning grapes ? If thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough."
* " Men of thy league." * '* Men of thy peace."
EDOM AND THE NATIONS ROUND. 147
mercenaries ^ will spread a snare for thy feet, but thou wilt not mark it. -
The boasted wisdom and martial spirit of Edom were to pass away.
8 Shall it not be in that day ' says Jehovah, that I will destroy (the wisdom of) " the wise" ■* out of Edom, and understanding from the mount.ain of Esau? 9 And thy mighty men, 0 Teraan, shall be dismayed (by the want of counsel), that every man may be cut off from the mount of Esau by the sword. ^
Their hostility to Jacob — the Hebrew people — has deserved no happier fate.
10 For thy wicked dealing towards thy brother Jacob,^ shame will cover thee, and thou shalt be destroyed for ever. 1 1 In the day when thou stoodest over against us, while aliens carried away his substance, and the barbarian pressed through his gates and cast the lot on Jerusalem, (to share its plunder and prisoners), thou wast like one of them. 12 Thou shouldst not have feasted'^ thine eyes on the (evil) day of thy brother, the day of his calamity; neither shouldst thou have rejoiced over the sons of Judah, in the day of their destruction; neither shouldst thou have opened thy mouth bitterly in the day of their distress. 13 Thou shouldst not have pressed through the gate of My people in the day of their trouble, nor have feasted thine eyes on their misery in the day of their calamity, nor have laid thy hand on their sub- stance in the day of their affection. 14 Neither shouldst thou have stood at the crossroads to kill those that had escaped (from the Chaldean), nor have given up the fugitives to their foe, in the hour of their anguish.
^ The Heb. has only "thy bread," but "men of" seems to be understood from the preceding clause. By men eating the bread of Edom, only mercenaries can be meant. The passage is very obscure.
2 Lit, " there is no noticing of it." ^ Obad. 8.
* Eliphaz, the chief disputant with Job, was a Temanite. Job ii. 11. Gen. xxxvi. 15, 34. * Lit., "by slaughter."
6 Obad. 10. 7 Lit., " do not."
148 EDOM AND THE NATIONS ROUND.
15 For tlie day of Jehovali is near for all nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you ; your work will be paid back on your own head ! 16 For as you, sons of Judah, have drunk ^ the cup of My wrath, on My holy mountain, so shall all the nations drink it henceforth ; they shall drink and swallow it down, and be as if they had never been.
Like all the other prophets, Obadiah sees light even in tlie darkest sky. His people may have been crushed for the time, but they are the heirs of the immortal kingdom of God, and that will, one day, once more, be gloriously established on Zion.
17 But on Movmt Zion^ shall be a place of escape, and it shall he a sanctuary, and the House of Jacob will (once more) enter into their possessions. 18 And the House of Jacob will be a fire and the House of Joseph a flame, and the House of Esau will be stubble (before them), and they shall set it on fire and consume it : Jehovah has spoken.
The Hebrews — both Jacob and Joseph — will be vic- torious on all sides.
19 And they of the south country — the Negeb — will take possession of the mountains of Esau, and they of the Shephelah — the hill slopes over the maritime plain— will take the land of the Philistines; and they will take the Ephraim country^ and the land of Samaria, and Benjamin will get possession of Gilead, (beyond the Jordan).
20 And the captives of their host of the sons of Israel (who will then have returned), will take the land of the Canaanites, as far as Sarepta, ■* and the captives of Jerusalem who are at
^ Kleinert and Keil render this passage: "For as you (Edo- mites), have held your carousings on My holy mountain," etc. But this seems hardly so good as the sense given in the text.
2 Obad. 17-21.
* Hill country, Sept.
^ Zarephath = Sarepta — the present Surafend, between Tyre and Sidon, on the coast. 1 Kings xvii. 9.
EDOM AND THE NATIONS KOUND. 149
Sepliarad,' will take possession of the cities of the south country.^ 21 And deliverers will rise up on Mount Zion, to judge ihe mountain of Esau, ^ and the kingdom will be Jehovah's.
Thus spoke Obadiah, repeating in effect, the curse denounced against Idumea by Amos'* and Isaiah/ about 200 and 150 years, respectively, before the Chaldean destruction of Jerusalem. But the indignation in Judah excited by the cruel desertion of the nations pledged to support her in her final struggle, and especially by the base malignity of Edom, stirred the hearts of his brother prophets no less strongly. Jeremiah and Ezekiel, widely apart as they were, felt alike towards the betrayers of their people, and launched equally terrible utterances against them. It is impossible in all cases to fix the exact dates of these prophecies, but those of Jeremiah at least, from his age, ^ must have been spoken very soon after his countrymen had been carried ofi" to Babylon. The doom of Edom, pronounced by him in tbe name of Jehovah, was terrible.
^ Sephnrad. Graetz would read Arad : ay)lace on the Plienician coast. Keil thinks of Sparta : others, suppose Sardis meant, since it is called Se{)liarad (C P a R a D) in old Persian inscrip- tions. But Schrader very justly hesitates to accept this, on various grounds, and looks rather to Babylonia, where the locality may one day be identified. Keilinschriften, p. 2S5.
2 The :Negeb.
' The overthrow of Edom by the Chaldeans is implied in Jer. xlix. 7 ; Ezek. xxxv., comp. Jer. xxv. 9, 21, and Mai. i. 3. John Hyrcaniis finally crushed the Edomites and compelled them to submit to circumcision, B.C. 129, Jos,, Ant., XIII. i.\'. 1 ; Alex.mder Jannaeus subdued the last of their clans (Jos., Ant., XIII. xv. 4.) and Rome finally de.-troyed the nation. Jos., Bell. Jud., IV. ix. 7.
^ Amos i. 11. Vol. iv. p. 196.
5 Isa. xxxiv. 1-17. Vol. iv. p. 405.
• Jeremiah was between 60 and 70 at the taking of Jerusalem.
150 EDOM AND THE NATIONS ROUND.
7 Concerning Edom — it began — thus saith Jehovah of Hosts : * Is there no longer wisdom in Teman ? ^ Has sound counsel perished from the understanding ones? Has their wisdom vanished ? 8 Flee ! turn ! seek the deep caves of your hills for dwellings, (or the depths of the desert), ye inhabitants of Dedan,^ for I am about to bring on Esau his destruction : the time of his visitation! 9 If grape-gatherers came to thee, would they not leave some gleanings ? if a thieving horde, by night, they would take only what they could carry ofT.* 10 But I will strip Esau bare ; I will lay open his secret places, so that he shall not be able to hide himself. His seed shall be spoiled, and his brethren, tlie related tribes, his neighbours, will perish.^ 11 (Thy men having all been destroyed), leave thy fatherless children (0 Edom); I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in Mel 12 For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, those to whom it belonged not to drink the cup (of My wrath — My own people) must drink it, and shalt thou go unpunished ? Thou shalt not go unpunished, but drink it thou shalt! 13 For I have sworn by Myself, says Jehovah, that Bozrali ^ shall become a horror, a contempt, a desolation, and a curse, and all its towns shall be perpetual wastes. ^
The destruction of Edom being a righteous judgment from Jehovah, the prophet goes on to speak of the com- mand to the Chaldeans to invade it as coming from above,
14 I have heard a rumour which is from Jehovah;^ a messenger has been sent to the nations, saying, " Assemble and come against it; arise to war!" 15 For, lo, I will make thee small among the nations, (0 Edom !), and despised among men. 16 The fear of thee, ^ and the pride of thy heart, have deceived thee, O thou
1 Jer. xlix. 7-13. The resemblances to Obadiah are to be noted.
2 See vol. V. p. 361. ^ yoj. i. p. 243. ^ What was enough, to them.
* Lit., "are gone," or " he is gone." ^ Vol. iv. p. 406. ? Dry places, or deserts. » Jer. xlix. 14-22.
' Lit., " thy terribleness."
EDOM AND THE NATIONS ROUND. 151
who dvvellest in clefts of the rocks, ^ and sittest fast on the heights of the hills.^ Though thou buildest thy nest high as the eagle, I will drag thee down from thence, saith Jehovah, 17 and Edom shall be a fear-inspiring desolation ! Every one who passes by it will be dismayed,^ and will hiss, (in scorn and mockery), at all the strokes it has borne. 18 As Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbour towns, were destroyed utterly, saith Jehovah, so no man will dwell in Edom any more : no man will sojourn in it.
The ascent of the Edomite hills by the invader is now described.
19 Behold! he will come up (against thy hill cities), as a lion comes up from the thickets of the bed of the Jordan, against the flocks on the rock pastures of the Negeb,"* and I will make Edom run forthwith (like a scattered flock) from her rocks, and I will appoint over it him who is chosen (by Me). For who is My equal, and who will challenge My doings? And who is the shepherd (or leader of men) who will stand before Me ?
20 Therefore, hear the decree of Jehovah, that He has made against Edom, and His purposes that He has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman.^ Yerily, they shall drive them before them — weak ones of tlie flock as they are ! Verily their pasture itself will be dismayed at them.* 21 The earth trembles at the noise of their downfall ; a cry will rise, the sound of which will be heard even to the Red Sea." 22 Behold, the invader will mount up, and fly, and spread out his wings like an eagle, over Bozrah, and the
* See p. 145. The word for " rock " is Selah— a name of Petra. ' Both Selah or Petra, and Bozrah, are at a great elevation
above the sea level.
3 The noun and the verb in these sentences are the same- dismayed may therefore be read " filled with terror, or fear."
* Wilton's Negeb, p. 43.
* Wilton shows, from Josh. xv. 1, that Teman must have been the northern part of the range of Seir, next Judah. The Negeb, p. 123.
* This passage is repeated in chap. 1. 45.
^ Lit, " The weedy sea." Edom extended to the Red Sea in the days of her glory. 1 Kings ix. 26.
152 EDOM AND THE NATIONS EOUND.
heart of the mighty men, in that day, will be like the heart of a woman in her trouble !
Not less sternly did the curse against Edom sound from the banks of the Chebar. Ezekiel proclaims it in few but terrible words.
12 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah,^ Because Edom has taken revenge on Judah, and made herself greatly guilty by doing so : J3 Thetefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I will stretch out My hand against Edom, and root out man and beast fjom it, and make it a desert ; from Teman (in the north) to Dedan (in the :south), they shall fall by the sword. 14 I will carry out My revenge on Edom, by the hand of My people Israel.^ It will fare with Edom accoiding to My anger and My fierce wrath, and they shall know My revenge ! saith the Lord Jehovah.
Edom, however, did not stand alone as the object of the denunciations of the prophets ; all the peoples who had betrayed Judah and vented their hatred against her, were alike condemned.^ Calamities terrible as those of Jerusalem were to come upon all its neighbours in turn.
The doom of the Philistines pronounced by Jeremiah opens with a figure suggested by the great river Eu- phrates, on which Babylon stood. The awful power of the Chaldeans is compared to an overwhelming flood, coming from the North.
2 Thus saiih Jehovah:* Behold, waters rise from the north* and swell to a flood, overflowing the river banks, and will de- luge the open countiy and all in it, the town and its inhabitants;
1 Ezek. XXV. 12-14. 2 gee p. 148.
3 Though not expressly stated, it is in itself probable that the Philistines had taken advantage of the sore straits of Judah to gratify their haired of her. Ezek. xvi. 27-57. Amos i. 6. Isa. ix. 11 ; xi. 14. Zeph. ii. 5. Obad. 19. Joel iv. 4. Zech. ix. 5.
4 jer. xlvii. 1-7.
* In Isa, xlvi. 8 the same figure is nsed of the Assyrian army.
EDOM AND THE NATIONS ROUND. 153
and the men will lament aloud ; all the people of the land will shriek in terror. 3 At the loud beating of the hoofs of his war- horses, at the bounding of his chariots, at the rattling of their wheels, the fathers, (in their flight), will not look back to their children, (to save them); so terror-stricken will they be ^ 4 be- cause of tlie day which then comes to destroy all the Philistines, and cut otf from Tyre and Sidon every one left to help them.^ For Jehovah will destroy the Philistines — the remnant of the people who came from Caphtor. 5 Baldness (the sign of mourn- ing)^ has come on Gaza; Askelon is destroyed, and the rest of the Philistine plain.'* How long (0 Philistia) wilt thou cut thy- self (for sorrow !)^
6 0 thou sword of Jeliovah, how long wilt thou not cease?
^ Lit., " the powerless of their hands will be such."
' The Philistines hired themselves out as mercenaries.
^ Jer. xvi. 6.
•* Tlie word is Aiinek — a long broad sweep, like the Plain of Esdiaelon or the Gbor of the Jordan. The Sept. has '' the remnant of the Anakim." Num. xiii. 33. Deut. ii. 10. 1 Sam. xvii. 4. 1 Chron. xx. 5-8. For '* the Philistine " in the text, the Hebrew has " their."
In vol. i. pp. 247, 355, Caphtor is identified with the island of Crete. Later Egyptian researches have, however, proved that the word means " the greater Phenicia," which, in Egyptian is expressed by the words *' Keft ui*." From an early period the whole coast of the Delta had been settled by Phenicians, and was hence called by the Egyptians Keft-ur ; the Caphtor of the Bible. The Philistines are however often spoken of as Cretans. Ezek. XNV. 16. Though Phenicians, they may have come to the Delta from Crete, from which the name Crethi, apparently^ ap- plied to them, may be taken. 1 Sara. viii. 18 ; xv. 18 ; xx. 7, 23. 1 Kings xxxviii. 44. 1 Chron. xviii. 17. Eber's JEgijpten und die B Musis, p. 131. Sayce's Fresh Light from Anct. Monuments, pp. 47, 87.
* The " remnant " of Philistia, for it is only a remnant, Psam- metichus having sorely weakened them by his long siege of Ashdod {Herod., ii. 157), sit in deep grief, like women who pull out their hair, and, in agonizing despair, cut themselves, as was their custom in such cases. Jer. xvi. 6; xlviii. 37.
154 EDOM AND THE NATIONS ROUND.
Back to thy scabbard ! Rest ! Be still ! 7 Bat how can it rest, since Jehovah has given it a mission against Askelon and the sea coast (of Philistia) ? There has He given it its charge !
Far away, in Babylonia, Ezekiel repeated a similar malediction.
15 Thus says the Lord Jehovah,^ because the Philistines acted revengefully, and wreaked that revenge with foul contempfc,^ to destroy Judab, in their long-standing enmity ; 16 Therefore, thus says the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will stretch out My hand over the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cretans,^ and destroy the remnant of them that is on the sea-coast. 17 And I will take a great revenge on them with fierce chastisements, and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I bring my revenge upon them.
Moab, among other kingdoms, was the object of fierce denunciations. Isaiah had prophesied its doom long before, perhaps in the words of a still older seer.* Jere- miah, as Balaam, Amos, and others, had done, from the time of Moses, now lifted up his voice proclaiming its approaching destruction. But since the reign of Mesa and the death of Ahab, with a brief interval during the reign of Jeroboam II., the doomed land had enjoyed independence, and instead of paying tribute to the He- brews had harried their borders remorselessly.^ Jeremiah now, however, sees it at last utterly destroyed.
I Eespecting Moab ; ^ thus says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel ; Woe to Nebo ^ for it is laid waste : Kiriathaim, " the
1 Ezek. XXV. 15-17.
2 The word comes from a root, meaning " to stink."
3 Lit. Cherethim, or Crethi. 1 Sam. xxx. 14. Zeph. ii. 5. ■* Isa. chaps, xv. and xvi.
5 2 Kings xiii. 20. ^ Jer. xlviii. 1-8.
" Nebo. The highest peak of the Abarim range near the north end of the Dead Sea, but also the name of a town in Moab, or rather in the territory of Keuben (Num. xxxii. 38), held, in the
EDOM AND THE NATIONS EOUND. 155
double town " ^ is put to shame, is taken : Misgab, " the citadel on the height," is put to shame and broken down.- 2 The boasting of Moab is gone ! In Heslibon tliey ^ plot evil against the land : " Come, let us cut it ofiP from being a nation " ! Thou, also, Madmenah,"* wilt be brought to silence; the sword will pursue thee. 3 Hark ! a cry from Horonaim,* " spoiling and huge de- struction " ! 4 Moab is broken to pieces; the towns, her little ones, cause their cry to be heard to Zoar.^ They go up the ascent of Luhith with weeping; in the descent of Horonaim the wail is heard over the ruin that has come on them. 5 Flee, save your lives, like him who escapes, naked, to the wilderness.
6 Because thou trustedst in thy strongholds and in thy treasures, thou shall be taken (in war) and Cheraosh,^ thy god, shall wander forth into captivity ; his priests and his princes with him !
7 And the spoiler shall come up upon every town, not one shall
prophet's day, by Moab. It was taken by Mesa about B.C. 895. The word is derived by Hitzig from the Sanscrit, and rendered by him, " the cloudy heaven ; " and hence there was a god Nebo, after whom the town of the name was called. Sayce, however, derives Nebo from Nabi, " a prophet," as if in remembrance of one of the order in ancient times.
* Kirjathaim, the modern Kureiyat. The latter, like Nebo, lay on the east edge of the upland plateau, and the two thus stand for the tableland generally.
2 Misgab = the height, the citadel. De Saulcy writing of the neighbourhood of Kureiyat, speaks of extensive ancient ruins, and a circular enclosure, constructed with very large stones, and crowning the summit of a high clifif. Vol. i. pp. 546-555.
3 The invading Chaldeans.
^ A district of Moab famous for its rich soil. Hitzig, 2Qd ed., translates " Madmen " as in Isa. xxv. 10, " dunghill " ; and makes the clause apply to Heshbon — " yea, to dungheaps wilt thou be brought." The corpses of the slain will lie rotting on the face of the earth.
* Lit., " the two caves," a town of Moab. « Sept. Ewald. Graf.
' The national god of Moab. This being the only god anywhere mentioned in connection with Moab, the nation would seem to have been practically monotheists.
156 EDOM AND THE NATIONS EGUND.
escape ; the lowland ' shall be ruined and the table land ^ be laid waste, as Jehovah has spoken.
9 Give Moab wings ^ that it may fly off and get away, (like a bird scared from its nest), for her cities shall be made an un- inhabited desolation. lo Cursed be he who does the work of Jehovah slackly ; cursed be he who holds back his sword from blood. 1 1 Moab has remained from his youth undisturbed ; he has lain still, (in his country, like wine) on its lees ; he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel— that is, he has not gone away into captivity (but has enjoyed prosperity), and hence his taste has remained in him, and his fragrance is not changed.^ Therefore behold days come, says Jehovah, that will send to liim those who will turn him on his side (as they do wine jars), and pour him out, emptying his wine jars, and shattering his flagons. 13 And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the children of Israel were ashamed of Bethel,^ their confidence.
14 (Wben it will then happen with you as with the weak and unwarlike) how will you be able to say (any longer), " We are mighty men and strong for war"? 15 Moab is wasted; his cities have gone up in smoke and flame,' and his chosen young men are led like sheep to the slaughter-block, says the King, whose name is Jehovah of Hosts.
16 The destruction of Moab ^ is near at hand, his calamity hastens fast. 17 All ye, his neighbours, bewail him, and all ye who know his name say, " How is the sceptre of might broken, the rod of power." 18 Come down from thy glory, thou daughter,
^ Aimek — the broad sweeps of valley between hills, including perhaps the Ghor of the Jordan. See p. 153.
2 The Mishor== upland downs, without rock or stones.
3 Jer. xlviii. 9-15.
■* To remain on its lees improved wine; to be emptied from vessel to vessel made it tasteless and without fragrance. Its taste and smell were benefited and preserved if it were not poured off its lees.
» Moab remained the same in its feelings to other nations — liarsh and bitter.
6 The calf gods of Bethel. . 7 Or "the spoiler has gone up to his cities."
8 Jer. xlviii. 16-25.
EDOM AND THE NATIONS EOUND. 157
inhabitress of (well-watered) Dibon,^ and sit thirsty on the ground, (captives, waiting to be led away), for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee ; he shall destroy thy strongholds. 19 Stand out in the road, 0 inhabitant ^ of Aroer, and look; ask him that is fleeing, and him that has escaped, " What has happened?" 20 Moab is put to shame ; yea, it is overthrown ; howl and cry; tell it iti Arnon that Moab is laid waste! 21 The judgment (of God) has come on the uplands ;3 on Holon and Jahazah and Mephiiath, 22 and Dibon,and Nebo, andBeth-diblathaim, 23 and Kiriathaim, and Beth-gamnl, and Beth-meon, 24 and Kerioth, and Bozrah,^ and on all the towns of the land of Moab, far and near. 25 The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is shattered, says Jehovah !
The enemy to whom it is committed to carry out tlie judgments of God is now invoked. He is to hand to Moab the cup of the Divine wrath, and make it drunken, till it reels and falls, the derision of those around.^ Its pride against Jehovah, in despising Israel, and the vio-
^ "Ye inhabitants of Dibon." For a notice of the towns men- tioned in this prophecy, see vol. iv. pp. 97-103.
2 Feminine in the Heb. for all the populations.
3 Lit., " the land of the Mishor." As in verse 8. See vol. ii. p. 374.
'* Of these towns, Dibon lay three miles north of the Arnon ; Aroer on the north bank of the Arnon, so that it was on the boundary between the Hebrew territory and that of Moab, but at this time Moab held a large part of the land formerly enjoyed by the tribes beyond Jordan. Holon is mentioned only here, Jahazah seems to have lain to the east of the country, on the edge of the wilderness, and Mephaath was near it. Beth- diblathaim was perhaps north of Dibon. Beth-gamul is only mentioned here, and its position is unknown. Beth-meon was apparently near Heshbou. Kerioth is a synonym of Ar, or Kir, the old capital of Moab. The plural form Kerioth may imply that it included two or more contiguous towns. Bozrah is not identified. The word means " sheepfolds," a fitting name for small communities on 'these upland pastures.
^ See a similar figure, chap. xxv. 15.
158 EDOM AND THE NATIONS EOUND.
lence done to the people of God, by seiziag on their in- heritance beyond Jordan, and cheering on the Chaldeans in their attack on Jerusalem, have brought on the offender this fierce indignation.
26 Make ye him drunken,' for he has acted haughtily against Jehovah; (make him drunken) till he fall into- his own vomit, and himself become a derision as he made Israel. 27 Was not Israel a derision to thee, and, yet, was such a fate deserved — as if he had been found among thieves ? (Thou conldsb not have treated him with more contempt had he been so), for as often as thou speakest of him thou tossest thy head (in scorn). ^ 28 Abandon your towns and make your home in the clefts of the rock, ye inhabitants of Moab, and be like the doves which build their nest at the mouth of the hill caves.^ 29 We (of Judah) have heard of the pride of Moab, for he is insolent exceedingly — his haughtiness, his arrogance, his lofty airs, and the supercilious- ness of his heart (are known to us). 30 Even I (also) know his insolence, says Jehovah, and the hollowness of his boasting; ^ the lies that he has uttered. 31 Therefore, (at the thought of the judgment coming on him for these), I shriek in sorrow for Moab, I cry aloud for all its land. There shall be moaning for the men of Kir-heres.^ 32 O Vine of Sebmah, I will weep for thee more than Jazer will (over the wreck of its homes and vine-
1 Jer. xlviii. 26-35.
^ Lit., '' splash into," so as to sound like the beating of the hands.
3 Matt, xxvii. 39.
4 Keil translates this phrase, " over the yawning abyss," fol- lowing Hitzig. But the word for " abyss " is from a root, " to bore through," " to pierce," and thus suits a cave better than a precipice. In verses 43, 44, it occurs three times, and is rendered in each, "pit" — apparently a concealed cistern or grain pit. But in the text it must mean a cave, since doves breed in such recesses, not in pits.
« Or, "babbling."
^ Tlie chief stronghold of Moab. The Kirhareseth and Kir- haresh of Isa. xvi. 7, 11, also called Kir of Moab and Kirkhu; see the Moabite Stone. Now Kerak.
EDOM AND THE NATIONS EOUND. 159
yards); thy shoots reached over the sea, tliey reached even to the water of Jazer.^ Tlie spoiler ■will fall on thy fruit harvest and on thy vintage. ;^^ Joy and gladness are taken from the Carmel-like field, so richly frnitful, and from the (whole) land of Moab, and I will cause the wine to fail from the wine-vats; no one will tread them with joyful cry ; their shouting will be no shouting for gladness, (but the cry of war). 34 The cry of Heshbon is heard at Elealeh, (two miles off); its voice sounds even to Jahaz ; ^ the cry of Zoar reaches to Horonaim and the third Eglath,^ for even the waters of Nimrim ■* shall be made a waste. 35 And I will destroy from Moab, says Jehovah, him that goeth up to a high-place and burns incense to his gods.
Another outburst of lameut over tlie ruin of Moab follows.
36 For this, my heart wails ® like mourning flutes, for Moab; my heart wails like mourning flutes, forthemen of Kir-hares; for the abundance they had saved is perished. 27 For every head is bald and every beard shaven (in mourning) ; slashes are cut on all arms in grief,^ and sackcloth is on the loins. 38 Loud shrieks rise from all the house-roofs ' of Moab and in her public places, for I have broken Moab in pieces, says Jehovah, like a vessel in which one has no pleasure.
* Sebmah was, according to St. Jerome, only 600 paces from Heshbon. Jazer was 15 miles north of it. "The sea" is the Dead Sea. The fame of the vines of Jazer was widely spread.
2 Much farther off, to the south-west.
3 This is Ewald, Graf, and Keil's reading, on the assumption that there were three towns of that name.
^ " This is a rich verdant spot at the south-east end of the Dead Sea. It still bears the Arab name of Nimeirah, and here, too, we found traces of the leopard." — Dr. Tristram. " Nahr Nim- rim *' means " the stream of the leopards."
5 Jer. xlviii. 36-38.
^ " It was a custom among the ancients, and is still common among the Jews, that they cut their arms, etc., in their grief." Jerome, on Jer. xvi. 6.
' They were flat.
1(30 EDOM AND THE NATIONS KOUND.
There will be no escape from the destruction !
39 They shall shriek aloud, ^ ** Oh ! how is our land rained ! How has Moab turned her back with shame ! " Thus will Moab be a mockery and a dismay to all his neighbours. 40 For thus says Jehovah, Behold the enemy shall swoop down like an eagle, and spread out his wings over Moab. 41 Kerioth ^ is taken; the strongholds are captured, and the hearts of the mighty men of ]\[oab are become, in that day, like the heart of a woman in her trouble. 42 And Moab will be destroyed from being a people, because he has magnified himself against Jehovah. 43 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, says Jehovah. 44 He who flees from the fear shall fall into the pit, and he that gets out of the pit shall be caught in the snare, for I shall bring on him, even on Moab, the year of his visitation, says Jehovah. 45 The fugitives stand, worn out, under the shadow of (the walls of) Heshbon, ^ but fire shall break out of Heshbon, and flame from the midst of Sihon, and will consume the border of Moab and the crown of the head of its haughty sons."*
46 Woe to thee, 0 Moab ! The people of Chemosh are lost ! for thy sons will be led away captives, and thy daughters to captivity. 47 Yet I will turn again the captivity of Moab in the end of days, says Jehovah. *
Ezekiel, on the banks of the Chebar, was equally stern in his denunciation of the doomed land.
8 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, ^ Because Moab, like Seir, says, " Behold the House of Judah is as the same as all other peoples," 9 therefore, lo, I will open to the inroads of the Sons of the East —
I Jer. xlviii. 39-47. 2 gee verse 24
^ A neighbouring city of the Ammonites.
* Lit., " sons of tumult," perhaps = warriors.
5 This prophecy is more or less adapted from other prophecies. Compare this 48th chap, of Jeremiah with Isa. xv. and xvi. ; Amos ii. 1-3 ; Zeph. ii. 8-10, and the words of Balaam, Num. xxiv. 17.
« Ezek. XXV. 8-11.
EDOM AND THE NATIONS ROUND. 161
the Arabs ' — the border of Moab, from the cities on the one end of it, to the last of his cities on the other — the glory of the land — Beth-jeshiinoih, Baal-meon- and Kiriathaiin,^ lo with the country of the Ammonites, and will give it to the invaders for a possession, that the Ammonites may no longer be remembered among the nations, ii And I will execute judgments on Moab, and they shall know that I am Jehovah.
In this terrible list of judgments on the enemies of Israel, . Ammon was included by both Ezekiel and Jeremiah. The people of God were not to suffer alone. The Divine vengeance would light even more heavily on the heathen, far and near. The word of the Lord^ Ezekiel tells us, came again to him, saying : —
2 Son of man, ■* turn thy face against the sons of Ammon and prophecy against them, 3 and say to the sons of Ammon, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou saidst "Aha" against My Temple when it was desecrated, and against the land of Israel when it was laid waste, and against the House of Judah when it went into exile— 4 behold, 1 will, therefore, give thee to the sons of the East— the Arabs — for a possession, that they may set up their tent villages in thee, and make their encamp- ments in thee ; and they will eat thy produce and drink thy milk. 5 And I will make Kabbah — thy capital — a browsing place for camels — and the (home of) the sons of Ammon for a gathering place of herds, and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. 6 For thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because thou didst clap thy hands, and stamp (for joy) with thy feet, and rejoice with the deadliest contempt, at (the calamities of) the land of Israel, 7 behold, I will therefore stretch oat My hand over thee, and deliver thee
* " Sons of the East," the same as our later word " Saracens." The Arabs would overrun and occupy both Ammon and Moab, as has been the case for ages.
2 These towns were in the territory of Reaben, but in EzekiePs day were held by Moab.
^ Sir G. Grove thinks Kiriatham, not Kiriathaim, was tlie original form. < Ezek. xxv. 1-7.
VOL. VI. M
162 EDOM AND THE NATIONS EOUND.
for a spoil to the peoples, and root thee out from among them, and destroy thee from among the nations, and thou shalt know- that I am Jehovah !
The territory of Ammon lay to the north of Moab, to which its people were closely allied by blood. The tribe of Gad had long before received their country as its inheritance, after the defeat of Sihon their king ; but the deportation of the eastern Tribes by Tiglath-Pileser/ had enabled them to re-occupy the district, from which, indeed, they had probably never been wholly expelled. Less settled than Moab, the Ammonites had only one city of any size, their capital, Kabbah ; the region being generally pastoral. Hereditary enemies of Israel,^ they would not long have cause for rejoicing at his fall. Like Ezekiel, Jeremiah proclaimed their coming doom.
I Concerning the B'nai Ammon,' thus says Jehovah : Has Israel no sons left ? Has he no heirs ? Why, then, has Milcom, (the god of the Ammonites), taken the territory of Gad as an inheritance, (instead of Jehovah ?) and why do his people dwell in its towns? 2 Because of this, the days come when I shall cause Eabbah of the B'nai Ammon to hear the shout of battle, and it will be made heaps of ruins, and the small towns round it — its daughters — will be burned with fire, and then shall Israel dis- possess them that took possession of his territory, says Jehovah. 3 Lament aloud, 0 Heshbon, for Ai,"* near thee, is (already) laid waste ! Shriek, ye daughters of Rabbah— inhabitants of the little towns near her — gird yourselves with sackcloth ; lament, and run hither and thither, behind the rude stone walls of thy
1 2 Kings XV. 29. See vol. iv. p. 233.
2 Judges X. 7 ; xi. 12-32. 1 Sam. xi. 2 Sam. x. and xi. ; xii. 26. 2 Chron. xx. Amos i. 13-15. 2 Kings xiv. 25. 2 Chron. xxvi. 8. 2 Kings xv. 29. 1 Chron. v. 26.
3 Jer. xlix. 1-6.
4 Not the Ai on the west of the Jordan. Graf suggests " Ar " (Num. xxi. 15).
EDOM AND THE NATIONS ROUND. 163
jedars} for Milcora (your god) shall go into captivity, and -with him his priests and his princes. 4 Why gloriest thou in the glens (of thy land), the wealth ^ of thy (chief) valley, (below Rabbah), 0 rebellious daughter, who trustedst in (the lasting possession of) thy treasures, saying, "Who will come to me" (to attack me) ? 5 Behold I will cause terror to come on thee from all sides, says the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, and ye shall be driven out, every man straight before him, no one stopping to rally or gather the fugitives. 6 Yet, hereafter, I will turn back the captivity of the B'nai Ammon, says Jehovah.*
Damascus, now an inconsiderable state, under we know not what rule, had brought on itself tlie same doom as its neioflibours, for the same cause. Its fate is thus foretold by Jeremiah.*
23 Hamath ^ is put to shame and Arpad,^ for they have heard evil tidings, they are in despair. ^ There is sorrow even on the sea (coast) ; (like the sea) men cannot rest. 24 Damascus has lost heart and turns to flee, trembling has seized her, anguish and woe like that of a woman in her trouble. 25 Oh ! how sad, that the famous, the delightsome city should not be abandoned (by its people) before her fall ! 26 Therefore, her young men will fall in her streets, and all her fighting men will be cut off in that
^ See vol. iv. p. 218. It is translated in the A.V. — "sheep- folds," " folds," " sheepcotes," " hedges," " wall," and included the dry stone walls used for all inclosures alike.
- With Ewald and Graf, I take the participle as a substantive. The Sept has Anakim for Amakim (valleys), and is probably right. A remnant of the old gigantic race may have previously held them.
3 The Eabbis held that the Ammonites returned when some of their race in later times became proselytes to Judaism. Barclay's Talmud. ' Jer. xlix. 23-27.
» Yol. iii. p. 213; vol. iv. p. 207. Hamath was at one time under the Hittites, as shown by Hittite inscriptions found there.
^ A city 15 miles north of Aleppo, now Ervad.
^ Lit., '* they melt away."
164 EDOM AND THE NATIONS BOUND.
day, says Jehovah of Hosts. 27 And I will kindle fire on the wall of Damascus, that will consume the palaces of Benhadad.*
The various Arab races, settled and nomadic, in the wide regions between Palestine and the Euphrates, are next arraigned and given over to the visitation of God. ^ The denunciation is directed against " Kedar ^ and the kingdoms of Hazor/' that is, the Arab villages under different sheiks, *' which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon smote/' How long the prophecy had been uttered before its fulfilment, we have no means of know- ing.
28 Up, (0 Chaldeans), march against Kedar, and spoil the sons of the East ! 29 They, (the Ciialdeans), shall take their tents and their sheep ; they shall carry off their tent-cloths,^ and all their household utensils, and their camels, and shall raise the war shout against them. Fear shall be on every side !
30 Flee ! begone as far as you may ! bury yourselves in the depth of the desert, O ye inhabitants of Hazor, saith Jehovah. For Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has formed a purpose
^ Amos i. 4, 14. Ben-Hadad = the son of Hadad, the chief god of Damascus ; sometimes called Hadad Rimmon, and as such representing Baal, the sun- god — with Rimnion, the god of the air.
2 Jer. xlx. 28-33.
^ Kedar is used here as a general name for all the nomadic tribes of Arabs; Hazor for those dwelling in fixed encampments or villages. The settled Arabs are still called Hadarije, in con- trast to Wabarije or tent Arabs ; and Hadar = Hazor is the fixed dwelling, in distinction fro'm '" Bedii," the open desert. Keil, Jeremia, p. 490. Delitzsch, Jes. xlii. 11. The "men" or " sous of the East " are the Arabs as a whole, (afterwards) known as the Nabateans or Kedarenes.
^ The thick, felt-like, rainproof coverings of goat's hair or camel's hair, which Paul employed himself in making. Herzog, vol. V. p. 514 ; vol. vi. p. 148. The two under layers of coverings of the tabernacle are described by the word used here. Herzog, vol. XV. p. 98.
EDOM AND THE NATIONS ROUND. 165
against you, and planned hostile action. 31 Up, 0 Chaldeans, inarch against a people living quietly, in (fancied) security, saith the Lord ; who have neither gates nor bars (to oppose you), but dwell alone. 32 Their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their herds and flocks a spoil. And I will scatter to all the winds the race tha^ wear tlieir hair shaven at the temples, ^ and I will bring destruction on them from all sides, saith Jehovah. 33 And Hazor shall be a dwelling for jackals, a waste for ever. No one shall live there, no one even sojourn in it.
The last in this list of doomed communities is Elam, the mountainous reo^ion on the west of the lower Tiofris.^ The fulfilment of the prophecy, nevertheless, was to be remote ; for to Elam, under its king Cyrus, and to Media, was hereafter given the commission to overthrow Baby- lon.^ Under the Persian empire, however, its indepen- dence was lost, and it became the seat of the Persian capital, Susa or Shushan. It was in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, * that Jeremiah was moved, we do not know on what occasion, to foretell the destiny of this country, which seemed to the Jews almost beyond the limits of the habitable world. The prediction runs as follows : —
35 Thus says Jehovah of Hosts : ^ Behold, I break the bow of Elam,^ its national weapon, 36 and will bring on it the four winds
' See vol. V. p. 210.
- See vol. i. p. 256 ; vol. v. p. 69. ^ Isa. xxi. 2.
* Jer. xlix. 34 The prophecies in chaps, xlvi. to xlix. and xxxiii., had been uttered about seven years before. Jer. xlvi. 2.
5 Jer. xlix. 34-39.
^ The national weapon, see vol. iv. p. 4-10. Sayce thinks that the conquest of Elam referred to was that effected byTeiopes, a chief of the royal clan of the Persians, who appears to have taken pos- session of Elam dui-ing the troublous time that followed the fall of Assyria. The result of this was to make Cyrus an Elamite in education and religion. Sayce, Fresh Light, p. 180.
166
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from the four ends of heaven, and will scatter its people to all those winds, and there shall be no nation to which the dispersed of Elam shall nob come. 37 And I will make Elam dismaj'ed before her enemies, and before those that seek her life, and will bring evil on them, the glow of My anger, says Jehovah, and send the sword after them till I have consumed them. 38 And I will set up My throne in Elam, and destroy out of it kings and princes, says Jehovah. 39 Yet in the end of days I will bring back the captivity of Elam, says Jehovah.
CHAPTER IX.
THE MURDER OP GEDALIAH, AND THE SIEGE OP TYRE.
THE state of things in Judali, after the Chaldean army retired, taking with it long files of captives to Babylon, was gloomy in the extreme. Jerusalem and the Temple lay in ruins, the towns and villages had been burned, and most of the surviving population had fled for the time. The land was not, however, finally abandoned ; for there still remained inhabitants enough, when the fugitives came back from their hiding places, to form a considerable community, and over these the authority of Babylon must be upheld, to prevent Egypt from taking possession of the country. Nebuchadnezzar, therefore, took measures for the organization of a govern- ment in its bounds.^
Among the steady advocates of quiet submission to the Chaldeans, a Jewish noble — Gedaliah, "he whom Jehovah has made great '^ — had borne a foremost part. As a recognition of this he was now appointed governor of the land. He was the grandson of Shaphan, the secre- tary of king Josiah, and son of Ahikam who had been
* The subsequent narrative rests mainly on Jeremiah, chaps, xl., xli., xlii. and xliii.
167
168 THE MURDER OP GEDALIAH^ AND THE SIEGE OF TYRE.
sent by that king to the prophetess Huldah, to inquire about the newly-found Book of the Law, and to whom, in the days of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah owed his life.^ Ge- daHah had been no less faithful to the best traditions of the past, or to Jeremiah, their greatest living repre- sentative. The opinions of the statesman and the prophet were identical, alike in religion and politics, and thus drew them together. To both, the perjury of Zedekiah in his rebellion against Babylon, was the cause of the misery that had overwhelmed the nation; and both might be implicitly trusted to be loyal to Nebu- chadnezzar.
The state of parties in Jerusalem had been intimately known to the Chaldeans, and hence the storming of the city, which had overthrown the State, was the signal for Jeremiah recovering his freedom. In return for his firm support of Chaldea, orders were issued to the general in command at Jerusalem, to take him under his protection and show him every favour. He was at once, therefore, removed from confinement in the court of the watch, and commended to the good offices of Gedaliah, though free to go where he liked. Led first to Ramah, the Chaldean headquarters, about five miles north of Jeru- salem, and so far on the way to Babylon, the manacles hitherto on his wrists were there struck off*, and he was invited to choose whether he would go with honour to Babylon, or remain behind in his ruined native country. Knowing, however, that if he went to the East he should never see Judah again, he preferred to remain amidst scenes which, even in their desolation, were so near his heart. Gedaliah had taken up his abode at Mizpeh, a little south of Kamah, and to him the prophet turned, receiving, from the Chaldean general, when he left him,
THE MURDER OF GEDALIAH, AND THE SIEGE OP TYRE. 169
besides other substantial proofs of regard, a supply of provisions, necessary for his support till the next harvest.
A better day seemed now dawning. The restless Egyptian party was in exile, and Gedaliah had every quality his position seemed to demand. All the popula- tion not carried off were committed to his charge, and the feeble remnant of the nation might hope slowly to regain a modest prosperity by his aid, under the shadow of the Great King.
The news of this new settlement of affairs soon spread. An amnesty, which promised the best results, had been proclaimed to all who gathered round Gedaliah. ' Numbers of men throughout the country had formed themselves into armed bands, to harass the Chaldeans during the siege, but had been forced to flee to the fastnesses of the distant hills — to Edom, Moab, and Ammon — after the city was taken. Further resistance was hopeless. Their leaders, therefore, gladly sent in their submission and that of their followers, to the new governor, himself a Jew, in answer to his overtures of protection and oblivion of the past, if they proved henceforth loyal subjects of Nebuchadnezzar. They might settle where they liked in the half-depopulated country, taking possession of the abandoned orchards, vineyards, and fields. A great many, attracted by such offers, flocked in from all sides.
Among other leaders of these rude bands, however, was one destined to ruin the fair hopes of the community. Ishmael — ominous name — a connection of the old Hebrew royal family, possibly even a descendant of Elishama, the son of David,^ but perhaps a son of Zedekiali or one of the later kings — was still the head of a company which, after the siege, had taken refuge in Ammon. Women from that district were fouad in the royal harem » Jer. xli. 1. 2 Kinjrs xxv. 25. 2 Sam. v. 16.
170 THE MURDER OF GEDALIAH, AND THE SIEGE OF TYRE.
at Jerusalem/ and thus Ishmael, on Ms motlier's side, may have been connected with the Ammonite court. Jealous of the elevation of Gedaliah^ and familiarised by the war with deeds of blood, Ishmael was a ready tool for any crime glossed by ambition or a show of patriotism, and ere long agreed with Baaltes, the king of Ammon, to assist in carrying out a dark plot against Gedaliah. To kill him probably seemed to the Ammonite the surest way of bringing final ruin on the hated Jews, who, if allowed to recover themselves, might once more claim the territory beyond the Jordan. That he had consented to take office under the Chaldean, was, perhaps, the pretext by which Ishmael hushed his scruples. A plot was accordingly arranged, by which Ishmael should go to Mizpeh and feign submission to the new governor, with a view to his murder ; and unfortunately the frank and open nature of the intended victim made it only too easily successful.
Gedaliah^s house seems to have stood by itself, shut off by a high wall, with a courtyard enclosing the deep well, or reservoir, dug three hundred and fifty years before, by Asa, to supply water to his stronghold raised at Mizpeh against Baasha.^ Hither Ishmael and some of his men repaired, after various leaders with their bands had already done so, and, like them, he doubtless took an oath of allegiance to the Great King, pledging himself to be his loyal subject. Free access to the governor was naturally granted to chiefs who had thus given in their adhesion to the new state of things; but this confidence, though justified by the conduct of all but
1 2 Kings xi. 1.
2 1 Kings XV. 16-22. 2 Chron. xvi. 1-6. The stones had been brought from Earn ah, and the fortress was designed to bar the road to Jerusalem.
THE MURDER OF GEDALIAH, AND THE SIEGE OF TYRE. 171
Islimael, gave him a fatal opportunity of carrying out his treason. Hoping to win other leaders to join him, he broached the subject to them^ but they determined to thwart the black design if possible. Two brothers, Johanan and Jonathan, both prominent chieftains, with Seraiah, at the head of a band from Netophah, a little north of Bethlehem ; and Jaazaniah, from Maachah, in the far north, near the springs of the Jordan,^ waited on the threatened man and warned him of his danger. But Ishmael had played his part too well, and had lulled his victim to a false security. '^ It was impossible such a man could be false ; they slandered him." A secret interview obtained by Johanan was as unsuccessful. Knowing the ruin Gedaliah^s death would bring, he offered to kill the conspirator secretly, but permission was refused.
Ishmael arrived about a month after the fall of the city, to pay homage to Gedaliah, but had subsequently left again for Ammon.- He reappeared, however, thirty days later, on the third^ of Tisri* — nearly our October — with ten " princes " or '' dignitaries," ^ — perhaps officers of the disbanded Jewish army — each, probably, attended by his followers. New adherents so high in rank seemed a great acquisition, and were naturally welcomed by the governor in a feast made on their account ; but it was a fatal act of courtesy. The unsuspecting victim was liberal, as Josephus tells us, with his wine, and all went merrily, till, at a given signal, he and every one in the mansion were struck down by Ishmael and his confederates ; the massacre being carried out with such swift secrecy that no alarm was given outside, and no
» Conder's Handbooh, p. 254. * Jos., Ant, IX. x. 3.
* So says tradition. * Jer. xli. 1. Zech. vii. 5.
» Kabbai.
172 THE MURDER OP GEDALIAH, AND THE SIEGE OP TYRE.
one escaped to tell the tale. The grey-haired Jeremiah, often a guest at Gedaliah's table, was fortunately absent. So complete had been the preparations, that a guard of honour of Chaldean soldiers, on duty round the house, were surprised and cut down to a man, and the residence made a ghastly scene of death, without the townspeople, outside, having the least suspicion of any treason, till two days after all was over. But the crimes of Ishmael were, as yet, only half finished. The houses of Mizpeh, built on a hill- side, stood high above the country around; that of Gedaliah rising clear of the others, perhaps on the highest terrace, so that it overlooked the road from Shechem and Samaria to Jerusalem. Watching from this vantage ground, Ishmael, on the second day, saw a band of travellers approaching. As, whatever their errand or destination, it would be incumbent on them to wait on the governor and pay him their respects, it seemed imperative to make away with them, lest the massacre should be discovered. The traitor, therefore, hurried out at the head of his band to meet them. They proved to be eighty pilgrims from Shechem, Shiloh,^ and Samaria, on the way to the ruins of the Temple at Jeru- salem, which were still sacred to them ; God-fearing descendants of the Ten Tribes, living among the heathen settled in their land by Esarhaddon.^ They wished to show their unshaken faith and devotion, by presenting unbloody offerings, such as did not need a priest, on the loved spot where the altar of Jehovah had stood.^
The destruction of the nation and of the sanctuary had overwhelmed them with grief; their beards were shaven, their clothes rent, their flesh cut, in heathen fashion,*
^ Salem. Sept and Ch'af.
2 2 Kings xvii. 24. ^ 2 Chron. xxx. 11 ; xxxiv. 9.
* The modern Dervishes sometimes, under religious excitement,
THE MURDER OP GEDALIAH, AND THE SIEGE OF TYRE. 1 7o
and they were weepinc^ aloud as they went.^ Approach- ing with hollow sympathy, Ishmael invited them to pay the wonted visit to the governor, and thus drew them into his power. Once inside the courtyard ^ of the residence, the gates were closed behind them, and seventy out of the eighty were forthwith massacred ; ten, only, ransoming their lives by the promise of a heavy payment in wheat, barley, oil and honey, which, they told him, they had stored in pits unknown except to them- selves. The seventy corpses were then thrown into Asa's well in the courtyard, which offered a ready-made grave, as the bodies of our countrymen and country- women were to be tumbled into the well of Cawnpore twenty-four centuries later.^
Blind hatred or jealousy of Gedaliah had urged on the author of this hideous tragedy, which made any mercy from the Chaldeans impossible for him and his associates. He and they had wreaked a furious and mad vengeance on Gedaliah and all connected with him, as the penalty, at the hand of Jewish irreconcilables, for having had any peaceful relations with Babylon. It only remained to secure a safe retreat to Baaltes, across the Jordan. But the town could not be allowed to escape a visitation. Descending to it, therefore, Ishmael and his men seized
cut their cheeks and brows, arms and breasts, stripping them- selves to the waist to do so. Jeremiah speaks of the practice more than once. Thus in chap. xvi. 6, we read of men " cutting themselves," and in chap, xlviii. 37, " on all hands are gashes.' In every case this wounding one's self is intended as a sign of grief, either in contrition or for some great affliction.
' Sept
2 Not city. The word for courtyard, and that for city, are very much alike in Hebrew.
^ Jehu appears to have acted in the same way with the forty- two relatives of Ahaziah. 2 Kings ix. 14.
174 THE MUEDEE OP GEDALIAH^ AND THE SIEGE OF TYEE.
all the inhabitants they could — including the daughters of Zedekiahj who had been sent by Nebuchadnezzar to Mizpeh, as a place of safety — and carried them off, with the other prisoners, to Ammon. Reports of the murder of Gedaliah and his household had, however, at last spread abroad, or it may be that only the news of the carrying off so many citizens from Mizpeh had become known. More or less of the terrible story very soon reached Johanan and the chiefs associated with him, who had vainly tried to put Gedaliah on his guard. Starting at once with their bands in pursuit, they overtook the prisoners and their captors at the great tank or pool of Gibeon, ^ about two miles north of Mizpeh, ^ for such a company could move only slowly. The sight of the pursuers was life to their victims. Aiding the attack of Johanan by rushing off from their guards, they were soon in safety, and Ishmael had to flee, leaving two of the ten leaders of his band slain on the field, and doubtless many of his men.
It was useless to return to Mizpeh, which in all pro- bability had been burnt. Those rescued comprised men, women, children, and some of the eunuchs of Zedekiah^s harem, and could not be left unprotected. Johanan and his companions did not live at Mizpeh,^ and its very name was now, for the time, a horror. Besides, the Chaldean troops still in Palestine and Syria would inevitably sweep down at once in wild fury on the scene of such an au-
^ Its remains are still to be seen, showing that it was about 120 feet long by 100 broad. Rohinson.
2 Josephus says, that Ishmael went south, by Hebron. Thom- son says, that there is a " considerable pond " in the plain below the village, in the wet season. Land and Book, p. 669. This may be " the sea " alluded to in Josh- 2cviii, 14, as the north-west corner of Benjamin.
8 Jer, xl. 13.
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dacious and terrible crime, and might confound the inno- cent with the guilty in their revenge. It was therefore determined, as a first step, to retire southwards, with the view of fleeing to Egypt, if necessary. A large khan, built by Chimham, the follower or son of Barzillai, the friend of David, stood near Bethlehem, and was the starting point for travellers to Egypt. Accommodation could be found in it, and leisure gained for consulting as to the next steps to bo taken. Thither, therefore, they hurried.
GcEST House. From a sketch made by Lieut. Conder, E.E. See also vol. v. p. 206.
Among the fugitives was the prophet Jeremiah and his faithful attendant Baruch. In such an emergency it was natural to turn for counsel to one so venerable. If, said they, he would favour them by asking directions from God for their guidance, they would faithfully act on them. Their request met with immediate compliance, but it was ten days before he felfc able to give them any answer. When at last it came, moreover, it was not
176 THE MURDER OP QEDALIAH, AND THE SIEGE OP TYRE.
such as they had hoped to receive, and they had not faith enough in the prophet to act boldly on it. Safety, he told them, lay in their remaining in Judea; disaster would follow their flight to l%ypt. It had been a mis- take even to think of it; nor had they been sincere in their request that he should inquire for counsel from God, as their resolution had been already formed. It was useless for him to warn them to remain in the country. Overcome by terror, and already determined on a particular course, they were immovable. Jeremiah, they said, had been prompted by Barucli to speak as he had done, that the Chaldeans might seize them and carry them off as slaves to Babylon. Orders were there- fore given to make for Egypt, and thither the last fragment of the Jewish commonwealth accordingly went, carry- ing Jeremiah with them. Sixteen miles from Pelusium, the frontier Egyptian town, lay Tahpanhes, or Daphne, ^ where there was a garrison, under Psammetichus I., for defence against the Arabs and Syrians. There they settled for the time.
Jeremiah still, however, adhered to his gloomy fore- bodings, after his arrival in this new home. Taking '^ great stones,^^ he buried them in sight of his country- men beneath the mortar with which a pavement of bricks, from a kiln near at hand, was being laid down before the local palace of the Pharaoh, following the act by announc- ing :—
lo Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts,^ the God of Israel, Behold I shall send and fetch Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, My servant, and set up his throne over these stones that I have buried, and he will spread out his carpet of state over them.
* The present Tel Defenneh. Ebers, in Biehm, p. 1605. 2 Jer. xliii. 8-13.
THE MUEDER OF GEDALIAH, AND THE SIEGE OF TYKE. J 77
II And he will come and smite the land of Egypt — those for death to deatli; those for captivity to captivity; those for the sword to the sword. 12 And I will kindle tire in the houses of the Egyptian gods, and he shall burn the temples and carry off the gods captive, and he shall wrap the land of Egypt round him as a shepherd wraps round him his mantle,^ and he shall march away in peace, (no one molesting him). 13 And he will break the obelisks^ of Bethshemesh, the house of the sun,^ in the land of Egypt, and he will burn the houses of the gods of the Egyptians with fire.
The fulfilment of this prediction^ as we shall see, followed in due time.
The flight of Gedaliah's community to Egypt ex- tinguished the last remaining spark of life in the Jewish State. The work of the ten centuries since Joshua crossed the Jordan had been undone. Every Hebrew looked back with boundless pride to the empire of David ; but the sceptre had now fallen from the hands of his descendants^ after they had held it for five hundred years, and his people had no longer a country. The Ten Tribes had been in exile for more than a century, though Assyria, which carried them off, had been overthrown. A great
• " The shepherd boy, twelve or fourteen years old, had bare legs and feet, a grey smockfrock, with a loose sash round his waist, and the woollen coverlet in ivhich he wraps himself hy night, thrown over his shoulder like a scarf." Bovet, Egijpt, vol. ii. p. 24S. Neil explains the figure differently : " The shepherd wears over his shirt of unbleached calico, in wet or cold weather, a thick, warm, sleeveless, sack-like outer garment of camel's hair, invariable as to material, shape, and colour — brown, with perpendicular stripes. Nebuchadnezzar will array himself with the land of Egypt — that is, seize its spoils — as easily as a shepherd puts on this loose simple garment." — Falestine Explored, p. 254.
This illustrates vividly the dress of John the Baptist and of the prophets : it was that of a poor peasant. 2 Matzaiboth = sacred pillars.
* Heliopolis or On. See vol. ii. p. 17.
VOL. VI. W
178 THE MUEDEE OF GEDALIAH^ AND THE SIEGE OF TYRE.
part of Judah and Benjamin had fallen in battle, or siege, or by the other miseries of war ; part had been led off in chains to Chaldea, and a remnant had made Egypt their home. Henceforth, there seemed little human hope that they would ever again take root in the land given by God to their fathers. The murder of Gedaliah had broken the continuity of their national life, and violently closed their history for the time. Slowly realized, the greatness of this disaster impressed itself deeply on the people at large. A public fast was appointed on the anniversary of Gedaliah's death, and has ever since been observed. The consciousness that all the nations around rejoiced at their ruin, deepened the bitterness of humilia- tion. As in all ages since, the Jew had made himself universally hated. Ammon, Moab, Bdom, Damascus, the Philistines, the very Arabs of the desert, both settled and nomadic, and the haughty Phenicians of the north, clapped their hands at the downfall of Jerusalem. It needed all the consolation of knowing, from the prophets, that these nations would suffer in their turn, to make the situation endurable. Egypt, however, received the exiles kindly. Jewish colonies had already settled in it,^ and were being constantly strengthened by immigrants from many parts, for, already, members of the " dispersion '' were found in all countries, east and west. Palestine itself contributed many, besides those who fled with Johanan and his companions. Troubles soon followed GedaliaVs death ; leaders rising who sought to shake off the Chal- dean yoke ; for the bulk of the humbler classes of the nation still remained in the land, the better classes and the artizans, mainly, having suffered deportation. Six years after the fall of Jerusalem, local insurrections led to Nebuchadnezzar sweeping off seven hundred and forty- ^ Jer. xxiv. 8.
THE MUKDER OF GEDALTAH,, AND THE SIEGE OF TYRE. 179
five more captives to Babylon — doubtless all picked men — and many others, we may be sure, had to flee to their brethren in Egypt.^ By these successive reductions of the population, Judah was, at last, left almost a desert. *' The holy cities were a wilderness : Jerusalem a desola- tion." 2 The land could now enjoy her sabbaths.^ To make matters worse, in the south, the Edomites seized a part of the country, extending their borders to the sea-coast, with or without permission from the Chaldeans. The disturbances in Judah after the murder of Geda- liah may have been connected with the presence of the Chaldeans in Phenicia, Nebuchadnezzar having begun the siege of Tyre in B.C. 586;'^ two years after the fall of Jerusalem. This great military enterprise had been the subject of a series of discourses by Ezekiel, delivered to the exiles on the Chebar, shortly before it was undertaken, when the triumph of the arms of Babylon over the Jews had left its armies free to turn to the long-threatened capital of Phenicia. The word of Jehovah, the prophet tells us, came to him, saying : —
2 Son of raan,^ because Tyre says respecting Jerusalem, " Ha! the gate of the nations is broken in pieces ; ^ the stream of people and of trade is turned to me ; I will be filled, (now that) she is laid waste." 3 Therefore, thus says the Lord Jehovah, Behold I come against thee, 0 Tyre,^ and will cause many people to flood
1 Jer. lii. 30. - Isa. Ixiv. 10.
3 Lev. xxvi. 34, 43. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21.
•» 586-573, Riehm. = Ezek. xxvi. 1 6.
^ Men from all parts entered the gates of Jerusalem to worship at the Temple. Or it may mean, the trade that passed through them from many parts.
7 Insular Tyre is meant. Not the old city on the mainland The channel between the two was 1,200 paces broad, and nofc very deep.
180 THE MURDER OF GEDALTAH, AND THE SIEGE OP TYRE.
up against thee, as the sea brings up its waters, wave upon wave. 4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers. I will also scrape away her very dust and make her a naked rock. 5 She will be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken, says the Lord Jehovah, and she will be a spoil to the nations. 6 And towns and villages, her " daughters," subject to her on the mainland, shall be slain by the sword, and they shall know that I am Jehovah.
7 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah;^ Behold I will bring against Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, from the North ; the king of kings, with horses and chariots and horsemen, and a
MODEEN TtEE.
great host and much people. 8 He will slay thy daughters in the open country by the sword,^ and he will raise besieging towers against thee, and cast up a mount against thee,"^ 9 and raise a tortoise ^ against thee. And the blow of his battering
1 Ezek. xxvi. 7-14.
^ The smaller towns on the mainland.
3 Vol. iv. p. 335.
* A structure covered with hides, or made of linked shields, under protection of which the besiegers sought to undermine or dig t,ht ough the wall. Bielim, p. 436. Or, it may mean a cover of shields linked together, beneath which the besiegers approached the walls. Hdverniclc. Ewald. Hitzig. Keil.
THE MURDER OP GEDALIAH, AND THE SIEGE OF TYRE. 181
ram will he direct against thy walls, and break down thy towers with his crowbars. lo The dust raised by his horse will cover thee, by reason of their number ; thy walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen, the wheels, and the chariots, when he enters thy gates as they enter into a breached and conquered city. II He will stamp with his horses' hoofs in all thy streets, he will slay thy people with the sword, and cast down thy grand Baal-pillars to the ground. 12 And they will plunder thy wealth, and carry off thy merchandise, and break down thy walls, and destroy thy lordly mansions, and cast thy stones and thy timber, and the rubbish of thy houses, into the midst of the sea.^ 13 Thus will I hush the voice of thy songs, and the murmur of thy harps will be heard no more. 14 And I will make thy site a bare rock; thou wilt be a place for the spreading of nets, and wilt never be rebuilt ; for I, Jehovah, have spoken, says the Lord Jehovah !
The news of tbe destruction of Tyre will shock all the princes of maritime lands, far and near, and all the Tyrian colonies on the mainland of Africa and Europe, and in the islands of the Medi- terranean.
15 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to Tyre : Verily, at the report of thy fall the coast ^ssyeiax Ehbhoidebed
-..■■, ,11 , 1 • • ROBBS.
lands will tremble — when tbe dymg groan in
thee, when slaughter is in thy midst ! 16 And all the princes of the sea will come down from tiieir thrones, and lay aside their robes, and put off their embroidered garments, and clothing
^ Nebuchadnezzar tried to make a mole to the island city across the arm of the sea between it and the mainland. He was not however successful in this, but Alexander the Great, who after- wards carried out the same idea, found the water shallow where the Chaldean king had thrown the wreck of the city into the waves. Arrian, Anah., ii. 18.
2 Ezek. xxvi. 15-18.
182 THE MURDER OF GEDALIAH, AND THE SIEGE OP TYRE.
themselves with fear will sit (in lamentation) on the earth, and will tremble unceasingly and be appalled respecting thee. 17 And they will raise a song of lament for thee, and say to thee, " How hast thou perished, who wast frequented by all the sea people, the renowned city which was mighty in the sea, thou and thy citizens, who caused the fear of her to rest on all the sea nations. 18 How shall the coast lands tremble in the day of thy all ; the islands of the sea be dismayed at thy destruction ! "
Tyre, swallowed up by the waves of the sea, will sink into the kingdoms of the dead, and vanish for ever from the earth.
19 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah,^ when I make thee a desolation, like the cities that are not inhabited ; when I bring the deep over thee, and many waters cover thee, 20 I shall hurl thee down to them who have descended to the grave, to the people of old time, and make thee dwell in the under world, in the eternal desolations, with the dead who have gone down to the grave, that thou mayest be no more inhabited ; and I will create a new glorious power in thy place, in the land of the living.^ 21 I will give thee up to utter destruction, and thou shalt cease to be ; though men seek for thee thou shalt never be found more, says the Lord Jehovah.
A second oracle paints the glory of the great city under the figure of a ship of its own magnificent merchant navy, which floated on every sea, as that of Britain does in our own age.
All the earth had contributed towards the construc- tion and outfit of the splendid vessel. Its rowers and crew were the most skilful and the bravest, but to the dismay of all men, when it sailed out on the high seas, it was wrecked by a tempest from the east. This striking figure is varied by the introduction of a description of Tyre itself, its trade and wealth; but as much of the
I Ezek. xxvi. 19-21. 2 Israel ?
THE MUKDER OF GEDALIAH, AND THE SIEGE OP TYRE. 183
chapter ^ has already been quoted elsewhere/ only the prophetic picture of the shipwreck needs be given here.
25 Tarshish-ships ^ were thy caravans ^ ; they carried thy mer- chandise (0 Tyre), and thus thou wasb made exceeding rich and glorious in the midst of the sea. (Bat) thy rowers have brought thee out on the high sea,^ and the east wind has broken thee up in the midst of the ocean. 26 Thy richps, thy merchandise, thy goods for exchange, thy sailors, thy steersmen, thy ship-carpenters, the traders who sell and buy thy cargo,^ and all the fighting men in thee, even all the multitude on board, have sunk in the waters, in the day of thy shipwreck. 28 The coasts tremble at the wild cries of thy steersmen, 29 and all that ply the oar, all sailors, all steersmen of sea-going ships, (thinking no one safe, since thou hast perished), leave their ships and get to the firm ground, 30 and wail aloud for thee, (in their terror and sorrow), and weep bitterly, and throw dust on their heads, and strew them- selves with ashes, 31 and shave themselves bald for thee, and gird themselves with sackcloth, and weep over thee in sadness of heart, with bitter wailing, 32 and in their sorrow ^ raise a song of lament for thee—" O what city was like Tyre, like her that is made silent in the midst of the waters ! " ^^ When thy wares were borne from sea to sea, thou didst supply the wants of many peoples ; thou enrichedst the kings of the earth with the wealth of thy exports and thy wares ; 34 but now thou art re- duced to ruins and buried in the midst of the waves ; thy goods and all thy people in thee have sunk into the depths of the waters ! 35 All the inhabitants of distant coasts will be thunder- struck at thy calamity, their kings will tremble exceedingly, their countenances will fall. 36 The traders of other lands will mock 8 at thee, because thou hast perished suddenly,^ and hast vanished for ever.
1 Ezek. xxvii. 1-24. 2 yol. iii. p. 351-2.
^ Great merchantmen, like our old " Indiaraen," or more modern " clippers." * Ezek. xxvii. 25. 5 pg ]xxvii. 19.
^ = Our supercargo, who manages all the commercial aff'airs of a trading voyage.
^ " Thy sons " = colonies, EichJiorn. The words are very nearly alike. » Lit. " hiss." 9 Ps. Ixxiii. 19.
184 THE MUEDER OF GEDALIAH, AND THE SIEGE OP TYEE.
In another discourse anticipating the victory of Ne- buchadnezzar, Ezekiel, as the siege advanced, dwells again on the approaching catastrophe, the very idea of which was as terrible in the ancient world as that of London being razed to the ground would be in our day. Ithobaal 11} was now reigning in Tyre, and is addressed by the prophet as personifying his subjects. The pride and haughtiness of his dynasty made him a fit mark for stern denunciation ; for, like many lines of ancient kiugs^ it claimed descent from the gods, if, indeed, each monarch did not arrogate personal divinity.^ But ruler and people will perish together. The word of Jehovah, says Ezekiel, came again to me, as follows : —
2 Son of man,3 say to the king of Tyre— tlins says the Lord Jehovah: Because thy heart is lifted up with pride, and thou hasD said, "I am a god, and I sit throned as one, in the midst of the seas," though thou art a man and not God, and because thou thinkest thy wisdom divine, 3 and boastest that thou art wiser than Daniel,"* so that no secret can hide itself from thee : 4 and that thou hast gained thy power by thine own wisdom and understanding, and by them gathered gold and silver unto thy treasuries; 5 that it is by thy supreme skill in trading, moreover, that thy might has grown so great, and because thine heart is lifted up at thy riches :
6 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because thou thinkest thy understanding like that of a god, 7 I will bring the barbari- ans ^ upon thee, tlie fiercest of the nations, and they will draw their swords aginst thy sun-like wisdom, and profane thy divine lustre, 8 and hurl thee down to the grave, and thou shalt die like a common man, slain in the midst of the waters. 9 Wilt thou say " I am a god," before him who slays thee, though thou
^ Jos,, c. Ap., i. 21. ^ Ezek. xxviii. 2.
3 Ezek. xxviii. 2-10.
* The new critics evade this allusion to Daniel by saying ifc refers to some unknown worthy of a former age !
* Lit., " stranger, foreigner."
THE MURDER OF GEDALIAH, AND THE SIEGE OF TYRE. 185
art a man and no god to him who takes thy life? lo Thou shalb die the death of the uncircumcised, by the hand of barbarians,* for I have spoken, says the Lord Jehovah.
Ere long the prophet sees him lying slain, and raises the death lament over him. The strophes are keenly sarcastic in their tone, recounting the lofty pretensions of the king, and describing him as a radiant cherub, covered with gold and precious stones, and set on the mount of God in Eden, but falling into sin, and driven from Paradise to find a miserable end.
12 Son of man 2— said the voice in his breast— raise a death song on the king of Tyre and say to him : Thus says the Lord Jehovah, O thou seal and keystone of the Tyrian States, closing up its perfect arch ; full of wisdom and perfect in beauty ! 13 Thou didst dwell in Eden, the garden of God, and wast decked with all kinds of precious stones, the sardine, topaz, diamond, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, carbuncle, beryl, and with the gorgeous golden robes made by thy workmen for the day of thy coronation ! ^ 14 I set thee as a broad- winged cherub on the holy mount of God; thou walkedst within the stones of fire, (which
* The Phenicians were apparently circumcised,* and in this lies the sting of the prophet's words. They imply that he would have no lament raised for him, and that his corpse would be left unwashed, undressed with grave-clothes, and perhaps unburied — the deepest indignity to any one, far less to a king, in ancient times.
2 Ezek. xxviii. 11-19.
^ This passage is very dark. Keil translates it "the service of thy tabrets and of thy wives was with thee ; on the day when thou wast created (king) were they ready." The drums or tabrets are held to be an allusion to the state and glory of his accession; the wives, to his inheriting the harem of his predecessor. I have followed the rendering of Eichhorn mainly. The Sept. reads, "With gold thou hast filled thy treasures and store-houses."
•Movers in Ersch und Gruher, vol. iii. pp. 24, 431. Herod., ii. 104.
186 THE MURDER OF GEDALTAH^ AND THE SIEGE OP TYRE.
guarded the sacred spot., around, with a flaming wall).* 15 From the day of thy elevation ^ thou wast blameless in thy ways till guilt was found in thee.^ 16 Through the greatness of thy com- merce thy soul ■* was filled with evil, and thus thou sinnedst. Therefore I will cast thee out of the mount of God, and will destroy thee,^ 0 guardian cherub, from within the walls of flaming stones. 17 Thy heart lifted itself up proudly, because of thy prosperity.^ Thou hast spoiled thy wisdom through thy glory corrupting thee; I will hurl thee to the dust, I will make thee a sight before kings. 18 Through the multitude of thy sins, in thine unrighteous trading, thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries; ^ therefore I will cause fire to burst out of thy midst, and it will devour thee, and reduce thee to ashes on the earth, before all who see thee. 19 All that know thee among the nations shall be horrified at thee ; thou shalt be a terror to them and shalt cease for ever.
* " I set thee beside the cherub on the holy mount of God, thou wast in the midst of the fiaming stones." — Sept.
This seems to be a poetical introduction of the Eastern mythi- cal conception of ''the mount of the assembly (of the gods)," Isaiah xiv. 13, the Olympos of the Accadians, by whom it was called " The Mountain of the East." Its peak was the pivot on which the sky rested, and hence it was known, also, as "The Mount of the World." It lay far away to the north-east, and was the supposed entrance to the lower world.
2 Lit., " creation."
* The whole passage is an imaginative parallel of the Prince of Tyre with Adam. Eden, the cherubs, the creation- in innocence, and the Fall, all indeed that is recorded in the opening of Genesis, were thus familiar in the days of Ezekiel, a fact to ponder in connection with the new criticism.
4 Treasuries. — Sept. Lit., " inner parts."
^ The covering cherub has driven thee, etc, — Sept.
^ Lit., " beauty."
? The Tyrian State is conceived as the Paradise on the Mount of God, to which the prince was the protecting cherub. Its sanctuaries he had defiled by the sins of his great mercantile city.
THE MURDER OF GEDALIAH, AND THE SIEGE OF TYRE. 187
SidoD, wliicli was closely related to Tyre, could not expect to escape the storm of war wliicli had burst on the great city. An oracle, therefore, announces its fate also.
21 Sonof man^ — said the Divine Voice — set thy face against Sidon and prophecy against it, 22, saying. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah : Behold I atn coming against thee, O Sidon: and -will glorify Myself on thee, that men may know that I am Jehovah, when I execute judgments on her, and have shown My holiness in her. 23 I will send pestilence into her and blood into her streets, and the slain shall fall in her by the sword, which shall press in on her from every side, and they shall know that I am Jehovah.
The prophet closes the long roll of denunciations of the heathen nations round Israel, by an assurance of God's favour to His ancient people, to cheer them in their humiliation and exile.
24 There shall thus be no more a thorn to prick thee, or a spear to pierce thee, of all (the nations) round thee, that despised thee, but they shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah.
A promise to the exiles, that God would bring them back again to their own land, after the destruction of the enemies, who now trampled over them, concludes this oracle.
25 Thus says the Lord Jehovah : When I gather the House of Israel from ouc of all the nations among whom they are now scattered, and shall have shown Myself holy in them, in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land which I gave to My servant Jacob. 26 There they will dwell in safety, and build houses, and plant vineyards, and live in peace, when I have executed judgments on all that despise them round about ; and they shall know that I am Jehovah their God.
The siege of Tyre, by Nebuchadnezzar, had begun very soon after the fall of Jerusalem. Unfortunately our in- 1 Ezek. xxviii. 20-26.
188 THE MURDER OF GEDALTAH, AND THE SIEGE OP TYRE,
formation respecting it, tbougli it lasted thirteen years, from B.C. 586 to B.C. 573, is very scanty. It is thrice mentioned by Josephus,^ but he does not speak of the result. The silence of the Syrian historians on this point, is, however, a striking proof that it must have ended ingloriously for their city. If the defence had been suc- cessful, it would assuredly have been loudly proclaimed. But though Nebuchadnezzar took the city, it appears, from a passage in Ezekiel," that he did not give it up to pillage, and thus gravely disappointed his soldiery, who had counted on sacking it, as a compensation for the toils and danger^ of the prolonged siege. Possibly a treaty may have been made, securing its being spared the horrors of storming and plunder, in consideration of such humiliating conditions of heavy tribute as were familiar to the Plienicians in similar conjunctures. Egypt, in- deed, is said by Ezekiel* to be given to the Chaldean monarch as a reward for having done against Tyre what Providence had designed. But if Jerome be right, it is not necessary to suppose any compromise. " Nebuchad- nezzar,^' he tells us,^ '^ when he besieged Tyre, and could not bring up his rams, towers, and tortoises, because it was surrounded by the sea., ordered the vast multitude of his army to carry stones and materials for a mole, and having filled up the narrow interval of sea (between it and the mainland), made a continuous path to the island. The Tyrians seeing this now completed, and perceiving that the foundation of the walls were being shaken by the blows of the battering rams, carried off in ships, to various islands, whatever was valuable in the shape of gold, silver or goods, so that when the city fell, Nebu-
» Jos., Ant, X. ix. 1. a Ap., I 19, 21.
8 Ezek. xxix. 17-20. ^ Movers, p. 448.
"• Ezek. xxix. 20. * Hier. in Ezek. ad loc.
THE MURDER OF GEDALIAH, AND THE SIEGE OP TYRE. 189
chadnezzar should find no reward for his labours/^ There is evidence, moreover, that Tyre was henceforth ruled by princes strictly tributary to Babylon, some of them being even sent from the Chaldean capital.^
But though Tyre was thus taken, as Ezekiel had pre- dicted, his prophecy that it would be razed to the ground till its site became a bare rock, on which men would spread their nets, proved to refer to a later period. Nor is it wonderful that this should be so, since the time of the fulfilment of their prophecies is expressly said to have been withheld from the seers divinely inspired to utter them.2
^ Fragment of Menander, quoted by Josephus, C. Ap., i. 21.
2 1 Peter i. 11. For the ultimate fall of Tyre, see vol. iv. p. 340. The dam, built by Alexander the Great, has been increased by the sand thrown up by the sea, to a broad isthmus. On this stands the Tyre of the present day, a place of from 3,000 to 4,000 inhabit- ants, which does not deserve the name of a town. The houses are mostly mud huts, and the streets crooked and filthy passages. The rubbish of the old city covers the ground for nearly two miles outside the present town gate. The harbour is so sanded up and filled with the wreck of the ancient city, that only small boats can enter. Part of Tyre is under the sea; much of it beneath the ground. For many feet deep, the soil is a mass of building stones, shafts of pillars and fragments of marble, etc. Thus has Tyre become " a heap of ruins" — a bare rock in the sea on which to spread nets, for the sheds and shelters now raised on part of its ancient site, offer no contradiction to the terrible decree that it should never be rebuilt. Eob., PaZ., vol. iii. p. 670. V. de Velde, vol. i. p. 145.
^^^
CHAPTER X.
THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT.
WHILE Nebuchadnezzar was detained year after year in Phenicia, the immigration of Jews to Egypt steadily increased, till colonies were formed not only at Tahpanhes, but at Migdol, twelve miles from Pelusium, at Noph or Memphis in the Delta, and in the land of Pathros, which was the name for Upper Egypt generally, and especially for a quarter of Thebes and the country round it.^ Exile from their country had not im- proved them. Instead of seeking Jehovah, they went back to the idolatries of their fathers, refusing to listen to Jeremiah, though recognised as a true prophet. Taking advantage, therefore, of a great gathering of his people at an idolatrous festival in Upper Egypt ; the aged seer once more warned them of the ruinous conse- quences of such a course.
2 Thus says Jehovah of Hosts, ^ the God of Israel— cried he — ye have seen all the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah ; behold they are desolate to-day, without an inhabitant, 3 because of their wickedness which they did, to provoke me to anger by going (to idols), to burn incense (before
1 Pathros, in Biehm. See Jer. xliv. 1. 3 Jer. xliv. 2-14.
190
THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT. 191
them), and serving other gods which neither they nor their fat liers knew. 4 I sent you all my servants, the prophets, sent them eagerly and constantly, and caused them to say to you : " Oh, do not this abomination, which I hate." 5 But they would not listen or incline their ear, to turn from their wickedness, and not burn incense to other gods. 6 Then my indignation and my fierce wrath poured itself forth, and flamed throughout the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, and they were turned into desola- tion and loneliness, as they now are. 7 And now, says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel : Why do ye commit so great wrong against j'ourselves, (in the face of such warnings), by acting iu a way that must end in cutting off man and woman, child and suck- ling, from Judah, leaving you no survivors to preserve your name ? 8 Why do ye stir me to wrath by your conduct in burning incense to strange gods in the land of Egypt, to which ye have come for a time— to draw down on yourselves destruction, and cause your- selves to be made a curse ^ and a contempt to all the nations of the earth ?
9 Have ye (already) forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and of the kings of Judah and their wives,- and your own wicked- ness and that of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem ? 10 Yet they are not penitent^ (for all this), even now, and have neither feared my law and my statutes that I set before you and your fathers, nor walked in them. 11 Therefore says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel : Behold I set my face against you for evil, to cut o(I all Judah. 12 And will sweep away the remnant of it who have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt, to live there for a time. They will be destroyed and fall in Egypt ; they will perish, small and great, by the sword and by famine, and will become a curse, an astonishment, an execration, and a scorn. 13 For I will punish them that dwell in Egypt as I punished Jerusalem, by sword, famine and pestilence. 14 Very few of the remnant of Judah who have gone into Egypt, to dwell there awhile, shall
^ Men would imprecate a similar fate to theirs, on those to- wards whom they wished evil.
' Heb., ''his wives " = the wives of each. The Seyt. has "his princes," which is adopted by Ewald and Eichhorn.
3 Lit., " bruised.''
192 THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT.
escape or survive, to go back to the land of Judah, whither their souls yearn to return; only a handful of fugitives will do so.
But Jeremiah's appeals and threats were equally vain. Among the great multitude he addressed, no voice was lifted in favour of a return to Jehovah. In the idolatrous festival they had gathered to observe, the women took a leading part, contrary to the custom, which forbade their sex mingling in public with men ; and so far from con- fessing guilt, they were ready to defend their conduct.*
i6 "With respect 2 to what you have told us in the name of Jehovah," said their representative, ** we shall not listen to you. 17 We sliall do what we please, burning incense to the queen of heaven,^ and pouring out drink-offerings'* to her, as we have done in the past, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem ; for then we had plenty of food and were prosperous, and saw no trouble. 18 But since Josiah's days, when we lefD off burning incense to the queen of heaven, and pouring out drink-offerings to her, we have been in want of everything, and have been destroyed by sword and famine.
^ The words (Jer. xliv. 15) "All the people that dwell in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah," illustrates the similar expression in the Pentateucli, that all the people assembled before Moses and weie addressed by him. The meaning in both cases is, that a great number, who in a manner represented the whole, were present.
2 Jer. xliv. 15-19.
3 The moon, or the planet Venus. Jer. vii. 17, 18 ; see vol. v. pp. 32, 36. The goddess Astarte, was the personification of the moon (Baudisson, in IIerzog,2te Aufg., vol. x. p. 216); or per- haps, Yenus, as the star that leads the moon to her husband, the sun (Bauclisson in Herzog, 2te Aufg., vol. i. p. 721). In either case, the moon was " the queen of heaven." But it is a question whether Astarte, whom the Jewesses so devoutly worshipped, was the moon or Venus. The supposition that she represented the latter, has led Venus to be supposed "the queen of heaven," by some.
^ Drink-offerings of wine.
THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT.
193
19 Moreover, wlien we women burn iticense to the queen of lieaven, and pour out drink-ofTerings to liei-, we do so with the full knowledge of our husbands,' both as to our making cakes in her image, ^ and pouring out offerings to her."
To this Jeremiali promptly replied, that though the national misfortunes were thus ascribed to the prohibi- tion by Josiah, of moon-worship and other idolatries, they were rather the result of the re-introduction of these superstitrions, with their inevitably attendant moral corruption.
2 1 How ? ^ Has Jehovah then forgotten your often repeated offering of incense, burned in the towns of Judah, by you, and your fathers, your kings, and your princes? Have they not rather sunk into His heart, 22 so that Jehovah could no longer bear you, because of the evil of your doings and the abominations ye committed, and is it not on their account that your land is now desolate and a curs^e, and without an inhabitant ? 23 Yes ! it is just because you have burned in- cense and sinned against Je- hovah, and have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah, nor walked in His laws, statutes and testimonies, that the evil ye now endure has come upon you.
* Num. XXX. 6, 7.
2 A Phenician sacrificial tariff, found lately in Cyprus, mentions as one item of the temple accounts, " For two bakers who baked the cakes ft)r the (holy) queen (of heaven)."
3 Jer. xliv. 20-23.
VOL. VI. O
IsTAB, AsTABTE ; or Ashtoreth,
For another figure of the goddess, vol. V. p. 31.
194 THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT.
But; their past and present sufferings were not all they would suffer for tbeir apostasy from Jehovah. Still worse was to follow.
24 Hear the word of Jehovah,* all Judah, who are in the land of Egypt. 25 Thus says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel : Ye and your wives, (before me), have carried out with your hands (now bearing sacred cakes for the moon goddess) the words of your lip<, when ye said, " We shall assuredly pay the vows we have made, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and pour out drink offerings to her." Perform your vows by all means; fail not to do so ! 26 But hear the word of Jehovah to all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by My great name, says Jehovah: Verily it shall no more be uttered by any man of Judah in all Egypt, saying, " As the Lord Jehovah lives;" 27 for, behold I will watch over them to do them evil, not good, so that all the men of Judah that are in Egypt shall perish by the sword and famine, till they are all gone. 28 For they that escape the sword and return out of Egypt to Judah will be very few, and all the remnant of Judah that have come to Egypt, to sojourn in it for a time, shall know whose word shall stand, Mine or theirs. 29 And that ye may know that My word spoken against you to your hurt shall be carried out, let this serve as a sign to you, says Jehovah : 30 Behold I will give Pharaoh- Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies * and into the hand of those who seek His life, as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebu- chadnezzar, king of Babylon, his mortal foe.
The ruin of the Egyptian king under whom the fugitive Jews had taken refuge^ became from this time a frequent subject with the two pmphet- exiles, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, in the valley of the Nile and on the banks of the Chebar.
Tyre had been besieged by Nebuchadnezzar only as a step towards the conquest of Egypt, now the great ally
1 Jer. xliv. 24-30,
2 He was murdered by Amasis, as will be seen hereafter.
THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT. 195
of the Phenicians against Babylon as, in former times, against Assyria. Till the great trading city was humbled, it would have been perilous to invade the valley of the Nile ; but the determination of the Great King to follow up the submission of Tyre by marching against Pharaoh, was not concealed. The question of supremacy in Western Asia must be finally settled. As to the issue, it could hardly be doubtful, for the legions of Egypt could not hope to resist the terrible hosts of Chaldea, under a king who was the greatest general of the age. It would not excite surprise, therefore, when Jeremiah, always the opponent of the Pharaoh, and loyal to Babylon, made the announcement, as the siege of Tyre drew near its end, that the Chaldean would come and smite the land of the Nile.i
While the inevitable overthrow of the kingdom of the Pharaohs, by Nebuchadnezzar, was thus proclaimed in Jerusalem and in Egypt itself, Ezekiel sounded its doom from the banks of the Chebar. Already, before the fall of the Holy City, he had foreseen and repeatedly announced the conquest of the Nile Valley as the certain issue of that monarches campaigns in Syria.- Tyre on the mainland had yielded to the Chaldean arms almost at the same time as the capital of Judah,^ and the island city of Tyre, which afterwards made so long a defence, alone resisted his arms in Syria. The Great King had awaited at Riblah the fall of Jerusalem, before beginning this final effort, little dreaming it would task his resources as it did."* Yet the issue could not be doubted by the
1 Jer. xlvi. 13. 2 Ezek. xxix. 1-16; xxx. 20-25; xxxi. 1-18.
' Riietschi in Herzog, 2te Auf., Art. Nebucadnezar. Jer. xxvii. 61, 59. Ezek. xxxii. 30.
■* Fall of Jerusalem, b.c. 586 ; siege of Tyre, B.C. 585-572. — Riietschi.
196 THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT.
kingdoms which had fallen, one after the other, before the great conqueror. The thirteen years of the siege were partly utilized to chastise the refractory peoples of Palestine — Aramon, Moab, Edom, the Philistines, and Damascus, with the Arabs round ^ — thus fulfilling the predictions of the prophets against these nations; but their subjugation, and that of insular Tyre, were only steps towards the ultimate conquest of Egypt, the ancient rival for the dominion of Western Asia.
The siege had hardly commenced before Ezekiel destroyed the last hopes of the Egyptian faction in Babylonia, by renewing his warning, that Pharaoh, so far from being able to help Judah, was doomed.
2 Son of man 2 — said the Divine Voice to him about the beginninf^ of B.C. 534) ^ — raise a lamentation'* for Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and say to him; Thou wast like a young lion among the nations; thou wasb like a great crocodile in the waters (of thy land) ; thou dashedst through thy streams,^ and troubledst the waters with thy feet and tossedst np^ their floods^ 3 Thus says the Lord Jehovah : I will spread oub My neb over thee by the help of many nations, and they shall draw thee out (of thy waters) in My net.^ 4 And I will cast thee down on th e land; I will sling thee out on the face of the open ground, a nd make all the birds of heaven light and stay on thee, (to devour thee), and I will fill the wild
^ Ezek. XXV. Jos., Ant., X. ix. 7. 2 Ezek. xxxii. 1-16.
3 Twelfth month of the twelfth year of the Captivity. Smend says, March, B.C. 584. ** As over the dead.
5 By a very slight emendation, Ewald renders this clause, "thou tossedst up (spray) through thy nostrils." See Job xli. 20. But does the crocodile cast spray oub of its nostrils? Yet, in a poetical way the figure may refer to the water dashed up before him in his onward rush.
