That the full measure of punishment was not meted out to Amon his evil
deeds were such that he should have forfeited his share in the world to
come was due to the circumstance that he had a pious and righteous
son. (113) Josiah offers a shining model of true, sincere repentance.
(114) Though at first he followed in the footsteps of his father Amon,
he soon gave up the ways of wickedness, and became one of the most
pious kings of Israel, whose chief undertaking was the effort to bring
the whole people back to the true faith. It dates from the time when a
copy of the Torah was found in the Temple, a copy that had escaped the
holocaust kindled by his father and predecessor Amon for the purpose of
exterminating the Holy Scriptures. (115) When he opened the Scriptures,
the first verse to strike his eye was the one in Deuteronomy: "The Lord
shall bring thee and thy king into exile, unto a nation which thou hast
not known." Josiah feared this doom of exile was impending, and he
sought to conciliate God through the reform of his people. (116)
His first step was to enlist the intercession of the prophets in his
behalf. He addressed his request, not to Jeremiah, but to the
prophetess Huldah, knowing that women are more easily moved to
compassion. As Jeremiah was a kinsman of the prophetess their common
ancestors were Joshua and Rahab the king felt no apprehension that
the prophet take his preference for Huldah amiss. The proud, dignified
answer of the prophetess was, that the misfortune could not be averted
from Israel, but the destruction of the Temple, she continued
consolingly, would not happen until after the death of Josiah. (117) In
view of the imminent destruction of the Temple, Josiah hid the holy Ark
and all its appurtenances, in order to guard them against desecration
at the hands of the enemy. (118)
The efforts of the king in behalf of God and His law found no echo with
the great majority of the people. Though the king was successful in
preventing the worship of idols in public, his subjects knew how to
deceive him. Josiah sent out his pious sympathizers to inspect the
houses of the people, and he was satisfied with their report, that they
had found no idols, not suspecting that the recreant people has
fastened half an image on each wing of the doors, so that the inmates
faced their household idols as they closed the door upon Josiah's
inspectors.
This godless generation contemporaneous with Josiah was to blame for
his death. When King Pharaoh, in his campaign against the Assyrians,
wanted to travel through Palestine, Jeremiah advised the king not to
deny the Egyptians the passage through his land. He cited a prophecy by
his teacher Isaiah, who had foreseen the war between Assyria and Egypt.
But Josiah retorted: "Moses, thy teacher's teacher, spake: 'I will give
peace in the land, and no sword shall go through your land,' not even
the sword that is not raised against Israel with hostile intent." The
king, innocent of the deception practiced by the people, knew not that
they were idol worshippers, to whom the promises of the Torah have no
application. In the engagement that ensued between the Jews and the
Egyptians, no less than three hundred darts struck the king. In his
death agony he uttered no word of complaint; he only said: "The Lord is
righteous, for I have rebelled against His commandment," thus admitting
his guilt in not having heeded the advice of the prophet. (119)
So ended the days of this just king after a brilliant career, the only
king since Solomon to rule over both Judah and Israel, for Jeremiah had
brought back to Palestine the ten exiled tribes of the north, and made
them subject to Josiah. (120) The mourning for him was profound. (121)
Even Jeremiah perpetuated his memory in his Lamentations. (122)
Pharaoh of Egypt was not permitted to enjoy the results of his victory
to the full, for it was soon after this that, in attempting to ascend
the wondrous throne of Solomon, he was stuck down by the lions and
rendered lame by the blow. (123)
The people put Jehoahaz on the throne of Judah to succeed Josiah,
though his brother Jehoiakim was the older by two years. To silence the
legitimate claims of Jehoiakim, the new king underwent the ceremony of
anointing. (124) But his reign was very brief. At the end of three
months Pharaoh carried him off into exile in Egypt, and Jehoiakim ruled
in his stead.
Jehoiakim was another of the sinful monarchs of the Jews, uncharitable
toward men and disobedient to God and the laws of God. His garments
were of two kinds of stuff mingled together, his body was tattooed with
the names of idols, and in order that he might appear as a non-Jew, he
performed the operation of an epipost upon himself. Various forms of
incest were committed by him, and, besides, he was in the habit of
putting men to death that he might violate their wives, and confiscate
their possessions. (125) Blasphemous as he was, he spoke: "My
predecessors did not know how to provoke the wrath of God. As for me, I
say frankly, we have no need whatsoever of Him; the very light He gives
us we can dispense with, for the gold of Parvaim can well replace it."
(126)
Seeing such abominations, God desired to resolve the world into its
original chaos. If He desisted from His purpose, it was only because
the people led a God-fearing life during the time of Jehoiakim. (127)
After he had reigned eleven years, Nebuchadnezzar put an end to his
dominion. Advancing with his army, the Babylonian king halted at
Daphne, a suburb of Antioch. Here he was met by the Sanhedrin of
Jerusalem, who desired to know whether he was coming with the purpose
of destroying the Temple. Nebuchadnezzar assured them, that all he
wanted was the surrender of Jehoiakim, who had rebelled against his
authority. Returned to Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin informed Jehoiakim of
Nebuchadnezzar's intention. The king asked the elders, whether it was
ethical to purchase their lives by sacrificing his. For answer they
referred him to the story of the way Joab dealt with the city of Abel
of Beth-maacah, which had saved itself by surrendering the rebel Sheba,
the son of Bichri. The king's objections did not deter the Sanhedrin
from following the example of Joab acting under the direction of David.
They made Jehoiakim glide down from the city walls of Jerusalem by a
chain. Below, the Babylonians stood ready to receive him.
Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiakim in fetters to all the cities of Judah,
then he slew him, and, his rage still unabated, threw his corpse to the
dogs after having stuck it into the carcass of an ass. (128) The dogs
left nothing of Jehoiakim's body over except his skull, on which were
written the words: "This and something besides." Many centuries later
it was found by a Rabbi near the gates of Jerusalem. He tried in vain
to give it burial; the earth refused to retain it, and the Rabbi
concluded therefrom that it belonged to the corpse of Jehoiakim. He
wrapped the skull in a cloth, and laid it in a closet. One day the wife
of the Rabbi discovered it there, and she burnt it, thinking the skull
belonged to a former wife of her husband, so dear to him even after her
death that he could not separate himself from this relic. (129)
When Nebuchadnezzar returned to Babylonia from his Palestinian
expedition, the people received him with great pomp and solemnity. He
announced to them that in place of Jehoiakim, whom he had slain, he had
installed Mattaniah, the rebel's son, called Jehoiachin, as king over
Judah, and the people uttered the warning: "One cannot educate a
well-behaved puppy whose dam was ill-conditioned; let alone an
ill-conditioned puppy whose dam was ill-conditioned."
Nebuchadnezzar returned to Daphne, and informed the Sanhedrin, who
hastened from Jerusalem to meet him, that he desired the surrender of
Jehoiachin. If they refused to satisfy his demand, he would destroy the
Temple. When the Jewish king was told the threat of his Babylonian
adversary, he mounted upon the roof of the Temple, and, holding all the
keys of its chambers in his hand, he spoke thus to God: "Until now Thou
didst consider us worthy of confidence, and Thou didst entrust Thy keys
to us. Since Thou no longer dost esteem us trustworthy, here, take back
Thy keys." He was held to his word: a hand was stretched forth from
heaven, and it received the keys. (130)
Jehoiachin, good and pious, did not desire the city of Jerusalem to be
exposed to peril for his sake. So he delivered himself to the
Babylonian leaders, after they swore that neither city nor people
should suffer harm. But the Babylonians did not keep their oath. A
short while thereafter they carried into exile, not only the king, but
also his mother, and ten thousand (131) of the Jewish nobility and of
the great scholars. (132) This was the second attempt made by
Nebuchadnezzar to deport the Jews. On taking the former king Jehoiakim
captive, he had exiled three hundred of the noblest of the people,
among them the prophet Ezekiel. (133)
The king Jehoiachin was incarcerated for life, a solitary prisoner,
separated from his wife and his family. The Sanhedrin, who were among
those deported with the king, feared that the house of David die out.
They therefore besought Nebuchadnezzar not to separate Jehoiachin from
his wife. They succeeded in enlisting the sympathy of the queen's
hairdresser, and through her of the queen herself, Semiramis, the wife
of Nebuchadnezzar, who in turn prevailed upon the king to accord mild
treatment to the unfortunate prince exiled from Judea. Suffering had
completely changed the once sinful king, so that, in spite of his great
joy over his reunion with his wife, he still paid regard to the
prescriptions of the Jewish law regulating conjugal life. He was
prepared to deny himself every indulgence, when the purchase price was
an infringement of the word of God. Such steadfastness pleaded with God
to pardon the king for his sins, and the heavenly Sanhedrin absolved
God from His oath, to crush Jehoiachin and deprive his house of
sovereignty. (134) By way of reward for his continence he was blessed
with distinguished posterity. Not only was Zerubbabel, the first
governor of Palestine after the destruction of the Temple, a grandson
of Jehoiachin's, (135) but also the Messiah himself will be a
descendant of his. (136)
X.
THE EXILE