^ Lit., " didsb bread." ^ Same word as " streams."
^ The bwo words for "neb " are different, bub their distinctive features are nob known. The last word comes from a root " to enclose."
THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT. 197
beasts of tlie whole eiu'th with thee. 5 And I will strew thy flesh on tlie mountains round, and fill the valleys with thy foul carcase. 6 I will also soak the land it) which thou swimmest, even to the mountains, with the gushing out of thy blood; the torrent-beds^ will be filled with it. 7 And when I quench thy light, I will darken the heaven and its stars; I will veil the sun with clouds and the moon will not give her light. 8 All the shining lights in heaven will I make black over thee, and pour darkness over thy land, says the Lord Jehovah.
9 I will trouble the heart of many peoples when I publish thy destruction among the nations, in lands which thou hast not known. 10 I will paralyse many peoples with fear through thy fate; their kings will shake with terror at it, when I brandish My sword before their eyes; and they will tremble continually, each for his own life, in the day of thy fall. 11 For thus says the Lord Jehovah; The sword of the king of Babylon will smite thee. 12 By the swords of mighty men — the fiercest of the nations, all of them — will I overthrow thy multitude ; and they •will lay waste all that lifts itself up proudly in Egypt, and all its multitude will be destroyed. 13 And I will destroy all its cattle from beside its matiy waters,- so that no foot of man nor hoof of beast shall trouble these waters more. 14 After that I will make them settle and grow clear,^ and their canals flow like oil, says the Lord Jehovah. 15 Then, when I have made the land of Egypt a desolation, and it is stripped of its abundance, when I have smitten all that dwell in it, they will know that I am Jehovah.
16 This is the lamentation that they will raise ; the daughters of the nations shall chant it ; they will sing this dirge for Egypt, and for all her multitude, says the Lord Jehovah.
A fortnight later* Ezekiel returned to a subject so engrossing. He sees the teeming population of the Nile
* The Aphikim, lit., " swift rushes of water." In Egypt they could only refer to the canals. - Canals, etc.
3 The Nile fertilizes Egypt by its black mud, whence it is called " The black." Ezekiel poetically sees it become a clear flowing stream in the Messianic times.
* On the 15th, doubtless of the twelfth month, though the copyist has omitted to give the number.
198 THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT.
Valley overwhelmed by Nebucliadnezzar. The conquest of any power or kingdom in those days was its virtual extinction ; like its sons slain in battle, the State itself might be said to have gone down to the grave. Egypt, therefore, crushed by the Chaldean, is seen in Sheol ; a companion, now, of the shades of mighty empires that had passed away before her. Their presence is her only miserable consolation.
17 The word of Jehovah^— says the prophet— came to me thus: 18 Son of man! lift up a wailing for the multitude of Egypt, and cast her down, like the daughters - of (other) famous nations (before her), into the underworld, to them that have already descended to the grave! 19 Art thou any fairer than others ? Get thee down, and lie (dishonoured) among the un- circumcised.3 20 The Egyptians shall fall among those slain by the sword ! It is already given (to liim who shall use it !) Draw down Egypt and all her multitudes (to the shades oP tlie grave, ye powers of the underworld) ! 21 The mighty heroes (already in Sheol), say from its depths, o£ Pharaoh and his supporters, (now with themselves) : " They have come down hither, there they lie, the uncircumcised, slain with the sword"?"*
The great kingdoms of the past, visited for their sins, like Pharaoh himself, are already in the underworld, and greet him when he enters it, to lie down in the grave among them, with all his host.
22 Asshur is there in Sheol, with all its host; its king, sur- rounded by the graves of his people, all of them slain, pierced by the sword. 23 Their graves are made in the depths of Sheol,
1 Ezek. xxxii. 17-32- 2 Population.
3 '* Uncircumcised " was the lowest word of contempt in the mouth of a Jew.
^ And hence without honourable burial. " Uncircumcised " is used as equivalent to " vile," " degraded," " unclean," because not purified by funeral rites.
THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT. " 199
those of his host round that of the Great King; all slain, pierced by the sword that caused terror in the land of the living.
24 Elam is there and her whole multitude, round the grave of its king; all slain, pierced by the sword, gone down, uncircum- cised, to the underworld : they who spread terror in the land of the living, now bear the shame of death with those already lying in the grave. 25 They set Elam a bier in the midst of the graves of her hosts, all of them round about her, all of them uncircum- cised, slain in battle ; for though they spread terror in the land of tlie living, they now lie humbled among those already in the grave. Elam is laid in the midst of the slain !
26 Meshech and Tubal ^ the fierce Scythian tribes, with all their multitude, are there ; their graves round about that of their chief; all of them uncircumcisred, slain in battle — they who spread terror in the laud of the living ! 27 They lie not with the heroes of the uncircumcised, gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war, their swords laid under their heads, ^ but their iniquities have come on their very bones, because they were a terror to the valiant in the land of the living.
28 Thou, also, (0 Egypt,) shalt lie shattered among the un- circumcised, with them that are slain by the sword !
29 Edom lies there, her kings, and all her princes, mighty as they were, laid among them, slain by the sword, with the uncir- cumcised and those gone down to the pit !
30 There lie the princes of the North of Syria and Phenicia — all of them, and all the Sidonians, gone down to the shades of the slain; terror-inspiring once, brought to shame now ! They lie, un- circumcised, among those slain with the sword, bearing a common shame with the rest of the dead !
31 All these will Pharaoh see (when he goes down, like them, to Sheol),and take better comfort to himself (at the sight of them), for the slaughter of all his host, (now gathered around him, there once more, as pale ghosts), for Pharaoh and all his army will be
1 Yol. i. p. 230-233; vol. v. pp. 164 ff. Sayce says the Scythians came from the steppes of Southern Russia. Others think of the regions behind Caucasus. Fresh Light, p. 155.
' Burial of the weapons of war with the dead was common in antiquity, as it is now in some uncivilized countries. Virgil, ^n., 6, 233. Arrian, i. 6. Diod. Sic, xviii. 26.
200 THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT.
slain in battle, says the Lord Jehovah. 32 I put the terror of him into the hearts of men in the land of the living, but, (for all that) he will be stretched out among the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword; Pharaoh and all his host, says the Lord Jehovah.
Thus saDg tlie propliet in tlie year B.C. 584, nineteen months after the fall of Jerusalem. The years that followed saw the Chaldean forces straining every nerve to conquer insular Tyro. Nebuchadnezzar triumphed after his thirteen years' siege ; but, as we have seen, the city, though taken, was spared. ^ The cup of its iniquity was not yet full, and its utter overthrow was delayed to a later age. But the fate of Egypt was sealed by the submission of Tyre. Now tributary to the Great King, and no longer a source of danger in his rear, he was free to march to the Nile. Thither, therefore, his victorious legions advanced, in the fighting season of the year B.C.- 572 or 571, immediately after the siege of the Phenician capital was ended. Fourteen or fifteen years had passed since Ezekiel's former predictions, that Pharaoh would be defeated, but though his dirge and that of his host had been sung on the Chebar so long before, the
^ It is satisfactory to nolo that Winer, Bealw., vol. ii. p. 638 and Hitzig, Jes., p. 273, Ezech., p. 227, speak of Nebuchadnezzar as having taken insular Tyre. Some of the new critics take for granted, from Ezek. xxix. 18, that the siege had failed ; but if it had, the Chaldean king could nob have marched on to the con- quest of Egypt, It must have been successful, though the city was spared the horrors of a sack. No cuneiform record of the campaigns of Nebuchadnezzar against Judah and Tyre has yet been discovered; but a curious inscription, carved by his orders on the rocks of the Dog River, about eight miles north of Beirut, came to light about two years ago. Unfortunately, it is much worn, and the best preserved passage speaks only of the famous wines of Lebanon and Helbon.
TflE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT. 201
prophet's faith in the ultimate result had never been shaken.^ AVhen Tyre at last fell, he returned to the subject. On the first day of the seven and twentieth year of Jehoiachin's captivity/ and of his own, the word of Jehovah, he tells us, came to him saying : —
1 8 Son of man,* Kebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has made his army go through bard service against Tjre ; every head is bald and every shoulder rubbed bare (with pushing the war machines and such like toil), and neither he nor his host has had any return from the city, for their toil in besieging it. 19 Therefore, thus says the Lord Jehovah : Behold, I give over the land of Egypt to him (as a recompense), and he will carry off its wealth and seize its spoils and plunder its booty, and this will be the reward of bis army. 20 I have given him the land of Egypt for his service against Tyre, because his host were working for Me, says the Lord Jehovah. 21 In that day I will make a horn shoot forth to the House of Israel, and I will open thy mouth in their midst,^ and they will know that I am Jehovah.
Egypt had filled a great place in the foreign relations of the whole reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Just before his accession, while Crown Prince, he had fought the great battle of Carchemish, which expelled Pharaoh Necho from Western Asia. In 587, he had been disturbed during the siege of Jerusalem, by the attempt of Pharaoh Necho to relieve that city ; and during the siege of Tyre, Egypt had apparently aided the Phenicians. A burning thirst for revenge was thus kept alive in the bosom of the Great King, and this fact w^as doubtless known widely.
^ The date of the prophecies in Ezek. xxix. 17-21 and xxx. 1-19, must have been about B.C. 571, seventeen years after the fall of Jerusalem.
2 B.C. 598 - 27 = 571. ^ Ezek. xxix. 17-21.
* A Messianic time will follow, in which the prophet, justified by the fulfilment of his prediction, will be able to speak more freely than in the hostile past.
202 THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT,
Alike on tlie Nile and on tlie Chebar, the threats of the Babylonian conqueror must have been constantly dis- cussed in the colonies of Hebrew exiles, so long zealous partisans or opponents of Egypt. It was natural, there- fore, that the prophet-preachers of the day should often recur to the subject. Hence, perhaps the latest utterance of Ezekiel which we possess, reverts to it once more. In the thirtieth chapter of his Book, he tells us that the word of the Lord came again to him, apparently soon after the prediction last quoted, foretelling the excitement that would be felt, even in Ethiopia, on the news of the downfall of Egypt and its allies.
2 Son of man* — said the Divine Voice — prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah : Wail aloud ! " Alas for this evil day ! " 3 For tbe day is near, the day o£ Jehovah, a day of dark clouds! the time (of the judgment) of the heathen ! 4 The sword will come on Egypt, and trembling on Eihiopia, when the slain fall in Egypt, and the enemy carries otf its wealth, and its very foundations are destroyed. 5 The contingent of Ethiopians, the men of Phut,- the men of Lad, and all the mixed tribes of desert allies, the Lybiaus^ (fighting in their ranks), and all the vassal peoples* shall fall by the sword.
All the allies of Egypt will be destroyed, and the country laid desolate.
6 Thus says Jehovah : All the supports of Egypt will fall,^ and its proud might will sink. From Migdol on the borders of Palestine, to Syene, far south, on the cataracts of the Nile, they shall fall by the sword, says the Lord Jehovah. 7 Egypt will
1 Ezek. XXX. 1-19.
2 Sayce thinks Phut was the Egyptian Punt, on the Somali coast. Fresh Light, p. 47.
^ Ewald has " Nubians." * Lit., " sons of the covenant."
* The idols, princes, strong cities, and warriors. See vers. 13, 15, 17.
THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT. 203
be desolate in the midsfc of desolate lands, and her cities waste in the midst of waste cities. 8 And they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I kindle a conflagration in Egypt, and all her supporters^ are destroyed. 9 On that day, messengers sent off by Me, will start in swifc Nile boats, to alarm the Ethiopians dwelling in fancied security, and terror will seize them when the day of Egypt arrives, for, lo, it comes !
Nebuchadnezzar has been chosen by God to carry out the Divine purposes, and the ruin he will inflict will be terrible.
Stene (Assouan) Dueing the Overflow of the Nile.
TO Thus says the Lord Jehovah : I will make an end of the hum of men in Egypt, by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. II He and his people witli him — the fiercest of the nations— will be brought to destroy this land; they will draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain. 12 And I will dry up the Nile canals, and give the land into the hand of a rapa- cious soldiery ,2 and lay it and all that is in it waste, by the hand of barbarians ; I, Jehovah, have spoken !
A fuller rehearsal of the sorrows that will befall the doomed land follows.
13 Thus says the Lord Jehovah: I will destroy the blocks of wood they call gods, and root out the worthless idols from Mem-
» Lit., " helpers."
* This is the meaning of " selling" it to " the wicked.'*
204 THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT.
phis,^ and (Tor the time) there will be no more a prince of the land of Ep^ypr, and I will spread fear throughout its borders. 14 And I will make Pathros — that is, Upper Egypt — desolate, and will kindle a conflagration in Zoan-Tanis— in Lower Egypt — and will execute My judgments in No-Amon— or Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt. 15 And I will pour My fury on Pelusium — or Sin, the frontier fortress of the land, (on its north-east border), and I will cut off the multitude of Thebes. 16 And I will kindle a con- flagration in Egypt; Pelusium will tremble greatly, and Thebes be captured, and Memphis stormed in the daytime. 17 The young men of On " or Bethaven- — the hea<l quarters of idolatry — ■ and of Bubastis, will fall by the sword, and the population of both cities will be led off into captivity. 18 At Talipanhes the day will be darkened when I break the supports of Egypt there, and make an end of her haughty piide ; a cloud will cover her, and the towns — her daughters— will be led off into captivity. 19 Thus will I execute judgments in Egypt, and they shall know that I am Jehovah.
The fulfilment of these successive prophecies was strikingly complete. Nebuchadnezzar seems to have been compelled to turn his arms for a time in some otlier direction, after the fall of insular Tyre, before marching against Egypt. According to Greek writers, Pharaoh Hophra used this interval to i5t out a great fleet, built on the then famous Greek model, and manned by lonians and Carians, and sent them to Phenician waters, to stir up, if possible, a rising against the Chal- deans, so as to keep them from the Nile Valley. Weak on the land, Hophra seemed more likely to be successful by sea, as the Chaldeans were indebted, in naval matters, chiefly to allies. His only measure of defence in his own territories was to fortify and strongly garrison the fron- tier town Pelusium,^ trusting to its detaining the Great
* The special seat of the worship of Ptah and Apis.
2 Heliopolis, Bethaven, " House of Nothingness." Aven and On, in Hebrew, have the same consonants; a change of vowels only making the difference. ^ Ezek. xxx. 15.
THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT. 205
King by the slowness of a siege, while the Egyptian navy was busy in his rear. But the Phenician cities, de- moralized by recent defeat, were not disposed to embroil themselves again with Nebuchadnezzar. He had razed continental Tyre to the ground, and might do the same with other towns, if they rose against him. Their fleets, therefore, instead of joining that of Egypt, sailed over to the neighbouring Cyprus, and united with the navies of the petty kings of that island. Following the enemy thither, however, Hophra's ships won a great victory over the combined fleets, and then sailing back to the Phenician coast, took the city of Sidou by storm, and gave it up to plunder. On this, the other coast towns hastened to submit to Hophra, and recognised him as their over-lord; a dignity he retained for three years. In striking corroboration of this, remains of Egyptian structures, bearing the Pharaoh's name as their builder, are still found at the coast towns of Gebal, the ancient Byblos, and Arvad, the ancient Arados.
Elated by such prosperity, Hophra fancied himself "the happiest king that ever lived,'' and insanely vaunted that even " the gods could not overthrow him." But the dissipation of his dreams was terrible ! Hearing of his successes, the Lybian shore tribes, harassed by Greek colonists on their soil, appealed to him as their natural protector, and in his vanity he undertook their deliverance. As he could not, however, trust his Greek mercenaries against their own countrymen, he sent native soldiers on the expedition, which proved an utter failure. The Egyptians were so disastrously defeated, that very few of them returned to Egypt. Mourning filled the land, and indignation against Hophra became loud and threatening. The priests and native soldiery^ who, alike, hated him for his partiality to Greek mercen-
206 THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT.
aries, wliispered tliat "he had sent the Egyptian army to Lybia to get rid of it/' The sight of the straggling and wretched survivors at last roused a wide and fierce revolt, which he sought to quell by ordering his chief general Ahmes against the rebels. The troops, however, no sooner saw him, than they elected him king, and forced him to march against the Pharaoh. Opposing him at the head of thirty thousand mercenaries, Hophra might reasonably have expected victory ; but the enthusiasm of the foe was irresistible, and the royal army was routed, the king himself being taken prisoner, and shut up in his palace at Sais, by the conqueror. This, however, would not satisfy the populace. Clamouring to have the unfortunate monarch given up to them, they at last gained their point, and at once strangled him.
The account given by Josephus is different. Accord- ing to his authorities, Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt, and having dethroned Hophra, set up Ahmes in his place, and this is substantially corroborated by various Egyptian and Babylonian inscriptions. The governor of a province of Southern Egypt, in those years, living at Elephantina almost as a petty king, had erected, among other memo- rials of himself, a statue, recently discovered,^ on which is the following inscription.^
"His Majesty (Hophra) invested me with a very high dignity, that of his eldest son, making me governor of the regions of the south, to drive back invaders.'^ The magnificent gifts this fortunate personage had made to the gods and the priests of his province, and the temples he had built, are then recounted, and he proceeds, " I set up my statue that my name might endure for ever, by its means, for I protected the temple of the gods
^ Now in the Louvre.
2 I have somewhat condensed the language.
THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT. 207
when it sufifered from the foreign soldiery of tlie Amu,^ the people of the north and those of Asia — the wretches who had evil in their heart, for they purposed to over- run and ravage Upper Egypt. They carried out the plans their hearts had conceived.^' ^ He adds, that he kept the invaders from getting beyond the first cataract, and drove them back on Hophra^s army, by which, he affirms, they were defeated, though this was doubtless a diplomatic flattery to Egyptian feeling. The facts seem to be, that the native soldiery actually revolted, and that Nebuchadnezzar was thus enabled to overthrow Hophra more easily. Yet his army, as we see from this inscription, marched as far south as the first cataract, thus literally fulfilling the prediction of Ezekiel,^ that he would waste the land in its whole length from Migdol to Syene. But the Great King not wishing to make Egypt a mere Babylonian province, sanctioned the suc- cession of Ahmes to the throne, under the name of Amasis, after the death of Hophra,* contenting himself with making him tributary.
The new Pharaoh was not satisfied, however, with his position, and speedily strove to make himself indepen- dent. Taking advantage of the fine navy left by Hophra, he sailed against Cyprus, and conquered it; an act re- sented by Nebuchadnezzar as rebellion and a declaration of war. The Babylonian army was once more, therefore, directed against Egypt, and invaded it in B.C. 568, the thirty-seventh year of the Great King — three years after the former campaign on the Nile. The contest that followed was bitter in the extreme, most of the Delta being laid waste, with all its cities. At last, however,
^ Any yellow-skinned or Semitic people.
2 Vigouroux, vol. iv. p. 374. Records of the Past, vol. vi. p. 81.
» Ezek. XXX. 6. * Jer. xliv. 30.
208
THE JEWISH COLONIES IN EGYPT.
Amasis was conquered, and though left on the throne, was again forced to become a tributary of Babylon. A clay tablet in the British Museum fortunately preserves a notice of this second Egyptian campaign ; a fact specially interesting, since it is the only inscription of Nebuchad- nezzar, referring to his wars, which has come down to us. It runs thus : " In the thirty-seventh year of Nebuchad- nezzar, king of the country of Babylon, he went to Egypt (Misr), to make war. Amasis, king of Egypt, collected (his army) and his soldiers marched and spread abroad." Then follow fragmentary lines, describing, apparently, his forces of horse, chariots, and infantry, but the tablet is, unfortunately, so imperfect that the issue of the cam- paign is lost.^ Mutilated as it is, however, the notice is of extreme interest, since it shows the minute accuracy of the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, which have been treated by the new critics as unhistorical, it being assumed that Nebuchadnezzar never invaded Egypt.
* Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., vol. vii. pp. 210-225. Vigouroux, vol. iv. p. 376.
The God Amon, " Thk Hidden or Invisible One;" called also Na or Num, after whom Thebes is called " No Amon" by the prophet.
CHAPTER XI
ON THE CHEBAR.
THE prophet Jeremiali vanishes from the sacred re- cord after his last vain appeal to his countrymen, at their great idol feast, to abandon idolatry. When that address was delivered, or where, is not related; though the fact that the Jews had spread over both Lower and Upper Egypt, ^ implies that the festival must have taken place years after the prophet's unwilling settle- ment on the Nile, about u.c. 587. At that time he seems to have been already over sixty years of age, ^ so that at the second campaign of Nebuchadnezzar in Egypt, in B.C. 568,^ if he lived to see it, he would be nearly eighty. Whether he survived till then is not known, though his last words of remonstrance to the people he had so long faithfully taught, may date at least from B.C. 573, the year before the first Chaldean invasion of the Nile Valley. If, however, the closing verses of the 52nd chapter* were written by the prophet himself, he
* Jer. xliv. 1.
^ Supposing him to have been about twenty on his call to the prophetic office in B.C. 625.
' Eiietschi. The date is uncertain as to the exact year. It may have been a year or two earlier.
* Jer. lii. 31-34.
VOL. VI. 2°^ P
210 ON THE CHEBAR.
lived till tlie reigu of Evil-Merodacli, son of Nebuchad- nezzar, which began about B.C. 562 or B.C. 561.^ In this case he must have been more than ninety at his death. But it is extremely doubtful whether these verses have not been added by a later hand. How or when he died is, in fact, quite uncertain. He may have been stoned to death by his countrymen at Tahpanhes, as Christian tradition affirms, or he may have gone to Babylon with the retiring army of Nebuchadnezzar, as the Rabbis allege. Josephus and the Scriptures are alike silent as to his later history or death ; but the former tells us, that the remnant of the Jews who had fled to Egypt were carried off to Babylon by the Chaldeans.^ It is quite possible that the silence as to his last days is a veil drawn over them by the Jews, to conceal the fact of his martyrdom; for we must not forget that our Lord accuses the nation of having habitually killed the prophets,^ and we know from Jeremiah's own writings that his life was more than once threatened.
But if his death, like that of so many in all ages who have rebuked the sins of their generation, was that of a martyr, legend and tradition have united to shed an exceptional glory round his memory. The fulfilment of his prediction, that the exiles would return to Judea after seventy years, raised him, in the national estimation, to the highest rank among the prophets. Though long dead, it seemed as if a spirit so tender must still watch over the interests of the people. To think of him as their guardian or patron saint naturally followed. It was believed that, before the destruction of Jerusalem, the lost tabernacle and ark, and the treasures of the
1 B.C. 562-560, Birch. B.C. 560-559, Schrader. B.C. 561-560, Volck.
2 Jos., Ant, X. ix. • Matt, xxiii. 39. Luke xi. 47.
ON THE CHEBAR. 211
Temple, had been hidden by him, in one of the caves of Nebo, till the day when the nation is restored to honour by the Messiah.^ " The prophet/' says the tradition *' being warned of God, commanded the tabernacle and the ark to go with him, as he went forth to the mountain where Moses climbed up and saw the heritage of God. And when Jeremy came thither, he found a hollow cave, wherein he laid the tabernacle, and the ark, and the altar of incense, and so stopped the door. And some of those that followed him came to mark the way, but they could not find it. Which, when Jeremy perceived, he blamed them, saying, As for this place, it shall be unknown until the time that God gather His people again together, and receive them into mercy.'' The glory of Judas Maccabeous was heightened by a legend that the prophet appeared to him in a vision, as " a man with grey hairs and exceeding glorious, of a wonderful and excellent majesty," and gave him a golden sword sent down from God, to fight the battles of the Lord.^ He was believed to continue in heaven the constant intercession for his race and for the holy city, which was believed to have marked him, as "a lover of the brethren," while on earth.^ Apocryphal writings were issued in his name, to secure them popularity.* Nor would the nation believe that even his earthly relations to them were over; for so late as the days of our Lord, his return was confidently expected, to herald the advent of the Messiah.^ To use the noble figure of Milton, the clouds that had accompanied and obscured his course in life, were transfigured to heavenly splendours after he had departed.
* 2 Mace. ii. 1-8. ^2 Mace. xv. 13, 15. » 2 Mace. xv. 14.
* See Baruch vi. Eieron.f on Matt, xxvii. 9. Grotius, on Eph. V. 1-i. » Matt. xvi. 14.
212 ON THE CHEBAR.
The glimpses of Jewisli life on tlie banks of the Chebar, after the fall of Jerusalem, are not less interesting than those we obtain of the remnant which fled to Egypb.^ In the month Tebet, corresponding roughly to our January, in the eleventh^ year of the Captivity and of ZedekiaVs reign, the news reached Ezekiel, in Babylonia, that the Temple had been carried by assault and burned, along with the city, on the 10th of the fifth moon^ — the month Ab — nearly our August — five months before; so long had it taken for the news to reach the Euphrates. Like all true prophets and preachers in every age, he was intensely unpopular. His predictions of the fall of Jerusalem, the continuance of the Exile, and the ruin of the Jewish State, had been so bitterly resented, that for a number of years he had been refused a public hearing, and had been forced to remain silent, except to visitors in his own house. For many months back, however, he had felt that the approaching fulfilment of his gloomy forebodings, through the victory of Nebu- chadnezzar in Palestine, would at last silence all oppo-- sition to him as a prophet speaking for God, and once more open the little world of the Exile to his words. None could any longer refuse to hear a seer whose utterances had been so wonderfully accomplished. His victory must come very soon, and his standing as a true spokesman for Jehovah be indisputably established.'* At last, a fugitive from the storming of the Holy City reached the settlements on the Chebar, and brought to
» Ezek. xxxiii. 21.
2 The Heb. has "the twelfth year," but as this would imply that it took eighteen months for the news to reach Babylon, it seems certain that some copyist has introduced an error into the text.
3 Compare Jer. xxxix. 2; lii. 12. •* Ezek. iii. 26.
ON THE CHEBAR. 213
the prophet's house the first authentic news of the awful disaster. The spell of enforced silence was at once dissolved. The truth of his predictions was only too evident. His opponents dared no longer hinder him from the free exercise of his oflSce.
A lingering hope was still cherished, however, among those around him, that the survivors of the cata- strophe in Palestine might, after all, be able to maintain themselves as a feeble community, and thus form a centre to which the exiles might ere long rally, through some political revolution in Babylon. But Ezekiel hastened to dissipate all such dreams. The destruction of Jeru- salem, he told them, would be followed by the utter ruin of the State and the complete desolation of the land. The results of the murder of Gedaliah by Ishmael soon vindicated this prediction. A second deportation to Babylon followed, and it even seems probable that the troubles excited by Gedaliah^s death continued to show themselves in subsequent popular risings. Jeremiah speaks of a third deportation, five years after the fall of the capital.^ Some of the bands of fighting men which had escaped the Chaldeans not improbably stood aloof from them permanently, keeping the country disturbed by harassing forays. But, like true Jews, even their robber life was dignified by a religious colouring. Few though they were, they fancied there was no reason to despair, since the land had been given to Abraham, when he was alone in the midst of the whole population ; a much more hopeless position than theirs. Ezekiel, however, predicted a terrible end to these visionaries. Such a horde, wanting all true godliness, could neither preserve the land by their own efibrts, nor expect to be maintained in it by Jehovah.
' Jer. Hi. 30.
214 ON THE CHEBAB.
24 Son of Man* (said the Divine Voice to the prophet, apparently soon after the news of the great catastrophe reached him) — those veho still live amidst the ruins of the land of Israel say: "Abra- ham was only one man and yec he inherited the land. Bat we are many, and the land is given ns for an inheritance."
25 Say to them, therefore, Thus says the Lord Jehovah : Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes to the idols, and shed blood; and can you hope to possess the land? 26 Ye support yourselves by the sword and by violence ^ (not by justice and righteousness) ; ye work deeds of darkness, ye defile each man his neighbour's wife, and shall ye possess the land? 27 Speak thus, therefore, to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah : As truly as I live, those who live in the ruined towns will fall by the sword, and those who live in the open country will I give to the wild beasts for meat, and those who lurk in strongholds and caves will die of the pestilence ! 28 For I will lay the land utterly desolate, and the pride in her strength will cease, and the mountains ot^ Israel will be so desolate that no one will pass through them. 29 And when I have thus laid the country utterly desolate, for all the abominiitions they have committed, men will acknowledge that I am Jehovah !
If the prospects of tlie wild bands still wandering over Judea were thus dark, the apathy and ungodliness of the exiles on the Chebar gave little hope of religious ear- nestness being speedily awakened among them. Ezekiel could now speak freely. His brethren, awed by the fulfilment of the prophecies respecting Jerusalem, no longer interrupted or opposed him, but honoured him with a hypocritical respect, and affected to bow to his authority. They kept talking of him, says the sacred narrative,^ in the shadow of their doors and houses, and invited each other to go to him and hear his addresses. Coming in crowds, they sat before him with the devout air of true servants of Jehovah, and professed themselves
1 Ezek. xxxiii. 24-29. 2 Li|-_^ «. stand upon the sword.*' 3 Ezek. xxxiii. 30-33.
ON THE CHEBAE. 215
delighted witli his words, while they still secretly clung to their old sins. But the prophet saw through their insincerity. His discourses, he told them, simply tickled their ears, like a love-song well rendered, with its pleasant accompaniment of the lute or guitar ; they heard him, and then dismissed all thought of his words. But the judgments of God, he assured them, were not exhausted. Such obduracy would bring fresh visitations, and under the infliction of these they would at last be forced to own, not in form only, but sincerely, that they had been listening to a true prophet of Jehovah.
Now that Jerusalem had fallen, the prophet's addresses to the people were necessarily changed in tone. The re- proaches of former days would have been out of place. To rouse the nation to spiritual life was wiser and better. Like all his order, Ezekiel believed that the kingdom of God, as represented by his race, could not perish. A Messianic age must come. Henceforward, therefore, he sought to cheer and revive his brethren by keeping before them this great hope, even in the midst of their despair and ruin. But national restoration could be attained only by a deep sense of the guilt of the past, and sincere reformation. While, therefore, maintaining the certainty of a future Messianic age, notwithstanding all the con- fusion of the present, he did not keep back the conditions on which alone it could be secured. But these fulfilled, there were no bounds to its glory.
Hence, in the opening chapter of this new phase of kis ministry, ^ Ezekiel, first of all, reminded his fellow exiles, so long indifferent or opposed to him, of the true office of a prophet, on their sincere realization of which the hope of sincere reformation depended. The word of Jehovah came to him, he tells us, with the following message. 1 Ezek. xxsiii.
216 ON THE CHE BAR.
2 Son of Man ! ^ say to the sons of tliy people, When I bring war on a country, and the people choose a man from their midst, and set him on the watch tower to look out; 3 and he sees the enemy 2 coming, and blows his trumpet and warns the people;
4 if any one hear his war horn and neglect the warning, so that the sword comes and cuts him off, his blood is on his own head.
5 He heard the horn, and took no heed, his blood is on himself. Had he taken warning he would have been saved.
6 But if the watcher see the foe coming, and do not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, so that the sword comes and cuts off one of them, the victim dies by his own fault, for he should have been on his guard, but I will demand his blood at the hand of the watcher !
7 I have set thee, son of man, as watcher for the House of Israel, that when thou hearest ought from My mouth, thou mayest warn them of it in My name. 8 If I say to the wicked, "Wicked one, thou must surely die," and thou warnest him not^ from his evil way, that wicked man will certainly die for his sin, but I will require his blood at thy hand. If, however, thou hast warned the wicked man of his peril, and he does not turn, he shall die for his sin, but thou hast saved thy soul.
The true propbet is thus required to v^arn the sinner of the impending judgments of God, as the look-out man on the watch-tower is required to give timely and loud notice of the approach of the foe. Safety, therefore, demanded that the prophet have free speech. But that God should have given them a true seer in their midst, was a sure proof of His favour, which might well keep off despair. For Jehovah would fain save the wicked, and threatens wrath through His prophet only that every one may take heed and reform. There is still time for this as long as His final judgment has not fallen.
10 Speak thus, therefore, 0 son of man, to the House of Israel : Ye have said rightly,"* (The punishment of) our trans-
1 Ezek. xxxiii. 2-11. 2 l^^^^ « sword." ^ lj^., " the wicked." 4 The word translated thus means also " rightly," "truly."
ON THE CHEBAR. 217
gressions and sins presses us down, and we decay to nothing through them; ^ how then can we hope to live again as a nation? II Tell them, As surely as I live, says the Lord, Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; My delight is that he should turn from his way and live ! Tarn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways ; for why will ye die, 0 House of Israel ?
Self-righteousness, ever disposed to justify itself, had adopted among the exiles a comfortable theory, that they were punished for the sins of their forefathers rather than for their own. Ezekiel had often exposed this self- deception in the past,^ but he again shows its hollowness.
12 Say ^ therefore, thou son of man, to the sons of thy people. The righteousness of the righteous will not save him in the day of his transgression, and the wicked will not fall ■* through his wickedness, in the day when he turns from it. Nor will the righteous preserve his life by having been so, in the day that he sins. 13 Though I say to the righteous, " he shall surely live,'* yet if he trust to his righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteous deeds shall not be remembered, but he shall die for the sin that he has done. 14 And in the same way, though I say to the wicked, " Thou shalt surely die," yet if he turn from his sin and do what is just and right ; 15 if he give back the pledge (unrighteously detained), restore what he has robbed, and walk in the statutes of life, doing no evil, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 16 All his sins that he has done will be no more remembered; he now does what is just and right; he shall surely live. 17 Yet the sons of thy people say, "The way of the Lord is not just." But it is their way that is not just !
18 When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die for it. 19 But if the wicked turn from his wicked- ness, and does what is just and right, he shall live for it. 20 Yet ye say, "The way of the Lord is not just." O ye House of Israel, I will judge you, every one after his own ways.
* The figure is that of a decaying corpse.
2 Ezek. iii. 20 ; xviii. 2i, 26, 27.
3 Ezek. xxxiii. 12-20. < Lit., " stumble."
218 ON THE CHEBAE.
Such was the address with which Ezekiel re-opened his long-suspended public ministry. Eesponsible to God, as a divinely ordained preacher of righteousness, it was his imperative duty to tell his people their sins ; to shrink from doing so was to imperil his own soul. On their part, it was no less imperative that they should repent, and honour the law of God in their hearts and lives. Thus alone could they bring about the glorious days of the Messiah for which they longed. In his next discourse, he passed from the sins of the people to those of their rulers and wealthy or powerful citizens. Their *' shepherds ^' had hitherto sought only their own advan- tage, not that of their flock : injustice and violence had prevailed instead of right and truth, and the people had been plundered and oppressed, till at last, in great part through the fault of their " shepherds,*' utter ruin had overtaken the commonwealth.
The word of Jehovah came to him, he tells us, as follows : —
2 Son of man,* prophesy against the shepherds ^ of Israel, prophesy and say to thorn. Thus says the Lord Jehovah to the shepherds : Woe to the shepherds of Israel that fed (only) them- selves ! Should shepherds not rather feed the flocks ? 3 Ye ate the fat^ and clothed yourselves wibh the wool; ye killed the fatted sheep; ye fed not the flock! 4 Ye did not strengthen the weak, or heal the sick, or bind up the injured, or lead back the strayed, or seek the lost, but ruled lawlessly and with cruelty ; 5 so that the flock was scattered for want of true shepherds, and became meat to all the beasts of the field, and was dispersed everywhere. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and over every high hill, and were scattered over the whole earth, and no one asked after them or sought for them.
xxxiv. 1-31. 2 Kings.
' Milk, butter, etc. — 8mend.
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But Jehovali will deliver His flock from sucli false shepherds. The state of things that had prevailed before the fall of the nation would not obtain after its restoration in the Messianic a<re.
7 Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah : As I live, says the Lord Jehovah, because My flock was made a prey, and My sheep became food to every beasr^ of the field through bein^ left shepherdless, and because My shepherds did not search foi* them, but fed themselves and not My flock : 9 therefore hear t\\n word of Jehovah, ye shepherds : 10 Thus says the Lord Jehovah ; Behold I am coming to the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand, and will order it that they no longer feed the flock, nor even themselves, and I will rescue My sheep from their jaws, so that they shall no more be food for them.
Jehovah Himself will henceforth take the matter into His own bands. While He inflicts judgment on the heathen, He will gather together His scattered flock, and lead them back to their own land, where they will have the richest pasture and the tenderest care.
II For thus says the Lord Jehovah : Behold, I Myself, even I, will both inquire after My sheep and take care of them. 12 As a shepherd takes care of his scattered flock when he is in the midst of them, so will I care for My sheep, and deliver them from all places to which they have been scattered in the day of clouds and darkness. 13 And I will lead them out from among the peoples, and gather them from the lands, and bring them to their own country, and feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. 14 I will feed them on good pasture, and their fold will be on the high mountains of Israel. They shall lie down there in a safe fold, and will have fan pasture on the hills of Israel. 15 I will feed My flock, and cause them to lie down, says the Lord Jehovah. 16 I will seek for the lost, and bring back what has been frightened away, and bind up what has been hurt, and make strong what is sick. But I will destroy the fat and lusty, and feed them with the punishment which is their due !
220 ON THE CnEBAR.
As tlie kings acted towards the whole people, so did the stronger in the community to the weak. The flock had not only worthless shepherds; there were among them hateful rams and he-goats which kept the weaker sheep from the pasture. These Jehovah will visit, dealing with all as is right, and He will finally unite the whole flock under one shepherd.
17 As for yon, 0 My sheep, thus says the Lord Jehovah: Behold I will judge between one sheep and another; that is between the rams and he-goats (and the rest of the flock). 18 Is it not enough that you have eaten down the good pastures, (ye rams and he-goats) ; must ye also tread down with your feet what remains ? Is it not enough that you have drunk up the settled and clear water ; must jou also foul what remains with your hoofs ?
20 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah to them, Behold I, even I, will judge between the fat and lean sheep. 21 Because ye have thrust with side and shoulder, and pushed aside all the weaklings with your horns, till you have scattered them, 22 there- fore I will help My sheep, so that they may no longer be a prey, and I will judge between sheep and sheep. 23 And I will set up a single shepherd over them, who will (really) feed them, My servant David; he will feed them, and be their shepherd. 24 And I, Jehovah, will be their God, and My servant David will be a prince in their midst ; I, Jehovah, have spoken it !
Under this Messianic prince, Israel will dwell in peace and security.
25 And I will make a covenant of peace with them, and destroy evil beasts out of the land, and My flock will dwell safely in the pasture-country, and sleep in the woods.' 26 And I will bless them and the circuit of my hill,^ and send rain in its season ; there will be showers of blessing.^ 27 The tree of the field will
^ Heb. yaar. ^ The land of Canaan.
' The word used is that employed for the copious showers of November and December. Herzog, vol. xi. p. 26.
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yield its fruit, and the earth its increase, and they will live securely in their own land, and know that I am Jehovah, when I have broken the bows of their yoke, and delivered them from the hand of those who held them as slaves. 28 They will no longer be a prey to the heathen nations, nor shall the beast of the field devour them, but they will dwell safely, none making them afraid. 29 And I will give their soil rich fertility,^ and they will no more be destroyed by hunger in the land, or bear any longer the reproach of the heathen. 30 And they will know that I, Jehovah, their God, am with them, and that they are My people, the House of Israel, says the Lord Jehovah. 31 But be ye men, 0 My flock, the sheep of My pasture; I am your God, says the Lord Jehovah !
Obedience to the teaching of the prophets, and sincere loyalty to Jehovah, would thus bring about spiritual and temporal regeneration. Still more; to secure the glory of the restored Israel, its enemies would be destroyed. Edom is selected as the representative of the heathen by whom Judah had been seduced from its faith, and at last brought to ruin. Bitterly hostile to the Jews for ages, we have seen how it gloried in the triumph of Nebu- chadnezzar. Since that time, moreover, it had seized a large part of the territory of Judah, which it now held.^ It would at last be shown, however, that Jehovah was with His people ! Their prosperity would be secured, not only by a blessing on the land 'itself, but also by the destruc- tion of all their foes.
1 The word of Jehovah came to me, saying,^ 2 Son of man, turn thy face towards Mount Seir, and prophesy against it. 3 Thus
* Lit., " I will make to rise up for them a plantation of name," that is, the soil which is planted will be famous for its yield, through the " showers of blessing," verse 26. The mountains of Israel had long lain desolate, chap, xxxiii. 28.
2 Ezek. vii. 24 Jer. xlix. 1. Lam. iv. 2L Ewald's Geschichte, vol. iv. p. 105. ' Ezek. xxxv.
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says the Lord Jehovah. : Behold, I am coming to thee, O Mount Seir, and will stretch out My hand against thee, and make thee waste and desolate. 4 I will lay thy towns in ruins, and thou shalt be a desert, and shalt know that I am Jehovah. 5 Because thou hast cherished undying hatred (against Israel), and gavest up its sons to the sword in the time of their trouble, the time when iniquity triumphed : * 6 therefore, as I live, says the Lord Jehovah, I will turn thee into blood, and blood will pursue thee - Thou hast not hated blood-shedding, and thirst for blood will pursue thee ! 7 I will make Mount Seir waste and desolate, and cut off from it every one who either enters or leaves it, 8 and I will fill its mountains with its slain. On thy hills and in all thy ravines and torrent beds the slain by the sword shall fall. 9 I will make thee perpetual deserts, and thy towns will not be in- habited, that ye may know I am Jehovah. 10 Because thou hast said, " Both peoples (Israel and Judah) and both (their) territories shall be mine, and we shall take them in possession," — though Jehovah dwelt there — 11 therefore, as I live, says the Lord Jehovah, I will do to thee as thy rage and jealousy shown against My people, in thy hatred of them, deserves. I will make Myself known among thy sons, when I shall judge thee. 12 And thou shalt know that I, Jehovah, have heard all the words of scorn thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying : " They are laid waste ! They are given to us to possess ! " ^ 13 You have talked loftily with your mouth against Me, and have heaped up your words against Me: I have heard it! 14 Thus says the Lord Jehovah : When the whole earth rejoices, I will make thee a desolation. 15 As thou wert glad over the inheritance of the House of Israel, because it was laid waste, so will I do to thee. Thou shalt be a desert throughout, 0 Mount Seir, and all Edom ; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.
Such would be the fate of the enemies of the people of God. Turning now to the land of Israel, the prophet cheers his countrymen by the promises of Jehovah, that
* A. v., "In the time of (our) sorest punishment," Eivald; "Of the iniquity of the end," Gheijne and ClarTce\ "When iniquity brought the end," Eiclihorn.
2 Lit., " for food."
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it would see the cup of sorrow its children had drained, put to the lips of all their heathen foes.
I Further,* son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, saying : Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of Jehovah. 2 Thus says the Lord Jehovah : Because the enemy said respecting you, " Ha! the ancient hills are ours now : " 3 therefore prophesy and say : Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because they laid you waste and panted after you on every side, that you might become a possession to the remnant of the nations (spared from the Chal- deans), till ye rose on the lips of every idle talker, and were in evil report among the peoples: 4 therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Jehovah. Thus says the Lord Jehovah, to the mountains, and hills, and ravines," and plains, and to the desolate ruins and forsaken towns, which served for a prey and a scoff to the remnant of the heathen round ; 5 Yerily, in the glow of My anger do I speak against the remnant of the heathen, and against all Edom, who with gladness of heart and deadly scorn have appropriated My land, to desolate and plunder it— 6 Prophesy, therefore, respecting the land of Israel, and say to the mountains, and hills, and ravines, and plains, Thus says the Lord Jehovah : Behold, I have spoken in My wrath and indigna- tion, because ye have borne the contempt of the nations. 7 There- fore, thus says the Lord Jehovah : I have lifted up My hand (and sworn) ; verily the nations round you shall bear their (share of) contempt (in turn)!
On the other hand, God will bless His own land.
8 But ye, 0 mountains of Israel, shall shoot out your verdure and yield your fruits to My people Israel, for they will soon come! 9 For, behold, I am for you, and will turn My face towards you, and ye shall be ploughed and so*vd. 10 And I will increase men on you— all the House of Israel— all of it, and the towns will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. 11 And I will increase men and cattle on you, and they will multiply and be fruitful, and I will make you be inhabited as in former times, and show you more good than in your earlier days, that ye may know that I am Jehovah. 12 I will make men — My people Israel— walk on you,
1 Ezek. xxxvi. ' Lit, " torrents."
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and they will possess you, and you will be their inheritance, and you will no more be lefD without inhabitants.* 13 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because they say to you, " Thou land of Israel art a devourer of men," and hast made thy people childless ; " 14 therefore thou shalt no longer devour men, nor make thy people childless any more, saith the Lord Jehovah. 15 Neither will I cause thee to bear any longer the contempt of the nations, nor wilt thou be any more the scorn of the peoples, nor cause thy sous ^ to be childless any more.*
Tl\e banishment of Israel had been brought about by its own sins. But the heathen among whom they were scattered had profaned the Divine name on their account, imputing their calamities to the weakness of their national god.
17 Son of man, when Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their way and their doings; their conduct was vile in My eyes, as the foulest uncleanness. 18 Therefore I poured out My wrath on them for the blood they had shed in their land,^ and because they had polluted it with their foul gods. 19 And I scattered them among the nations, and they were dis- persed through the lands ; I judged them according to their way and their doings. 20 But when they came to the heathen peoples, they made My holy name to be profaned, for men said of them, *' These are Jehovah's people, and yet are driven out of His land!" 21 But now I must vindicate* My holy name, thus brought into dishonour among the heathen, through Israel.
Their deliverance would be due to this jealousy of His own honour, on the part of Jehovah, not to any merit in His people.
22 Therefore say to the House of Israel, Thus says the Lord Jehovah : I do this not for your sakes, O House of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which ye have caused to be dishonoured
1 Lit., " orphaned." ^ Feminine. ^ Lit., " nation."
* Correction of the Hebrew by the Masorites.
* In violence and by human sacrifices.
ON THE CHEBAR. 225
among the heatlien, among whom ye are come. 23 I shall therefore vindicate the holiness of My great name, which ye have caused to be dishonoured among the heathen, bringing discredit on it among them, that the heathen may know that I am Jehovah, says the Lord Jehovah, when I shall show Myself holy in you before their eyes. 24 For I will take you out from among the heathen, and gather you from all countries, and bring you again to your own land.
To restore former relations with them, however, was impossible while they were still estranged in heart. Nor could any radical change be expected from their own initiative. Their conversion must come from God Him- ^ self. He will, therefore, of His free grace, make them in reality His children, by bringing about in their hearts a true spiritual change. He will cleanse them from their sins and put His spirit into their renewed hearts.
25 And that ye may be cleansed from your sins, I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and I will make you clean from all your filthiness and from all your foul gods. 26 And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you ; I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh; 27 and I will put My spirit within you, that ye may walk in My statutes and keep My laws and do them, 28 and ye shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers, and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God.
They will henceforward loathe their former ways, and God will bless the land and give them prosperity. But all this is a free gift, bestowed of His infinite mercy on the undeserving.
29 And I will keep you from again falling into your old un- cleaiinesses, and will call forth corn (out of the earth) and make it yield richly, and bring no famine on you. 30 And I will increase the fruit of the tree, and the yield of the ground, that the reproach of hunger may no more be cast on you among the heathen. 31 And ye will think, then, of your evil ways and wrong doings, and abhor yourselves for your iniquities and abominations.
VOL. VI. Q
226 ON THE CHEBAR.
32 But, be it known to you, that it is not for yonr sakes I do this, says the Lord Jehovah : be ashamed and blush for your ways, O House of Israel !
33 Thus says the Lord Jehovah : When I have cleansed you from all your iniquities, and caused you to dwell in the towns of your land ; when the ruined places are rebuilt,, 34 and the wastes tilled again, so that they are no longer desert before the eyes of all that pass by ; 35 then will men say, " The land which was once desolate is become like the garden of Eden ; the waste, deserted, and ruined towns are walled round and inhabited." 36 Then the heathen peoples left round you will know that I, Jehovah, re- built what was ruined, and planted again what was laid waste. I, Jehovah, have said and will do it.
37 Thus says the Lord Jeliovah : I will yet be sought by the House of Israel to do this for them, (and, in answer to their" prayers) I will increase them with men, like a flock — like the flock for the holy offerings, the flock at Jerusalem in the time of her feasts;^ the cities now deserted will be filled with flocks of men, and all shall know that I am Jehovah.
Such were some of the discourses by which Ezekiel sought to rekindle the hopes of his fellow- exiles, and recall them to a higher spiritual life, in preparation for their future return to Palestine. The deep gloom that had settled on all, however, after the fall of Jerusalem, seemed beyond removal. The nation was, apparently, dead. Could it rise again ? Not only was national life gone ; there remained nothing of Israel but some dry bones from which the flesh was wasted and gone. Such thoughts may have been uttered around the prophet. But no difficulty shook his faith in what Jehovah had promised. Yet the terrible comparison of his people to the dead dwelt in his thoughts, till in the end it rose before him in a brighter aspect as the central glory of a prophetic vision. In this he seemed carried away by the Sphib of Jehovah to the plain or valley near Tel Abib,
* 2 Chron. xxxv. 7. Deut. xvi. 16.
ON THE CHEBAE. 227
familiar to him of old as the scene of the vision of the Cherubim. Now, however, to his horror, he found it full of dry withering bones ^ — the wreck of a vast host slain by the sword. Wandering over the wide expanse, the multitude of these ghastly relics of mortality and their bleached dryness, the very embodiment of death, filled him with awe, and, while thus overpowered, Jehovah seemed to address him.
3 " Son of man, will these bones live aorain ? " Then said I, " O Lord Jehovah, Thou knowest." 4 Then said He to me, " Call to these bones, and say to them, ' Ye diy bones, hear the word of Jehovah. 5 Thus says the Lord Jehovah to these bones : Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you. and ye shall live. 6 And I will create sinews on you, and make flesh grow on you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live, and acknowledge that I am Jehovah.' "
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded ; and as I did so, there was a noise and a commotion, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 And I looked, and, behold, sinews came on them and flesh grew upon them, and skin covered them; but there was no spirit in them. 9 Then said he to me. Call, O son of man, call to the breath of life, and say to it, Come from the four winds, O breath of life, and breathe into these slain, that they may live. 10 So I called as He commanded me, and the breath of life entered them, and they came to life, and stood up on their feet, a very great army. 11 Then said He to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole House of Israel ! Behold, (your fellow-exiles) truly say, " (We are not only dead, but) our very bones are (scattered), dry (and bleached) : we have lost hope, we feel our- selves utterly gone (as a nation)." 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them. Thus says the Lord Jehovah : Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to rise out of them, and will bring you to the land of Israel. 13 And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I open (even) your graves, (as it were), and lead you forth from them, 0 My people, 14 and put My Spirit in you, so that you may live again and settle in your own land. Then shall you know that I, Jehovah, have spoken, and performed, says Jehovah.
1 Ezek. xxxvii.
228
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ON THE CHEBAR. 229
This cut shows the Egyptian ideas of the future world, which had been for ages known to the Jews. Ezekiel's vision only describes a national resurrec- tion, but it seems to imply a belief in the resurrection of the body. See Daniel xii. 2. I owe the following explanation to my learned friend, Dr. Birch, of the British Museum.
" The subject of the plate is the vignette of the 125th chapter of the Eitual. It is entitled, ' The going to the Hall of the two Truths and making the deceased to see the faces of the godt-.' It is the scene of the great Judgment of the Dead. On the left Osiris is seated, holding a crook in his left hand and the three-thonged whip in his right. He is mummied and on a throne. The crook and whip have mystical significations of his power over the lower world. The object before him is a panther's or calf's skin placed on a pole stuck into a kind of pedestal. This, I think, indicates the word nem, or ' second life.' He is in a shrine. Before him is inscribed ' Osiris, the good Being, lord of life, great god, ruler of eternity, resident in the land of Akar (Hades) — resident in the west — lord of Abydos, king of ages."
Before the shrine are the following : —
1. Two rows of 21 gods of the dead, in all, 42, each of whom received a confession of the deceased that he had not committed one of the 42 sins which formed the Egyptian decalogue. The deceased, Nasamsi, is seen kneeling and addressing them. Beneath the frieze of the hall are (2) a table of offerings, gourds, and water plants. Under the table are two jars with water plants entwined. Above is an illegible inscription apparently in- tended for "the gift of offerings in Hades." 3. Two forms, Shai, "Fate," and Renut, " her nurse." 4. The symbols Meskhent, "the cradle." 5. The Amt, "devourer" of wicked souls — annihilation. 6. Harpakhrat, on a crook, the symbol of the New Birth. 7. Thoth, recording on his patella, or writing desk, the decision of the god as to the future state of the soul. 8. The balance, surmounted by (9) the cynocephalus, Anubis, jackal-headed, holding the weights of the scale of Truth on the one side of the balance, and Horus holding the heart of the deceased on the other scale. The inscription over the head of these figures says, " Said by the lord of Hermopolis (Thoth), great god, chief of Hesar — he has put the heart of the Osiris (deceased) Nasamsi, in its place." Tbe other inscription in this portion refers to Anubis, "The head of the divine place (Anubis) — he says his heart is in the midst of the balance tilled with the Osiris Nasamsi. Above, also, is " Horus," the name of the god. 10. II. 12. The deceased introduced by the Two Truths into the Hall. The inscription here says, " Truth the ruler of the west, she dves his name, in his abode he is to be united to his cell (body) for ever." The last inscription reads, " Like him who is head of the west (Osiris), she gives the two hands to thee, Osiris Nasamsi, born of the lady of the house Satarbuni, whose word is true."
Of the tenant of an Egyptian mausoleum, Mr. Gerald Massey gave this description in a recent lecture : — " With his viscera separately preserved in four canopic jars, his body steeped for seventy days in wine and natron, and bound up in a linen swathe, some seven hundred yards in length, woven without seam ; his hair made up into a ball and coated with bitumen ; his teeth and nails covered with gold leaf ; the collar of Nine Beads, worn by Isis, encircling his neck, the beetle-type of transformation placed within his breast, the mummy was deposited in the sarcophagus called ' Hen-Ankhu ' (the chest of the living) ; a copy of the book of breath was his pillow, and the leaves of the book of life were the lining of his coffin ; his types of protection, duration, and renewal were around him, and with the eyes of the sun and moon to light him through the long darkness, the Egyptian entered his tomb, called the ' Good Dwelling.' A number of copies of the Shebti, or Double of the Dead, were ranged in the Serdab, to signify repetition, and the Ka-image of his spiritual self was erected in the tomb as his link with the living."
CHAPTER XII.
THE VISION OP THE FUTURE.
IN the passages quoted in tlie preceding chapter we have samples of the preaching of the prophets of the Exile, of whom Ezekiel was only one. He did not content himself, however, with his sublime vision of the resurrection of the dead, so well fitted to revive the community from its dejection, but followed it up, soon after, with glowing pictures of the glory of the nation when thus restored. Aflame with patriotic enthusiasm, which in his case was identical with zeal for Jehovah, he anticipated a wondrous Messianic future. The deporta- tion of the Ten Tribes to Assyria, more than a century and a half before, had effaced all ancient grudges and rivalries from the breasts of the Two Tribes then still left in the land, and had awakened a spirit of brotherhood which yearned for a time when the whole nation, so long divided and estranged, would unite under one head, as in the happy days before Rehoboam. The prophets no less than the people looked forward to this much-desired consummation. Hosea ^ predicted its certain attain- ment under the future Messianic king. Amos, Micah,
1 Hosea i. 11; iii. 5. Amos ix. 11. Micah ii. 12, 13; v. 2. Isa. xi. lo. Jer. iii. 18.
THE VISION OP THE FUTURE. 231
Isaiah, and Jeremiah, in succession, dwelt on it, to cheer the darkness of troubled times. The day was coming when " Judah and Israel would be gathered again and appoint themselves one head." "Ephraim would not envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim.''' " Judah would come, together with Israel, out of the land of the North, to the land of their fathers.'^ The misery of the past had risen in great measure from the rupture of the kingdom of David. Constant civil wars had weakened both North and South, and left them a prey to their heathen enemies around. The Ten Tribes, while their kingdom stood, had been so numerous and powerful compared with Judah, that they had been recognised as " Israel,'' and it was impossible to conceive of any national restoration which would not include them. Even in Ezekiel's time, moreover, their colonies still existed in Assyria, and the deliverance of these seemed as easy as that of Judah from Babylon.
With the confident expectation of this return of all the Twelve Tribes to their own country, ^ and their happy union under one ruler, a confident belief was cherished that this King would be a descendant of their hero — David. It was necessarily taken for granted by both prophets and people, that the anointed leader, or Messiah, thus expected, would restore the kingdom on the lines of its ancient constitution, for they knew nothing higher. There might be a great advance in the religious and moral condition of the community, its glory might be immeasurably developed, and its Messiah Prince mif^rht reio^n in hitherto unimao^ined riorhteousness and peace; but, at its highest, the restored kingdom would
Jer. ii. 4; iii. 18; v. 11; xxxi. 15. Ezek. iv. 4, 5; xvi. 53; XX. 40; xxxvii. 11 ; xxxix. 25; xlvii. 13; xxxiv. 23; xi. 15; ix, 9, etc.
232 THE VISION OF THE FUTUEE.
only be a transfiguration of tliat of David. The con- ception of a purely spiritual kingdom lay outside tlie range of human thouoht^ and was not dreamed of till proclaimed by the lips of our Lord. Hence the utter- ances of Ezekiel, like those of all his order_, could picture the glories of the future only in imagery drawn from the past. It was reserved to later ages to learn their higher significance through the light shed upon them by Christ. That Jewish ideas and aspirations fill the visions of the prophets, need not therefore surprise us, though it is essential that we realize their significance by the light of New Testament revelation. It was quite in keeping with this inevitable mode of thought that the ancient prophets had looked forward to the future glory of Israel as necessitating the return of the Ten Tribes from exile ; for the idea of a spiritual Israel, distinct from the political, was beyond them. Nor was it possible for Ezekiel to think or speak except as a Jew, with the longings and expectations of his day, unconscious that his visions had a deeper meaning than he conjectured. He also, therefore, proclaimed the approaching deliverance of the Ten Tribes, and their union with Judah under a common head, sprung from David, the great king of the yet undivided people. The word of Jehovah, he tells us, came to him,^ saying, — "
i6 Son of man, take one rod, and write on it, " Judah, and the sons of Israel united with him;"^ then take another rod, and write upon it, "Joseph, the representative^ of Ephraim and all the House of Northern Israel allied to it:'' 17 and bring them together, one rod to the other, so that they may be united in thy hand. 18 And when the sons of thy people say to thee, " Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by this ? " 19 Answer them, " Thus
1 Ezek. xxxvii. 15 fif. 2 ^ g^ Benjamin and part of Simeon. ^ Lit., •' tree."
THE VISION OP THE FUTURE. 233
says the Lord Jehovah : Behold, I will take the rod, or sceptre, of Joseph, held by Ephraim and the tribes of Israel joined with him, and will put it to thiM rod of Jndah. and make them one rod, that they may be one in My hand. 20 (To teach thy people this) the rods on which thou writest sliall be in tliy hand, before their eyes; 21 and thou shalt say to tbetn, "Thus says the Lord Jehovah : Beliold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the heathen, whither they are gone, and gather them from all parts, and bring them to their own land. 22 And I will make them one people in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king shall reign over them all : and they will no longer be two peoples, nor will they any longer be divided into two kingdoms. 23 They will no more defile themselves with their foul gods or with their abominations, or with their (former) transgressions ; but I will help them from all their backslidings^ by which they have sinned, and will cleanse them, and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. 24 And My servant David will be king over them,^ and they will (thus) all have one shepherd ; and they will walk in My laws, and keep My statutes, and do them. 25 And they will dwell in the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers dwelt; they will dwell there, they, and their children, and their children's children for ever ; and My servant David will be their prince for ever.
26 And I will make a covenant of peace with them, a covenant which will endnre for ever, and I will bless them,^ and increase them, and set My sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore, 27 My dwelling-place also will be over them ; ^ I will be their God, and they will be My people. 28 And the heathen shall know that I, 'Jehovah, set apart Israel as holy to Myself, when My sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore."
'* This exquisite picture of absolute security and pros- perity could not, however, be realized as complete with- out an assurance of protection from hostile attacks, and this, therefore, is added. The wild races of Scythia had spread terror over all Western Asia in the days of Josiah, and were still remembered with dread. The heathen
* Sept. Ewald. Hitzig. Eichliorn. 2 Ezek. xxxiv. 23.
^ Targum. * They will, as it were, dwell in My tent.
234 THE VISION OP THE FUTURE.
nations as a whole, in their opposition to the kingdom of God, are represented, therefore, under the figure of a second invasion of the Holy Land by these barbarous hordes. Bat He who had led His people back from captivity would prove Himself their Almighty defender; the foe would be triumphantly overthrown, and Israel, the kingdom of the Messiah, finally delivered from all fear, would enter on a lasting career of temporal and spiritual prosperity.
2 Son or man,^ said the Word, turn thy face against Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, ^ and prophesy against them, saying, Thus says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am coming to thee, 0 Gog, thou chief prince of Meshech and Tubal ; 4 and will lure thee on, and put rings in thy jaws,* and draw thee forth, thou and all thine army, horses and riders, all gorgeously clad, a vast multitude with great shields and smaH, all wielding swords. 5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Phuf* are with them ; 6 the Cimmerian Gomer, ^ and all his squadrons ; the house of Togarmah ^ in the farthest north, and all his bands ;
^ Ezek. xxxiv., xxxix.
2 See vol. i. p. 2:32. " Rosh," translated "chief," in ver, 2 is taken as a proper name by some, but most translators render the phrase as in the text. Schrader {Keilinsckriften, 2te Aufg., 1882) ac- cepts Magog as equivalent to Scythians (p. 80). Tubal = Tabal, according to him, bordered on Oilicia, and seems to have been what was afterwards Cappadocia. It was famous for " great horses" (p. 83). Meshech he regards as having lain N.E. of Cappadocia, in Lower Armenia (p. 84). It is mentioned by Tiglath-Pileser L (b.c. 1100) along with Tubal or Tabal.
3 See vol. V. p. 90.
"* Heh. These are in the farthest south from Babylon, where Ezekiel lived. The Asiatic Cush or Ethiopia lay in Central and Northern Babylon. Fried. Delitzsch ; but see vol. i. p. 238. Phut was the name, according to Ebers, of some wandering tribes of Arabia. Egypt u. die B. Moses, p. 63; but see vol. i. p. 249. Sayce thinks Phut was the Somali country in Eastern Africa.
» Vol. i. p. 230. « Yol. i. p. 232.
THE VISION OP THE FUTURE. 235
many people with tliee! 7 Be ready, prepare thyself! thon, and all thy hosts who gather round thee, and be thou their leader. 8 After many days thou wilt be mu^teied ; at the end of years thou wilt come into the land^ redeemed from the sword, gathered out of many peoples, to the mountains of Israel which so long lay waste, though now thy tribes have been led forth again to them from among the heathen, aiid dwell together in security. 9 'J'hou shalt rush on, coming like a tempest, like a storm-cloud, to cover the land, thou, and all thy hosts of many peoples, with thee.
The invasion of Israel by this fierce and terrible army is now described. The towns lie open, in fancied se- curity, apparently the prize of a sudden attack.
10 Thus says the Lord Jehovah : In that day thoughts will come into thy heart, and thou wilt lay wicked plans, saying, 1 1 *' I will burst into the open country of unwalled villages ; I will come upon them that live in peace, dwelling in (fancied) security; who live without walls, or bars, or gates." 12 (This thou wilt do) to obtain plunder and gather spoil, to lay thine hand on the newly rebuilt towns, lately in ruins, and on a people gathered (by Me, Jehovah) out of the nations — a people already possessing cattle and goods, and inhabiting the centre land^ of the eai'th.
The traders of widely different nations naturally follow a host drawn from so many lands, to buy up the plunder and slaves. On such a harvest they counted, and they rejoice in proportion as it becomes evident that relentless spoil is the one object of the war.
13 SabaBa,^ and Dedan,* and the traders of Tarshish,^ with all the young men from them, greedy for gain as young lions for prey, who come to traffic in the booty, will say to thee, " Hast thou (really) come only to plunder ? Hast thou gathered thy
* The land = the people of the land (Israel). 2 Lit., "navel." Note this conception of the position of Pales- tine.
s Vol. i. p. 241. * Ihid. « Vol. i. p. 235.
236 THE VISION OF THE FUTURE.
host only to collect spoil ? to carry off silver and gold, to take cattle and goods, to heap up a great booty?"
The remorseless guilfc of such an invasion of a nation dwelling in peace, and offering no cause for attack, is farther insisted upon.
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord Jehovah : Is it not thus that thou wilt stir thyself, and come from thy home in the farthest north, in the day when My people Israel dwells in peace — 15 thou and many nations with thee, all on horse; a mighty host, a vast army, 16 and shalt advance against My people Israel, covering the earth like a cloud ? At the end of days I will bring thee against My land, that the heathen may learn whom I am, when I show Myself holy befpre their eyes, in thy punishment, 0 Gog!
This retribution will surely strike down the invader. Nature itself will be convulsed, to overthrow him utterly.
17 Thus says the Lord Jehovah : Art thou he of whom I have prophesied in former times by My servants,^ the prophets of Israel, who in those days prophesied, long years together, that I would bring thee against them? 18 It shall come to pass in that day, in the day when Gog comes against the land of Israel, says the Lord Jehovah, My wrath shall rise up in My nostrils! 19 For in My indignation, in the glow of my anger, have I spoken thus: "Verily, in that day there will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. 20 The fish of the sea, the fowls of the heaven, the beasts of the earth, and all that moves on the face of the ground, and all men on the face of the land, will tremble before me, and the mountains will be thrown down, and the cliffs of the hills ftill, and every wall sink to the ground. 21 And I will call aloud to all My mountains, for the sword against Gog," says the Lord Jehovah ; " every man's sword will be against his
1 The prophecies here referred to may not have been preserved, or those in which the judgment of God on the heathen are fore- told may be meant. See Joel iv. 2, 11. Isa. xxv. 5, 10 ; xxvi. 21. Jer. XXX. 23, 25.
THE VISION OF THE FUTURE. 237
fellow. 22 And I will execute My judgments against him with pestilence and with blood, and I will rain on him, and on his hosts, and on the many nations with him, a storm-deluge of rain, and hailstones, and fire, and brimstone. 23 And I will show My gi'eatness and My holiness, and will reveal Myself in the eyes of many nations, that they may know that I am Jehovah."
This final overthrow of tlie enemies of Israel, thus vividly described, was nevertheless too grand a theme to be dismissed without another outburst of prophetic jubilation. The certain triumph of the Anointed King, the Messiah, is therefore once more announced in the next strophes of this grand prediction.
I Son of man,^ prophesy respecting Gog, and say, Thus speaks the Lord Jehovah : Behold, I am coming to thee, O Gog, thon chief prince of Meshech and Tubal! 2 I will lure thee out, and lead thee forth,- and draw thee on, from the furthest north, and bring thee to the mountains of Israel ! 3 And (there) I will smite the bow out of thy lefc hand, and cause thy arrows to fall from thy right hand.^
4 And thou shalt fall on the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy hosts, and the peoples who are with thee ; I will give thee for meat to the birds of prey of all kinds, and to the beasts of the field. 5 Thou shalt fall in the open field, for I have spoken it, says the Lord Jehovah. 6 And I will send fire on (the land ol) Magog (its'eK), and on them that dwell in security on the sea-ccasts,'* and they shall know that I am Jehovah. 7 Thus will I make known My holy name in the midst of My people Israel, and not suffer it to be any longer profaned, that the heathen may know that I am Jehovah, the Holy One in Israel. 8 Behold, it
1 Ezek. xxxix.
2 Draw thee with leading-strings. Ewald.
^ Bows and arrows were the special weapons of the Scythians. Jer. V. 16 ; vi. 23. " Horse-bowmen" is the name given them by Herodotus. Herod., iv. 46.
^ The dis'ant coasts and islands of the ends of the earth, from which the allies of Gog came.
238 THE VISION OF THE FUTURE.
comes — it is as good as done, says the Lord Jebovali ! This is the day of which I have spoken ! ^
The victory will be complete and the booty immense. The weapons of the slain will supply fuel for seven years to Israel, whose land "had little wood, and the burial of the dead will take seven months ; men being employed even longer in searching for bones that had been overlooked, to remove all traces of defilement from the holy soil.
9 The men of the towns of Israel will go out (after the cata- strophe), and there make fires of the arms (cast away by the fugitives, or left by the dead) — the large shields and the small, the bows and the arrows, the war clubs,^ and the spears; seven years long will they use them for fuel, lo They will not need to bring faggots from the Geld or to cut down fuel in the yaars,^ for the wood of these arms will serve them for firing, and they will spoil those that spoiled them, and plunder those that plundered them, says the Lord Jehovah.
The corpses of enemies were generally left unburied, or at most were interred without the usual rites, only to prevent pestilence or defilement ; slain foes thus pass- ing into the underworld as " uncircumcised,'' that is, dis- credited and put to shame.^ In this case, the dead will be left unburied, a prey to the vultures and wild beasts ; but, after these have feasted on them,^ the bones will finally be collected and thrown ignominiously into one of the deep ravines on the east side of the Dead Sea, out- side the limits of the Holy Land, of which the Jordan
1 The great day of Jehovah. Joel ii. 11. Zeph. i. 14. Isa. ii. 12 ; xiii. 6. Jer. xlvi. 10. Ezek. xiii. 5. Amos v. 18. See also references from these texts.
2 Hitzig thinks the rods used to drive on the horses meant, but this seems very poor. ^ Yol. iv. p. 358.
4 Ezek. xxviii. 10; xxxii. 17. * Ezek. xxxix. 17.
THE VISION OF THE FUTURE. 239
will form the boundary/ and thus the soil of Israel will be purified from the defilement of unburied human re- mains.
II In that day I will appoint Gog a burial place in Israel, the ravine of the invading hosts of the wicked ^ on the east of the (Dead) Sea, and it will bar the way of invaders or passers-by,' and there they will bury Gog and all his host, and they will call it " The ravine of the host of Gog." 12 And the House of Israel will be employed seven months in burying them, to cleanse the land. 13 The whole people of the land will help, and it will be a famous day for them when I glorify Myself thus, says the Lord Jehovah. 14 And they will set apart, permanently, chosen men to travel through the land, to bury any bones of the invaders that have been overlooked, that the country may be thoroughly cleansed. They will begin their search after the seven months of burying have ended. 15 And if any of them, passing through the land, see a human bone, he will set up a mark beside it, that the buriers of the dead may bury it in the ravine of the host of Gog. 16 (And as a memorial of the event) the name of Hamona — the host — will be given to one of the towns of the land.^ Thus the land will be cleansed 1
The number of the slain will be so great that Jehovah again calls on the vultures and wild beasts to come to the ghastly feast on human flesh prepared for them.
* Ezek. xlvii. 18.
2 Lit., " passers-by." It is in one ca-^e rendered in our version as "transgressors" (Prov. xxvi, 10), and the verb of which it is a participle is often tianslated to " transgress." Ifc may mean either the "invaders," the "wanderirig hordes," or the "godless." The name seems to be given from the burial of the host of Gog in it. It is now unknown what place the prophet intended, if^ indeed, the allusion be not merely figurative. Eichhorn changes the word Oberim into Abarim, and thinks the valley of that name is meant.
3 I have here combined the renderings of different critics.
* This clause is obscure.
240 THE VISION OF THE FUTURE.
17 Thou also, son of man, call to every kind of bird of prey and to every beast of tlie field : "Assemble and come; gatber from all sides to My sacrifice feast, which I have slain for you— a great sacrifice feast on the mountains of Israel— to eat flesh and drink blood."
18 "Ye shall eat the flesh of heroes and drink the blood of princes of the earth, rams, and lambs, and goats, and fed bullocks of Bashan.^ 19 And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, from My sacrifice feast which I have slain for you. 20 And ye shall have your fill at My table, of horses and riders,^ heroes and men of war of all arms, says the Lord Jehovah."
21 Thus shall I display My glory among the heathen, and all their nations shall see My judgment that I have executed, and My hand that I have laid on them. 22 And the House of Israel shall know that I, Jehovah, am their God, fiom that day on, for ever; 23 and the heathen shall know that the House of Israel went into captivity for their sin ; and that I hid My face from them, and gave them into the hand of their oppressors, so that they all fell by the sword, because they had been unfaithful to Me. 24 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid My face from them.
The purpose of the destruction of Gog, like that of the restoration of Israel, is declared by the prophet to be the glory of the Divine name before the heathen and Israel. Meanwhile, after the Keturn, the justice of God in the exile of His people will be acknowledged, and He will no more veil His face from them, but will pour out on them His Spirit, the pledge of His abiding favour.
25 Therefore, thus says the Lord Jehovah: I will now bring back again the exiles of Jacob (to their own home), and have pity on the whole House of Israel, and be jealous for My holy name.
* The heroes and princes are called by these names of animals used in sacrifice. Isa. xxxiv. 6. Jer. xlvi. 10. The usage is fre- quent in Scripture.
'^ Keil. Ewald. Eichhorn.
THE VISION OP THE FUTURE. 241
26 And tliey shall bear, (as penitents), their shame for all the transgressions (formerly) committed against Me, when they (once more) dwell safely in their own land, none making them afraid.
27 When I bring them back again from the peoples, and gather them out of the lands of their enemies, and show Myself holy towards them before many nations, 28 they shall know that I, Jehovah, am, and was, their God, alike when I banished them among the heathen, and (afterwards) when I gathered them again into their own land, leaving none behind (in captivity). 29 And I will hide My fixce no more from them, but will pour out My Spirit on the House of Israel, says the Lord Jehovah.
Ezekiel had now painted the future of the people of God, till tlieir triumphant establishment in their own land, after the overthrow of all opposition ; their hearts changed from stone to flesh, and the Divine Spirit be- stowed on them, to secure their permanent fidelity to Jehovah. Such a picture could hardly be realized in a national sense, for in any general community there must always be good and bad. It must therefore have re- ferred— though the prophet may not have penetrated the full significauce of his own utterances — to a spiritual Israel, under a spiritual Messiah, not to the national Israel, though the chosen people.^ But this higher and nobler theocracy demanded, like that of Moses, a cen- tral sanctuary, a body of laws, and a distribution of the soil amongst its population. As became the scenery of visions, those picturing the restoration and its atteifdant wonders had throughout been in the highest degree figurative, and so is tlieir culmination in the chapters that follow. The overthrow of Gog had been painted in the boldest poetical images; all the powers of nature conspiring to fight for Israel, as when Joel sees the sun turned into darkness and the moon into blood;- and hears Jehovah shout the battle cry as He rushes down
* Rom. ii. 28, 20; ix. 6. - Juel, chapters iii. and iv.
VuL. VI. K
242 THE VISION OF THE FUTUEE.
from Zioti, and the heavens and earth seem to shake at the overthrow of the heathen, in ^* the great day of the Lord/'
Such language is that of the loftiest poetry, and must not be treated as if it were prose; it presents a great truth, but the details are not intended to foreshadow a literal realization. The same principle must be kept in view in the remaining chapters of EzekieFs visions, portraying in words equally figurative the features of the New Theocracy, amidst redeemed and regenerated Israel. He writes as a Jew and as a priest, using the imagery of the little world in which he moved ; the only material he had in which to embody his thoughts.
Carried off to Babylon in opening manhood, from his priestly functions and their daily associations, every detail of these had impressed itself on the mind of Ezekiel with all the vividness and tender sympathy felt through life for the reminiscences of our early years. The Temple in all its aspects was the central object in his recollections. Its buildings, in all their parts and uses; its worship, in all its rites ; its economy in the minutest particulars, had been familiar to him from childhood, and stood out in his memory with unfading clearness, in the land of his exile. The Messianic kingdom, when it should come, could in his opinion have no grander sanctuary than a transfiguration of that on Mount Zion, where Jehovah had sat between the cherubim. It was, indeed, inevitable, as has been noticed, that the materials of his visions should be drawn from the range of his experience ; for the human mind cannot create, but only contrast and combine, or develop. We have seen how, thus, in his conceptions of the cherubim, he avails himself of the mythological colossi around him in Babylonia; ^ though » Vol V. p. 437.
THE VISION OF THE FUTURE. 243
even these, if we think of it — the wings, the legs, the various faces in strange union — are only presentations of natural objects in new conjunctions. Our angels, in the same way, are only beautiful human figures ; our heaven is only a succession of exquisite earthly landscapes. We cannot, indeed, avoid transferring our ordinary ideas to the future world. Accustomed to cities, we raise a great city of God in our imaginations of the future, just as in an age or region where cities were unknown, we might have pictured heaven as a garden, like Eden.
To Ezekiel and his contemporaries, the grand future in store for the nation could only be a glorious renovation of the sacred past. The Temple, the forms of public service, the maintenance of the priests, the divisions of the land among the tribes, the establishment of ihe ex- pected Ruler, and all else, might vary in details from the practice of former times, but must repeat their leading characteristics. Yet the descriptions in which the prophet sets them before us were only visions, not literal antici- pations. Looking forward into the magnificent Messianic future, he paints it in such imagery as alone was possible to him, or comprehensible by his nation. It was left for after ages to read the true meaning by fuller spiritual light, and separate the material symbol from the truth it embodied.
That the pictures of the restored land are only to be regarded as the scenery of prophetic dreams or visions is clear. I may quote a few proofs. Three thousand cubits are stated as the extent of the precincts of the New Temple on Mount Moriah, but that hill could not possibly afford a space equal to 1,500 yards,^ or nearly seven-
^ Ezek. xlii. 19, 20. Conder makes the cubit sixteen inches {Handbook, p. 37). Other esLimaies make it eighteen or twenty inches. Diet, of the Bibles vol. ii. p. 1737.
244 THE VISION OP THE FUTUEE.
eighths of a mile square. Nor can the priestly laws he announces be viewed as intended for an authoritative code^ since they were disregarded after the return from Babylon. Thus Zerubbabel, and Joshua the high priest, followed the old Mosaic rules, not those of Ezekiel, in consecrating the Temple/ disregarding even the day named for the great solemnity by the prophet — the first of the first month,^ for which they substituted the first of the seventh.^ If, besides, there are resemblances between the Temple of Ezekiel and that of Solomon, there are also striking contrasts. The former was to be north of Jeru- salem ; * the other rose to the south of the city. In the new sanctuary numerous chambers were to be provided for the priests and Levites while on duty; and the sacred order was no longer, as of old, to be scattered in separate communities through the country, but in a special district assigned to it. The territories allotted by the prophet to the Messiah Prince comprise almost the whole centre of the land, and they cannot be alienated ; to prevent alike the impoverishment of the Crown, or an excuse for its en- croachment on the lands of the people.^ Equal divisions of the country are assigned to the different tribes, that none might envy its neighbours.^ In contrast to the exclusiveness of the past, lands are set apart, between those of the tribes, for aliens, that no one willing to work might suff"er poverty. The prince is required to provide the oS'erings and necessaries of the Temple, and thus secure the due performance of public worship; rich gifts to him being demanded from the community, that this may not be burdensome. New laws, moreover, are pre- scribed for the Temple service and for the priests. But
1 Ezek. xl\r. 18. Ezra iii. 2. 2 gzek. xlvi. 18.
3 Ezra iii. 1-6. * Ezek. xl. 2.
5 Ezek. xlv. 8. ^ Ezek. xlvii. 14.
THE VISION OP THE FUTURE. 245
in none of these vital points was there even an attempt after the Return, to reah'ze EzekieFs ideal. It was seen to be only a fitting close to the marvellous visions so peculiar to him.
If further proof were wanted that this glorious recon- stitution of Israel and its territory was only a glowing picture of the imagination, it is supplied by the features with which it closes. The prophet anticipates the return of a golden age. Jerusalem, the capital of the new- Messianic kingdom, is to be transformed into a second Eden. A river of living water from the Temple hill will turn even the desolation of the wilderness of Judea iuto beauty and fertility. How far he may have expected as the immediate result of the return from Babylon, such a happy and blameless community, in a country miracu- lously glorified, is difficult to tell. Even the Apostles looked for the speedy return of our Lord, with all its wondrous results, though it was to be long deferred; and in the same way Ezekiel, warmed by patriotic and religious enthusiasm, may have fondly dreamed that his splendid visions would be realized as soon as his people were re-established in their own land. For neither apostles nor prophets could read the times of fulfilment of the great puiposes of God.
It was on the tenth of Nisan, ^' the beginning of the '' fourteenth '^ year,^^ ^ after the fall of the Holy City — the twenty-fifth of his own exile, that the closing cycle of his visions was vouchsafed to Ezekiel. The day was that on which preparations began for the Passover, commemorating the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and thus, beyond all others, naturally awoke thoughts of the great future of the kingdom of God, when rescued from its present Captivity. Years before, ^'as he sat in » Ezek. xl. 1.
246 THE VISION OP THE FUTURE.
his house '' at Tel Abib, in the company of the elders of Judahj he had fallen into a trance, in which he seemed to be supernaturally borne to Jerusalem, and placed in the midst of the Temple courts.^ In the same way it appeared now as if he had been carried away to Judah, and set down on a very high mountain on which was a town, towards the south. It was Mount Zion, or rather Moriah, on which the Temple of Solomon had stood; now apparently raised above all the hills around/ in accor- dance with the vision of Micah, though actually it is much lower. A being in form like a man, but resplen- dent with golden light, stood, with a cord of flax and a measuring rod in his hand, at one of the gates of a great temple, and proceeded to measure its various parts. The enclosing walls ; the gates ; the tables, eioht in number, on which the beasts for sacrifice were to be slaughtered ; the chambers for the sub- ordinate necessities of the Temple service, for the singers, and for the priests ; the magnificent porch ; the various courts ; the thickness of the walls, and their height; the doors and their posts, were all in turn measured, and the details written down minutely by the prophet. The inner walls of the Temple and its inner doors were seen to be sculptured with alternate cherubim and palm trees ; an altar of wood stood in the Holy Place, and there were numerous cells or chambers, in some of which the priests would eat the parts of the " holy things '' that fell to their share, while others were store-rooms for the materials of the various offerings,^ or robing chambers for the officiating ministers of the altar. Hardly, however, had the angel finished all the measur- ing, before the glory of Jehovah appeared advancing
1 Ezek. viii. 1-3. ^ Micah iv. 1. Isa. ii. 2.
3 Ezek. xlii. 13.
THE VISION OF THE FUTURE. 247
towards the east gate, by which it had left the sanctuary in the former vision,^ its splendour lighting up the earth before it, while a mighty sound, like that of many waters, heralded its approach. Presently the sacred building was filled with this blinding glory, the symbol of the presence of Jehovah, and Ezekiel heard a voice saying to him, as he stood in the inner or priests' court : —
7 Son of man! 2 Beliold tliis is the place of My throne, the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of tbe children of Isi-ael for ever ! The House of Israel will no more defile My holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their impurity,^ or by the dead bodies of their kings, in their funeral vaults.*
Manasseh and Amon had been buried in the royal gardens,^ close to the southern end of the Temple; but such a desecration of the sacred hill would no longer be permitted in the approaching stricter age.
8 For they used to set their thresholds close to Mine, and their door-posts by My posts, with only a wall between Me and them, and thus they defiled My holy name, by the abominations they committed close to My house, so that I consumed them in My anger. 9 But now they will put away their foul idolatry, and the dead bodies of their kings, far from Me, and I will dwell among them for ever.
The prophet is then directed to tell his people what he has seen — the structure and details of the Temple, with all the laws and ordinances to be communicated to him respecting it — if they show the proper spirit of penitence and obedience.* Instructions for the consecration of the new altar follow,^ showing some variations from that of the
^ Ezek. X. 19; xi. 1, 23. / Ezek. xliii. 7, 8.
' Their idolatry. * Some read, "after their death.'*
« 2 Kings xxi. 18-26. « Ezek. xliii. 10, 11.
7 Ezek. xliii. 18.
248 THE VISION OF THE rUTURE.
altar of the Tabernacle or of Solomon's Temple, though for the most part the same.^ The officiating priests, in this and all other cases, however, are limited to the descendants of Zadok,^ the representative of the elder branch of the family of Aaron, who since the time of David had superseded the line of Eli, which was that of Ithamar, Aaron's younger son.^ Special rules are laid down for them, some of which are striking. In the old, irregular times, carelessness and indifference had marked the services of the slaves attached to the temple — the descendants of the Gibeonites, condemned by Joshua to be hewers of wood and drawers of water,'^ and the "slaves of Solomon''^— apparently captives taken in war, whom David, Solomon, and the dignitaries of the Temple had used in the menial duties of public worship. They were no longer to be thus employed. Descended from uncircuracised aliens, they were not to be allowed to enter the new sanctuary of the Messiah's kingdom.^ Henceforward, only priests and Levites should minister
1 Exod. xxix. 37. Lev. Tiii. 33. 2 Chron. vii. 9.
2 Zadok was the son of Ahitub, of the line of Eleazar (1 Chron. xxiv. 3), and remained faithful to David during the rebellion of Absalom (2 Sam. xv. 24). He also anointed Solomon in opposition to Adonijah (1 Kings i. 32). The high priest, Abiathar, on the other hand — a dignitary descended from the line of Ithamar, Eli's Hne — supported Adonijah (1 Kings vii. 25). and was removed on this account from his office by Solomon, Zadok befDg put in his place; the new line thus established retaining the dignity to the fall of the kingdom.
^ If, as some critics allege, the separation of the tribe of Levi into priests and Levites was made, not at Sinai, but after the Exile, how does it happen that Ezekiel lays stress on this line of Zadok as the rightful priests ? Their claim rests on something before David's time — what could it be but the appointment by Moses ?
•» Josh. ix. 27. 5 Ezra viii. 20. Neh. vii. 60.
« Ezek.xlix. 6-9.
THE VISION OF THE FUTURE. 249
in God^s bouse. But even among these, such as in the past bad lent- themselves to idolatry, were no longer to dis- charge the higher duties of their office, but to be confined to the humblest services. None but the descendants of Zadok should act as priests at the altar and in the sanctuary, because they had kept themselves free from all taint of heathenism.^ The unfaithful priests should only be keepers of the gates, and servants to the people when offerings were presented — killing the victims; a task till now permitted to any off'erer. As under the old law in Exodus,- the dress of the new priests was to be exclu- sively linen, that they might not be polluted by the heat of woollen garments.^ Their full official dress, moreover, was only to be worn while they were actually on duty, and was to be laid aside before leaving their own court in the Temple, that the people might not be burdened by being required to be always Levitically clean, which would otherwise be imperative, lest the "holy garments'' might touch them.* Their hair was neither to be shaved off nor let grow without trimming, but was to be kept carefully cut.^ As of old, in the laws of Leviticus, they were to drink no wine when on duty.^ Hitherto only the high priest had been forbidden to marry a widow ; ^ now it was prohibited to all priests,
^ By "Levites," in Ezekiel xliv. 10, are meant all descendants oF Levi — priests or " Levites." ^[embers of both classes had supported heaihenisra, and were now to be degraded. This is implied in the expression " they shall bear (the penalty of) their iniquity." The fidelity of the descendants of Zadok is noticed (Ezelv. xliv. 15). They "kept the charge of My sanctuary •when," etc.
2 Exod. xxviii. 42. ^ gzck. xliv. 17, 18.
4 Sec Lev. vi. 11-20. Ezek. xlvi. 20. Exod. xxix. 37; xxx. 29.
5 Ezek. xliv. 20. Lev. xxi. 5, 10.
^ Ezek. xliv. 21. Lev. x. 9. ^ Lev. xxi. 14
250 THE VISION OF THE FUTURE.
except ill the case of a priest^s widow.^ The whole order was thus to be specially guarded from even the appear- ance of laxity. Their general duty' was declared to be, teaching the people the distinction of holy and unholy, clean and unclean,^ and to act as judges in all disputes, deciding according to the Law, as they had hitherto done in specified cases.^ At the great religious festivals, they were to see that all the requirements of the Law were complied with, and they were to take care that the Sabbath was duly honoured. The old statute* respecting their being defiled by coming near a dead body was re-enacted, but it was added, that even in cases when their presence beside the corpse of a relative had been hitherto per- mitted, the subsequent necessary purification and suspen- sion from duty for seven days were now insufficient, and a fortnight's suspension was substituted. So '^ holy " were they to be under the Messiah. For these duties they were to receive corresponding emoluments. They were no longer, as in the past, to have glebes in common, though they were to have ground for their houses,^ but were to be supported by a share of the sacrifices and offerings, and from the tithes and first-fruits, which belonged to Jehovah, and were made over to the priests as His public servants.* The prohibition to eat that which had died of itself or had been torn by beasts was continued.'^
Directions follow as to the space in the land to be set
1 Ezek. xliv. 22.
2 Lev. X. 10. Deut. xxxiii. 10. Ezek. xxii. 26 or xliv. 23. ' Deut. xvii. 8; xix. 7; xxi. 5. Ezek. xliv. 24.
^ Lev. xxi. 1-3. * Ezek. xliv. 29-31 ; xlv. 4
6 Comp. Lev. ii. 3; vi. 9, 11, 19; vii. 6, 7; xxvii. 21. Exod. xxiii. 19 ; xxxiv. 26. Deut. xviii. 4. Num. xviii. 13 ; xv. 19 ; xviii. 19 ; xv. 20, 21.
7 Lev. xxii. 8 ; xvii. 15.
THE VISION OP THE FUTURE. 251
apart, to Jehovah, after the division of the country among the tribes.^ A tract measuring,^ apparently, about seven miles from east to west, and three from north to south, was to be marked off for the Temple, the priests and the Levites, and on each side of this a space of the same breadth for the prince ; stretchiog from one side of the country to the other. With this, the future king was to content himself, refraining from all oppression, and honouring Jehovah by a just and noble reign.^ But this separation of a sacred and a royal district from the rest of the country, was never attempted ; the whole vision being treated as outride the sphere of practical politics or economics. After insisting on just weights and measures,* the prophet prescribes the public contri- butions to be made to the prince for the temple offerings and sacrifices, which were to be primarily under his care.^ Then follow rules as to the sacrifices for people and prince, and for the festivals, showing many curious variations from the parallel Mosaic laws.® The feast of Pentecost, however, is wholly omitted and so are the sounding of the trumpets on the first, and the Day of
1 Ezek. xlv.
2 Keil and some others, think 25,000 " reeds " intended, bub cubits seem to be implied (Ezek. xlv. 1). The space is very great if reeds are meant — 42 miles by 17. ^ Ezek. xlv. 9.
* The " bath " in Ezek. xlv. was a fluid measure, the " ephah" a dry measure. See vol. iv. p. 304. The various shekels named are shekels of different weight. * Ezek. xlv. 13-17.
^ Ezekiel commands the offering of a young bullock as a sin- offering on the first day of the first month. Moses had com- manded the offering of a he-goat, in addition to the burnt and meat-offering (Num. xxviii. 15). He also ordered a special ^in- otferiiig in the new moon of the seventh month, but instead of this, Ezekiel appoints sin-offerings for the first and seventh days of the first month (Ezek. xlv. 21, 22). The blood also is to be sprinkled on the door posts of the forecourts, instead of on the
252 THE VISION or the future.
Atonement on the tenths of tlie seventh month ;^ a veiy strange fact if Ezekiel, according to the new criticism, was the true founder of Judaism and its Levitical laws.
The rules for the respective shares of the prince, and the people, in public worship, are next given. The east gate of the new temple ^ was to be shut during the week, but open on the Sabbath and the day of the new moon, and the prince was to enter by this outer gate, and stand at the gate of the priests' court within, worshipping Jehovah from the gate while the sacrifices were being offered on the altar, and then leaving by the way he entered. The people also were to worship before this inner gate on the Sabbaths and new moons.^ Details are given of the
horns of the altar and towards the mercy seat. Moses knows nothing of such a iniivorsal offering for the people as Ezekiel orders on the seventh of the first montli (Lev. iv.-vi.) Instead of seven oxen and seven rams daily (Ezek. xlv. 23), Moses appoints two oxen, one ram and seven lambs (Num. xxviii. 19). The meat-offering (Ezek. xlv. 24) is different from that prescribed by Moses (Num. xxviii- 20) ; and the solemnities for the Passover and Tabernacles in Ezekiel also vary from the ancient directions. At Tabernacles, Moses commands that the number of oxen offered, lessen with each day — thirteen, twelve, eleven, and so on (Num. xxix. 13 ff.). Moses ordered two rams only to be offered; Ezekiel seven ; and he omits altogether the fourteen lambs offered under the old law (Num. xxix. 13). Nor has he ^aid anything of those appointed for the Passover and Tabernacles, though they could not be dispensed with. Ezra did not follow Ezekiel's laws. (Compare Ezra iii. 1-6 ; Ezek. xlv. 18.)
1 Ezek. xlv. 21-25. ^ Ezek. xlvi.
3 Moses orders only two sheep to be offered on the Sabbath. Ezekiel requires six sheep and a ram to be offered (Num. xxviii. 9 ; Ezek. xlvi. 5). The prophet leaves the " meab-offering " to the ability of the offerers ; Moses leaves nothing to choice (Num. xxviii. 9), In contrast with the young ox, six sheep and one ram, of Ezek. xlvi. 6 ; Moses enjoins two oxen and seven sheep (Num. xxviii. 11).
THE VISION OP THE FUTURE. 253
gates througli wliich people and prince are to enter and leave on different occasions; so apparently trifling a matter seeming weighty to a mind essentially ritual- istic, like that of Ezekiel. The eveninof sacrifice is not mentioned, and the regulations for that of each morning differ from those of Moses.^ Even the cells in which the priests were to boil and bake the various offerings not burnt on the altar, are described, since they were part of the Temple arrangements. Brief laws for gifts and inheritances, granted by the prince, close the legislative portion of the narrative, so strange in all its features.
The triumphant return, the victory over all enemies, the glory of the new Temple, the laws of worship, and the dig- nity of the future Messiah king had now been recounted. But could it be thought that the new Jerusalem, which was to be so much grander than the old, would be allowed to stand in the midst of a district bare and waterless like the territory of Judah, especially on its eastern side ? Nature around nmst be in keeping with so much glory. The sanctuary was to be in the noblest sense the earthly habitation of Jehovah; the land therefore in which it stood must be a second Paradise. Hence, as rich streams watered Eden, so, here, an abundant flood poured forth from under the threshold of the Temple, swelling speedily to a great river as it flowed towards the east, the Temple itself having an eastern aspect. Dividing ere long into various streams,^ like the river of Paradise, these made even the great and terrible wilder- ness of Judah fruitful and lovely. Emptying themselves at last into the Dead Sea, they sweetened the bitter waters, and filled them with life, so that thenceforward fisher- men could ply their trade on its hitherto lonely shores.
^ Num. xxviii. 4, 5. Ezek. xlvi. 13. 14. - Kzck. xlviii. 9.
254
THE VISION OF THE FUTURE.
Wherever the streams reached, fertility and life would rise, while their banks on both sides would be lined with all kinds of fruit trees, whose leaf never faded, and from whose branches the clusters would always be hanging, for each month they would yield new crops, while their fruit would be for food, and their very leaves for heal- ing.i
In a land, the most barren parts of which were to be thus delightful, the Twelve Tribes would find a joyful home ; half of them occupying the land to the south of the Temple, and half of them that towards the north .^ The thirsty Negeb, or South Country, as well as the terrible desert of Judah, would be turned into fertile uplands.
The bounds of the Holy Land in these blissful times are next described. On the north it will reach from the Mediterranean, south of Hamath on the Orontes, to the Hauran below Damascus ; on the east, to the south end of the Dead Sea, enclosing Gilead and the old territory of the tribes across the Jordan ; on the south it will stretch from " Tamar,^^ somewhere near the head of the Red Sea, to Kadesh in the Negeb, and thence, on to the Mediterranean ; and on the west, from this point " till a man come over against Hamath/''^ These bounds, it is needless to say, Israel never possessed after the Return.
Thb Assyrian Tree of Life.
* Kev. xxii. 2.
^ Ezek. xlvii. and xlviii. » Ezek. xlvii. 20.
THE VISION OF THE FUTURE. 255
In this great territory the Twelve Tribes were to bold portions reaching, in each case, from east to west, across the whole land; seven of them on the north of the section in the centre of the land, made over to the Temple, the priests and the prince; the rest on the south of it. All, moreover, were to live on the west of the Jordan, though of old only nine and a half tribes had done so. The New Jerusalem was to be 4,500 -' reeds,^' or 9,000 yards — a little over five miles — square,^ and the names of its twelve gates were to be those of the twelve tribes of Israel.^
This abstract is in itself overwhelming proof that the whole wondrous vision is only the picture of a condition of surpassing glory, expressed in imagery peculiar to the prophet. Ko one thinks of taking the almost parallel visions of St. John in the Apocalypse as literal descrip- tions. We do not expect to see the holy city, the New Jerusalem, actually coming down from God, out of heaven,^ nor that it will literally be foursquare, with walls and gates like an ancient town, nor that the walls will be over 200 feet high, or the city itself 1,500 miles square, or that its buildings and spires will rise 1,500 miles into the air,'* and yet this must be done, if the description is to be understood otherwise than figuratively. To Ezekiel and St. John alike, the only aim was to convey the highest conception of magnificence as each imagined it most vividly presented. Living in the age of Rome and great provincial cities, St. John thinks of a New Jerusalem such as he describes. Erabued with a strongly Jewish and priestly bias, Ezekiel sees a glorious temple rise before him, and all the details of a re-establishment of
^ Ezek. xlviii. 30. A reed = 6 cubits, Dictionary of Bible, Art. Eeed. ' Rev. xxi. 12.
3 Rev. xxi. 2-10. "» Rev. xxi, 16.
256 THE VISION OF THE FUTURE.
tlie Tlieocracy in Palestine, with transcendent splendour. To tlie mind of St. Jolm, the Temple had ceased to be a central religious thought ; in that of Ezekiel, the priest, it was supreme. In both, the inspired writer is left free to express the surpassing glory of the Messianic age in the only way possible to his modes of thought, and the ideas of his age.
Eecent critics have sought to make Ezekiel the father of Judaism ; but, as already shown, it is much more correct to trace it to King Josiah.^ The evidence urged for the new theory, not only does not harmonize with the actual facts, but is distinctly contrary to them. Whatever seems to support it is put forward prominently; whatever tells against it, is at once, lightly declared unhis- torical. The narratives of the Pentateuch are pronounced to be legends of the time of the Exile or later; the genealogies of the Books of Chronicles mere tricks of the priests; the historical psalms only legends thrown into poetical form, though, Ezekiel, Esra, and Nehemiab, who were alive when these legends are said to have risen, treat them as actual events well known in the distant history of the nation. It is easy to establish any theory if one deal as he pleases with what contradicts it. But to do so, on an arbitrary estimate of what seems reason- able to a biassed critic, is unsafe in the extreme; for one school rejects that which another, not less entitled to confidence, accepts as trustworthy.
The supposition of the new school is, that Ezekiel having given an impulse to Judaism by his writings, it was de- veloped during the exile in Babylon, by unknown writers, who invented the system now found in Leviticus and other sections of the Pentateuch, and palmed them oS. on their contemporaries as having come down from the days 1 Vol. V. p. 277.
THE VISION OF THE FUTURE. 257
of Moses. But nothing whatever is known of any such ecclesiastical forgers having ever existed in Babylonia. The whole theory is a mere assumption, supported by not even a tittle of historical evidence. Nor is this the worst. According to the latest advanced critics, the inventors of the '' Priestly Torah,-*' that is, of the Levitical legislation, almost as a whole, commended it to pubhc respect, and introduced it to the worship of God and the practice of daily life, as of Divine origin, while they knew it was not. They invented the whole story of the law- giving on Mount Sinai, the construction of the Tabernacle, the separation of the tribe of Levi to the priesthood, of the conquest of Eastern Palestine, and much else, to induce the people to accept as laws given directly from heaven, more than a thousand years before, what they had them- selves secretly concocted in Babylon ! The latest historian^ of Israel, indeed, carries this so far, as to pronounce the whole narrative of the stay in Egypt, the Exodus, the wilderness sojourn, the existence of the Tabernacle, the conquest of Eastern Palestine, the record of Joshua, that of the Judges, and even that of Saul, mere worthless legends of late date, which he passes over with con- temptuous silence !
This " Priestly Torah," invented in Babylon, was brought, we are told, to Palestine, on the return from Captivity, and having been read aloud to the people, was accepted by them, though hitherto entirely unknown, as the ancient religious law of the nation, observed by their fathers. But, supposing so gigantic an imposition on a bigoted and ultra-conservative race in any case possible, we should expect that it would be specially prominent in books like those of Ezra and Nehemiah, who were most ex- acting in ritual, and that allusions to it would abound * Stade, Geschichte des Volkes Israel.
VOL. VI. 8
258
THE VISION OP THE FUTUEE.
in their pages. On the contrary, however, we nowhere find it mentioned. The covenant to which the returned exiles bound themselves has no connection, strange to say, with ceremonial law, but pledges them, as its great points, to abstain from marriage with others than their own race, and to keep the Sabbath,^ duties enforced by laws which confessedly do not belong to the so-called " Priestly Torah " at all, but to the earliest days of Jewish history.
* Exod. xxxiv.
CHAPTER XIII.
AT BABYLON.
AMONG the captives led off from Judea by Nebu- chadnezzar, in B.C. 605, immediately after liis great victory over the Egyptians at Carchemish, were a num- ber of youths of the best Jewish families, transferred to Babylon for service at court ; it may be, in compliment to members of the Chaldean party in Jerusalem, or, possibly, as hostages for the good behaviour of the city. Among these was the future prophet Daniel,^ of un- known, but evidently illustrious origin. He first comes before us while still in his opening prime, but even then is marked not only by his physical beauty and intel- ligence, but even more strikingly by his strength of character^ and religious fervour and sincerity. Exile in his case,^ and in that of others of his class, was, in reality, the highest good fortune, giving them an opening in life
^ " One who judges in the name of God." ^ Dan. i. 3.
3 The year is given in Dan. i. 1, as the third of Jehoiakim. But in Jer, xxv. 1, the fourth year of Jehoiakim is stated to have been the first of Nebuchadnezzar, and he is said to have defeated Pharaoh ISTecho at Carchemish in that year (Jerem. xlvi. 2). Delitzsch explains the apparent contradiction by referring to 2 Kings xxiv, 1, from which he understands that the third year of Jehoiakim means tlie third year of his vassalage to Nebu-
259
260 AT BABYLON.
at the court of the greatest monarch of the age, and under his special favour.
The kings of Assyria and Babylon, in order the more easily to govern their subjects of different races and lan- guages, were accustomed to select from the captives or hostages of each nation, young men of noble birth,^ and bring them up in the royal palace, where they were put in charge of the chief of the eunuchs, ^ and received
chadnezzar {Herzog, 2 be Auf., art. Daniel). Dan. i. 1 is held by Zockler and Delitzsch as noting the time when the campaign began, which ended, next year, in the submission of Jerusalem. In the third year the Chaldean army was set in motion, in the fourth, the battle of Carchemish opened the way to Palestine, and then followed the march to it, all during the reign of Nabopo- lassar, Nebuchadnezzar's father. Herzog, Ite Auf., art. Daniel. Zockler's Daniel, p. 28. Keil's Einleitung, p. 410.
The reckoning of the years of a reign, it should be remembered, is often different. Queen Victoria ascended the throne in June, 1837, but was not crowned till June, 1838. Her reign might be counted from either date, if custom allowed, and it may have been thus in Palestine. Further, 1838 might be called either the first or second year of her reign, according to the months intended. Up to June it was the first year ; after that it was the second. In the Spealcer's Commentary the dates are harmonised as follows : Expedition against Pharaoh Necho, twentieth year of Nabopo- lassar = second of Jehoiakim. Battle of Carchemish, twenty-first of Nabopolassar, third of Jehoiakim. Pursuit of Necho, first year of Nebuchadnezzar = fourth year of Jehoiakim.
^ " Princes " (Dan. i. 3). The word thus translated is not Hebrew, but from the Sanscrit, and shows a time and place where there was contact between the Semitic and Aryan races, as in the case of Babylon with Media and Persia. It occurs here, and twice in Esther.
2 Ashpenaz is equivalent to Assu-ibni-Tir (" The Lady Istar, the goddess, formed him in the womb"). Such a name speaks for itself as only possible while Istar was yet honoured — that is, while Babylon still flourished. Lenormant's La Divination, p. 183.
AT BABYLON.
2G1
the highest education the age afforded. Thus in the inscriptions of Sennacherib, we accidentally learn that he had such a school in his palace at Nineveh^ for the children of nobles of his foreign provinces. '' Belibus/^ he tells us, " of the race of Babylon, who had been brought up from early childhood in my palace, was set by me over the kingdom of the Sumirs and Accadians."-^ This custom of the kings of Assyria and Babylon, thus illustrated by the inscriptions of Nineveh, till these re- cords came to light, was known to us only from the Book of Daniel, the exact local colouring of which in this instance, as in so many others, is so singularly vin- dicated by the testimony of contemporary documents. A similar practice in Turkey, while still a conquering power, has been noticed by various travellers. The pages of the seraglio, the officers of court, and most of the public functionaries and local governors, were drawn from a body of Christian youths taken captive in war, or bought as slaves. The finest and cleverest were sent to the palace, and put in charge of the chief of the white eunuchs, though they themselves were not mutilated. Schools were provided, at which they received the best education the country could give, including a perfect knowledge of Turkish in its greatest purity. Their food was carefully prescribed, and they wore a special dress as cadets in the royal service. Guardians watched them night and day, and reported on their conduct and attain- ments, by which their future advancement was deter- mined.^ A curious proof of similar arrangements at
1 Cylinder of Bellino, i. 13. Smith's Sennacherib, p. 27. Smith's History of Assyria, p. 111. Becords of the Past, vol. i. p. 23.
2 Habesci's Ottoman Empire, and Tavernier's Relation, etc., quoted in Pict. Bible, vol. iii. p. 213.
262
AT BABYLON.
Nineveli and Babylon has come to light in the examina- tion of the clay tablets brought in vast numbers from the library of Assurbanipal of Nineveh. They are found to have been mainly intended for the use of the masters and pupils of the palace school, where the youth of both sexes were trained for the royal service. A large pro- portion of them consists of syllabaries, grammars, dic- tionaries, histories, geographies, and scientific manuals.
Even the exer- cises and tasks of the scholars have in some cases been re- covered ; one tablet among others contain- ing the lesson for a young princess in As- syrian reading and spelling.^ It was indeed no light matter to become an adept even in the living language of Assyria or Babylon, with its multitudinous combinations of arrow- headed or wedge-shaped characters, difierent pronuncia- tions of which gave wholly different meanings to the same word. But another language, the Accadian, which had long ceased to be spoken, needed to be thoroughly mastered, to acquire a liberal education, all the venerable treatises on the gods, on science, and on magic, being preserved in it alone. It was, in fact, the " language of the Chaldeans/^ ^ and Daniel, as a student, had specially * It is in the British Museum. ^ pj^j^ ^ 4^ 17
CuNEiFOHM iNSCEiPTioif. — Wavka.
AT BABYLON.
263
to apply himself to it; the '^Chaldean language'' of Bible times,^ used in parts of the Book of Daniel itself,^ being then known as Aramean.
The illustrations of " Daniel '' from the monuments and tablets, are numerous. Thus, the change of name given to the young prophet and his companions on entering the palace school, was in accordance with the custom of the age. Psammetichus, the famous king of Egypt, when living in Nineveh, had an As- syrian name given him by Assurbanipal.^ Similarly, that of Daniel was changed to Balatsu-usur or Belteshazzar, ''(Bel) protect his life,'' and that of one of his com- panions from Azariah to Abed-nebo — " the servant of (the god) Nebo,"'* which frequently occurs in Assyrian docu- ments. ^ Shadrach and Meshach, his other associates, have had their names so cbansred in the Hebrew trans-
AnCIENT HiBRiTIC, OB SACKED WkITIXG.
Warka.
^ The use of the word " Chaldeans," as equivalent to " wise men," is unknown in the Assyrian or Babylonian inscriptions and records. It rose only after the destruction of the Babylonian empire. Scbrader, Keilinschriften, 2te Auf., 1882, p. 429.
2 Dan. ii. 4, 12.
3 Lenormant, Lettres Assyriologiques, vol. i. p. 56. Oppert, Memoires de VAcademie des Inscriptions, etc., etc. 8 partie, vol. i. p. 595. The name was Xabii-Sezibanni.
4 K. I., 2te Auf. (1882), p. 430. Abedne^/o should be Abedne&o. ' La Divination, p. 182. The dignitary called " chief of the
eunuchs," had under him an official called " the Melzar " (Da. in.
264 AT BABYLON.
cription as to obscure their original form, but we bave the authority of so competent a scholar as Lenormant for saying that " all these names, when not altered beyond recovery by the errors of copyists, are strictly Babylonian, and could not have been invented in Palestine in the second century before Christ/' the date to which the composition of the Book of Daniel is sometimes re- ferred.
Three years spent in the training school of the palace sufficed to advance Daniel to high proficiency in the '^ wisdom '^ of the day. In one point, however, he steadily resisted the influences around him. It was taken for granted that he and his companions would adopt the religion of Babylon ; but nothing could induce him to abandon the faith of his fathers, even in a matter so subordinate as its prescriptions respecting food. As a high honour, the palace-school cadets were supplied from the royal table ; but Daniel and his companions shrank from eating or drinking anything " unclean '' in itself, or from having been consecrated to idols. This made it impossible for them to touch anything brought from the table of the king, all the food or drink on which was first dedicated to the gods, by the ofi'er- ing of part of it on their altars.^ At the risk of life, therefore, they would not taste such viands. Men, even in their youth so bravely faithful to their con- sciences, could not fail one day to rouse the nation to a new religious life, by the quickening power of their example.
11), and both are frequently mentioned in the Assyrian tablets. " The Melzar," seems to have been the chief butler. Lenormant, pp. 196-7.
^ Keil, Daniel, p. 64. The laws of Levitical purity were thus known before the Exile, not invented after it, as the new critics affirm.
AT BABYLON. 265
The city in which Daniel thus found himself, was the greatest in the ancient world. Herodotus, who visited it about B.C. 450, within a century after the departure of the Hebrews, while its walls and buildings were still perfect, describes it as forming a square of nearly four- teen miles on each side.^ Others- give a different measurement, but the smallest leaves a space of over ten miles square within the walls, which is four times more than that covered by intramural Paris, and fully twice as great as the size of London within the bills of mortality.
The greatness of Babylon was largely due to its posi- tion. Built on a broad and level shelf of tertiary rock, which spread cut from under the rich soil of the wide plains, the last trace of the northern hill system, it enjoyed a healthy and secure site, even amidst the peri- odical inundations around. Defended on the south by the broad waters of the united Euphrates and Tigris, which ere long widened into those of the Persian Gulf, then reaching much farther north than at present, the wide stretches of the desert protected it on all other sides. High prosperity, also, was secured by its position, for it stood on the great line of trade between the Mediter- ranean and the East, at the point where the Euphrates contracts, from a broad expanse, to the full current of a deep and magnificent stream, bearing down to the wharves of the great city the wealth of the north, as the waters on the south bore from the ocean that of India, and Africa. There was no stone for its mansions and houses, but the deep clay of the plains was easily made
* Herod., i. 178 ; 120 stadia on each side.
« Strabo, xvi. 1, § 5. Q. Curtius, Vit. Alex. Mag.., v. 1. CUtarchus, in Diod. Sic, xi. 7, § 3. Ebers gives the circuit of Babylon as more than 45 miles, ^^g. Kdnigstocliter, vol. ii. p. 16.
266 AT BABYLON.
into sun-dried bricks, and the bitumen of tbe north, brought down the river, supplied cement.
The walls of this gigantic hive of men were in keep- ing with the vast limits they enclosed. Rising out of great moats on every side, they towered, in the opinion of Herodotus and others, three hundred feet into the air,^ while their breadth was such that chariots with four horses could pass each other on the wide top,^ which was said to have been fully eighty feet across. Such a won- drous girdle of defence from the tribes of the desert or more civilized enemies, must have involved an almost inconceivable amount of labour. Constructed of burnt bricks, alternating with layers of reeds to bind them to- gether, and cemented with bitumen, the walls contained, without including 250 towers which rose above them, not less than 5,560,000,000 square feet, and were built up of at least three times that number of the largest bricks used by the Babylonians.^ A hundred gates with their great posts, leaves, and sills, of brass, and their bars of iron, permitted entrance to the city.* There were also
* Diod. Sic, following Ctesias, adopts the estimate of Herodotus. Others speak of them as bub 255 or even bub 75 feet high, but this last account was taken from their appearance long after the city had become a ruin. Herod., i. 178. Diod. Sic, ii. 7, § 3. Plin. H. K, vi. 26. Straho, xvi. 1, § 5. See Jer. li. 58. Ebers thinks however that 75 feet was the full height when the walls were perfect. JEg. Konigstocliter.
2 It is possible that slanting ascents made it practicable to drive chariots to the top, where a parapet protected the sides. Such a slope is used inside the church of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, to reach the galleries.
3 Canon Eawlinson computes that 18,765,000,000 of the largest bricks would be needed. Expositor, 1883, p. 349. Ebers says that these walls were a greater wonder than even the Pyramids, ^g. Konigstocliter, vol. ii. p. 16.
* See Isa. xlv. 2.
AT BABYLON. 267
inner walls on each side of the river, with huge gates at the end of each of the broad and wide streets which ran towards the stream, alongside which handsome quays stretched out for trade and embellishment. A ferry-boat plied across the river from each gate ; and a drawbridge, raised at night, offered further accommodation to the citizens. Inside this space the ordinary houses of the in- habitants rose, in many cases, three or four^ storeys high; but they sank into insignificance when compared with the great palace- quarter of the kings, which itself was a city seven miles round. Three or four vast buildings stood within its enclosure,^ the wall of which Herodotus tells us was " very little inferior in strength '^ to that of the city itself.^ The size of the royal dwellings may be judged from the fact that the mound from which one of them towered up covers thirty-seven acres,* while another, still known as the Kasr, or '^ Palace," is 800 yards long by 600 yards broad. ^ Near the centre of this gigantic platform, which, though seventy feet high, was only the artificial terrace on which the vast fabric stood, a fragment of the palace itself still rises. Walls, piers, and buttresses of brick masonry, wonderfully preserved, and in some parts adorned with pilasters, still help to bring before us perhaps the very building in which Daniel spent his best years; but the ruins are too frag- mentary to yield any clue to the plan of the structure as a whole. It doubtless, however, contained a labyrinth of courts, great halls, galleries and smaller chambers, gorgeous with colours, or lined with sculptures or paint- ings, of scenes of war and of the chase.^ Even the out-
* Herod., i. 180. - Oppert says four. ^ Herod., i. 181.
* Oppert, Expedition scientifigue, vol. i. p. 157.
^ It is to be remembered that 880 yards are half a mile.
* Ezek. xxxii. 14., 15.
268
AT BABYLON.
AT BABYLON. 269
side walls, indeed, were resplendent with the brightest colours, countless fragments of their bricks still re- maining covered with a thick enamel, over brilliant blue, red, yellow, and black. ^
The palace gardens were one of the wonders of the world. Nebuchadnezzar had married a Median princess, and thinking that she sighed for her native mountains when looking out on the dull level of the Babylonian plains, resolved to beguile her of her longing for home, and at the same time show how much he loved her, by commanding that wooded hills should be created in the ''paradise'^ of her palace. Arch upon arch of masonry forthwith rose like a pyramid, to the height of 400 feet, over a square of equal size each way, as the frame-work of a vast accumulation of artificial mounds and hills of earth, on which waved forest trees of huge diameter, transplanted in their full glory, and thickets of flowering shrubs, in- terspersed with cool chambers, royally furnished, at suc- cessive heights. To make the charm complete, flowing streams glided along each terrace and sparkled down every slope, amongst the groves and woods ; the water for them being raised to the summits by hydraulic machinery.^
^ Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 507.
^ Opperb considers the Mound Amran — now an irregular mass, 642 yards long on one side, 330 on the other, and 433 broad — is what remains of the lianging gardens. For notices of these gardens, see Ebers, ^g. Kdnigsto elder, vol. i. p. 121; vol. ii. p. 250. The mound known as the Kasr, or Palace, stretches 2,400 feet long, and 1,800 broad, along the banks of the Euphrates. This amazing heap of accumulated earth, Ebers seems to think the site of the gardens, as well as of the palace. On the north side of this artificial hill, a lonely tamarisk still looks down on the river, a very old and thick bodied tree. The Arabs say it is the only tree that remains of the hanging gaidens of Semiramis
270 AT BABYLON.
But the most amazing of all the wonders of Babylon was the great temple of Bel, described already in the first volume of these ^' Hours." ^ No religious structure, of ancient or modern times, has ever rivalled the grandeur of this primeval sanctuary, which rose like a mountain from the level of the country round. In its treasuries the spoils of the temple of Jerusalem, and much besides, had been laid up by Nebuchadnezzar, as an offering of gratitude to his chief god, for victory over his enemies. He little thought that he was unconsciously preserving the sacred vessels of Israel in a safe and inviolable strong- hold, till the day when Jehovah would bring about their restoration to His people.
This mighty city Nebuchadnezzar boasted to have virtually created. It was the ^' great Babylon which he had built." ^ Nor was he without good grounds for the haughty vaunt. Proofs of its substantial truth still abound. The great new palace, he tells us,^ was entirely built by him, and so also, ancient writers inform us, were the famous *^ hanging gardens; '' and the bricks of the Kasr are all stamped with his name. He relates that he carefully repaired the old palace, and enlarged and thoroughly renewed the vast ancient reservoir of the city. Inscribed bricks confirm his own statement that he, in effect, rebuilt the great temple of Bel,* and he names eight other temples which he either built or restored. But his greatest work was the reconstruction
Duncker, Gesch. des AUerthums, vol. i. p. 672. Diodorus says that the gardens rose like the stages or steps of a theatre. Layard found a basrelief with a picture of a garden supported on pillars. Nineveh and Babylon, p. 223.
» See vol. i. pp. 274-279. ^ pan. iv. 30.
* Records of the Past, vol. v. pp. 130, 131.
* Ibid., vol. V. p. 119.
AT BABYLON. 271
of the gigantic walls of the city, which were in ruins when he ascended the throne. ^'Imgur-Bel and Nimiti-Bel, the great double wall of Babylon/' says he, " I built. I completed buttresses, to embank its moat, and I made two long embankments of brick and cement along the sides of the river, joining them with the one made by my father. I strengthened the city, and built the wall on the west side of the river, with brick.'' ^ "I raised the walls of the fortress of Babylon, its defence in war, and skilfully strengthened the circuit of the city."
Nor was Nebuchadnezzar's amazing energy, as the restorer of Babylon, confined to the city. He excavated two broad and deep canals, one of them uniting the Tigris with the Euphrates, and threw a great bridge over the latter, to connect the two halves of the city. At Sippara he dug a huge reservoir, said to have been a hundred and forty miles in circumference and a hundred and eighty feet deep, providing floodgates by which its waters might be drawn off at will for irrigation. A great canal, of which traces are still visible, was dug by him from Hit, on the Euphrates, to the Persian Gulf, a distance of 400 miles, and quays and breakwaters rose at its mouth, at his command, to receive the commerce of distanb lands. A city was founded by him on the coast, to repel the Arabs. At Borsippa, besides building five other temples, he restored the temple of Nebo— identified by some with the Tower of Babel — and now the mightiest ruin in Mesopotamia. Bricks bearing his name are found over the whole country ; at least a hundred sites in the district immediately round Babylon thus showing that they owed their chief glory to him. Indeed, nine- tenths of the bricks brought from Mesopotamia bear his name. The creator of the later empire of Babylon, * Records of the Past, vol. v. p. 125.
ii
270
AT BABYLON.
But the most amazing of all the wonders of Babylon was tlie great temple of Bel, described already in the first volume of these '' Hours/^ ^ No religious structure, of ancient or modern times, has ever rivalled the grandeur of this primeval sanctuary, which rose like a mountain from the level of the country round. In its treasuries the spoils of the temple of Jerusalem, and much besides, had been laid up by Nebuchadnezzar, as an offering of gratitude to his chief god, for victory over his enemies. He little thought that he was unconsciously preserving the sacred vessels of Israel in a safe and inviolable strong- hold, till the day when Jehovah would bring about their restoration to His people.
This mighty city Nebuchadnezzar boasted to have virtually created. It was the " great Babylon which he had built.'^ ^ Nor was he without good grounds for the haughty vaunt. Proofs of its substantial truth still abound. The great new palace, he tells us,^ was entirely built by him, and so also, ancient writers inform us, were the famous "hanging gardens; " and the bricks of the Kasr are all stamped with his name. He relates that he carefully repaired the old palace, and enlarged and thoroughly renewed the vast ancient reservoir of the city. Inscribed bricks confirm his own statement that he, in effect, rebuilt the great temple of Bel,* and he names eight other temples which he either built or restored. But his greatest work was the reconstruction
Duncker, Gesch. des Alterthums, vol. i. p. 672. Diodorus says that the gardens rose like the stages or steps of a theatre. Layard found a basrelief with a picture of a garden supported on pillars. Nineveh and Babylon, p. 223. 1 See vol. i. pp. 274-279. ^ j^an. iv. 30.
* Records of the Past, vol. v. pp. 130, 131.
* lUd., vol. V. p. 119.
AT BABYLON.
271
I
of the gigantic walls of the city, which were in ruins when he ascended the throne. ^'Imgur-Bel and Nimiti-Bel, the great double wall of Babylon/' says he, " I built. I completed buttresses, to embank its moat, and I made two long embankments of brick and cement along the sides of the river, joining them with the one made by my father. I strengthened the city, and built the wall on the west side of the river, with brick." ^ "I raised the walls of the fortress of Babylon, its defence in war, and skilfully strengthened the circuit of the city."
Nor was Nebuchadnezzar's
energy, as
the
restorer of Babylon, confined to the city. He excavated two broad and deep canals, one of them uniting the Tigris with the Euphrates, and threw a great bridge over the latter, to connect the two halves of the city. At Sippara he dug a huge reservoir, said to have been a hundred and forty miles in circumference and a hundred and eighty feet deep, providing floodgates by which its waters might be drawn off at will for irrigation. A great canal, of which traces are still visible, was dug by him from Hit, on the Euphrates, to the Persian Gulf, a distance of 400 miles, and quays and breakwaters rose at its mouth, at his command, to receive the commerce of distant lands. A city was founded by him on the coast, to repel the Arabs. At Borsippa, besides building five other temples, he restored the temple of Nebo — identified by some with the Tower of Babel — and now the mightiest ruin in Mesopotamia. Bricks bearing his name are found over the whole country ; at least a hundred sites in the district immediately round Babylon thus showing that they owed their chief glory to him. Indeed, nine- tenths of the bricks brought from Mesopotamia bear his name. The creator of the later empire of Babylon, * Records of the Past, vol. v. p. 125.
m
^
272 AT BABYLON.
he was also the author of its architectural splendour. He must be regarded as the greatest builder of ancient or modern times.^
In the magnificence of Babylon and its palaces Daniel and his companions passed their days — amidst lofty pyramid temples reflecting every colour from their ascending stages; houses, far and near, painted in bright tints at the pleasure of their owners, surrounded
A Geove ov Palms.
by groves of gigantic palms and many other trees ; the soft green of open parks, and the verdure of gardens. Outside the walls, countless silvery canals, shaded with trees, threaded the landscape amidst broad plains waviug with corn, or teeming with the richness of varied crops. ^
^ Rawlinson's Anc. Monarchies, vol. iii. p. 489 ; Pusey's Daniel, p. 119.
2 For a fine description of the Babylonian landscape, see Ebers, ^g. Konigstocliter, \o\. ii. p. 2.
AT BABYLON. 273
The pomp and splendour of such a city and such a monarchy must have amazed the Hebrew exiles. We know from the prophets the wealth of its commerce, which implies the luxury and magnificence of its merchant princes. Its *' chariots like whirlwinds/' its "horses swifter than eagles/' its horsemen and charioteers, its infantry, with spear and helmet and shining armour, made its army the finest in the world. At Nebuchad- nezzar's receptions Daniel must often have gazed with wonder on the state and glory of the crowd of satraps, captains, pachas, chief judges, treasurers, counsellors, and rulers of provinces,^ in gorgeous uniforms and magni- ficent robes — worthy of the greatness of the State they served.
As became so mighty a capital, the science of the day found its headquarters in Babylon. Of this, magic and divination formed a prominent feature, and engrossed the studies of a special body of scholars. Hundreds of tablets yet remain, showing the exorcisms, charms, talismans, and astrological forms in vogue. Observatories crowned the summits of most of the pyramid temples, and reports from them, regularly sent to Court, were supposed to enable the initiated to predict the future, in nature, politics, and private life.^ Various orders of these religio-scientific dignitaries are mentioned in the Book of Daniel — the chartumim, who were perhaps the sacred scribes, and seem to have been also interpreters of omens,^ or " re- vealers of secret things ; " * the ashaphim, or mutterers
» Dan. iii. 3, 27.
2 Records of the Past, vol. i. pp. 153-157, 158-161.
3 Ebers, ^g. it. d. Biicher Mosis, p. 341.
"» Harkary, in Journ. Asiat., 1870, p. 168. Chartumim (ma- gicians), Dan. i. 20, seems to be a Hebrew^ word, from Cheret, a stylus, or ancient pen.
VOL. VI. ^ T
274 AT BABYLON.
of magic spells;^ the mechsaphim/^ mutterers of other kinds of spells, — men, apparently professing to have power Tvith evil spirits ; the Chasdim or " Chaldeans/^^ who were the astrologers or interpreters of the bearing of the stars on human affairs, Chaldea being the father- land of the science ; ^ the Hahamim,^ or " magi," or " wise men," including, apparently, all the preceding classes, and the gazeri'm^ — perhaps another name for the astrologers, since the word means the casting of horo- scopes, and reading the supposed influence of the stars and planets on the fate of individuals and kingdoms. The '' wisdom " of these classes was the boast of Baby- lonia. It was in such studies that Daniel, after his palace-education, on being brought before Nebuchad- nezzar, himself an adept in all these matters, was found better skilled than any member of the various orders.''
Examples of the importance attached to dreams, in anti- quity, have frequently come before us in earlier volumes,^ and will naturally occur to every student of Scripture. That of Assurbanipal,^ of Assyria, quoted in volume five,^^ from his inscriptions, shows the profound agitation into
* In Syriac it is applied to those "who charm scorpions and serpents by whispering. It is a Heb. and also a Chald. word. It is rendered " astrologers," Dan. i. 20. The gate of the temple of Bel was called Bab Assaput, — "the gate of the oracle," and there was a chamber in the temple called Bit Assapur, "the house of the oracle." Lenormant, La Divination, pp. 133-4.
2 Dan. ii. 2. " Sorcerers." ^ Dan. ii. 2.
* Gesenius, Jes., vol. ii. p. 349. Egypt may perhaps dispute the honour.
5 Dan. ii. 14. ^ j)an. ii. 27. " Soothsayers."
^ Dan. i. 20. On the religious ideas of the Babylonians, see vol. i. pp. 304, 311. 8 Pp. 127-139.
^ For the importance of dreams among the Egyptians, see vol. i. pp. 462-3 ; among the Ethiopians, vol. v. p. 81 ; among the Assyrians, vol. v. p. 86. ^" Yol. v. p. 86.
AT BABYLON. 275
which even the most powerful minds were cast, in those ages, from such phenomena of sleep, so little regarded in our own day. It is therefore strictly in keeping with what might be expected, to read of similar alarm and anxiety having been caused to Nebuchadnezzar by such a visitation. In the second, or according to some readings, the twelfth year of his reign,^ the sleep of the Great King, we are told, was troubled by a dream, all recollection of which had fled when he awoke. The whole staff of diviners, astrologers, and magi, were sum- moned forthwith to the palace, that by spells and con- jurations, one class of them might force the evil spirits, who had snatched the vision from the king^s brain, to give it back, while another should move the beneficent spirits of the sky to reveal it to them by magic arts, or by the signs of the stars and planets.- In every detail the narrative is true to the picture of Babylonian life disclosed by the clay literature of the times. The name of Arioch, the " captain of the king^s guard,^^ ^ is the Babylonian Iri Aku, '' the servant of the moon god.^ His office of carrying out the sentences pronounced by the king, is in exact accordance with the duties of his position as captain of the royal body-guard,^ and the punish- ment of being cut in pieces and having their houses levelled, which was the penalty of not recalling the dream, is thoroughly Babylonian. Sennacherib, indeed, had thus treated a whole city, on taking it, after the great
1 Dan. ii. 1.
2 In Dan. ii. 4, read " The Chaldeans answered the king, (Ara- mean)," that is — " here Aramean or Chaldee begins." They answer in their own language. Some copyist has inserted the word " Aramean," translated " Syriac " in A.Y.
^ Dan. ii. 14.
^ Gen. xiv. 1. Schrader, Eeilinsch., 2te Aufg., p. 430.
* Jer. hi. 15 ; xxxix. 9, 11. 2 Kings xxv. 8.
276 AT BABYLON.
rebellion.^ In contrast to the Medes^ whose king had to consult with his nobles, and was compelled to act in some cases against his will, in obedience to the law '^ which altered not/^ ^ the kings of Babylon were absolute in the fullest sense of the word. No law restrained them. As in Turkey at the present day, their highest dignitaries were mere slaves, elevated at the will of their master, and dependent on his passing caprice. The chief eunuch, one of the highest officials, is rightly described in Daniel as fearing lest *^ his head might be endangered '^ by the smallest deviation from his master's will.^ Every one in the State, whatever his rank, held his position and life only at the will of the monarch. ^^ Whom the Great King would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive, and whom he would be set up, and whom he would he put down.'' * His rank was that of a son of the gods, before whom all men were as nothing. " Merodach" says Nebuchadnezzar, ^^ created me in my mother's womb." ^ King Khammurabi claimed to be the son of Merodach and Ri,^ and had his name inscribed, during his lifetime, along with that of the gods, the people swearing by his name as a divine being. "^ Nor was it different with other Babylonian or Assyrian kings.^ Acquaintance so minute with the ideas prevalent in Babylon, as to the importance attached to dreams, their professed interpretation by the rules of astrology and magic, the different classes of " wise men," the high rank they held in the State, the punishments inflicted at the royal will, and even with the
* See vol. iv. p. 475. 2 D^n. vi. 14-17.
* Dan. i. 10. See, on a later page, the fear of Nehemiah before his Persian master.
^ Dan. V. 19. ^ Records of the Past, vol. v. p. 113.
« Ihid., vol. i. p. 8. ? jud,, vol. v. p. 109.
^ Speaker's Commentary on Dan., vi. 7.
AT BABYLON. 277
Babylonian proper names of the period, are silent witnesses to the truthfulness of the book in which they are found. Such petty details and exact local colouring imply a contemporary authorship.
The "great image '^ seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream ^ is no less strictly Babylonian. Colossal forms, human and bestial, met the eye on all sides in the capital, at the palace gates, in the courts of the temples, and elsewhere, and might easily be woven into the texture of a dream. Statues were brought, as a special object of plunder, from conquered cities, and set up in the metropolis of the victor. Thus, Assurbanipal records that in one campaign he brought aw^ay thirty-two statues of kings, in silver, gold, bronze, and alabaster, and others of the gods.^ The gold, silver, bronze, and iron of Nebuchadnezzar's image were thus familiar for such uses, and the excavations attest that statues in baked clay abounded.
That a forgotten dream should have been recalled by Daniel, and interpreted with such evident wisdom, filled the mind of the Great King with awe. He felt that the Jewish captive was the mouth-piece of a Power greater than his own, and therefore more than human. Him- self skilled in the superstitious arts of his day,^ he saw that they had utterly failed, where Daniel stood tri- umphant. Such a result implied the direct aid of a God mightier than those invoked by the Babylonians, and the Divine honours supremely due to a Being so transcendent demanded that the highest respect should be shown to His representative. The scene at the gate of Lystra, where the crowd, under similar excitement, wished to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas, was anticipated in
I Dau. ii. 31. ^ Smith's Assurbanipal, pp. 227-230.
» Dan. i. 20.
278 AT BABYLON.
the gorgeous halls of the Great King. Falling down on his face, Nebuchadnezzar paid Daniel the lowly reverence due to a messenger of the Highest God, while the priests, at his order, poured out a drink-offering at his feet, and burned incense before him.^ To raise him to lofty dignity followed. Such a man was clearly the most illustrious of the sacred orders of Babylon ; he should henceforth bear rank as such, and take precedence in the metropolitan province, which included Babylon and the district round. But Daniel, always generous and faithful, shrank from such an exaltation, until he had secured that of his three companions also, to posts of dignity; the special honour, however, being granted to him alone, of apartments in the royal palace.^ Four, at least, of the Hebrew captives were thus advanced within the charmed circle ^ where they could most efficiently serve the interests of their race.
The incident of the golden image set up by the Great King * is illustrated in many of its details by the inscrip- tions, or from hints of ancient authors.
Colossal statues of gold were familiar to the Babylonians. The description given, by Diodorus of Sicily, of the three which, till it was plundered by Xerxes, crowned the great Temple of Bel, displaying to all, far and near, the figures of the three great gods of the city, shows that, with the altars and other accessories before them, they contained
^ Dan. ii. 46.
2 Dan. ii. 49. The words " sat in the gate of the king," are equivalent to having quarters in the palace, as the gate stands for the whole building. Esther ii. 19, 21; iii. 2, etc.
^ The word used is, that he made them shallits, an official title used in the inscriptions. It is the diminutive of Sultan, which is derived from the same verb. It occurs in Dan. ii. 15; v. 29. Ezra iv. 20.
4 Dan. iii.
AT BABYLON. 279
a mass of the precious metal, equal in value to £17,225,000 of our money.^ Moreover, in the temple at Borsippa, till the time of Xerxes, there was, according to Herodotus,^ who visited Babylon soon after, a statue of solid gold 18 feet high. There is, further, in the British Mu- seum, a tablet containing a charge laid before the king, against two high officials, of having made away with seven talents of pure gold,^ destined to form a statue of him- self and his mother.^ The very robes of gold presented, apparently by Assurbanipal, to the great idols, Merodach and Zirpanit, in the pyramid temple of Babylon, weighed, as we learn from an inscription, four talents, which was equal to £14,500, and were, besides, enriched with precious stones.^ The amount of gold carried off by Nebuchadnezzar as the spoil of all Western Asia, exceeds imagination, if it were not confirmed by trustworthy documents. One of his inscriptions informs us that he plated an altar placed before the Temple of Bel, with pure gold, of immense weight, and lined all the interior of the sanctuary, at the top of the highest stage or terrace of the temple, '^ with beaten gold, shining like the rising and setting sun.''^ ^ A statue of one of the Assyrian kings,^ and others of Nebo and Istar, were found at Nimroud,^ so that Nebuchadnezzar's golden image was strictly in keeping with the fashion of the time, while the gigantic size affected in this case, harmonized with his other creations at Babylon.
» Diod. Sic, ii. 9. 2 ^erod., i. 181.
* The value of this weight of gold would be over £25,000.
* Lenormant, Clioix de Textes, fasc. 4.
6 West. Asiat Ins., ii. 38, 3. ^ jj^^^^ i 53^ 53^
? Now in the British Museum. See Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 51. ® Eawlinson's And. Mon., vol. i. pp. 141, 341.
280 AT BABYLON.
Such sacred images were inaugurated with extra- ordinary solemnities^ the statue being borne along with all reverence, in a procession of the notables and sacred orders, amidst the loud celebrations and rejoicings^ of a great public festival. Shalraaneser, who was contempo- rary, as king of Assyria, with Ahab and Jehu, and also Samai-Rimmon his son, had erected statues of their " mag- nified royalty, at Nineveh,^ and, as a still mightier sultan, Nebuchadnezzar might well go beyond them. He there- fore ordered a huge image, perhaps of himself, perhaps of his chief god, Merodach,^ overlaid entirely with plates of gold,* to be erected in the Plain of Dura, a spot near Babylon, still retaining the same name. It lies about five miles from the great city,^ on the south-east, in a district marked by the dry channels of various ancient canals, once spreading fertility on every side. One bears the name of Nahr Dura — ^' the stream of the walls " — perhaps from its connection with the great moats round the fortifications. It leads to a series of mounds extend- ing for the distance of a league. These, as a whole, are called the Mounds of Dura; the ancient watercourses ending at their feet. One of them, now named Mo- khattat — " the squared mound,'' — faces the four cardinal points, and rises to the height of nearly twenty feet ; each side, at the base, being almost exactly fifty-six feet long. On the top of this, Oppert found four blocks of bricks,
^ Records of the Past, vol. v. p. 117.
2 Ibid., vol. i. p. 17. Norris, Ass. Diet., vol. ii. p. 345. Oppert, Gram. Assyr., p. 120.
3 Lenormant, Divination, p. 183.
* The great image of Bel is said, in " Bel and the Dragon," to have been of clay within and brass outside. Bel, etc. ver. 7.
^ Oppert places it outside the city. The Speaker^s Com, sup- poses it was within the city. But the houses would hide a wide view of it there. Besides, Oppert was on the spot.
AT BABYLON. 281
formerly a united whole. " On seeing this mound/^ says he, " one is instantly struck with its resemblance to the pedestal of a colossal statue, and everything leads to the conclusion that it is the base of that of which the Book of Daniel speaks. ^^ ^
The monument as a whole, including, we may suppose, the platform from which it rose, towered to a height of ninety feet,^ with a breadth, in some parts, of nine, which would seem to indicate that the image was seated rather than erect, like some of the colossal forms which Nebu- chadnezzar had seen in Egypt. Such a figure would be visible at a great distance, for the dip of the horizon in the level plain of Dura is only fifty-three feet in twelve miles.^
The inauguration ceremonies of this huge idol were on a scale magnificent even for Babylon. Eunners posted to distant regions, commanding the attendance of the satraps and their deputies, the shallits or petty sultans, the generals,^ the treasurers, the judges, the lawyers, and all the governors of the provinces. Ere long, the roads throughout the empire, leading to the capital, were thronged by brilliant cavalcades converging on the great centre, and in due time an assembly of surpassing splen- dour appeared at Dura, to honour the high festival. Religion in antiquity was strictly a matter of state ; dis- loyalty to the gods appointed for public worship being held covert disloyalty to the monarch who commanded homage to be paid them. Hence it was proclaimed that
^ Expedition en Mesop., vol. i. pp, 239, 340. Journ. of B. Geog, Soc, vol. X. p. 93.
2 Taking the cubit at eighteen inches,
3 Selby's Trigon. Survey of Mesopotamia, India Office.
^ Kendered by some, " magistrates"; by Ewald, "arch-astrolo- gers"; by Miihlau und Volck, ** chief judges."
282
AT BABYLON.
all should prostrate themselves when the outburst of triumphal music announced the proper moment; refusal to do so being threatened with the terrible punishment of being burnt to death in a fiery furnace. This was the fate reserved for audacious rebels, such as Saulmugina,^ or blasphemers, like Dimaun, who had cursed the gods under the reign of Assurbanipal. A picture on the palace walls of that monarch, at Kouyundjik, indeed, shows two unfortunate creatures being burnt alive, their tongues having first been pulled out.2 The narrative of Daniel's companions having been thrown into the burning furnace for re- fusal to worship the golden image, is thus in strict accordance with Babylonian usages.
That the names of some of the instruments used at the inaug- uration of the golden idol — the sambuke, the kitharis and the psalterion^ — are Greek, has been regarded as showing " Daniel '' to be of late origin. But while music occupies a small space in the sculptures of the earlier kings, it became a prominent feature in all religious and public ceremonies in Assyria and Babylon, in the beginning of the sixth century before Christ, that is, just before the time of Nebuchadnezzar ; and nothing was more natural, when we remember the wide dispersion of the Greeks
A Playeb oir the Egxptia.it
GOITAE, ASSYBIA.
1 See vol. V. pp. 87-89. - West. Asiat. Inscr., in. 37, 7.
3 The sambuke was a large harp, similar to our own; the kitharis, a lyre, like ours; the psalteriori, another variety of the Ijre.
AT BABYLON. 283
even at an earlier period, than that foreign instruments should have been familiar on the Euphrates, at this time. Greek regiments had been common in Egypt for generations. Sargon, so long before as the days of Isaiah, knew the lonians, or Greeks. Sennacherib had invaded Cilicia. Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal came in contact with the race in Phenicia, and both kings had Greek chiefs of Cyprus as their tributaries. Foreign instruments, moreover, would be as eagerly sought after then as now ; and if we meet Sanscrit words for Indian productions^ in the Book of Kings, why not Grecian names in Daniel, for importations from the West ?
Indeed, the musicians on the late Assyrian sculptures use a variety of instruments ^ of which many were un- doubtedly foreign, like the hinnor of Syria, the double flute of Asia Minor,^ and the seven-stringed cithara^ which is certainly a Greek invention.* Nor can we forget how captives were forced by their masters to sing and play their native music, as the Psalms so pathetically record in the case of the Jews.^
In the narrative of the deliverance of the three Hebrew confessors from the fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar is re- presented as saying that he saw a fourth presence, like that of the '' Son of God," ^ but as the article is wanting in the sacred text it is more correct to read ^' a son of the gods."*' Eegarding himself as of Divine descent, he may have used the phrase only in allusion to a royal dignity in the Form, like his own. But another mean- ing is not improbable, for the word Bar, employed by the Great King, though equivalent to " Son,^^ was also
1 See vol. iii. p. 387. ^ gee vol. iv. p. 105.
* Five Great Monarchies, 2nd ed., vol. i. pp. 529, 530, 534.
* Lenormant, La Divination, p. 191.
* Ps. cxxxvii. " Dan. iii. 25.
284 AT BABYLON.
the special name of the God of Fire. It may be, there- fore, that he fancied he recognised, in the angel, a form like '^ Bar, of the gods,^' and thought the fire-god him- self had appeared on behalf of the sufferers, as a protest against their treatment.
The mental alienation of Nebuchadnezzar^ was un- doubtedly the form of madness known as lycanthropy,^ in which the habits of animals are in some form assumed by the insane person. Instances of those afflicted in this way eating grass, leaves, twigs, etc., like the Great King, are familiar to medical men. Nor is it uncommon for the mind to lose its balance in some direction, in one raised so far above all other men as a mighty despot, and so irresponsible. Many of the CsGsars undoubtedly suffered this terrible penalty of solitary greatness, nor are theirs the only instances of the kind in history. That any allusion to such a humiliating calamity should be found recorded in the Babylonian annals, is not however to be expected. It would be carefully guarded from the knowledge of chroniclers, as a palace secret. But that some terrible illness seized Nebuchadnezzar is strangely proved by the recent discovery of a bronze doorstep, presented by him to the great temple of El Saggil, at Borsippa, one of the suburbs or divisions of Babylon. It speaks of his having been afflicted, and of his restoration to health, and may well have been a votive offering to the gods on his recovery from the attack mentioned in Daniel. Nor is this at all incon- sistent with his recorded homage to Jehovah.^ Though he honoured the whole of the gods, his inscriptions show that in a restricted sense he always worshipped one
^ Dan. iv. ^ Dr. Piisey has collected many instances of this ; Daniel p. 425. Lycanthrophy = lit. " the change of a man into a wolf." 3 Dan. iv. 34, 87.
AT BABYLON. 285
god especially. While he built temples to various divinities, and acknowledged not only the ^' great gods,^' but at least thirteen besides, he also speaks constantly of the ''chief of the gods/' the '' King of the Gods/' and " the God of gods/' Merodach is " the Great Lord," '' God his maker/' the " Lord of all beings/' *' the Prince of Heaven/' "the God of Heaven and Earth/' " the Lord of Lords/' '' the Lord God."^ He might, therefore, have for the time transferred to Jehovah, perhaps as another name for his own Merodach, the homage hitherto rendered to the Babylonian idol.
With the fourth chapter of Daniel, the Scripture record of Nebuchadnezzar's life closes. He survived his tem- porary alienation for some years, and died in B.C. 561, the undisputed ruler of his vast empire. Unfortunately, very few cuneiform memorials of his reign have survived ; nor are there any annals of his campaigns, like those left by some Assyrian kings. His inscriptions refer mainly to the construction of temples, palaces, and public buildings; but they incidentally throw light on his zeal for the gods, and his pride in being virtually the builder of his mighty capital.
The record of his repairing the Temple of the Seven Lights at Borsippa has already been given,- in illustration of the story of the Tower of Babel. Besides this, we have a lengthened statement of his building or restoring various temples, at an immense cost, and of his raising the walls, digging the moats, and otherwise strengthening the defences of Babylon, and a very short notice of his expeditions to Egypt.^ Fortunately, however, there have come to light a series of commercial tablets, the business records of a great banking house in Babylon, beginning
* See liecords of tlie PasU vol. v. pp. Ill, ff. ; vol. vii. pp. 69 ff. = Vol. i. p. 277. 3 See p. 206.
286 AT BABYLON.
with the first year of his reign, and continuing for the next 117 years, to the thirty-fifth year of King Darius Hystaspis, B.C. 485. Egibi, the founder of the house, seems to have lived in the later years of the reign of Sennacherib; but though this is implied by a single tablet of B.C. 677, the unbroken series begins only in B.C. 604. They are of the greatest value in fixing dates ; but, besides this, they incidentally throw light on not a few points of Babylonian life. One records a loan of a few shekels to some needy borrower ; another the sale or mortgage of great estates. Every legal precaution is taken in the various documents to prevent fraud and secure the exact fulfilment of covenants, under every contingency. Witnesses duly attest each transaction, and each tablet is duly docketed and labelled, after being registered in the government office at Babylon. While the Hebrews were listening to Ezekiel at Chebar, and Daniel wfts at his duties or studies in the palace, the clerks and principals of the great banking-house were quietly working at their desks in the city, discounting bills, ad- vancing loans, and negotiating sales and mortgages, as if the business premises of Egibi were the only important spot in the universe !
There is a strange tradition respecting the end of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. ^ It relates that after he had grown mightier than Hercules, and had undertaken campaigns to Lybia and Iberia, and settled part of the subdued nations at Pontus, on the Black Sea, the Great King went up to the roof of his palace, and prophesied, by the inspiration of a god, that the Medes and Persians would, hereafter, bring the Babylonians to slavery, not without guilt on the part of the ruler of the empire.
^ From Abydenus in Eusebius, Prcep. Evan., ix. 41, b. Ed. Gaisford.
AT BABYLON.
287
Having utttered these things, Nebuchadnezzar, we are told, suddenly vanished.^
* Two inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar have heen lately found cut in the rocks of Phenicia — one of them announced only this year, 1884. The earlier known of these inscriptions is engraved in the rocks of the Dog Eiver ; the other on those of one of the wildest valleys of the Lebanon. The commencement of this in- scription— indeed there are two, at the same place, with the same beginning— reads thus, " Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the Illustrious Shepherd (King), the servant of Merodach the Great Lord, his creator, and of Nebo, his (Merodach's) illustrious son, whom his royalty (Nebuchadnezzar) loves." Unluckily, they only give an account of the great buildings he is having constructed in Babylon. The earlier inscription, on the Dog River, is equally unimportant, merely speaking, as already said, of the various wines of Lebanon, of which the Great King tell us that of Helbon» near Damascus was, in his opinion, the best.
CHAPTER XIV.
|
COMFORT YE |
MY PEOPLE. |
|
|
B.C. |
B.C. |
|
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Evil-Merodach .... 561-559 |
PiSISTRATUS IN ATHENS . |
. . 560 |
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Nergal-Sharezer . . . 559-555 |
Cyrus conquers Media. |
. . 558 |
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Laborosoarchod . . . 555 |
Crcesus reigns in Lydia |
. . 558 |
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Nabonidus 555-538 |
Crcesus overthrown |
by |
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Cyrus occupies Babylon 538 |
Cyrus |
. . 545 |
r I 1HE year B.C. 561 was marked by the death of -■- Nebuchadnezzar, at the age of about eighty, after a reign of more than forty-three years. He had created the mighty empire over which he ruled, and it may be said to have died with him ; for in less than a quarter of a century the city of Babylon itself yielded to Cyrus without a blow. His son, Evil-Merodach {" Merodach's Man^'), succeeded him; but is known as king only through his kindness to Jehoiachin, who had languished in Nebuchadnezzar's dungeons for thirty-seven years. Releasing him after his long durance, he ^' spoke kindly to him,'' we are told, and gave him maintenance from the royal table for the rest of his life. Zedekiah was doubtless already dead, else he would, we may suppose, have shared in this good fortune. But the benefactor of the poor Jewish king did not live long to enjoy his high position. Three years after his accession he was murdered
COMPORT YE MY PEOPLE. 289
by Nergal Sharezer, who seems to have been the " prince '' of that name holding a command in the army of Nebuchadnezzar at the taking of Jerusalem.^ Like that dignitary, he is styled in the inscriptions ^' Rubu Emga/' or Rab Mag — a title the meaning of which is not known — and it is not probable that two persons of the same name could have held the dignity it represents, under the same king. He had married a daughter of Nebu- chadnezzar, and thus had every opportunity for treason. But he did not live long to enjoy the fruits of his crime, dying a natural death within less than four years and a half after his accession. A palace built by him has been discovered at Babylon; the only one on the right bank of the Euphrates ; his name and titles appearing on the bricks which still remain. His son, who succeeded him, was a mere boy, and was murdered after a brief reign of four months. The throne was then seized by Nabu- nahid, or Nabonidus, who claimed to be the son of the Rubu Emga, the title given to Nergal Sharezer. He was the last king of Babylon, retaining the sovereignty till overthrown, after seventeen years, by Cyrus. Of his reign the inscriptions furnish us with some notices, which will be given in their place.
The religious life of the Jewish exiles in these years was slowly reawaking, under the influence of their national misfortunes and of the words of the prophets. It is impossible to assign precise dates to many of the Psalms, but some appear to refer so distinctly to the Captivity that we may fitly ascribe them to that period.
The 14th seems to belong to this class.
* Jer. xxxix. 3. Authorities for the chronology : Kuetschi in Herzog, 2te Auf., art. Nebuchadnezzar ; Sayce, Fresh Light, etc. ; Riehm, Calwer Bibellexicon, etc.
VOL. VI. U
290 COMFOET YE MY PEOPLE.
The tooV says in his heart, " there is no God." They have corrupted themselves, they have done abominable
deeds, There is no one that does what is right. Jehovah looked down from heaven on the sons of men, To see if there were any that had understanding : Any who sought after God ! All have turned aside ; all alike are corrupted : ^ No one does good, no, not one !
" Are all these workers of iniquity without knowledge. Who eat up My people as they eat bread, And do not worship Jehovah ? " They trembled in great fear (where no fear was) ^ For God is in the generation of the righteous ; Ye may pour contempt (ye who believe not in God) on the
oppressed. Because he makes Jehovah his refuge ! (It matters not !) Oh that the Salvation of Israel would come out of Zion I When Jehovah turns back the captivity of His people Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad !
In the 105th and 106th Psalms the great deeds per- formed by God in ancient times on behalf of His people seem to be recapitulated^ to rouse the exiles to confi- dence that He would, after all, deliver the nation from their present calamities. Both poems show a minute acquaintance with the early history of the race, as pre- served in the Pentateuch, which must thus have been universally known, and accepted as a sacred record, when they were written. The national idolatry of the past is sternly denounced, and a spirit like that of Phinehas shown against any approach to it. Israel, it tells us, had sinned in not destroying the heathen nations of
1 Ps. xiv. 2 Tainted, or sour.
3 From the duplicate version of the psalm (liii. 5.) The Hebrews were in terror of their heathen oppressors, but without cause, " for," etc. ; see next line.
COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE. 291
Canaan utterly.^ Failing to do this, its sons had mingled among them and imitated their idolatry. They had sacrificed to the Shedim, the gods represented in Baby- lonia, where they now lived, by the colossal bulls and monsters around them.^ The blood of their sons and daughters had been ofi'ered to the idols of Canaan, till God, in His wrath, had given them into the hand of the heathen, and they that hated them ruled over them. But even in their exile He had remembered them, for His covenant's sake, and " made them to be pitied of all those that carried them captive.^'
" Save us, 0 Jehovah, our God ! " concludes the Psalmist, "and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto Thy holy name, and to glory in Thy praise."
Then follows the grand doxology :
" Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting ! And let all the people say Amen 1 Hallelujah ! "
But it is in the 137th Psalm that we meet with the most pathetic memorial of these gloomy days, written after the return of the exiles to their own land ; a memorial touching in its sympathy for Israel in its sufferings, but marked by that fierce spirit towards the enemies of the nation which shows the contrast between Judaism and Christianity.
By the streams ^ of Babylon, there sat we, and wept. When we thought upon Zion !
^ Ps. cvi. 34. Deut. vii. 2. Num. xxxiii. 52. See further, in any Reference Bible.
2 Schrader's Keilinsclirift., p. 160. Ps. cvi. 37. * The canals of irrigation. Ps. cxxxvii.
292 COMFOET YE MY PEOPLE.
We hanged our harps on the willows * in the land ; ^
For there our oppressors demanded from us the music of our
songs, Our slave-drivers required us to make mirth for them. (Ordering us to) " Sing (to them) the songs of Zion " !
How could we sing the songs of Jehovah in a strange land ?
If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget (its cunning); Let my tongue cleave to my palate If I do not remember thee ; If I set not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy !
Eemember, O Jehovah, to the sons of Edom, the day (of the fall) of Jerusalem; 3 How they cried, " Rase it, rase it to its foundations ! "
0 daughter of Babylon, thou oppressor, Joy to him who repays thee what thou hast done to us ! Joy to him who takes thy children and dashes them against the stones!
The visions of Daniel are another reminiscence of the days of the Exile, and mark an era in the literature of the nation. As if the altered circumstances of the times had influenced the form of revelation, the seer no longer conveys the messages of God to His people by ordinary
^ The weeping willow, to which, from this passage, Linnaeus gave the name Salix Babylonica, is not found in Babylonia. "The weeping willow is indigenous in China and Japan, cultivated in Europe, but neither indigenous nor cultivated in Babylonia."— Koch's Bendrologie, vol. ii. p. 507. It may be either the tamarisk or the poplar, to which the Arabs still give the name of Ereh, the word used in this Psalm. Stanley's Lectures, vol. iii. p. 11. Wet- stein, in Delitzsch's Jes., 2te Auf., p. 460, is of this opinion also. Dr. Tristram, however, thinks the willow is intended. N, H. B., p. 414. 2 Eivald.
3 Obad. xi. 12. Jer. xlix. 7-22. Lam. iv. 21, 22. Ezek. xxv. 8-14. Zech. i. 15.
COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE. 293
discourse, bub by a series of visions in which angels take the place of " the word of Jehovah/' He is no more a preacher to his contemporaries, but discloses to them the future history of the kingdom of God in its widest rela- tions. Ezekiel had already introduced this apocalyptic feature, but Daniel confines himself to it ; and it is a curious question how far the mind of both may have been influenced in the mystical style of their visions by earlier writings, more or less similar in character. Zoroaster, the great reformer of the ancient Persian religion, had ended his course before that of the Jewish prophet began, and his writings and sayings may readily have spread from Persia to the neighbouring Babylon. Local in- fluences, as we have seen, affected the inspired writers as they do others, and it is, thus, noteworthy to find in Zoroaster such a passage as the following : —
Zertuscht^ having asked Ormuzd for immortality, was shown by him the Omniscient Wisdom. He saw a tree with such a root that four trees had sprung from it, — • a golden, a silver, a steel, and an iron one. Then said Zertuscht : '^ Lord, thou ruler of the dignities of earth and heaven, I have seen the root of a tree from which four trees have sprung." And Ormuzd replied to the holy Zertuscht: "The root of this one tree thou hast seen is the world ; and the four trees that have sprung from it are the four times that are to come ; — the golden, when I and thou are at one, and Kstagp-shah receives the law, and the body of the Devs is broken in pieces and they hide themselves ; the silver is the reign of the royal Artaschir ; the steel, the reign of Anosherevan-Khosru, son of Kobat ; the iron, the evil rule of the Devs."'"' ^
1 The modern name for Zoroaster.
2 MS. of Prof. Spiegel. From the Bahnan Jescht. Herzog, 2te A-uf., vol. iii. p. 472.
294 COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE.
The similarity between tliis and the visions of Daniel is apparent ; and it can be no irreverence to trace the influence of such a form of composition on that of the sacred writer. Designing to keep before the mind of succeeding generations the development of the kingdom of the Messiah, he adopts a style already familiar to his brethren in their new home, and so suited to the popular taste that his Book became the first of a long series of writings of a similar type. The Book of Esdras, the Book of Enoch, the Jewish Sybillines, and other books of the same class, followed the model thus set by Daniel, and formed the last; though uninspired, link between ancient prophecy and the fulness of revelation under Jesus Christ.!
But it was not to the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel only, or to the apocalyptic visions of Daniel, or the writings of the minor prophets of past generations, that Israel owed the amazing religious revival which marked the later years of the Captivity, and permanently revolutionized the national character.
The high position and personal dignity of Daniel must have spread his name very early amongst the exiles, for we find him, in B.C. 692, fourteen years after his deporta- tion from Jerusalem, classed by Ezekiel with Noah and Job, for his righteousness, and five years later spoken of by the same prophet, as the wisest of the wise, in all that concerns the secrets of the future.^ But though his high position and great name might be a boast and even a protection to his race, his visions of the coming changes of kingdoms bore only indirectly on personal religion.
^ Menanb remarks that the vision of Nebuchadnezzar, of the image of gold, silver, brass, iron, and clay, reads, line by line, like the paraphrase of some cuneiform inscription.
- Ezek. xiv. 12 ; xxviii. 3.
COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE. 295
Much of Ezekiel's teaching was equally general, needing the lapse of time to reveal all its significance ; while many of his discourses referred to events of the day, like the fall of Jerusalem. The whole spirit of his long ministry, however, urged the necessity for national reformation, as a preliminary to the obtaining a return to Canaan. Jeremiah, also, had for many years preached the need of hearty repentance and loyalty tojehovah, and the power of his words increased \/ith the couse of years. But, besides these, the portion of Isaiah extending from the fortieth chapter to the end of the book, rich as it is, beyond any other portion of the Old Testament, in its evangelical tone, must have given a mighty impulse to the movement towards a higher spiritual life. It has been the subject of much controversy whether these chapters were uttered by Isaiah himself, or are the com- position of an unknown prophet. The actual authorship, however, is by no means a vital question, if, as is right- fully claimed, the inspiration of the writer be admitted.^ Many books of Scripture, though anonymous, are not the less sacred and canonical, and the second part of Isaiah would not suffer in either respect, even if another prophet had written the first section. However scholars may find matter of dispute on grounds beyond popular ap- preciation, the chief arguments advanced for a different authorship of the two portions are of no weight to those who recognise a supernatural element in Scripture. That Isaiah lived more than a hundred years before the Exile can be no difficulty, if we believe that the prophets were not only preachers to their own genera- tion, but men inspired to predict things to come, for the glory of God and the good of the Church. Even in the first part of the book, moreover, though Babylon had * Delitzsch, Jes., vol. ii. p. 138.
296 COMFOET YE MY PEOPLE.
not yet risen to power, it is expressly named ^ as the future oppressor of Israel, and why should it not be in the second ? The Exile is foretold once and again ^ in the first part, why should it not be dwelt upon in the other ? Micah, the contemporary of Isaiah, had announced, in words which are universally accepted by critics as genuine, that his countrymen should be carried off to Babylon.^ In naming Cyrus generations before his birth, Isaiah only supplied a fitting test of the trustworthiness of the promises he was commissioned to make to the Church, and of the supreme majesty of Jehovah as the revealer of things to come. The writer of the second part speaks, indeed, as if in the midst of the exiles ; but this is of so little weight that Ewald assumes him to have lived in Egypt, as one of the fugitives who fled thither with Jeremiah after the murder of Gedaliah.*
Nor are the arguments based on philological grounds more conclusive. The vocabulary of the second half shows striking resemblances to that of the first and of the earlier prophets, and reveals equally marked differences from that of the later. While 848 words of the second part are found in the first, only 735 of these occur in the exile-prophet Ezekiel, though his prophecy is about twice as long. There are eight words found in both parts ot Isaiah and nowhere else, but there is only one that is peculiar to the second part and the period of the Exile. A close comparison of the allusions in both sections, to the vegetable, animal, and human kingdoms, shows that the ideas and local colouring are closely alike throughout,
* Isa. xxxix. 6 ff.
2 Isa. i. 27 ; V. 5 flf. ; xiii. 26 ff.; vi. 11, 12 ; x. 5 ff. ; xii. 20 ; xi. 11; XXX. 12. 3 Mic. iv. 10.
^ Seinecke thinks he lived in Jerusalem ; Duhm, that he did rot live in Babylon. Theol d. Proph., 1875, p. 283.
COMPORT YE MY PEOPLE. 297
and that in both parts they do not correspond with the scenery of Babylon or the environments of one living there.^ The force of the argument resting on the rare words common to both divisions may be illustrated by an example. There are two Hebrew nouns, lior and Jnir, from the root " to be white/' meaning ivJiite linen. The same words are also formed from an entirely different root, '^ to hollow out " and mean, in this case, a hole. The first part of Isaiah uses Jwr for white linen, and hur for hole, but the later writers reverse this. The second part uses only Jmr, but employs it in the sense of hole, thus differing from later writers, and agreeing with the first part. Indeed this is one of the eight words occurring only in the two parts of Isaiah. In the same way, the word 'purah, " a winepress,^' occurs only once in the second part, and once in Haggai, a prophet of the period after the Exile. But as the word comes from the verb to hruisey it must originally have meant the upper part of the wine-press, and it is used in this sense in Isaiah, while Haggai uses it, as was natural in a late writer, for the lower part of the winepress, into which the juice flows.
Such arguments may seem minute, but they are so much the more forcible, and, in my opinion, irresistible, in the aggregate. Wholly undesigned coincidences and the silent testimony of language may well be set against theoretical objections, or fancied diversities of style ; for no ancient book is safe if critics are to be a priori judges. But when, as in this case, the very language of the book itself bears witness, there is no room for hesitation ; it seems to indicate clearly that the whole sixty-six chapters
^ See Bib. Sacra, 1881 and 1882, in -which the whole subject is treated in the most masterly way by the Rev. W. H. Cobb, Uxbridge, Mass.
298 COMFOET YE MY PEOPLE.
are rightly ascribed to a single age and a single author.^
In the first half of his prophecies, Isaiah had ad- dressed the people of his own day; in the second he transports himself into the midst of the exiled com- munity, to comfort them in their sorrows, and lead them to sincere repentance. The despair which meets us in some chapters of Ezekiel,^ had settled on them like a thick cloud, and still darkened the heavens.^ Israel seemed forsaken by Jehovah, its ways appeared to be hidden from Him, and judgment against its oppressors to have been forgotten. But the prophet knows how deeply this feeling wrongs both themselves and Jehovah. After contrasting Jehovah ^ with the idols, and Israel with the heathen, he describes, almost like a fifth Evangelist, the redemption to be brought by the " Servant of Jehovah " and His subsequent exaltation.^ The true Israel and the false are then contrasted, the sins of the unworthy de- nounced, and the souls of the faithful cheered by a vision of future Messianic glory. The truly righteous alone are comforted. It is twice repeated, that "there is no peace from Jehovah to the wicked,"® whose awful fate, if they remain impenitent, is proclaimed in the final words — "their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched.'^
This great inspired lyric opens by a command from
^ On the two sides of this question, see Eeuss, Gescli. d. A. Test, pp.426, ff. Stahelin, in Studien u. Krit, 1830, vol. i.; 1831, vol. iii. Meier, in ditto, 1845, vol. iv. Ruetzchi, in ditbo, 1854, vol. ii. Keil's Einleitung, p. 236. Naegelsbach's Jesaia, Einleitung. Delitzsch's Jesaia, pp. 383 ff., etc., etc.
2 Ezek. xxxiii. 10; xxxvii. 11. ^ Isa. xl. 27; xlix. 14.
* Isa. xl. 48. * Isa. xlix.-lvii.
6 Isa. xlviii. 22 ; Ivii. 21.
COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE. 299
Jehovah to the prophets ^ of the day, to comfort His peo- ple in their despondency. Deliverance, often promised, was still delayed. Jehovah had apparently forsaken them, and this wellnigh cast them into despair. To cheer away their sadness, they are reminded of the un- changing love borne towards them by God.
1 Comfort ye^ (0 ye prophets), comfort ye My people, saith your God. 2 Speak ye to the (mourning) heart of Jerusalem, and cry aloud to her (that) the time of her affliction' is completed,* that (the penalty of) her guilt is paid off,^ that she has received of the hand of Jehovah full punishment ^ for all her sins.
While the prophet, awestruck, listens to this voice from above, a second is heard announcing that preparations for the deliverance of Israel are already begun. Jeho- vah, Himself, will go at their head and lead them forth from captivity ; a highway being first made ready across the desert, as before great princes,^ alike to do Him honour and to aid the march of the ransomed host.
3 Hark ! one is calling ! " Prepare ye in the wilderness a way for Jehovah ; ^ level ye a road through the desert for our
^ There were many prophets. Isa. lii. 8. Jer. xxix. 1.
2 Isa. xl. 1, 2.
' Lit., " service of war," including all the misery, hardness, and suffering of a soldier's life in the field (Job vii. 1, 10; xvii. 14). The Sept. has caught the meaning well, rendering the word "humiliation."
* The figure is from a soldier's time of service being ended. Hosea had called Israel in God's name, " Lo-ammi," " not My people" ; they now are once more "My people " (Hos. i. 9).
5 Jer. 1. 20. Lit., " satisfied."
^ Lit., " double." Jer. xvii. 18. See vol. v. p. 305. Gesenius, Ewald, and some others, understand "double compensation," but this is not ^o suitable.
7 Arrian, Exped. Alex., iv. 30. Diod. 8ic., ii. 13.
^ It will be remembered that these verses are understood by all
300 COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE.
God!* 4 Let every hollow- be filled up, and every mountain and hill made level, and the stony places made smooth as the Mislhor,^ and the rough hillocks a plain. Then shall the glory of Jehovah reveal itself, and all flesh shall see it; ''"for the mouth of Jehovah has thus spoken !
The mention of the glory of Jehovah suggests the contrast betv^een it and that of man, even when repre- sented by the ruler of a mighty empire like Babylon. He hears the voice that has already spoken, commanding him to cry aloud.
6 Hark ! a voice saying, " Cry ! " And (the prophet) said, " What shall I cry ? " (Say) All flesh is grass and all its glory like the flower of the field. 7 The grass dries up and the flower fades, when the wind of Jehovah blows over it. Verily mankind are but grass ! 8 The grass dries up, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand for ever.-^
The prophet next passes in imagination to Palestine, and calls on Jerusalem to announce to the cities of Judah that their God is coming, at the head of the exiles.
9 Get thee up to the high mountain, O Zion, thou announcer of glad tidings : lift up thy voice mightily, O Jerusalem, thou
the Evangelists to refer to John the Baptist, so that we have their inspired authority for applying the verses that follow, not only to the Eeturn, but, in a far grander sense, to the Advent of Salvation by the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the King Messiah of the spiritual and immortal kingdom of God.
^ When the Sultan was about to visit Broussa, in Asia Minor, in 1845, a proclamation was issued, ordering the stones along the route to be gathered out, hollows filled up, and rough places smoothed. It was the same when Ibrahim Pasha visited the Lebanon districts. Land avd Booh, p. 77. It is to be remembered that there are no roads in ihe East, in our sense of the term.
2 Heb. " gai." » See vol. ii. p. 374.
^ Ewald has, " His salvation."
* The Divine promise of the deliverance of Israel from Babylon.
COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE. 301
proclaimer of good news ! Lift it up ! Be not afraid ! Cry to the towns of Judah, " Behold your God ! " lo Behold, the Lord Jeho- vah will come as a Mighty One : His (strong) arm will uphold His rule; behold, His reward is with Him and His recompense before Him.^
Israel was the flock of Jehovah,^ for two generations scattered and wretched, but now gathered once more into the green pastures of their own land. This was " the reward'^ of Jehovah.
11 He shall feed His flock like a shepherd ; He shall gather the lambs in His arms, and carry them in His bosom,^ and gently lead those that are giving suck.^
The redemption of Israel from Babylon was, however, so mighty an undertaking, that it might seem impossible. But to this comes the answer, that Jehovah is Almighty. No human counsel was equal to carry it through, but Jehovah is All- Wise. What though the heathen might oppose them ? Who are they to resist God ?
12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out the heaven with the span, and put the dust of the earth into a measure,^ and weighed the mountains in a steelyard.
^ This passage may refer to the ransomed exiles as the reward and recompense of His might, exerted on their behalf.
2 Ps. Ixxvii. 20; Ixxx. 1. Jer. xiii. 17; xxxi. 10; 1. 19. Ezek. xxxiv. 11-16.
^ The great pocket-like fold of his loose tunic. A figure from Jewish customs. Num. xi. 12. Isa. Ix. 12 ; Ixvi. 12. See vol. v. p. 380.
'' See Gen. xxxiii. 13. To drive the flocks too quickly, even for a single day, would kill those that were giving suck. Gesenius. Isa. ii. 40. Land and Book, p. 20-i.
* A shalish — the third of an ephah, which is given by Josephus as over eight gallons, and by the Eabbis as over four.
302 COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE.
and the hills in a balance ? 13 Who has directed^ the Spirit of Jehovah, or,^ as His counsellor, has taught Him? 14 With whom has He deliberated, that he whom He thus consulted might give Him information, and teach Him the right way, and supply Him with knowledge, and show Him the path of wisdom ? 15 Behold, nations are counted by Him as a drop from a bucket, and as a grain of dust on the balance : behold, He lifts up the isles like fine dust,^ and (the forests of) Lebanon are not suflB- cient to burn (on His altar), nor its wild beasts for a burnt- offering! 17 All the nations are as nothing before Him — in His eyes they are as things of nought ; as if they were only an empty nothing ! ^
So great is Jehovah. Yet men have worshipped idols, which their own hands have made, as similitudes of the Eternal. The ricli have idols of gold, the poor of wood, but how could either think that their images were like Him who reigns, unseen, in the heavens ? The infinite dis- tance between Him and even the greatest of earth, shows that He cannot be embodied in outward form. It is monstrous even to think of it.
18 To whom then will ye liken (this great) God, and under what likeness will ye represent Him? 19 The craftsman casts the image, the goldsmith covers it over with plates of gold, and forges silver chains (to hold it in its niche). 20 The poor man, who can offer little to his god, choses a log that is free from wormholes, and then seeks a skilled workman, to set up (from it) an idol which cannot move from its place.
21 Know you not? Have ye not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning ? Have ye not known from the foundation
^ The same word as " meted oat," in ver. 12. The question is equivalent to. Who has contributed help to the wisdom and omnipotence of God?
2 What man.
^ " Dak," the word here, may also mean a withered ear of corn.
* Lit., " And as emptiness"— the word used, " Tohu," is that applied to the vacancy of chaos before creation began.
COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE. 303
of the earth? 22 (God is) He who sits throned over the vault of the earth — its inhabitants, (shewing far beneath) like grasshop- pers; who has stretched out the hollow heavens as a transparent veil,^ and spread them out as a tent to dwell in; 23 who brings princes 2 to nothing; who makes the judges of the earth as less than nought.^ 24 They are scarcely planted ; they are scarcely sown ; scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, when He blows on them and they shrivel up, and the storm-wind sweeps them away like chaff (from the threshing floor).
25 To whom, then, will ye liken Me that I may resemble him, saith the Holy One ? Lift up your eyes on high and behold : who has created these things ? It is Jehovah ! He leads out their host in numbered array,^ and reads out the roll-call of all their names. In awe of His great might and the majesty of His power, not one fails (to answer).^
The long delay in the deliverance from Babylon had sunk Israel in despondency, as if God had forgotten them, or overlooked their interests amidst the cares of His immeasurable empire. But it was utterly wrong and foolish to think so.
27 Wliy sayest thou, 0 Jacob, and speakest, 0 Israel, " My way is hidden from Jehovah : my right has been overlooked by my God?" 28 Dost thou not know, hast thou not heard — the eternal God, Jehovah, is the Creator of the ends of the earth, who faints not, neither is weary ; there is no searching of His understand- ing. 29 He gives strength to the weary and renews the powers of the faint. 30 Yea, though even youths may faint and be exhausted, and young men fall down, 31 yet they that trust in Jehovah ^ shall get fresh strength ; they will lift up their wings like eagles,-^ they will run and not be weary, they will walk and not faint !
^ Lit., ** the finest cloth," through which one can see. The word occurs only once in the Bible. The heavens are the tent cloth over the earth.
2 Lit, ''the heavy " = " the august." ^ Heb., Tohu = chaos.
* Like soldiers moving abreast in their battalions.
« To the roll call. « Or, wait for. ? 2 Sam. i. 23.
304 COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE.
The prophet now passes to another step in his great argument. Present, in spirit, in the times immediately preceding the Return, he describes Jehovah as summon- ing the heathen nations before Him, to judge between His claims and those of idol-gods, from the predicted career of the appointed deliverer of His people — Cyrus, the Elamite. He had raised him up and made him tri- umphant, nor could the idols resist his might.
I Be silent before Me,* 0 islands (and coasts of the west),^ and let the peoples collect their strength anew, (to oppose Me, and de- fend their gods) ; let them come near and speak ; let us come together, and argue the matter (between Me and their idols). 2 " Who raised up from the East ^ the man whom the right- eousness (of Jehovah) calleth to follow His steps,"* giving up the nations before him, and making him tread on (the necks of) kings ; making them like dust before his sword, and like stubble driven by the wind, before his bow. 3 He pursued them, he marched on safely ^ by ways which his feet had not trodden before.^
4 "Who did all this and carried it out? I who have called (to life) the generations (of men) from the beginning — I, Jehovah, the First, and with the Last — the Everlasting I." ^
The terror of all lands, before him whom Jehovah thus sent against them, was overwhelming. Men appealed to their gods, set up new ones, encouraged each other
I Isa. xli. 1-7. 2 Threatened by Cyrus.
3 Elam was east of Babylon. In ver. 25 Cyrus is said to come from the North, because Media, which also he ruled, was north of Babylon.
^ This seems to me the best rendering of the clause. Diestel and many others render righteousness as equivalent to victory — and read, " Whom victory meets at every footstep."
^ Lit., " in peace."
^ The Assyrian kings often boast of marching over countries never before invaded, or trackless.
' Isa. xlviii. 6 ; xlviii. 12.
COMFOET YE MY PEOPLE. 305
to hope in them — but all in vain. Before Cyrus took Babylon, he had marched in triumph from the heights of the Hindu Koosh to the shores of the Grecian Archi- pelago, humbling nation after nation.^
5 The isles - (and coasts) saw and were afraid, the ends of the earth ^ trembled — they draw together and come to each other (to unite and ally themselves against the dreaded invader). 6 Every one helps his neighbour and says to his fellow, " Be strong." ■*
Especially is this the case with the makers of idols. They propose to make new gods from whom to ask counsel and obtain protection.
7 The metal-founder cheers the maker of gold and silver plates, and he that fits them on the idol, and smooths them with the hammer, cheers up the smith who works at the anvil, saying of the work when put together, " It is beautiful," and he makes it fast with nails that it may not fall. ^
Yet, if the heathen had reason to be terrified, Israel need not fear.
8 But thou, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the sons of Abraham, My friend,^ 9 thou whom I have brought from the ends of the earth and called from its uttermost parts, ^ and said to thee, Thou art My servant; I have chosen thee and have not cast thee off (since). lo Fear not, for I am with thee; look
^ Pahle's Gesch. des Orient. AUerthittas, p. 170.
- The word rendered " isles " means also " coasts."
^ The Westlands = Europe.
^ Herodotus tells us that Egyptians, Thracians, Cypriotes,
. Arabs, Phenicians, Greeks, and people of Asia Minor, were united
under Croesus of Lydia, to oppose Cyrus. Herod., i. 28, 69, 70, 77.
^ This would be the worst of omens.
« Lit., " that loved Me."
7 Either of the call of Abraham from Mesopotamia, or of that of Israel from Egypt, though rhis is not so suitable, since Egypt was hardly the ends of the earth to the Jew.
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306
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not round (in terror), ^ for I am thy God, I will help thee, yea,
I will hold thee up with the right hand of My righteousness.
II Behold all they that burned with rage against thee shall be ashamed and confounded, they who strove with thee will be brought to nought and perish. 12 Thou shalt seek them but shalt not find them ; those who contended with thee, and they who fought against thee, shall be brought to nought and utterly destroyed. 13 For I, Jehovah, thy God, hold fast thy right hand ; I who say to thee " Fear not," — I will help thee.
Theeshing Sledge.
Instead of being crushed, Israel will, with God's help, destroy all its foes.
1 5 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, ye feeble folk of Israel : I will help thee, says Jehovah; thy Eedeemer^ is the Holy One of
^ Or for help, Gesenius.
2 Heb., Goel. Gen. xlviii. 16. Lev. xxv. 25, 26. Num. v. 8; XXXV. 12; XXXV. 19. Ruth iv. 1. Job xix. 25. Ps. xix. 14; Ixxviii. 35. Isa. xliii. 14 : xliv. 6, 24 ; xlvii. 4 ; etc. etc. For the meaning
COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE. 307
Israel. Behold, I will make thee a threshing sledge, sharp, new, with many cutting-stones in its roller; ^ thou shalt thresh mountains and crush them small, and make hills'^ as chaff. i6 Thou shalt winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away and the tempest shall scatter them; but tJiou shalt exult in Jehovah and glory in the Holy One of Israel.
The misery of the Exile and the joy that is to follow are again painted. Even the desert, which they must cross to regain Canaan, will blossom before them. How much more glorious then will be their own land itself !
17 The distressed and poor ones— (the flock of Israel coming back from Babylon), seek water (in the desert) and there is none, and their tongue is dried up for thirst ! (Buc) I, Jehovah, will hear them: the God of Israel will not forsake them! 18 I will open streams on the bare hills in the midst of the plains : ^ I will make the wilderness ponds of water,^ and parched land spring- heads * of water. 19 (And to give you shade and fruit on your march), I will make the cedar grow in the wilderness, the acacia, the myrtle, ^ and the olive ; I will plant in the desert the cypress,
of the word, see vol. iii. p. 14. The idea is, one charged with the task of restoring the rights of another and avenging his wrongs. 1 See vol. iv. p. 372. Mic. iv. 13.
* Those who opposed the deliverance of the exiles.
' The word is applied in Scripture to "the Valley of Jericho," " the Plain of Dura " at Babylon, and '* the plain of Mesopotamia." Jericho did not lie in a valley, but on a plain.
^ The Heb. word (sing.) is used specially of the pools left by the Nile after its inundations. Similar figures are used Isa. xxx. 25 ; xxxiii. 7 ; xliv. 3, 4.
* The word is from the verb to ** go forth."
" The Heb. word " hadas," the myrtle, occurs elsewhere only Isa. Iv. 13, and in post-exilic books, Neh. viii. 15 ; Zech. i. 8, 10, 11. The name Hadassah, '* the myrtle," is found in Esth. ii. 7. But myrtles grew wild in Palestine, and there is no older name used for them, so that no argument for the age of the second part of this Book can be founded on Isaiah being the first to refer to the myrtle.
308
COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE.
the plane, and the fig tree/ 20 that they may both see and acknowledge, and consider and take to heart, that the hand of Jehovah has done this, and that the Holy One of Israel has created it.
The prophet now reverts to the controversy with the idols, proposed by Jehovah in the opening of the chapter. He no longer, however, addresses their worshippers, but
speaks to the idols themselves. They are nothing, since they have not foreknown, far less brought about, the great events by which the kingdom of God is to be promoted. Jehovah alone knew these beforehand and caused their realiza- tion.
21 "Bring forward your case (O ye idols)," says Jehovah, " produce your strong arguments ^ (in your defence)" says the King of Jacob. 22 Yes, The Plawb Tree (Platanus Oeientalis). l^t them bring them for- ward, and tell us what will happen hereafter ! Let them tell what will happen in the immediate future, that we may note it and watch the issue, or
^ These last two names are uncertain. The one has been rendered " the elm," " the plane," and " the fig," the other " the elm," " the box," the " Scherbin-cedar " of Lebanon, and '* the fig." 1 choose " fig " as the counterpart of " olive*' in the former clause.
2 Lit., " grounds of defence."
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let us hear what lies hidden in times more remote.* 23 B-eveal what is to happen hereafter, that we may acknowledge yoa to be gods ; do good or do evil — (do something) — that we may at once wonder and behold. 24 Lo, ye are airy nothings,^ and your works are the same;^ he is an abomination who chooses you (for his gods) !
25 I (Jehovah) have raised up one from the north^ and he is come; from the rising of the sun* he calls on My name ! He shall trample on lofty princes as if they were mortar,^ and as the potter treads the clay. 26 Who foretold this from the beginning, that we might know it ? Who announced it beforehand, that we might say He is right ? There is no man amongst you who predicted it — no one that revealed it — no one that heard a word from you on these matters!' 27 I, Jehovah, first said to Zion, *' Behold, behold them,"* and gave Jerusalem a bearer of the glad news.® 28 But wlien I look (among your false prophets) there is no one among their whole crowd,^" (who has foretold the future as I have done) there is no counsellor that I may ask through him, and get any answer. 29 Beliold they are all vanity; they can do nothing; their molten images are wind and emptiness !"
* Or, let them tell the first beginnings of things in. the past, or what lies hidden in the future.
2 Lit., *' spring from nothing."
^ The word as it stands in the Hebrew occurs nowhere else, and is unintelligible. The Vulg. and other versions adopt an emendation, meaning " of nought."
'' Media.
* Elam — Cyrus united Media, Elam and Persia under him.
* Mortar is made in the East by treading. 'f Lit., " your words."
* The things to come, or the returning exiles.
^ " The first who gave a herald of good to Zion, even to Jerusalem — one who said, Behold, behold them." — Ewald. i« Lit., " them." » Tohu.
^SL^A
CHAPTER XV,
THE FIFTH GOSPEL.
THE second part of Isaiah evidently consists, like the other prophetical writings, of a series of public addresses, or compositions which are parts of a related whole. The great prophet-poet returns again and again to his task of comforting the people of God, not only under the sorrows of exile, but under the deeper trial of an apparently long delay in the appearance of the promised Messiah, who should " restore Israel/' He had already spoken of his nation as '^ the servant of Jehovah/'^ but he now uses the title in a way incom- patible with a merely figurative and collective meaning. Jeremiah and Ezekiel,^ like him, had applied it to the Chosen People, but in many passages of Isaiah it is associated with striking personal traits which imply some individual reference. It cannot refer to the pro- phet himself, for the dignity ascribed to the Servant of Jehovah is far above that of any prophet, and implies much that no man could ever perform. Hence even the Targum applies the phrase to the Messiah, thus showing the sense in which it has been instinctively
» Tsa. xli. 8.
« Jer. XXX. 10; xlvi. 27, 28. Ezek. xxxvii. 25.
310
THE FIFTH GOSPEL. • 311
understood, by the Jews themselves, from the earliest times, and pointing out the only adequate application. The view of the subject taken by Delitzsch and Oehler, and adopted by Cheyne, seems to me, therefore, sub- stantially correct. The conception of the Servant of God, we are told, may be compared to a pyramid. The base is Israel as a whole ; above that is Israel in a spiritual sense, and the apex is the person of the medi- ating Saviour who rose out of Israel.^ " In its highest application,^' says Delitzsch, " I regard it as a prefigura- tion of the suffering and glorified Redeemer, Jesus Christ, our Lord ; as indeed, many passages of the New Testament directly intimate.^'
Israel as a whole is, thus, in a lower sense, the Servant of Jehovah ; but this dignity the prophet now ascribes to one who is the flower and glory of the people of God, His '^ Servant '' in the sublimest fulness of the term, through whom His gracious designs, carried so far towards their fulfilment by Israel as a nation, are to be triumphantly completed. The judgments of God on the heathen, casting contempt on their idols, must be accomplished by the conqueror of the nations, but the Servant of God will bring to mankind at large the highest of all blessings, as the Prince of Peace.
1 Behold My servant^ whom I uphold; My elect, in whom My soul delighteth.^ I bave put My Spirit upon him ; My law shall he make known to tKe nations.^ 2 He shall not cry nor shout,
^ Delitzsch, lesaia, p. 414. Oehler, Old Test. Theol., vol. ii. p. 399. Cheyne, Isaiah, vol. i. p. 253.
2 Isa. xlii.
8 Matt. xii. 18; xix. 20. Phil. ii. 7. Matt. iii. 17; xvii. 5. Eph. i. 6. Isa. iii. 34.
■* "Law," Heb., Mishpat. Even Gesenius remarks that the sense in which the word is to be taken is shown by ver. 4 and
312 THE FIFTH GOSPEL.
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street ; 3 a bruised reed shall he not break off and a faintly glimmering wick shall he nob quench; he shall make known the law accoiding to truth. 4 He will not faint or give way^ till he has established the Law in the earth, and the nations ^ will (eagerly) look for his teaching.*
The Servant of Jehovah is now directly addressed, and the work He is commissioned to do is more minutely defined. Its greatness is to be estimated by the sub- limity of the language in which it is introduced.
5 Thus says God,^ Jehovah, that created the heavens and stretched them out; that spread out the earth and all that springs from it ; that gives health to its population and life to them that walk on it ; 6 I, Jehovah, have called thee in righteousness and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee (in My care), and give thee for a covenant of the people,^ for a light of the nations; 7 to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those that sit in darkness from the prison houses.*
To this announcement respecting the Servant of Jehovah, the prophet hastens to add that Jehovah, who has been silent so long, will speedily go forth against the oppressor of His people, and when they are freed, will lead them back to their own land amidst the rejoicings of mankind.
chap. li. 4, adding that it means "the law of God, the religion of Jehovah." Jesaia, vol. ii. p. 60. Mishpat comes from the root "to judge."
* Same word as " break off."
2 Lit., " islands."
3 His " Torah," his teaching of the law of God.
* Lit., "The God" the true God, in contrast to idols.
5 The mediator of a covenant between Jehovah and Israel. See for similar expressions, Isa. xlix. 6 ; Mai. v. 5; John xi. 25. The covenant is that promised in Jer. xxxi. 31-34.
® Dungeons were, thus, underground and without light. So it was in the case of Jeremiah—shut up in a subterranean cistern.
THE FIFTH GOSPEL. 313
8 I am Jehovah, that is My name, and My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images. 9 Behold, the first things (I foretold) are come to pass : ^ I now announce what is new : before it springs forth ^ I tell you of it.
10 Sing to Jehovah a new song ; His praise from the ends of the earth, ye that go down to the sea,^ and all that sail upon its waters ; * its coasts and islands, and all that dwell in them. 1 1 Let the wilderness and its settled villages lift up their voice, and the encampments that Kedar ^ inhabits. Let the inhabitants of the rock city — Selah ^ — shout for joy, let them rejoice aloud from the top of the mountains. 12 Let men give glory to Jehovah, and proclaim His praise to the islands. 13 Jehovah will go forth as a mighty warrior; He will rouse Himself (against the enemies of His people), like a man of (many) wars : He will shout, yea roar (the cry of battle) ; He will show Himself a Hero against His foes.
Jehovah Himself tells us why He will thus make bare His mighty arm.
14 I have long held My peace, I have been still and restrained Myself. But, now, I will raise the battle cry, loud as that of a woman in her trouble ; I will, at once, breathe thick ('in My fury) and snort (in My burning indignation). 15 I will wither the mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbage (with the fiery breath of My wrath). I will turn streams to dry land (by it), and dry up the pools of water (with its scorching heat). 16 And (having freed My people from the oppressor) I will lead them as one leads the blind, by a way which they knew not : I will bring them by paths they have not known : I will make the night of the track-
* The career of Cyrus as world-conqueror, etc.
2 The figure is from the budding of a tree.
3 From the hills on which Judah lived.
'* Lit., " its fulness." Cheyne and others apply the phrase to the fish, but this is quite out of keeping with the context.
^ Kedar, " living in tents," as distinguished from the towns of the settled Arabs ; a contrast still maintained in the East.
« Or, Petra.
314 THE FIFTH GOSPEL.
less desert light before thera,^ and rough places smooth as the mislior.^ These words I will perform ; I will not fail.
Awed by this, and smitten by the hand of God, the heathen will be kept from impeding the return of His people.
17 They shall shrink back; they shall be ashamed that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, " Ye are our gods."
Israel is now addressed. Though thus to be freed by the hand of Jehovah, it had no claim to be so from any merits of its own. Called to be the servant of Jehovah, it had been ^' unprofitable/^ and the Captivity, with all its sorrows, had been punishment divinely inflicted for long continued sin. The same thought is repeated by Ezekiel, in the words *' I do not this for your sakes, O House of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which ye have pro- faned among the heathen, whither ye went.'' ^ Another and infinitely higher " Servant " must take the place of one so deaf and blind to the voice and wonders of Jeho- vah as Israel had been, and carry out His work !
18 Hear ye deaf, and look ye blind, that ye may see. 19 Who is blind, but (Israel), My servant? or deaf as he — My messenger whom I sent? Who is blind as he who was trusted by God;* or blind as Jehovah's servant ! 20 Thou hasb seen much, yet hast not observed it ; thou hast opened thine ears, but hast not paid heed. 21 Jehovah was pleased, for His righteousness' sake, to give (thee) great and glorious 22 teaching of His Law (through
^ Their ignorance of the way was like the darkness of one blind. The desert is often spoken of as dark, in this sense. Isa. xlv. 19. Jer. ii. 6, 31. Job xii. 25 ; xviii. 18 ; xxx. 3.
2 Vol. ii. p. 374.
3 Ezek. xxxvi. 22, 32, etc.
* Friend of God. Gesenius. Knohel»
THE FIFTH GOSPEL. 315
the prophets). Yet (instead of the good it should have brought), Israel is (to-day) a people robbed and spoiled ; shut up in dungeons, hid in prisons, a prey, without a deliverer ; a spoil, with no one to say "give back." 23 Who among you will listen to this and attend, and give heed for time to come? 24 Who was it that gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to robbers ? Was it not Jehovah, against whom we have sinned ? in whose ways Israel would not walk, and whose law he would not obey ? 25 It was for this He poured the fury of His anger on him, and the miseries of war. These set him on flames round about, but he did not recognise God's hand ; they burned amidst his sons, yet he laid it not to heart.
Yet Israel, though thus blind and deaf, and to a great extent impenitent, will be redeemed and re-established gloi-iously, since Jehovah has chosen the nation and loves it.
I Yet, now, thus says Jehovah,* who created thee, 0 Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel ; fear not, for I will redeem thee,^ I have called thee by thy name — "My people;" thou art Mine. 2 When thou passest through the waters, I shall be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee ; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee ! 3 For I, Jehovah, am thy God; I, the Holy One of Israel, am thy Saviour. I give Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Sheba in thy stead.^ 4 Because thou art so dear in My sight, so prized, so precious to Me, I will give (common) men ^ in thy stead and peoples for thy life.
5 Fear nor, for I am with thee ; I will bring thy sons from the sun-rising and gather thee from the West. 6 I will say to the North, '* give up; " and to the South, " keep not back," bring My
1 Isa. xliii.
2 Lit., " I have redeemed thee." The redemption was deter- mined, but not yet carried out.
2 This prophecy was literally fulfilled. Carabyses carried out the conquest of Egypt which Cyrus had planned, and extended the Persian conquests far and near.
* Jer. xxxii. 20.
316 THE FIFTH GOSPEL.
sons from far, and My daughters from the end of the earth;* 7 every one who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed and prepared (for that end).
The prophet is next addressed.
8 Bring forth the blind people that have eyes (and do not use them), and the deaf who have ears (but will not hear). (Bring them to an open space, where the controversy between the true God and the idols may be settled before the heathen nations, who also are to assemble there). 9 Ye heathen nations, all of you, assemble, and let the peoples gather together ! Who among you (of your prophets), can announce such things, and tell us their predictions delivered in the past (and now proved true). Let them produce their witnesses, that they may be vindicated, and let these hear and eay — It is the truth. 10 Ye (men of Israel) who fear My name, are My witnesses, says Jehovah, ye are my servant, whom I have chosen ; that ye may acknowledge and believe Me, and understand that I am He (and that) before Me no God was formed, and after Me there shall be none. 1 1 I — I, am Jehovah, and besides me there is no S.aviour. 12 I — I (alone) have foretold what is to happen and have saved (you), and have revealed beforehand (that I would do so); it was no strange god among you that did this; ye are My witnesses, says Jehovah, that I am, (thus, the only true) God. 13 In the future, also, lam He, and no one can deliver out of My hand. I work and who can hinder Me?
The prophet now introduces a renewed prediction of the destruction of Babylon.
14 Thus says Jehovah, your Redeemer,' the Holy One of Israel: For your sakes have I sent (the foe) to Babylon, and will drive out,' as fugitives, all its (mixed) population, and the Chaldeans (themselves), who shall flee in anguish to the ships, hitherto their pride.^ 15 I, Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King, (will do it)!
1 So widely scattered were the Jews even then.
2 Or Goel. See p. 306.
* Lit., "down," Babylon being figured as a proud and lofty city.
* Herod., i. 194, describes the vessels of the Babylonians, and
THE FIFTH GOSPEL. 317
The deliverance from Egypt is introduced as a pledge for the fulfilment of all this.
i6 Thus says Jehovah, who makes a road through the sea, and a path through the mighty waters; 17 who leads forth (to their doom) chariot and horse, army and power : * they lie down
the ships of Ur are often mentioned in early inscriptions. See vol. i. p. 302. The merchandise of Arabia was carried to Baby- lon in ships.— Strabo, xvi. 4, § 18. The later inscriptions show that numerous vessels were always to be found at the mouth of the Euphrates, and that they constantly sailed over the Persian Gulf. It is uncertain whether they ventured beyond its head-lands, into the open Indian Ocean: but there is reason to believe that by some means or other they obtained Indian commodities, which would come most readily by this sea-route. The teak found in their buildings, the ivory and ebony which they almost certainly used, the cinnamon and the cotton in the large quanti- ties which they consumed, can only have come from the peninsula of Hindustan, and cannot be supposed to have travelled by the circuitous route of Cabul and Bactria. Arabian spices were con- veyed by the Gerrhaeans, in their ships, to Babylon itself, and it is probable that the rest of the Gulf trade was chiefly in their hands. Perfumes of all kinds, pearls, wood for shipbuilding, walking-sticks, cotton, gems, gold, and Indian fabrics, flowed into the Chaldaean capital from the sea, being mostly brought to it up the Euphrates in ships, and deposited on the quays at the mer- chants' doors, .^schylus calls the Babylonians who served in the army of Xerxes, "navigators of ships."* Commercial dealings among the dwellers in the city, on a most extensive scale, are dis- closed by the Egibi tablets ; f " spice-merchants " appear among the witnesses to deeds. J Their own records and the accounts of the Greeks are thus in the completest agreement with the prophet when he describes Babylon as "a land of traffick ... a city of merchants.''— Rawlinson, in Clergyman s Magazine, 1883, p. 105. See also Riehm's Handwdrterhuch, p. 248.
* An allusion to the overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea.
* ^schyl., Pers., 11. 52-55.
t Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, vol. vii. pp. 1-78. j Records of the Past, vol. xi. p. 94.
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together (at His word), they shall not rise; they are extinguished; they are put out like the wick of a lamp !
i8 (Yet ye need not) call to mind former things, nor ponder those of the past ; 19 behold, I am about to do what is new ; it is even now budding forth, lo, ye shall see it ! I will make a road through the waste, and streams in the desert. 20 Even the beast of the field will praise Me, the thirsty jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the waste and streams in the desert, for drink to ]\[y people. My chosen, 21 the people whom I have formed for Myself ; who (also, like these creatures) shall declare My praise (for such supplies in such a region).
Once more it is proclaimed that all this is o£ God's free grace, for the honour of His great name ; not for any merit or painful service rendered by Israel.
22 (I do this) though thou hast not called upon Me, 0 Jacob, much less weaiied thyself,^ (in My service) O Israel. 23 Thou hast not brought Me (in Babylon, as thou didst formerly in Judah) the sheep of thy burnt offerings, neither hast thou honoured Me with thy other sacrifices, nor have I burdened thee with food- off'erings, nor wearied thee with (burning) incense. 24 Thou hast not bought for Me, with silver, the costly fragrant Arabian reed, for holy oil,^ and thou hast not sated Me with the fat of thy sacri- fices. But thou hast tired Me out^ with thy sins, thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities !
25 I, I alone, blot out thy transgressions, for My own sake, and will remember thy sins no longer. 26 (Yet if thou thinkest thou hast anything to urge for thyself) put Me in remembrance (of it); let us try the matter together ; state what thou canst, to justify thyself. 27 (But thou canst say nothing, for even) thy first father (Jacob) sinned, and they that mediated ^ between Me and thee — thy prophets and priests — have been faithless to Me. 28 For this cause have I dishonoured thy holy princes, the
1 The minute and wearisome observances of the ceremonial lavv — its sacrifices, offerings, and Levitical rites, could not be observed in Babylon. 2 Exod. xxx. 23. Jer. vi. 20.
» Lit., " loaded Me like a slave." * Lit., "mediators."
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high priests,* and have given over Jacob to ruin,^ and Israel to reproach.
Notwithstanding all this, Jehovah, for His lovers sake, and for His honour,^ will blot out the recollection of the sins of His people, and load them with blessing.
1 Yet now hear,^ 0 Jacob, My servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen. 2 Thus says Jehovah, thy Creator, that formed thee from the womb, who is thy Helper: Fear not, O Jacob, My ser- vant, and thou, Jeshurun,^ whom I have chosen. 3 For I will pour out water for the thirsty, and streams over the parched land; I will pour out My Spirit on thy seed, and My blessiiig.upon thy offspring. 4 And they will spring up as grass beside flowing waters,^ and as poplars by watercourses. 5 One will say, "I am Jehovah's" ; another will joyfully praise the name of Jacob ; and a third will make tlie matk of Jehovah on his hand,^ and boast of Israel as a name of honour.^
The intense hatred of the prophet to the idolatry which had so depraved his nation under Manasseh and Ahaz, and survived only too vigorously even in Babylon,® now breaks out again in a vivid contrast of the greatness of Jehovah as compared with the gods of the heathen. There must have been great danger of the Hebrews
* 1 Chron. xxiv. 5. Jer. Hi. 24
2 Lit., have "put him under My ban," devoted him to destruc- tion. See vol. ii. p. 396, note.
3 Isa. xliii. 4, 25. "^ Isa. xliv.
* A diminutive of endearment = " the wortby people." ^ Yulgate. So, virtually, Sept.
7 Slaves bore the name of their master, — soldiers, of their leader, — idolaters, of their god, — branded or tattooed on their forehead or on their hand. So it would be done towards Jehovah by His willing servants. Eichhorn translates ihe clause, "will imprint on his hand ' Sacred to Jehovah.'"
* " Soothingly names the name of Israel." — Gesenius. The verb means " to deck with a title," " to call by an honourable name."
» See Ezek. passim.
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finally apostatizing from their national faith, to lead to such denunciations of idols. Heathenism surrounds our countrymen in India as much as it did the Jews either in Judea or on the Chebar, but it would be strange to an Anglo-Indian audience, firm in their belief in one God, if their preachers dwelt on the risk of their be- coming idolaters, as the prophets felt necessary in the case of their brethren during the Captivity. Jehovah, we are again told, has long since predicted the deliver- ance of His people, and will prove His divinity by the fulfilment of His Word, while the idols have foretold or carried out nothing.
6 Thus says Jehovah, * the King of Israel, and his Redeemer,' Jehovah of Hosts : I atn the First and the Last, and beside Me there is no god. 7 Who foretells^ as I do, ever since I founded this ancient people — let them show it and make it plain? and let them, also, reveal the future, and show what will come hereafter.
Israel needs not fear : Jehovah designs good for it.
8 Fear ye not, neither be alarmed ; have not I long since made known to you and declared (what was coming) ? Ye are My wit- nesses. Is there a God beside Me? There is no (other) Rock — (no other true god) ; I know of none.
While Israel can boast in Jehovah, the heathen have only worthless idols to which to look.
9 The makers of idols are all of them foolish ; * the things they delight in are worthless ! they themselves must confess this, ^ for (these images) neither see nor know, and therefore he is put to 10 shame who makes a god, or casts a molten image, that is good
1 Isa. xliv. 2 Heb., Goel.
3 Lit., " calls " — referring to the discourses of the prophets, as in Isa. xl. 2. * Lit., " chaos." * Are their witnesses.
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for nothing! ii Lo, all its worshipperj?^ shall be ashamed, for those that make it are only mortals. Let them all assemble and stand lip together (to defend their gods) ; (but, if they do so) they will only tremble and be put to shame together.
The prophet now leads us into an idol manufactory, such as then drove a great trade.
12 The metal-worker 2 sharpens his chisel ; he works with the eoal^ (of his forge) and fashions the idol with hammers, and finishes it by the strength of his arms ; he grows hungry (at his work) and is exhausted ; if he does not drink water he grows faint.
13 The carpenter"* stretches out his measuring line; maiks out the figure of the god with his chalks, works out the details with diflferent tools, and measures the proportions with his compasses, to make it like a human figure, so that, like a comely man, it may dwell in some house.^ 14 He hews down cedars, and takes the ilex and oak ; he chooses for himself from among the trees of the wood ; he plants a fig tree ^ and the rain nourishes it, 15 and it serves for firing to him, he takes part of it and warms himself; he kindles part and bakes bread with it, and of part he makes a god and worships it: he makes it into an idol and falls down before it ! 16 The one half he has partly burnt in the fire, partly used to make flesh ready to eat ; he roasts meat with it and satisfies his hunger, and warms himself, and says "Aha, I am warm, I have enjoyed the fire." 17 And the re- mainder of it he makes into a god, his graven image, and falling down before it, prostrates himself and prays to it, saying, *' Save me, for thou art my god ! "
18 They have no sense or understanding, for their eyes are
^ Its fellows. Haberim = associates.
2 Lit., "a cutter of iron." ^ Charcoal. Isa. liv. 16.
"^ The prophet has described the making of an idol of metal; he now describes that of a wooden one.
^ There was a house-god in each family. The Teraphim had a human form, at least in some cases (1 Sam. xix. 13-16), and so had most idols.
^ Schrader, K.A.T., 2te Auf., p. 411, the same word is "fig" in Assyrian.
VOL. VI. Y
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shut ^ so thab they do not see, and their heart is closed so that they do not understand. 19 And no one considers in his heart or has sense or understanding to say, " I have burned half of it in the fire, and I have used its coals to bake my bread, and I roasted flesh with it, and ate, and shall I make the other half into an " abomination " ? Shall I fall down before a piece of wood grown out of the ground? 20 He who thus delights in what is worthless 2 is led astray by his blinded' heart, and he cannot free himself from his errors, or save his soul, or say, " Is there not a lie in my right hand ? "
Israel should reflect on these things, and cleave to Jehovah, his gracious God and Saviour.
21 Think on these things, 0 Jacob, and Israel, for thon art My servant. I have proved thee, thou art My servant ; O Israel, I will not forget thee, 22 I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as the morning mist^ thy sins; return to Me, for I have redeemed thee. 23 Sing out, O ye heavens, for Jehovah has done it! Shout aloud, ye valleys and caves of the earth; break forth into jubilee ye mountains, thou forest and all thy trees, for Jehovah has redeemed Jacob, and shown Himself glorious (in His deeds) towards Israel.
The majesty of Jehovah is proclaimed, as Creator of the Universe, and as ruling in the kingdom of Provi- dence, confounding false prophets, confirming the words of His true messengers, and ordaining Cyrus to subdue tlie heathen, especially the mighty power of Babylon.
24 Thus says Jehovah, thy Eedeemer,^ He that formed thee from the womb, — I, Jehovah, am He who makes all things, that stretched forth the heavens alone, and spread abroad the earth by Myself; 25 that brings to nothing the signs of lying babblers, and makes foolish the soothsayers ; that makes " the wise" draw back ashamed, and turns their pref.ended wisdom to folly : 26 that
* Lit., " plastered over," in this ca?e perhaps "closed by fat."
2 Lit., ** to feed" or "feast " on *• ashes.'' ' Lit., " deceived."
* Hos. vi. 4 6 Heb , Goel.
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makes the word of His servant stand, and fulfils the predictions of His messengers; ^ that says of Jerusalem, "It shall be once more inhabited,'' and of the cities of Judah, "They will be re« built, I will restore their rains"; 27 that says to the depths of the waters, ''Be dried up, I will dry up thy streams ";2 28 that says of Cyrus,' "He is My shepherd who will perform all My pleasure,"'' and of Jerusalem, "Let her be rebuilt," and of the temple, " Let thy foundations be laid."^
I Thus says Jehovah to His anointed,^ to Cyrus, whose right hand I hold, that nations might be subdued before him, and that I may uiigird the loins of kiugs,^ and that open before him the wide double gates (of cities), and that the barriers (of towns) may not be shut (against him), 2 I will go before thee and make the hilly ground smooth; two-leaved gates of brass will I break in pieces, and their bars of iron will I cut in sunder,^ 3 and I will give thee the treasures concealed in darkness, and the wealth of secret hiding places,^ that thou mayest know that I, Jehovah, the
* The prophets.
* The Euphrates is here regarded as a sea, as the Nile in other passages. Cyrus is said to have drained off the great river into another channel, so that the waters sank to a foot deep, and his soldiers could go through it on foot. {Herod., i, 191.)
3 " Cyrus " was formerly thought to mean " the Sun,'' but it is really identical with the name of the river Kur. On the monu- ments it is Kiiru. See Delitzsch, Jesaia, 2te Auf., pp. 265, 470.
* Or "work."
* Josephus says, "Now this became known to Cyrus by his reading the book of his prophecy which Esaias left behind him. for this man said, that God had spoken thus to him in secret: 'My will is that Cyrus/ etc. This was prophesied by Esaias one hundred and forty years before the demolition of the temple. When, therefore, Cyrus had read this, and marvelled at the Divine power, an earnest impulse and ambition seized upon him to fulfil what was so written." Jos., Ant., XL i. 2.
^ Isa. xlv. ^ Make them unfit to meet Cyrus in war.
8 Tlie gates and bars of Babylon were of brass and iron, 'Herod., i. 179.
' Enormous treasures were stored in the dark recesses of temples and in the underground vaults of the rich. Some of the
324 THE FIFTH GOSPEL.
God of Israel, am He who called thee by thy name (thus long before). 4 For the sake of Jacob My servant, and Israel My chosen, (not for thine own sake), have I called thee by thy name; I have given thee the honourable title (of "My shepherd") though thou didst not know Me.
5 I am Jehovah and there is none else ; there is no God beside Me; I girded thee (for the victorious performance of My will) though thou didst not know Me, 6 that all men may know, from the rising of the sun even to the west, that there is none beside Me. I am Jehovah, and there is none else, 7 the Former of light and the Creator of darkness ; the source of good and the dis- penser of trouble to man ; I, Jehovah, am He who does all this.
8 Drop down (your showers), ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness ; let the earth open (her bosom), let salvation blossom forth, and righteousness spring up with it ! I, Jehovah, have created it.
But even in Israel, though so .wondrously favoured, there were many who murmured at the long delay iu the fulfilment of the Divine promises. The folly and danger of such an attitude of heart is vividly depicted.
9 Woe to him who strives with his Creator — (him), a poor potsherd amidst the (million) potsherds of the earth !^ Shall the clay say to him that shapes it, " What makest thou "P Sliall thy work say, " He has no hands "? 10 Woe to him who says to his father, *' What begertest thou" ? or to his mother, "What bring- est thou forth''? 11 Thus says Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, concerning things to come ; Ask Me, (not your idols or false prophets), for My sons, and for the work of My hands leave Me to care. 12 I made the earth, and created man on it. My hands stretched out the heavens and I lay My commands on all their host. 13 I have raised up him (Cyrus) in righteousness, and I will smooth all his paths before him ; he shall build My city, and he shall set free My banished ones, without a redemption price and without a reward, says Jehovah of Hosts.
greatest hoards remained untouched till they were plundered by Darius. Herod., i. 187.
* An allusion to man being made from the earth.
THE FIFTH GOSPEL. 325
Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Sabaeans, subdued by Cyrus, and led off by him triumphantly in chains to Asia, will see the wondrous deliverance vouchsafed to Israel, and will entreat to be united with them, feeling that Jehovah alone is the true God.
14 Thus says Jehovah, the wealth of Egypt and the gains of Ethiopia, and the tall Sabaeans, will come over to thee and become thine ;^ they will follow behind thee ; they will go in chains and fall before thee, and pay reverence to thee, saying," God is with thee; there is none else; no God beside.'*
15 Verily thou art a God who hidest thy purposes ; (bnt, once revealed, they show thee), 0 God of Israel, to be, (indeed) a Saviour ! 2
16 Ashamed and confounded are they all ; turned away in confusion are the makers of idols. 17 But Israel shall be saved by Jehovah, with an everlasting salvation : ye will no more be ashamed or confounded for ever. 18 For thus says Jehovah that created the heavens — He is the true God — that made and per- fected the earth : He it was who established it, forming it not to be a waste, but to be inhabited. I am Jehovah, and there is none else. 19 I have not spoken (by My prophets) in secret, (but openly) ; not in some part of the land of darkness : * I have not used empty words to the House of Jacob when I said, " Seek Me,"* I, Jehovah, speak the truth, I foretell what will surely happen.
Jehovah once more appeals to the heathen themselves to judge His claims compared with those of idols.
20 Assemble yourselves and come ; draw near together, ye
^ "Thy slaves." Cyrus transferred the Egyptians taken in his battles with Croesus, to other lands. On the Sabaeans, see vol. i. p. 240. 2 Exclamation of the prophet.
3 Perhaps an allusion to the heathen claim to speak by the dead from Sheol ; perhaps to the dark and uninhabited wilder- ness. Eichhorn translates it, " dark corners of the earth."
■* Cheyne's translation, " Seek me as chaos," is unintelligible. I have adopted the rendering of Luther and De Wette. Eichhorn and. Delitzsch render it " in the deserts ;" Ewald, " seek ye Me in vain," as in A.V.
326 TflE FIFTH GOSPEL.
escaped of the nations.^ They have no understanding that set up the wood of their image, and piay to a god that cannot save. 21 Make known and bring forward your cause ;2 let them — the defenders of the idols— constilb together. Who has declared tliis (great deliverance) from of old? Who has made it known in the past ? Was it not I, Jehovah ? There is no God else, beside Me ; a just God and a Saviour ; there is none beside Me ! 22 Turn ye to Me and be ye, (also), saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else !
23 By Myself have I sworn ; from My mouth that speaks truth has gone forth the word, and it shall not be reversed: That unto Me every knee shall bow and every tongue swear homage. 24 In Jehovah alone, shall it be said, are righteousness and might. To Him shall all come and be ashamed, who raged against Him. 25 In Jehovah shall all the seed of Israel be justified and glory.
A new discourse now begins. The gods of Babylon will be overthrown and carried off in triumph. Israel may well trust a God so faithful, and the idol worshippers ponder His mighty acts and seek a share in His favour.
1 Bel' sinks down,** Nebo falls* prostrate ;^ their images are laid
^ Primarily, the fugitives of the various nations who had fled before Cyrus. In its higher aspect, as a prediction of the future of the Church in all ages, it may also well refer to the remnant of the heathen who escape the final judgments of God on the earth. See ver. 23.
2 Arguments in favour of their idols. ' Isai. xlvi. 4 Bel = Baal. See vol. i. p. 274 ; vol. v. p. 400.
* Nebo, with Merodach and Bel were the chief gods of Baby- lon. So great indeed was Nebo, that nearly all the kings have his name incorporated with their own — as Nabopolassar, Nebu- chadnezzar, and Nabonidus. Nebuchadnezzar calls himself " the beloved of Nebo, Him who rules over the armies of heaven and earth." This god is also spoken of as *' the chief god," the orderer of the world, the god of knowledge, of wisdom, of oaths, the creator of friendship, the author of writing, and the " Scribe of the Universe." Schradery on Isa. xlvi. 1.
^ By this figurative language respecting the gods of Babylon
THE FIFTH GOSPEL. 327
on the beasts of burden and the drnnght-oxen ; yonr gods, which ye carry about, (O Bab^'lonians), are laden on the beasts; they are a heavy load to tlie weary creatures ! 2 The idols fall pros- ti'iite.^ they sink down^ together, they cannot rescue tiieir images — the load of the beasts, — but are gone ^ into captivity !
3 Hearken unto Me, O House of Jacob and all the remnant of the House of Israel, ye who have been a burden (to Me) from your birth,^ 4 and have been caressed by Me since your first hour — I am still the same even to your old age (in the distant future), for even to your grey hairs I will carry (you) ; I have done it (in the past) and will still bear you (in days to come) : I will carry you and deliver you.
5 To whom (of the gods) will ye liken Me, with which of them will you put Me on a footing, or compare Me, that we may be equal? 6 They (the heathen) * shake out their gold from the bag and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith to make it into a god, and then they fall down and worship it. 7 The work- men take it on their shoulders and carry it, and fix it up in its place, and it stands there, and cannot move from the spot; when one flies to it, it cannot answer, nor save him out of his trouble. 8 Think on this, and act manfully ; ^ take it to heart, ye rebellions ! and think on the past — what has happened from of old — (My pre-
nothing more is meant than that the people who worshipped them, and whom they represented, had submitted to a foreign conqueror. As a fact, Cyrus did not disturb the idols, but from the first paid homage to them, as will be shown hereafter, from the inscriptions. ' Collapse — sink together.
* Lit., "as when one's knees give way."
^ Lit., " their souls are gone," i.e. themselves.
* An allusion to the Exodus.
* Whether heathen Jews or others.
* De Wette, Gesenius, and Eichhorn translate the word thus. Knobel, Delitzsch and Kagelsbach render it *' be firm." Cheyne, following Lagarde, has ''be deeply ashamed"; but this seems to me to be very forced. The word comes either from an obsolete root, meaning " to crush or press together," as was done with the cakes of dried grapes — or from the word for " man," but as it occurs only in this single passage, critics difier, and always will do so, as to its force.
328 THE FIFTH GOSPEL.
dictions that bave been fulfilled, My mighty deeds wrought for you, which show) that T am God and none else ; that I am God, and no one like Me, lo revealing the end from the beginning, and from ancient times what has not even yet happened. He who says " My counsel shall stand and I will do all My pleasuie," 1 1 who calls a bird of prey from the East,^ the man who is to execute His purpose, from a far country.* Not only have I spoken it, I will also bring it to pass — I have decreed and will carry it out ! 12 Hearken unto Me, therefore, ye obdurate* ones who are far from being righteous, 13 I have brought near (the full revelation of) My righteousness,^ it is not far off; My deliverance (of Israel) will not be long delayed, and I will give salvation in Zion and My glory to Israel.
In the next utterance of the prophet the impending doom of Babylon is once more proclaimed. The great city is addressed as a haughty virgin of high birth, who is henceforth to pass from splendour to debasing servi- tude. Her treatment of Israel is to be returned into her own bosom, and none of her sorcerers or magi will be able to avert the calamity.
I Come down* (from thy throne of glory) and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground, not on thy throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for thou shalt no more be called " The delicate," and " The luxurious." 2 Take the mill- stones and grind meal, (the work of the lowest slave girl),^ take
1 Elam. 2 Media.
^ Lit., " stout hearted," (in wickedness). The ungodly and re- bellious among the Jews are meant, who refused to believe in the restoration of Israel, or its deliverance by Jehovah.
* In freeing Israel, and thus fulfilling His promises. « Isa. xlvii.
* Grinding the daily flour of the household was the task of tlK- humblest slave girls. Exod, xi. 5, 12. Job xxxi. 10. Horn., Od., XX. 105-108, The mill consists simply of a great stone mortar, in which the upper stone is turned by a handle like those of our coffee mills. Bovet's £'g'i/pi, p. 310. Luke xvii. 35. Matt. xxiv. 4L Land and Booh, p. 527.
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off thy veil, cnt short the long skirts of thy robe, uncover thy leg, wade through streams! 3 Thy nakedness will be uncovered, and thy dishonour seen. I will take vengeance on thee and spare no man. 4 But our Redeemer,^ Jehovah of Hosts is His name, is the Holy One of Israel.
5 Sit silent ; get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chal- deans, for thou shalt no more be called *' The mistress of king- doms." 6 I was wroth with My people (Israel), I dishonoured My inheritance and gave them into thy hands, and thou didst show them no mercy, thou madest thy yoke grievous even to the old (among them). 7 Thou saidst " I will be a queen - for ever ; " thou didst not take these things to hearD, nor remember how they must end.
8 Hear, therefore, thou haughty one, throned, (as thou sup- posest), in security, and saying in thy heart, '* I am (the first of nations) ; there is no other, besides, like me.^ I shall never sit a widow, (ray kingdom lost), or know the loss of children.* 9 Both these calamities will come on thee suddenly, on the same day — loss of children and widowhood ; they will come on thee in fullest measure, notwithstanding the multitude of thy divina- tions, and thy countless magic spells (to ward off evil). 10 Thou fanciedst thyself safe in thy wickedness, thou saidst " no one sees me ! " Thy " wisdom " ^ and knowledge have led thee astray, so that thou sayest in thy heart, " I am (the first of nations) ; there is no other besides." 1 1 Therefore evil shall come on thee which thou knowest not how to charm away ; ^ calamity shall overtake thee, and thou shalt not be able to avert it by thy rites ; ' utter ruin shall befall thee suddenly and unexpectedly ! ^
12 Keep on then with thy divinations, and thy many magic arts, in which thou hast toiled since thy youth ; it may be that
^ Heb., Goel. ' Lady, mistress.
3 Holds the same rank. Other kingdoms were not worthy the name. ^ The loss of States.
5 Babylon was the great seat of the " wise " and " learned " in magic arts connected with heathenism.
^ I agree with Knobel, Diestel, Ewald, Delitzsch, Eichhorn, and others in preferring this reading.
" Lit., " to atone for it."
* Without thy knowing (beforehand).
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thou mayest get good from them, and even strike terror (into thine enemies)! 13 Bat if thou art wearied with the spells,* (prescribed to avert destruction), let those skilled in reading the heavens, the observers of the stars, who tell thee, each new moon, what is about to come on thee, stand up and save thee ! ^
But all such helps are vain.
14 Behold, all these (soothsayers and diviners) will be like stubble; the flames (of the coming calamity) will burn up them as well as others ; they will not be able to save even their own lives from the conflagration; it will be no gentle fire to warm oneself at, or to sit before !
15 Thus will it be with (these dealers in sorceries) with whom thou weariest thyself, trafficking with them ' (in their arts) from thy youth— they will flee every one bis own way— none shall (be able to) save thee !
A new discourse now begins, addressed to the great body of the exiles. Honouring Jehovah by outward homage, their heart and life were alike contrary to His law. Having predicted their captivity on account of their rebelliousness, long before it took place. He had thus shown Himself to be the only true God. He was about to take steps towards their deliverance. Would that they might even now give ear, and share in the glorious salvation near at hand !
I Hear ye this, O House of Jacob,^ called by the name of Israel, come forth from the waters of Jndah,^ — who swear by the name of Jehovah, and praise the God of Israel, but not in sincerity or in righteousness. 2 For they call themselves (children) of the Holy
» " Counsels " given by the diviners. ' This is said in irony.
3 Some prefer to understand this clause of the traders with whom Babylon had driven its mighty commerce.
4 Isa. xlviii.
• The patriarch of the tribe is compared to a fountain head.
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City,^ and stay themselves ^ on the God of Israel, Jehovah of Hosts is His name.
Jehovah alone is to be acknowledged, if only from His having so long before predicted the events about to happen.
3 The former things, (now fulfilled), I announced long ago; out of My mouth they went forth,^ and I predicted them ; I carried them out suddenly (and unexpectedly), and they came to pass. 4 Because I knew that thou wast hard in thy heart, and that thy neck was a sinew of iron,^ and thy forehead brass, 5 I foretold the future to thee from of old; I declared it to thee before it came to pass, lest thou shouldst say, "My idol has done it, my image of wood and my image of metal have decreed it." ' 6 Thou hast heard (the prophecies) — there, see them all fulfilled, must not you yourselves own it ? From this time forth I foretell new things to you, hidden things which you did not know. 7 They are ordained now, not long ago ; thou hast not heard of them before to-day, lest thou shouldst say, '' Behold, I knew them." 8 Thou hast neither heard them nor known them, nor was thine ear opened to them in the past, for I knew that thou art alto- gether untrue to me, and that thou wast called Kebellious from thy birth. 9 (It is only) for My name's sake I have restrained My anger, and for My own glory that I am patient towards thee, not to cut thee off. 10 Behold, I have refined thee, but not as silver (is refined);^ I have purified thee in the furnace of
^ This name for Jerusalem occurs here for the first time. It is found only in Isaiah and the later books, Dan. ix. 24 ; Neh. xi. I, 18 ; Matt. iv. 5 ; xxvii. 53.
2 Call on Jehovah ; in words, at least, not forsaking Him.
3 Tiiis is the seventh appeal to prophecy as a witness for God. * Like an iron band or collar.
^ Most of the Jews remained in Babylon among the heathen, whom they imitated more and more, becoming almost a part of them. Ezekiel xx. 30 tells us the fearful extent to which idolatry prevailed among them.
^ The melting of silver requires a great heat, 1873'^ of Fahren- heit. The troubles set on Israel were heavy, but not over-
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affliction, ii For My own sake, for My own sake only, wilt I fulfil My promise,^ for how should My name be profaned ? Nor will I give My glory to another.
Oh that Israel would take to heart that Jehovah alone has foretold what is about to happen, and is thus the only true God !
12 Hearken to me, 0 Jacob, and Israel, my called one : I am He, I am the First and the Last. 13 My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand spanned the heavens ; I spoke My creating word to them, and, forthwith (both earth and heaven) stood up (before me) !
14 All ye (sons of Israel) assemble yourselves and hear. Who among the gods has foretold this (which is about to happen)? He whom Jehovah has loved will perform His will on Babylon, and His chastisement on the Chaldeans ! 15 I, I have said it, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way shall be pros- perous. 16 Draw near to Me, hear ye this, I have not, from the beginning, spoken in secret. From the time what is happening began, there was I, (directing and ordering all).
The prophet himself next speaks to Israel.
And now the Lord Jehovah has sent me, with His Spirit. 17 Thus says Jehovah, thy Kedeemer,^ the Holy One of Israel : I am Jehovah thy God, who teacheth thee to profit, who leadeth thee in the way thou shouldst go. 1 8 Oh that tliou hadst hearkened to My commandments ! Then would thy peace have been (full) as a river, and thy righteousness' like the waves of the sea; 19 thy seed, also, would have been as the sand, and thy children
whelming. Eichhorn renders the verse, ** I smelted thee because thou wast not pure silver, and drew off the best from thee in the furnace of affliction."
1 Lit., " do it."
2 Goel.
3 Eighteousness is here, from the parallelism, equivalent to ''prosperity," given them by God, in His righteousness — that is, in the righteous, or faithful, fulfilment of His promises.
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as its grains.^ Thy ^ name would not have been cut oflf (from the Holy Land) nor destroyed (in it) from before me.
The faithful remnant of Israel will, however^ be de- livered. Their triumphant departure from Babylon rises before tbe eyes of the prophet. Perhaps he intends an appeal to them, to keep this great aim steadily in view.
20 Get ye out of Babylon ! flee from Chaldea ! Proclaim it ! shout it aloud with rejoicing cries ! tell it ! send it abroad to the ends of the earth ! say, " Jehovah has redeemed His servant Jacob, and they suffered no thirst in the deserts through which He led them ; for He caused waters to flow out of the rocks for them ; He clave the stone and the waters gushed out." 22 But there is no peace, no prosperity, to the ungodly (among you, who follow idols and refuse to hear My voice) says Jehovah !
With the forty-ninth chapter a new section of the book opens. Israel, in its various and often opposing features, is now the theme. The " Servant of Jehovah " is in- troduced as turning to the heathen nations, and reveal- ing Himself to the Gentiles, in weariness at the stubborn impenitence of the mass of His people.
* Hearken to me,^ ye distant isles and coasts of the sea ! Listen, ye far-oS" peoples : Jehovah called me (to His service) from the womb; from my mother's lap He called me by my name (as His servant).^ 2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword,^ He hid me in the shadow of His hand (to protect me), and made me a smooth arrow, and put me in His quiver.^ 3 " Thou art My
* Lit., "entrails," the antecedent is almost necessarily "the sand," but some make " the sea " the antecedent, and translate the word " entrails " as referring to the fish. Cheyne does so, hardly with propriety, as I think. 2 Heb., His.
3 Isa. xlix. 4 jer. i. 5. Gal. i. 15.
5 Heb. iv. 12. Eph. vi. 17. Eev. i. 16; xix. 15. ^ The figures of the sword and arrow illustrate the power of His words, sharp and penetrating.
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servant, 0 Israel," said He, "in whom I will glorify Myself." 4 But I had said, " I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain; verily my right, (the recompense of my toil), is with God, and my reward with my God."
But, though for the time cast down, the Servant knows that the time of his reward will come, -when he will restore the kingdom of God among men, and spread the worship of Jehovah among the heathen, and himself be raised to high honour.
5 To this replied Jehovah,* who formed me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob again to Him, and that Israel might be gathered to Him ; for this am I honoured in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God is become my strength. 6 He answered, I say, speaking thus : '* It is too little that thou shouldst be My servant, merely to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to lead back the preserved of Israel : so I appoint thee to be a light to the heathen, that thou mayest be My salvation unto the ends of the earth." ^
7 Thus says Jehovah, the Redeemer^ of Israel, his Holy One, to Him who is despised of men, to Him whom the people abhor, to the servant of rulers : kings shall see (Him) and rise up (in His honour), princes shall bow down (before Him) in reverence to Jehovah, who is faithful (to His promises), and to the Holy One of Israel that chose thee.
8 Thus says Jehovah: In the season of grace I will hear thee, and in the day of salvation I will help thee, and I will protect thee, and appoint thee for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to portion out the desolate heritages, 9 that thou mayesD say to the prisoners *' go forth," and to those that are in the darknesses (of dungeons) " come to the light." They shall feed (as the flock of Jehovah) along the ways, and even on all the bare hills there will be pasture for them. 10 They shall not hunger
* Eichhorn.
2 It is clear that this description of the Servant of Jehovah could not refer to " Israel," as some have thought. It can, indeed, apply only to one, the great Messiah, Jesus Christ.
3 Heb., Goel.
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nor thirst, neither shall the mirage distress thera, nor the sun smite them, for He that has pity on them shall lead them, and shall guide them to springs of water, ii And I will level all My mountains into a (smooth) road, and raise My highways (in the valleys). 12 Behold, these come from far, (in the west), and, lo, these from the distant north, and these from the (southern) sea, and these from the land of China ! ^
13 Sing, 0 Heavens, be joyful, O Earth, break forth into jubilee, O mountains, for Jehovah has comforted His people and has pity on His afflicted ones. 14 Sion said, " Jehovah has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me." 15 Can a woman forget her suck- ing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Even she may forget — yet I will not forget thee! 16 Behold, I have written thy name on the palms of My hands; ^ thy walls are continually before Me. 17 Thy sons shall make baste to thee, (to rebuild thee) ; those that destroyed and laid thee waste shall depart from thee.
18 Lift up thine eyes round about, O Jerusalem, and look ! All these (throngs) gather themselves together and come to thee. As I live, says Jehovah, thou shalt surely array thyself with them as (a woman with her) ornaments, and bind them round thee as a bride doth her girdle of price ! 19 Thy ruins and desolate places, and thy ravaged land, will be too narrow for its inhabit- ants, and those that destroyed thee ^ will be far away. 20 The children born to thee whilst thou layest childless — (thy people carried to exile) — shall yet say in thine ears, " The place is too narrow for me; make room, (my neighbour), that I may have space to dwell." 21 Then shalt thou, (Jerusalem), say in thine heart, " Who has borne me these, seeing I was robbed of my children and unfruitful, — exiled and an outcast? Behold, I was left altogether lonely : where have these been ? "
Even the heathen will aid in the restoration of the banished ones.
* Lit., " Sinim." The farthest east of the world. See Ges., Thes., 8. v., and Delitzsch, Jes., 2te Auf., pp. 712 ff. The " dis- persion " would gather from all the earth. Tsin was an ancient name of China. Noldeke questions if China be meant, but on weak grounds. Libel. Lex., vol. v. p. 331.
^ Isa. xliv. 5. • Lib., " swallowed thee up."
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22 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah : Behold I will liffc up My hand to the nations, and set up My banner to the peoples, and they shall bring thy (young) sons in their bosom, and thy (young) daughters on their shoulders. 23 And kings shall be thy foster fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers ; they shall bow down to thee, with their face to the earth, and kiss the dust of thy feet, 1 and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah— Him, trusting in whom, no one shall be ashamed.
The faint-hearted doubt the possibility of deliverance from Babylon, but the prophet repeats the Divine assurance.
24 "Can the prey be taken from the mighty one; can the captives of the terrible one really escape? "
25 Thus says Jehovah, Even the captives of the mighty one shall be taken (from him), and the prey of the terrible one shall be delivered, for I will fight with him who fights with thee, and I will save thy children. 26 And I will make thy oppressors eat their own flesh — (turning against each other), and they will be drunk with their own blood, as with sweet wine, ^ and all flesh shall know that I, Jehovah, am thy Saviour, and that thy Ee- deemer is the Mighty One of Jacob.
Jehovah closes this address by repudiating once more the idea that He has cast ofif Israel, as the murmurers alleged.
I Thus says Jehovah :^ Where is your mother's bill of divorce- ment with which I have dismissed her?'' To which of My creditors have I sold you, (My children) ? ^ Behold, ye were sold
1 Lit., "lick up."
2 After the first victory of Cyrus over the Babylonians, various sections of the Babylonian army deserted to the conqueror, and henceforth fought against their former brethren. {Cyrop., iv. 2.) The Babylonian vassal kings, Gobryas and Gadatas, did the same, and this defection and treachery became general. (Cyrop., iv. 6 ; V. 1-3 ; xlvi. 1, etc.)
8 Isa. 1. '* Deut. xxiv. 1.
5 2 Kings iv. 1. Neh. v. 5. Matt, xviii. 25.
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for your sins, and for your iniquities was your mother put away. 2 Why, when I came to you (by My prophets), was there no man (who heard and obeyed) ? Why, when I called, was there no one to answer (and give ear) ? Is My hand too short, (too weak), to redeem (you) ? Have I no power to deliver ? Behold, by My rebuke I dry up the sea, and turn rivers into dry land ; their fish stink because there is no water, and die of thirst. 3 I clothe the heavens with darkness, and cover them with the black- ness of sackcloth ! *
A new section now introduces the Servant of Jehovah speaking in his own person.
4 The Lord Jehovah ^ has given me the tongue of the learned, that I may know how to speak comfort to the weary ; ^ every morning He wakes my ear — wakes it to hear instruction.'' 5 The Lord Jehovah has opened my ear, and I have not resisted nor turned away. 6 I gave my back to the s miters, and my cheeks to them that plucked ofi" the hair; I have not hidden my face from shame and spitting.* 7 But the Lord Jehovah will help me, therefore I am not overwhelmed (by such treatment), bub have set my face like a flint (against my opponents), and know that I shall not be put to shame. 8 He is near that justifies me ; who will contend with me? let us stand forth together. Who is my adver.^ary ? let him come near to me. 9 Behold, the Lord Jehovah will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they will all perish like a (moth-eaten) garment, the moth shall
1 Eev. vi. 12. Isa. xx. 2. Joel i. 8. * iga. I.
3 Lit., " to help the weary with a word." * Lit., " as the learned."
5 The exact applicability of this to Our Lord will strike all. Jeremiah also had experience of such shameful treatment ( Jer. xx. 2, 7). We find it also in the Messianic Psalm, xxii. 7. Job further speaks of it (Job xxx. 10). Scourging was common (2 Cor. xi. 24). So also the seizing the beard and pulling it out (Neh. xiii. 25). Hor. Senn., iii. 1, 133. See Matt. xx. 67 ; xxvii. 30 ; 2 Chron. xxv. 16; Acts V. 40. Gesenius quotes a poem, in which the hair torn from the beard of an Abyssinian martyr, and the teeth struck from his mouth, were gathered and sent oflf to a distance as relics. Jesaia, vol. ii. p. 142.
' VOL. VI. Z
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eat them up. lo Who is there among yon that fears Jehovah, that hearkens to the voice of His Servant, though he walk in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of Jeho- vah and stay himself upon his God.
Destruction will in the end overtake tlie adversaries.
II Behold, all ye that kindle a fire (against the godly), and (as it were) gird yourselves with firebrands: Out, get ye into the flame of your own fire, and into the firebrands ye have kindled ! This shall ye have from My hand (says Jehovah); ye shall lie down in sorrow ! ^
Such discourses, read and pondered by the godly among the exiles, were the means designed by Providence to keep alive and strengthen faith in Jehovah. The preach- ing of the days of the Captivity comes before us in these verses. " Morning by morning/' to use the phrase of the prophets, fresh exhortations quickened the re- lisrious revival. The next runs thus : —
•to'
I Hearken to Me,^ ye that strive after righteousness, and seek Jehovah ! Look to the rock from which ye were hewn and the quarry-hole from which ye were dug.* 2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah, that bare you ; how I called Him when only a single individual, and yet blessed and increased Him.^ 3 For Jehovah will (assuredly) comfort Zion. He will comfort all her ruins : He will make her like Eden, though she is now a wilder- ness, and like the garden of Jehovah, though she is now a desert ; joy and gladness shall (once more) be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
4 Hearken to Me, My people : give ear to Me, O My nation,
1 Luke xvi. 24. ^ Isa. li.
' A figure for the origin of the nation, explained in the next line.
* If Israel was protected from all enemies and blessed when it consisted of Abraham and Sarab alone — the nation being yet unborn— how much more would God protect and bless His people now, against all foes and oppressors 1
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for instruction will go forth from Me and I will set np My Law for a light of the peoples, 5 My righteousness (in the fulfilment of My promises) is near; My salvation is about to break forth, and My (resistless) arms will jndge the nations : the isles (of the west) will hope in Me, and on My arm will they trust.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look on the earth be- neath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth fall to pieces like a moth-eaten garment, and its inhabitants die like flies,^ but My salvation shall be for ever, and My righteous- ness will never perish.^ 7 Hearken to Me, ye who know righteous- ness, ye people in whose heart is My Law ; fear not the reproach of frail men, neither be afraid of their revilings. 8 For the moth shall eat them up as it does a garment, and the worm shall eat them as it does wool, but My righteousness shall be for ever, and My salvation from generation to generation.
Animated by such words from Jehovah, the prophet directly apostrophizes Him, or rather, His mighty arm.
9 Awake ! awake ! put on strength, 0 arm of Jehovah ! Awake, as in the ancient days, the generations of old. Art not thf)u the arm that cut off the (Egyptian) sea-monster,^ that hewed in pieces the dragon"* (of the Nile). 10 Art thou not it that dried up the (Red) Sea, the waters of that great flood ; that made the depths of the sea a path for the ransomed to pass over ?
Who can doubt, then, that He will deliver Israel from Babylon !
II So, the redeemed of Jehovah will return (from Babylon), and come amidst loud rejoicings to Zion ; everlasting joy, (like a
1 The Chinnim of the Egyptian plagues, Ex. viii. 12, 14; Ps. cv. 31. The Talmudists used the word of lice, but in error.
' Lit., " break in pieces (like a ruin)."
3 Rahab = sea monster, used as a figure of Egypt — Ps. Ixxxvii. 4; Ixxxix. 11; Ixxiv. 13, 14. Pharaoh is spoken of in the same way, Ezek. xxix. 3; xxxii. 3; so also Babylon, Is. xxvii. 1. *' Seas," it must be remembered refer to the Nile and its great canals.
* The crocodile = " the dragon," is stamped on Roman-Egyptian coins as a symbol of the country. Ges., Jes., vol. ii. p. 146.
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garland) on their head ; they will reach out their hand to glad- ness and joy at last, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.^
Jehovah again addresses the exiles.
12 I, even I, ara your comforter; who art thou that thou art afraid before man who dies ; before the son of man who withers like grass,2 13 and forgettest Jehovah, thy Maker, that stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth ; and that thou tremblest continually, all the day long, before the fury of the oppressor, when he draws (the bow) to destroy thee? And where is the fury of the oppressor ? 14 The prisoner bowed down in the dungeon will speedily be set free and shall not die in the pit, neither shall his bread fail ; 1 5 for I am Jehovah thy God, who roiiseth up the sea so that its waves roar. Jehovah of Hosts is His name. 16 And I put My words in thy mouth, (0 servant of Jehovah), and cover thee in the shadow of My hand, to (make a new spiritual order of things), to stretch out (a new) heaven, to lay the foundations of (a new) earth, and to say to Zion "Thou art My people."
The prophet now addresses Jerusalem, as the capital of the glorious Theocracy thus to be set up.
17 Awake! awake! arise, O Jerusalem, who hast emptied, at the hand of Jehovah, the cup of His wrath ; who hast drunk and swallowed down the dregs of the great cup that made thee reel. 18 There was no one to lead her^ of all the sons she had borne; no one of all the sons she had brought up to take her by the hand, (when thug* drunk with God's wrath). 19 Two calamities happened to thee, who will console thee ? desolation and destruc- tion, famine and the sword, how shall I comfort thee ? 20 Thy sons fainted, they lay (powerless) at the corners of all the streets, like a stag caught in a net ; they were full of the wrath of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God.^
1 The expression is, literally, a figure of one reaching forth the hand and greeting, after a long absence from them.
2 Lit., " is given (to withering) like gi ass." 8 Jerusalem.
* The reference is to Jerusalem on the eve of its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar.
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21 Therefore, hear now this, thou afflicted and drunken, hut not with wine. 22 Thus says thy Lord. Jehovah, — thy God who conducts the cause of His people. Behold I take out of thy hand the cup that made thee reel, the great cup of My wrath ; thou shalt not drink it again. 23 I put ic into the hand of them that afflicted thee, who said to thy soul, "Cast thyself down that we may walk on thee, and thou madest thy back like the ground and like the street, to them that trod over thee.^
I Awake, Awake," put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy best robes, 0 Jerusalem, thou holy city ! for heathen — uncircum- cised and uncleim — shall no more come unto thee. 2 Shake off from thee the dust (in which thou hast sat) ; arise and sit (once more, as a queen) : loosen the chains (of thy slavery), from thy neck, 0 captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus says Jehovah : Ye were sold to Babylon without any payment (for you, to Me, your Lord); ye shall be redeemed from her without money (paid for you, to them). 4 For thus says the Lord Jehovah : My people went down of old^ to Egypt, to sojourn there (and were oppressed and enslaved), and (at a later time) Assyria oppressed them without provocation. 5 And now — what have I to do here (in Babylon), says Jehovah, since My people have been torn away (from their fatherland) undeservedly, and they that lord ic over them yell out their hatred of them, says Jehovah, and My name is continually, all day long, reviled. 6 Therefore My people shall know My name, (in the revelation of My Divine power), and learn in that day, that it is I who say, " Behold, here am I."
Full of glowing hope * the prophet sees the great deliver- ance as if already accomplished, his brethren joyfully proclaiming the good news, and messengers hastening to Judah to announce them there.
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that
* In the ceremony of the Doseh in Egypt, lines of people cast themselves down side by side, while personages reported holy ride over them. See Land and Book, p. 156. Lane's Modem Egyptians.
s Isa. lii. » Lit., " at the first." * Isa. lii. 7.
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brings good tidings, who proclaims peace, who announces good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, " Thy God reigneth ! " 8 Hark ! thy watchmen (the true prophets) * lift up the voice (from their tower of vision) ; they lift up a prolonged cry of joy ,2 for they see eye to eye — (close at hand) ^ — the return of Jehovah to Zion. 9 Break forth into loud rejoicing, shout all together, ye ruins of Jerusalem, for Jehovali has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem ! 10 Jehovah has bared His holy arm^ in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. 1 1 Get you out ! Get you out ! set forth from this place— Babylon — take nothing that is unclean ; get ye out of the midst of her ; purify yourselves (O Levites), who bear the (sacred Temple) vessels of Jehovah.* 12 (But all this can be leisurely done), for ye shall not go out (as from Egypt) ^ in trembling haste, nor will your march be a flight (as it was then) ; Jehovah will go before you ; the God of Israel will guard your rear.
From this vision of the temporal restoration of Israel, we pass to a new and distinct section of the prophet. The Servant of Jehovah, in the most exalted use of the title, is once more introduced, nor can any one hesitate respecting its application who accepts the New Testa- ment as inspired, since the passage is continually referred in the Gospels and Epistles to our Lord Jesus Christ.^
1 Isa. Ivi. 10. 2 Land and Booh, p. 298.
* Num. xiv. 14 Exod. xxxiii. 11. Num. xii. 8.
* The heroes of antiquity threw back their upper garment from the right arni and shoulder, in order to fight without hindrance. See Ezek. iv. 7. If one were unwilling or unable to fight, he kept his hand in the bosom of his robe. Ps. Ixxiv. 11.
^ The land of Babylon was unclean. They were to take nothing defiled with them, and guard themselves from Levitical impurity, since Jehovah was their leader. The Levites especially, who bore the vessels of the Temple, now restored, were to purify themselves — by cutting the hair, and washing their clothes and persons. Lev. viii. 6. Num. viii. 6 ff.
« Exod. xii. 39. Deut. xvi. 3.
' Compare Isa. xlii. 1 ; Matt. xii. 18 ff. ; Acts xiii. 47 ; Isa. xlix.
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Jehovah is the speaker, and the wondrous story of " His Servant/' the subject.
13 Behold ^ My Servant shall prosper ; he shall be high and glorious and greatly exalted.
14 In like manner as many were shocked at thee — so marred and unlike that of a man was his visage, and his form unlike that of the sons of men — 15 so, will he fill many nations with wonder; 2 kings shall close their mouths before him (in recognition of his higher dignity), for that which had not been told them they shall see, and that which they had not heard they shall behold.
The prophet laments the coldness with which his revelations respecting the Servant of Jehovah will be received, and then proceeds.
8, with 2 Cor. vi. 2. Isa. lii. 15, with Rom. xv. 21. Isa. liii. 1, with John xii. 38; Rom. x. 16. Isa. liii. 4, wirh Matt. viii. 17. Isa. liii. 5, 6, with 1 Pet. ii. 24. Isa. liii. 7, 8, with Acts v. 32. Isa. liii. 9, with 1 Pet. ii. 22. Isa. liii. 12, with Luke xxii. 37.
Various critics have advanced one or other of the following views. 1. That the Servant of Jehovah was the whole body of the Exile.«!. 2. The better portion of them. 3 The idealized office of the prophets, especially the Messiah, the ideal of all prophets. 4 The Messiah. The passages especially included in these inter- pretations are Isa. xlii. 1-7; xiix. 1-9; lii. 12; liii. 12.
1 Isa. lii.
2 The verb here is always tran.^lated " Sprinkle," in the A. Y,, but this gives no intelligible meaning. In harmony with Hebrew usage, Jewish interpreters understand it of the dashing up of water, so as to scatter it in separate drops, and apply it to the casting out of the Gentiles before Israel. Miihlau und Yolck, following Gesenins {Thes., p. 868), compare the Arab Xaza — (same sound as Heb. verb), and give the meaning of " springing up for joy or fear." Thence it is used of water *' springing up " over any obstacle, and hence of its being sprinkled, or thrown off in drops by any sudden force. " To sprinkle," so as to purify from guilt, is always connected with a preposition, and it would give no fitting parallel here to the rest of the verse.
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I Who has believed * our report,^ and to whom has the arm of Jehovah — His infinite might — been revealed? 2 For he (the Servant of Jehovah) grew up before Him ^ like a tender shoot-* and as a sucker (from a root) in parched ground; he had no form nor comeliness,^ and when we looked there was no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows ^ and acquainted with grief,^ and like one before whom we hide our face ; he was despised and we esteemed him not. 4 Yerily he has borne our pains and carried our sorrows,** but we regarded him as one stricken, smitten, and laden with suffering, by God (for his sins). 5 Yet he was pierced for our transgressions, he was beaten down^ for our iniquities; the chastisement^" of our peace ^^ lay upon him, and with his stripes ■we are healed. 6 All we, like sheep, had gone astray, we had turned, every one, to his own way, yet Jehovah caused the iniquity of us all to come on him.^^ 7 He was evil treated, but he suffered willingly and opened not his mouth; like the sheep that is led to the slaughter, and the lamb that is dumb before its shearers, so he opened not his mouth. 8 He was taken out of prison and from judgment, *^ and, among his generation, who was there that said to himself, '* He was cut off from the land of the living, he was stricken for the transgressions of My people ? " 9 They gave him his grave with the wicked and
1 Isa. liii. 2 Message, preaching, tidings.
3 So in Heb. Text. Ewald proposes " us," which certainly suits the following clauses. ^ The sucker of a tree.
5 Some render it " glory," or " majesty."
^ According to some, " pains," but it also means sorrows. Exod. iii. 7. Lam. i. 12, 18. Ps. xxxii. 10 ; xxxviii. 18.
^ Eendered sometimes, "sickness," but it also means "grief," lit. " knowing grief," or possibly " sickness." Delitzsch translates, "a man of pains and acquainted with sickness." So also Ewald, De Wette, Knobel.
8 Or *' sicknesses." • Lit., " hurled down, and trampled on."
^^ Punishment. " Which brought us peace.
12 How impossible it is that the verse could bo spoken of more than one person !
^2 The suffering, from God, he was enduring in the stead of the people.
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with the rich at his death,^ because he had done no wrong and there was no deceit in his mouth. lo Yet it pleased Jehovah to smite him:- He put him to grief.^ Bat though he gave His soul an otfering for sin, he shall see his seed, and live long, and the will of Jehovah will prosper in his hand. il The travail of his soul (being over), he looks back (on his life and work) and is satisfied; by his knowledge shall My righteous Servant make many righteous, and he shall bear on himself the load of their iniquities.
12 Thereloie will I give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoil with the strong,'* for he poured out his soul to death, and let himself be numbered with the transgressors, whereas he had borne the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
Another address to Israel^ and especially to Jerusalem, or rather to the ideal Zion of the future, embracing the Churcli in all ages, follows. Read by the faithful among the Hebrew exiles in Egypt, and, far off, on the banks of the Chebar, such words must have promoted the religious enthusiasm that made the Return possible ; for, even now, they fill the heart with devout emotion.
I Sing aloud,* 0 (Zion, thou) barren One who didst not bear children,^ (thy people being in exile) ; break forth into songs of joy, and cry aloud in thy gladness^, thou that didst not bring forth ! Far more are Thy children, though thou now liest desolate, than the children of the married woman, says Jehovah. 2 Widen the space of thy tents ; ' let them stretch out their coverings without stint ; lengthen thy tent- ropes and make thy tent-pins strong.* 3 For thou shalt spread forth on the right hand and the left, and thy sons shall drive out the heathen,^ and inhabit anew the (now) desolate cities.
^ Heb., deaths = martyr-death, pi. of honour. 2 Lit., " to crush Him to pieces " — as straw, for instance, beneath the rough sledge. ^ ^g i.^\^ grief — misery— on him.
* A great company. Ewald. ^ Isa, liv.
^ Isa. xlix. 21. 7 Sing, in Heb.
8 Lit., "break out.'* • Lit., "nations."
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4 Fear not, for thou shalt not be put to slianie ; be not cast down, for thou shalt not be a reproach; but wilt (instead), forget the shame of thy youth (in Egypt), and wilt not any more think of the reproach of thy childlessness,^ (when thy sons were in Baby- lon). 5 For thy Maker is thy husband, Jehovah of Hosts is His name, and thy Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel — the God of the whole earth is His name. 6 For Jehovah hath called thee back again to Him (as a husband recalls the dejected and broken- spirited wife of His youth, once sent away in shame). 7 For a brief moment I cast thee out, but with great pity will I gather thee (back to thy land). 8 In vehement indignation I hid My face for a moment from thee, but with everlasting loving- kindness will I have pity on thee, says Jehovah, thy Redeemer. 9 For this (punishment of thine) is like the waters of Noah's flood with Me ; as I swore that they should no more overflow the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be wroth with thee, or chasten thee (again). 10 For the mountains may move (from their place) and the hills be thrown (down), but My loving-kindness shall not remove from thee, nor My covenant of peace (towards thee) be broken, says Jehovah, that has pity upon thee.
Jerusalem, the centre of the new Kingdom of God, will be beyond measure glorious. The boldest style of Eastern imagery is used to bring before the mind the splendour of the New Theocracy about to be established. The capital, as its centre, is idealized in language whicli could never be literally applied to any city.
II 0 Thou afflicted,^ tempest tossed one, who hast had no com- forter ! Behold I will set ofE^ thy (white) stones with glittering black"* and garnish thy foundations with sapphires, 12 and I will make thy battlements of rubies, and thy gates of carbuncles,^ and thy pinnacles of sparkling precious stones. 13 And all thy
* Lit., •' widowhood." " Isa. liv. 11. 3 Cement.
^ Lit., "Antimony" with which Jewish women painted their eyelids. 2 Kings ix. 30. Jer. iv. 30, 1 Chron. xxix. 2. Job. xlii. 14, has a daughter called Kerenhappuch = " Horn of eye-paint."
^ Stones of fiery splendour.
THE FIFTH GOSPEL. 347
children will be disciples of Jehovah, and great shall be their peace. 14 Through righteousness shalt thou be securely es- tablished ; thou shalt be (kept) far from dread of evil, for thou shalt not need to fear, and thou shalt have no thought of terror, for alarm shall not come near thee. 15 Behold, if strife be raised against thee, it will not be from Me ; if an enemy gather in war against thee, he shall fall beneath thy walls.^
No one shall prevail against Zion, for Jehovah has all the agents of danger under His control.
16 Behold, I have created the armourer who blows the coals in the smithy and makes a weapon for war,^ and I have created the destroyer to destroy. 17 No weapon formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise in accusation against thee, thou shalt prove guilty. This is the inheritance of the servants of Jehovah, and their righteousness given by Me, says Jehovah.
The apathy and moral insensibility of the exiles to the exhortations of the faithful prophets were well-nigh in- vincible. They listened, but gave no further heed. The attractions of Babylon, with its rich soil and commercial prosperity, outweighed, with all but a few, the induce- ments to return to the barren hills of Judah. Where they were they had the protection of a great empire, and opportunities on every hand for advancing their worldly interests ; in Judea they would have to face poverty and danger. Hence they were as little disposed to go back to Palestine as the rich Jews of Europe or America are at this moment. Yet no supineness on the* part of their hearers could damp the ardour of the prophets. Sent by Jehovah to preach the Return, they exhausted every form of address to make it popular with their fellow exiles. But the appeal, which next comes before
* Lit. "he shall fall to thee " = " shall be broken against thee." 2 Lit.. *• for its work."
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US, reaches, beyond the immediate national crisis, to the infinitely more glorious days of the Messiah. Jehovah Himself is introduced as urging them to seek the bless- ings He offers, rather than the material good afforded by Babylon, which, after all, did not satisfy the deeper craving of their hearts.
I Ho/ every one that thirstetb, come ye to the waters ; ye that have no money, come, buy and eat ! yea, come, buy wine and milk 2 without money and without price ! 2 Why spend' money for what is not bread, and your earnings for that which does not satisfy? Hearken! hearken! to Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. 3 Incline your ear and come unto Me; hear and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the neverfailing mercies'* promised to David.^ 4 Behold, I have appointed him^ a witness to the nations — a ruler and commander to the nations. 5 Behold, thou (0 Messiah-Prince) shalt call a people that thou dost not know, and a nation which thou hast not known, shall run to thee, on account of Jehovah, thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because He has made thee glorious.
The prophet now turns to the perverse and stolidly obdurate among his countrymen, urging them to seek, while they might, an interest in the wondrous future of their race.
6 Seek ye Jehovah, while He may be found; call ye upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts ; and let him return to Jehovah,
1 Isa. hr.
2 Jerome, on this verse, tells us that it had led to the custom, in the Latin Churches, but not the African, of giving wine and milk to the newly-baptized.
3 Lit., " weigh."
* Or, loving-kindnesses. Ps. Ixxxix. 28.
5 2 Sara. vii. 12-16. The ideal Hebrew king seems to be taken as an anticipation, in a measure, of the greater David, the true Messiah. * The Messiah.
THE FIFTH GOSPEL. 349
and He will have mercy upon him, and to onr God, for He will abundantly pardon. 8 For My thoughts are nob your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says Jehovah. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
The promises of man are not always trustworthy, but those of Jehovah are sure as the course of nature.
10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither, but moisten the earth, and make it bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 1 1 so shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth : it shall not return to Me without result, but shall accomplish that which I please, and make that prosper for which I sent it.
The exiles will assuredly, notwithstanding all that is in the way of their liberation, go forth from Babylon, with joy.
12 For ye will go forth (from Babylon) with joy, and be led out in peace ; the mountains and the hills will break forth into sing- ing, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn bush (of the desert) there will come up (on the line of march) the cypress, and instead of the prickly shrub of the wilderness there will spring up the myrtle tree, and they will remain for an everlasting name and sign of Jehovah's (great deeds), that will nob pass away.
The superstitious and merely formal observance of the Sabbath, which had been censured by the prophet in his own day,^ still prevailed in Babylon.^ A few, how- ever, kept the sacred day more worthily.
I Thus says Jehovah :' Keep the Law and practise the right, for My salvation* is near at hand, and My righteousness is about
1 Isa. i. 2 Ezek. xx. 12, 13, 26 ; xli. 24. ^ isa. Ivi.
* The deliverance from Babylon. For "the right," or " righteousness," the Kabbis read " charity," making that virtai; the equivalent of righteousness.
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to be revealed. 2 Blessed is the man that does this, and the son of man who holds fast to it ; who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds back his hand from doing any evil. 3 Let not the alien who has joined himself to Jehovah say, " Jehovah will assuredly separate me (as an alien) from His people," and let not the eunuch say, " Behold I am only a dry tree." 4 For thus says Jehovah to the eunuchs that keep My Sabbaths, and choose the things that please Me, and hold fast to My covenant, 5 I will give them, in My house and within My walls, a memorial ^ and a name, better than sons and daughters ; yea, I will give them an everlasting name that will not perish. 6 As to the aliens who join themselves to Jehovah, to serve Him, and to love the name of Jehovah, becoming His servants ; those of them who keep the Sabbath and do not pollute it, but hold fast to My cove- nant, 7 I will bring to My Holy Mountain, and make them joyful in My House of Prayer. Their whole burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted upon My altar, for My House will be called a House of Prayer for all nations. 8 The Lord Jehovah, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, I will gather others to him besides those gathered from his own tribes.^
The fifty-eightli chapter of Isaiah throws a striking light on the private life of the Hebrew exiles in Babylon. Precise in their religious observances, they followed only too closely the characteristic of their forefathers in Palestine, in the contrast between their professions and practice. Jehovah, addressing the prophet, is the speaker.
I Cry ^ with a full throat,^ keep nothing back, lift up thy voice like a war trumpet, and proclaim to My people their transgres- sion and to the House of Jacob their sins. 2 They inquire of Me,
» Or " trophy ; " lit., " hand." 2 Sam. xviii. 18. 1 Sam. xv. 12. Ezek. xxi. 24.
2 The prophecy comprised in Isa. Ivi. 9; Ivii. 21, is translated in vol. V. pp. 51 tf.
3 Isa. Iviii. * As when one blows a trumpet note.
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indecil, daily, desiring to know My purposes,* like a people that practises righteousness and has not forsaken the law of its God. They (even) ask of Me judgments of righteousness (against their oppressors), and desire the approach of God (to set them free).
3 " Why do we fast," say they, " and Thou dost not take notice — why have we humbled our soul and Thou pay est no regard to it ? " Behold, (the reason is because) in the day of your fasting ^ ye follow keenly your business affairs, and press on all your worldly work.^ 4 Behold, ye fast with strife and wrangling, and smite (your labourers) with the fist, in wickedness. Ye do not so fast on such a day as to make your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is this the kind of fast I love, the day when a man humbles his soul ? Is (true fasting merely) to bow one's head like a bulrush, and to lie down in sackcloth and ashes t* Wilt thou call that a fast, and a day acceptable to Jehovah ?
6 Is not this (rather), the fast that I choose — to loose the fetters wrongfully put on (your poor brethren), to undo the ties of their yoke, and let the oppressed go free, to tear off", (in short), every yoke.'* 7 Is it not to break thy bread to the hungry, and to bring the poor into thy house (to lodge and feed them); and that, when thou seest the naked, thou clothe him, and hide not thy face from thine own people ?
8 (If thy fasts be like this), then thy light shall break forth like the morning, and thy prosperity^ shall soon spring up; thy righteousness shall go before thee, (on thy way back to Palestine), and the glory of Jehovah shall guard thy rear. 9 Then thou shalt call and Jehovah will answer ; thou shalt cry and He will say, "Here am L" If thou banish oppression from thy midst,
* Lit., " ways," i.e. in respect to their deliverance and restora- tion.
2 Fasts and humiliations were observed during the exile, in remembrance of the fall of Jerusalem and Judah. Zech. vii. 2 ff. ; viii. 19.
3 Or, oppress — drive on — all your workmen.
* Even in Babylon the richer Jews had enslaved the poorer, contrary to the Law. Debtors could be used as servants for six years, but must then be set free. Ex. xxi. 2. Lev. xxv. 39 ff. Deut. XV. 12 ff.
* Lit., ** the healing of thy wound."
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and the pointing of the finger (at the wretched, in contempt and derision), and fierce and contentious words ; ^ if thou reach to the hungry the food in which thou thyself delightest, and satisfy the soul of the wretched; then shall thy light rise through the gloom (of thy present exile), and thy darkness will be like noonday, 1 1 and Jehovah will lead thee continually, and satisfy thy wants - in the thirsty desert, and fill thy bones with marrow, and thou shalt be like a well-watered garden,^ like a spring of water, whose stream never fails.'* I2 And thy sons shall rebuild the ruins of the past ; thou shalt raise up again the foundations of former generations, and they will call thee " The Rebuilder of the ruins," * " The Restorer of the inhabited streets."
13 If thou keep back thy foot from the Sabbath so that thou dost not follow thy business on My holy day, if thou call the Sabbath " a delight, the holy (day) of Jehovah, that is to be reverenced," and thyself honour it by not doing thine own work on it, or following thine own business, or speaking (vain) words, 14 then thou shalt delight thyself in Jehovah, and I will make thee march in, over the heights of the land, and feed thee with (the fruits of) the inheritance of Jacob, thy father; for the mouth of Jehovah has spoken it.
The delay in the appearance of God on behalf of the exiles is on account of their sins.
I Behold * the hand of Jehovah is not too short to deliver (you), nor is His ear dull so as not to hear, 2 but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, that He will not hear, 3 for your hands are foul with blood, and your fingers with iniquity ; your lips speak lies, your tongues murmur wickedness. 4 Every one accuses the other on unjust grounds; no one judges with honesty; they trust in words void of truth, they speak falsely, they brood over^ mischief and bring forth iniquity. 5 They hatch adder's eggs, (so evil are their doings) ; they weave spider's webs, (so vain and idle are
1 See Isa. Iviii. 4. Lit., " evil words." 2 lj^., " soul.'*
3 See illustration, vol. v. p. 304. "• Lit., " deceives."
5 Lit., " gaps." * Isa. lix. 7 Lit., " conceive.'*
THE FIFTH GOSPEL. 353
their schemes). He that eats one of their eggs, (who opposes their plans), will die, and if one of these eggs be trodden on, an adder comes out of it. 6 Their webs will not do for clothes, neither can men cover themselves with their works — (no use or good comes of them) ; their deeds ate deeds of -wickeduev^s, violence is in their hands, 7 their feet run to evil and hasten to shed innocent blood; their thoughts of iniquity, desolation, and de;>truction, mark their paths. 8 They do not know the way of peace, and there is no uprightness in their course ; they make their paths crooked for their own ends ; whoever walks in them shall not know peace.
9 It is on this account that (God's) judgment (on our oppres- sors) is (still) far from us, and that (His) righteousness, (bringing deliverance), does not come to us ; we wait for light, but behold darkness;^ for the morning beams, but walk in thick night. 10 We grope along the wall like blind men, like men without eyes; we stumble (even) at noon, as if it were twilight; we are in thick darkness,^ like dead men. 11 We all growl like bears, (in our groaning), and mourn like doves ; ^ we wait for judgment, but it does not come; for deliverance, but it remains far from us.
12 For our transgressions are many before Thee, and our sins witness against us ; our transgressions are before us ; ■* our sins are known to us, 13 even our apostasy and denial of Jehovah, our departing away from our God, our hard and false speaking, inventing and uttering from the heart lying words. 14 Yea, justice is thrust back, and uprightness made to stand far off, for truth has stumbled in the market place, and justice is not allowed to enter (the place of judgment). 15 Truth, indeed, is left behind, (and is not to be found before our judges) and he who keeps himself from wrong doing is plundered.
Jehovah has seen all this and it has been evil in His eyes that there was no justice (among you, between man and man). 16 He has seen that there was no man (to stand up for the right)
* Light and darkness = prosperity and adversity.
2 Ewald and Delitzsch, by an emendation, read "among those full of life."
' The note of the turtle dove is always mournful. Heard in the gardens of Damascus it makes a low sound like a sigh, that is very plaintive. ■* Lit., " with us."
VOL. VI. A A
354 THE FIFTH GOSPEL.
and wondered that there was no one to come between (the wrong doer and the wronged), no one to stay the plague by interpos- ing, (like Aaron), between the sound and the stricken. Since, therefore, there was no one who stood up for Jehovah, His own right arm brought deliverance to Him (from this state of things) and His own righteousness upheld Him. 17 And He put on righteousness as a coat of mail, and the helmet of victory on His head, and the clothing of vengeance for a dress, and clad Himself with zeal like a war cloak, 18 and He will requite them according to their deserts; wrath to His enemies, punishment to His foes; to the inhabitants of the western lands,^ retribution. 19 And they will fear the name of Jehovah from the going down of the sun, and His majesty from its rising, for He will come like a flood that has been pent up, on which the breath of Jehovah blows.^ 20 Thus will He come as a Redeemer to Zion, and to them in Jacob that have turned from their sins, says Jehovah.
Having thus redeemed His people, Jehovah will make an everlasting covenant with the true spiritual Israel.
21 And I — this is My covenant with them, says Jehovah : My Spirit that is upon thee, and My word which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of it, nor out of the mouth of thy children, nor out of that of thy children's children, saith Jehovah, from henceforth for ever.
The glory of the new Jerusalem, after the Return, is the subject of a magnificent ode, fitly appended to this rehearsal of the everlasting bond between Jehovah and His now righteous people. In the first stanza the prophet dwells on the return of the exiles.
1 Arise,* (Jerusalem), shine for joy, for thy light has come, and the glory of Jehovah has risen upon thee. 2 For, behold (though) darkness cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples,
^ Lit., " islands," or " coasts." Primarily, the nations of Asia Minor who resisted Cyrus, God's agent, but also all the heathen peoples who finally oppose Jehovah.
2 See Isa. xxx. 27, 28. » Isa. Ix.
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355
Jehovah will shine on thee (like the rising sun) and His glory will show itself upon thee; 3 and the (heathen) nations will journey to thy light, and kings to the splendour of thy brightness. 4 Lift up thine eyes, round about, and see ; the nations all gather together and come to thee, and (with them) ihy sons come from far, and thy daughters, borne on their side." ^
The heathen world will be converted to Jehovah, and offer gifts in His temple, now rebuilt at Jerusalem.
5 Then wilt thou look on and shine for joy, and thy heart will throb and swell for gladness, because the wealth of the western lands " will turn to thee, the riches of the heathen nations will come to thee. 6 Great cara- vans of camels will cover the spaces around thee — the young he -camels^ of Midian and of Ephah, -* (its related tribe) ; the whole people will come from Sheba,^ bearing gold and incense, and raising songs of praise to Jehovah. 7 All the flocks of Kedar ^ will gather themselves to thee (for oSerings
CHIlDEEir CA.BEIED OX THE " SiDE.
^ In the East children are carried on the mother's hip.
3 Lit. " sea."
^ Up to nine years old. The finest animals.
■* They lived on the east of the gulf of Akabah, and conducted a great caravan trade. See Gen. xxv. 2, 4. Winer, Realw., and others.
» Yol. i. p. 241. 6 Yol. V. p. 144.
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to God), the rams of Nebaioth ^ will be at thy service ; they will be laid as well-pleasing sacrifices on My altar, and I will glorify the House of My glory. 8 Who are these that fly like clouds, and like doves to their dove-towers ? ^ 9 Yes ! the western lands ^ wait only for a sign from Me ; the Tarshish ships'* first; to bring thy (scattered) sons (O Jerusalem) from afar, their silver and their gold with them, to the name of Jehovah, thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified thee.
The magnificence of tlie new Jerusalem will be resplen- dent. Gifts brought from every land will contribute to it, and the alien races around will be made to do the servile work, like the subjugated Canaanites formerly.
10 And the alien (races of the land) will build thy walls, and their kings will serve thee. For though I smote thee in My wrath, T will have pity on thee in My favour. 1 1 And thy gates will remain open continually (so great will be the concourse of nations through them, in and out) ; they shall not be shut day nor night, that the wealth of the heathen nations may be brought into thee; their kings themselves leading on the long trains. 12 For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish ; such nations shall be utterly destroyed.
All the wealth of the forest will help to beautify the new temple.
13 The glory of Lebanon will come to thee, the cypress, the plane tree, and the sherbin-cedar together, to beautify (Jerusalem) the place of My sanctuary, and to make the place of My feet (where I rest,— the Holy City) glorious. 14 And the sons of them that
1 The tribes south of the Dead Sea. Afterwards the Nabatheans, with a kingdom extending from the gulf of Akabah to the Hauran.
2 Schenkel's JBih. Lex., vol. v. p. 474. Dovecots like towers, with many small openings for the birds, are common in the East. Land and Boole, p. 268. Neil's Palestine, p. 239. Knobel's Jesaia, p. 482. There are over 3,000 in Ispahan.
3 Lit., " isles," " coasts." * Yol. iii. p. 351.
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(once) afflicted thee will draw near tliee, bendinj^ low ; and all they that despised thee will cast themselves in the dust, at the soles of thy feet; and they will call thee " The City of Jehovah," " Zion of the Holy One of Israel."
The prosperity of tlie restored State will be wonderful.
15 Instead of being forsaken and hated, with no one passing through thee, I will make thee everlastingly glorious, a delight from generation to generation. 16 Thou shalt suck the milk of the nations, (enjoying their treasures) ; thou shalt also suck the breast of kings, (receiving their tribute), and thou shalt know that I, Jehovah, am thy Saviour, and that thy lledeemer is the Holy One of Israel. 17 Instead of copper I will bring (to thee) gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron, and I will make thy rulers Peace, and thy governors Righteousness. 18 Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction in thy borders, and thou shalt call thy walls Salvation and thy gates Praise. 19 The sun shall no more be thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light to thee ; but Jehovah (Himself) shall be unto thee an ever- lasting light, and thy God thy glory. 20 Thy sun shall no more go down, nor shall thy moon withdraw itself; for Jehovah shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. 21 Thy people, also, shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever, (for they are) a shoot of My planting, the work of My hands, to show forth (in them) My glory. 22 The smallest (household) shall become a thousand, and the least (clan) shall become a great nation : I, Jehovah, will hasten it in its time.
The opening of the next section of the great prophet was destined, centuries later, to be read and applied to Himself by our Lord, in the synagogue at Nazareth.^ Whatever, therefore, may have been its temporary and secondary references, there can be no doubt how the Divine " Servant of Jehovah " understood it.
I The Spirit 2 of the Lord Jehovah is upon me, because He has 1 Luke iv. 18. ^ Isa. Ixi.
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anointed me to preach good tidings to the wretched ; ^ He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound (in fetters); 2 to proclaim the year of grace from Jehovah, and the day of vengeance of oar God; to comfort all that mourn; 3 to grant favour to them that mourn in Zion, to set on them a crown, instead of the ashes (with which they had strewn their heads); to give them oil of joy (with which to anoint themselves), instead of raiment of mourning; a festal robe instead of a despairing heart — that men may call them terebinths (stately trees) of righteous- ness, which Jehovah has planted, to show forth His glory.
They will rebuild the long-ruined cities of Judah, and be served by the subject races of aliens around, they themselves being greatly exalted by God.
4 And they will rebuild the ruins of former days ; they will restore the desolate places of the past; they will rebuild the towns now destroyed, the places laid waste in past generations. 5 And men of other races shall stand and feed your flocks, and aliens shall be your ploughmen and vinedressers. 6 But ye shall be called the " Priests of Jehovah " ; men shall call you the " Ser- vants of our God." Ye shall eat the riches of the heathen, and exult in the glory formerly theirs. 7 For your shame (in the past) you will receive double (honour and riches), and for the reproach (you have borne) you" will rejoice in the portion (given you) ; thus will you possess double — (the wealth of the soil and the wealth of the heathen) ; everlasting joy shall be yours.^ 8 For I, Jehovah, love justice; I hate wicked robbery, and will give them their recompense faithfully, and make an everlasting cove- nant with them. 9 And their sons will be known among the nations, their offspring among the peoples ; and all who see them will recognise them as a race which Jehovah has blessed.
The Servant of God now again appears, rejoicing in the promises thus given.
^ The idea of bearing their aflfliction or wretchedness with humility and meekness is implied. 2 Lit., " they." » Lit., " theirs."
THE FIFTH GOSPEL. 359
lo I will greatly rejoice in Jehovah, my soul will be joyful exceedingly in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom puts on a priestly turban, and as a bride puts on her jewels. For as the earth shoots forth its green,^ and as a garden buds out with all that is sown in it, so the Lord Jehovah will cause righteousness to shoot forth, and renown, in the eyes of all the nations.
The sixty-second chapter brings a continuation of these promises, and an assurance of their fulfilment. The speaker has been regarded by some as the prophet, by others as the Messiah, and by still others as Jehovah Himself.
For Zion's sake " I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, till her righteousness break forth like the morning light, and her salvation like a flaming torch .^ And the (heathen) nations will see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory, and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of Jehovah will appoint; and thou shalt be a glorious crown in the hand of Jehovah, a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. 4 Men will no more call thee "Forsaken," neither shall thy land any more be called "Desolation"; but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, ("My delight is in her"), and thy land Beulah, ("Married"): for Jehovah delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. 5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.
Watchers stand on the ruined walls of Jerusalem, looking out for the approach of the exiles under the leadership of God, who will fulfil all His promises of rebuilding her in splendour.
6 I have set watchmen on thy (ruined) walls, 0 Jerusalem; they are never silent, night or day. Be not silent, 0 ye who
* Lit., " sprouting." 2 jga. ixiL
* See the verse before.
360 THE FIFTH GOSPEL.
keep Jehovali in remembrance (of His promises); 7 give Him no rest, till He establish Jerusalem and make her famous in the earth.
There is no fear of God forgetting His word. On the contrary, He now repeats it in a new form.
8 Jehovah has sworn by His right hand, and by His mighty arm — Assuredly I will no more give thy corn for food to thine enemies, and aliens shall no more drink thy wine, for which thou hast toiled. 9 No; they that have harvested the corn shall eat it, and praise Jehovah; and they that have gathered the grapes will drink the wine in My holy courts.
Those who are supposed to be yet in Palestine are to hasten forth to meet the exiles, and prepare the way before them as they return.
10 Out, out through the gates; prepare a (smooth) road for the returning people; throw up, throw up a way ; clear aside the (loose) stones ; ^ lift up a standard (as a guiding beacon) for the tribes! 11 Behold, Jehovah has caused it to be proclaimed aloud, so that even the end of the earth has heard : " Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, Jehovah, thy Salvation, cometh; behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense, (His restored people) before Him !" 12 And men shall call them " The Holy People," *'The Eedeemed of Jehovah"; and thou (Jerusalem) shalt be called "The Sought Out," "The City not Forsaken."
The first six verses of the sixty-third chapter form a distinct prophecy. Jehovah has executed fierce ven- geance on Edom, and returns as victor from it. The passage, as Calvin remarks, is a declaration that God
^ Just before one of the Russian grand dukes was expected, the road for forty miles, between Jerusalem and Nablus — though generally in such a state as to make any by-path preferable — was made perfectly smooth and in good order throughout. The stones were gathered out, the broken-down embankments cast up, and shelving and slippery ledges of rock on the brinks of precipices, covered with a thin coating of earth. — Neil's Palestine, p. 104.
THE FIFTH GOSPEL. 361
will interpose for His people, and defend them from all enemies. But Edora is often used as a symbol of the enemies of the kingdom of God at large.
Who is this' that comes from Edom, in bright-red garments- from Bozrah? This (Great One), splendid in His apparel, swaying to and fro^ in the falness of His strength? " It is I, who speak* in righteousness, mighty to save."
2 " Why art Tliou red in Thine apparel, and why are Thy gar- ments like his that treads in the winepress? "
3 " I have trodden the winepress alone ; of the peoples there was none with Me, so I trode them in My anger, and trampled them in My fury; and their blood ^ was sprinkled on My gar- ments, and I have stained all My raiment. 4 For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and the year of My releasing (My exiles) was come. 5 And I looked and there was no helper, I was amazed, but no one came to My aid; and therefore My own arm was My help, and My fury supported Me. 6 And I stamped upon the people in My anger, and crushed them to pieces in My fury, and poured out ^ their blood on the earth."
From this fierce song of triumph we pass to the still waters of prayer and praise. Thanks, confession, and supplication mingle in a gentle stream which is in strik- ing contrast to what has just preceded. The mighty deeds of Jehovah for His people call for songs of grati- tude.
7 I will celebrate the lovingkindnesses of Jehovah, and His mighty deeds, according to all that He has shown towards us, and His great goodness towards the House of Israel, which He has shown them according to His mercy, and according to the
' Isa. Ixiii.
2 Warriors had red clothing. Nah. ii. 4. Cyrop., YI. iv. 1. Val. Max., II. vi. 2. See vol. v. p. 119.
3 "Tossing His head "— Ges^^niits; others, "bending to and fro." "* = Promise.
* Lit., " sap." ^ Lit., " brought down."
362 THE FIFTH GOHPEL.
multitude of His lovingkindnesses. 8 They are, indeed, said He, My people, sons that will not break their plighted troth, and (so) He became their Saviour.^ 9 In all their troubles (in the wilderness) He also was troubled, and the Angel of His presence saved them ; ^ in His love and His loogsuffering He, Himself, delivered them, and He nursed and cherished them in His arms ^ all the days of old.
10 But they resisted, and grieved His Holy Spirit; so He turned to be their enemy, and fought against them."* 1 1 Then His people remembered the days of old — the days of Moses — saying, *' Where is He who led them through the sea under the shepherds of His flock ? Where is He who put within them His Holy Spirit? 12 He who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, dividing the waters before them, ^ to make Himself an everlasting name? 13 That led them through the floods (of the Jordan), as a horse on the (smooth) pasture-land, so that they did not stumble ? 14 As the ox goes down (from the bare mountain) to the (fertile) valley, so the Spirit of Jehovah brought Israel to his place of rest ; * so didst Thou guide Thy people, to make Thyself an everlasting name."
Israel now speaks, or, perhaps, the prophet in its name.
15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and of Thy glory ! Where are (now) Thy zeal and Thy deeds of might (shown thus gloriously in ancient days) ? The yearning of Thy heart ' and Thy mercies restrain themselves towards me, (in the long delay of deliverance from Babylon). 16 Thou art truly our Father, for Abraham (is long dead) and knows us not, and (so is) Israel, (our father Jacob), and does not
* He saved them from Egypt.
* The pillar of fire and cloud in which Jehovah led them on.
' Lit., " bare and carried them." See Isa. xlvi. 3, 4. Exod. xix. 4 Num. xi. 12. Deut. i. 3L The full idea is that given above.
■* Through Assyria and Babylon especially.
* Knobel refers this clause to cleaving waters out of the rock — but you cleave the rock, not the water.
^ Canaan. ^ Lit., " sounding of thy bowels."
THE FIFTH GOSPEL. 363
trouble himself about us.* Thou, 0 Jehovah, art our Father; "Our Kedeemer" has from of old been Thy name. 17 Why, 0 Jehovah, dost Thou make us wander from Thy ways, and harden our heart so that we do not fear thee ? ^ Return (to us), for the sake of Thy servants, the tribes which are Thine.' 18 Thy holy people ^ were in possession (of their land) only for a little while, ^ (and now) our adversaries have trodden down Thy sanctuary. 19 We have become as if Thou hadst not ruled over us from of old, as if we had never been called by Thy name!
The prophet prays that Jehovah would, at last, appear, to crush the oppressor, and deliver His people.
0 ^ that Thou wouldst rend the heavens, that Thou wouldst come down ; (0) that the mountains trembled before Thee; 2 (that they became) as broom ^ which the fire consumes, as water which fire causes to boil— to make known Thy (great) name to Thine adversaries, that the heathen may tremble at Thy presence,
* Cheyne sees in these clauses a hint of some popular belief in the intercession of the saints of the race for their descendants. He quotes, " Rachel weeping for her children " (Jer. xxxi. 15). But this is surely a mere poetical figure of surpassing grandeur. So also the instance of Lazarus with Dives is only a part of a parable (Luke xvi. 22). In all ages there has been doubtless a hope that the holy dead might plead for the interests of their living friends, or descendants, or fellow-believers ; but it seems dangerous, and hardly well-founded, to seek illustrations of this fond hope in the words of Scripture. Cheyne translates the present passage, "Abraham takes no notice of us, and Israel (Jacob) does not recognise us ; " but this, we venture to think, is scarcely the most natural interpretation.
2 For a moment it seems as if Jehovah, by His withdrawing from Israel, were leading it to evil. It is the world-old problem of the origin of evil. Their conduct must have been permitted, they say, by Jehovah ; He could have prevented it, and it is the cause of their being chastened.
3 Lit., " Thy inheritance."
* People separated by God for Himself. ' Text doubtful. 6 Isa. Ixiv. J Or, brushwood or stubble.
36 t THE FIFTH GOSPEL.
3 when Thou doest terrible things (against them), for which we had not hoped. 0 that Thou wouldst come down, that the moun- tains trembled at Thy presence ! 4 For, from of old, men have not heard, or perceived by the ear, or seen with the eye, a God beside Thee, who did such glorious things for him that trusted in Him. 5 Thou meetest him ^ who rejoices to do righteousness, who think of Thy ways. Behold, Thou art wroth, and we (confess that we) have sinned ; we are now long in this plight ; shall we (yet) be saved? " 6 We are all become as the unclean (heathen), and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted cloth, and we have altogether faded like a withered leaf, our iniquities sweep us off, as the wind (carries away the dry leaf). 7 No one calls upon Thy name, no one rouses himself to take hold of Thee, for Thou hast hidden thy face from us, and givest us up into the power ' of our iniquities !
8 Yet, O Jehovah, Thou art our Father : we are the clay, and Thou our potter; we are, all, the work of Thy hand. 9 Be not wroth to the uttermost, 0 Jehovah, neither remember (our) iniquity for ever ! Behold, consider, we beseech Thee, we are all Th}' people ! 10 Thy holy cities have become pastures for flocks, Zion has become grazing ground, Jerusalem a desert ! II Our holy and glorious Honse, in which our fathers praised Thee, has become fuel for fire, and all that was our delight is laid waste. 12 Wilt Thou, in spite of all these things, keep Thyself back, 0 Jehovah, wilt Thou be silent, and give us up to the sorest affliction ?
To this touching prayer, Jehovah vouchsafes an answer.
1 I have listened to them"^ that did not enquire of me; I have been near at hand to them who did not seek Me. I said '* Here I am," " Here I am," to a nation that did not call upon My name.
^ " O that thou wouldst meet." Ewald and Stier. But this seems opposed to what follows.
2 A corrupt text. De Wette's rendering is, '* Behold Thou wast wroth when we in foretimes sinned in Thy ways, but yet Thou didst save us." The sense in any case is only conjectural. I give the rendering of Delitzsch.
3 " Hand." * Isa. Ixv.
THE FIFTH GOSPEL. 365
2 I spread out My hands all the day to a rebellious people, which walked ill a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;
3 a people who provoke Me to anger, continually, to My face ; who sacrifice in the gardens,^ and burn incense on (altars of) bricks; "^ who sit in the (rock) tombs, (to get revelations from demons and the dead),^ and sleep through the night in secret places,'* to (obtain dreams from the gods);^ who eat the flesh of swine,^ and broth of abominations is in their dishes (at their idol feasts); who say, "Stand by thyself," come not near me, for I am holy to thee-^ (and must not be approached by the " unclean "). These are smoke in my nose, an ever burning fire, (so glows and smokes My anger against them). 6 Behold, all this (their doing) is written before Me, (so that I cannot forget it). I will not keep silence till I have given them their due, given their due into their bosom.^ 7 (I will requite) at the same time, says Jehovah, your iniquities, O ye exiles, atid the iniquities of your fathers, who burned incense on the mountains and dishonoured Me upon the hills ! Yes ! I will measure out their due, first, into their bosom !
But though the obstinately ungodly will perish, a rem- nant of faithful ones will be saved.
8 Thus says Jehovah : As when the new wine is in the cluster, men say, *' Do not destroy it, foi^a blessing is in it," so will I do
1 Isa. Ivii. 5 ; i. 29.
2 The top of the altars was of brick, contrary to the command, Exod. XX. 24, 25. See Isa. vi. 6. Ovid., Fast, ii. 35. They are here contemptuously called " bricks."
3 Isa. xiii. 21 ; xxxiv. 14.
^ Perhaps inartificial or natural caves, where "mysteries" were celebrated. See Jerome, on the text, and also the Sept.
* Isa. Ivii. 5. Chwolson, Bie Ssahaer, vol. ii. p. 332.
^ Forbidden by the Law (Isa. Ixvi. 17; Lev. xi. 7), especially in a case like this, when the swine were offered in sacrifice. Sacri- fices of swine were very common in antiquity. Spenc. de legg. Eehrceor. ritt., p. 137. Mover's Phonizier, vol. i. pp. 218 flf. Paiisan., VI. ii. 2. The Babylonians offered swine. Chwolson.
' Through heathen sacrifices and lustrations.
8 See vol. V. p. 380.
366 THE FIFTH GOSPEL.
for the sake of My servants, that I may not destroy them all. 9 I will lead forth from Jacob a seed, and from Jiidah possessors of (Canaan) My mountain, and My chosen ones shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell in it. lo And the plains of Sharon* (in the west) will be a pasture for sheep and goats, and the valley of Achor^ (in the east) a grazing place for cattle, to the people who have sought Me.
II But as for you, (among the exiles), who have forsaken (Me), Jehovah ; that never think of My holy mountain, but set in order a feast-table to the (Baal) Gad— (the god of good fortune) ^ and fill up drink offerings to Meni,'* the goddess of destiny: 12 T have appointed you to die by the sword ; ye shall all bow yourselves to the slaughter; because I have called and ye have not answered, I have spoken and ye did not give ear, but did evil in My eyes, and chose that in which I had no pleasure. 13' Therefore, thus says the Lord Jehovah : Behold, My servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry ; behold, My servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty; behold. My servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed; 14 be- hold. My servants shall sing aloud for joy, but ye shall cry out for a broken heart, and wail for sadness of spirit. 15 And ye shall leave your name to My chosen, to be used as a curse by thera,^ for the Lord Jehovah will slay thee. But He will call His servants by another name, 16 so that he who invokes blessings on himself or the land will do so by the name of (Jehovah), the faithful God; because the old distresses will be forgotten (amidst the glory ye
1 The plains of Sharon (Sharon means a plain) extended inland from the coast, between Lydda and Carmel. Conder, Handhooh, p. 309.
2 The valley of Achor is the present Wady Kelt, formerly the north boundary of Judah. Conder, p. 258.
^ The worship of Bel or Baal is elsewhere charged against the exiles. See Isa. Ivii. 9. Feasts was part of the Babylonian worship. Bel and the Dragon 3. Biod. Sic, ii. 9.
^ Lenormant speaks of a Babylonian god called " great Manu." Gad may be the Hebrew equivalent of Guttav, the Babylonian name for Jupiter. Sayce, Trans. 80c. Bib. Arch., vol. iii. pp. 170-1.
^ As if they should say " May your fate be like that of so and so."
THE FIFTH GOSPEL. 367
enjoy), and they shall be hidden from My eyes, (so that no repeti- tion of them need be feared).
This glory of the restored Theocracy, including the Church in its spiritual completeness under the Messiah, will exceed all that language can describe.
17 For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth,^ and the former (heaven and earth) will nob be remembered or come into mind, 18 but ye will be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create. For, behold, I create Jerusalem anew, so that it will cause you to exult over it, and (I will make) her people a joy. 19 And I, Jehovah, Myself, will rejoice over Jerusalem and joy in My people, and the voice of weeping will be no more heard in her, nor the voice of sorrow. 20 There shall no more be carried out from her (the corpse of) an infant of days, or of an old man who has not filled his course; for he that dies at a hundred years old shall be regarded as a youth, and the sinner, (who was wonb to be cub off early), shall be struck with the punishment of death when a hundred years old. 21 And they shall build houses and inhabit them, they t^hall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. 22 They shall not build and another inhabit, they shall nob plant and another eat, for the days of My people shall be like the days of a tree, and My chosen ones shall long enjoy the works of their hands. 23 They will nob toil for nobbing, or bring forbh children (bo have them cub off by) sudden trouble, for they will be the seed of the blessed of Jehovah, and their offspring (will remain) with bhem. 24 And it will come to pass thab before they call I will answer, while bhey are yet speaking I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dusb will be the food of the serpent. They shall not harm nor destroy in all My holy moun- tain (of Canaan), says Jehovah.-
1 Cheyne undersbands by this, that Nature itself will be re- generated. But when is this to be ? Bebber, surely, understand the words as meaning that the defecbs and shame of the past will be done away, and a new state of things — holy and happy — introduced.
2 Isa. xi. 6-9. Gen. iii. 14.
368 THE FIFTH GOSPEL.
But the mass of tlie exiles, in spite of the preaching of the prophets, continued cold and indifferent to spiritual religion, joining heathen practices with the recognition of Jehovah; and while ready to* rebuild a temple to Him at Jerusalem, if restored to their own land, re- mained strangers to true religion. The last chapter of Isaiah, therefore, opens with a passage recalling the lan- guage of other prophets and of some of the Psalms, in its depreciation of merely formal worship, and its de- mands for a broken heart and contrite spirit as the sacrifices most acceptable to God.^ If Jehovah accepted a temple at their hands at all, they are to understand that it is not because He required it, or regarded it as an adequate honour, but only in accommodation to their weakness and human needs. Sacrifices offered by others than the contrite are worthless and even hateful to Him, though He accepts those presented by the truly worthy.^
I Thus says Jehovah :^ The heavens are My throne and the earth is My footstool.'* What kind of house would ye build for Me ? What manner of place for My rest ? 2 For all these, (the heavens v^nd the earth), has My hand made ; thus they all rose into being, says Jehovah. But on this man will I look ; on him who is humble and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at My word.
Sacrifices offered by the ungodly are an abomination, even when they are such as the Law prescribes.
3 He that slaughters an ox (I will not say "sacrifices "), if he be not My true worshipper, is hateful to Me as one that kills a man; he that sacrifices a sheep is uo better than if he
1 Ps. li. 17. Isa. Ivii. 15. Ps. xxxiv. 18. Ps. 1. 8-15.
2 Isa. chaps. Ivi. and Ix. ; Ixvi. 20. See also Jeremiah and Eze- kiel passim.
3 Isa. Ixvi. 4 1 Kings viii. 27. 2 Chron. vi. 18.
THE FIFTH GOSPEL. 369
broke a dog's neck, (and offered Me the unclean beast ;^) he that presents a meal offering is no better than if he offered Me swine's blood; 2 he that burns incense is no better than if he bowed to an idol. As they have chosen their own ways and their soul has delighted in their abominations, 4 so I will choose calamities^ for them and bring their fears upon them, because I called and no one answered, I spoke and no one gave ear, but they did what was evil in My eyes, and chose that in which I had no pleasure.
Judgment will be let loose on these mockers. The prophet already hears, in spirit, the cry of their punish- ment, from the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem.
5 Hear the word of Jehovah, ye that tremble at His speech. Your brethren that hate yoa (the heathen and ungodly among the exiles), and that cast you out for My name's sake, (telling you to be gone to Palestine), have said (in contemptuous derision), " Let Jehovah glorify Himself, that we may see your joy ! "
But they will be brought to shame, (for, lo I hear) 6 a sound of tumult ^ from the city (Jerusalem), a sound from the Temple, the sound of Jehovah, who renders their deserts to His enemies !
The return of the exiles, and the restoration of Jeru- salem, will be effected with marvellous suddenness by Jehovah, and, as He has already promised, He will turn to the holy city the wealth of the heathen.
7 Before she (Jerusalem) travailed, she brought forth; before her pains came she was delivered of a man-child ! ^ 8 Who has heard anything like this ? Who has seen anything like it ? Were the whole people of a country ever brought forth in a day, or was a nation ever born at once ? ^ But as soon as Zion travails, her children— the restored nation — will at once be born ? 9 Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth, says Jehovah ;
* Eccles. ix. 4 2 j^^y ^j 7^
3 Lit,, "freaks (of fortune)." ^ Lit., " crushing."
^ Gesenius quotes an Arab proverb, " Sweeter than the birth of
a boy." He says that the Arabs in old times used to bury female
infants alive. Jesaia, vol. ii. p. 300.
^ The sudden repeopling of Jerusalem looked like this. VOL. VI. B B
370 THE FIFTH GOSPEL.
shall I who bring to the birth, hinder its being completed, says thy God ; (having done so much, will I not perfect My work ?)
The prospect demands rejoicing from all among the exiles who love Jerusalem.
lo Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her; rejoice greatly with her, all ye that mourn for her (present desolation), 1 1 that ye may drink from the full breasts of her consolations and be satisfied ; that ye may drink eagerly and delight yourselves from the dropping fulness of her glory.^ 12 For thus says Jehovah, Behold, I will cause peace to stream ^ towards her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an over- flowing flood, and then ye shall suck (the rich plenty of her bosomj, ye shall be borne on the sides of the nations, like children,^ and dandled on their knees. 13 As one^ whom his mother comforteth (in need and pain), so will I comfort you; yes, in Jerusalem shall ye be comforted. 14 And when ye see (all your prosperity), your heart will rejoice, and your bones be vigorous as young grass, for the Hand of Jehovah will make itself known in His servants, but He will deal fiercely with His enemies.
Now follows the judgment to be thus executed.
15 For, behold, Jehovah will come in fire, with His chariots, like the rushing storm, to turn His anger in fury (cm His enemies), and His chastisement in flames of fire. 16 For by fire and by sword will Jehovah hold judgment with all flesh, and those slain by Him will be many. 17 They that purify and consecrate themselves to enter the gardens (where idols are worshipped), observing the rites prescribed by their leader standing amidst them,^ that eat swine's flesh and abominations — that is other
^ Knobel translates the clause, *' and renew your youth from the increase of her glory." - Lit., " turn."
3 Isa. Ix. 4. Children are very often carried on the hips, sitting astride. See p. 355. "* Lit., " a man."
^ This is a paraphrase of a difficult clause. It seems most in keeping with the text. Some, however, think they walked after the image of some god or goddess. On the festival of Istar or of Tammuz, the figure of the god was borne in procession,
THE FIFTH GOSPEL. 371
unclean creatures — and even the field-mouse,' shall be destroyed together, says Jehovah. i8 For I (will punish) their works and their thoughts; the time will come when I will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall assemble and see My glory. 19 And I will work (great judgments on My enemies), as a sign (of My power and majesty), and I will send those of them that escape, like messengers, to the heathen nations — to Tarshish,^ Phut,^ and Lud,"* that draws the bow; to Tubal,^ and Javan,^ and the far off coasts and islands of the Western Sea, that have not heard of My great doings nor seen My glory — and they shall make known among the heathen My majesty. 20 And, as a gift to Jehovah, these heathen nations will bring all your brethren, (scattered among them), out of all the nations, on horses, and in chariots and litters, and on mules and dromedaries, to My holy mountain, to Jerusalem, says Jehovah, as the children of Israel used to bring the meal offering in a clean vessel to the House of Jeho- vah; 21 and I will take some of them, also, for priests and for Levites, says Jehovah.' 23 For as the new heaven and the new earth which I will make, shall remain for ever before Me, says Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain, (0 Israel) 23 And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before Me (in Jerusalem), says Jehovah.
24 And (when they come thus) they will go forth (from the city) and look on the carcases of the men that rebelled against Me, for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be a horror to all flesh.
adorned with jewels and robes of rich material, attended by her maids of honour, "Pleasure" and "Lust," and they went in procession to meet the mourners bearing the body of the dead Tammuz. St. Chad Boscawen, from a cuneiform record. Academy, vol. xiv. p. 91.
' The ancients fattened and. ate this creature. It was unclean. Perhaps the jerboa is meant in the text. It is still eaten by the Arabs. Lev. xi. 29. « Vol. iii. p. 348. » Vol. i. p. 238.
4 Vol. i. pp. 245, 261. 5 Yoi. i p, 233. « Ibid.
7 He will not restrict Himself to the tribe of Levi or the sons of Aaron. Members of the returned " dispersion " will be taken for the holy oflBces.
CHAPTER XVI.
REDEMPTION DRAWING NIGH.
THE utterances of the prophets of the Exile bring vividly before us the condition of their brethren during the Captivity. Their treatment seems to have varied in different localities and at different timeSj but, at least in the earlier years, the iron of slavery entered deeply into their souls. They seem to have been settled in colonies here and there, over the land, working at all forms of bond service, but allowed free intercourse with each other, and retaining their distinct organization and customs, to a great extent, as in Judea. Continued rest- lessness and plotting, however, brought heavy punish- ment on their royal family and leading priests and nobles, in the beginning of the Exile.^ Contempt and hatred, moreover, seem to have been lavished on a race so in- tractable, culminating not unfrequently in the dungeon, or even in death.^ They are spoken of as often robbed and spoiled, snared in pits, and hidden in prisons.^ Pitiless cruelty,* unrestrained by law,^ crushed their spirits, till despair settled widely on the various communities.^
^ Isa. xliii. 28 ; liii. 5. Jer. lii. 11. ^ jga^ xiv. 3.
3 Isa. xlii. 22. '' Isa. xlvii. 6.
5 Isa. li. 13. Jer. 1. 7-17. Pss. cxxiv. cxxix. cxxxvii. ^ See the Prophets of the Exile, passim.
REDEMPTION DRAWING NIGH. 373
Gradually, however, matters improved. Many were allowed to live in the capital, where a happier lot was offered. Bitterness gradually subsided,^ and they began to fall into their place as a recognised portion of the general community. They had, moreover, from the first, enjoyed the advantage of being collected in groups from the same localities in the fatherland. The exiles from Gibeon, Bethlehem, Anathoth, and many other places, found themselves among old neighbours and friends,^ and the Babylonian authorities had even been considerate enough, to transfer each of the family groups and connec- tions of the chief houses of Jerusalem, as a whole, to the same district, so that we find the descendants of David, of Joab, and other Judean patricians, living in free inter- course and close neighbourhood in Babylonia.^ Even the poor Nethinim, the slaves owned by the Temple, and the public slaves known as " bond servants of Solomon,'' had been set down in communities of their own.^ Still more, permission to hold land and vineyards, and to follow trade or gain, appears to have been granted after a time, and hence, at least in later years, many of the exiles possessed not only slaves, but horses, mules, camels,^ and asses, though the mass had still, necessarily, to support themselves by humble labour.®
Growing contentment with Babylonia as a home, and the abatement of enthusiasm for Judea which time brought with it, must further, by degrees, have made life more pleasant for the exiles. The language of Babylonia,
^ Ps. cvi. 46.
2 See the list in Ezra ii. with the parallel in Neh. vii 26.
2 See the lists in Ezra and Nehemiah.
< Ibid.
5 Ibid. Isa. Iviii. 3-6. Ezra ii. 65.
« Jos., Ant., XVIII. ix. 1.
374 REDEMPTION DEAWING NIGH.
moreover, was so closely related to Hebrew, and its use was so easy, that it ultimately supplanted the latter, thus introducing once more among the descendants of their great ancestor Abraham, his long-disused dialect, and leaving that of Palestine, which had been for ages adopted in its place, to become obsolete. Ezekiel and Daniel show this change to have begun early ; part of their writings being in Aramaic or " Chaldee.'" Still more, the ability and virtues, and even the beauty of not a few, from the first won notice for them in the highest quarters, as we see in the instances of Daniel and his companions, and, at a later period, in those of Nehemiah and Queen Esther.
The short reign of Evil Merodach, B.C. 561-559,^ brought still brighter times to the exiles. Jehoiachin, who had lain in a dungeon for thirty-seven years, was at last set free, and seated at the table of the Great King, clothed in royal robes. Shut up at the age of eighteen, and now a man of fifty-five, we can scarcely doubt that his restored influence was exerted on behalf of his brethren, who, through all his sufferings, had loyally clung to him as their king. But two years later, the weak and effeminate son of Nebuchadnezzar was murdered by his brother-in- law, Neriglissar, who held the throne from B.C. 559 to B.C. 556, when he was succeeded by his son, a minor, who perished within nine months by a conspiracy of the nobles. One of these, Nabonidus,^ as has already been said,^ gained the vacant throne, and held it from B.C. 555 to the capture of Babylon by Cyrus in B.C. 538 — a period of seventeen years. It was Belshazzar, the eldest son of this king, who was slain when the city was taken — his
^ Schrader. 562-560, Birch. 561-560, Volck in new edition of Herzog. See, also, this vol. p. 288.
2 Or Nabunahid. ^ P. 289.
REDEMPTION DRAWING NIGH. 375
father having raised him to a share of the throne some time before.
The whole number of the exiles was by no means great. There had been about a million souls in Judah and Benjamin in the time of David — not including the Levites, and the increase in the four centuries since must have been large. But not more than perhaps 100,000 were carried off into captivity. Many had fled to Egypt, and numbers of the peasantry remained in the land, so that those taken to Babylon were at best only a feeble remnant.-^ Among them, however, were the noblest of the race, from whom, as from a root, the nation cut down so low, would one day spring up again. In them Judah had her last centre of organized public life. The flower of the princes, patricians, and priests of Judah, of its skilled mechanics and once substantial burgesses, had been transplanted to the Euphrates in numbers sufficient to secure in due time the regeneration of the State.
But the calamities of the nation wrought little moral improvement in the bulk of the exiles. Idolatry, to which they had long been accustomed in Palestine, flourished among them in Babylonia. The chief men treated their brethren with the same cruel harshness so often re- buked by the prophets in Judah ; oppressing dependants, crushing the poor by extortion, perverting the law to their own benefit, and, finally, neglecting those whom their wickedness had reduced to misery. It seemed as
* Jos., Ant., XI. iii. 10, has tbe strange error in tlie text of making those who returned to Palestine 4,628,000 persons from twelve years old, upwards. Cohen {Les Pharisiens, vol. i. p. 3), quotes this as the estimate by Josephus of the Jewish popula- tion in Babylon, but it is clearly a mistake of some copyist, as it refers to those who returned, and the right number is given elsewhere.
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if all hope of a national restoration had perished ; as if nothing remained of a people once so haughty, but the dry, unburied bones. But the very depth of the evils endured led to good. Some, as we have seen, learned in their wretchedness to seek the God of their fathers. Such, listened eagerly to the promises of the prophets that they would return to Palestine, and pondered the sacred writings. The priests of the line of Zadok, always untainted with idolatry, had brought with them from Judah the Books of the Law; the disciples of the prophets cherished the utterances of their order, handed down from past ages; the Levites jealously preserved the Psalms, composed from the time of David to their own day ; the " wise '' hung over the collections of sacred proverbs, and books like Job ; the chroniclers retained some of the national historical records. Joel, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other pro- phets, became, in their written oracles, the '^ wells of salvation '' to the religiously disposed. The " songs of Zion^' rose again on the banks of the Chebar, and in every Jewish colony in Babylonia. A more thoughtful earnestness spread daily. Men read in the inspired records multiplied proofs of the truth of their ancient faith.i
Meanwhile, the course of events strengthened the Jewish communities. More than a century before, the Ten Tribes had been carried off by Assyria; but on the destruction of Nineveh numbers of them had joined themselves to the exiles from Judah,^ and thus increased the confidence of the godly in the restoration of the State, since this reunion was itself a fulfilment of pro- phecy. Deep penitence for the past, and determination
^ Isa. xxxiv. 16.
2 1 Chroa. ix. 3. Neh. vii. 34; xi. 4. Jer. 1. 4, 20; li. 6.
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to be true henceforth to Jehovah, increased.^ The four calamitous days of their recent history — that of the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, in the tenth month; the day on which the city was taken, in the fourth month; the day of its final de- struction in the fifth month ; and that of the murder of GedaHah, in the tenth month — were set apart as solemn fasts and times of lamentation.^ A religious revival extended from the common people to some of the higher classes.^ A habit of observing fixed hours for prayer became common. The time of the incense offering, morning and evening, had long been so sacred to de- votion,^ that the word " incense " became at last the equivalent of prayer.^ Those '^ who feared Jehovah '' accustomed themselves to meet often together for sup- plication and religious counsel;^ usually, it would seem, as in later ages, by the sides of flowing streams, where water could easily be had for purifications.''' The face, moreover, was always turned in prayer towards the site of the ruined Temple, as the spot where God had once been nearest to man.* Noon was added to morning and evening as a time for supplication.^ Devotion, from these years, gained a prominence it had never enjoyed before. The house of prayer became a substitute for the Temple,^*^ and not a few penitential Psalms seem to have been composed for its services.
While numbers of Jews from the Ten Tribes found
^ Isa. Ixvi. 2, 5. Ezra x. 3.
2 Zech. vii. 1, 5, 19. Isa. Ixi. 3; Ixvi. 10. Ps. Ixix. 11.
3 Isa. Ivi. 4. 4 Ps. cxli. 2, 5, 3. 5 Eev. viii. 3. « Mal. iii. 16.
7 3 Mace. vii. 20. Jos., Ant, XIV. x. 23. Acts xvi. 13.
^ Dan. vi. 11. We see the practice already in 1 Kings viii. 48.
» Dan. vi. 11. See Ps. Iv. 17. ^" Isa. Ivi. 7.
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a rallyinfy-point, after the fall of Assyria, among the exiles in Babylonia, the national sentiment was flattered, and loyalty to the ancient faith intensified, by the spectacle of many heathen proselytes accepting the Hebrew creed.^ The perusal of copies of portions of the sacred writings can hardly have helped this, for the language in which the Jewish Scriptures were written was not familiar to many Babylonians. It must have been the result, in most cases, of the earnest efforts of the godly among the exiles, anxious to atone for their past indifference, by spreading the glory of Jehovah. The fact that not a few Jews, like Daniel, were in prominent positions, and the constant tendency to a closer intimacy in the affairs of ordinary life, doubtless aided this mis- sionary enthusiasm. Moreover, the generation born in Babylonia must have felt much more kindly towards it and its people than their fathers had done. Some ot them, indeed, even assumed Chaldean names, as in the case of Zerubbabel, who was also known as Sheshbazzar,^ and that of Mordecai, which is a Babylonian, or possibly a Persian word. In such circumstances, the immeasur- able superiority of the Jewish faith over idolatry could readily be urged on the more thoughtful of the heathen around. The poor especially, among these, if we may judge from the experience of early Christianity, supplied adherents to the true faith; the humbler Jews mixing freely with them, and winning their favourable regard. Once gained, these proselytes kept the Sabbath and honoured the Law, perhaps even to the length of sub- mitting to circumcision;^ and their adhesion reacted on the Jews themselves, kindling in them a still greater pride in their creed, and loyalty to it.
» Isa. Ivi. 6. « Ezek. i. 8, 11, 14, 16. 1 Esd. ii. 12, 15. ^ Isa. Ivi. 6.
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But if some Jews learned in exile to value their re- ligion aright, too many became tainted by the heathen influences around them. Babylon was the London of its day, with a similar gigantic commerce and huge con- fluence of visitors from all lands, for business, pleasure, or religion. Immorality brought no shame. The very temples derived a large revenue from prostitution in their grounds. Harlots were, in fact, part of their re- cognised establishment, and it was even a law that every woman should offer herself at least once in this way, in the service of the gods. Naturally, the mass of the exiles caught the infection of so impure a worship. Babylonian idols were honoured in Jewish households, many of which further disregarded the Law by feasts on unclean creatures offered to these gods.^ Jerusalem was forgotten, and the idea of a return to Palestine treated with scorn .^ Large numbers became virtually Babylonians, and laughed at the fanaticism of their brethren who longed for Palestine. Vice and wicked- ness of all kinds flourished.^ It was clear that the Return, when it came, would drain off most of the clear wine of the nation that remained, and leave behind it a vast body of lees.*
The prophet Hosea had foretold that Israel would need to be led once more into the wilderness, to quicken her again to fidelity to Jehovah, and exile beyond the Eastern desert had fulfilled the prediction. The wails of the Psalms and prophets of the time only expressed the in- extinguishable sorrow of the better class of the banished.
1 Isa. Ixv. 3-11; Ixvi. 17. ^ jga^ i^iv. H. 3 j^^ ^^^ 7 g.
* In the generations after the Return, there was a great re- vival among those Jews who remained in Babylonia. They became as zealous for the Law and the Temple as their brethren in Judah.
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The sword, the dungeon, the lash ; hunger, nakedness, scorn, as already noted, had marked the first days, at least, of the Exile. Of the multitude that left Judah, numbers had perished on the way.^ To the survivors, life among the unclean must have been a perpetual agony, from the deadly peril at every moment of break- ing the Law by heathen defilements. Even pulse was preferable to the dainties of the royal table under such circumstances.^ The hundred and second Psalm, which dates from the closing years of the Exile, brings the times vividly before us. The weary servants of God, longing for the promised Return, poured forth, in its strains, the grief weighing on their hearts.
I Hear my prayer, ' 0 Jehovah : let my cry come before Thee. 2 Hide not Thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble ; in the day when I call, hear me speedily. 3 For my days vanish away like smoke: my bones are burned (vvit,h fever), like a glowing hearth. 4 My heart is withered and dried up like grass, till I have forgotten to eat my bread. 5 Throngh my loud groaning my bones cleave to my skin."* 6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness, * I am become like an owl amidst ruins, (so forlorn am I and desolate). 7 I pass the night sleepless, and, (while others sleep), I am like a lonely wakeful bird on the house-top. 8 My enemies speak contemptuously of me all the day long ; they that rage against me make their oaths by nie.^ 9 For I have eaten ashes like bread, ^ and mingled my drink with weeping, 10 because of Thy indignation and Thy wrath ; for Thou hast
1 Ezek. xxxiii. 27. ^ Ezek. iv. 12-15. Dan. i. 6-16.
3 Ps. cii.
^ Lit., " flesh." He was only skin and bones.
5 Both unclean birds.
* i.e. " God make thee like him — forsaken and wretched." Isa. Ixv. 15. Jer. xxix. 22.
7 As a mourner he sat in ashes and strewed them on his head (Job ii. 8; Ezek. xxvii. 30), and thus bis bread was mixed with them.
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lifted me up (from my native land) and cast me forth, ii My days are like a long stretched out shadow, (soon to be all dark- ness), and I arn dried up like (withered) grass.
12 But Thou, 0 Jehovah, sittest throned for ever, and Tliy glory is from generation to generation. 13 Thou shalt arise to have pity on Zion, for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come. 14 For thy servants love even her (ruined) stones and her very dust. 15 For the heathen shall (one day) fear the name of Jehovah, and all the kings of the earth (be awed at) Thy glory, O God, 16 when (it is said) "Jehovah hath rebuih Zion, He has appeared in His glory; 17 He has regarded the prayer of the utterly wretched and not despised their supplication." 18 This will be written for the generation to come, and people yet to be created will praise Jehovah, 19 because He will look down from His holy height; Jehovah will look down from heaven, on the earth ; 20 to hear the groans of the prisoner, to set loose those doomed to death; 21 that men may extol the name of Je- hovah in Zion, and praise Him in Jerusalem, 22 when the nations and kingdoms gather together, to serve Jehovah.
23 He lias bowed down the strength of my life; He has short- ened my days. 24 My God, said I, take me not away in the midst of my days — Thou, whose years are from generation to generation! 25 Of old Thou hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. 26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; they all grow old like a garment; thou changest them like a vesture and they change,
27 but Thou remainest the same and Thy years have no end.
28 The children of Thy servants will have rest, and their de- scendants will continue before Thee.
The intense devotion to Jerusalem and Jehovali breathed in this Psalm, marks the change wrought in the better class of the exiles by the Captivity. It broke the charm idolatry had hitherto exercised. Henceforward, through all the future, they and their descendants were fierce monotheists. Their national shame and suffering were recognised as the punishment of the heathen prac- tices of their fathers, and changed them for ever into worshippers of Jehovah alone, as the fires of Smithfield
382 REDEMPTION DEAWING NIGH.
made Englishmen Protestants.^ The loathing and bitter- ness with which the prophets denounce image-worship became the feeling of the whole Jewish race. In the apocryphal Letter of Jeremiah, the idolatry of Babylon is painted, for the execration of all, in the most vivid detail. The gods of silver, gold, and wood, are described as seen in the great religious processions, borne on men's shoulders, their whole surface plated with gold and silver, golden crowns on their heads, and gorgeous robes around them.
"Yet," says the writer, "they cannot save themselves from rust and moths, though clad in purple; and men have to wipe the dust off their faces. They stand in their temples with sword and battle-axe in their liands, but they cannot defend themselves from violence or thieves. The doors need locks and bars to keep such gods safe; and though lamps are lit for them, they cannot see. Their faces are blackened with the smoke (of incense and lamps), and bats and swallows (that fly through the open temple), and cats (that creep through), sit on their bodies and heads."
The hideous impurity associated with the worship; the Levitical uncleanness of the worshippers ; the unclean food set before the idols ; the " roaring and shouting '' of the priests, in their ministrations ; their rent clothes and shaven heads and beards, are all detailed for con- temptuous ridicule ; even the dishonesty of the priests is noticed .2
Such was the attitude towards idolatry brought about finally and for ever by the Exile. But it had also the grand result of leading men to set increasing value on the spiritual services of religion, as contrasted with the merely ritual. Without prince, prophet, leader, burnt
* Stanley, vol. iii. p. 31.
2 Baruch, chap. vi. pass. See also Bel and the Dragon, and the Song of the Three Children.
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offering, sacrifice, oblation, incense, or place of sacrifice, men now hoped to be accepted, even without them, when they knelt with a contrite heart and a humble spirit before the Unseen God.^
How far the later theology and morality of Judaism were due to the studies and influences of the Exile is not easy to say, since the schools of Alexandria, after a time, largely coloured Hebrew thought. But it is certain that the Jew after the Captivity was a different man from his forefathers. The teaching of "Daniel^' respecting angels, is an advance on what is previously revealed. We read for the first time of '' Michael, the Prince of Israel,^' of " the Prince of Persia/^ and of the " Prince of Greece.'' ^ The earliest distinct announcement of the resurrection of the dead appears also in that book ; ^ and in the mysterious Son of Man, who came to the Ancient of Days,* there seems to be a disclosure of the Divine personality of the expected Messiah — the "Word of God'' of later Judaism, and the " Word made flesh" of St. John. The stress laid on the burial of the dead and on almsgiving in Tobit,^ and in the Apocryphal literature generally, appears, also, to be a gleam of light from the days, when heaven brightened as the earth grew dark round the exiles. Nor is it possible to overlook the change from traditional exclusiveness, shown by the enthusiasm to bring aliens, by proselytism, into the com- munion of Israel. The closing chapters of Isaiah em- body the wider sympathies of times when contact with the great world extended the views and enlarged the sympathies of the nation. The isles of the west, includ- ing the Mediterranean coasts, as far as Tarshish on the
* Song of the Three Children, ver. 14, 15.
2 Dan. X. 13; xx. 21 ; xii. 1. » Dan. xii. 2.
* Dan. vii. 13. ^ Tobit iv. 3-20, etc.
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Atlantic coast of Spain^ and the countless races, as far east as China, the land of Sinim, are all eagerly expected to join with the Jew in a common worship on the Temple mountain.
It should not be forgotten, moreover, that the Exile was the period in which the guardianship, transcrip- tion, and study of the written Scriptures, became the special care of a distinct class, afterwards famous as the great order of the Scribes. Shut out from former privi- leges, and forced to hope in the future rather than look to the present, the earnest Jew concentrated on his sacred writings, the devotion hitherto felt for the Temple and its services. The writings of the prophets were collected, most of the Canonical Books joined with them, and the story of the past completed by the aid of ancient records. The Books of Kings, by the internal evidence of their last statements, date from this age of national depression, and we owe to it, probably, besides, the col- lection of the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and the recension of other portions of the Bible. God, in His Providence, had withdrawn His people for a time into scenes of humiliation and trouble, that, being thus purified, they might be brought back again to their own land zealous for His glory, bearing with them, for the benefit of all future ages, the rich treasure of His word, of which the discipline they had borne qualified them to be the watchful guardians.
The last twenty years before the release of the Hebrews from Babylon must have been a time of feverish excite- ment through all Western Asia, and especially among the Jewish exiles. When the mighty Nebuchadnezzar was just closing his career, a movement, destined to change the history of the world, had begun in the mountains beyond the southern Tigris. The leader under whom
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this great political revolution was accomplished, was the Cyrus of Isaiah, originally king of Elam, but, ulti- mately, after he conquered Media, king of Persia also. He could trace his descent back to a member of the royal Persian clan, '' Teispes,'' who seems to have ruled over Elam after the fall of Assyria;^ his Persian dominions being handed over to his son, the great grand- father of Darius Hystaspes. Cyrus himself gives his titles, even in his later years, as the king of Babylon, Sumir, or Shinar, Accad, and Elam, only once mention- ing Persia.^ The Persian empire was founded by Darius Hystaspis, though the title of king of Persia is used by Ezra^ of Cyrus, as that which he himself adopted in his later years.
Cyrus was the son of Cambyses, king of Elam, and, as is said, of Mandane, daughter of Astyages, king of the Medes, who was himself the son of King Cyaxares, whose daughter Nebuchadnezzar had married after the fall of Assyria.* Elam was at this time apparently a vassal of Media, paying it tribute ; but Cyrus, in a war lasting from about B.C. 552 to B.C. 549, overthrew Astyages and made himself king of Media. Fortunate in securing an alliance with the king of Armenia, another vassal of Media, he was still more so in gaining over Harpagus, the general of the Median army sent against him. Following the example of their commander, the
* This appears to have been the conquest of Elam alluded to in Jerem. xlix, 34-39.
2 Cylinder of Cyrus. Isaiuh mentions only Elam and Media, not Persia, as invading Babylonia, cLap. xxi. 1-10.
« Ezra i. 2.
■* See vol. V. p. 271. Prof. Sayce questions the relation of Cyrus to Astyages, Smith's Bahylonia, p. 172. But it is ac- cepted by Dr. F. Justi, Gesch. des alt. Persiens. Pinches thinks the war against Media began later, about B.C. 552.
VOL. VI. C C
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bulk of fhe troops joined the Elamites, who soon after defeated Astyages and took him prisoner.^ The humi- liated king ere long died, and Cyrus, having put the heir of Media to death, took Amytis, daughter of Astyages, wife of the murdered man,^ into his harem, thus, virtually, assuming the crown.
Having entered on his career of conquest, the great Elamite carried his arms triumphantly from land to land, till the whole East, as far as the Himalayah, submitted to his rule. Then, having no more worlds to conquer in Further Asia, he turned his face towards its western lands.
The age in which he appeared was a memorable one in history. Among his contemporaries was Amasis, the successful soldier, who, after deposing Pharaoh Hophra,^ took possession of his throne, and cultivated still closer relations with Greek mercenaries than had cost his pre- decessor both crown and life. The year B.C. 560 was marked by the accession of Cyrus to his father's throne, that of Pisistratus to supreme power in Athens, and that of Crcesus, son of Gyges, the ally of Pharaoh Hophra, to the throne of Lydia. Twelve years before, Tarquin the Proud had begun his reign at Rome. The West was entering on its great career as that of the East was closing. Hitherto, nations of Semitic blood had been foremost ; henceforward, those of the Aryan stock were to take their place. Nor is it without significance that the Persians, who were hereafter destined to close the long era in which the centre of political power had been on the Euphrates, were themselves Aryans, and thus kindred in race with the Greek and the Roman.
* Inscription of Nabonidus. Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., vol. vii. p. 141.
2 Thus brothers and sisters married in Elam, as in Persia and Egypt. * See p. 206.
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But they were to hold the sceptre of the world only for a few years, and then yield it for ever to the rising nations of Europe. Ancient history was closing and modern was near its dawn.
Croesus, the son of Gyges, who had been the ally of Egypt against Babylon, continued his father's war on the Greek cities of Asia Minor, and greatly extended his power. But the fame of his immense wealth was enough, apart from his relations to Egypt, the hereditary enemy of the monarchs of Western Asia, to draw on him the attack of Cyrus, the new conqueror. Advancing from Armenia, the Elamite marched through subdued nations, to Asia Minor, and there Croesus speedily fell before him. The standard of the conqueror, emblazoned with the figure of a flying eagle — the ''raveniug bird'' ^ of the prophet, was thus supreme from the farthest East to the waters of the Egean.
Twenty years^ passed in this vast succession of triumphs, but Babylon still rose above the wide inundation of victory. That it should do was intolerable to a boundless ambition. It, and not Ecbatana, the chief city of Media ; orSardis, the metropolis of Lydia; or Susa, the mountain stronghold of Susiana, was the political capital of Asia. That vast quadrangle of huge walls, with broad walks along their tops, and lofty towers rising high overhead, while a hundred gates of bronze pierced their circuit far below, was a province rather than a metropolis. It enclosed within its bulwarks an aggregate of great cities and far- stretching suburbs, of wide parks, and gardens,
^ Isa, xli. 2; xlvi. 11. Xen., Cyrop., vii. 1.
2 If Mr. Pinches be correct, the time spent in subduing Media and the other countries was only about twelve years. He thinks the final subjugation of Media was in B.C. 650. Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch. ,Yo\. vii. p. 146.
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and waving fields. The great commer- cial highways of Asia ran through it, and human industry had turned the de- ^ sert round it ^ into a richly p watered Para- 2 dise, the most B fruitful plain § in the world. ^ In its learned " institutions " was to be « f o und the i highest cul- c5 tui-eof theage; M in its mansions ^ and palaces, ^ the accumu- ^ lated wealth of plundered na- tions, and the refinements of the most con- summate lux- ury. It was, moreover, the religious cen- tre of Western
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Asia, and the citadel of the great gods, before whom all nations had trembled. While they remained uucon- quered, they seemed invincible. Subject nations might invoke them to aid revolt from the new Power.
Ambition and interest thus combined to make an assault on the great city of the Euphrates only a question of time. Within twenty years after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon, hemmed in on all sides by the conquests of Cyrus, was the only Power that still claimed independence. Its king Nabonidus, the third in succession from the conqueror of Jerusalem, had long foreseen his danger. It almost seems, indeed, from an inscription of the period, that at first he aided Cyrus against the Medes,^ but in the last ten years of his reign he appears to have relapsed into careless inactivity, living ignobly in his palace in Tenia, not far from Babylon,^ while his army under Belshazzar, his eldest son, was finding a Capua in the luxurious idleness of Accad, or Northern Babylonia. The seclusion of the king, more- over, excited the discontent of the priests ; for the images of the gods Nebo and Bel were absent with him, so that they could not be paraded in religious processions, to receive public homage. Neglecting to pay them this honour, Nabonidus contented himself with holdinsr festi- vals and offering sacrifices for the preservation of the capital.
A contemporary inscription, lately discovered, gives a glimpse of Babylonian history in these years. Haran, it tells us, had been taken and destroyed by the Manda, or "barbarians,'^ of Ecbatana, that is, by the Medes, and its temple of the " Moon,'^ had been destroyed.
* Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., vol. vii. p. 145.
- Sajce calls it a suburb of Babylon. Fresh Light, p. 168.
390 EEDEMPTION DRAWING NIGH.
" At the beginning of my long reign." * says Nabonidus, " Mero- dacb, the great lord, and Sin, the moon-god, the illuminator of heaven and earth, the strong one of the Universe, revealed to me a dream. Merodach spoke to me thus, ' O Nabonidus, king of Babylon, go up with the horse of thy chariot ; make bricks for the Temple of Rejoicing, and let the seat of Sin, the great lord, enter within it.' Reverently I spoke to Merodach, the lord of the gods ; ' I will build this house, of which thou hast spoken. The bar- barians (the Modes) went about it, and their forces were terrible.' Merodach answered me, * The barbarians of whom thou hast spoken shall not exist, neither they, nor their lands, nor the kings, their allies.' In the third year (b.c. 549), when they (the barbarian Modes), caused Cyrus, the king of Elam, his (Merodach's) young servant, to march amongst his army, they provoked him to battle ; the wide-spread barbarians he overthrew : he captured Astyages, king of the barbarians, and seized his treasures; to his own land he took them."
After this, Nabonidus was able to fulfil the promise he had made. Summoning his vast army, from Gaza on the west, and from the Persian Gulf on the south, he began the restoration of the temple at Haran, which had been built three hundred years before by Shalmaneser XL, and afterwards repaired by Assur-banipal.
But the storm of war, which had desolated so many other lands, was now about to sweep over Babylon itself. A cylinder, inscribed by order of Cyrus, and discovered by Mr. Rassam, enables us to trace the progress of the catastrophe.
" In the ninth year of Nabonidus (b.c. 546)/' it tells us,2 "Cyrus, king of Persia, in the month Nisan (April), collected his soldiers and crossed the Tigris below Arbela,
» B.C. 552.
2 Here Cyrus calls himself king of Persia. Professor Sayce is, therefore, wrong in saying that he is called so in Ezra only, "because the Persian empire was nob founded by Darius till the time of the compiler of that book."
REDEMPTION DRAWING NJGH. 391
and the following month marched against the land of .... Its king took his silver and himself, and made his own children mount (the funeral pyre), and then both king and children were burnt in the midst of it.''
Nabonidus, unmoved by the fate of this neighbouring land, still lived as secluded and inactive as ever. The year B.C. 545 was spent, like others, at Tenia; Bel- shazzar, the heir apparent, being quartered with the army in Accad. " Until Nisan (our April) the king did not go to Babylon, neither did Nebo nor Bel. But they kept the festival (of these gods), and presented peace ofFeriuo-s in the temples of Saggil and Zida, for the preservation of Babylon and Borsippa/' Meanwhile danger was closing round the empire, for ^^ on the 21st Si van (our June) the soldiers (of Elam) invaded Accad.''
But six years were to pass before the final crisis. Cyrus had been unable to defeat the Babylonian army in Accad, and it barred the way to the great city. He, therefore, either betook himself to intrigue with the people on the " lower sea," or Persian Gulf, and prob- ably with the Jews in Babylonia, or invaded the lower provinces and subdued them. At last, in B.C. 539, these districts rose against Nabonidus, who now trembled for his safety, and no longer absented himself from Babylon. Bel was brought out, after his long rest, and famous local gods, from far and near, were conveyed to the capital, that all, united, might be induced, by special public honours, to save the imperilled State. In the words of the inscription, " the gods of Marad — Zamama and the gods of Kis — Beltis and the gods of Kharsak- Kalama, the gods of Accad, above and below the sky, were brought to Babylon, but the gods of Borsippa, Cullah and Sippara, were not brought." All, however, was useless, and Cyrus marched steadily towards the
392 EEDEMPTION DRAWING NIGH.
doomed city. His troops approaclied at the same time from both north and south, but as they advanced, the cause of Nabonidus was lost by the revolt of Accad. As a result of this, the city of Sippara (Sepharvaim) was taken " on the 14th of Tammuz " (July) without fighting, the king, who had been in it, fleeing to Baby- lon. But there also, the cylinder tells us, no resistance worth the name was offered, Gobryas, governor of Kurdistan (Gutium), the general of Cyrus, entering the city without a blow, two days after the fall of Sippara. Nabonidus, himself, who had apparently fled, was taken soon after and put into fetters at Babylon. A few bolder spirits kept the gates of one of the temples closed till the end of the month ; but they had no weapons, and at last surrendered without fighting.
The public entry of Cyrus into Babylon took place on the 3rd of Marches van (October), immense crowds filling the roads and streets as he advanced. True to his policy of moderation, he forthwith granted an amnesty, and proclaimed peace to both the city and province. Gobryas, the commander-in-chief of the army, was rewarded by being made governor-in-chief of the city, and the people in the provinces were propitiated by the restoration to their local shrines of the images brought by Nabonidus to the capital — a measure which was not completed till the month of Adar (February) . In that month Nabonidus died, and a public mourning for him, till the third of Nisan, was ordered throughout Accad. A grand funeral, arranged by Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, closed the story of the unfortunate monarch, who was buried in the temple of the Sceptre of the World, the priests of the temple performing high obsequies. To this point the inscription recording these details is legible, but, unfortunately, the remaining text is im-
REDEMPTION DRAWING NIGH. 393
perfect, tliongli enough remains intelligible to show that it recounts the honours paid by Cyrus and his son to the gods of Babylonia, their offering sacrifices to Bel, and their replacing Nebo in his former shrine.
Happily a third inscription — that on the " cylinder of Cyrus'' — supplements the narrative thus far recovered. In it Cyrus relates that the gods were angry with Nabonidus for his neglect of their worship.
"The gods dwelling within their shrines left them in anger when Nabonidus brought tliem to Babylon. Merodach went about to all men, wherever their seats, and the men of Sumir and Accad (Lower and Upper Babylonia), whom he had sworn should attend him, (besought him to return). This favour he granted, and came back. All lands, even the whole of them, rejoiced and ate. And he appointed a king to guide aright in the heart what his hand upholds ^ ; Cyrup, king of Elam, be proclaimed by name sovereign; all men everywhere dwell on his name. The men of Kurdistan and all the barbaiians (of Ecbatana — the Medes) he made bow down to his feet, the men of the black-headed race (the Accadians), •whom he had conquered with his hand, he governed in justice and righteousness. Merodach, the great lord, the restorer of his people, beheld with joy the deeds of liis vicegerent, who was righteous in hand and heart. To his city of Babylon he sum- moned his march, and bade him take the road to Babylon, going at his side like a friend and comrade. The weapons of his vast army, whose numbers, like the waters of a river, could not be known, he marshalled at his side. Without fighting or battle he caused him to enter Babylon. His (Merodach's) city of Babylon feared. In a place difficult of access he gave into his (Cyrus's) hand, Nabonidus, the king, who did not worship him. The men of Babylon, all of. them, and the whole of Sumir and Accad, the nobles and priests who had revolted, kissed his feet (Cyrus's); they rejoiced in his rule; their faces shone. The god who raises the dead to life, who helps all men in trouble and pinyer, has, in goodness, drawn nigh to him (Cyrus), and has made
* Comj are I>aiaii.
394 REDEMPTION DRAWING NIGH.
his name strong. I am Cyrus, the king of legions, the great king, the powerful king, the king of Babylon, the king of Sumir and Accad, the king of the four zones, the son of Cambyses the great king, the king of Elam; the great grandson of Teispes, the great king, the king of Elam; of the ancient seed-royal, whose rule has been beloved by Bel and Nebo, whose sovereignty they cherished, according to the goodness of their hearts. At that time I entered Babylon in peace, I enlarged the seat of my dominion with joy and gladness in the palace of the kings. Merodach, the great lord (cheered) the heart of his servant, whom the sons of Babylon (obeyed, each) year and day. . . . My vast armies he marshalled peacefully in the midst of Babylon ; throughout Sumir and Accad no t)ne reviled me. The temples of Babylon and all its fortresses I established in peace. As for the sons of Babylon. . . . their ruins I repaired, and I delivered their prisoners. I prepared for the work (of restoring the shrine) of Merodach, the great lord, and he graciously drew nigh unto me, Cyrus the king, his worshipper, and to Cambyses my son, the off- spring of my heart, and to all my army, and in peace we duly restored its front (that of the shrine) in glory.
"All the kings who dwell in the high places of all regions, from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea, who dwell in (the high places) of the kings of Phenicia and Sufcar, all of them brought their rich tribute and kissed my feet in the midst of Babylon. From (the city of) . . . to the gates of Assur atid Istar. . . . Accad, Marad, Zamban, Me-Turnat, and Duran, as far as the borders of Kurdistan; the gods whose seats were in the fortresses upon the Tigris, I reistored to their seats, and I built for them shrines that would last long. All these peoples I assembled and I restored their lands. And the gods of Sumir and Accad, whom Nabonidus, to the anger of the lord of gods (Merodach) had brought to Babylon, I settled in peace in their sanctuaries, by command of Merodach, the great lord. In the goodness of their hearts may all the gods whom I have brought back to their strong places intercede before Bel and Nebo, that they may grant me length of days; may they bless my schemes with success, and may they say to Merodach, my lord, that Cyrus the king, thy worshipper, and Cambyses his son, (deserve his favour)."
Such is the notice of the fall of Babylon, preserved in
REDEMPTION DRAWING NIGH. 395
contemporaiy inscriptions.^ The narrative of Herodotus, which, if it be actually historical, is thus proved ^ to refer to the capture of the city in B.C. 518, by Darius Hystaspis, informs us that Cyrus, hopeless of taking the city by a regular siege, lowered the waters of the Euphrates which flowed through Babylon, by digging canals, and thus diverting them from their ordinary bed, so that his forces were able to enter freely ; the Baby- lonians, in their panic, having forgotten to close the inner gates which might have saved them.
The brief statement of the Book of Daniel^ helps ns to fill up the picture of the eventful night in which the mistress of the world was thus surprised and taken. Belshazzar, the eldest son of Nabonidus, associated with him on the throne, and commander-in-chief of the army, had retreated to Babylon after his defeat in Accad, and fancied himself safe within its mighty walls, notwith- standing the recent disasters. Any lingering fear sought to drown itself in the wild revelry of a sacrificial feast to the gods. A thousand nobles sat down to the banquet ; the king himself, with a dazzling array of princes and princesses, and the beauties of the harem, attending in high state. High-born ladies were wont to be present at such orgies in Babylon, and rivalled the coarser sex in their shamelessness and excess.* The feast, as described in Daniel, brings before us a scene of luxury and splen- dour only to be found in the greatest of Oriental courts ; the magnificent hall, with its sculptured and painted walls and its costly ceiling, the strains of sweet music from
^ Journal of B. Asiatic Sac, vol. xii. pp. 80 ff. Trans. Soc. Bib, Arch., vol. vii. pp. 139-176. Sayce, Fresh Light, pp. 170-174.
2 Herod., i. 191. » Dan. v.
• * Curtius, V. 1, says, that at feasts, the ladies — "matrons and virgins" — became dead to shame as the revelry advanced.
396 EEDEMPTION DRAWING NIGH.
antechambers, the air rich with costly perfumes, the tables laden with gold and silver vessels of every size and shape, plundered from half a world ; the gorgeous uniforms and robes of the guests, and the blaze of jewels, made up a display such as could only be witnessed in the foremost city of the earth. As if to deride the hopes of the Jews in their approaching deliverance, the rich vessels of gold and silver carried off by Nebuchadnezzar, two generations before, from the Temple at Jerusalem, and since then stored in the treasury of the temple of Bel, were set forth, as part of the boundless wealth of the Great King. Amidst this wilderness of splendour stood countless golden vases filled with the richest wines of Helbon and Lebanon, and from these, as if in defiance of Jehovah, the sacred vessels of the Temple were filled, that the guests might drink to the health of the gods which Babylon worshipped.^
But the Keeper of Israel, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, was at hand to avenge Himself for the insult. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, over against one of the many-branched lamps which filled the hall with light, and wrote on the smooth stucco of the wall. The revelry was hushed at once, and all faces grew pale. The enchanters, magi, and astrologers, were summoned in hot haste. A purple robe of honour and the golden collar of " third ruler'' of the kingdom, next to Belshazzar himself, the second, were promised as his reward who should interpret the mysterious symbols. But no one could read them. Then the queen mother, perhaps Nitocris, the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar,^ re- membering how Daniel, now an old man, had solved the dreams of her father, long years before, hinted that he, perhaps, could read the awful characters. And now, the 1 Dan. v. 4. Bar. vi. 4. » Herod., i. 185.
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hoary prophet, emerging for a moment, by command, from long seclusion, once more vindicates the Eternal, in whose name he speaks. "The words/' which were Aramaic, " mean,'' cries the seer, '^ ' numbering,' * weighing,' and ' breaking,' and tell, from above, that God has numbered thy kingdom, O king, and finished it; that thou art weighed in the balances, and found wanting; and that thy kingdom is divided and given to the Modes and Persians." ^ True to history, the sacred chronicle men- tions the Modes first, and next the Persians, not the Elamites — Cyrus himself, as we have seen on his cylinder, having latterly assumed this style, though the Modes, as the older nation, are flattered by having the first place assigned them, Persian authority not being as yet indis- putably supreme.
" In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chal- deans, slain." Chariot and horse and footman.- had entered the city by the help of traitors within. The hundred two-leaved gates of bronze,^ the mighty walls, and the glittering legions, on which the Great King so proudly relied, had been useless to stay the invader. In the panic of sudden and awful surprise, the guards fled from the inner gates, leading from the river banks to the city, leaving them open. The predictions of the prophets were literally fulfilled. Babylon had " suddenly fallen." Its mighty men, palsied with fear, made no resistance while the fierce mountaineers of Media and Elam marched through the silent streets. In so vast a place, the conquerors had triumphed at one end before news of the attack reached the other ; but running footmen speedily carried the terrible story to the king. All was lost; every way of escape stopped, the great public buildings in flames, and the soldiery too » DaD. Y. 20-28. « Isa. xlv. 1, 2. Herod., i. 129.
398 EEDEMPTION DEAWING NIGH.
demoralized to fight.^ The foe, swarming like locusts, knew no pity, but slaughtered the unresisting population like sheep .^ Bel bowed down, Nebo stooped, unable to protect their votaries.^ Belshazzar himself perished amidst the flower of his court, perhaps in a vain attempt at resistance. Babylon, the terror of the earth, the op- pressor of nations, was humbled at last. The shock of her fall was felt by all lands. The sacking of London by a sudden surprise, and the subversion of the British empire, would be the only parallel event in our own day. The transition from the Chaldean dynasty to the rule of the conquerors followed at once, for resistance appears to have ceased after the taking of Babylon. Cyrus was now supreme over all Asia, from India to the Dar- danelles ; but, though the moving spirit of this vast revolution, the obscurity of his original position as king only of Elam, and his relations to the Modes, and perhaps the Persians, seem to have led him for the time to deny himself the titular sovereignty. A Median prince appears, therefore, to have been put forward by him as the no- minal king, though the real power remained in his own hands. Elam and Persia had been hitherto very inferior in power and rank to Media, the haughty clans of which followed him rather as their adopted chief than as their conqueror ; and the time was not yet ripe for affronting this proud assumption of independence. Cyrus had gained the leadership by affecting to liberate Media from a tyrannical despot, and the support of the aristocracy and army had been won only by this diplomacy. A Median prince was therefore established for the time as king in Babylon — Darius, the son of Ahasuerus or Cyaxares, a childless and easily-managed man of sixty- two. Two years later this phantom king died, and no » Jer. li. 8, 30, 31. 2 jer. U. 40. » Isa. xlvi. 1.
BEDEMPTION DRAWING NIGH. 399
further opposition to tlie accession of Cyras, as an Elamite, being" possible, he openly assumed the empire.^
The nominal reign of Darius extended from B.C. 538 to B.C. 536, but ha? left no recorded incident except that of the deliverance of the prophet Daniel from the den of lions. The new empire had been divided into 120 provinces, each under its own governor, with three Sarekin,^ or presidents, at their head, of whom Daniel was one.^ That he should have been thus honoured was natural, from his services to the great Nebuchadnezzar, and the impressiveness of his recent appearance at the last feast of Belshazzar. But the elevation of a Jew who slighted the local gods, roused the jealousy of the native aristocracy, and led to a plot for the destruction of the prophet, who was now at least eighty years old; having been carried to Babylon as a youth in the year B.C. 606.
The story of the den of lions is strictly in keeping with Babylonian usages. Assurbanipal says in his annals, '' The rest of the people I threw alive into the
* The identification of Darius mentioned in Dan. v. 31, etc., has given rise to much controversy. That there should be difficulty about a merely titular king, when Cyrus was the actual ruler, is natural. Various explanations have been given, but the one in the text seems the most satisfactory. For a full discussion of the subject, see Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., vol. vi. pp. 1-133. Speaker^s Com., Daniel, pp. 305-313. Boscawen thinks Darius is only a title = the king. So does Ernest Bunsen. Vigouroux adds the idea that " Ugbaru," who is named in an inscription by Cyrus, is the same as Darius (vol. iv. p. 483). Lenormant advances, in connection with the appointment of this personage, a proof that Cyrus had not royal power at once, in the fact that in the first and second years he is only called '* king of nations," and not till the third year " king of Babylon." — La Divination, pp. 181-2. Babylon, in Annates de Philos. Chretienne, 1881, p. 680.
^ Apparently an Assyrian word. * Not " first."
400
EEDEMPTION DRAWING NIGH.
midst of tlie bulls and lions, as Sennacherib my grand- father used to do/^ ^ Lions abounded round the great city, and the Great King is frequently portrayed in the sculptures as engaged in their pursuit.^ It is probable, moreover, that numbers of captive lions were kept in the preserves attached to the palaces, to be turned out for the chase when the king wished.^
His religious fidelity was the only point on which Daniel could be assailed. From the earliest ages the kings of Babylon had claimed to be Divine,* and it was
The Great Kino Hunting the Lion.
therefore easy to procure an order from Darius to require all "petitions'' to be made for thirty days, only to him- self. To obey such a decree was impossible to one like the prophet. His conduct when it was signed and thus irreversible, was in keeping with his past character, and has ever since presented an ideal of duty, when a choice is demanded between obedience to God or to man. " He went into his house, and his windows in his chamber (on
* Trans. Soc. Bih. Arch., toI. ii. p. 362.
2 See Hommel's Zwei Jagdinscliriften AssiirhanipaVs, p. 2. ^ Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, vol. xxiv. pp. 136, 271, 288.
* Records of the Past, vol. i. p. 8. Oppert, Inscriptions, p. 16.
REDEMPTION DRAWING NIGH. 401
the roof) being open towards Jerusalem (for prayer), he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did afijretime/^ What followed is known to us all. Delivered from the lions, Daniel "prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian," whom he may have been largely instrumental in moving to send back the Hebrews to Palestine.
The seventy years of the Captivity, ^ dating from B.C. 606 — the fourth year of Jehoiakim, when Daniel and many others were carried off to Babylon — to the accession of Cyrus as sole king, in B.C. b'36, had now expired, and the sure word of prophecy could not fail. Other in- fluences, besides that of Daniel, tended to its fulfilment. The very fact that the king^s name stood written in Jewish predictions uttered long before, - as that of the deliverer of the nation, could hardly have failed to im- press him. Josephus, indeed, expressly ascribes to this the favourable action taken. ^ But, in addition, the in- terests of the exiles may have been advanced by Jews in the court service,* and by Babylonian proselytes of high standing. Nor were motives of human policy wanting. It would necessarily help the empire if a friendly people were established, under its protection, between its territories and Egypt, the hereditary rival for dominion over Western Asia.
The decree which fulfilled the announcements of pro- phecy, is reproduced in the first chapter of Ezra.^ It not only permits the Jews, in every part of the empire, to "go up to Jerusalem " to rebuild the Temple of Jehovah, but invites help for them, in silver, gold, goods, and beasts.
^ Jer. XXV. 11 ; xxix. 10. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. 2 Isa. xli. 25 ff. ; xliv. 28; xlv. 1 ff.
» Jos., Ant., XI. i. 1. * Dan. i. 6. ^ Ezra i. 2-4
VOL. VI. D D
402
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The similarity of its style and language to those of other .Persian proclamations is striking. Thus, for example, that of Darius Hystaspis, in the inscription at Elvend, requires only the substitution of Jehovah for Ormuzd, to be al- most identical with the words of Cyrus. " The great god Or- 1 muzd/' says he, "the greatest of I gods, who created the earth and ^ the heavens and men, and gave I power to men, and made Darius I kiog.'' ^ Nearly the same lan- t^ guage occurs in the inscription ■J of the same monarch at Perse- I polis.^ It was natural, therefore, » for C^'rus to introduce the name i» of a god, as he does in his decree, I though his mention of Jehovah, **^ as shown in his own inscriptions g already given, was only that of S a polytheist, willing to honour £ the national god of any people, £ if occasion demanded. Neither g he nor Darius Hystaspis, indeed, ^ was ever a monotheist, though £ both have always been thus re- fi garded. Policy dictated the ful- lest toleration of all the religions of the empire. " Ormuzd, the god of the Aryans,'' says Darius, at the close of his life, " was my
* Menanfc, Expose des Elements de la gram. Assyrienne. Paris, p. 302. Records of the Past, vol. ix. p. 78. ^ Records of the Past, vol. ix. p. 74.
REDEMPTION DRAWING NIGH. 403
supporter, and the other gods, because I have not been wicked. I have not been a liar nor a criminal, neither I ftor my family. I have committed no violence to the just or the good. The man who was loyal to my house I heartily protected ; him who sinned, I slew. I never did violence to a brave warrior."^ In the same spirit, we have seen Cyrus recording that he repaired the shrine of " Merodacb, his lord," and restored to their places the gods who dwelt among various peoples enumerated, and that he prays to Merodach, as his worshipper, for himself and his son.^
He was thus precisely the man to show favour to the servants of Jehovah, the Jewish god, since he made it a point to support all religions in turn, that he might win the loyalty of their respective adherents. While, therefore, he honoured the god of the Hebrews in high sounding phrases, we cannot claim him as more than a shrewd politican, using language which served a temporary end and might perhaps gain him the help of one god the more. But whatever his secret thoughts, he had fulfilled the decree of Providence, and opened the gates of Babylon to the exiles, that they might return freely to their own land, and restore the long-fallen kingdom of God.
^ Oppert, Le peuple et la langue des Medes, p. 151. Tefc Darius was severe enough when he chose. He tells us that he cut off the uose and ears of a pretender to the crown, and dug out his eyes ; after which he kept him chained in public for all the people to see, and finally crucified him. Oppert, p. 133. Sayce speaks of Darius being a Zoroastrian monotheist (Fresh Light, p. 176), but the inscription quoted above, shows this to be an error.
3 P. 349.
CHAPTER XYIL
THE RETURN.
THE glowiDOf words of the prophets respecting Cyrus had kindled a fervent loyalty to him in the breasts of the exiles. He had been proclaimed the " Shepherd '' of Jehovah, His " anointed, whom Jehovah had called from the East" to free His chosen people and rebuild His temple. Fortunately, the Phenicians were also de- voted admirers of the great king. They stood between him and Egypt on the north of Palestine; the Jews would do a similar service on the south. Policy dictated special favour under such circumstances. Hence they were not only permitted to take all their private property with them ; their brethren and others were encouraged to help them in their great undertaking. The joy at the national deliverance was unbounded. Even the imagery of the prophets seemed inadequate to express it. Men could now, once more, say among the heathen that Jehovah reigned.^
When Jehovah led back the captives of Zion, sang one of the sacred poets of the day —
We were like them that dream ;
Then was our mouth filled with laughter,
* Ps. xcvi. 10. See also Ps. xcvii. 99.
404
THE RETURN. 405
And our tongue with singing.
Then was it said, among the heathen :
*• Jehovah has done great things for them."
Yes ! Jehovah has done great things for us,
And made us glad.
O Jehovah, lead back our captive ones !
Let them roll on the now desolate land
With a flood full as the torrents of the Negeb
In the time of a winter storm.*
The prospect before those who returned was for the time sad; for Jerusalem lay in heaps, and must be rebuilt amidst many diflBculties. But
They that sow in tears will reap in joy;
He that goes afield weeping, to scatter his armful of seed,
Will (one day) come from it again bearing His sheaves.
There was thus both joy and a thoughtful sadness among the exiles. Far and near throughout the empire, heralds proclaimed the good news that made every Jew a free man. Multitudes had been sold as slaves when first brought from Judah; not a few to hard masters. But now they that " sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and iron,'' found their prison gates thrown open, and their bands broken in sunder.^ As the news travelled from land to land, the best of the race set their faces, from every region, towards Jerusalem. Not a few, we may believe, found their way to the loved spot, from the West, by sea,^ making light of any suffer- ing it brought, if only, at last, they stood once more in Zion. The route of many, from the distant East, did not pass near Babylon, and they could only reach Palestine long after the main body of their brethren. A kindlier
1 Ps. cxxvi. This seems the meaning of this figure; see vol. v. p. 386.
2 Ps. cvii. 10-14. » Ps. cvii. 23-30.
406 THE EETUEN.
feeling had latterly been cherished by some of the native population towards the exiles; and now that royalty smiled on them, they were loaded with favour. The richer Jews, contented with their position, preferred, for the most part, to remain in Babylon. But while themselves faint-hearted, they were proud of the braver spirits, who, having little to lose, more readily joined the great movement, and they liberally contributed whatever might be useful on the way or in Palestine. Cyrus, himself, commanded his treasurer, Mithridates, to hand over, from the treasure house of the Temple of Bel, to those about to return, all the sacred vessels of gold and silver carried off by Nebuchadnezzar at the destruction of Jerusalem. No fewer than 5,400 salvers, cups, tankards, spoons, basins, etc., of the precious metals, were thus once more delivered to the priests.^ Beasts of burden, supplies of food, and all the requirements of the journey and its subsequent object, seem to have been liberally added, with much besides, toward the great object of restoring the worship of the Temple on Mount Zion.
The body of pilgrims, of both sexes, found at last willing to face the perils of the desert, and of their ruined native land, amounted to no more than 42,360, including children above twelve years of age.^ Besides these, there were 7,337 male and female slaves, 200 of them trained singers and musicians. Of the twenty-four priestly " courses,'' only four had representatives, although the number of these was over 4,000;^ nearly a tenth of the whole caravan. The enterprise was especially fitted to attract the sacred orders ; but the indifference of twenty of the priestly clans out of twenty-four shows how wide must
1 Ezra i. 7 ; vi. 14. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 10-13. Jer. xxvii. 16-22 ; xxviii. 2, 3. Dan. v. 3.
2 This is stated in 1 Esdras v. 41. » Ezra ii. 36-39.
THE RETURN. 407
have been the defection of the exiles at large, from the faith of their fathers, or, at least, how faint was their en- thusiasm for it. Still, the presence of so many priests as actually set out from Babylon, lent a dignity to the whole body of Pilgrim Fathers whom they accompanied. Honoured for their high descent and venerated office, they formed, moreover, a nucleus round which the religious life of the new colony might gather. But the general indifference or apostasy of their order was insignificant compared with that of the Levites. Formerly much more numerous than the priests, only seventy-four cared to leave Babylon. A defection so striking was destined to have important results. Hitherto humble in their posi- tion, the fewness of the Levites in the new community henceforth led to a constant struggle for equality with their more favoured brethren, though they gained it only at the latest period of the nation. Besides the Levites strictly so called, there were, however, some of the two lower grades of the Levitical order; 128 singers of the clan of Asaph, and 139 of the order of Temple police, who guarded the gates and circuit of the sacred building; descendants of the men who, under Jehoiada, had de- stroyed the heathen tyranny of Athaliah.i
Besides these, there was a lowly band of 392 " Nethi- nim," labourers " given ^* to the Temple authorities as slaves, and of "the descendants of Solomon's slaves.'^ The former were representatives of the old Canaanite thralls of the days of Joshua,^ recruited perhaps by prison- ers of war, taken at different times, from Arab tribes,^ —
' See vol. iv. p. 148. 2 josh. ix. 21-27.
3 Some of the Nethinim are called Mehunim (Ez. ii. 50), ap- parently an Arab tribe from Mount Seir. Others are called Nephu- sim, or descendants of Naphosh, an Arab tribe on the east of Palestine (1 Chron. v. 19).
408 THE EETUEN.
the latter, descendants of the Canaanites, whom Solomon had enslaved for his public works.^
At a time when religious enthusiasm ran so high, it was natural that great care should be taken in registering the free citizens and priests allowed to take part in the great migration, since the inheritance of property and the legal discharge of the offices of religion depended on family descent. Failure to satisfy the registrars did not indeed prevent the return of any one with his brethren to Palestine, but it withheld some privileges from laymen, and excluded priests from the exercise of their office. Nor were strict precautions uncalled for. At least one body of intending emigrants from an outlying part of Chaldea — perhaps a remnant of some ancient deportation from Palestine, — were not able to "show their father's house,'' or give their pedigree,^ while another, claiming priestly rank, on the ground of descent from Barzillai, the friend of David, failiug to prove their Aaronic descent, were pronounced disqualified for sacred duties, till their position could be settled by the high priestly Urim and Thummim,^ which, as a matter of fact, disappeared with the Captivity. This mysterious ornament may have been overlooked in the restoration of sacred objects by Cyrus, but more probably it had been lost at the destruc- tion of the Temple. Whatever its fate, it was never seen after the Return.
At the head of the great body of the migration were two men, specially fitted for their position. Foremost stood Zerubbabel, "the Prince of Judah," a grandson of the popular king, Jehoiachin, and thus a descendant of the great national hero, David — the only person of royal blood who returned at this time, though others followed
> 1 Kings ix. 20. 2 Chron. viii. 7. ^ g^ra ii. 59.
3 Ezra ii. 63. 1 Esdras v. 36-40.
THE RETURN. 409
at a later period.^ His Dame seems to indicate that he was born in Babylonia,^ presumably in the earlier years of the Captivity, though, like Daniel, he had also a Chal- dean name, Sheshbazzar.^ Alive twenty years later, he could not, however, at this time have been very old. Next him stood Joshua, the high priest, grandson of the high priest Seraiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had put to deatb at Riblah, after the fall of the Holy City.* In these two the multitude had worthy leaders, whose personal claims were strengthened by hereditary rank. Nor were those who followed them unworthy of such chiefs; for, apart from the body of priests, even the rank and file were descended from the flower of the nation, carried off with king Jehoiachin, from Judah and Benjamin. Ten leaders, under Zerubbabel and Joshua, twelve in all, perhaps in touching allusion to the original number of the Tribes, marshalled the host in as many divisions.
If we may trust later traditions, the setting out of the '' Captivity '^ for Palestine was joyous in the extreme. An escort of one thousand cavalry accompanied them, for protection against the desert Arabs, then, as now, given to plunder, and they started to the music of tab rets and flutes.^ The few rich among them indulged in the luxury of horses, of which there were 736, or of mules, of which there were 245. The aged, the children, and the delicate women rode on camels, which stalked along, 420 in number, while 6,270 asses were partly used for riding, but mainly carried baggage. But that there should have been only 7,671 beasts of carriage for 50,000 people, shows that all but a few marched on foot, and
^ Ezra i. 8 ; v. 14. ^ " Zerua Babel " = begotten in Babylon. 3 Geseniiisand Dietrich think this name Persian, meaniii<T "Fire- worshipper." Fiirst suguests the Sanscrit word for "illustrious." < 1 Chron. v. 40. 2 Kint^s xxv. 18. * 1 Esdras v. 2.
410 THE RETURN.
that therp was little to carry, unless some details have been left unrecorded.
The dreary journey across the desert takes over four months, at the rate of such caravans.^ From the Eu- phrates to the north of Syria the route lay over a hard gravel plain, with no mountains, or clumps of palms, or bubbling springs, to break the wearying monotony. It ran at first on the west side of the Eupbrates, north- ward from Babylon; then struck across the desert to- wards Lebanon, which may have been skirted on the south-east, if they made for Damascus, or approached from the north, by Hamath and Eiblah, which was ap- parently the usual road in those days. By a singular coincidence, the new Exodus took place in the same month as that in which Israel had fled from Egypt, 800 or 900 years before.^
The state of Palestine when the .exiles at last reached it, after their painful journey, was far from inspiriting. On the south, the Edomites had seized Hebron and all Judah, down to the Philistine Plain, while on the north- east of Jerusalem, between Jericho and the shrunken territory of Samaria, they had appropriated a large tract and built a town, fitly called Akrabbim — " the scorpions," or " scourges.^' That the hereditary enemy of Jerusalem, who had laughed at its downfall, and hounded on the Chaldeans against its population, should hold great part of the country, was almost intolerable to the new comers.^ A long and embittered strife to regain the territory thus seized, marked the next four hundred years. The Edomites, driven out of their own country
1 That the news of the fall of Jerusalem took five months to reach Ezekiel, shows that the person who brought it had stayed by the way, at some point — perhaps Damascus.
2 1 Esdras v. 6. Exod. xii. 18. ^ i Mace. iv. 29 ; v. 3.
THE RETURN. 411
by the Nabatheans, clung eagerly to their new acquisitions in Palestine, which may have been given them by Nebu- chadnezzar, in return for their services against the Jews, that they might keep in check the Hebrews still in the land. A few towns and a small territory had to be re- signed to the returned exiles, by command of Cyrus ; but with this exception, the Edomites held their ground, with little loss, till subdued by John Hyrcanus about 130 years before Christ, when they were forced to sub- mit to circumcision, and had Jewish prefects set over them.
The centre of the land was in the hands of the descendants of the mixed races settled in it by the Assyrian kings, after the destruction of Samaria.^ In spite of the large deportations from the Northern King- dom to the East, great numbers of Israelites had escaped aptivity, and having intermarried with the new foreign ion, infused so strong a Jewish feeling into their ,^ ^.ren, as to lead them in the end to claim that they, <xS well as the people of Judah, were Hebrews. The desire to unite with the southern Jews was, indeed, of old date; for the later kings of Judah had won back many of the survivors of the Northern Kingdom to loyalty to Jerusalem. The bands who were present from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun, at the passover of Hezekiah,^ the contributions towards the repairs of the Temple, col- lected, under Josiah, from *' Manasseh and Ephraim, and all the remnant of Israel/' ^ and the company of pilgrims slain by Ishmael on their way from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria, to the ruins of the Holy City,* had, strikingly shown the depth of this sentiment. But the exclusive narrowness of the new founders of Jerusalem was destined
» See vol. iv. p. 240. ^ 2 Chron. xxx. 11.
> 2 Chron. xxxiv. 9. ■• Jer. xU. 5-8.
'aptivity ir//ij)pulati(
//. ■? r PTi
412 THE RETURN.
soon to turn a feeling thus friendly into tlie fiercest hatred.
The stronghold of Bethshean — afterwards known as Scythopolis — was held by the descendants of the Scythians, who had remained there after the terrible inva- sion in the reign of Josiah, and thus formed, as it were, the outpost of the heathen races, who, in the main, peopled Galilee — " the heathen-march." ^
Galilee itself, we all know, was recognised in the days of Christ as largely Jewish, the jealousy of the South never proposing to exclude its Hebrew population from national privileges, though so relentless in the case of the Samaritans. The northern region had, in fact, been largely resettled by exiles returned from the captivity of the Ten Tribes — a " remnant '' still faithful to Jehovah, though the mass of their brethren had merged themselves in the heathenism of the East, or at least preferred to remain beyond the Euphrates. When the Second Book of Esdras was written, it had come to be believed that the great body of the northern Jews had left Assyria long before, for " a further country where never mankind dwelt," ^ but would be brought back in the days of the Messiah. Josephus fancied the Ten Tribes were still beyond the Euphrates,^ and since then, age after age has seen fresh speculations respecting them. Afghanistan, China, Nestoria, the wilds of Western America, and even the supposed Polhynia * round the
^ Ewald, vol. V. p. 98.
2 2 Esdras xiii. 41. The date of this book is assigned by Hilgenfeld to B.C. 28-25. Gfroi-er and others, however, think it belongs tot he age of Domit-ian, a.d. 81-96, while Liicke, originally at least, fancied it written under Trajan, a.d. 98-117.
3 Jos., Ant, XL V. 2.
^ A gentleman gravely maintained this opinion to me when
THE EETDRN. 413
North Pole, have been regarded as the place of their sojourn. But if only a "remnant'" of Judah could be induced to return after a comparatively brief exile, how much less could any return of the whole Ten Tribes be expected, after a residence in the East of more than a century longer ?
The language of the prophets is constantly quoted in support of the fancy, so popular in our day, that the Ten Tribes are yet to return from some unknown land and inhabit Palestine. When it is remembered, however, that similar language employed of the exiles of Judah in Babylon was fulfilled by the return of a very small pro- portion of their whole number, it will be seen that the return of the Ten Tribes which has already taken place, is a corresponding fulfilment of what had been predicted respecting the sons of the Northern Kingdom. But though the Jewish population of Galilee was a vindication of prophecy, the relations of the northern tribes to the southern was henceforth to be changed. The very name of Israel was to be relinquished. That of Judah was alone to remain. In earlier days, " Israel '^ had super- seded the national name of Hebrew ; but from the period of the return, that of " Jew " or " Judean " took the place of both.
The new colony was thus hemmed in on all sides by other races. It held only a small district round Jeru- salem and the city itself, and even for that it had to thank the favour of Cyrus. The list of towns named by Ezra and Nehemiah as the first homes of their brethren, includes only Bethlehem on the south, while on the north their territory did not extend beyond the narrow
Captain Nares' expedition to the North was being sent out, and I have seen it advanced in print since then.
414 TEE RETURN.
limits of Benjamin.^ Even a generation afterwards. Southern Judah had not been won by the Hebrews.^ In the time of Nehemiah, however, nearly a hundred years later, they at last got a footing in Hebron, to which its Canaanite population had once more given the old name of Kirjath-Arba,^ and they had pushed their boundaries some distance into the Negeb.* Beersheba, indeed, on the edge of the southern desert, then had again a village round its wells, and the clan of Temple-singers ultimately established themselves in the Jordan valley, having forced the Edomites to give them lands in that district.^ On the west, however, the Philistines eagerly reasserted their independence ; speaking their own language and worshipping Dagon, as of old, in their capital Ashdod.^
The Jewish community, under Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua, its civil and religious heads, with the ten inferior leaders appointed in Babylon, was or- ganized more fully very soon after the Return. A body of superior magistrates, known as " Sarim ^' or '^ Horim,'^ was appointed, and the ancient order of elders once more installed, as heads of limited districts and of the smaller towns.'' Over the whole stood the local Persian governor, whose headquarters were, perhaps, at Samaria, Zerubbabel being responsible to him, and under his authority in matters of importance.^ The houses of the foreign popu- lation, removed to make room for the new colony, may have sheltered a portion of the emigrants, but Jerusalem
1 Neh. vii. 25-30. Ezra ii. 23, 28, 34. 2 Zech. vii. 7.
3 Art. on Kirjath-Arbah, in Diet, of Bible. * Neh. xi. 25-35.
5 See Lists in Ezra and Neheraiah. ^ Neh. iv. 7 ; xiii. 24. 1 Mace. x. 84. ' Ezra ix. 2, 10 ; viii. 14. Neh. iii. 9, 12, 14, 15 ; iv. 10. ^ Neh. ii. 7-9. There were at least two Persian governors of the lands west of the Euphrates — Syria in the widest sense.
THE RETUEN 415
itself lay in ruins, and the exiles mnst for a time liave lived mostly in tents. How many Jews were already in Judali when their brethren from the Euphrates arrived, cannot be known; but they were probably numerous, since the bulk of the peasantry seems to have been left in the country by Nebuchadnezzar. Besides these, fresh bands from every part of the world constantly arrived and strengthened the national movement. But, hence- forth, Israel was to be only a vassal of the heathen. Its independence was gone for ever, except during the brief interval of the Maccabean revolt. Persians, Greeks, Syrians, and Romans, were to rule, the Jewish people preserving an existence only under the shadow of their power.
The Return had been pre-eminently a religious impulse. Weaned for ever from idolatry, profoundly penitent for the former backslidings of their nation, and kindled into enthusiasm for Jehovah by the glowing words of the prophets, the colonists indulged in dreams of a splendid national and religious future. The central wonder of the State was to be the new Temple on Mount Zion, which, with Jerusalem, Ezekiel had painted as covering a great part of Palestine. Its material magnificence, moreover, and that of the capital, were to be in keeping with this transcendent ideal. Hence, the first thought of the exiles on reaching their fatherland, was to restore the ancient faith. As a step towards this, contributions were invited to begin the rebuilding of the Temple on its former site, and the response was munificent. The rich heads of clans, or " fathers' houses,'' gave the great sum of 20,000 darics, or about £12,000, in gold, and 2,000 minae of silver, or about £22,000 ; ^ while the common people gave
* Taking tbe mina as = 100 shekels. Gesenlus. The word translated " pound " is " mina" (Neh. vii. 70-72). The amounts
416 THE EETURN.
as much in gold, and about £20,000 in silver, besides sixty-seven robes for priests. In addition to this, Zerubbabel, apparently the richest of the exiles, added the splendid gilt of 1,000 golden darics, about £6,000, 60 basons, and 530 robes for the priests, most of whom appear to have been very poor.
Six months had elapsed between the setting out from Babylon and the distribution of the new community in their future localities in Judah.^ No sooner was this effected, however, than a general gathering of the people was called at Jerusalem, to raise anew the long destroyed altar of Jehovah on the exact spot where it had formerly stood. The first wave of enthusiasm was still at its height, and could not content itself with even the huge dimensions of the altar of Solomon. The golden future of the race, and the world-wide triumph of its faith, demanded an altar twice the size.^ This built, its inauguration followed on the first day of the seventh month, with the utmost splendour possible under the circumstances. Vast numbers from the various races and districts of the whole country were desirous to make Jerusalem their religious centre, and for the time befriended the colony,^ perhaps helping it by con- tributions. Their presence added to the glory of the day. Once more the smoke of the morning and even- ing sacrifice arose, and henceforth each week-day and Sabbath, with the new moons and other festivals, saw
in Nehemiah are more detailed than in Ezra, but the aggrep^ate is smaller. Ezra makes the whole contributions 61,000 golden darics = £36,600, besides 6,000 min8e = £50,000. The priests' dresses, however, are given as only 100. Perhaps the two state- ments refer to distinct contributioas at different times. Ezra ii. 69. 1 Ezra iii. 1. ^ Qyaetz, ii. 2, 83.
^ 1 Esdras v. 50, amended by Gesenius.
THE RETURN. 417
their appropriate offerings and sacrifices duly presented or consumed. The day chosen for the inaugural ceremony was also that of the great autumnal Feast of Tabernacles, the harvest home of the land ; a day famous as that on which Solomon had dedicated his Temple, though it was marked, also, as the same on which Jeroboam conse- crated the rival sanctuary of Bethel. The joyous feast was now kept with glad hearts and high hopes. Loud " Amens " from the people answered the chants and jubilant noise of the Levites. It was the birthday of the restored nation. Then first, if modern criticism be correct, rose the strains of the 115th Psalm, ^ with its lofty protest against idolatry, and its proud trust in Jehovah alone as the God of Israel.
But the foundation of the Temple was not yet laid.^ Money, however, was in the treasury, and the rich pro- duce of the land furnished materials for barter.^ Masons and carpenters were hired at Jerusalem, and Phenician sailors were engaged to bring down in rafts, by sea, to Joppa, the cedars granted by Cyrus for the future sanctuary. Great efforts were also made by Zerubbabel and the high priests, zealously aided by priest, Levite, and citizen, to clear the site of the old Temple, and pre- pare for laying the foundation of another. Yet it was not till the second month of the second year, B.C. 535, that this imposing ceremony could take place. By that time the new stones were squared and ready ; the ruins sufficiently out of the way. On the appointed day the priests stood in order, in their new vestments, and the first stone of the second Temple was laid, amidst the blasts of silver trumpets, the clash of cymbals, the music of varied instruments, * and the triumphant notes of
1 Ewald. 2 Ezra iii. 6.
3 Ezra iii. 7. ■» 1 Esdras v. 59.
VOL. VI. E E
418
THE EETURN.
psalms specially composed for tlie occasion.^ Bat sad- ness as well as joy marked the day. There were aged men in the crowd who could compare the past with the present. In their boyhood they had seen the former Temple, before its destruction, and the recollection over- came them. Loud weeping and sorrowful cries mingled
with the sounds of re- joicing; but the bad omen was drowned in still louder shouts of gladness from the multitude.
Meanwhile, a wide and sincere interest was felt in the rise of Jerusalem from its ashes. The mingled race of the Samaritan ter- ritory, proud of its partly Jewish blood, retained the worship of Jehovah as taught by the priests sent from Assyria to its fore- fathers, a hundred and fifty years before. But many heathen customs tainted their practice, and they even worshipped idols, especially household gods.^ The more thought- ful class of Samaritans, however, wearied of so rude and hybrid a creed, longed to join the returned exiles and make Jerusalem their religious centre, feeling that Judah alone had preserved the ancient faith in its purity.
' Ixxxvii. cvi. cvii. cxviii. cxxxvi. The Pilgrim Psalms cxx.- cxxxiv. seem also to date from this time. ^ Ezra iv. 2.
TiJBAPHiM, OB Household Gods.
THE RETURN. 419
A mission was therefore sent from the North, to Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the elders, to make overtures for co-operation in the great work of rebuilding the Temple. The proposal might well have been accepted under judicious conditions, and a disastrous quarrel averted; but hatred of idolatry was now too strong in the new community, to tolerate any alliance with a people defiled by heathenism. Friendly relations would lead to intermarriage and familiarity with impure worship, and the tendency is always greater to sink than to rise. The Mosaic law, moreover, was held with a superstitious veneration, which overlooked the spirit in homage to the letter. The proposal, made apparently in good faith, was therefore declined. Judah would itself build the Temple, as Cyrus had permitted, without help.
The results of this exclusiveness were momentous. Two parties rose among the Jews themselves : Puritaus and Broad Churchmen. Old jealousies and hatreds were rekindled. Samaria had been despised, before the Exile, as a heathen community ; it began to be so again. But it had a dangerous weapon of attack in its turn. The presence of a descendant of David at the head of Judah, gave a specious colour to pretexts of possible political complications in the future. The Persian officials in Samaria lent themselves only too readily to these sus- picions. Hired counsellors were sent to Ecbatana and Susa, to spread them at court, and they succeeded in stopping the Temple works till the death of Cyrus, in a distant war in Upper Asia, seven years later.-^ Nor were they even then allowed to recommence. Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, was too much engaged in his campaigns to trouble himself about the small colony at Jerusalem, and, thus, through his reign also, no progress was made.^ 1 Ezra iv. 24. « B.C. 629-522.
420 THE EETUEN.
Then followed the reign of an impostor — the false Smerdis or Bardes, ^ who claimed to be the murdered brother of Cambyses, but was detected and put to death after a reign of between seven and eight months. It was only in the second year of the next king, Darius Hystaspis, that the sound of the workmen was again heard on Mount Moriah.
In these weary years, criminations and recriminations at Jerusalem lowered the moral tone and cooled the zeal of the Jewish colony.^ But better days returned with the accession of Darius in the year B.C. 522, fourteen years after the Return. Just and honourable, he became another Cyrus to them, and the second founder of the new State.
* Cambyses had secretly murdered his brother Bardes, and an impostor, Gaumata the Magian, had seized the throne in the name of the dead prince. See Eber's Egyptian Princess, where the story of Bardes is charmingly told, from Herodotus.
2 Ewald thinks the Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes in Ezra iv. 6, 7, are Cambyses and the false Smerdis respectively. But Schrader and Keil suppose that verses 6 to 24 are in their wrong place, by the error of some scribe, and refer them to the reign of Xerxes B.C. 486-465, and Artaxerxes of the Long Hand, B.C. 465-425. The names as given in Ezra seem to support this. It is now the generally accepted opinion. See Biehm and the Calwer Hand- worterbuch
CHAPTER XVIII.
HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH.
THE reign of Darius was marked by the appearance of two prophets — Haggai and Zechariah — who, wearied by the apathy of their countrymen, took advan- tage of the accession of a prince so friendly to the nation, to stimulate their countrymen to a resumption of the long delayed work of rebuilding the Temple. Of these two, Haggai was much the older ; for he was either one of the captives led from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and thus had seen the old Temple in its glory, or, at latest, had been born in Babylon at the beginning of the Exile.^ During the Captivity he had, no doubt, helped forward the great religious revival to which the Eeturn was due, though no record of his preaching in those dark years remains. The second, Zechariah, a much younger man,^ was the son or grandson of Iddo,^ the head of one of the priestly houses represented in the Jerusalem colony. Like Ezekiel, he was of priestly extraction ; but he be- longed, besides, to a family of prophets, for he inherited
Ewald thinks he had seen the first Temple. 2 Zech. ii. 4.
^ In Ezra v. 1 ; vi. 14, he is called the son of Iddo ; in Zech. i. 1-7, the grandson.
421
422 HAGGAI AND ZECHA.EIAH.
his dignity, as one of the order, from his father or grand- father. Born in a generation in which the Apocalyptic visions of Daniel and Ezekiel had introduced a new form of prophetic utterance, his prophecies are marked by a similar characteristic. The influence of his Babylonian life moreover is seen in his imagery and allusions. Thus he uses the regnal years of the Great King for his dates,^ and, among other Eastern colourings, introduces in his third vision the Persian custom of clothing a person accused, in soiled garments, to be exchanged for white when he is acquitted.
It was in the second year of Darius Hystaspis, on the first day of the sixth month, September or October, B.C. 521 that Haggai first presented himself before Zerubbabel and Joshua, to stir both them and the people to renewed efi*orts towards the rebuilding of the Temple. The ex- aggerated hopes of the first period of the Return had died away. Instead of the glorious Messianic times they had expected, only trouble and disappointment had befallen them. It seemed as if they had been deceived by the prophets. Their zeal died away under such dis- couragement. After fifteen years, the altar on Mount Moriah, and the laying of the foundation stone, were the only results of their lofty anticipations that a Temple grander than that of Solomon would speedily rise be- fore them. But if they had been disappointed in this direction, their material circumstances had improved. Debarred from restoring the national sanctuary, but free in other respects, they had devoted themselves to worldly aff*airs. Fine houses, owned by the richer colonists, had risen among the ruins of Jerusalem, and this prosperity had still further lowered their religious tone. Warnings of the displeasure of God at their apathy and spiritual » Zech. i. 1-7.
HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH. 423
decline were not, however, wanting; for droughts had visited the Lmd, the heavens had been " staved from dew," and the earth ^'from her fruit." But they still urged that the time for rebuilding the House of God had not yet come;^ fresh permission, they maintained, being required from the Great King. This hypocritical plea Haggai boldly met by a stern attack on their in- sincerity.
4 Is it time for you yoiirselres,— cried he,^ — to live in your houses, panelled (with costly woods), while this house — the House of God — lies waste ? 5 Now, therefore, thus says Jehovah of Hosts: Consider yoqb ways, and their results ! 6 Ye have sown much, and brought in little. Ye eat, bub it does not satisfy you; ye drink, but it does not quench your thirst ; ye clothe your- selves, but it does not serve to warm you ; and he that earns, finds his gain vanish as if put into a bag with holes. 7 Thus says Jehovah of Hosts, Consider your ways, and their results ! 8 Go up to the hill-country, and bring timber and build My house, and I will have pleasure in it, and teel Myself honoured, says Jehovah. 9 Ye looked for much from your fields, and it came to little, and when ye brought it home I blew on it. Why ? says Jehovah of Hosts. " Because of My House which lies waste, while ye, every one, run to build his own house. 10 For this, the heaven has kept back from yielding dew, and the earth from yielding fruit, 11 and I have called up a drought on land and hill, and on the corn, and wine, and oil, and on all that the ground yields, and on men and cattle, and all the labour of your hands."
Haggai took it for granted that no new permission to build the Temple was needed, since the one given by Cyrus had never been withdrawn, though the work had been forbidden. Fortunately, the people and their leading men accepted this view, and resolved to act on the counsel of Haggai, to which they listened with reverent awe. In about tliree weeks the sound of labour once more rose from the top of Moriah.^
1 Hagg. i. 2. 2 Hagg. i. 4-11. » Hagg. i. 15.
424 HAGGAl AND ZECHARIAH.
Four weeks later, the venerable prophet again pre- sented himself before the people and their leaders. The walls of the Temple were now being rapidly built ; but as they rose, it was evident that the new building would be far less magnificent than the old. Most of the citizens were poor, and the few rich were, in too many cases, indifferent. But if the gloom of some, and the coldness of others, were calculated to dispirit the workers, Haggai, cheerful and confident, was ready to encourage them by the promise of a better time, when their brethren in other lands, and even the heathen, would interest them- selves in the great undertaking, and cause the glory of this second Temple to be greater than that of the first.
3 Who is left among you ^ who has seen this House in its former glory ? And how see ye it now ? does it not appear as nothing in your eyes in comparison ?
4 Yet, be of good heart, O Zerubbabel, says Jehovah ; be of good heart, 0 Joshua, the high priest, son of Josedech, and be of good heart all ye people of the land, says Jehovah, and work I For I am with you, says Jehovah of Hosts. 5 The covenant that I made with you when ye came out of Egypt, stands firm, and My Spirit remains in your midst ; fear ye not ! 6 For thus says Jehovah of Hosts : it will be only a little while till I shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry land, 7 and till I shake all nations, and the wealth of all will come hither, and I will fill this House with splendour, says Jehovah of Hosts.
8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says Jehovah of Hosts.
9 The glory of this house will be greater than that of the former, says Jehovah of Hosts, and in this place will I give peace, says Jehovah of Hosts.'
Three months after the community had recommenced work on the Temple, another prophetic message came,
1 Hagg. ii. 1. 2 Hagg. ii. 3-9.
^ This passage is shown in Heb. xii. 12-26 to have a higher reference to the triumphs of Messianic times, in the fall of heathenism, and the glory of Christ.
HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH. 425
througli Haggai, to the people. Their faintheartedness was gone, and they toiled with zeal and energy. It was now desirable to confirm their fidelity by an assur- ance that, if it continued, the blessings of the fields, which had been withheld from them, would be restored. The drought and trials of the past had been a punish- ment for their neglect of the House of God, and would now be removed. It was about the end of November, when the sowing of winter grain was over, and the early rains had begun; in themselves an earnest of the Divine blessing.
II Thus says Jehovah of Hosts — said Haggai ^ — Ask now the priests for instruction in the Law, saying: 12 If a man carry holy flesh of offerings ^ in the skirt of his garment, and touch bread or cooked food^ or wine or oil, or any kind of food, will what it touches become holy ? And the priests answered, " No."'*
13 And Haggai said. If a person made unclean by touching a dead body touch any of these things just named, shall what he touches become unclean ? And the priests said : " It does be- come unclean."* 14 Then answered Haggai, Thus is this people and this nation before Me, says Jehovah, and thus is all the work of their hands.^ 15 And, now, turn your thoughts from this day
1 Hagg ii. 11-19. 2 jer. xi. 15.
3 Gen. XXV. 29, or 2 Kings iv. 38.
* Lev. vi. 20 says that the skirt in which consecrated flesh was carried was thereby, itself, '' holy," but it could not impart holi- ness by what was touched by it. The priests, therefore, were right in their answer. * Num. xix. 22.
^ The raising an altar on their return was a " holy " act, but their delay in building the Temple was wrong, and the good could not make the wrong change its character any more than the " holy flesh " could communicate its goodness to the " common " or unconsecrated food. Moreover, this sin took away the good of their former act — tlie raising the altar — as the touch of a person defiled by a dead body polluted that with which it came into con- tact. They had lost their "cleanness" before God, and might justly be punished by the drought, etc. But now that they had
426 HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH.
backward, to the time before stone was laid on stone in the Temple of Jehovah. i6 Before this, when a man came to a heap of corn which he expected to be twenty measuies, there were only- ten ; and when he came to the vat of the wine-press, expecting to draw off fifty measures of wine, there were only twenty. 1 7 I smote you with blight, mildew, and hail, in all the work of your hands, yet none of you turned to Me, says Jehovah ! 18 But, now, turn back your thoughts from this day to the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, the day on which the foundation of the Temple of Jehovah was laid— think on the matter. 19 Was there seed in the barn before that day ? Were not vine and fig-tree and pome- granate and olive alike unfruitful ? But from that day, when the building was recommenced, I will bless joul
On the same day Haggai received another message to deliver to Zerubbabel. It ran thus —
21 I, Jehovah,^ will shake the heavens and the earth, 22 and I will overturn the throne of the kingdoms, and destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen, and destroy the chariots and those who ride in them, and overwhelm the horses and their riders, every one by the sword of the other. 23 In that day, says Jehovah of Hosts, I will take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, says Jehovah, and make thee like a signet ring on My hand; ^ for I have chosen thee, says Jehovah of Hosts.*
The discourses of Haggai had been delivered between the sixth and ninth months of the second year of Darius — September to November, B.C. 521 — and, as we have seen, had made a profound impression. This was
recommenced the Temple, this state of things no longer existed, and God was free once more to bless the laud, which had suffered for their sake.
^ Hagg. ii. 21-23.
* The signet ring is never laid aside by its wearer, but is especially valued by the owner. Gen. xxxviii. 18.
^ It is possible that the Hebrew prince may have asked Haggai as to his safety in the midst of the political troubles of the empire, and that this is the answer.
HAGGAI AND ZECHAKIAH. 427
deepened by the appearance of his young contemporary, Zechariah, in the month of October — the eighth month ^ — while the earlier words of his aged fellovz-prophet were still fresh in all minds, and his later ones had not yet been spoken. Three months later,^ in January, B.C. 520, he came before the people again; but an interval of twenty-two months elapsed before his next address.^
In the true prophetic spirit, Zechariah, like Haggai, dwells entirely on the moral hindrances to the rebuilding of the Temple. The plots of enemies do not trouble him. Fifteen years had passed since the Keturn, and the walls of the sanctuary were not yet raised, while the city itself was being laboriously, and in some cases splendidly, restored. Haggai, a month before, had striven to rouse his contemporaries, by predicting that, notwithstanding appearances, the glory of the second House would be even greater than that of the first,"* but his words had had little effect. Zechariah, therefore, warns them to take a lesson from the fate of their fathers. Their disobedience to the prophets had been their ruin ; let no such result follow now from a similar cause. The drought and the opposition from without, showed that God was displeased ; let them seek to regain His favour. He thus begins : —
2 Jehovah,* has been very wroth with your fathers, 3 therefore say unto these, their sons; thus says Jehovah of Hosts, "Turn ye to Me, says Jehovah of Hosts, and I will turn to you, says Jehovah of Hosts." 4 Be not like your fathers, to whom the pro- phets of former days cried, saying, " Thus says Jehovah of Hosts, Turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings.'' But they did not hear or give heed to Me, says Jehovah. 5 Your fathers — where are they ? And the prophets, could even they live for ever ? But though all these, alike, are dead, 6 My words
* Zech. i. 1. ' Zech. i. 7. ^ Zech. vii. 1.
< Hagg. ii. 9. » Zech. i. 2-6.
428 HAGGAI AND ZECHAEIAH.
and My commands which I commissioned My servants the pro- phets to declare, have they not overtaken your fathers, so that they turned and said, " As Jehovah of Hosts decreed to do to us, according to our ways and doings, so has He dealt with ns."
Three months later Zechariah announced a series of prophetic night-visions with which he had been favoured, thus repeating the peculiar characteristic of Ezekiel and Daniel, which was, hereafter, to create so widely extended a school of Jewish Apocalyptic literature. The whole suc- cession of visions, seven in number, came, we are told, in the same night, and all alike are designed to confirm the prediction of Haggai, uttered two months before, that Jehovah would assuredly bless and honour His people, if they were faithful to Him.
In the first vision,^ a rider on a red horse, followed by others on red, speckled, and white horses, appeared to the prophet among a clump of myrtles,^ growing in a hollow, and were explained to be those sent out by Jehovah through the earth, which they had found still and peaceful, with no signs, anywhere, of that *' shaking of the nations,^' and overthrow of the enemies of Israel, predicted by Haggai.^ On hearing this, an angel, who stood by, breaks out into a supplication to God to have pity on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, which had now lain waste seventy years. Forthwith Jehovah answers in " good and comfortable words,^^ which the angel em- bodies in a command that Zechariah should cry aloud to his people, as follows : —
14 Thus says Jehovah of Hosts : ^ I am full of loving zeal for Jerusalem and Zion, 15 but of indignation at the heathen dwelling
1 Zech. i. 8-17.
2 Except in Zechariah, the myrtle is mentioned only in Isa. xli. 19; Iv. 13.
3 Hagg. ii. 7. •* Zech. i. 14-17.
HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH. 429
in proud security ; for when I was only a little angry with Israel, they added to his affliction. 1 6 Therefore, thus says Jehovah: I have returned to Jerusalem with mercies; My House shall be rebuilt in her; this is the saying of Jehovah of Hosts; and the measuring line shall be stretched out over the soil of Jerusalem. 17 Preach, moreover, and say, Thus says Jehovah of Hosts : My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and Jehovah will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.
It was thus foreshadowed that God would visit witli His anger, the heathen, now so secure, and renew His favour to Judah. The second vision illustrated His deliverance of Israel in the past, and His overthrow of their foes in the future. Four liorns, the symbols of power, rose before the prophet, the emblems of the kingdoms that had ^' scattered Judah, Israel, and Jeru- salem,''''^ but forthwith appeared also four craftsmen, to the terror of the horns, to cast them down.
Next was seen a man with a measuring line in his hand,- as if to measure the circuit of Jerusalem. He refrains from doing so, however, because the new city would be unwalled, like the open country, to contain the multitude of its population and cattle ; Jehovah Himself serving at once as its glory and its defence, in the absence of bulwarks and fortifications.^ With such prospects before Judah, it was incomprehensible to the prophet that so many of the exiles should still remain in Babylonia. Hence, in the fulness of his joy, he lovingly invites them to seek a place in the favoured city of their fathers.
6 Haik ye,** hark, and flee from the land of the North, says
1 Zech. i. 18-21. 2 zech. ii. 1-5.
3 Jerusalem, though it had walls, in the end extended itself widely on every side over the neighbouring hills. Wright's Zechariah, p. 36. ■* Zech. ii. 6-13.
430 HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH.
Jehovah, for I will spread forth your dwellings to the four winds of heaven.^ 0 Zion, deliver thyself; thou that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. 8 For thus says Jehovah of Hosts : He has sent me (His Angel) ^ to the nations who spoiled you, to win glory at their cost, for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye. 9 For, lo, I' swing my hand over them, and they will be a prey to those who served them, and ye shall know that Jehovah of Hosts has sent me. 10 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion ; for, lo, I am coming, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, says Jehovah. 11 And many nations will join themselves to Jehovah in that day, and will be for a people to Me, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that Jehovah of Hosts has sent me to thee. 12 And Jehovah will take possession of Judah as His portion in the Holy Land, and will choose Jerusalem again. 13 Be silent, all flesh, before Jehovah, for He has raised Himself up from (His repose in) His holy dwelling (in the heavens, to effect this).
The more serious among the citizens of Judah, ap- parently feared that their guilt was too great for the Almighty to pardon, and that this was the cause of their misadventures since their return. To remove such a thought, a fourth vision was vouchsafed to the prophet. Joshua, the high priest,^ as the representative of the whole people, is seen standing, in soiled robes, like a criminal, before the Angel of Jehovah, with " the adver- sary '^ ^ at his right hand, to accuse him. The accusa- tion, however, not only fails ; its author is rebuked by Jehovah, "who delights in Jerusalem,^' for making it. "Is not this (man or community),^' it is asked, " a brand plucked from the fire (of exile) ? '' The soiled robes are then taken off, at the command of the Angel, and robes of
^ The future vast extension of Jerusalem is referred to. 2 Zech. ii. 3. ^ The Angel.
4 Zech. iii. 1-10.
5 The word is " the Satan " or Adversary, and thus it is not a proper name, but an official title.
HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH.
431
honour put on, a pure priestly turban being set, besides, on Joshua's head ; the Angel, moreover, promises him, in the name of Jehovah, that if he walked in God's ways and was zealous for His law, he would remain the judge of His House and the guardian of His courts, and would go out and in among the Angels standing there. He and the other dignitaries of the priesthood who sit with him, men of rank and note, are to take heed to what they have heard ; for Jehovah is about to bring forth His Servant, the Branch (of David) — that is, the Messiah. Nor is there any fear of God neglecting Zion, for His Providence watches its interests like so many eyes; nay, a stone seen in the vision, as an emblem of the newly founded Theocracy, has seven eyes upon it, and was being prepared by the hand of God Himself, perhaps for the topstone of the New Temple, under the Messiah. The whole is, of course, only a vision, but the lesson was clear. The '' Branch,'' who was to bring salvation to Israel, would assuredly come, and the iniquity of the land would be removed in one day, when the atonement was made once for all, not yearly, as in the past. That accom- plished, a blissful time would begin, when each would call his neighbour to sit under his vine and fig-tree, in sweet and holy security.
A new vision followed at a short interval, this time referring to Zerubbabel, as the one before had referred to Joshua, the high priest. There appeared a seven- branched lamp,^ like that in the Mosaic Tabernacle, with two olive-trees beside it ; the symbol, it may be, of the glorious light which the Church was hereafter to shed ; ^ or perhaps of the quickening power of the Spirit of God in all that concerned the spiritual Israel.^ The
1 Zech. iv. 1-5. « Keil.
* Ewald, Steiner and Eichhorn, think the lamp a symbol of the
432 HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH.
lesson it was to teach was conveyed by the attendant Angel.
6 This 1 is the word of Jehovah to Zerubbabel : " Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit ! " says Jehovah of Hosts. 7 Who art thou, O great mountain of difficulties, before Zerub- babel? Become a plain : for He — Jehovah— will bring forth the top-stone (of the New Temple), amidst joyful cries of *' Grace, grace from God, be on it."
He had laid its foundation, and He would finish it. No one had a right to despise the past day of small things, for the seven mystic eyes, the visionary emblems of God's watchful providence over all the earth, had already seen with joy the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel, when the foundation stone was laid in the presence of Joshua,^ and this was an earnest that what God had begun. He would complete.
The Temple thus to be gloriously finished would be marked by the reign of holiness. A flying scroll of a book, of huge size, appeared — thirty feet long and fifteen feet broad — the portentous enbodiment of the curse of the Almighty on all sinners in the land. Like it, the false swearer and the thief would be driven away before the breath of the Divine wrath.^ Nor was this all; wickedness of every kind would be purged from the bounds now sanctified by the presence of Jehovah in His restored Temple. A huge vessel was also seen in the vision, * the emblem of the fate awaiting all evil doers.
New Temple, which was to spring from the efforts of Joshua and Zerubbabel, of whom the two olive-trees were emblems. Keil more justly considers these the representatives of the spiritual agencies, by which God brings His heavenly influence to bear on the Church.
1 Zech. iv. 6-14. 2 ^ech. iii. 9. ^ ^ech. v. 1-4.
* An " Ephah " — the largest Hebrew dry measure. Keil, ZacJiarja, p. 673.
HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH. 433
for on a great round disk of lead which had covered its mouth being lifted, Wickedness, personified as a woman, was seen sitting within, as in a prison, or Hke a wild beast in its cage. This vessel, two winged female forms presently lifted from the ground, and bore away to Babylonia, the symbol, in those days, of the land of uncleanness and evil, and thus Judah was purged from its presence.^
That such modes of presenting spiritual lessons should have ever been popular and intelligible, marks the immense difference between the East and the West. Oriental fancy delights in mysterious imagery and parable, as vehicles of religious truth. The later He- brew literature, especially, shows these characteristics, but isolated examples of them occur earlier, as in the vision of Micaiah, - portions of the introduction to the Book of Proverbs, and the Book of Job as a whole. In the age before Christ, it had become the favourite style of composition, as is seen in the Jewish Sybilline verses, the Book of Henoch, the Book of Jubilees, the Assump- tion of Isaiah, and the Assumption of Moses, and it has been followed, to a very large extent, by the Rabbis, in later ages. To the Western mind, however, such modes of writing must always remain in great part unintelligible ; and indeed, the visions of the prophets, from Ezekiel downwards, have been frankly proclaimed by the Rabbis themselves as beyond full human comprehension. It is vain therefore to attempt to explain the obscure references of those of Zechariah.
This applies in its fullest sense to the seventh and last vision ^ of that eventful night. Four chariots — whether of war or peace is not stated — were seen issuing from between two mountains of copper, which have been
1 Zech. V. 5-11. 2 1 Kings xxii. 19 S. ^ Zech. vi. 1-8.
VOL. VI. F P
434 HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH.
variously interpreted as vague symbols of the protection extended by God to His people, or of the powers of the world, or of Mounts Olivet and Zion, with the Valley of Jehoshaphat lying between. Ingenuity has exhausted itself in trying to assign a meaning to the colours of the horses in the different chariots ; but they may have served, after all, only to distinguish the one chariot from the other. Sent forth to the north and south, and through the earth, they flew, swift as the wind, on their errand, respecting which we have only the mysterious statement of the attendant Angel, that those sent to the north had appeased the Divine anger on that region ; a hint, perhaps, that they were commissioned to break up the quiet and haughty security of the heathen kingdoms, and bring on them the judgments of God foretold by the prophets, as the sign of the approach of the Messiah.^
Night had now passed ; but an incident throwing mo- mentary light on these long dead years took place next morning. Some Jews of the Captivity had come from Babylon, on a visit to their brethren, apparently as a deputation from the great body of exiles who voluntarily remained in Babylonia. They had been hospitably lodged in the house of one Josiah, at Jerusalem, and had brought a tribute of gold and silver with them, to express the sympathy felt for Judah by their brethren on the banks of the Chebar. Of this silver and gold, Zechariah was directed to have crowns made, primarily, for the head of Joshua the high priest, but ultimately to be laid up in the Temple when it was finished, as a memorial before God of those whose loving bounty had provided the materials. The prophet was also commissioned to say to Joshua, in words which look beyond Zerubbabel to the great Messiah : —
* Zech. i. 11. Hagg. ii. 7.
HAGGAI AND ZECHAEIAH. 435
12 Behold,^ a man shall rise, and his name shall be The Branch of David, and under him will all things prosper, = and he will build the Temple of Jehovah. 13 He, even he, shall build it, and he will bear kingly glory, ^ and sit and rule on his throne, and he will also be a priest on his throne, and there will be a counsel of peace between him and Jehovah.^
Help, of which the crowns were an earnest, would be sent, moreover, from distant lands, as had been so often predicted, if Judah loyally obeyed the voice of its God.°
Nearly two years elapsed before the next incident recorded. In December, B.C. 519,^ a deputation from the inhabitants of Bethel, ^ the ancient seat of the calf- worship, came to Jerusalem to intreat the favour of God for their town, and also to inquire from the priests and prophets, of whom we know only Haggai and Zechariah, whether the fast in the fifth month, to com- memorate the destruction of the Temple, should still be continued. Darius had just issued a new decree,^ ratify- ing the earlier permission of Cyrus, to rebuild the Temple, which had already, for some time, been rising from its ashes ^ through the influence of the prophets. This activity, however, had not been unopposed. The Persian governor of Syi'ia and Phenicia — the division of the empire west of the Euphrates ^° — with his subordinate ofiicials, sent for the names of those by whose authority the Temple and the city wall were being restored, and demanded the right they had to take such steps. But, though this led to correspondence, the work con-
1 Zech. vi. 12, 13. 2 ^ivald. Steiner.
^ The word used is that appropriated to kingly majesty. ■• This seems the true meaning of the phrase. 5 Zech. vi. 15. ^ Kislew.
' Zech. vii. 2. " The house of God " should be untranslated, as the proper name *' Bethel." ^ Ezra vi. 1.
9 Ezra iv. 24 ; v. 2. » Ezra v. 3.
436 HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH.
tinued steadily to advance. Meanwhile^ the Persian governor had transmitted to Darius a report of what was doing. He and his staff, he said, had gone to Jerusalem, and found that the Temple was being rebuilt, on the strength of a decree of Cyrus. Search having been made, in consequence, at Ecbatana, in Media, one of the Persian capitals,^ the action of the Jews had been vindicated. The decree had been found in the royal palace, and the hostile governor of the West was there- fore ordered to allow the work to proceed, and to defray the expense from the imperial treasury. He was, more- over, to provide* the requisites for the sacrifices and offerings of the new sanctuary, that the loyal prayers of the worshippers might be secured.^
The law of Moses enjoined only one day of fasting in the year — that of the great Day of Atonement,^ but Israel had long been in the habit of holding fasts for any great national calamity.* In Babylon, four had, ap- parently, been regularly kept each year — on the anniver- saries of the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans,^ of the burning of the city and Temple,^ of the murder of Gedaliah,^ and of the beginning of the siege of the Holy City by Nebuchadnezzar.^ But that which commemo- rated the burning of the city and Temple seemed, to the people of Bethel, out of place, now that both were rising from their ashes. ^ It was asked, therefore, if it should be continued.
1 Ezra vi. 2. 2 Ezra vi. 1-12. ^ Lev. xxiii. 26-32.
* Jud. XX. 26. 1 Sam. vii. 6; xxxi. 13. Joel ii. 15. Isa. Iviii. 3-12. ' Jer. Hi. 6, 7.
6 2 Kings XXV. 8. Jer. lii. 12. ? Jer. xli. 43
^ 2 Kings XXV. 1. Jer. hi. 4. These fasts were held respec- tively on the ninth of the fourth month, and the seventh and tenth of the fifth, seventh, and tenth months. See Zech. viii. 19.
® Hagg. i. 4.
4 HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH. 437
The answer vouchsafed was a striking illustration of the worthlossnesSj in the sight of God, of mere outward forms, apart from the spiritual state of those observing them. Not only the men of Bethel, but all the people of the land, were told, in effect, that fasting, like eating and drinking, was their concern, not God's. They were free to fast if they found it of advantage, but their doing so rested with themselves. To lament the burning of the Temple in the fifth month, or the murder of Gedaliah in the seventh, was left to their own pleasure. What God cared for was, that they should obey His words, spoken by the prophets in the days of the glory of Jerusalem and Judah, when the territory of the king- dom extended to the Negeb and the Maritime Plain,^ now held by the Edomites and the Philistines.
The essence of what was thus uttered to their fathers, Zechariah tells us, was that they should : —
9 Judge righteous judgment,- and show love and compassion every one to the other. lo Do not oppress the widow, or the fatherless, the alien or the poor, and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in his heart. Ii But (he adds) your fathers refused to hearken, and gave an unwilling shoulder to God's yoke, and stopped their ears, that they should not ear. 12 Yea, they hardened their hearts like a diamond, not to hear the Law, and the words sent by Jehovah of Hosts, through His Spirit, by the earlier prophets. 13 Therefore there came great wrath from Jehovah of Hosts. And since they would not hear when He called, so, said He, " They shall call and I will not hear, 14 and I will scatter them with a tempest, among all the nations whom they do not know, and the land shall be desolate behind them, no one passing through or returning to it." Thus the wickedness of your fathers made the pleasant land a desolation.
It had been thus in the past, but better days had come. The newly awakened zeal of the people for Jeho-
i Ezra vii. 1-8. 2 Zech. vii. 9-14.
438 HAGGAI AND ZECHAEIAH.
vah had won back His favour, and He would bless them beyond measure, if they honoured His Law in the future. Portions of at least two addresses, to cheer the com- munity by such assurances, still remain. In the first, Zechariah speaks thus : —
2 I, Jehovah of Hosts,^ am exceeding jealous for the honour of Zion, yea, jealous beyond measure. 3 I have returned to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and it will be a city of the truth, the mountain of Jehovah of Hosts, the Holy Mountain. 4 Thus says Jehovah of Hosts : Old men and old women shall yet sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man staff in hand for very age, 5 and the streets will be full of boys and girls playing in them. 6 If this be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people (alive) in those days, shall it be marvellous in My eyes ? says Jehovah of Hosts. 7 Thus says He : Behold I am about to save My people from the east and from the west ; 8 and I will bring them hither, and they will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall be My people, and I shall be their God, in truth and righteousness.
9 Thus says Jehovah of Hosts : Let your hands be strong, ye who hear these words, from the mouth of the prophets now living in these days, when the House of Jehovah has been founded, even the Temple, that it might be rebuilt. 10 For before these days there were no wages for men, or hire for cattle, and there was no peace to him who went out or came in, because of the enemy,- for I let loose all men against each other.
II But now am I not as I was in former days towards the remnant of this people? says Jehovah of Hosts. 12 For the plant ^ of peace, the vine, will yield its fruit, and the earth its increase, and the heavens their dew ; and I will give all this for an inheritance to the remnant of this people. 13 And it shall be, that, as your fate, sent for your punishment from above, was used among the nations as a curse they might invoke on eacli other, so ye shall be used to bless by, for the Divine favour shown you: fear not; let your hands be strong!
1 Zech. viii. 1-17.
2 The passage shows vividly the wretched condition of the first period of the Return. * Lit,, " seed."
HAGGAT AND ZECHARIAH. 439
14 For thus says Jeliovab of Hosts : As I resolved to punish you, when your fathers provoked Me to wrath, and I did nob repent from My purpose; 15 so I have once more resolved, in these days, to do good to Jerusalem and to the House of Judah. Fear not ! 16 These are the things ye shall do to secure His blessing; speak truth every man to his neighbour, let your judges judge according to truth and peace in your gates; ^ 17 plot no evil in your hearts against your neighbour, and hate the false oath ; — for I hate all these things, says Jehovah.
The question of public fasts seems to have still agitated the community, notwithstanding Zechariah^s utterance on the subject. He therefore took an opportunity of reverting to it. The four fasts ^ held in Babylon would henceforth be turned to feasts, if they loved truth and peace, and acted up to the Divine requirements.
20 It will yet be that nations, and the people of many cities, will come as pilgrims to Jerusalem; 21 and the inhabitants of one town will go to those of another, and say, " Let us intreat the favour of Jehovah, and seek Jehovah of Hosts " ; "I will go also." 22 And many peoples and strong nations will come to seek Jehovah of Hosts in Jerusalem, and to intreat His favour. And 23 in those days ten men from all the languages of the nations will lay hold on the skirt of a Jew, and say, " Let us go up to Jerusalem with you, for we have heard that God is with you."
The zeal and industry of the authorities of Judah, having once been fairly roused by the fervent energy of the prophets, sustained itself nobly till the new Temple was finished. Four years suflSced for this, so great was the enthusiasm, and so eflBcient the help from the Persian authorities, after Darius had favoured the undertaking. At last, in March of the year B.C. 516, the sixth year of Darius, twenty years after the Return,
^ Where the open-air courts of the East were held. « Zech. viii. 18-23.
440 HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH.
the sanctuary was ready for consecration, tliougli details in its ornamentation seem to liave been added so late as tlie reign of Artaxerxes, tlie next Persian king.^
We know very little of tlie building tkus raised, after so long a struggle with open enemies, apathetic friends, and meagre resources. It seems, with its forecourts, to have occupied the same space as that of Solomon. The size of the edifice itself, if the measurements given in the decree of Cyrus were followed," was larger than that of its predecessor.^ A wall of three rows of squared stone, coped with planed beams, enclosed the wide space of the the Temple grounds.* The Holy of Holies, which was shut off by a great veiling curtain,^ was entirely empty, but a point of the natural rock, projecting three finger breadths above the ground, took the place of the ancient ark and furnished a rest on which the high priest could lay his pan of incense, on the great Day of Atonement.^ It was, perhaps, the rock at present enclosed as the central mystery of the Mosque of Oraar.'^ The ark was supposed either to have been hidden by Jeremiah, in Mount Nebo,^ or to have been carried to heaven ^ till the appearance of the Messiah. The cherubim, the tables of stone, the urn of manna, and the rod of Aaron, were similarly absent — a state of things anticipated by Jeremiah in his prediction, that when the nobler pre- sence of Jehovah was vouchsafed under the regenerated
1 Ezra vi. 14, 15. * ^ ^zra vi. 3 ff.
^ The only notice we Lave of the size of the Second Temple, besides the incidental allusions in Ezra, is found in Jos., Ant, XV. xi. 1.
-» Ezra vi. 4. ^ 1 Mace. i. 22 ; iv. 51.
6 Jos., Bell. Jud., V. V. 5. Joma, v. 2. Bielim, pp. 210, 1635.
'' Seo Recovery of Jerusalem, passim.
^ 2 Mace. ii. 5. Treasures of the Talmud, p. 32. This vol. p. 211.
3 Rev. xi. 19.
HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH.
441
Theocracy, men would no longer think of the ark.^ The golden shields that had hung in the outer chambers were gone, and so was the Urim and Thummim, which the high priest had worn over his official robes. As in the Tabernacle, there was only one golden lamp in the Holy Place, behind the veil,- a table of shewbread, and the incense altar, plated with gold,^ with golden censers, and a goodly array of the ancient vessels of precious metal, carried off by Nebuchadnezzar, but restored by Cyrus.
The Seven-beanchbd Candlestick, and Other Spoil feom the TEjrpLB. —
Arch of Titus.
There were two forecourts,* in the inner of which stood the huge square altar of burnt offering, of unhewn stones^ — thirty feet each way, and fifteen high, with an approach by an inclined plane. A great bason, for the necessary ablutions of the priests, stood near it.^ The court was
^ Jer. iii. 16 ; xxxi. 31. Only the tables of stone had been in
Solomon's Temple. 1 Kings viii. 9. 2 Chron. v. 9.
2 1 Mace. iv. 51. 3 1 Mace. i. 23 ; iv. 49.
4 1 Mace. i. 38 (48 in Greek). « 1 Mace. iv. 44. « Sirach 1. 3.
442 HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH.
bordered by convenient store chambers and cells/ and by cbambers for the priests/ the whole being adorned by pillared porches.^ A bridge led, on the west, over the valley between Moriah and Zion/ and various gates per- mitted free entrance and egress at different points.
In the former Temple, numerous trees, " planted in the courts of the Lord," ^ had offered a welcome shade to the throngs of worshippers, but none were permitted in the courts of the Second Temple, perhaps from dread of having anything like a heathen grove near the sanctuary. Another contrast was no less striking. No longer its own master, the dependence of the community on a foreign State, was shown in the erection of a military tower or castle at the north-west of the precincts,^ by the Persian authorities, as a residence for the governor, and, if necessary, a military post. This was the building- known during the Roman domination as the Fortress Antonia, the Baris of the Asmoneans. Over the eastern gate of the Temple space another sign of foreign rule was seen, in a sculptured representation of the Persian capital, from which the gate was known as that of Susa. For the first time, also, a space was provided, by cutting oif part of the outer court, for heathen proselytes, who, while worshippers of Jehovah, had not entirely conformed to Judaism.
The exact date of the consecration of the new Temple is not stated, but it was doubtless a time of great re- joicing. The priests and Levites in their respective *' courses," or successive periods of service, and the people
1 Ezra viii. 29 ; x. 6. Neh. iii. 30; x. 37; xii. 44; xiii. 6.
2 1 Mace. iv. 38-48.
3 Jos., Ant, XL iv. 7 ; XIY. xvi. 2.
4 Jos., Ant, XIY. iv. 2. Bell. Jud., I. vii. 2.
« Jos., c. Ap., i. 22. * Neh. ii. 8; vii. 2.
HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH. 443
at large, were at last of one mind in their loyalty to the ancient faith. A sin offering for all Israel/ of a hundred oxen, two hundred rams, and four hundred lambs, smoked on the altar, with twelve goats, in addition, to represent the twelve tribes; as if in fond hope that the whole captivity of North and South would, some day, reassemble round the one religious centre.
In due time followed the celebration of the passover, the first after the Return, on the 14th of Nisan, our April, its ancient date; the seven days of unleavened bread succeeding, at its close. No ceremonial laxity was any longer permitted. The priests and Levites, without exception, had purified themselves strictly, according to '^ the book of Moses/' The exclusive right of slaying the paschal lambs for priest and laity alike, as well as for their own order, was assumed by the Levites. An- ciently, every head of a family had done so for his own household;^ at the passover of Hezekiah, the Levites killed the lambs for all who had not legally purified them- selves ; ^ but from the days of Josiah, the great restorer of Judaism in its narrow sense, and indeed its virtual founder, the usage had been introduced which now became the permanent rule.^
From this time, the wide recognition of Jerusalem as the only religious centre of Judaism, and the strictness with which the Levitical precepts were enforced, steadily increased. Not only those who had come from Babylon, but numbers of the survivors of the North and South Kingdoms, whose fathers had escaped deportation to Assyria or the Euphrates, and even the dispersed from other lands, came up to the passover. Scattered families, or small communities, of pure Jews, still guarded their
1 Ezra vi. 16-18. 2 ^xod. xii. 6.
8 2 Chron. xxx. 17. * 2 Chron. xxxv. 11-14.
444 HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH.
separate nationality and hereditary faitli in remote and sequestered parts of the land, amidst the heathen or half-heathen population by which it was mainly occupied. Galilee sent up its representatives of the Ten Tribes; the remnant saved from Nineveh. All alike, henceforth, separated themselves absolutely from the heathenism around them, and accepted Jerusalem as the religious nucleus of the race. The envy of Ephraim had departed, and Judah no longer vexed Ephraim.^
Such a festivity, so full of hope and so tender with associations of the long past, was a fitting close to the anxieties and alarms of the twenty years it happily ended. Jubilant Psalms, bearing in the Greek version the names of Haggai and Zechariah,^ embody in the hallelujahs echoing through their successive strophes, the gratitude to Jehovah felt by the new-born nation. All nature is invoked to praise the great name of God, who had " raised up those that were bowed down,^' and had dealt " with Jacob and Israel, as He had not with any other nation." ^^ Young men and maidens, old men and children,^' are summoned to unite in exalting His glory, in the old centre of their national religion. The sound of the trumpet, the psaltery, and the harp re- sounded in the Temple courts, and the timbrel and cymbals led on dances of maidens in the spaces around. It was meet that the formal re-establishment of the Theocracy should be celebrated amidst universal re- joicing.
* Isa. xi. 13. 2 Pss. cxliv. cxlv. cxlvi. cxlvii. cxlviii.
^
CHAPTER XIX
QUEEN ESTHEE.
THE interval, from the Return in B.C. 536 to the completion of the Temple in B.C. 516, had been momentous in the great world. In B.C. 529, Cyrus had fallen ingloriously, in a distant war, and had been suc- ceeded by his son Cambyses, whose reign was signalised, at its beginning, by the secret murder of his brother Bardes, and, near its close, by that of one of his sisters, who was also his wife, and had dared to weep for her brother^s fate. Determined to reconquer Egypt, his reign was chiefly spent in the Nile countries, till, on his march back to the East, in B.C. 522, he killed himself in a fit of despair, in Syria ; remorse for the murder of his sister and brother, the outburst of revolts, and the excitement of his Egyptian campaigns and disasters, having unhinged his mind.^ During his reign, the colony
^ Ebers paints his ferocity admirably in Eine ^gijpt Konigs- tocliter. Like his father, Cambyses was a polytheist. Egyptian monuments show that the story told by Herodotus, of his deriding the Egyptian gods, destroying their images, and stabbing the sacred bull, Apis, was quite incorrect. He is described by the inscriptions of the priests themselves as their friend, the adorer of their gods, and the benefactor of their temples. The very bull he is said to have slain has been discovered, as a mummy, in a
445
446 QUEEN ESTHER.
at Jerusalem must have been constantly kept in agitation, by the passage and re-passage of troops along the coast, and by the anxieties of the war. Darius Hystaspis, who succeeded him after a short interval, when the false Bardes, who had usurped the throne, had been over- thrown, spent his reign in almost constant wars, to quell the risings of province after province, from Herat to the Grecian Archipelago. In the very year when the Temple was finished (b.c. 516), Babylon had to be wrested by a Persian general from an Armenian prince who had seized it ; the Great King himself being in Egypt.^
The reign of Darius was, however, especially notable as that during which the great struggle between Asiatic barbarism and Western civilization, after having lasted for generations, was virtually decided. Determined, like Cyrus, to conquer the Greeks, in whose hands in those ages were the destinies of the world, his triumph would have extended the despotism of the Bast into Europe, and thus the dawning liberty and progress of humanity would have been extinguished in night. But this was settled for ever by the battle of Marathon, in B.C. 490 — the Greeks, by their success on that great day, achieving the victory of freedom for all after ages in the Western continent. Modern history began when the Persian hosts were driven back to their ships by Miltiades. Political and intellectual day rose on the world, in these hours ; and Asia, yielding up her supremacy to the Aryan races, was finally barred from crossing the Hellespont. The reign of Darius lasted till B.C. 486, and was a time of peace and prosperity to the Jews, though they were
huge sarcophagus of granite, on the outside of which Cambyses kneels before the sacred beast, which we are told, in an inscription, was honoured with due funeral rites, Cambyses himself taking part in them. * Justi, p. 55.
QUEEN ESTHEK. 447
still exposed to the intrigues of their enemies at his court. After his death, the throne of Western Asia was held, for twenty-one years, by Xerxes, who renewed the struggle for the conquest of Greece, in which his father had so signally failed. But he only exhausted his empire, for his mightiest efforts to crush the West were shattered at Thermopylee and Salamis. News of these great events must have been circulated eagerly among the settlers at Jerusalem and in Judah.
It was in the reign of this king, whose name, Ahasuerus, was known to the Greeks as Xerxes, that the incident in Jewish history happened, which forms the subject of the Book of Esther. The Great King: was idlins^ his life away in the fortress palace of Shushan, among the cool mountain breezes of his metropolitan province, while his generals and soldiers were fighting and dying for him in the East and West. The story opens in the third year of his reign, about seven years after the battle of Marathon,^ while the war with Greece, so disastrous to Persia, was still raging. But the majestic empire of Cyrus and Darius still held together, from India to Ethiopia, em- bracing 127 provinces, and surrounding its chief with almost unimaginable splendour and wealth.
The city of Susa lay about 150 miles north of the head of the Persian Gulf, in the uplands of Susiana, a mountainous region, east of the Tigris. The river Choaspes flowed brightly through the valleys on the east of the city, while the Eulaeus, the Ulai of Daniel,^ with the Shapur, and other streams, spread a network of shining waters round it, making the region a proverb for its luxuriance and fertility.^ The capital was famous for
^ Marathon B.C. 490. The reign of Xerxes was extended from B.C. 486— B.C. 465 {Vaiix), or B.C. 485—465 (Justi). ^ Dan. viii. 2, 16. 3 Geog. Journ., vol. ix. p. 71.
448 QUEEN ESTHER.
its palace fortress, one of the residences of the Great King; each monarch, apparently, adding a house for him- self to the vast piles already built by his predecessors. Huge mounds are now the only relics of all this magni- ficence, but at Persepolis, in the mountains, about 300 miles to the south-east, the remains of a palace built by Xerxes himself, help us to realize the splendour of that of Shushan. A great platform of hewn stone formed a terrace for the central building, which measured about 350 feet in width and 250 feet in depth. Some of the pillars which bore up its porticoes are still standing, and vary in height from 60 to 76 feet ; their whole sur- face covered with elaborate ornamentation. An immense hall, in which stood the throne, stretched across the front of this central building, while other chambers equally grand, flanked it on either side. At Shushan, the palace stood on a similar platform, forming a square of about 1,000 feet each way, and rising, apparently, from 50 to 60 feet above the surrounding level. The walls of the central hall, which was about 200 feet square, were 18 feet in thickness, and the three great antechambers measured, each, 200 feet in width and 65 in depth. Thirty- six pillars supported the roof, while that of each of the antechambers rested on twelve. But this was only the lower storey. Overhead, the building rose to a height of from 100 to 120 feet, so that it must have towered, in all, 170 or 180 feet above the ground. Spreading far on every side from this amazing structure were gardens, well called a " paradise.^' Huge four- footed colossi, with wings and human heads, flanked all the gates and doors ; and flights of marble steps, the stones of which were of gigantic size, supplied approaches worthy of such a building.^
^ Fergusson, in Diet, of the Bible. Jiosti, p. 107.
QUEEN ESTHER.
449
Fifty-two years had passed since the Return, when Xerxes, in the mere license of pride and boundless wealth, ordered a series of feasts to be given, on a scale of sur- passing magnificence, in his grounds and halls. The table of the Great King was proverbial for its splendid appointments and its luxury. Vast numbers of oxen, game, and fowl, were consumed each day ; for not only the king, his court and harem, but his whole lifeguard, consisting of 2,000 cavalry, 2,000 mounted lancers, and 10,000 infantry, were fed in the palace.^
Summoned to the great festival now to be held, all the satraps and their subordinates, the chiefs of the Persian and Median armies, and the nobles and magnates of the empire,^ as- sembled in successive companies dur- ing six months, for so long did the succession of banquets last, each marked by all possible magnificence, to display the wealth and flatter the majesty of the king. Nor was even this enough. The great world having thus been duly honoured, a feast of seven days was proclaimed for all the population of Susa, in the '^ court of the garden of the king^s palace.''^ White, parti-coloured, and purple-blue hangings, held, by cords of white and purple, to silver curtain poles and marble pillars, turned the vast space laid out for the banquet, into a grand open-air hall.
^ Herod., vii. 40, 41. Dmicker, Gescli. des Alterth., vol. ii. p. 609. Jiisti, p. 126. Ebers makes the Great King feed 15,000 men daily (JEgypt. Kdiiigstochter, vol. iii. p. 59). The cost he estimates at £90,000 a day. ^ Esth. i. 3.
VOL. VI. G G
Peesian- Noble.
450
QUEEN ESTHEE.
Couclies of gold and silver for tlie guests stretched in long rows, and the ground was paved for the occasion with alabaster, mother of pearl; and black and white marble.^ The drinking vessels for the throng of guests were each different in pattern from the other, and all of gold ; and the wine from the royal cellars was either that of Aleppo, which alone the Great King drank, or of some other famous growths.^ Precious as it was, it flowed like
water ; every one could drink as he chose.
The Persian kings had always several wives of various grades,^ including, generally, one or more of their own sisters. At this time Vashti, ^Hhe best,'' reigned supreme as the royal favourite, though probably not a wife of the first rank. To her it fell to entertain the women of Susa at a separate feast, for the guests were too numerous to allow the ladies to sit, as usual, with their husbands.^ The feasting had lasted six days, and was to close on the
* This appears to be the proper translation of Esther i. 6.
2 The Great King, wherever he might be, drank only the water of the Choaspes, from Susa, ate only bread from wheat of Egypt or Assos, and drank only the wine of Aleppo. This reminds one of that inexpressible imposture, the Turkish Sultan, having water from the Nile carried everywhere after him through Europe, for his baths.
3 Herod., iii. 2, 68, 69. Darius had six. * Herod., ix. 110; v. 18.
The Pbesian KiNQ.—BcMstan.
QDEKN ESTHER. 451
seventh. Wine and excitement had turned the brain of Xerxes. Forgetting his royal dignity and that of his queens, he called on the seven eunuchs who waited before him, to bring Vashti, and display her charms, unveiled, before the assembled multitude of half-drunken men. But remembering perhaps, how, in the time of Darius, the Macedonian ladies, introduced to a Persian banquet in the same way, had been grossly insulted,^ she hesitated to come, alike from respect to the king and to herself. It was enough. Disobedience on the part of any one, to his lightest whim, was not to be brooked. It might be followed by others. Yashti, moreover, had an enemy present — the chief of the eunuchs — who fanned the mad anger of his master. His proposal that she should be degraded, and another queen chosen in her place, was at once accepted.
Among the descendants of the Jewish exiles carried off by Nebuchadnezzar in his first deportation of the popu- lation from Judah, was an orphan maiden of Benjamin — Hadassah, '*' the myrtle," known afterwards as Esther, "the star,'^ perhaps Yenus. She must have been very young, for maidens in Persia are in their glory at twelve, and fade by the age of twenty." Her cousin, Mordecai, who treated her as his own child, filled some office in the the palace, and, seeing her beauty, resolved to advance the interests of his race by getting for her, if possible, the place formerly held by Vashti. Introduced to the eunuchs of the harem, Esther spent the usual time of preparation for seeing the king — a year — in the customary training and care of her personal charms.^
In B.C. 479,"^ the year in which the defeats of Plat^ea and Mycale frightened the Persians from Ionia, Esther's
1 Herod., v. 18. ' Justi, p. 125.
» Esther ii. 1-14 * Justi says B.C. 478,
452 QUEEN ESTHER.
time came to appear before Xerxes, and tlie result was love at first sight. Adopted as his favourite, the royal crown was set on her head, and she was raised to the position among the royal wives formerly held by Vashti. She had not, as yet, made known her race or family, and was afraid to do so, but a fortunate incident soon made her position secure. A conspiracy of two palace officials to murder Xerxes came to the knowledge of Mordecai, whose duties gave him a place in a chamber of the palace known as the king's gate. Telling the momentous secret to Esther, she warned the king, and thus saved his life, the criminals being hanged.
There was still danger, however, to both Esther and her cousin, from another quarter. Among the dignitaries at the court of Susa was one Haman, according to Jewish, tradition an Agagite — that is, of the royal race of the Amalekites^ — the bitterest enemies of the Jews.^ He held the great post of Grand Vizier, or First Minister of the empire, but he had a secret trouble which fretted him, even in so grand a position. From some reason, — probably Haman^s nationality, or, perhaps, because to cast himself on the earth before him seemed like paying Divine honour to a mortal, — Mordecai refused to pay that honour to the haughty magnate as he entered and left the palace. This affront was so bitterly resented, that nothing would satisfy the Vizier's fury but the destruc- tion of all the race to which his enemy belonged. At one
1 Esther ill. 1. iN'um. xxiv. 7. 1 Sam. xv. Jos., Ant^Xl. vi. 6.
2 In the Greek version he is called in one place a Macedonian (Esther i. 19 ; ix. 24) the Syrian Greeks being the deadly enemies of the Jews when that version was made. The name Agagite may thus only mean hater of the Jews. Elsewhere in the same version he is called Bugaeas (ix. 10), and Gogaeus (iii. 1), names which are not readily explained. The names " Haman " and " Hammedatha," seem to be Persian.
QUEEN ESTHER. 453
sweep he would avenge Lis own personal grudge, and quench the hereditary feud of his race in the blood of the whole brood of the hated race of Jews. Insinuat- ing to Xerxes that they were dangerous, as a people who, unlike the other subject races of the empire, insisted on observing their own laws rather than those of the king, and thus formed a ready centre for revolt, he obtained leave to arrange for their massacre everywhere throughout the empire, recommending his proposal by promising a vast sum ^ to the treasury from their wealth.- Fear and greed easily won the despot to the plot. The proposed victims and their property were made over to Haman; as if the slaughter and pillage of a people were a matter to be settled by a light word. To arm him with the requisite authority, he was forthwith entrusted with the royal signet ring,^ all commands sealed with which car- ried the weight of imperial orders. Lots, drawn daily by Haman to find a fortunate date for the massacre, fell on the 13th of the month Adar — nearly our March. Royal posts had been established throughout the empire by Cyrus the Great — fresh riders hurrying along all the chief roads, and changing horses every fourteen miles.^
1 Esther hi. 9.
2 Prideaux, Connection, p. 453, says it was equal to £2,000,000, a huge sum in those days. Bertheau thinks it was equal to nearly £4,000,000. Das B. Ester, p. 321.
^ The absolute despotism of the Persian kings is well shown in the foUowini; lines : — " The will of the ruler is the will of the god- head." " Well spoken ! The true Persian rejoices to be allowed to kiss the hand of his ruler, even if it be stained with his child's blood." " Cambyses has put my brother to death, but I murmur at him for it no more than I did at the godhead, who took my parents from me." Ebers, JEgypt Kunigstoclifer, vol. ii. p. 122. ^schylus {Pers., 644), calls the Great King " Persius Susa-born God."
* 4 parasangs. Bertheau. The Persian caravanserais, or guest-
454 QUEEN ESTHER.
A decree having been drawn up by Haman to his own satisfaction, the government clerks soon furnished copies enough for the chief functionaries of the provinces, and with these the posts flew along every line of travel. All the Jews were to be killed throughout the empire on the day named, and their property seized for the king.
But Mordecai was destined to counteract this deadly plot. Having heard of it, he forsook his office in the king^s gate, and clothing himself in sackcloth — his head strewn with ashes — stood in a public place in the city, wailing aloud, and spreading the news among his people. Lamentation and misery soon filled every Jewish household, far and near. In Susa, itself, the community was distracted. The only hope for the race lay in Esther. Could she venture into the presence of the Great King, and tell the whole story ? To go into his inner hall, uninvited, was death, unless he stretched out his golden sceptre to the intruder. She had not as yet revealed her nationality, but it must now be disclosed. Mordecai had told her, through one of her eunuchs, of Haman's perfidy. Would she risk all, to save them ? Her answer became a high-souled Jewish maiden. If her people in Susa would fast for three days, praying for her, she would do the same for herself, and afterwards venture her life for her race.
houses for travellers, which were like our post-stations, owed their origin to tbe great Cyrus, who sought to abridge the vast distances of his world-wide empire by well kept roads. He had also established a regular system of posts. At every station, the postman carrying the mails found a second ready to start on a fresh horse, on which, after receiving the mail-bag, he sprang forward like the wind, to hand his charge to a third postman at the next station. These couriers were called Angaroi, and were believed to be the swiftest riders in the world. Ebers, ^g. Eonigstochter, vol. ii. p. 6., Eobinson, Lex. s. v. dyyap€va).
QUEEN ESTHER. 455
Success attended sucli self-devotion. Xerxes received Esther graciously. He would give her anything she wished, to the half of his kingdom.^ But all she asked was, that he and Haman should come and drink wine with her. Her heart failed her, however, when they came, and she had to invite them to a second banquet next day. That he should be thus honoured seemed to Haman to brim the cup of his prosperity. The wealth to be got from the massacre was immense ; he had ten sons and he was Grand Vizier of the empire ! Above all, he had been invited by Esther, the queen, to come, with Xerxes him- self, to a banquet given to the two only. Yet all this was nothing while Mordecai refused to bow before him.
" Let a huge gallows be made — seventy feet high,'' cried Zeresh, his wife, and a group of his friends, ^' and ask Xerxes to-morrow for leave to hang the Jew on it." Not falling down before the representative of the Great King, was treason to the sovereign himself 1
But his pride was near its fall. Through the night, Xerxes could not sleep. Thoughts of his escape from assassination by the two chamberlains troubled him. The annals of the empire must be brought, to recall the details. "What had been done for Mordecai, who had saved his life ? Nothing. Almost at the moment when this was discovered, Haman entered the outer hall and asked an audience, hoping to get permission to hang his enemy. Allowed to enter, he was met, as he approached, by the question of Xerxes. "What should be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour ?" Naturally thinking the question referred to himself, the answer was easy. " Let a robe of state, which the king has himself worn, be brought, and a horse on which the king has ridden, with its royal trappings, especially the > Mark vi. 23.
456 QUEEN ESTHER.
head ornaraent of a royal crown which the king's charger bears/ and let one of the noblest princes put the robe on the fortunate man, and having set him on the horse, lead him through Susa, crying aloud, ' Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honour ?' ^*
What this meant in a court like that of Persia is hard for us to realize. The golden ornaments, the robe of state, and the rest of the attire of Artaxerxes, the suc- cessor of Xerxes, were worth 10,000 talents, a sum only to be understood as millions of pounds sterling.^ The royal dress of Xerxes himself was reckoned by the Greeks as "worth 12,000 talents, and this seems not to have been an excessive valuation, when we read the details of the dress of a Shah of Persia even in the present century. " He was one blaze of jewels/' says Sir Robert Ker Porter,^ " which literally dazzled the eyes. A high three- fold tiara was on his head, entirely covered with dia- monds, pearls, rubies, and emeralds, so arranged that they reflected a splendid play of colours. Several black feathers, apparently of the heron, were stuck amidst the rows of diamonds, their tips ornamented with pear-shaped pearls of extraordinary size. His robe was of cloth of gold, covered, for the most part, in the same way, with precious stones and pearls, and a string of pearls, per- haps the largest in the world, hung round his neck. But his armlets and girdle surpassed all, for they blazed in the sun, like fire. The right armlet was called ' the Mountain of Light,' the left, ' the Sea of Light,' so magnificent were the diamonds in it."
In splendour like this, Mordecai, set on the king's charger by Haman, rode through the streets of Susa;
1 Esth. vi. 8.
2 From four to five millions. Plut., Artaxerxes, 24.
3 Travels (in the years 1817-1820), quoted by JustL p. 124.
QUEEN ESTHER. 457
the humbled Agagite proclaiming before his enemy the royal pleasure that such honour should be paid him. The Vizier felt that he was ruined. At the banquet of wine, next day, matters came to a crisis. Esther openly accused Haman, before the king, of a plot to destroy her and all her race. Had she and they been sold as slaves, she said, she would not have spoken, for such an injury was not groat enough to disturb the king by mentioning.^ But the whole race, including herself, was to be exterminated. Furious at the disclosure, Xerxes rose and passed into the palace garden. Mean- while, Hamau, in his despair, threw himself at the foot of the couch, begging his life. But this only hastened his destruction. Caught in this attitude by the infuriated despot, the worst motives were not too bad to attribute to him. An order for his execution was instantly given, and forthwith, as a sign of his condemnation, the guards in attendance covered the victim^s head. A few minutes more, and he was hanging from the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, who was now made Grand Vizier in his place.
It was imperative instantly to counteract the decree sent out by the hapless man. Since it could not be re- voked, orders were despatched to every part, that the Jews should stand on the defensive, at the time of their projected massacre. A civil war thus broke out on the fatal day, but the Jews were victorious ; 75,000 of their assailants falling throughout the empire, besides 500 in Susa alone. Among these were the ten sons of Haman.- No attempt at plunder was, however, anywhere made by the victors.
But even this revenge hardly satisfied Esther. An- other day's slaughter in Susa, in which 300 men fell, ^ Esth. vii. 4. « Esth. ix. 12.
458 QUEEN ESTHER.
was granted, before she felt at ease ; and the bodies of Haman'^s sons, were, at her request, bung on the gallows from which their father was still suspended. It would have been well for her memory had she been more mer- ciful.
That the 13th Adar, on which the deliverance was achieved, and the 14th, on which Haman's party in Susa was finally crushed, should be kept as a double festivity, was natural, and they have been thus observed from that time to this. Even in the text of the Bible, moreover, the hatred of Ham an by the Jew is curiously shown, in the fact that the names of his ten sons are written in perpendicular columns, as if to show that they were hung one over the other on their father's gallows.^
Nine years later, in the year B.C. 465, Xerxes was murdered by the commandant of his bodyguard and one of his chamberlains, both foreigners, and specially trusted as such ; ^ his son Artaxerxes,^ *' the long-armed,^' suc- ceeding him in the empire — a mild weak man, controlled by his mother and his sister Amytis, both women of a frivolous nature. The murderers of his father accused his brother Darius, to screen themselves, and the innocent blood of the prince stained the new king's accession, but the assassins did not permanently escape detection and punishment.
Over seventy years had elapsed from the date of the Return to the death of Xerxes. Zerubbabel had died — possibly in Babylon, where, according to Jewish tradi- tion, he was honoured as " Prince of the Captivity.'' *
^ For the mode in which the feast of Purim (the Lots) is now kept., see Geikie's Life and Wo7'ds of Christ, vol. i. p. 225. 2 JusH, p. 124. ^ B.C. 465-425.
"* Seder 01am, Ewald, vol. v. p. 188. Derembourgy vol. xx. p. 21.
QUEEN ESTHER. 459
His descent from David seems to have been made a pretext by tbe enemies of the Jews at the Persian court for continuous agitation against the enlarging of Jeru- salem, on the ground that a revolt might follow, to make Zerubbabol actual king. It may be that this led to his return to Susa ; but whether he died in Judea or in Persia, he left behind a daughter and two sons, whose descendants may be traced as honourable members of the community for five generations.^ The glory of the House of David sank, however, finally in his person ; its members, henceforth, living on in obscurity. Joshua, the high priest, who seems to have been in some measure the rival of his civilian colleague, apparently succeeded him as the titular head of the Jewish colony; but, resembling Zerubbabel in having little force of charac- ter, like him, he failed to impress his influence on the age. The nominal rule in Jerusalem appears to have been left in his hands, with the nobles and elders as his councillors; but the real authority remained with the Persian governor^ of the district, who, either person- ally or by his deputy, took up his residence from time to time in the tower or castle Baris, which stood at the edge of the Temple precincts, and thus overawed both temple and town.
The harsh rejection of the Samaritan overtures to aid in rebuilding the Temple, had borne bitter fruit. The struggle had ended in the triumph of the Jewish colony, so far as the sanctuary itself was concerned; but tho decrees of Cyrus and Darius had not included permission to restore or fortify Jerusalem. A constant opportunity for intrigue at the Persian courts was thus always ready to the Samaritans, Idumeans, and others, whose ani-
^ Ewald, vol. v. p. 122. Ch'aetz, vol. ii. pp. 2, 115. « Neh. vii. 5 ; v. 15.
460 QUEEN ESTHEE.
mosity to tlie Jews grew continually more embittered. An illustration of this yet survives/ in a letter to the court of Susa, written during the reign of Artaxerxes, by the Persian officials of Samaria, in their own name and in that of their subjects. Similar communications had been forwarded during this and the preceding reign, but the result in their case is not stated.^ In the one quoted, two Persian dignitaries — Eehum, the king's councillor, and his secretary, write in behalf of the descendants of the heathen settlers brought to the country by Asnapper — perhaps the general of Esarhad- don, or possibly another name for that monarch, him- self.^ They complain that the Jews were rebuilding the city and walls of Jerusalem, with a view to refusing tribute, and revolting from the Great King. Such a document was well fitted to disturb a court so familiar with rebellions, especially in the past history of the Jews, and caused the immediate prohibition of all further work, at least on the fortifications.*
Still the new community made some progress. Houses, better and worse, were raised; the high priest lived in a mansion suitable to his dignity, within the Temple precincts;^ trade increased ; a larger population circulated through the half restored streets. Ebers, in one of his charming books, introduces a Jew as buying horses in Egypt for Zerubbabel;^ Phenician fishermen had stalls in
^ Ezra iv. 7, 23. This fragment is clearly inserted out of its place. All critics agree in this.
2 Ezra iv. 6. The chronicler states that the copy of the letter seen by him was written with Aramaic letters, and translated into Aramaic; the Jewish community using the Hebrew. Ezra iv. 6, mentions a letter written in the reign of Xerxes ; ver. 7 one written in that of Artaxerxes ; and ver. 8, a third.
3 See vol. iv. pp. 239 ff. * Between B.C. 465 and u.c. 459.
' Neh. vii. 5; v. 15. * ^gypt. Konigstochter, vol. i. p. 15.
QUEEN ESTHER, 461
Jerusalem for their catcli, and traders from Tyre, booths for their wares.^ The guilds of the goldsmiths and of the apothecaries were re-established;- carpenters and locksmiths had their workshops ; ^ masons, of course, were a numerous craft, and other traders of various kinds found occupation * The country round, moreover, was well cultivated, and supplied the market with ass-loads of wine, grapes, figs, grain, and other growth of the field or garden.^
The spirits of the colony were, however, far from hopeful. They had expected a vast influx of their brethren, from Babylon and other lands, but had been to a great extent disappointed. There was no sign, as yet, of the wealth of the Gentiles being poured into their treasuries, as had been been promised by Haggai.^ On the contrary, the walls of their city lay in ruins, and the rubbish of the houses destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar more than a hundred years before, still rose in long- stretching mounds. Their subjection to Persia forced itself on the citizens at every turn. The tribute im- posed on them was a heavy burden to a poor community. In addition to this, the establishments of the Persian governors were maintained by requisitions of bread, wine, and money, from town and country, and even subordinates and their servants lorded it over the people at largeJ Jewish recruits had doubtless been forced into the Persian armies, for all the nations of the empire had to contribute their proportion to the vast hosts of the Great King. Cambyses and Xerxes had both invaded Egypt,^ passing through Palestine, and the invasion must have seriously affected Judah. The Jewish colony had
1 Neh. xiii. 15. ^ ;t^eh. iii. 8, 31, 32. 3 Neh. iii. 6.
4 Neh. iii. 32, « Neh. xiii. 15. « Hagg. ii. 7.
? Neh. V. 15. « B.C. 525, B.C. 484.
462 QUEEN ESTHER.
hoped for great things from Zerubbabel, as a descendant of David, but he had done little to help them, and with his death, the long honoured royal line had sunk out of sight. Phenicia had risen, while they continued prostrate, and boasted its kings,^ as, indeed, did even the cities of Philistia.^ Damascus was the seat of a Persian official, superior to the local governor set over Judah. All the ancient enemies of the nation seemed to prosper, while Jerusalem was still partly in ruins.
Under these circumstances, the prophet Zechariah, now an old man, once more came forward to cheer his contemporaries. His style of address had changed with the altered state of affairs. Lands which belonged to Israel by Divine covenant, ^ and over which David and Solomon had ruled, were held by the alien.* The seer cared little for the regions not promised in the Law, and leaves them unnoticed.^ Judah would see the judgments of God on the nations who held her ancient boundaries, and they would be taught, in the end, to seek Jehovah, whom they had so long offended.
I The utterance of Jehovah,^— he says — has gone forth against Hadrach, near Damascus, and will rest on Damascus ; for Jehovah has His eyes on all men, and also on the children of Israel, 2 and on Hamath also, at the Orontes, and on Tyre and Sidon— wise though she think herself. 3 Tyre, indeed, bnilb herself a fortress and heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the mire of the streets. 4 But Jehovah will impoverish her, and smite her sea-power, and burn her with fire. 5 Askelon will see this and fear; Gaza also, and will writhe in terror; Ekron will behold it and her hopes be put to shame. And its king will perish from Gaza, and Askelon will be uninhabited. 6 A nioi.grel
1 Herod., viii. 67. ^ Zech. ix. 5.
3 Gen. XV. 18. Exod. xxiii. 31. Num. xxxiv. 1-12.
* Syria, Phenicia, and Philistia.
5 Edom, Moab, Ammon. Deut. ii. 4, 5, 9, 19. " Zsch. ix. 1-8.
QUEEN ESTHEE. 463
people will dwell at Ashdod, and Jehovah will cut off the pride of the Philistines. 7 They eat the blood with the flesh — but He will take it out of their mouth, and their unclean abominations from between their teeth. Yet the remnant that escapes these judgments will join tbemselves to Him, and the head of this remnant will be like the chief of a " thousand " ^ in Judah, and Ekron, will be to Israel as the old Jebusites were to the people of Jerusalem — incorporated with them and subject to them.^ 8 And I (says Jehovah) will pitch a camp round My House, against hostile attacks, that none pass through or return to in- jure it; no oppressor will assail it^ any more, for I have now looked into it with Mine eyes.
Not only will Jehovah protect His House ; He will cause the Messianic king to appear in Jerusalem, and thence spread the reign of Peace over the world.
9 Kejoice greatly, 0 daughter of Zion;'* shout, 0 daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy king will come to thee: he is righteous and brings salvation ; lowly, and riding on an ass, on a colb the foal of a she-ass.^ 10 And I will destroy all signs of war — the chariot from Ephrairn and the horse from Jerusalem, and the war-bow shall be destroyed ; and he will speak peace to the nations, and his dominion will be from sea to sea ^— and from the river Euphrates to the ends of the earth.
Israel will be delivered ont of bondage in all lands, and will be victorious over the heathen.
1 1 As to thee also, O Israel ; ' because of the blood of thy covenant made by Me with thee, I will bring thy captives from
* A clan, or subdivision of a tribe.
2 2 Sam. xxiv. 16. 1 Chron. xxi. 15.
3 Lit., " them." ■* Zech. ix. 9, 10.
5 Bovet's Egypt, etc., p. 273. The Rabbis, commenting on this text, say that the ass will be one of a hundred colours. Barclay's Talmud, p. 36.
^ An indefinite expression. The seas known to the Hebrews (see vol. i. p. 242), were the Caspian, the Persian Gulf, the Black Sea, and the Mediterranean, ' Zech. ix. 11-17.
464 QUEEN ESTHER.
their dungeon in the dry underground cistern. 12 Turn back to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope ! Even to-day I declare that 1 will repay thee double joy, for all your sorrow, 13 for 1 will bend Judah for Me as a bow, I will make Ephraim My arrow with which to fill it, and I will raise up thy sons, 0 Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, ^ and make thee as the sword of a mighty warrior. 14 And Jehovah will appear over them, and His arrow will shoot fofth like the lightning, and the Lord Jehovah will blow the trumpet, and will march amidst the storms of the south, ^ from the desert. 15 Jehovah of Hosts will protect His people, and they will devour their enemies before them, and tread them down like stones for the sling, and they will drink the blood of the slain till they shout as if drunk with wine, and they shall be filled with blood as the bowls of the altar, or as its corners, on which the blood is sprinkled. 16 And Jehovah, their God, will save His people on that day, as a shepherd saves his flock, for they are to Him like jewels of a crown, glittering over His land! 17 For how great is their goodliness, how great is their beauty, through the blessing of Jehovah ! Rich harvests of corn will make the young men cheerful,^ and new wine the maidens.
God is the one source of prosperity ; the idols are vanity : He will save His people in all their tribes.
1 Pray to Jehovah ^ for rain in the spring time ! Pray to Je- hovah who creates the lightnings, and He will give rich showers, and grass in every one's field. 2 For the teraphim " — the house- gods — have spoken vanity, and the diviners have lying visions and tell false dreams, and give no comfort. Hence the people went astray like a flock, and were in trouble, because there was no shepherd. 3 My anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the bell-goats,^ for Jehovah of Hosts cares for His flock, the House of Judah, and makes it like His goodly horse
^ Heb. " Javan " = Ionia.
2 The most terrible tempests (Isa. xxi. 1 ; Ho«. xiii. 15) often accompanied with dreadful sand whirlwinds, like those that over- whelmed part of the army of Cambyses.
3 " Flourish," Keil ^ Zech. x.
* See illustration, p. 418. « Yol. iv. p. 427 ; vol. v. p. 401.
QUEEN ESTHER. 465
in the battle. 4 Out of Judah shall come forth the corner stone, out of him the tent peg, out of him the battle-bow, out of Him every governor.^ 5 And the men of Judah shall be as heroes, treading down the enemy in the battle, like the mire of the streets, and they will fight, because Jehovah is with them, and the riders on horses will be put to shame.- 6 And I will make the House of Judah strong, and I will save the House of Joseph, and make them dwell once more (in their own land), for I have had pity on them, and they shall be as if I had not cast them off, for I am Jehovah their God and will hear them. 7 And Ephraira will be like a mighty man, and his heart will rejoice as with wine, and his children will see it and be glad; their heart will rejoice in Jehovah. 8 I will hiss for them, (as a bee-master hisses to draw to him a swarm), and will gather them, and they shall be as nu- merous again as of old. 9 I have sown them among the peoples, but they will remember Me in far countries, and return with their children with whom they have lived. 10 And I will bring them back out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria,' and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon till room be wanting for them. 11 And Jehovah shall pass through the Sea of AfBiction (as through the Red Sea, of old), and shall smite down the waves of the sea, and dry up the deeps of the Nile, and the pride of Assyria"* will be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt will depart from it. 12 And I will make them strong in Jehovah, and they will walk in His name, says Jehovah.
Unfortunately, the history of Israel was not to realize the conditions required by God for the fulfilment of these promises. The national life was to continue corrupt and
' Eichhorn translates these lines "out of Him shall come those who are at the head, — the under leaders, — those who shoot with the bow in battle," etc.
^ Moses did not allow cavalry in the Jewish army. It would have been of little use in a highland district like that held by the Twelve Tribes.
3 Many Jews were doubtless still in Assyria.
■* Assyria is often used in connection with the Persian kings of Babylon. In Ezra vi. 22, the king of Persia is called the king of Assyria.
VOL. V. H H
466 QUEEN ESTHER.
ungodly. Lawless and tyrannical rulers were still to destroy the common people — the flock of Jehovah — and the end of this would be terrible ruin. Zechariah in- troduces this abruptly, in the opening of the eleventh chapter, painting a catastrophe that was repeated more than once, by the Greeks, Syrians, and Romans, in the following centuries.
I Open thy gates, 0 Lebanon, * that fire may devour thy cedars.- 2 Howl, 0 cj^press, for the cedar is fallen ! the glorious trees are destroyed ! Howl, O ye oaks of Bashan, for your fate is sealed, since even the inaccessible mountain forests of Lebanon are laid low I 3 The loud cries of the shepherds ascend, for the grazing places which are their glory are laid waste. Hark! one hears the roaring of young lions, for the thickets of Jordan, their haunts, are destroyed.'
The loving care of Jehovah for His people, oppressed by their rulers, is shown in His committing them to the care of the prophet, as a type of the Messiah to come. He seeks to guide them with a shepherd's rod called Favour, and lead them in the paths of right. But their moral perversity makes him at last hopeless, so that he substitutes a staff which he calls Union, the meaning of which he afterwards explains. Love would be tried first; punishment would follow, when love failed to win them.
4 Thus spake Jehovah, my God : Feed the flock doomed to death, 5 whose buyers slaughter them and feel no sense of guilt,
1 Zech. xi.
2 Bleek and some others refer this passage to the invasion by Tiglath Pileser, and think the prophecy dates from the age of Ahaz. Bat this idea is rejected by Ewald and Hit zig, nor is it tenable, since the invasion referred to, though, like all others, it came fiom the north, did not waste the southern Jordan as this did. See vol. iv 233. » Vol. ii. p. 388.
QUEEN ESTHER. 467
and whose sellers say, "Blessed be Jehorah, I am growing rich," and whose own shepherds do not pity thera. 6 For I, (Jehovah), will no more pity the inhabitants of the land (the oppressors of My flock, the people amcng whom it dwells), says Jehovah, but, lo, I will give them up, every one into the hand of his neighbour, and into the hand of his king, and they will smite the land, and I will not save them out of their hand.
The prophet next describes his feeding of the flock, but he speaks, not for himself, but for the Chief Shepherd, hereafter to appear.
7 And I fed the flock doomed to death, the poor of the flock, and took two shepherds staves ; one I called Favour, the other I called Union. And I fed the flock. 8 And I destroyed three of the shepherds in one month,' for My soul was impatient of them and tlieir's abhorred Me. 9 Then I said, " I will feed you no longer ; '* what dies may die, what is killed may be so ; as to the survivors^ let each eat the flesh of the other. 10 And I took My staff " Favour," and broke it across, to break My covenant which I had made with all peoples, (not to injure Israel). 11 And it was broken across on the same day, and thus the poor of the flock, who marked what I did, knew that it was the word of Jehovah.
12 And I said to them (the flock— not the poor of it only) "If ye think well, give me my wages, and if not, withhold them. And
* The three shepherds cut off in one month have been variously supposed to be the kings Zechariah, Shallum and Menahem, of the Ten Tribes ; the three kings Antiochus Epiphanes, Autiochus Eupator, and Demetrius I. ; and the three empires, the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, and Macedonian. It seems impossible to accept the first theory, from the historical facts of the case ; and the others either require the " month " to be taken as a prophetic month of thirty days, each of seven years' duration, or as a general term, for an indefinite period. The fact is, a lucid explanation seems impossible. Thus, Dr. Pusey thinks the three kings mean the " priests, judges, and lawyers," who, having crucified Christ, were destroyed in one month, Nisan, a.d. 33. But how he makes this out is inexplicable to me. The offices of priests, judges, and lawyers, certainly survived the crucifixion.
468 QUEEN ESTHER.
they weighed out to me as my wages, thirty pieces of silver.^ 13 Then said Jehovah to me : " Cast it to the potter ; 2 it is a goodly price (indeed) at which I have been valued by them ! " So I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter, in the House of Jehovah.^
14 Then I broke in two my other staff, *' Union," to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel."*
Having driven the good sheplierd, by its wickedness, to give up his office as shepherd, Israel is committed to an ungodly shepherd, who leads it to ruin. Was this the Roman power, which destroyed the Jewish State, after it had rejected Christ ?
15 And Jehovah said to me, Take to thee the outfit of a worth- less^ shepherd, 16 for, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who will care nothing for those that are perishing, and will not seek the scattered ones, or heal that which is wounded, or feed that which is sound, but will eat the flesh of the fat, tearing even their feet to pieces. 17 Woe to the worthless shepherd, who leaves the flock ! The sword shall come on his arm, and pierce his right eye; his arm shall be withered, and his eye put out!
The last part of the prophecies of Zechariah is as dark and enigmatical as the rest of the Book, wlii^h, as a a whole, illustrates one of the mysteries of God's ways ; that such modes of conveying His revelations to His
1 Thirty shekels were the price of a slave accidentally killed (Bxod. xxi. 32), and also that for which a slave could be bought (Hos. iii. 2). For reference to this passage, see Matt, xxvii, 9, 10.
2 The Targnm, Kimchi and Gesenius read, "the treasurer." The Peshito, Be Wette, Ewald, and Hitzig, read "into the treasury." The change is made by substituting an Aleph for a Yod in the Heb. word, but it has no authority.
3 To " cast anything to the potter," seems to have been pro- verbial expression for treating with contempt.
■* Does this refer to the terrible outburst of faction and civil war in the last days of the Jewish State? * Foolish == thoroughly unworthy.
QUEEN ESTHET?. 469
Church should have been adopted — modes so hard to be understood even by the prophets themselves. Heavy- judgments on Israel are at last to purify it and lead it to God. His people are then to triumph, and His spirit to be poured out upon them, so that they will bitterly repent putting the Messiah to death, and in the end will purify themselves from all ungodliness.
I The burden of the word of Jehovah • respecting Israel. Jehovah, who stretched forth the heavens, and laid the founda- tions of the earth, and formed the spirit of man within him, saith : 2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of confusion to all the peoples round, and that cup will be also for Judah, when Jerusalem is besieged. 3 On that day I will make Jerusalem for all peoples a stone heavy to move ; all who try to raise it will be sore hurt, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered to- gether against her. 4 In that day, says Jehovah, I will smite every horse with terror, and his rider with frenzy, and I will open My eyes on the Plouse of Judah, and smite every horse of the nations with blindness. 5 And the chiefs of Judah will say in their heart, " The inhabitants of Jerusalem are a strength to me, through Jehovah of Hosts, their God." 6 In that day I will make the chiefs of Judah a panful of fire among faggots, and like a torch among sheaves, and they will consume the peoples round about, on the right hand and the left, and Jerusalem shall still dwell on her old bounds. 7 Jehovah, also, will save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the House of David and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not magnify itself against Judah.
8 In tliat day Jehovah will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and lie that is feeble^ among them, at that day, shall be (strong) as David, and the House of David shall be as God ; as the angel of Jehovah before them. 9 And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
But Jehovah will do still more for His people. He will pour out His Spirit on them, and lead them to sincere repentance for their guilt in rejecting the Saviour.
1 Zech. xii. 2 Li^^ .. tottering."
470 QUEEN ESTHER.
lo And I will pour on the House of David and on the in- habitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication, and they will look on him ^ whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one who mourns for his only son, and be in bitterness for bim, as one that weeps bitterly for his first-born. II In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadadrimmon, in the valley of Megiddo (where all Israel lamented the death of king Josiah),^ 12 and the whole land will mourn, every clan apart; the clan of the House of David apart, and their wives by themselves; 13 the clan of the House of Levi apart, and their wives by themselves; the clan of Shimei^ apart, and their wives by themselves ; and all the clans besides, every clan apart, and their wives by themselves.
This earnest repentance of Israel v^rill lead to a hearty and full regeneration of the people, since God will open to them the fountain of His grace, to cleanse them from sin and to strengthen them to a holy life.
I In that day ^ a fountain will be opened to the House of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. 2 On that day, says Jehovah of Hosts, I will root out the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no more be remembered, and I will also remove the (false) prophets and the spirit of uncleanness from the land. 3 And if any one still (pretends to) prophecy, his father and his mother, who begat him, will say to him, " Thou shalt not live, for thou speakest a lie in the name of Jehovah, and they will thrust him through for his (pretended) prophesying." 4 And in that day the (false) prophets will be brought to shame, every one for his (so-called) prophetic visions, and they will no longer wear a garment of hair to deceive. 5 But such a false prophet will say, " I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground, for a man bought me as a slave, in my youth, to tend cattle." 6 And if one ask him " What are these wounds in your hands ? " (He will not own that they are the cuttings
1 Heb., " me," many MSS. have " him."
2 Yol. V. p. 275.
3 The clan of the son of Gerson, the grandson of Levi. Num. iii. 17, 18. -» Zech. xiii.
QUEEN ESTHER. 471
he made in bis flesh, in Baal worship and the Uke), but will pre- tend that they are the marks of stripes received, when a child, from his parents, who loved him.
The prophet now passes to a new subject — the judg- ment by which Israel will at last be purified from the moral dross still cleaving to it, and be made a holy people to Jehovah.
7 Awake, O sword, ^ against My shepherd (the Messiah), against the man who is My fellow," says Jehovah of Hosts. Smite the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered ; then will I turn My hand towards the poor (and pious). ^ 8 And in the whole land, says Jehovah, two parts will be destroyed and die, but a third part will survive. 9 And I will bring the third part into the fire, and smelt them as silver is smelted, and purify them as gold is purified. They will call on My name and I will hear them ; I will say, " They are My people," and they will say, " Jehovah is my God."
I Behold ! a day of Jehovah comes,'* and thy spoil will be divided in the midst of thee (0 Zlon). 2 For I will gather all nations against Jernsaiem, to battle, and the city will be taken, the houses sacked, the women outraged, and half the town will go forth into captivity, but the rest of the people will not be cut oS'from the city. 3 For Jehovah will go forth and fight against these nations, as He fights on the day of battle. 4 And His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which lies east of Jerusalem, and that mount will split in the midst, east and west, into a very great valley, and half of it will move to the north and half of it to the south. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of My^ mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel (close to Jerusalem); ^ yea, ye will flee as ye fled before the eanh- quake, in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and Jehovah, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him.^ 6 And on that
1 Zech. xiii. 7.
' Or " neighbour." The word is thus translated in nearly every case in the A. Y.
3 Hitzig. * Zech. xiv.
' Micah i. 11 ; called there Beth-ezel. * So many MSS.
472 QUEEN ESTHEE.
day there will be no light ; the stars * will shrink back.^ 7 But it will be a day known of Jehovah, neither day nor night, but at the evening time it shall be light. 8 And in that day living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the East (or Dead) Sea, half of them to the Western Sea (the Mediterranean) ; they will flow both in summer and winter. 9 And Jehovah will be king over all the land. In that day Jehovah will be One and His name One. 10 All the land will be changed and made like the Arabah, (the plain south of the Dead Sea), from Geba (nine miles north of Jerusalem) to Rimmon, far to the south of it,^ and Jerusalem will stand high, and dwell on its bounds, from the Gate of Benjamin, on the north wall, to the place of the first gate — the Gate of the Corner, (on the north-west)— and from the Tower of Hananeel, on the north-east corner of the walls,"* to the king's winepresses, (on the south of the city).^ 11 And men will dwell in it, and there will be no more a ban on it, (it will no more be devoted by God to destruction), and Jerusalem will dwell securely.
While Israel will be tlius blest by God, its enemies will be grievously punislied.
12 And this will be the plague with which Jehovah will smite all the peoples that have fought against Jerusalem. Their flesh shall waste away while they stand on their feet, and their eyes waste away in their sockets, and their tongues in their mouth.
13 And in that day there will be a great confusion, from Je- hovah, among them, so that every one will seize the hand of his neighbour, and lift up his hand against his neighbour's hand.
14 And Judah also will fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the nations, round about, will be gathered together, gold and silver, and garments, in great abundance. 15 And the plague (sent from Jehovah) on the horse, the mule, the camel, the ass, and all the cattle, in those camps, will be the same as that on the men.
^ Heb., " The precious things."
2 The Sept. reads, " there shall not be light, but cold and ice."
3 Perhaps the ruins " Um er Rummanira," twelve miles north of Beersheba. Josh. xv. 32 ; xix. 7.
' Neh. iii. 1. * Neh. iii. 15.
QUEEN ESTHER. 473
The heathen who escape these judgments will ulti- mately turn to God.
i6 And it will come to pass, that every one left of all the nations who came up against Jerusalem, will go up (to it) from year to year, to worship the King, Jehovah of Hosts, and to keep the feast of Tabernacles. 17 And on those, of all the families of the earth, who will not come up to worship the King, Jehovah of Hosts, there will be no rain. 18 And if the people of Egypt do not go up (to Jerusalem, to the feasts), on them shall be the plague, ^ with which Jehovah will smite the nations that do not come up to the feast of Tabernacles.
In that last time all Jerusalem will be holy to Je- hovah.
20 In that day there will be (even) on the bells of the horses, "Holy to Jehovah," and the very pots (for cooking), in the House of Jehovah, will be pure as the sacrificial bowls before the altar. 21 Indeed, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to Jehovah of Hosts, and all who intend to offer sacrifices will come and take them, and seethe (their offerings in them — so ceremo- nially clean will they be). And in that day no Canaanite (that is, no unworthy worshipper) will enter any more into the House of Jehovah of Hosts.
Such were some of the discourses addressed to the community at Jerusalem^ in the gloomy years preceding the arrival of Ezra from Persia, in B.C. 459 or 458, nearly eighty years after the Return. Couched in a highly figurative style, their deeper meaning is even now very obscure ; but their strong and vivid imagery of defeats and plague to be endured by the enemies of Israel, and of the final glory of Jerusalem, saved at last from all its foes, was well fitted to cheer the population amidst its long depression.
* 8ept.
CHAPTER XX.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
THE entliusiasm which had urged so many of the exiles in Babylon to seek the land of their fathers once more, had reacted on the far larger portion of the nation, which stayed behind. The Pilgrim Fathers had set out, amidst the profound sympathy of their less adventurous brethren, carrying with them rich proofs of its sincerity. Idolatry was finally and absolutely aban- doned in every Jewish home on the Euphrates, as one result of the religious fervour of the time. Family ties linked together the new colony in Judah and those who remained behind, and led to a lively intercourse between the two communities. On the one hand, men from Jerusalem revisited their brethren of the Golah or Dis- persion, telling the sad trials in Jerusalem and Judah, and seeking help from rich friends in Babylonia.^ On the other, not a few journeyed from the Euphrates to the Holy City, to pay vows and offer gifts on the spot once more consecrated by the presence of Jehovah. When Jews in Palestine and other lands, as was not infrequent in such troubled times, were seized as captives or sold as slaves, their brethren of the Golah spared no efforts or sacrifices to redeem or deliver them.^ Prosperous, and ' Neh. i. 2. 2 Neh. v. 8.
474
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 475
able to help their motherland, these foreign Hebrews were proud to do so. Since Susa had become the resi- dence of the Persian kings, and Babylon had thus lost its importance, many Jews had followed the court, and founded new colonies in the eastern provinces, where numbers grew rich, and some, like Daniel in earlier days, gained official positions under the Great King.
The reaction from their former heathen tendencies was very striking. Face to face with idolatry, they at last acted on • the counsels of the prophets, and put away every approach to it in their own practice, devoting themselves to Jehovah as their only God. Their national isolation promoted this great reform, while the still stricter separation demanded by their religion, for its complete obsei-vance, increasingly developed tliis cher- ished distinctness. Cut off from the Temple and its rites, they grew increasingly anxious to preserve their boast of being "the people of God." Marriage was only permitted within their own race, and the faith of their fathers, at least in its ritual details, became the one rule of their life. They might be unable to carry out the precepts relating to worship in the Temple, but they could observe with the more sedulous care those which bore on everyday practice — the Sabbath, the religious festivals, circumcision, and the laws of Levitical purity. They had houses for prayer, in which they met at set times. Amidst a population speaking Aramaic, they still cherished among themselves their ancestral Hebrew ^ — as the language of their sacred writings. In these they found a worthy object for their freshly kindled religious zeal, cut off as they were from the Temple, its prayers, and sacrifices. The writings of the prophets were their special delight in the earlier years of the exile, ^ Neh. xiii. 24.
476 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
notwithstanding tlieir searching reproofs; for, besides these, there were magnificent promises to excite their hopes and gratify their pride. But, as time passed, the Books of the Law, in their fivefold division, took the chief place in their regard. Given directly by God, their com- mands demanded zealous obedience, at once to secure His favour, and to emphasize the supreme distinction among mankind which the possession of them implied. A new order of literary men ere long arose, to whom the study of the Law was the absorbing passion of life. There had always been " scribes,'^ as the annalists, clerks, and letter writers of the community; but henceforth the name was virtually limited to those who devoted them- selves wholly to the copying or studying of the Torah. Every precept was discussed by these enthusiasts in all its possible applications, that no loophole might be left for even constructive transgression. A beginning was thus made of the vast system of casuistry, which, in after times, expanded into the twelve folio volumes of the Talmud. To guard against the breach of even the most trivial legal requirement, a " hedge ^' of outlying pre- scriptions was set round the whole Law. In their puri- tanical zeal, the scribes were disposed to widen the sweep of every injunction. The spirit of the good king Josiah, the true founder of Judaism, had revived in the early Rabbis of the Babylonian Golah.
It was otherwise among the colonists of Judah and Jerusalem. Some, doubtless, were as zealous for the Law as their brethren in the Euphrates, but very many had yielded to circumstances, and intermingled freely with the families of kindred races in their midst, not a few of whom had become proselytes to the Jewish faith, and lived in Judah and Jerusalem. Marriages of Israelites with women of alien blood, though, perhaps, as a rule.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 477
of a comraoTi faith, naturally resulted, and other laxities, such as a careless observance of the Sabbath, more or less prevailed.^
This state of things must have been known in Baby- lonia, though hardly realized to the full extent by those who were themselves so strict. A great reformer, how- ever, soon appeared, destined to bring about a wonderful change.
At the head of the scribes among the Golah, stood Ezra, a man of priestly rank, famous for his knowledge of the Law, and zeal for its strict observance. His ancestry, which he could trace back to Aaron,-^ included a long suc- cession of priestly dignitaries. He was a descendant of the high priest, Hilkiah, who had found the Book of the Law in the Temple, in the days of Josiah, and of the high priest Seraiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had put to death at Riblah.^ Hence he stood out from his contemporaries as especially " the priest.^'* But having been born in Babylonia he had never seen the Temple. His priestly dignity was thus only titular, for he was far from the spot where alone he could officiate. So much the more earnestly had he betaken himself to the study of the Law, and so much the more enthusiastic was he for its rigid observance. To secure this, all other considera- tions had to bow. Intensely earnest, he had the absolute confidence of a zealot in his own definitions of its require- ments. To enforce the Levitical holiness of Israel had become his one idea, and no Puritan was ever more ener- getic or stern in pressing his will on others as that of God. Already known as " the priest," he was even more widely known in his riper years as " the scribe."" On
1 Neh. xiii. 15. ^ Ezra vii. Iff. ' 2 Kings xxv. 18.
* Ezra vii. 11, 12; x. 10,16. Neh. viii. 2.
5 Neh. viii. 4; ix. 12, 26 ; xiii. 12, 36. Ezra vii. 12, 26.
478 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
new year's day of B.C. 459-8, the seventh year of Artax- erxes ^^tlie loug-armed/' son of the murdered Xerxes, Ezra had made up his mind to visit the Jewish colony in Palestine, and with his usual decision at once sought and obtained permission from the king to do so. His object was to enquire respecting the observance of the Law, as expounded by himself, in Judah and Jerusalem.^ His own profound acquaintance with it, and his absolute obedience to its minutest requirements were so uni- versally acknowledged, that a school of disciples had gathered round him in Babylon, to spread his doctrine and recommend his example.^ In his opinion it rose in dignity above all the other sacred writings. Other pro- phets had received revelations in visions, but Moses had seen God face to face. The Law had come direct from the lips of Jehovah.
Twelve days after his resolution to set out for Jeru- salem, he was ready to start, armed with a letter from Artaxerxes, securing him the assistance and protection of the imperial officers, on his journey and in Palestine. King and nobles, indeed, vied with each other to show him favour, so profound is the power of transparent sincerity. Besides contributing gold and silver as gifts to the Temple, Artaxerxes allowed him to accept help from his brethren and others who were friendly. He soon received twenty sacred vessels of gold, worth a thousand darics, or £1000 sterling; ^ and two, as costly as gold, of glittering copper; smaller ones of gold, weighing a hun- dred talents — equal to £45,000, and others, of silver, of equal weight, that is, worth £20,000.* In silver money, alone, he further received 650 talents, or nearly £200,000,^ an immense amount in those times. Orders on the royal
1 Ezra vii. 15. ^ Ezra vii. 10. » Biehm, p. 258.
* Kneucker, Bih. Lex., vol. v. p. 460. ^ Ezra vii. 25-27.
EZEA AND NEHEMIAH. 479
treasuries secured wheat, wine, oil and salt, for the cara- van, at every station,^ and he was further empowered to obtain from these stores whatever money might be required for sacrifices at Jerusalem.^ Special exemption from taxes was, moreover, granted all priests, Levites, and other officials of the Temple.^ Finally, he was em- powered to appoint magistrates and judges in Judah who should secure obedience to the Law, and see that it was universally taught;* obedience to them being enforced under penalty of imprisonment, confiscation of goods, exclusion from the congregation, or death, as they, or he himself, decreed." He was armed, in fact, with despotic power to enforce compliance with his religious opinions. Submission to his will was the only protection against the loss of property, or even of life.
The rendezvous for the caravan was appointed at Ahava, on a canal of that name, in Babylonia, and there no fewer than 1,500 men of the better classes pitched their tents on the appointed day — laymen, priests and others. No one of doubtful blood could be enrolled in such an expedition, and hence three days were spent in testing the genealogies of the intending pilgrims. Strange to say, no Levite^ had presented themselves, nor any of the Temple slaves.^ A weighty deputation of chief men, with two " teachers '' of the Law — members of the new body of scribes — was therefore sent off ' to a colony of Levites and Nethinim at Casiphia, a place now unknown, for volunteers. The accession of a " teacher^' or scribe, and about forty Levites and two hundred and twenty Temple
1 Ezra vii. 22. ^ Ezra vii. 16.
3 Ezra vii. 24. ■* Ezia vii. 27.
5 Ezra vii. 26. « The Nethinim Ezra viii. 15-17.
' In A. v., " Men of understanding." Ezra viii. 16.
480 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
servants ^ was tlie result. Laity, priests, Levites in the strict sense, Temple singers and guards, and Nethinim, were now ready to start. With women and children, the whole caravan must have numbered more than 5000 souls.
It only remained to commend the undertaking to the care of the Almighty, and for this end a fast was proclaimed. Having told the king that the hand of Jehovah was on all them, for good, that sought Him, Ezra refused an escort of horse and foot which had been offered, to guard the caravan, with its tempting wealth, from the lawless Arabs. ^ The gold and silver, and sacred vessels, having finally been committed to the care of chosen priests and Levites, the tents were struck, and the journey began. The " holy things '^ were entrusted to "holy men," who were to devote themselves to their charge till it was delivered to the chief priests, Levites, and elders, in the chambers of the Temple at Jerusalem.^
Four months and a half were spent in the long march up the Euphrates, across the desert to Northern Syria, and then south, to Jerusalem.* " The hand of our God was upon us," says Ezra, and, thus protected, no enemy troubled them on the way.
The arrival of such an addition to their numbers must have been most welcome to the citizens of Jerusalem. It seemed as if, at last, the words of the prophets had been realized. The treasures of the heathen, borne by long trains of camels, were safe in the holy city ; and a leader, famous for his knowledge of the Law and zeal in its behalf, had come, with royal power to promote its observance. Ezra must have appeared, to not a few, the expected Messiah.
On the fourth day, the silver, gold, and sacred vessels,
1 Ezra viii. 18-20. ^ Ezra viii. 22.
* Ezra viii. 29. * Ezra vii. 9 ; viii. 31.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 481
were duly weighed and handed over to the Temple officials, represented by two priests and two Levites. The high priest Eliashib/ however, is not named, as if the stern precisian, now supreme in Church and State, had some reason for slighting him. Great public rejoic- ings, taking^ the Hebrew form of a religious festival, with huge sacrifices, welcomed the new comers and their chief, and the commands of the Great King in favour of the Jews were sent off to the Persian officials, and bright hopes and universal enthusiasm prevailed.
Ezra at once took his place as the supreme judge over the community, superseding the high priest himself and all other authorities ; but five months and a half passed — from August to December — without any incident of moment. Meanwhile, the new ruler had been carefully noting things around him. With his staflf of subordinate scribes, he marked the shortcomings of the community. A copy of the Law ,2 brought by him from Babylon, was the statute book, from which there was no appeal. His ideas, harsh and severe on many points, in the judgment of not a few, must, to some extent, have got abroad; among others, those on mixed marriages, which he fiercely condemned.
Some of the leading men, whether from conviction or policy, were ready to adopt Ezra's views, but there was a strong undercurrent of opposition, which only yielded to compulsion. Those, however, who were at one with him — it may be from conscientious scruples, raised by hearing extracts from his copy of the Law — appeared before Ezra on the sixteenth day of the ninth month (nearly our December), and informed him, with many expressions of pain, that marriages with women of non-
* Presumably Joiakim would now be dead. 2 Ezra vii. 25. VOL. VI. I I
482 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
Jewish races had hitherto been common in Jerusalem and Judah, among all classes.^ The Law, strictly inter- preted, was beyond question against these alliances. In Exodus 2 and Deuteronomy ^ such relations with the native races of Canaan were strictly forbidden ; but the depu- tation which now appeared before Ezra, added to these the names of peoples — the Ammonites, Moabites, and Egyptians — not formally excluded from marriages with Israelites, though such alliances with them were con- demned in the historical books as contrary to the spirit of the Law.* The prohibition quoted could indeed be only constructively applicable, for most of the races mentioned had long ceased to exist as separate com- munities, having for many generations been fused into the general population of Palestine.
Such a state of things amongst those who had left Babylon to rebuild the Temple, shocked Ezra to the soul. It was no mitigation of the sin, in his eyes, that the question of mixed marriages had always been viewed
* Ezra ix. 1. The laity are always pub first in Ezra's enume- ration of classes. A lesson of modesty to some in our own day.
2 Exod. xxxiv. 12-16.
3 Dent. vii. 1-5.
* Jud. iii. 6. 1 Kings xi. 2. Neh. xiii. 2. The note of Graetz is worth translating. It runs thus:— As legal warrant for regarding ib as a breach of the law, Ezra refers (ix. 12) to Deut. xxiii. 3. But this prohibition refers only to the Moabites and Ammonites. Ezra needed therefore to generalize the transgres- sion, but for this he had no direct authority from the Pentateuch. He was therefore forced to fall back on an indirect authority (ix. 11). This is an allusion to Lev. xviii. 24, 25, and to Exod. xxxiv. 15 fF. since the Canaanitish races and idolaters are there referred to, while the families into which the Jews had married were neither. Geschichte, vol. ii. 2, pp. 131. The prohibition in Deut. xxiii. 3, refers to the reception of the peoples named as members of the nation — their being made full citizens.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 483
liberally in the past. Moses himself was the son of an illegal marriage of nephew and aunt,^ and he had in suc- cession married a Midianite and an Ethiopian, or Cushite. The daughters of Naomi had married Moabites, and Euth, the Moabitess, had been the great-grandmother of David himself.^ The hero-kiug, the idol of the nation, more- over, had married alien wives. ^ King Eehoboain was the son of an Ammonite woman,* and the founder of the illustrious House of Jerahmeelites, in the time of Eli, had been an Egyptian, to whom a Hebrew chief had given his daughter as wife.^ A Syrian mother had been the founder of the great family of Machir, the Manassite, of Gilead.* It had, indeed, been impossible, hitherto, to enforce rigid isolation from surrounding races ; all classes of the population, in every age, had more or less evaded it.7
But the usage of a thousand years was to be abruptly broken off. To Ezra, the " holy seed '' of Israel was polluted by marriage with a member of any other race, even where idolatry had been abandoned, and Jehovah was worshipped. For this, it cannot be doubted, was the case with such alliances, in a community like that of Jerusalem, stern Puritans, who had left their native land, Babylon, and all they had, through zeal for God. But to the hard and narrow mind of Ezra, it mattered nothing that the wives of nou-Jewish blood were proselytes, obedient to the faith. It was enough that they were not Hebrews of the Hebrews, pure in their descent on both sides. According to him, heathen, who had accepted the Jewish faith, might be admitted into the congregation,
1 Exod. vi. 20. Num. xxvi. 59. Lev. xviii. 12.
2 Eur,h i. 4; iv. 22. » 2 Sam. iii. 3. ^ 1 Kings xiv. 21. 5 1 OliroD. ii. 34 « 1 Chron. vii. 14.
' Jud. iii. 6. 2 Sam. xi. 3. 1 Kings xi. 1 ; xvi. 31.
484 EZEA AND NEHEMIAH.
but only on an inferior footing, as a separate and lower caste. Like the Gibeonites of old, and the Temple slaves, who, though incorporated with the State for more than a thousand years, and Jews in creed, were yet kept distinct and prohibited from intermarriage with Israelites ; the proselytes from the peoples round, however high in social position, refined by education, or sincere in orthodoxy, must be kept apart, as a class with which no Jew could condescend to ally himself. Pride of race had much to do with this ; but there was, besides, a dread lest close relations with minds more liberal than their own, should lead any Jews to more generous views on points of the ceremonial law than the dogmatism of Ezra permitted. He was, in fact, the prototype of men .like Danstan, or Balfour of Burley, or the Puritans who banished Roger Williams from Massachusetts. Intensely sincere, he was also bitterly intolerant and despotic. His marriage law was at least a straining of that of Moses, and was so impracticable, that the Rabbis themselves modified it in later times. But he was led to it by a fear which the circumstances of the times amply explain. The reception of proselytes or half-proselytes to lull and equal citizen- ship might, in his opinion, corrupt the high tone of the community, by relaxing the superstitious observance of ceremonial details, which his intensely ritualistic mind regarded as the safeguard of the religious life.
To one with views like his, such a state of things as was now disclosed was an overpowering calamity. Even priests and Levites had been guilty of the abhorred marriages. His exciteable Eastern nature was over- whelmed with sorrow and mortification. He had received the deputation in the open air, but now, as the high dignitaries ended their confession, he could not restrain his distress. Rising to his feet, he rent his outer and
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 485
then his inner robe, in his immeasurable grief, and, like one all but frenzied, tore the hair of his head and of his beard, till, after a time, he sank silent and motionless on the ground, where he lay till the hour of the evening sacrifice, amidst a surrounding crowd, stupefied and confounded. Then rising from the earth, and again tearing his robes, he strode to the forecourt of the Temple, and falling on his knees before the multitude assembled below for worship, he poured forth his soul aloud, in agonizing prayer, with his hands stretched out to Jehovah. His people, he cried, had come back from Babylon, no better for the terrible discipline. Tliey had fallen again iuto their old sins?, though God had spared a remnant of them, through the favour of the Persian kings. If they again transgressed His Law, by marriages with the peoples of the land, what remained but that even that remnant would be destroyed by the just wrath of the Eternal ? Weeping aloud as he spoke, and casting himself down before the Temple in an agony of soul, his emotion spread to the throng of men, women and children, who crowded towards him, to catch his words. That the great Ezra, illustrious as " the priest,'' and no less so as *' the scribe,'* but perhaps still more feared as the commissioner of the Great King, with life and death in his hands, should be thus unmanned, im- plied terrible, though hitherto unsuspected, guilt, on the part of the community, in the state of things that thus unnerved him. His sighs and tears provoking theirs, the Temple courts resounded with wailing.
Ezra was destined to triumph. Among the clans
which had, in part, returned from Babylon with Zerub-
babel, nearly eighty years before, were the Benai Klam,^
of whom 1,254 were among the first Pilgrim Fathers.
1 Ezra ii. 7. Neh. vii. 12. 1 Esdr. v. 12.
486 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
Seventy-one more had just come with Ezra,^ true and loyal worshippers of Jehovah. Overpowered by the mov- ing scene, one of these, while Ezra was still on his knees, after his prayer, broke out into a loud confession of guilt, for himself and his brethren, in the custom denounced. They had sinned against their God by having taken strange wives, of the people of the land. But now there was hope for Israel.^ Let them make a covenant with their God to put away all the wives, with their children !
Such a proposal committed all present to the course Ezra demanded, without their being heard in self-defence. Seizing the advantage, Ezra instantly rose and„ turning to the chief priests, Levites, and laity assembled, called on them to swear adherence to the speaker^s words. Nor could they refuse. Their wives and children had done no wrong, and it might have been expected that natural aS'ection would have pleaded in their behalf. But pitiless legalism, armed with the power of life and death, and of confiscation of goods, had decided against them ; and in the excitement and fear of the moment, they hastened to clear themselves from a doubtful offence, by committing one that revolts every noble feeling.
The reform thus begun was to be carried to its bitter end. Ezra would neither eat nor drink till he had thoroughly gained the day and bent the community to his will. Like religious enthusiasts in general, he be- lieved his doctrine to be from God, and forgot even his natural wants till what he deemed so mortal a sin on the part of his people was removed. All the population were accordingly summoned to appear in the great open space before the Temple, within three days, on pain of confis- cation of all they had, and exclusion from the rights of citizenship.^
1 Ezra viii. 7. 1 Esdr. viii. 33. « jjzra x. 3. « Ezra x. 8.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 487
It was December, and the winter rains were falling heavily when the great assembly gathered. Squatting, in Eastern fashion, on the ground, they trembled, we are told, partly from the cold, but perhaps more from ex- citement and dread, as they awaited the rising of Ezra to address them.^ His words were few and to the point. They had transgressed, and taken strange wives, to in- crease the sin of Israel. Let them confess their guilt to Jehovah, and do His pleasure, by separating them- selves from the people of the land and from their non- Jewish partners.
Whatever may have been the private feelings of some in the vast crowd, there was no alternative but to obey. *' As thou hast said, so we must do,'* rose loudly from all. There was no arguing with a man who could strip them of their goods, cut off their rights as citizens, or even take their lives. Besides, had not Ezra assured them that the fierce wrath of God would destroy them, if they did not obey him. But they had still calmness enough to object to action on the moment, in a matter so grave. There were many cases to examine, the weather was too stormy to remain out of doors, and the work too great to be hurried over. A great public assembly was not a fit body to enter into such a question. Let a court be formed in Jerusalem, of the chief men of each tribe, and let all who had wives of alien blood come before it, at an appointed time, with the elders and judges of their respective cities, that each case might be carefully examined.^ At the moment, four men alone, one of them a Levice, had the courage to oppose the repudiation of women who had married them in good faith, and, as all
» Ezra X. 9.
2 Eziax. 15. For " were employed about this matter," read " stood up against this." Gesenius, Bertheau, Keil.
488 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
had thouglit with due legality ; but not a few ultimately refused to break up their homes and turn adrift their innocent wives and children.
A court presided over by Ezra, with the heads of the great clans as assessors, soon completed this questionable reform. In two months, a multitude of blameless women of all ranks were divorced. Among these were the wives of the four sons of Joshua, the high priest who came from Babylon with Zerubbabel, themselves dignified priests ; the wives of a number of priests of the clans of Immer, Harim, and Pashur ; of Levites, of Temple singers, and of laj^men of many different clans.^ Innocent mothers and helpless children were alike turned adrift,^ in the name of religion ; so unnatural is fanaticism, when it presumes to speak for God. But the transaction did not pass unpunished. The races insulted in the persons of the dismissed wives and children, were ere long bitterly to avenge them.
JFor the next fourteen years, till B.C. 445, we know nothing of the history of Judah or Jerusalem. In that year, however, a second groat personay^e, destined to exert a lasting iniluence on the future of Israel, arrived from Persia. The Great King lived during summer at Ecba- tana,^ up in the Median hills, and during winter at Susa, 200 miles south, at the foot of the mountains of Susiana, on their western side, where the warmth of the Persian Gulf was tempered by upland breezes. Here, among the officials at the court of Artaxerxes, Nehemiah, a Jew,
^ Ezra X. 20-43.
2 Ezra X. 44. Bertheau, Graetz and Kiienen translate the secorid clause of tins verse "and some of them put away their wives and children." In Neh. vi. 18 we find au instance of a mixed marriage still upheld.
^ Ezra vi. 2.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
held the confidential post of cupbearer, which admitted him to constant intercourse with his master. To hold such a post, implied the enjoymeot of the king^s special confidence, as only an official who was unreservedly trusted could be allowed to discharge duties so readily
, lillWiMil
CCPBEARERS AT THE ANCIENT TeHSIAN CoUBT.
offering opportunities to a traitor. That Xerxes should have had Esther, a Jewess, as one of his queens, and Mordecai as his grand vizier, accounts for the favour of his son towards Neheraiah. The tradition of the wisdom and fidelity of Daniel, moreover, might well excite a kindly feeling to at least some of the race.
490 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
Josephua tells us,^ that as Nehemiah was walking one day outside the walls of Susa, some strangers, roaking for the city, travel-worn as if by a long journey, were overheard by him discoursing in his own language — the Hebrew. Nothing touches the heart in a strange land more than one's mother tongue; he went up to them, therefore, and, introducing himself, found they were from Judah. To inquire respecting Jerusalem and its people naturally followed ; but the news was sad. The walls of the city had been mostly rebuilt, and the town gates had been set up, within the last few years, but the represen- tations of Rehum, apparently the Persian governor of Palestine, and of his secretary, had led to a command from the court at Susa, to stop the rebuilding of the city and walls at once.^ Armed with this authority, the neigh- bouring races, infuriated at the rejection of their friendly offers of assistance, by Zerubbabel, years before, and still more so, by Ezra's recent insult, in sending back to their homes all the wives of non-Jewish race found in Jerusalem and Judea — had attacked Jerusalem, and, after fierce struggles, had broken down the newly restored walls and burned the gates with fire.^ Nor was this all; the country was pillaged in open day, and uiany Jews carried off into slavery by nightly surprises, while the corpses of mur- dered men were often found on the roads. At such a recital Nehemiah broke into tears, amidst which his grief unburdened itself in the cry suggested by the Psalms and Lamentations/* "How long, O Jehovah, wilt thou permit Thy people to suffer ? '' Lingering at the gate,
^ Jos., Ant, XL V. 6. 2 Ezra iv. 9-23.
* Neh. i. 3. It is most natural to ascribe the disaster to this time.
^ Ps. xiii. 1. Lam. v. 20. See also Deut. xxxi. 17. Ps. xliv. 24; Ixxxviii. 14; Ixxxix. 46.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 491
in his sorrow, forgetful of the lapse of time, he was only roused when reminded that his presence was needed in the palace. The king was about to sit down to supper ; he must hurry off, to minister as cupbearer. Struck with his dejection, the king noticed it to him, and having heard the cause of his grief, gave him permission to go to Palestine and put right the matters that troubled him.
Nehemiah's own account is, that one of his brothers,^ who had been away to Palestine, returned with a dismal account of the state of things in the Jewish community there. Like Dauiel, Ezra, and other pious Israelites of the Exile, the cupbearer was eminently a man of prayer, and carried his sorrow at once to God, " mourning, fast- ing and praying for days, before the God of heaven." ^ It was no passing sorrow. The thought of the city of the sepulchres of his fathers lying waste,^ grieved his soul. For four months — from December to April, (Kislew to Nisan), it lay heavy on his heart. Then, at last, as he was giving wine to the king, who was sitting, according to Persian custom, with his favourite queen, the sorrow that had long clouded a face formerly cheerful, was noticed. The abject terror natural in the court of an Eastern despot, is marked by Nehemiah's statement, that when the change in his looks thus arrested attention, he was " very sore afraid." But his touching answer disarmed suspicion. He was sorrowing over the desola- tion of the city where his fathers lay buried. '^ For what then," said Artaxerxes, *' dost thou make re- quest ? " " So I prayed," says Nehemiah, " to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, 'If it please the king, and if thy slave have found favour in thy sight ;
^ He is called ** my brother," Neh. vii. 2. 2 Neh. i. 4. a Neh. ii. 3, 5.
492 EZEA AND NEHEMIAH.
that thou wouldest send me to Judah, nnto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may bnild it.' '' ^
Leave of absence for an indefinite time was at once granted, the great income of his office being apparently continued.^ Letters, moreover, were given him for the various governors of provinces on the road, authorizing his free passage, and requiring him to be furnished with all aids. Orders were further put in his hands for timber from the royal forests,^ for the city gates, the governor's palace, and the fortress on the Temple hill. An escort of military officers and of cavalry was also appointed him, and thus protected, he passed on to Jerusalem as a high official of the imperial court, taking with him a large body of attendants and personal servants.*
That one of their brethren should have received such an appointment was a great event for the Jewish com- munity. Ezra had been a judge and magistrate under the Persian governor, but Nehemiah was himself the Pasha of Jerusalem and Judah, and as such supreme. No inferior officer could have carried out the great task before him. A city without walls and gates, was, in such
^ Neh. ii. 1-6. The importance of the office of cupbearer, is seen in Herod.^ iii. 34, where, incidentally, a vivid picture is given of the awf nl despotism of the Persian court. Cambyses, in mere sport, shoots the son of the cupbearer through the heart, and then asks his father, "if he ever saw a man take a truer aim?" Xenophon {Cyrop., i. 3), speaks of the cupbearer of Astyages, grandfather of Cyrus, as the most favoured of the officers of the palace. It was his part to introduce to the king those who had important business with him, and to keep back such as had matters of less weight. This, alone, must have given him great power. The emoluments, moreover, seem to have been large.
2 It is difficulr., otherwise, to understand the wealth of Nehemiah while in Judah. See afterwards.
3 Neh. ii. 8.
^ Neh. iv. 10, 16,17, 23; v. 10, 14-16; xiii. 19.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 493
times, the prey of every assailant. Zechariali^ had fondly pictured a time when bulwarks would not be needed ; but it was still in the future, and Nehemiah, like all his contemporaries, saw that they were essential to the con- tinued existence of the community. His one thought, therefore, was to fortify the city against all attacks.
The arrival of a Jewish governor mortified the enemies of Jerusalem, as much as it gratified its members. To the dignity and absolute authority of a Pasha, he added the influence of private wealth, which he used with a noble generosity ; relieving his brethren of the burden of maintaining him and his court. Indeed, during all his tenure of office, he not only made no requisitions, and levied no imposts for his rightful dues ; but, besides maintaining himself and his numerous household and visitors alike, at his own cost kept open house for resi- dents and retinue, and was princely in his general bene- factions.^
That he had come to promote the interests of his people, was at once understood by friend and foe, but he prudently kept details to himself. It was vital that his plans should not be prematurely disclosed. The first steps toward their accomplishment were therefore taken with all secrecy. In the darkness of the third or fourth night after his arrival — for he lost no time — he started on horseback,^ with a few attendants on foot, to examine the state of the walls. Descending into the ravine of Hinnom by the west port, somewhere near the present Jaffa Gate, he advanced to the Spring of the Dragon,* — a spot not clearly identified, unless it refer to a popular fancy respecting the intermittent flow of the waters of Siloam, at the south-west of the city. To gain this point,
1 Zech. ii. 4. 2 ;Neh. v. 14-18. ^ j^eh. ii. 12.
* Geikie's Life and Words of Christ, vol. ii. p. 88.
494 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
he had to pass the gate at the south-west of Zion, outside which were thrown the dust and sweepings of the town. He wished to see for himself the state of the walls and gates. Proceeding along by Siloam, eastward, to the king's pool, masses of ruin blocked the way, so that he had to dismount. Pressing on afoot, he followed, as he best could, the line of broken fortifications, till he had made the circuit of the whole city, and once more reached the gate through which he had ridden out on his survey. So secretly had all this been effected, that neither the high city ofiBcials, the priests, the great men, nor the burghers, knew anything of it. But, once thoroughly acquainted with the actual state of affairs, Nehemiah forthwith assembled the principal citizens, and announced to them his resolution to rebuild the walls. Nor were they left to question or hesitate. Instant action was required; and the summons was promptly obeyed. The whole wall was portioned otf, in short lengths, to different bodies of volunteers, to the rich city guilds, and to wealthy and public- spirited citizens, who undertook to restore them. The enthusiasm of the governor was contagious. He believed that God was with him, and inspired the people with the same confidence. Still more, he informed them that he held a firman from the Great King ^ sanctioning all that he proposed. All classes threw themselves into the work with the greatest energy. To Eliashib, the high priest, and his subordinates, was assigned the build- ing of the sheep gate, at the north end of the east wall. The men of Jericho were to build the piece next. The guilds of the goldsmiths, apothecaries, and merchants,^ had their separate tasks. The men of Tekoa alone, through their chiefs, ignobly refused ^^ to put their necks to the work of their Lord.'' ^ The Gibeonites and those » Neh. ii. 18. ^ j^eh. iii. 8, 32, 33. » Neh. iii. 5.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 495
of Mizpah, apparently the hill Nebi Sarawil, north of Jeru- salem, though not under the jurisdiction of Nehemiah, but in the territory of the governor of Syria/ cheer- fully took the share allotted thera. Shalliim, the muni- cipal chief of one-half of Jerusalem, became responsible, with his daughters, for a piece. ^ Even the Levites had a share allotted them, and so had the priests who lived in the country round Jerusalem.^ Thirty-five volunteers are named who accepted and completed the parts of the great undertaking committed to them. The municipal chiefs of the second half of Jerusalem ; the people of Zanoah, south of Hebron ; * the municipal chief of the district of Mizpah; of the half district of Beth-zur, north of Hebron ; ^ of the two halves of the district of Keilah, in the Hebron mountains ; ^ and of Mizpah itself — all helped. Town and country showed themselves alike resolute in the great task. Its distribu- tion into sections brings the ancient city, as they toiled to fortify it, vividly before us, by the landmarks named. The sheep gate, the towers of Meah and Hananeel, the fish gate, the gate of the old city, the broad wall, the tower of the furnaces, the king's garden, the stairs from the city of David, the sepulchres of David and the kings, the barracks of David's "mighty men," the armoury, the upper town of the king's palace, the guard house, where Jeremiah had been confined, the out-lying tower of Ophel, the quarter of the Nethinim, and the higher part of the wall at the corner, successively rise before us ; — spots once so well known, but now mere names for well- nigh two thousand years.
The task before the citizens was a heavy one for all.
» Neh. iii. 7. 2 j^e^. iii. 12. ^ ^qY^ ^[i 22 ; xii. 28.
* Conder, Handbook, p. 411. Keil mentions a Zanua west of Jerusalem. * Conder, p. 407. * Ibid, p. 417.
EZEA AND NEHBMIAH.
To remove the mounds of rubbish from the broken parts of the walls, and dress the stones afresh, involved immense labour; for the number of workmen and labourers was limited in so small a population,^ and there were no funds with which to hire outside help. Everything had to be done by the people themselves. The whole circuit of the walls needed repair or entire rebuilding, and the gateways, when finished, required huge broad-leaved gates, with their massive bars, bolts, and locks. The thickness and height of the defences, and the irregu- larities of the ground, made the task still heavier. As a whole, the community was in an admirable mood, but the oppressive toil under a fierce sun and with imper- fect appliances,^ soon broke down not a few, even before the rubbish had been cleared away.^
Another difficulty was even more serious. While some of the volunteer labourers and workmen were well-to-do, others depended on their earnings, and in the present case, no wages were paid to any one. Many were thus reduced to the direst straits to support themselves and their families, and pay the taxes exacted by the Persian Government. That they did not withdraw from Nehe- miah's service and seek remunerative employment, seems to show that they were pressed for the work, as their fathers had been under Solomon, and dared not leave it. At such a time, universal good feeling might have been expected. The simple wants of Orientals are easily satisfied. There were rich men in Jerusalem, and in any Western nation a fund would have been raised by these for the maintenance of their brethren, toiling for the common good. But instead of this, the wealthy
1 Neh. iv. 2, 10.
2 Baskets filled by hand are still used in the East, even in digging out huge canal- beds. * Neh. iv. 10.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 497
seized the cliarice of driving shameful bargains with the starving workers. In spite of the strict prohibition of usury, by the Law/ money for food was doled out only in return for mortgages on the small farms, vineyards, oliveyards, and houses, of the peasant labourers, or for the personal liberty of their sons and daughters, who thus became slaves. To get bread and oil, and to pay the taxes, debts were thus incurred which could never be^met. Children and land, alike, were virtually lost. Conduct equally disgraceful had been shown to the exiles first car- ried off by Nebuchadnezzar. Their brethren left behind had bought up their goods and property for a trifle, in- stead of generously paying a fair value for them, to help the unfortunates in the land of their banishment. Human nature is very much the same everywhere, but I do not remember another instance of such greed of money and meanness of soul as these two cases exhibited. The pro- fessions of penitence and reform under Ezra had clearly been worthless in too many cases — mere waves of excited feeling, very soon passing away.
Such heartlessness on the one side, and misery on the other, roused the generous indignation of Nehemiah. Calling together the money lenders, he rebuked them sternly, and then summoned them to appear before a general assembly of the citizens. There he turned on them with scathing words. He, himself, he told them, had, to his utmost, redeemed Jewish slaves from the heathen, but they were buying and selling their brethren. Let them at once cancel all their bonds, "^ and give back the property they had taken, remitting the debts due to them. If they could be paid hereafter, without interest,
* Exod. xxii. 24. Lev. xxv. 36. ,
2 Instead of "also the hundredth part of the money" (Neh. v. 11), read " remit this exaction of a pledge."
VOL. VI. K K
498 EZEA AND NEHEMIAH.
as the debtors were able, let it be so ; if not^ let them be a free gift. He, his assistants, and his retinue, might demand money and corn, but neither he nor they did so. Let all that was needed be freely advanced to every one now. Would they forget the fear of God, and bring down the reproach of the heathen on the whole Jewish community ? Forced by very shame to comply, the offenders consented to follow Nehemiah's counsel, and were bound to their assent by a solemn oath ad- ministered by the priests.^ " So let every man who does not stand to his promise, be shaken by God out of his house and earnings,'* cried Nehemiah, shaking out his robe as he did so.
The difficulties from without were no less formidable than those in Jerusalem itself. The unwise narrowness of Zerubbabel, followed by the still harsher dismissal of non-Jewish wives by Ezra, had excited a furious hatred toward the Hebrew community. Three enemies, espe- cially, threatened its very existence. The foremost of these was Sanballat, "the Horonite,*' or inhabitant of Bethhoron, formerly part of the territory of Ephraim, ^ but in Nehemiah's day included in Samaria.^ His name has been thought to mean " man of Neballat,'' a village about four miles north-west of Lydda,* and about fifteen miles slightly south-east of Joppa, on the western slope of the central hills. ^ He appears to have been the Persian governor of the Samaritan district, or at least to have held some civil or mili- tary command. Josephus calls him a Samaritan or " Cuthean '' by birth, ^ but, in any case, he was not a Jew. At this time he had no personal relations with
1 Neh. V. 12. 2 Jos. xvi. 3, 5 ; xviii. 13.
* Bertheau. * Kneucker, Bih. Lex., vol. iv. p. 306.
* See vol. ii. p. 415. « Jos., Ant, XL vii. 2, 8.
EZEA AND NEHEMIAH. 499
Jerusalem ; but he subsequently married his daughter, Nicaso, to Mauasseh, a grandson of the high priest Eliashib, apparently while Nehemiah was absent in Persia.^ It is not improbable that he had already risen to be the Persian governor on the north of Judah. Energetic, influential, and keen tongued, he was the leading spirit in the opposition to Nehemiah from with- out.^ A second in the bitter triumvirate was Tobiah, an Ammonite, originally, it would seem, a slave, ^ but now in a high position as satrap, or Persian resident, in Ammon, across the Jordan. Such elevations, though strange to us, are common in Eastern despotisms. His fierce opposition to the fortification of Jerusalem excited against him the special dislike of Nehemiah, who seldom mentions his name without contemptuously adding, " the slave." Unfortunately, he had allies of high social position in Jerusalem itself; the stern puritanism of Ezra and Nehemiah being resented by many leading families. Into one of these — a dignified priestly household — Tobiah married, and he was also able to make a similar union for his son.^ Through these channels he kept up com- munications with the disafi*ected party within the walls, and thus, in a measure, paralyzed Nehemiah, by the proof of treachery even among those round him, from whom he should have received the most hearty support. The third open enemy was Gashma, or Geshem, ^' the Arabian,"^ who seems to have been chief of the Arabs south of
1 Jos., Ant, XI. vii. 2. Neh. xiii. 28. Ewald, vol. v. p. 213.
2 Ezra iv. 23 ; Neh. iv. 2 ; Stanleij, vol. iii. p. 133 ; and W. A. Wright, Diet of Bible, vol. iii. p. 1522, speak of Sanballat as a Moabite, making "the Horonite " = nian of Horonaim in ]\roab. Bub he certainly would have been called the Moabite had he been of that hated race. 3 jj^q]^^ ^ iq, 19.
* Neh. iv. 3, 6, 12, 14, 17, 18 ; xiii. 4, 7. » Neh. ii. 19; vL 1,2,6.
600 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
Palestine, and, as Ewald thinks, possibly the founder of the future Nabathean kingdom. For the time he was an active ally of Sanballat and Tobiah.
On receiving intelligence of NehemiaVs appointment by the Persian court, Sanballat and Tobiah had been greatly annoyed, but they did not dare openly to oppose the firman of Artaxerxes.^ Nor did they believe that the project of rebuilding the walls, already broken down, perhaps more than once, since the Return, could be seriously entertained by so feeble a community. Mock- ing its weakness before his officials and the Persian garrison of Samaria, Sanballat pretended to wonder what the citizens meant, to begin such a task. '* Will they leave it in the hands of God ? Or raise the walls by offering sacrifices ? Will they get a miracle done for them, to finish the walls in a day ? Will they make the rubbish heaps come out themselves, as if alive?" "You don't need to be afraid, '^ answered Tobiah, joining this ridicule; "a jackal climbing up over any work they may do, will knock it all down '' ! Taunts and jibes like these stung Nehemiah to the quick. But he was not the man to be turned aside by a laugh. Uttering a bitter malediction on the mockers,^ he pressed on his task more vigorously than ever.
Thanks to his energy, and the willing zeal of the peo- ple, much of the ruins was cleared away, the gaps in the walls filled up, and the whole enterprise well advanced. The possibility of his success was thus no longer doubt- ful, if his progress could not be quickly stopped by open violence. A league was therefore formed between San- ballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Philistines of Ashdod, to attack Jerusalem, and destroy what had been done. But Nehemiah, well served by 1 Neh. ii. 10. ^ ;^q\^^ j^^ 4.5^
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 501
his spies, posted sentinels and pickets, and " made prayer to God," and urged on the builders. It was the crisis of the undertaking". So many workmen being withdrawn to furnish guards, day and night, the officials had at last to report that the toil of clearing away the mounds of rub- bish, to let the masons get to work, and of carrying the stones for them, had completely worn out the labourers, and that the building of the wall must stop. Mean- while, Jews from the country districts disclosed the power of the enemy and their threatening designs, and urged their brethren from different localities to return liome.^ The foe, it was said, would burst upon them suddenly, and put an end to the work by a general mnssacre. But Nehemiah was not to be daunted. Sum- moning all the men able to bear arms, and giving them swords, spears, and bows, he set them in such open spaces behind the walls as were weakest. They could thus guard the most dangerous spots, and while at once seeing the approach of the enemy, also show that they were prepared for hira.^ Nor did he omit stirring ap- peals to all, to fight manfully for hearth and altar. Such vigour had the success it deserved. The allies soon heard of the measures taken to baffle them, and, seeing their plans discovered, disbanded their men. But there was no relaxation of vigilance on the part of Nehemiah. Half of the people were kept at the building of the walls, from the earliest dawn till the appearing of the stars, ^ their swords at their side and their spears near at hand, while the other half, fully armed, kept watch behind, their leaders with them ; Nehemiah, ever wakeful, and everywhere present, having a trumpeter
* I have incorporated the renderings of Neh. iv. 12, given by Herzfeid, Beitheau, and Keil. 2 Neh. iv. 13. » Neh. iv. 21. Heh.
602 EZEA AND NEHEMIAH.
at his side, to souDd an alarm on the instant, if needed. At night only a portion of the guard remained on duty, the rest taking sleep, to be ready for the next day. Neither Nehemiah, however, nor his household, nor body- guard, ever took off their clothes.^
Fired by such enthusiasm " the people had a mind to work,^' and the w^alls rapidly drew near completion. It only remained to hang the great two-leaved doors in the gate-spaces. Sanballat and Tobiah, hitherto foiled, determined, therefore, to make a last effort to effect their purpose. Pretending to wish a conference with Nehemiah, they invited him to come out to them, to Ono — the present village of Ana — on the Maritime Plain, about thirty miles north-west of Jerusalem,^ their object being to take him prisoner. This transparent device was repeated four times, but the only answer given by Nehemiah was that he could not allow the work to cease by any such visit. An open letter from Sanballat, pretending a friendly interest in the governor, was the next scheme. Rumours were everywhere afloat, he said, that rebellion against Persia was intended, Nehemiah himself designing to be proclaimed king, as soon as the walls were finished. Prophets, the letter went on, had been appointed by him to prepare the people for this. It was desirable, therefore, that he should come out and consult with Sanballat. But he was too shrewd to be thus easily trapped. There was no truth, he said, in the alleged reports. They were only inventions. He would not come.
Yet there was much to make a less earnest man blench
in his purpose. Traitors were busy within the city.
A number of prophets, and even a prophetess, Noadiah,
had been bribed by Sanballat and Tobiah, to stir up
^ Neh. iv. 23. ^ Conder and Kiepert's Map.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 603
discontent among the citizens and hamper Nehemiah.^ Some of the chief citizens, moreover, influenced by Tobiah's marriage connections/ kept up an active cor- respondence with him, sending him letters and receiving replies.^ Every word of Nehemiah was reported to the enemy.* One treacherous prophet, shutting himself up in his house, as if in terror of his life, warned the governor that he knew of his murder in the night being determined, and urged that the two should retire into the Holy Place of the Temple for security, and shut the doors. But this scheme also failed. " Should a man in his position flee ? " replied Nehemiah. Moreover, the Holy Place was not to be entered by a layman. How could he, therefore, enter it and live ? He would not go.^ The walls having at last been finished, the gates set up, and a body of guards for them and those of the Temple duly organized,^ Nehemiah appointed his brother Hanaui, and a trusted and devout oflicer named Hana- niah, the commandant of the Persian fortress at the north edge of the Temple precincts, as joint prefects of the city. In ordinary times the Temple guards alone protected the sanctuary and its grounds, opening and closing the gates. But at such a crisis, the singers and
' Neh. vi. 14.
2 Neh. vi. 18. Of these Shecaniah was a prominent man of the great family of Arah (Ezra ii. 5). MeshuUam (Neh. iii. 4-30) was cue of the helpers in repairing the walls. Eliashib, the higii priest, was also allied to Tobiah (Neh. xiii. 4). Tobiah means " pleasing to Jehovah." His son's name, Johanan means '* given by Jehovah," so that it is the equivalent of Theodore. They were probably Israelites of one of the Ten Tribes, but had apparently been settled, perhaps for generations, in Ammon (Neh. ii. 10).
3 Neh. vi. 17. ^ Neh. vi. 19.
5 Neh. vi. 10-12. For " to save his life," read "and live." « 1 Chron. ix. 17-27; xxvi. 12-19.
504 EZEA AND NEHEMIAH.
the Levites were told off to strengthen them. Orders were further issued, that the gates of the city were not to be opened till the sun was high, and the day warders had mounted guard, in place of those who had been on duty through the night. They, in their turn were to be relieved, after the gates were closed and barred at sunset. The citizens, moreover, were required to patrol the town as night watchmen, each in his own quarter.^
A serious difficulty, however, still remained. The cir- cuit of the walls was great, but the houses within were few and sparse, so that great vacant spaces of ruins separated the small population and weakened their powers of defence. The prudent governor, therefore, resolved to increase the number of citizens, by transferring families from the country to Jerusalem, that their dwellings might fill up the unsightly gaps in the streets, and the number of burgesses able to man the walls be effectively increased.
A public register of the whole Jewish community in the land, carefully drawn np under Zerub':)abel, afforded a trustworthy basis for the projected measure. To make it complete, an assembly of the people was summoned, that all who had joined the colony since Zerubbabel's census might be added to it.^ The time chosen was the seventh month — part of our Septem- ber and October — the same month as that in which the great public assembly had been held, years before, to consecrate the new altar, and restore the long interrupted sacrifices.^ On the present occasion, however, it was determined to take advantage of the gathering of the people, for other weighty national objects. Besides the
1 Neh. vii. 3.
2 Neh. vii. 5. Nehemiah gives the register taken at first ia vii. 5-73. Ezra ii. * Ezra iii. 1.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 505
filling up of the family registration, various measures of the highest importance demanded action.
The Puritan fervour which had led to the Eeturn, though it had lost much of its deep religious feeling, still continued in all its intensity as a national sentiment. The cessation of Temple worship during the Exile, and the abhorrence of idolatry brought about by the prophets, turned attention more than ever before to the sacred writings of the race. The Law was already the object of superstitious veneration; the Temple and its sacrifices taking only a second place in the public regard. Schools for its study, established by Ezra and his disciples, had spread widely in Babylon. The new order of scribes were unceasing in their efforts to indoctrinate the whole people with what they believed to be its teaching. It was resolved, therefore, that at this first public gathering of Judah, after the restoration of the city walls, the reading ^and exposition of the Law should have the first place. The people themselves desired it. To attract every one, a great feast was appointed to be held for the solemn dedication of the newly built city walls. On the day fixed, the whole population assembled at Jerusalem, even the women leaving their wonted seclusion, and bringing their children with them. Before the festival opened, liowever, a request was formally made through the elders, that the Law might be read aloud to the whole assembly, by Ezra and his assistants.^ All were intensely anxious to hear the words that God had spoken from the Mount to their fathers.
The request was too thoroughly gratifying to the
Reformer to be for a moment denied. The open space
before the water gate, on the south-east of the Temple,
was appointed for the solemn gathering, and thither,
» Neh. viii. 3.
606 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
at the time fixed, Ezra and his colleagues presented themselves. A pulpit — the first of which we know — had been erected for them, that they might be the better heard, and on this Ezra took his place in the early morning ^ of the day of the seventh new moon — famous from of old for its feast of trumpet-blowing, as specially holy,^ and from the remotest times a season of lioly assembly and cessation of work. Thirteen priests stood around him, as he unrolled from right to left a loug scroll of the Law brought with him from Chaldea. The
multitude, till then sit- ting, in Eastern fashion, on the ground, instantly rose at the sight of the Sacred Book, and stood reverently to hear its words. Prayer fitly opened a service so holy, the voice of Ezra first breaking the silence by " blessing Jehovah, the great God.^' An ancient psalm appears to have supplied the words — during the utterance of which the people joined in adoration, with uplifted hands and loud A mens, bowing their heads, and worshipping with their faces to the earth, at each pause and at the close. Ezra then read a portion of the Law, after which a body of thirteen Levites, skilled in its exposition, as disciples of the great scribe, ex- plained its meaning^ to the vast crowd, amidst which
1 From the dawn, or " licrht." Neh. viii. 3.
2 Lev. xxiii. 22-25. Niitn. xxix. 1-6.
^ Expanding and simplifying the words. Yitringa, Be Sj/nag. Vet., p. 420.
Bowing the Head.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
507
they were apparently stationed at various points.^ A second portion was then read by Ezra, followed by a second explanation/ and thus the time passed, from sunrise till the fierce midday heat compelled a temporary cessation. Nothing could exceed the deep attention of the people. For at least six hours they stood with covered heads, eagerly listening to Ezra, and to the scribes who commented on the sacred text he read.^ The excitement was intense. In past ages their fathers had neglected the holy words spoken to the nation by God, or written by His inspiration, and this had brought on them all the misery of As- syrian and Babylonian slavery. Henceforward there should be no such terrible mistake. The Temple and its services might still be dear to them, but not more so than the knowledge and observance of the Law. The scribes became from this time the foremost body in the land. It had hitherto boasted of its Temple : it would henceforth boast also of the Torah. Modern history offers as the most vivid parallel to the scene, the eagerness of England or Germany for the Scriptures in the sixteenth century, when
^ Neh. viii. 4-7.
2 Neh. viii. 8.
^ Vitringa says it had always been the cnsfcom to stand during the leading of the Law, but this is not stated in Scripture. De Synag. Vet, p. 167.
508 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
they were restored by the Reformers to their rightful place in the Church, after the neglect of centuries.
The contrast between their own practice and the re- quirements of the Law, as laid down by the scribes, alarmed all. It seemed as if calamities like those from which they had suffered in the past, must visit them again for their shortcomings. Far and near rose loud weeping. Confessions and lamentations filled the air. But it was no time for sorrow ; that would come after. It was a day holy to Jehovah ; there must be no tears to mar its joy. Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levitical Rabbis, his colleagues, alike protested against any sadness. They must rather hold a festival, and eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions to them who had none.
The next day saw the chiefs of clans, the priests, and Levites, collected round Ezra for a further study of the Law. The portion read included the account of the Feast of Tabernacles,^ with its preparation of booths of twigs and branches. It was the very time for this great festival being held. They would forthwith celebrate it with all exactness. Orders were, therefore, sent through the whole country, that the people should gather from the hill sides, branches of olives, oleasters or wild olives, and myrtles, and palms, and bring them to Jerusalem, to make the booths required. Originally commemorating the wilderness life in tents, it had become, in later times, the great harvest festival of the year, to express the national gratitude to Jehovah for His bounty in creating for man, once more, the fruits of the earth. The en- thusiasm was boundless. Huts were raised everywhere; on the flat roofs, in the courts of the houses, in the Temple precincts, and in the vacant spaces before the city gates. The feast had been celebrated at the con- » Lev. xxiii. 39-48.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 509
secration of Solomon's Temple/ and in the first year of the Return^ but never so exactly, in all its legal details, or so universally, since the time of Joshua.^
Its successive days passed amidst high rejoicing; the mornings devoted to hearing more of the Law read by Ezra; the rest of the day to festivities. At last, after a week of gladness, it closed with a solemn assembly of the whole people, all work ceasing and solemn sacrifices being ottered. ^
The people were not, however, allowed to separate without a formal renewal of the covenant with Jehovah, so often made before by their fathers. Two days after the close of the feast,* a solemn fast was held ; the mul- titude assembling, clad in sackcloth, with earth on their heads, as a sign of mourning. Once more, portions of tlie Law were read aloud, but only for three hoars, not as hitherto, for six. Public confession by all, of their sins and the sins of their fathers, succeeded. This ended, the scribes ascended a special platform erected for them,^ and opened the service of the day by " crying with a loud voice to Jehovah, their God." The vast assembly was then summoned to rise from the ground and praise the Lord in a triumphal chant, led, no doubt, by the Levitical choir and musicians. One of the leaders, prob- ably Ezra, now led the multitude in prayer, recounting the wonderful ways of God to His people in the past, their hardness of heart. His pitying mercy, their frequent apostasy and just punishment. They were slaves in the land promised to their fathers. It yielded a large revenue to the kings (of Persia) whom God had set over them for their sins. These potentates indeed, he continued,
* 2 Chron. vii. 9. 1 Kings viii. 65. " Ezra iii. 4.
3 Neh. viii. 17. ^ Neh. viii. 18. Lev. xxiii. 36.
' Neh. X. 1. « Neh. ix. 4.
510 EZEA AND NEHEMIAH.
did as they pleased, not only with the produce of the soil, but with the population at large, takiug them at their will to serve in their wars, and carrying off their cattle for their baggage waggons and for food, so that the land was in great distress. All this humiliation and misery was the just punishment for having forsaken Jehovah. The whole people must, therefore, once moi'e solemnly renew their covenant to serve Him, and Him only, that He might send them prosperity.
A formal document had been prepared, binding all henceforth to fidelity to the national faith, and to this the leaders of the community forthwith appended their signatures, beginning with Nehemiah as the head of the little state. Princes, Levites, priests, and the chiefs of the clans and sab-clans, as representatives of the people, followed. The whole assembly, moreover, took an oath to obey the Law of Moses — people, priests, Levites, the guard of the Temple gates, the singers, the Nethinim, or Temple slaves. Many descendants of the Hebrews, left in Palestine at the time of the Captivity, took this opportunity to unite themselves formally with Judah, definitely separating from all such relations to the heathen population of the country, as compromised their ceremonial or legal purity.
The covenant thus adopted with a solemn oath, which was heightened by a curse on its transgression, embodied the strict views of the Law advanced by Ezra and his colleagues. No intermarriage with non- Israelites was to be tolerated. No purchases were to be made on a Sabbath or holy day, and on these seasons no goods or provisions were to be exposed for sale by the heathen traders from outside. The land was, further, to be left fallow on the seventh year, as commanded in Exodus,^ » Exod. xxiii. 10.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 611
and all debts were to be then remitted. That year, was, in fact, to limit the claims of a creditor. In Exodus ^ it had been ordained that a voluntary tax of half a shekel should be paid yearly by every Israelite over twenty, for the support of the Temple ; it was now enacted that this tax should, henceforward, be carefully levied, but in consideration of the general poverty, its amount was reduced from a half to the third of a shekel.^ The funds thus secured were to provide for the shew-bread, the meal offerings, and burnt offerings — including those on the Sabbaths, new moons, and periodical feasts — and also for thank offerings presented in the name of the congrega- tion, and public trespass offerings, with other expenses of the Temple. Moreover, to secure a regular supply of wood proper for the nltar, the priests, Levites, and people, were assigned their respective turns in bringing it to the Temple. Similar arrangements were also made for bringing thither the first fruits of the soil and of fruit trees,^ for presenting firstborn sons ^ and the firstborn of cattle, that they might be redeemed ° and for sending in the firstlings of sheep and goats, the fat of which was to be burnt on the altar, while the flesh went to the priests.^ Measures were also taken for the payment of the first fruits of coarse meal^ and heave offerinofs of wheat and barley ^ and of other fruits and produce, in- cluding wine and oil.® These were all to be brought to the priest, that they might be stored in the proper chambers in the Temple precincts, whence they were to be served out to the priests, for their support.
^ Exod. xxx. 13.
2 Still paid in the time of Christ. Matt. xvii. 24.
3 Exod. xxiii. 19 ; xxxiv. 16. Dent. xxvi. 2. ^ Num. xviii. 16. * Exod. xiii. 12. Num. xviii. 15. * Num. xviii. 17.
? Num. XV. 20. 8 Exod. xlv 13. » Num. xviii. 12.
512 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
In the same way the tithes were to be brought in for the sustenance of the Levites on duty in Jerusalem, members of the order in country towns being cared for from the same source, by other arrangements. To secure exactness, a priest was to attend, with a Levite, when these payments were delivered, and was to see that a tenth of all tithes was handed over to the priests as a body, to supplement their other revenues. Similarly, the people and the Levites were to deliver at the Temple all heave offerings of grain, wine, and oil, to be put away in the sacred storehouses; since the priests, Temple guards, and singers, for whose sustenance they were in a measure to serve, were employed in the holy bounds, and the sacred vessels in which part of them was to be offered, were also kept in the Temple.
Snch was the covenant now entered into by the whole community. In former times, similar transactions had exclusively referred to general fidelity to Jehovah; the minuteness with which the interests of the Temple, tlie priests, the Levites, and all the Temple officials, were now guarded, marked the overpowering influence and authority of Ezra, and the different spirit of the age.
These matters being settled, the way was at last clear ^ to carry out the change already projected, of trans- planting part of the country population to Jerusalem, to add to its dignity, and guard it against surprise by providing a sufficient force of men able to bear arms, for its defence. The delay had been caused by the deter- mination that only families of pure Jewish blood should be allowed to become citizens. The prophets had con- tinually dwelt on this as a characteristic of the holy city^
^ Neh. xi.
2 Joel hi. 17. Isa. xxxv. 8; Hi. 1. Nah. i. 15. Zech. xiv. 21, etc.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 513
in tlie Messianic times, and Ezra and Nehemiah were only too eager to secure the fulfilment of such pre- dictions. The genealogies of the whole community throughout the country required strict examination, to secure a complete list of all who were of unblemished Hebrew descent. This having been obtained after much labour, lots were cast by all the rural population, and every tenth family thus selected, was required to break up its home and remove permanently to Jerusalem. Some, however, it would seem, on whom the lot fell, were unwilling to go, but the greater number cheerfully acquiesced in the change of home demanded, their ready loyalty to the capital gaining them the plaudits of the people at large. Such of the Netliinim and the descen- dants of Solomon's slaves as did not already live in Jerusalem, appear to have been transplanted from the country at the same time, to the suburb of Ophel, south of the Temple, but a great number of priests and Ijevites were allowed to remain in different towns, where portions of land had been assigned them.^ Yet, amidst all these changes, signs of the national subjection remained on every hand ; for Levites, singers, and people, had each an official set over them, to watch after the interests of the Persian king.-
It only now remained, to dedicate with fitting solemnity, the city walls — raised amidst so much opposition, with so loyal a devotion. To make the ceremony more impos- ing, messengers were sent through the land to bring to Jerusalem all the Levites — the ordinary ministers of the Temple — the musicians, with their cymbals, harps, and l^^res, and the singers, in their three great divisions.^ These last had to be summoned from the " circle " of the Jordan round Jericho, from Netopha, fifteen miles ' Neh. xi. 20. - Neh. xi. 2^. » Neh. xii. 24.
VOL. VI. L L
514 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
south of Jerusalem, from Beth Gil gal, eighteen miles, and from Geba, seven miles north of it, and from Azmaveth, a place now unknown. Open villages had been built by the different choral fraternities in these districts, which lay near enough to Jerusalem to make their periodical attendances in the Temple easy. In further preparation for the great event the Levites, now minutely strict in their rites, on their arrival in the holy city, purified not only themselves, but the people, the gates, and the walls, by sacrifices, that no ceremonial shortcoming in the least detail might lessen the sacred- ness of the proceedings.
On the appointed day, Nehemiah himself took the lead in the great celebration. The broad top of the walls — built on a scale to allow fighting men to occupy them in case of a siege — was fitly chosen for the scene of an impressive display. Assembling the chiefs of the priestly clans, the Levites, and the people, he marshalled them in two great divisions, which advanced in opposite directions, to meet at the open space of the Temple precincts after going round the circuit of the walls. At the head of the one walked Nehemiah, at that of the other Ezra, the two leaders of the community. A great choir, giving thanks, and praising and blessing God with songs and melodious music, followed in each pro- cession. The chiefs of the priests, the Levites, and the laity came next — the priestly order in two selected divi- sions. Then followed other notable laymen of Judah and Benjamin. Behind these walked two other bodies of priests, blowing the sacred trumpets.^ Then came a body of Levite singers and musicians, the latter with the instruments known as invented or introduced by David. All marched in their robes and vestments, or festive * Neh. xii. 41.
KZRA AND NEHEMTAH.
515
apparel, filling the air with loud rejoicings, till the two processions met at last in the open space before the Temple. There the whole participants in both united in a chorus of praise and thanksgiving, the voices of the singers rising loud and clear above the harps and cymbals.^ Tlien followed great sacrifices, offered by the priests on the huge altar before the Holy Place in the Temple, and with this the solemnities closed. The people were beside themselves for joy, their loud cries of gladness filling the air, even to the distant surrounding hills.
> Neh. xii. 42.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE PEOPHET MALACHI.
THE great Dedication Festival of the new walls of Jerusalem is the last incident recorded of the first period of Nehemiali's governorship. After he had been twelve years absent from Persia, the wear of mind and body told on him, an4 a temporary furlough, during which he could return to his royal master at Ecbatana, or Shushan, and render an account of his high trust, was desirable. Everything appeared to be quiet and safe in Judah ; the walls of Jerusalem were built, the city increasingly prosperous from the late addition to its population, the Temple worship established in ceremonial completeness, and the people pledged by solemn cove- nant to uphold it. They had even gone further. Public readings of the Law, which afterwards developed into the great institution of the synagogue, had become a fixed custom ; and after one of these the people had voluntarily abjured any close relations with neighbours of heathen descent, including Ammonites and Moabites,i as if desirous of showing their fidelity to all Levitical requirements. Nehemiah had no sooner left for Persia, however, than the worthlessness of these professions
* Neh. xiii. 1. Deut. xxiii. 4. Num. xxii. 2.
516
THE PROPHET MALACHI. 517
hocame only too apparent. In spite of tlie presence of Ezra in Jerusalem, it was seen that a reformation enforced by the civil power^ rather than the fruit of individual conviction, had no permanent vitality. The tithes due to the Temple, the Levites, and the priests, were not delivered, and the greatest distress was thus caused to all who depended on them for maintenance. The choristers, the guards of the gates, and the ordinary Levites, alike, were compelled to go back to their homes and cultivate their fields for a living. Public worship was thus interrupted, and the Temple, forsaken by its ministers, was neglected by the people.^ Nor was the refusal to pay tithes the. only sign of an altered spirit among the people. The Sabbath was profaned, both in town and country ; winepresses were busy in its sacred hours, and the roads and fields dotted with the workers taking sheaves to the barn on their heavily-laden asses. Jerusalem itself was disturbed by a Sabbath fair, to which loads of wine, grapes, figs, and much else were carried in during the sacred hours. Phenician fisher- men exposed for sale their catch off the coasts, and traders from Tyre displayed their countless wares. After all the professed zeal to put an end to mixed marriages, things were rapidly drifting to almost a worse condition than of old. Not a few husbands deserted their Jewish wives for Philistine, Ammonite, or Moabite women;" and the children of these marriages had already shown by their broken dialect — half Philistine, half Hebrew — how soon they would cease to take pride in any- thing Jewish. The very priests had rapidly lost their high tone. Their irreverence, indifference, and worldli- nesSj shocked the thoughtful.^ Monied men once more
» Neh. xiii. 10, 11. 2 j^^l. ii. 10-14.
3 Mai. i. 6, 9, 10.
518 THE PEOPHET MALACHI.
showed themselves the grinding and oppressive tyrants of the poor.^ Everything that Ezra and Nehemiah had effected was well nigh undone.
To this sad state of things we owe the appearance of Malachi, the last of the prophets. There had been others of the sacred order, and even prophetesses, since the days of Haggai and Zechariah, but they had either opposed Ezra and Nehemiah, or failed to command public in- fluence. In Malachi, however, the ancient seers had once more a worthy representative. Clearly realizing the wants of the time, fearless in his reproof, and stern in his demands and denunciations, he was no less striking in his vivid anticipations of the coming of the Messiah. Hitherto, this Promised Deliverer had been awaited as a royal descendant of David; but Malachi announces Him as no other than Jehovah Himself, in the person of the Messenger of His Covenant.^ The prophet seems to have stood to Ezra and Nehemiah in the same relation as that of Isaiah to Hezekiah, or Haggai to Zerubbabel, and showed himself a powerful ally. In his words we hear for the last time the tone of the ancient seers.
His brief prophecy opens with a tender allusion to the love shown towards Judah, in the past, by Jehovah, as proved especially by the different treatment extended to it and to Edom, though Jacob and Esau, as twin brothers, might have expected equal favour to be shown their descendants. Yet Judah had been unfaithful to its Heavenly Father ! What ingratitude could be so ter- rible !
2 " I have loved you," ^ says Jehovah ; Yet ye say, " In what hast thou loved us ? "
1 Mai. iii. 5. « Mai. iii. 1. » Mai. i. 1-5.
THE PROPHET MALACHI, 619
Jehovah answers, —
Is not Esau a bror.lier of Jacob, says Jehovah. Yet I loved Jacob 3 and hated Esau, and laid his mountains waste, and made his iuheriiance a dwelling of jackals of the desert.^ 4 Though Edom say, " we are broken in pieces, but we will build up our ruins again," thus says Jehovah : They may build, but I will throw down, and these desolate regions will be called '* The Lands of Wickedness," and men will say of their inhabitants — "The people against whom Jehovah is indignant for ever."^ 5 Your eyes will see this, and you will say, "Jehovah is great (in His doings) beyond the limits of Israel."
Having thus established the claim of Jehovah to the love and obedience of His people, the prophet advances to his charge against them, beginning with the sins of the priesthood.
6 A son honours his father and a servant his master. But if I be a Father, where is My honour? If I be a Master, where is the reverence due to Me ? says Jehovah of Hosts, to you, O priests, who dishonour My name, and yet say, "How have we dishonoured Thy name?" 7 (Let me tell you.) You offer un- clean bread on My altar,^ and yet say, " In what have we defiled Thy name ?" (You do it thus), by your saying (in your deeds, that) the table of Jehovah — His altar — is not worth respect. 8 When you offer blind animals for sacrifices, is that no offence? When you offer lame or sick creatures, is that no grievance?* If you offered it to your governor (though he be only a man), would he be pleased with you, or regard your person with favour? says Jehovah of Hosts. 9 But now, when you implore
* The desolation of Edom referred to seems to have happened shortly before the prophet speaks. Idumea, as well as Judah, had been subdued by Babylon.
2 Edom never regained its former glory. From the times of the Maccabees, especially, it sank, and its land became forsaken.
* By "bread," the prophet means offerings generally. See next verse. All offerings are called " bread of God." Lev. xxi. 6, 8, 17, etc.
* It was contrary to Lev. xxii. 20-22.
520 THE PEOPHET MALACHI.
God to be gracious unto us — His people — you, at whose hand He has received such an insult — will He regard your persons with favour ? says Jehovah of Hosts.
10 (How can Hep) For I would, says He, there were one among you who would close the Temple doors altogether, that ye may not kindle fire on My altar, since your conduct makes it useless to do so? I have no pleasure in you, says Jehovah of Hosts, and I will not accept any offering at your hand !
God does not need their worship ; He will hereafter be honoured over the whole world, by the heathen, whom they despise.
11 For, from the rising of the sun to its going down. My name will be great among the heathen, and in every place in- cense will be offered to My name, and a pure offering (not an imf)nre, like yours); for My name shall be great among the heathen, says Jehovah of Hosts. 12 But ye have profaned it by your saying, "The table of Jehovah is defiled, and what is given to lay on it — the bread of God — is contemptible." 13 Ye have said also, *' Ah, what a trouble ib is !" And ye have sniffed at it, says Jehovah of Hosts, and bring what has been taken by force, and the lame, and the sick, (as off"erings). Snch is the kind of sacrifice ye have brought ! Shall I accept ihis at your hand? says Jehovah of Hosts.
14 But cursed be he who tries to deceive Me (in this way); who, having in his flock a male, and having vowed to oflfer a sacrifice, off'ers to Jehovah a blemished beast. For I am a great King, says Jehovah of Hosts, and My name is feared among the nations.
Having thus fearlessly accused the priests, Malachi passes on to announce the punishment that will befall them, in case they do not take warning, and discharge their office aright.
I And now,'^ this commandment is for you, 0 priests. 2 If ye will not hear and lay it to heart, to give glory to My name, says Jehovah of Hosts, I will send on you the curse, and curse your
1 Mal.ii.
THE PROPHET MALACHI. 521
l)le<?sinG^<', and, indeed, I have already cursed them, because ye do not lay it to heart. ^
3 Behold, I will drive the sower away from the field," and I will spread filth' on your faces — the filth of your feasts — (dis- lioiiouriiig you to the uttermost) aiul it will stick to you.'* 4 And ye will know that I have sent this command to you (to honour My service, as the condition of the continuance of) My covenant with Levi, says Jehovali of Hosts.
5 l\[y covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave it him to secure His fearing Me, and he did fear Me, and tremble before My name. 6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and no unjust— no partial — decision was found in his lips; he walked with Me in peace and equity, and turned many back from trans- gression. 7 For the lips of the priest should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of Jehovah of Hosts.
8 But ye have departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble in regard to the law ; ye have corrupted the covenant which I made with Levi, says Jehovah of Hosts, 9 Therefore I will also make you contemptible and despised before all the people, according as ye have not kept IVI^ ways, and have had respect of persons in your carrying out the law.
From his accusation of the priests, the prophet passes to the sin of those wholiad married heathen wives, divorc- ing Jewesses to do so, in spite of the recent legislation on the subject, and in the face of ancient prohibition.
10 Have we not all one Father ? Has not one God created us ? Why then are we faithless one to tlie other, profaning the cove- nant of our Father? ii Judah has acted faithlessly, and abomi- naiion is committed in Israel and Jerusalem; for Judah has dishonoured his race — the holy people of Jehovah, whom He
* " Your blessings," the tithes, etc. which were the revenues of the priests, but were already withheld by the people.
^ Conjectural reading of Hitzig and Steiner. They depended on the farmer for their tithes,
' h'\t., " dung."
^ Vulgate and Luther.
522 THE PEOPHET MALACHI.
loved— and has married the daughter of a foreign god. I2 May Jeliovah cut off the (race of the ) man that doeth this, both the watchman and him that answers/ from the tents of Jacob, and cut off him also who might present an oflFering on his behalf for the atonement of his sins ! «
13 Still further, ye have committed a second offence; ye cover the altar of Jehovah with tears,^ with weeping, and sighs, so that Jehovah no longer turns towards your ofTering or receives that which is acceptable, at your hand. 14 And ye say, why ? Be- cause Jehovah has been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, towards whom thou hast acted faithlessly, though she was thy companion, (sharing joy and sorrow with thee), and the wife of thy marriage bond.* 15 No one who has any understanding has done this."* But ye say, " What was it that Abraham did — he who is the greatest name in our history ? (Why did he send away Hagar, his wife, the mother of Ishmael ? The answer is), he was seeking a Godly seed — (the child of promise); therefore, take heed to your spirit, and let no one act faithlessly.
Having thus rebuked the leading sins of his day, the prophet turns to tire future. Restlessness and murmur- ing abounded. Men affected to believe that the wicked were favoured by God, and prospered, while the good were allowed to suffer, and they flouted the idea of the coming of a day of judgment — the great day of the Lord — so constantly announced by the prophets, age after age. They are addressed thus :
17 Ye weary Jehovah^ with your words. Yet you say, *' How have we wearied Him? (You have done it thus) ; by your saying "Every one that does evil is good in the sight of Jehovah, and He delights in him " or " Where is the God of judgment ? "
In stern answer to these murmurers, Jehovah an- nounces His coming to judgment.
^ A proverbial expression for every one.
2 Those of divorced Jewish wives.
^ This refers to the heartless divorces in use.
* This seems the best reading. ^ Mai. ii. 17.
THE PROPHET MALACHI. 523
^ Behold,' T spnd i\Iy Messerifrer,* to prepare the way befoie !Me, and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the Covenant, whom ye desire, says Jeho- vah of Host.
The "day of the Lord" in Malachi, however, unlike that of Joel and the earlier prophets, is not the advent of Jehovah as the warrior of Israel, to destroy the heathen, but that of One who should purify the kingdom of God from iniquity, and introduce the triumph of righteous- ness.
2 But who may abide the day of His coming ? and who shall stand when He appeareth ? For He is like a refinet-'s fire ^ and like fuller's^ lye. 3 And He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify and cleanse the sons of Levi, as gold and silver (are purged from alloy by the smelter), that they may (henceforth) otl'er to Jehovah His ofTeritig, in righteousness. 4 Then will the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to Jehovah, as in former days and long past years.
Thus the priests and Levites will first be judged, but then comes the visitation of all evil doers.
5 And I will come near you to judgment, and will be a swift witness against the sorcerers (who deal in magic spells and super- stitions), and against adulterers, and against false swearers, and againsc those wlio oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and turn aside the alien from his right, and fear
» Mai. iii.
2 " My messenger" is in Hebrew "Malnchi." Tliis has led some to question whether the phrase be a title applied to the prophet, or a proper name. Keil understands "My messenger," in the first line of the verse, of John the Baptist, the messenger of the Covenant of our Lord. "Angels" or ''Messengers" had often appeared on missions from God, but in Malachi the figure pervades the whole book. Messianic prediction was growing more distinct as ages passed.
^ The furnace of a metal smelter. * Or, washerman's.
524 THE PROPHET MALACHI.
not Me, says Jehovah of Hosts. 6 For I, Jehovah, change not, tlierefore ye (true) sons of Jacob are hod consumed.'
7 Since the days of your fatliers ye have gone away from My ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, says Jehovah of Hosts. But ye say, ** In what respect shall we return " ?
8 Should a man defiaud God ? Yet, ye have defrauded me. But ye say, "In what respect liave we defrauded Thee''? In tithes and heave olFerings (for the support of My House). 9 Ye are cursed with the curse.^yet ye are (continually) defrauding Me — the whole of you. 10 Bring all the tithes into the (Temple) storehouse, that there may be food in My House, and put me to the proof by this, says Jehov.ah of Hosts, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, (in copious rains), even to superabundance. And I will rebuke the devourer — the locust — for your sakes, so that he will no longer destroy the fruits of your ground, and the vine will no longer fail in the field, says Jehovah of Hosts. 12 And all nations will call you happy, for ye shall be a delightsome land, says Jehovah of Hosts.
13 Your words have been stout against Me, says Jehovah. Yet ye say, "What have we spoken together against Thee"? 14 Ye have said, "It is of no use serving God, and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinances, and have gone about in black mourning weeds before Jehovah of Hosts (in fasts) ? This being so, we praise the proud, ungodly, (prosperous, man), as happy, for not only are the workers of wickedness built up, but when they have thus })ut God to proof, they are nevertheless delivered (from evil)."
These foolish and wicked speeches, the prophet con- trasts with the bearing of the godly among the people, announcing, besides, the blessing vouchsafed to these faithful ones, and warning the impenitent of the certainty of their future doom.
1 Steinerand Keil understand this verse thus : " For I, Jehovah, change not, and ye sons of Jacob shall not perish, as a race." I shall |»unish only the wicked among you.
2 Unfi'uitfulness, bad harvests, drought, and locusts, etc.
THE PROPHET MALACHI. 525
16 Then they that feared Jehovah discoursed often one with anotlier, and Jehovah hearkened, and heard, and a boolc of re- membrance was written before Ilim, for those who feared Jehovah and honoured His name. 17 And ihey shall be My treasure, says Jehovah, in The Day which I am preparing; and I will spare them (in that day) as a man .spares his son that serves him. 18 Then shall ye, once more, see the difference between the righteous and the wicked ; between him that serves God and him that serves Him not.
1 For, behold,^ The Day comes, burning like an oven, and all the proud, and every worker of iniquity, shall be as the stubble (that feeds it) ; The Day that is coming will burn them up, says Jehovah of Hosts, so (utterly) that it will leave neither root nor twig of them.
2 But to you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness will arise, with healing in His beams,- and ye shall go forth (from the places in which you have hidden in that awful day), and leap like fed calves (for joy). 3 And ye will tread the wicked under foot, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, (burnt up as they will be), in The Day wliich I am preparing, says Jehovah of Hosts.
A final exhortation to the godly concludes the pro- phecy.
4 Be mindful of the Law of Moses, My servant, which I com- manded in Horebto all Israel, even (My) statutes and judgments ! 5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophei^ before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of Jehovah ; 6 and lie will turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with utter destruction."*
The stern preaching of Malachi was vindicated by the condition of things which Nehemiah found on his return from Persia. Friendly relations with the open enemies
» Mai. iv. 2 jjeb., " wings."
3 Luke i. 16, 17. Matt. xi. 10. Luke vii. 27. Matt. xvii. 11. Mark ix. 11.
■• Lit., "a ban" which devoted anything to utter destruction.
526 THE PEOPHET MALACHI.
of strict Judaism had been shown even by the high priest Eliashib, who was either related to Tobiah the Aramouite, by marriage, or connected with the party friendly to him in high Jewish society. In open dis- respect to both Ezra and Nehemiah, Eliashib had gone so far, during the governor's absence, as to make over to Tobiah one of the houses in the outer Temple buildings, appropriating to his use, among others, the great chamber in which the flour and frankincense for tho altar, the vessels for measuring the quantities required, and the tithes of corn, wine, and oil, for the Levites, the guards of the doors, and the singers, were stored.^ Such an abuse at once roused the indignation of Nehemiah. That the high priest, of all men, should have lodged Tobiah in Jerusalem, especially in the courts of the House of God, was an outrage not to be endured for a moment. The furniture of the intruder was at once unceremon- iously thrown out into the road ; the chambers he had occupied cleansed as if from surpassing defilement, and the vessels and stores, removed for his convenience, carried back to their former places.
This irregularity, however, was only one symptom of the widely spread moral declension, denounced so strenuously by Malachi. The non-payment of the tithes, in particular, shocked Nehemiah. Summoning the chief men of the community, therefore, to his presence, he bitterly reproached them with their failure to collect the dues for the Temple and Priests. " Why/' asked he, '^ is the House of God forsaken ? " It was a serious matter. The Temple services had been suspended for want of Levites to discharge the sacred offices, and its courts were left empty of worshippers.^ Such careless- ness could not be suffered. The elders of the various * Neh. xiii. 5. ^ Neh. xiii. IL
THE PROPHET MALACHI. 527
localities must at once attend to their duty. Such rigour brought the happiest results. The tithes were forthwith collected from the whole land.
The strict observance of the Sabbath, to which the people had pledged themselves in their recent covenant, had been as shamefully violated as the engagement re- specting tithes. As already noticed, the wine-presses were everywhere as busy on the seventh day as on the rest of the week : harvest work was continued durinsr its sacred hours, and the sheaves, laden on asses, carried, all day long, to the threshing floors, as at other times. Even in Jerusalem, the Sabbath was noisy with market people bringing wine, grapes, figs, and other produce, to the gates through the Friday night, and selling them on the Saturday.^
Phenician fishermen and dealers in dried fish and in every kind of Tyrian ware, attended the fair weekly, in numbers. The day on which all work should have ceased, was the least quiet of any. Such desecration could not be suffered. Calling before him the municipal authorities, Nehemiah rebuked them sharply, remiudmg them that similar conduct on the part of their fathers had, in part, been the cause of their national calamities.- Hence- forward, by his command, the gates of the city were to be shut on Friday night, as soon as their archways grew dark, and they were not to be opened till sunset on Saturday, when the Jewish Sabbath was over. Men were also placed at each gate, to see that no burdens were smuggled in during the day of rest. Baulked in their hopes of finding a mart inside the city, the market people and traders tried to open one outside the walls ; free egress being allowed the inhabitants during the
* Neh. xiii. 18. The Subhafch began on our Friday at sunset, and lasted till our Saturday at sunset. ^ Jer. xvii. 21.
528 THE PEOPHET MALACHI.
Sabbath, thougli traffic was prohibited. But this lasted only a short time. A threat to arrest the offenders was sufficient to secure the honour of the holy day, for the time. Against any recurrence of such disorder, Levites, ceremonially purified for the purpose, were ap- pointed to attend at each gate during the Sabbath, and keep a strict watch over those who went out or in.^
The question of mixed marriages, in spite of all efforts on the part of Ezra and Nehemiah, and of all promises on that of the people, still gave great trouble. Not a few, as we have seen in the denunciation by Malachi, broke the law in this matter, to the extent of divorcing Jewesses to marry heathen women, or at least proselytes. Nehemiah noticed this very soon. Such indifference in a matter which he, like Ezra, regarded as vital, roused his indignation. Pasha though he was, he could not restrain himself when some who had thus offended were brought before him. From fierce words he passed to violence, rushing at the offenders, striking them, and tearing their hair and beards in his burning anger. Nor would he rest till they had sworn by Jehovah, to abandon their sin.^ One transgressor, indeed, Manasseh, the grandson of the high priest Eliashib, who had ventured to marry the daughter of Sanballat, the bitterest enemy of Jerusalem in its past trials, did not escape so easily. Eefusing to put away his wife, Neheniiah's indignation knew no bounds. A priest was bound to marry only a virgin of his own race,^ and thus the priesthood was defiled by this alliance. Besides, the guilty man was a younger son of the high- priestly family, so that the whole order was compromised. The offence was, in fact, a breach at once of the covenant granted to Phinehas, and of that made directly with the 1 Neh. xiii. 22. ^ ^^^^^ ^iii. 25. » Lev. xxi. 7-14.
THE PROPHET MALACHI. 529
tribe of Levi.^ Neheiniah, therefore, ignominously ex- pelled liitn from the priesthood, chasing him froQi his presence with a fierce imprecation on one who, with his family, "had defiled at once the covenant of the priest- hood and of the Levites/' -
The closing verses of Nehemiah's notices of affairs in Judah, under his rule, give a brief summary of the rei-ults of his government, apart from the great work of building the walls of Jerusalem. He had purified the community from heathen customs, and had restored an orderly administration of public worship. He had further arranged for the regular provision of wood for the altar, and for the tithes and first fruits being paid in for the service of the Temple and its ministers. The legal spirit of later Judaism shines out in such a record, set down with minute exactness as a ground on which it could be pleaded that God should remember one for good. Malachi, in the same way, had denounced marriage with foreigners, but his preaching had been mainly directed against the moral evils of the times. The exact observ- ance of Levitical rules was, however, the prominent characteristic of the reforms of both Nehemiah and Ezra. The contrast marks the formalism of the age after the Exile ; so different from the spirit of earlier days.
Of Nehemiah^s later history we know nothing, but he and Ezra fill a large part in Jewish legends and traditions. To the generations immediately succeeding, Nehemiah seemed the greater man of the two, fov it is he, and not Ezra, whom we meet in the list of heroes of the nation given by the son of Sirach.^ In the age of the Maccabees
* Num. XXV. 13. Exod. xxviii. 1. Lev. xxi. 6-8. ^ Neh. xiii. 2l>. Tlie civil power in this case, as in so many others in Jewish history, is supreme over the ecclesiastical. 3 Ecc-lus. xlix. 11-13. VOL. VI. M M
530 THE PROPHET MALACHI.
it was to Neherniali, not to Zerubbabel^ that the glory was ascribed of rebuilding the Temple, setting up again the altar, offering the first sacrifice on it, and discover- ing the sacred fire, which the priests, it was believed, had hidden in a dry cistern.^ To him, also, was attributed the collection of the sacred books, and the formation of the Canon.^ But in later times Ezra took the chief place in the national memory. Some hold him to have been the prophet known to us as Malachi. He had reproduced the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures, it was said, from memory, after the Chaldeans had destroyed them. Apocryphal books were written in his name, and he was glorified as the founder of the Great Synagogue of tra- dition, to which the elaboration of the Law was mainly ascribed.
The whole subsequent history of Judaism is the monu- ment of the zeal and devotion of the two Reformers. To their stern exclusiveness was directly due the hatred and rivalry between Jew and Samaritan, the creation of the Rabbinical Law, which has buried the teachings of Moses under its endless comments, and the rise of that fierce pride and Pharisaic religionism, which culminated in the spiritual death of the nation, and in the establishment of a ritualism which controls the Jew in every act, from the cradle to the grave. Their stern Puritanism, too earnestly fixed on the letter, ended by making it supreme. They preserved the nation, and kept it true to Jehovah, but introduced a principle which, in the end, changed His worship, in the nation at large, from that of the heart and life, to a slavery to mere outward forms. As always happens, in achieving the triumph of ceremonialism, they laid the axe at the root of spiritual religion.
FINIS. » 2 Mace. i. 18, 19. . ^ 2 Mace. ii. 13.
INDEX.
Abednego, 263.
Abiathar, 248.
Acbor, 366.
Abasuerus, 420, 447.
Abolab, 46.
Aholibab, 46,
Ainiek, 153, 307.
Akrabbim, 410.
Altar, great, built, 416.
Altars, 365.
Araasis, 386.
Ammon, 169 ; prophecies against, 41,
161, 162. Auathotb, 91.
Angels, doctrine of, in Daniel, 333. Apis, the god, 85. Apocalyptic literature, Jewish, 294,
433. Ark, tradition respecting, 211, Artaxerxes, 420, 478. Aryans, the, supersede the Semitic
races as rulers of the world, 386. Asherah tents, 12.
Babylon, description of, 265 ; its walls, 266 ; palaces, 267 ; hanging gardens, 269 ; mainly built by Nebuchadnezzar, 270 ; canals of, 271 ; temples of, 272 ; despotic power of kings of, 276 ; treasures of, 323 ; seat of the wisdom of the age, 329; impurity of, 379, 387; fall of, 392, 395 ; deputations to Judah, from, 434.
Babylonia, punishments in, 275 j commerce oj, 317-
B.ipti ;m, in early Church, 348.
Beard, plucking the, of a prisoner, 337.
Belshazzar, 312. 374.
Belteshazzar, 263.
Benhadad, 164.
Bethel, deputation to Jerusalem from, 435.
631
Bethshean, 412. Black arts, the, 4. " Bosom," pouring into the, 102. " Branch of Righteousness," 107. Burial, spices burnt at, 81 ; ancient forms of, 81.
Cambyses, 315, 444.
Canonical Bo.ks, date of some of the, 384.
Caphtor, 153.
Carmel, 86.
Chaldean army, uniform of, 43.
Chemosb, 155.
Children, carried on the side, 355.
Chimliam, khan of, 175,
Chronology, 288.
Clay school-books of Babylon, 262.
Covenant, new, promised, 77, 500.
Criminals, mutilation of, 49.
Crocodile, the, 339.
Croesus, 387-
Cubit, the, 243.
Cupbearer, Persian, 489, 492.
Cush, 234.
Cutting the person, in grief, 172.
Cyrus, 165, 296, 304, 305, 309, 313, 323, 325, 336, 384, 404, 444 ; char- acter of, 403 ; decree of, found by Darius, 436 ; inscriptions of, 390- 394.
Damascus, prophecies against, 163. Daniel, 8, 259, 291. Darius the Mede, 399. Darius Hystaspis, 402, 403, 435, 446. Dead, prayer for the, 363. Deportations of Jews, 118. Despotism, Persian, 453. Divination by arrows, etc., 39. Diviners, orders of, at Babylon, 273. Doseli, the, in Egypt, 341. Dovecots, 356. Dreams, 275.
532
INDEX.
Drunkenness, 51.
Dry Bones, Valley of, 227.
Dungeons, 312.
Dura, Plain of, 210.
Ebedmelech, 96.
Edora, 142, 145, 149,151, 519; pro- phecies aarainst, 145-149, 150, 151,
152, 222, 223, 519. Edomites, Tnalij^nity of, 142, 144 ; in
Palestine, 410. Egibi tablets, 286. Egypt, flight of Jews to, 170, 177 ;
prophecies against, 85, 87, 88, 19G-
200, 201, 202-204. Elara, prophecies against, 1C5. Eliashib, 481. Esther, 451-158. Evil Merodach, 115. 288, 371. Eyelids, painting i he, 51, 346. Ezekiel, 54, 5G, 212, 214, 242. Ezekiel's vision of Temple, only a
vision, 244, 245. Ezra, 477 ; leads a body of Jews to
Jerusalem, 479 ; character of 484 ;
indignation of, at mixed marriages,
485.
Fasts, the four Jewish, 351, 377, 436.
Field-mouse, the, 3/1.
Fiery furnace, the, 283.
Fighting, customs in ancient, 342.
Figs, 67.
" Folly," Hebrew idea of, 2.
Galilee, 411.
" Gate of the king," the, 278.
Gedaliah, 118, 166, 170, 171.
Geshem, 499.
Gog, 234.
Gold, abundance of, in Babylon, 279.
Golden image, Nebuchadnezzar' s,277.
Grapes, taste of unripe, 21.
Greece, war of Persia against, 446,
451. Grinding at the mill, 328. Guerilla band, Jewish, 169, 171.
Haggai, 421-426.
Hamaii, 452, 457.
Hamath, 163.
Hasidim, the, 120.
High places, 33.
" Holy City," of Ezekiel, 255.
Holy Land, bounds of the, in Ezekiel,
255. Household gods, 418.
Human sacrifices, 32.
Hyrcanus subdues Edomites, 411.
Idolatry described, 382; Jewish,
prophecies against, 6. Idols, food ottered to, abhorred, 264,
321. Imagery, influences of external world
on Jewish, 243. Infant, Eastern treatment of an,
10. " Isaiah," second part of, 295-298. Ishmael, 169, 171, 174. Ithamar, 248.
Jackal, the, 2.
Jedar, a, 2.
Jeremiah, 59, 69. 80, 90, 91, 93, 96, 100, 102, 167, 175, 176, 210.
Jerusalem, prehistoric, 10-15; siege of, foretold, 39, 53; prophecies against, 43, 60, 66 ; moral condi- tions of, 44 ; siege of, 52, 57, 60, 79 ; slaves in, emancipated, 82 ; lawless- ness in, 83 ; prophecies against princes and people of, 83, 91, 103, 104 ; siege of, Chaldeans for a time withdraw from, 82 ; horrors of siege of, 9/, 110; close of, 112, 116 ; size of, 108 ; after the siege, 119 ; fortification of, opposed, 460 ; progress of, 461 ; despondency of citizens of, 461 ; alliance against, 501 ; walls of, finished, 503 ; trans- fer of people to, 513; dedication of walls of, 513.
Jewellery, 11.
Jewish reckoning of years, 260
Jews, character of exiled, 23 ; depor- tations of, 178; in Egypt, pro- phecies against, 190 ; state of, during the Captivity, 373, 380; number of, in Babylon, 375 ; idol- atry of, in Babylon, 375 ; religious state of, 376 ; projected massacre of Persian. 454 ;
Joshua, the high priest, 409.
Josiah's reformation, temporal good not realized after, 22.
Judah after Return, bounds of, 413 ; constitution of, 414 ; and Babylon, intercourse between, 474 ; condi- tion of, in Ezra's lime, 476 ; dis- appointed hopes of, 422; prophecies against, 8-20, 23, 26, 28, 29-35, 45 -38, 47, 214 ; after murder of Ged- aliah, 213.
INDEX.
533
Kedar, 164, 313, 355. Kirjathaini, 155.
"Lamentations," the, 123-141.
Land, sale of, 100, 101.
" Law," the, not a late invention, 257 ; superstitious reverence of the, 478 ; public reading of, 505.
Levites, 249.
Lions, 2G ; den of, '600.
Madmenah, 155.
Magog, 234.
Maliichi, 516-525.
Marathon, battle of, 446.
Marriage procession, 106.
Marriages, mixed, 476, 481-488.
Media, 387-
Memphis, 85.
Messiah, predicted, 63, 70, 72, 107,
220, 223, 225, 231, 2-U, 311, 424,
518. Messianic, kingdom, 242. Migdol, 85. Mina, a, 415. Misgab, 155. Mishor, the, 61, 157. Mixed marriages, 517, 528. Mizpeh, 168, 170, 172, 174. Moab, prophecies against, 154-160 ;
towns of, 157. Mordecai, 451. Mount of God, the, 186. Mount Moriah, 93. Mourning, usages in, 55. ^ "2, 380. Music in Babylon, 282. Myrtle, the, 307.
Nabathseans, 411.
Nabonidus, 289, 389, 395 ; inscription of, 389.
Nebo, Mount, 154.
Nebo (god), 326.
Nebuchadnezzar, 18, 35, 39. 40, 58, 67, 117, 200, 206, 208, 209, 271, dream of, 275 ; madness of, 284 ; death of, 285 ; inscriptions of, 287.
Nehemiah, 488; resolves to visit Judah, 490; appointed pasha of Judah, 492 ; at Jerusalem, 493 ; orders wails of city to be rebuilt, 494; vigilance in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, 501; legal reforms of, 511 ; character of, 529.
Nergal Sharezer, 288.
Kethinim, 407.
Noph, 85.
"Obadiah,;' 143, 145-149. Observatories at Babylon, 273. One god, specially "woisliipped by Nebuchadnezzar, £85.
Palace schools in Babylon, 261.
Pa^hros, 88.
Pentateuch, "higher criticism" on
the, 25(). Persian kings, splendour of, 456. Pharaoh Hophra, 58, 194, 204. Phoenicians, circumcision among the,
185. Philistines, prophecies against, 152,
154. Phut, 234. Pilgrims, murder of, at Mizpah, 172,
173. Posts, Persian, 453. Prayer, hours of, 377. Priests and Levites in Ezekiel's
Temple, 248. Priests, moral decay of, 518. Prophetesses, false, 4. Prophets, the, 42 ; false, the, 1, 64. Proselytes in Babylon, 378.
Queen of Heaven, the, 192.
Red, the war colour, 361.
Registration of Jews, 504.
Responsibility, individual, 24, 216,
Resurrection, Egyptian ideas of the, 229.
Return, the, predicted, 71, 73 ; few Jews favoured the, 347 ; decreed, 401; the, 406; numbers in the, 406 ; route of the, 410.
Riblah, 117.
Rich, heai-tless conduct of, at Jerusa- lem, 497.
Ritual, exactness after Return, 443.
Roads, repair of , before great men, 300, 360.
R^sh, 234.
Rulers of Judah, prophecies against, 218.
Sabbath, Jewish, 30; profaned, 517,
527. Sacred fire, discovery of, 530. Samaria, 15, 16, 411. Samaritans wish to join in building
Second Temple. 419. Sanballat, 498, 50a. Sandals, 11. Saracens, 161.
534
INDEX.
Sceptre, or tribal staff, 28.
Scourging, public, 92, 337-
" Scribes," rise of the, 476, 479.
Scythians, 237.
Seal, known to Hebrews, 463.
" Servant of Jehovah," the, 311,
314, 333, 334. Shallets, 278.
Sheha, meaning of the word, 40. Shekels, 100. Shepherd's coat, a, 177. Sheshbazzar, 409. Siege, ancient, 103. Signet ring, 426. Silk, 11.
Silver, melting of, 331. Sinai, land of, 335. Slave, price of a, 468. Slavery, 351 ; among Jews, 497- Slaves, branded with master's name,
319. Sodom, 15, 16.
" Solomon," "servants of," 407. Sons, love of, in East, 309. Susa, gate of, in Temple, 442 ; city
of, 447 ; palace of, 448. Swaddling clothes, 10. Swine, sacrificed, 365. Syene, 88.
Tabernacles, feast of, 417, 508.
Tabor, 86.
Tahash, the, 11.
Tahpanhes, 176.
Talmud, 476.
Tararauz, 112, 370.
" Tannin," the, 136.
Tel, 71.
Temple burnt, 115.
Temple, ^ Ezekiel's, 246 ; laws of, 250 ; river flowing from, 253.
Temple hill, the, 243.
Temple, Second, contributions for re- building the, 415 ; preparations for rebuilding, 417 ; foundation stone laid, 417 ; Samaritans wish to
help to build, 419; work upon,
stopped, 419 ; works resumed, 423 ;
finished, 440; details respecting,
440 ; fortress at, 442 ; consecration
of, 442; services suspended, 526. Ten Tribes, 376, 378; survivors of
the, friendly to Judah, 411 ; did
they return ? 412. Tent coverings, 164. Tithes, 9L; 512. Tobiah, 499, 500, 526. Tobit, 383.
" Tortoise," military, 180. Treasures, Temple, in Babylon, 279. Tubal, 234. Turtle dove, the, 353. Twelve Tribes, hopes among the, of
reunion, 230; restoration of the,
231. Tyre, prophecies against, 179; siege
of, 179-186, 189, 196.
Urim and Thummim, 408.
Vashti, 450.
Walls, paintings on, of Jewish man- sions, 48. Watches, night, 131. Western civilization, triumph of, 446. Wild beasts, mode of captare of, 26. Willow, the weeping, 292.
Xerxes, 447 ; palace of, 448 ; table of, 449; banquet given by, 449; murder of, 458.
Yaar, the, 61,
Zadok, 248.
Zechariah, 421, 427, 428, 462.
Zedekiah, 7, 18, 19, 27, 35, 59, 68, 80,
80, 81, 95, 96, 98, 113-115, 167. Zertuscht, vision of 293. Zerubbabel, 408, 416, 417.
TEXTS ILLUSTRATED.
The Texts printed in blacker type are Translations,
|
Genes |
IS. PAGB |
|
iii. 14 |
. ... 367 |
|
V. 9 |
22 |
|
xiv. 1 |
.* '.'.'. 275 |
|
XV. 10 |
. ... 84 |
|
„ 18 |
. ... 462 |
|
XX. 3 |
. ... 77 |
|
XXV. 2, 4 |
. ... 355 |
|
„ 29 |
. ... 425 |
|
xxxviii. 18 .. |
28, 426 |
|
xlvii. 31 |
. ... 28 |
|
xlviii. 16 |
. ... 306 |
|
xlix. 9 |
. ... 26 |
Exodus.
in. 7
„ 8-17
„ 13 ... iv. 31 ... vi. 20 ... viii. 12, 14 xi. 5, 12 xii. 6 ...
„ 18 ...
„ 39 ... xiii. 11, 13
„ 12 xiv. 24 ... XV. 2 ... xix. 4 ... XX. 2 ...
,, 5
xxi. 2 ... „ 32 ... xxii. 24 ...
„ 25 ...
„ 24 ... xxiii.4 ...
„ 10...
„ 19...
.. 31...
... 344
... 29
... 30
... 47
... 29
... 483
... 339
... 328
... 443
... 410
... 342
... 32
... 511
... 131
... 126
... 362
... 30
... 22
... 365
81, 351
... 468
... 23
... 23
... 497
... 47
... 510
250, 511
... 462
|
PAGK |
PISH |
||
|
xxviii. 1 |
... 529 |
xix. 16 |
24 |
|
„ 42 ... |
... 249 |
XX. 11 |
44 |
|
xxix. 37 |
248, 249 |
xxi. 1-3 |
250 |
|
XXX. 13 |
... oil |
„ 5-10 |
249 |
|
„ 23 |
... 318 |
„ 6 |
12 |
|
„ 29 |
... 249 |
„ 6-8 |
529 |
|
xxxii. 12 |
... 30 |
„ 6,8,17 |
519 |
|
xxxiii. 11 |
... 342 |
„ 7-14 |
528 |
|
xxxiv.7 |
... 22 |
„ 10 |
54 |
|
„ 12-16 ... |
... 482 |
„ 14 |
249 |
|
„ 15 ff. ... |
... 482 |
xxii. 8 |
250 |
|
„ 16 ... |
... 511 |
„ 20-22 |
519 |
|
„ 26 ... |
... 250 |
xxiii. 22-25 |
506 |
|
xxxix. 28 |
... 55 |
„ 26-32 |
436 |
|
xlv. 13 |
... 511 |
„ 36 |
509 |
|
„ 39-43 |
508 |
||
|
Leviticus, |
XXV. 23-28 |
ICO |
|
|
ii. 3 |
... 250 |
„ 24,25 |
100 |
|
iv. |
... 252 |
» 25,26 |
306 |
|
„4 |
23 |
., 34 |
100 |
|
vi. |
... 252 |
„ 36 23, |
497 |
|
„9, n.i9 ... |
... 250 |
„ 39 ff. |
351 |
|
„11 2.) |
... 249 |
xj^Vi |
32 |
|
„20 |
... 425 |
„ 34,43 |
179 |
|
vii. 6, 7 |
... 250 |
„ 29 |
22 |
|
„ 31-34 ... |
... 74 |
xxvii. 21 |
250 |
|
viii. 6 |
... 342 |
||
|
„ 33 |
... 2iS |
Numbers. |
|
|
X.9 |
... 249 |
iii. 17, 18 |
470 |
|
„10 |
.. 250 |
V. 8 |
306 |
|
xi. 7 |
365, 369 |
viii. 6ff. |
342 |
|
,,29 |
... 371 |
xi. 12 ... 102,301 |
, 3o2 |
|
xii. 2 |
... 44 |
xii. 6 |
66 |
|
xiii. 45 |
54, 138 |
„ 8 |
342 |
|
xvii. 7 |
... 30 |
xiii. 33 |
153 |
|
„ 15 |
... 250 |
xiv. 14 |
342 |
|
xviii. 3 |
... 30 |
„ 16 |
30 |
|
„ 5 |
... 30 |
„ 18-33 |
22 |
|
» 21 |
... 32 |
XV. 19 |
250 |
|
„ 6-17 ... |
... 44 |
„ 20 |
511 |
|
„ 12 |
... 483 |
,,20,21 |
250 |
|
„ 19 |
... 44 |
xviii. 12 |
511 |
|
„ 24, 25 ... |
... 482 |
„ 13 |
250 |
|
535 |
53G
TEXTS ILLUSTRATED.
xviii. 15, IG, 17
„ 19
xix. 22
xxi. 15
xxii. 2
xxiv. 7
„ 17
XXV. 13
xxvi. 8
„ 59
xxviii. 9, 11 ...
„ 15
,, 19, 20... xxix. 1-6
„ 13 ... XXX. 6, 7 xxxiii. 52 xxxiv. 1-12 ... XXXV. 5
„ 12,19...
Dkutekonomy.
i. 1
„30
ii. 4, 5, 9, 19
„ 10
iii. 10
iv. 10 V.
„ 28 .
„ 34 . V. 9 vii. 1-5 ,
viii. 7-9 ix. 28 ... xiii. 2-12 XV. 12 ... xvi. 3 ...
„ 16 ... xvii. 8 ... xviii. 4 ... „ 10... xix. 7 ... xxi. 5 ...
„ 13 ...
24
xxiii. 3 ...
„ 4...
,, 20... xxiv. 1 ...
„ 12 ...
„ 16 ... XXV. 3 ... xxvi. 2 ...
„ 14 ...
|
PARK |
PARK |
PAGE |
||
|
.. 511 |
xxviii |
32 |
V. 6, 7 |
.. 104 |
|
.. 250 |
XXX. 16 |
30 |
„ 16 |
.. 169 |
|
.. 425 |
„19 |
60 |
vii. 12-16 ... |
.. 348 |
|
.. 162 |
xxxi. 17 |
490 |
viii. 14 143,162 |
|
|
.. 516 |
xxxii. 29 |
126 |
xi. 3 |
.. 483 |
|
.. 451 |
xxxiii. 10 |
250 |
XV. 2-4 |
... 61 |
|
.. 160 |
XV. 24 |
.. 248 |
||
|
.. 529 |
Joshua. |
XV. 30 |
.. 54 |
|
|
.. 100 |
vii. 2,8 |
498 |
xviii. 18 |
.. 350 |
|
.. 483 |
ix. 21-27 |
407 |
xxi |
.. 22 |
|
.. 2.'. 2 |
,, 27 |
248 |
xxiv. 16 |
.. 463 |
|
.. 251 |
XI |
49~« |
„ 24 |
.. 101 |
|
.. 252 |
xiii. 17 |
61 |
||
|
.. 506 |
XV. 1 |
151 |
1 Kings, |
|
|
.. 252 .. 193 .. 291 .. 462 .. 100 .. 306 |
.. 32 |
472 |
||
|
xvi. 3,5 xviii. 13 „ 14 xix. 7 XX. 8 xxiv. 14 |
498 498 174 472 6 47 |
i. 32 iii. 5 vii. 25 viii. 9 „ 27 „ ^<s „ 65 |
.. 2i8 .. 66 .. 248 .. 441 .. 365 ... 377 .. 509 |
|
|
Jl I . |
Judges. |
ix. 20 |
... 408 |
|
|
.. 113 |
iii. 5 |
482 |
„ 26 |
... 151 |
|
.. 362 |
„6 |
483 |
xi. 1 |
... 483 |
|
.. 462 |
V. 19. 21 |
122 |
„ 2 |
... 482 |
|
.. 153 |
vii. 25 |
122 |
xiv. 21 |
... 483 |
|
61 |
viii. 5 |
122 |
XV. 16-22 ... |
... 170 |
|
... 104 |
x7 |
162 |
xvi. 31 |
... 483 |
|
.. 104 |
xi. 12-32 |
162 |
xvii. 9 |
.. 149 |
|
29 ... 22 ... 482 |
XX. 26 |
436 |
xxii. 19 ff. ... |
... 433 |
|
xxi. 19-21 |
126 |
xxxviii.44 ... |
... 153 |
|
|
... 291 ... ^0 ... ^0 |
RuTfi. i. 4 |
483 |
2 Kings. |
|
|
iii. 9 |
11 |
iv. 1 |
... 336 |
|
|
... 66 |
„ 15 |
102 |
„ 22 |
... 30 |
|
81, 351 |
iv. 1 |
306 |
,,38 |
... 425 |
|
... 342 |
1 Samukl. |
viii. 20 |
... 143 |
|
|
... 226 ... 250 ... 250 ... 32 ... 250 ... 250 ... 77 ... 51 77 ... 482 ... 510 ... 23 77, 336 23 |
ii. 36 vii. 6 viii. 18 xi XV „ 12 „ 18 xvii. 4 xix. 13-16 XX. 7, 23 xxviii. 6 |
94 436 . 153 . 162 . 452 . 3.50 . 153 . 1.53 . 34 . 153 96 |
ix. 14 ,. 30 xi. 1 xiii. 20 xiv. 6 „ 13 „ 25 XV. 29 xvi. 6 xvii. 24 xix. 2 „ 12 „ 18 „ 28 ... ... |
... 173 ... 346 ... 170 ... 154 ... 22 79,92 ... 162 ... 162 ... 143 ... 172 ... 59 ... 71 ... 104 ... 26 |
|
XXX. 14 xxxi. 13 |
. 1.54 . 436 |
|||
|
22 |
2 Samuel. |
„ 32 |
... 103 |
|
|
... 92 |
i. 23 |
. 303 |
xxi. 18-2G ... |
... 247 |
|
... 511 |
iii. 3 |
. 483 |
xxii. 12 |
... 168 |
|
... 55 |
„ 35 |
. 55 |
,. 13 |
... 60 |
TEXTS ILLUSTRATED.
537
xxiii. 10 ,,. 2(3 xxiv.
XXV.
1 ...
3 ...
l-A-16
20...
11...
8 ...
12
13-17
18
18-21
25
PAGE
71)
22
259
22
110
40
... 32, 43G 118,275,436
117
117
... 409,477
118
169
ii;
1 Chuonicles.
ii. 34
iv. 22
V. 19
„ 26
„ 40 ... vii. 14 ... ix. 17,27
„ 33 ... xviii. 17 XX. 5-8... xxi. 15 ... xxiv. 3 ...
„ 5 ... xxvi. 12-19 xxix. 2 ...
483 77 407 162 ,409 483 503 376 153 153 463 248 319 503 346
2 Chronicles.
„ 18 ... .
vii. 9 ... . viii. 7 ... xvi. 1-6
XX
xxiv. 9 ... .
XXV. 16... .
xxvi. 8 ... .
„ 9... . XX viii. 17
XXX. 11... .
„ 17... . xxxiii. 11 xxxiv. 9
„ 10-13 . XXXV. 7.
„ 11-14. xxxvi. 17 21
... 441
... 343
... 368
248, 509
... 408
... 170
... 162
... 59
... 337
... 162
... 79
... 143
172, 411
... 443
... 26
172, 411
... 406
... 226
... 443
... 110
179 401
Ezra.
2-4
385 401
i. 7 ...
„ 8 ... ii. 5 ...
M 7
„ 23-28 ,, 30-39 „ 50 ... „ 59 ... „ 63 ... „ 65 ... ,, 69 ... iu. 1-6
„ 1 ...
„ 1-6 ...
„ 2 ...
„ 4 ...
M 6,7... iv. 2 ...
„ 6 ...
„ 6,7...
„ 7-23...
„ 23 ...
„ 24 ...
V. 1
„ 3 ... ,. 14 ... vi. 1 ... „ 1-12 2
',', 3ff. Z „ 4 ... „ 9-23... „ 14 ... „ 14, 15 „ 36-18 22
vii."l '.'.'. „ Iff.... „ 1-8 ... „ 9 ... „ 10 ... „ 11, 12 „ 12, 26 „ 15 ... „ 16 22, „ 25 ... „ 25-27 „ 20, 27 „ 27 ...
viii. 7 ... „ 14 ... „ 15-17 „ 16 ... „ 18-20 „ 20 ... 90.
24
PAGE
... 406
... 409 503.501
... 4«o 34, 414
... 4Uti
... 407 71, 408
... 408
... 373
... 416
... 244 416, 504
... 252
... 244
... 509
... 417
... 418
... 460
... 420
... 460
... 499 419, 4:35
... 421
... 435
... 409
... 435
... 436 436,488
... 440
... 440
... 490 406, 421
... 440
... 443
... 465
... 117
... 477
... 437
... 480
... 478
... 477
... 477
... 478
... 479
... 481
... 478
... 479
... 479
... 486
... 414
... 479
... 479
... 481)
... 248
... 480
viii. 29 ., „ 31 .
ix. 1 „ 2-10 „ 6 .
X. 3
„ 8 .,
„ 9 .
„ 10-16
,, 15
„ 20 43
„ 44 .,
PAGB
442,480
... 480
... 482
... 414
... 377
... 442
... 4S6
... 487
... 477
... 487
... 488
... 488
„ 4 .. ii. 1-6 .,
„ 3, 5 .
„7-9 ..
„ 8, vu.
„8 ..
„ 10 ..
„ 10, 19
„ 12 .,
,,18 ..
„19 ., iii. 1
„ 4-30
„ 5
,, 6 ..
„ 7 .,
Nkhemiah.
474
490
491
492
491
414
442
492
496, 500, 503
.. 493
.. 494
.. 499
79, 472
.. 503
.. 494
.. 461
.. 495
.. 461
.. 494
.. 414
.. 94
.. 495
.. 472
.. 495
.. 113
„ 8, 31. 32, „ 8, 32, 33 „ 9, 12, 14, 15 ...
n 11
„ 12
„ 15
,. 22
„ 28
„ 30, X. 37, xii. 44,
xiii. 5
„ 32
iv. 2
„ 3, 6, 12, 14, 17,
18
„7
„4-6
„ 10 414, 49G
,,10,16,17,23... 492
442 401 499
499 414 500
12 13, 21
V. o
M 7
„ 8 .. 11
, 501 . 502 , 336 ;10, 23 , 474 , 497
538
TEXTS ILLUSTRATED.
|
PiGE |
PAGE |
PAGK |
|||
|
V. 12 ... |
498 |
xiii. 25 337 |
,528 |
Ixxiii |
21 |
|
„ 15 |
... 459, 46 L |
„ 15 461 |
,477 |
„ 19 |
183 |
|
„ 14-18 |
493 |
„ 28 |
499 |
Ixxiv. 11 |
342 |
|
vi. 1, 2, 6 |
4<J9 |
„ 29 |
529 |
„ 13,14 |
339 |
|
„ 10-12 |
503 |
Ixxvii. 19 |
183 |
||
|
„14, 17 |
503 |
Esther. |
„ 20 |
301 |
|
|
;,i8 .. |
... 488,503 |
i. 3 |
449 |
Ixxviii. 35 |
306 |
|
„ ly .. |
503 |
„19 |
452 |
Ixxix |
120 |
|
vii. 2 |
491 |
ii. 1-14 |
451 |
Ixxx. I |
301 |
|
„ 3 .. |
504 |
„ 7 |
307 |
Ixxxiii |
121 |
|
„ 5 ^ .. |
... 459, 504 |
,,19,21 |
278 |
Ixxxvii. |
418 |
|
„ 5-73 |
504 |
iii. 1 |
452 |
„ .4 |
339 |
|
„ 5 .. |
459 |
„2 ... .,. ... |
278 |
Ixxxviii. 14 |
490 |
|
„ 12 .. |
485 |
,,9 |
453 |
Ixxxix. 11 |
339 |
|
„ 25-30 |
414 |
vii. 4 |
457 |
„ 28 |
343 |
|
„ 26 .. |
373 |
ix. 12 |
457 |
„ 46 |
490 |
|
„ 34 .. |
... .... 376 |
„ 24 |
452 |
xcvi. 10 |
404 |
|
„ Gl .. |
71 |
Job. |
xcvii. 99 |
404 |
|
|
„ 70-72 |
415 |
cii |
380 |
||
|
viii. 2 .. |
477 |
ii. 8 |
380 |
cv. 31 |
339 |
|
„ 3 .. |
... 505, 506 |
„ 12, 13 |
54 |
cvi |
418 |
|
„ 4 .. |
477 |
iv. 13 |
66 |
„ 34 |
290 |
|
,; 4r-7 |
507 |
vii. 1,10 |
299 |
„ 46 |
373 |
|
„ 8 .. |
507 |
„ 14 |
GQ |
.,,.37 |
291 |
|
„ 15 .. |
307 |
xii. 26 |
314 |
cvii |
418 |
|
J, 16 .. |
92 |
xvii. 14 |
2U9 |
„ 10-14 |
405 |
|
„ 17 .. |
509 |
xviii. 18 |
314 |
,, 23-30 |
405 |
|
„ 18,.. |
509 |
xix. 25 |
306 |
cix. 14 |
22 |
|
ix.4 r. |
5(t9 |
x.Ki. 9 |
22 |
cxviii |
418 |
|
„ 12-26 |
477 |
XXX. 3 |
314 |
cxx |
418 |
|
„ GO .. |
248 |
„ 10 |
337 |
cxxiv |
372 |
|
X. 1 |
509 |
xxxi.lO^ |
328 |
cxxvi |
405 |
|
„ 14-16 |
492 |
xxxiii. 15 |
66 |
cxxix |
372 |
|
xi. |
512 |
xii. 20 |
196 |
cxxxiv |
418 |
|
„ 1, 18 |
331 |
xiii. 14 |
346 |
cxxvi |
418 |
|
„ 4 „ 20,21 |
376 513 |
Psalms. |
exxxvii. 283,291 „ 7 |
,372 143 |
|
|
„ 25-35 |
414 |
xiii. 1 |
490 |
cxli. 2, 5, 3, |
377 |
|
xii. 24 .. |
513 |
xiv |
2i)0 |
ckiii. 10 |
61 |
|
„ 28 .. |
495 |
XV. 5 |
23 |
clxiv., cxlv., cxlvi., |
|
|
„ 38 .. |
94 |
xix. 14 |
306 |
cxlvii., cxlviii. |
144 |
|
„ 41 .. ,,.42 .. |
514 515 |
xxii. 7 xxxii. 10 |
337 344 |
Proverbs. |
|
|
xiii. 1 .. |
516 |
xxxiv. 18 |
368 |
X. 26 |
21 |
|
2 |
482 |
xxxviii. 18 |
344 |
xvii. 23 |
102 |
|
'' 4 .'." |
503 |
xliv. 24 |
490 |
xxvi. 10 |
239 |
|
» 4-7 |
499 |
xlv. 7 |
61 |
xxviii. 8 |
23 |
|
;; lo-u |
526 517 |
xlviii. 2 1.8-15 |
30 368 |
ECCLESIASTES. |
|
|
„ 11 .. |
526 |
Ii. 17 |
368 |
ix. 4 |
369 |
|
„ 12, 3 |
3 477 |
liii. 5 |
290 |
Isaiah. |
|
|
„ 15 .. |
461 |
Iv. 17 |
377 |
349 |
|
|
„ 18 .. |
527 |
Ixiii. 6 |
131 |
]', 22' Z '.'.*. .'.'.' |
45 |
|
„ 19 .. |
492 |
Ixvii. 5 |
61 |
„ 27 |
296 |
|
„ 22 .. |
528 |
Ixviii. 25 |
126 |
„ 29 |
365 |
|
„ 24 .. |
... 414,475 |
Ixix. 11 |
377 |
ii. 2 |
246 |
TEXTS ILLUSTRATED.
639
ii.l2 ... „40 ... iii. 34 ... iv. 1, 2
V. 1
„5ff. ...
,,7,21... vi. 6 ...
„ 11, 12 ix. U ... X. 5 if. ...
„ 18, 33 xi. 4 ...
„6-9 ...
,,11 ...
„13 ...
„14 ... xii. 20 ... xiii. 2, 6 S.
„ 6 ...
„ 21 ... xiv. 3 ...
„ 13 ...
„ 21 ... XV. IG ... xvi. 7, 11 XX. 2 ... xxi. 1
„ 1-10
„ 2 ... XXV. 0, 10 xxvi. 13...
".. -*•••• xxvii. 1 ... xxviii. 4... XXX. 12... „ 25... „_ 27, 23 xxxiii. 7 ■• xxxiv. 1-17 „ 6... „ 14 „ 16 XXXV. 8... xsxvii. 12 „ 20 „ 33 xxxix. 0 fF. xl. 1-31 „ 11 ... „ 27, 48 xli. 1-29 „ 2 ... „ 8 ... „ 25 ff. xlii. ...
TAGS
238
301
311
2y9
9
206
298
3(55
2'jG
152
296
86
61
3G7
20(>
... 230,444
152
296
296
238
365
372
186
22
144,154,160
158
... 54,337
4()4
385
165
236
77
236
339
67
296
... 307
... 354
... 307
... 149
... 240
... 365
... 376
... 512
... 71
... 26
... 103
... 296 299, 303
... 102
... 298
... 304
... 3S7
... 310
... 401
... 311
xlii. 1 ...
„ 1-7...
„ 22 ...
xliii. ...
„ 4, 25
„ 14..
„ 28...
xliv. .
„ 3.4
xlv.
6, 24 ..
28
1,2 '. 1 ff. .,
2
19
xlvi.
„ 11 ... xlvii
• „ 4
„ 6
xlviii
„ G. 12 22 xlix
;; 1-9" ::: „ 6
„ 8
„ U ..,
L"J\.. ::
li
„ 4
„ 13
Iii ,
„ 1
„ 8
„ 12, 15 .. liii
„ 1,4
„ 5 ..^ ..
„ 5, 6, 7, 8, liv
„ 11-17 ..
„ 16
Iv
Ivi
„ 4
„ 6
„ 7
FAGH
... 342
... 313
... 372
... 315
... 319
... 30G
... 372
... 319
... 307
... 32.-)
... 306
... 401
... 323
... 397
... 4<H
... 266
... 314
... 326 326. 398
... 362
... 152
... 387
... 328
... 306
... 372
... 330
... 304
... 29S
... .333
... 298
... 343
... 312
... 342
... 298
... 345
336, 337
... 338
... 312
... 372
341, 343
... 512
... 299
... 343
... 344
... 343 372 343 345
... 346
... 321
... 348
... 307
349, 368
... 377
... 378
... 377
9,12
|
FA6B |
|
|
Ivl. 9 |
. ... 350 |
|
„ 10 |
. ... 342 |
|
Ivii |
. ... 298 |
|
„ 5 |
. ... 365 |
|
„ 8 |
. ... 13 |
|
,, 9 |
. ... 366 |
|
„ 15 |
. ... 368 |
|
„ 21 |
. ... 350 |
|
Iviii |
. ... 350 |
|
„ 3-G .. |
. ... 373 |
|
„ 3-12 .. |
. ... 436 |
|
„ 4 ... . |
. ... 352 |
|
lix |
. ... 352 |
|
„ 7 if. .. |
. ... 379 |
|
Ix |
. ... 354 |
|
. ... 368 |
|
|
;; 4 .'.'.' ; |
. ... 370 |
|
„ 12 ... . |
. ... 301 |
|
Ixi |
. ... 357 |
|
„ 3 |
. 54, .377 |
|
Ixii |
. ... 359 |
|
„ 4,5... . |
. ... 77 |
|
Ixiii |
. ... 361 |
|
Ixiv |
. ... 363 |
|
„ 10... . |
. ... 179 |
|
„ 11... . |
. ... 379 |
|
Ixv |
. ... 364 |
|
„ 3-11 . |
. ... 379 |
|
m |
22 |
|
,, / ... |
|
|
„ 6, 7 . |
'. '.'.'. 102 |
|
„ 16... . |
. ... 3S0 |
|
Ixvi |
. ... 368 |
|
„ 2-5 . |
. ... 377 |
|
„ 10 |
. ... 377 |
|
„ 12... . |
. ... 301 |
|
„ 17... . |
. ... 379 |
|
„ 20... . |
. ... 368 |
|
Jeremiah. |
|
|
i. 5 |
. ... 333 |
|
„ 19 ... . |
. ... 301 |
|
„ 20 ... . |
. ... 299 |
|
;; 21 ... . |
. ... 49 |
|
ii. 4 ... . |
. ... 231 |
|
„ 6, 31 ... . |
. ... 314 |
|
„ 9 ... . |
. ... 22 |
|
:: 21 ... . |
. .. 9 |
|
iii. 16 ... . |
. 108,441 |
|
„ 18 ... . |
. 230, 231 |
|
„ 14 ... . |
77 |
|
iv. 30 ... . |
. ... 346 |
|
V. 11 ... . |
231 |
|
„ 16 ... . |
2.3/ |
|
vi. 13 ... . |
. ... 138 |
|
„ 20 ... . |
318 |
|
„ 23 ... . |
. ... 237 |
540
TEXTS ILLUSTRATED.
|
PAGP, |
|
|
vii. 17, 18 ... |
... 192 |
|
„ 2a |
... 55 |
|
„ 3L |
... 33 |
|
viii. 12 |
... 94 |
|
„ 14 |
... 65 |
|
„ 21 |
... 54 |
|
xi. 15 |
... 425 |
|
xiii. 17 |
... 301 |
|
XV. 4 |
... 22 |
|
xvi. 6 |
159, 173 |
|
„ 7 |
... 55 |
|
xvii. 18 |
... 299 |
|
,, 21 |
... 527 |
|
xviii. 19 |
... 22 |
|
XX. 1 |
... 59 |
|
„ 1,2 |
... 94 |
|
„ 28 |
... 86 |
|
xxi. 1-10 ... |
...59,00 |
|
„ 1 ...1)0,94 |
, 95, 117 |
|
, 11-14... |
... 01 |
|
„ 14 |
... cSO |
|
xxii. 1-9 ... |
... 62 |
|
„ 30 |
... 108 |
|
xxiii. 1-8 ... |
... 63 |
|
„ 9-14... |
... 04 |
|
„ 15-29 |
... 05 |
|
„ 30-40 |
... (')G |
|
xxiv |
... 92 |
|
„ 1 |
80, 92 |
|
„ 1-3 ... |
... 07 |
|
„ 4-10 ... |
... 68 |
|
,, 8 |
... 178 |
|
XXV. 1 |
... 259 |
|
XXV. 9, 21 ... |
... 149 |
|
„ 11 |
... 401 |
|
„ 15 |
... 157 |
|
„ 39-55 ... |
... 81 |
|
xxvi. 8 |
... 138 |
|
„ 16 |
... 92 |
|
„ 24 ... |
... 168 |
|
xxvii. 3 |
... 94 |
|
„ 10-22 ... |
... 406 |
|
xxviii. 2, 3 ... |
... 400 |
|
xxix. 1 |
... 299 |
|
„ 2 |
... 92 |
|
„ 10 |
... 401 |
|
„ 22 |
... 380 |
|
„ 25 |
59, 117 |
|
„ 25, 2G ... |
... 90 |
|
XXX. 1-3 ... |
... 69 |
|
„ 4-14 ... |
... 70 |
|
„ 10 ... |
... 310 |
|
„ 15-22 |
... 71 |
|
21 |
... 108 |
|
„ 23-25 ... |
... 236 |
|
„ 23-24 |
... 72 |
xxxi. 1-6
„ 7-14 ... ...
„ 10
„ 15 17
„ 15 ... 231 „ 18-22 ...
„ 19
„ 23-30 ... „ 31-34 ...
„ 81-34
„ 31
„ 33
„ 35-37 ... „ 38-40 ... xxxii. 1-5
„ 4
„ 6-15 ... „ 7-16 ... „ 16-25 ...
„ 18
„ 20
„ 22
„ 26-35 ... „ 36-41 ... „ 42-44 ...
,, 35
xxxiii. 1-5
4
„ 6 9 ... 10,11 ...
„ 11
12-14 ...
15,16 ...
„ 17,18...
„ 19-22...
23-26...
xxxiv. 1, 7
„ 2-7
„ 8-11
„ 11
„ 12-16 ...
„ 15
„ 17-22 ...
„ 18
XXXV. 7
,,.11
xxxvi. 19
XXX vii. 3 ... 5i „ 6-15 ...
;; il-21 :::
» 17
„ 20
,,...21
xxxviii.
,, 1,4
|
PAGF, |
PA on |
|
|
72 |
xxxviii. 1 |
... 90 |
|
73 |
„ 1-3 ... |
... 94 |
|
301 |
„ 1, 32 |
... 94 |
|
74 |
„ 4 ... |
... 90 |
|
L,303 |
„ 5-13 |
... 95 |
|
75 |
„ 6 ... |
... 135 |
|
38 |
y, 7 |
... 92 |
|
70 |
„ 9 ... |
... Ill |
|
77 |
„ 14-19 |
... 97 |
|
312 |
„ 14 ... |
97, 117 |
|
441 |
„ 20-28 |
... 98 |
|
108 |
xxxix. 1 |
52, 112 |
|
78 |
„ 2 ... |
... 212 |
|
79 |
!, 3 ... |
112, 2«9 |
|
99 |
„ 5 ... |
... 114 |
|
81 |
„ 8 ... |
... 116 |
|
100 |
„ 9, 11 ... |
... 275 |
|
102 |
„ 10 ... |
... 117 |
|
102 |
„ 11-14 |
... 118 |
|
22 |
„ 15-18 |
... 112 |
|
315 |
xl., xli. xlii., xliii. 167 |
|
|
30 |
xl. 13 |
... 174 |
|
105 |
xli. 1 |
169, 171 |
|
104 |
„ 5-8 |
... 411 |
|
101 |
xliii. 8 13... |
... 176 |
|
33 |
xliv. 1-14... |
... 190 |
|
105 |
„ 1 |
... 209 |
|
111 |
„ 15-19 ... |
... 192 |
|
105 |
„ 20-23... |
... 193 |
|
100 |
„ 24-30 |
... 191 |
|
138 |
„ 30 |
... 207 |
|
100 |
xlvi. 2 |
103, 259 |
|
107 |
„ 10 |
238, 240 |
|
107 |
„ 13 |
... 195 |
|
107 |
„ 13-19... |
... 85 |
|
108 |
„ 20-28 |
... 86 |
|
80 |
„ 27,23 ... |
... 310 |
|
81 |
xlvii. 1-7 ... |
... 1.52 |
|
82 |
xlviii. 1-8 |
... 154 |
|
83 |
„ 8, 21 |
... 61 |
|
83 |
„ 9-25 |
... 156 |
|
82 |
„ 26 35 |
... 158 |
|
84 |
„ 36-38 |
... 159 |
|
82 |
„ 37 .. |
... 173 |
|
82 |
„ 39-47 |
... 160 |
|
143 |
„ 37 ... |
... 153 |
|
92 |
xlix |
... 143 |
|
), 117 |
„ 1 |
... 221 |
|
91 |
„ 1-6 ... |
... 162 |
|
91 |
„ 7 |
... 149 |
|
92 |
„ 7-22 ... |
... 150 |
|
97 |
„ 7-22 ... |
... 292 |
|
93 |
„ 23-27 |
... 163 |
|
111 |
„ 28-33 |
... 164 |
|
22 |
„ 34-39 |
... 165 |
|
59 |
„ 34-39 ... |
... 385 |
TEXTS ILLUSTRATED.
541
|
PAOR |
PAGE |
PAGK |
|||
|
xlix.34 |
... 105 |
viii 7-10 |
47 |
XX. 4 |
... 47 |
|
1.4,20 |
... 370 |
xiv. 12-20 |
8 |
„ 9-13 ... |
... 30 |
|
,.7-17 |
... 372 |
ix. 9 |
231 |
„ 12, 13-26 |
... 349 |
|
li. 5 |
... 370 |
X. 19 |
247 |
„ 14-21 ... |
... 31 |
|
„ 8, 30, 31 ... |
... 398 |
xi. 1,23 |
247 |
„ 22-26 |
... 32 |
|
» 40 |
... 398 |
„ 3-7 |
52 |
„ 27-38 |
... 33 |
|
„ 43 |
... 4;w |
„ 7-11 |
52 |
„ 30 |
... 331 |
|
„ 58 |
... 266 |
,. 15 |
231 |
„ 39^4 ... |
... 34 |
|
lii. 4 ... 52 |
112, 436 |
xii. 13 |
81 |
„ 45-49 ... |
... 36 |
|
„ 6 |
111, 112 |
„ 23-28 |
1 |
xxi. 1-13 .. |
... 37 |
|
„ 6, 7 |
... 436 |
xiii. 1-5 |
2 |
„ 14-17 .. |
... 38 |
|
„ 7 |
... 113 |
» 5 |
238 |
„ 18 23 |
... 39 |
|
„ 8 |
... 114 |
„ 6-16 |
3 |
„ 21 |
... 58 |
|
„ 10 |
113,116 |
„ 17-19 ... |
4 |
;, 24 |
... 350 |
|
„ 11 |
81, 372 |
„ 20-23 ... |
5 |
„ 24-27 |
... 40 |
|
„ 12 |
212, 436 |
xiv. 1-5 |
6 |
„ 28-32 |
... 41 |
|
„ 14 |
... 116 |
„ 6-8 |
6 |
xxii. 1-5 ... |
... 43 |
|
,, 15 |
... 275 |
„ 9-11 |
7 |
„ 6-16 .. |
... 44 |
|
„ 10,17-23 |
... 117 |
„ 12-23 ... |
8 |
„ 17-31 |
... 45 |
|
„ 24 |
59, 117 |
,, 12 |
294 |
„ 26 ... |
... 250 |
|
„ 24-27 ... |
... 118 |
„ 21 |
55 |
„ 40 ... |
... 231 |
|
„ 28 |
... 110 |
xiv. 22-26 |
32 |
xxiii. 1-10 |
... 47 |
|
„ 28-30 ... |
... 118 |
„ 27-38 |
33 |
„ 11-18 |
... 48 |
|
„ 30 |
179, 213 |
XV. 1-8 |
9 |
„ 19 27 |
... 49 |
|
„ 31-34 ... |
... 209 |
xvi |
47 |
„ 28-39 |
... 50 |
|
„ 31 |
... 115 |
„ 1-5 |
10 |
„ 40-44 |
... 51 |
|
L.VMENTATIOXS. |
,,6 14 „ 8 |
11 17 |
„ 45-49 xxiv. 1. 2 ... |
... 52 ... 88 |
|
|
i |
... 125 |
„ 15-19 |
12 |
„ 1-14 ... |
... 53 |
|
„4 |
... 119 |
„ 20 25 |
12 |
„ 15-20 |
... 54 |
|
,,12-18 |
... 344 |
„ 26-34 |
13 |
„ 21-24 |
... 55 |
|
ii |
... 128 |
„ 26 |
47 |
„ 25-27 |
... 56 |
|
„ 8, 9 |
... 119 |
„ 27-57 |
152 |
XXV |
57, 196 |
|
„ 19 |
... 130 |
„ 35-43 |
14 |
„ 1-7 ... |
... 161 |
|
iii |
... 132 |
„ 44-52 |
15 |
„ 3, 8, 12, 15 |
... 142 |
|
iv |
... 136 |
„ 53-57 |
16 |
„ 8-14 ... |
... 292 |
|
„ JO |
97, 111 |
,, 53 |
231 |
12-14... |
... 152 |
|
,, 12-15 ... |
... Ill |
„ 58-63 |
17 |
;, 15-17... |
... 154 |
|
,, 21 |
143, 221 |
xvii |
39 |
xxvi |
... 57 |
|
„ 21, 22 ... |
... 292 |
„ 1 |
27 |
„ 1-6 ... |
... 179 |
|
V |
... 140 |
„ 1-10 |
18 |
„ 2 |
... 142 |
|
„ 7 |
... 22 |
„ 11-21 |
19 |
„ 7-14 ... |
... 180 |
|
„ 18 |
... 119 |
„ 17 |
103 |
„ 15-18... |
... 181 |
|
»20 |
... 490 |
„ 22-24 |
20 |
„ 19-21... |
... 182 |
|
EZEKIEL. |
xviii.1-17 „ 2 |
23 76 |
xxvii. 1-25 „ 30 .. |
... 183 ... 380 |
|
|
i. 8, 11, 14, 10 |
... 378 |
„ 18 |
23 |
xxviii. 2-10 |
... 184 |
|
iii. 15 |
... 71 |
„ 18-24 ... |
24 |
„ 3 ... |
... 294 |
|
„ 26 |
... 212 |
„ 24, 26. 27... |
217 |
„ 10... |
.. 238 |
|
iv. 4, 5 |
... 231 |
„ 25-32 ... |
25 |
„ 11-19 |
.. 185 |
|
M 7 |
... 342 |
xix.1-7 |
26 |
^ „ 20 26 |
.. 187 |
|
„ 12-15 ... |
... 380 |
„ 5 |
73 |
xxix |
.. 237 |
|
„ 20 |
... 278 |
„ 8,0 |
27 |
„ 1-12 ... |
.. 87 |
|
V. 10 |
... Ill |
„ 9 |
115 |
„ 1-16 ... |
.. 195 |
|
vii. 21 |
... 221 |
„ 10-14 ... |
2S |
„ 3 |
.. 339 |
|
viii. 1-3 ... |
... 24G |
XX. 1-8 |
29 |
„ 4 |
.. 26 |
542
TEXTS ILLUSTRATED.
PAGE ... 88
... 188 ... 201 201,202 ... 207 ... 205 ... 88 ... 88 ... 195 89, 195 ... 196
14, 15 17-32
17 ... 24-33 30 ...
xxxiii.
xxix. 13-16.
,, 17, 20 ..
„ 17-21.
XXX. 1-10 ..
M 6
„ 15
„ 20 ... .
„ 20-26
„ 20-26 .
xxxi.1-18.
xxxii. 1-16
.. 3 339
2G7 198 238 214 195 215 216 298 217 212 214 380 234 218
258
23... 70,231, 233 XXXV. 1-15 149, 221
» 223
xxxvi. 1-37 ... 223
„ 22,32 314
xxxvii.3-14 ... 227
11... 231,298
„ 16-28 232
„ 24...
25...
xxxviii. 1-23
xxxix. 1
„ 2-11...
„ 10 ... „ 12-20 „ 21 „ 24-33 „ 27 ... xxxiv. „ 1-31
17 ... .
„ 25 ... ,
xl. 1
„2
xli. 24
xlii. 13
,. 19,20 ... xliii. 7, 8 ...
„ 10, 11, IS xliv. 10, 15 ... ,
„ 17, 18 ...
„ 18
„ 20, 21 ...
„ 22, 23, 24
„ 29-31 ... Xlv
70 310
234 237 238 231 245 244 349 246 243 247 247 249 249 55 249 250 250 251 251
xlv. 4 ... „ 8 ...
„ 9 ... „ 13-17 „ 18 ...
xlv. 21, 22
„ 21-25
„ 23,24
xlvi. ...
„ 6 ...
„ 13,14
„ 18
„ 20... xlvii. ...
„ 13...
„ 14...
„ 18...
„ 20... xlviii....
» 9...
„ 30
„ 35 xlix. 6-9
PAGE
... 250
... 244
... 251
... 251
244, 252
... 251
... 252
... 252
... 252
... 252
... 2.53
... 244
... 219
... 254
... 231
... 244
... 239
... 254
... 254
... 253
... 255
... 63
... 248
i. 1.
„ 5-16 ..
„6
„ 10 .. „ll .. „ 17 .. „ 20 .. ii. 1
,, .J
„4 ..
,,4,12..
„14 ..
„15 ..
„27 ..
„31 ..
., 46, 49 iii.
„ 3, 27 „ 25 .. iv
„ 30 ..
„ 34, 37 V
„3
„4 ..
„19 ..
„29 .. vi. 26-28
,.7 ..
» 11 ..
Daniel.
259, 260
259, 200
380
401
276
263
262
... 273,274,277
275
274
275
263
274, 275
278
274
277 278 278 273 283 284 270 284 395 406 396 276 278 397 276 377
vi. 14-17
vii. 13 ..,
viii. 9 ...
ix. 24 ...
X. 13 .. xii. 1
» 2 ..
HOSEA.
i.9...
»11 ii. 11 iii. 2
„ 5 vi. 4 vii. 4 ix. 4
., 10 x.l xiii. 15
PAGE
276 383 30 331 383 383 ^ 383
... 299 ... 230 ... 30 ... 468 70, 230 .:; 322 ... 6, 94 ... 55 ... 67
464
Joel. "
|
i.8 '.. |
.. 337 |
|
ii. 11 |
. 238 |
|
„ 15 |
. 436 |
|
„ 28 |
. 6Q |
|
iii. |
. 241 |
|
„ 17 |
. 512 |
|
iv |
. 241 |
|
„ 2, 11 |
. 236 |
|
„ 4 |
. 152 |
|
Amos. |
|
|
i. 4, 14 ... - ..r .. |
. 164 |
|
„ 6 |
. 152 |
|
„ 11 |
. 149 |
|
„ 13-15 |
. 162 |
|
ii. 1-3 ... ;.. T |
. 160 |
|
„ 8 |
. 23 |
|
v. 18 . |
. 238 |
|
vi. 1 . |
. 73 |
|
viii. 1-3 ... . |
. 67 |
|
„ 5 . |
. 30 |
|
ix. 11 . |
. 230 |
|
Obadiah. |
|
|
1-21 ... ... 145, 149 |
|
|
8 ...... . |
. 144 |
|
11-13 ... 145)145,149 |
|
|
19 |
.. 152 |
|
11,12 |
. 292 |
|
Micah. |
|
|
i. 11 |
. 471 |
|
ii. 12, 13 :.; . |
.. 230 |
|
iii. 7 ... .,. . |
.. 54 |
TEXTS ILLUSTRATED.
543
|
iii.U |
PAOB 55 |
vii. 14 |
PAGE . 30 |
vi |
PAGE 382 |
|
iv. 1 |
... 24G |
viii.1-17 ... . |
.. 438 |
„ 4 |
396 |
|
„ 10 |
... 2% |
„ 18-23 |
. 439 |
Song of the T Children. 14,15 |
|
|
» 13 |
... 307 |
„ 19... 52, 3 |
51, 436 |
iiree |
|
|
V. 2 vii. 1 |
... 230 ... 67 |
ix. 1-8 ... . „ 5 |
.. 462 . 152 |
383 |
|
|
Naiium- |
„?10 ... . |
. 4G3 |
I Maccabees |
. |
|
|
i. 15 iii. 12 |
... 512 |
„ 11-17 ... . |
.. 463 |
i. 22, iv. 51 |
440 |
|
„ 16 |
.. 136 |
„ 23, iv. 49 |
441 |
||
|
... 67 |
X |
. 464 |
„38 |
441 |
|
|
Zephaniah. |
xi |
.. 466 |
iv. 29 |
410 |
|
|
ii. 5 |
152, 154 |
xii |
. 469 |
„ 38-43 |
412 |
|
,,8-10 |
... IGO |
xiii |
. 470 |
»44 |
441 |
|
„ 7 |
. 471 |
v. 3 |
410 |
||
|
Haggai. |
xiv |
. 471 |
vi.51 |
441 |
|
|
i. 2-3 |
... 423 |
„ 10 |
79.92 |
X. 84 |
414 |
|
„i |
... 436 |
„ 21 |
. 512 |
2 Maccabees |
|
|
„ 4-11 ... iile::: ::: "^ ;; 11-19 .. „7 ... 428 |
... 423 ... 423 ... 424 ... 421 ... 427 ... 425 434, 461 |
Malachi. i „ 3 „ 6, 9, 10 ii „6 |
. 518 . 149 . 517 . 520 . 61 |
i. 18. 19 ■ ii. 1-8 n 5 vl3 viii. 1-4 XV. 14, 15 |
530 211 440 530 120 211 |
|
,,21-23 ... |
... 426 |
„ 10-14 |
. 517 |
Matthew. |
|
|
Zechartah. |
„ 11 |
77 |
iii. 17 |
311 |
|
|
iii |
. 523 |
iv. 5 |
331 |
||
|
i. 1 ,.2-6 „l-7 |
... 427 ... 427 421, 422 |
„1 „ 5 „ IG |
. 518 . 518 . 377 |
viii. 17 xi. 10 xii. 18 |
343 525 311 |
|
»7 |
... 427 |
iv |
. 525 |
„ 18 if. |
342 |
|
»|»io |
... 307 |
V. 5 |
312 |
xvi. 14 |
211 |
|
„ 8-17 ... |
... 428 |
xvii. 5 |
311 |
||
|
„11 |
... 434 |
1 ESDRAS. |
„ 11 |
525 |
|
|
„14 |
... 238 |
ii. 12-15 |
. 378 |
„ 24 |
511 |
|
„ 18-21 ... |
... 42i) |
V. 2 |
. 4u9 |
xviii. 25 |
336 |
|
ii. 1-13 ... |
... 429 |
„ 6 |
410 |
xix. 20 |
311 |
|
„ 3 |
... 4:iu |
„ 12 |
485 |
XX. 67 |
337 |
|
„ 4 |
421, 493 |
„ 36-40 |
408 |
xxiii. 39 |
210 |
|
„ 15 |
... 292 |
„ 41 |
406 |
xxiv. 41 |
328 |
|
iii. 1-10 ... |
... 430 |
„ 50 |
416 |
xxvii. 9, 10 |
468 |
|
„ 9 |
... 432 |
„ 59 |
417 |
xxvii. 25 |
22 |
|
iv. 1-5 |
... 4^1 |
viii. 33 |
486 |
„ 30 |
337 |
|
„ 6-14 ... |
... 432 |
„ 39 |
1.''8 |
||
|
v.l^ |
... 432 |
2 EsDRAS. |
„ 53 |
331 |
|
|
„ 5-11 |
... 433 |
xiv. 31 |
912 |
Mark. |
|
|
vi.1-8 |
... 433 |
||||
|
„ 12, 13 ... |
... 435 |
TOBIT. |
vi. 23 |
455 |
|
|
„ 15 |
... 435 |
iv. 3-20 |
383 |
ix. 11 |
525 |
|
vii. 1 |
... 427 |
Luke. |
|||
|
„ 1,5, 19 ... |
... 377 |
ECCLF.SIASTICUS. | |
i. 16,17 |
525 |
|
|
„ 2{r. |
... 351 |
i.3 |
441 |
iv. 18 |
357 |
|
„ 1-8 |
... 435 |
xlix. 11-13 |
557 |
vi. 38 |
102 |
|
'i »» ' |
... 171 ... 414 |
Baruch. |
vii. 27 xi. 5 |
525 94 |
|
|
„ 9-14 .„ |
... 437 |
ii. 3 |
111 |
„47 |
210 |
544
TEXTS ILLUSTRATED.
|
XV |
1.22 |
363 |
|
|
») |
24 |
|
. 338 |
|
XV |
li. 35 |
. 328 |
|
|
xxii. 37 |
. 343 |
||
|
John. |
|||
|
ix |
2 |
. 22 |
|
|
xi. |
25 |
|
. 312 |
|
xi] |
.38 |
Acts. |
. 343 |
|
iv |
37 |
. 100 |
|
|
> |
40 |
. 337 |
|
|
V. |
32 |
|
. 313 |
|
vi |
.42 |
|
. 32 |
|
xiii. 47 |
|
. 312 |
|
|
xvi. 13 |
|
. 377 |
|
|
EOMANS. |
|||
|
i |
24 |
. 32 |
|
|
ii. |
28, 29 |
. 241 |
|
PAGE |
Hebrews. |
||
|
ix.6 |
241 |
PAGE |
|
|
X. 16 |
34:i |
iv. 12 |
. 333 |
|
XV. 21 |
343 |
xi. 32 |
8 |
|
xii. 12-26 ... . |
.. 421 |
||
|
1 Corinthians |
. |
||
|
V. 1 |
44 |
1 Peter. |
|
|
Galatians. |
i. 11 ii. 22 |
.. ]89 .. 343 |
|
|
i. 15 |
333 |
„24 |
.. 343 |
|
Ephesians. |
Revelation. |
||
|
i. 6 |
311 |
||
|
v. 14 |
211 |
i. 16 |
.. 333 |
|
vi. 17 • |
333 |
vi. 12 |
.. 337 |
|
viii. 3 |
.. 377 |
||
|
Philippians. |
xi. 19 |
.. 440 |
|
|
ii. 7 |
311 |
xix. 15 xxi. 2-10 ... . |
.. 333 .. 255 |
|
2 Thessalonians. |
„ 12 „ 16 |
.. 255 .. 255 |
|
|
ii. 11 |
32 |
xxii. 2 |
.. 254 |
A GREAT WORK
Tie Natural Law in tie Spiritual World.
By Henry Drummond, F.R.S.E., F.G.S.
Cheaper Edition, 438 Pages. Price, $1.50.
CONTENTS :
PREFACE, MORTIFICATION,
INTRODUCTION, ETERNAL LIFE,
BIOGENESIS, ENVIRONMENT,
DEGENERATION. CONFORMITY TO TYPE,
GROWTH, SEMI-PARASITISM,
DEATH, PARASITISM, CLASSIFICATION.
" I report, as a man may of God's work. — All 's Love^ yet all's Law.''
" No man who knows the splendor of scientific achieve- ment or cares for it, no man who feels the solidity of its method or works with it, can remain neutral with regard to religion. He must extend his method into it or, if that is impossible, oppose it to the knife." — Preface.
FROM THE PRESS.
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'' Grand reading for the clergy." — Bishop Coxe, Buffalo.
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" Fresh, clear and suggestive. Just the book for every minister and intelligent Chris- tian."—Z?r. Haigh.^ Chicago.
JAMES POTT & CO., PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK.
" But however nobly it has held its ground, Theology must feel to-day that the modern world calls for a further proof. "
A STUDY OF ORIGINS;
OR.
THE PROBLEMS OF KNOWLEDGE OF BEING, AND OF DUTY.
By E. de PRESSENSE, D.D.,
Author of " Early Years of Christianity," etc. 8vo, cloth. 513 pages. Third and Cheaper Edition, $1.50.
The aim of this work is to dispel the fatal misconception that science and conscience, liberty and religion are incom- patible.
CONTENTS.
BOOK FIRST— The Problem of Knowledge, Chap. I. Knowledge and Positivism. Chap. II. The Problem of Knowledge and the new Psychology.
Chap. III. The Problem of Knowledge and the Critical School.
Chap. IV. The True Solution of the Prob- lem of Knowledge.
BOOK SECOND— The Problem of Being.
Chap. I. Origin of the Cosmos, I Chap. III. Energy.
Chap. II. Causation. Chap. IV. The Doctrine of Evolution.
BOOK THIRD— Problem of the Being of Men.
Chap. I. Two-fold Nature of Man. I Chap. III. Man and the Brutes.
Chap. II. Revelations — Physical and Moral. | Chap. IV. Human and Animal Society.
BOOK FOURTH— Problem of Duty.
Chap. I. Principle and Origin of Morality. I Chap. III. Religion — Its Nature and Origin. Chap. II. The Ideal— Art. ] Chap. IV. The Savage and Primeval Man.
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a treasure by all who are seeking for such losophers and their confreres in a position
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JAMES POTT & CO., PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK.