If the Babylonians thought that the conquest of Jerusalem was an easy
task, they were greatly mistaken. For three years God endured the
inhabitants with strength to withstand the onslaughts of the enemy, in
the hope that the Jews would amend their evil ways and abandon their
godless conduct, so that the threatened punishment might be annulled.
Among the many heroes in the beleaguered city that was bidding defiance
to the Babylonians, one by the name of Akiba was particularly
distinguished. The stones were hurled at the walls of the city from the
catapults wielded by the enemy without, he was wont to catch on his
feet, and throw them back upon the besiegers. Once it happened that a
stone was so cast as to drop, not upon the wall, but in front of it. In
his swift race toward it, Akiba was precipitated into the space between
the inner and the outer wall. He quickly reassured his friends in the
city, that his fall had in no wise harmed him. He was only a little
shaken up and weak; as soon as he had his accustomed daily meal, a
roasted ox, he would be able to scale the wall and resume the struggle
with the Babylonians. But human strength and artifice avail naught
against God. A gust of wind arose, and Akiba was thrown from the wall,
and he died. Thereupon the Chaldeans made a breach in the wall, and
penetrated into the city. (26)
Equally fruitless were the endeavors of Hanamel, the uncle of Jeremiah,
to save the city. He conjured the angels up, armed them, and had them
occupy the walls. The Chaldeans retreated in terror at the sight of the
heavenly host. But God changed the names of the angels, and brought
them back to heaven. Hanamel's exorcisms availed naught. When he called
the Angel of the Water, for instance, the response would come from the
Angel of Fire, who bore the former name of his companion. Then Hanamel
resorted to the extreme measure of summoning the Prince of the World,
who raised Jerusalem high up in the air. But God thrust the city down
again, and the enemy entered unhindered. (27)
Nevertheless, the capture of the city could not have been accomplished
if Jeremiah had been present. His deeds were as a firm pillar for the
city, and his prayers as a stony wall. Therefore God sent the prophet
(28) on an errand out of the city. He was made to go to his native
place, Anathoth, to take possession of a field, his by right of
inheritance. Jeremiah rejoiced; he took this as a sign that God would
be gracious to Judah, else He would not have commanded him to take
possession of a piece of land. Scarcely had the prophet left Jerusalem
when an angel descended upon the wall of the city and caused a breach
to appear, at the same time crying out: "Let the enemy come and enter
the house, for the Master of the house is no longer therein. The enemy
has leave to despoil it and destroy it. Go ye into the vineyard and
snap the vines asunder, for the Watchman hath gone away and abandoned
it. But let no man boast and say, he and his have vanquished the city.
Nay, a conquered city have ye conquered, a dead people have ye killed."
The enemy rushed in and ascended the Temple mount, and on the spot
whereon King Solomon had been in the habit of sitting when he took
counsel with the elders, the Chaldeans plotted how to reduce the Temple
to ashes. During their sinister deliberations, they beheld four angels,
each with a flaming torch in his hand, descending and setting fire to
the four corners of the Temple. The high priest, seeing the flames
shoot up, cast the keys of the Temple heavenward, saying: "Here are the
keys of Thy house; it seems I am an untrustworthy custodian," and, as
he turned, he was seized by the enemy and slaughtered in the very place
on which he had been wont to offer the daily sacrifice. With him
perished his daughter, her blood mingling with her father's. The
priests and the Levites threw themselves into the flames with their
harps and trumpets, and, to escape the violence feared from the
licentious Chaldeans, (29) the virgins who wove the curtains for the
sanctuary followed their example. Still more horrible was the carnage
caused among the people by Nebuzaradan, spurred on as he was by the
sight of the blood of the murdered prophet Zechariah seething on the
floor of the Temple. At first the Jews sought to conceal the true story
connected with the blood. At length they had to confess, that it was
the blood of a prophet who had prophesied the destruction of the
Temple, and for his candor had been slain by the people. Nebuzaradan,
to appease the prophet, ordered the scholars of the kingdom to be
executed first on the bloody spot, then the school children, and at
last the young priests, more than a million souls in all. But the blood
of the prophet went on seething and reeking, until Nebuzaradan
exclaimed: "Zechariah, Zechariah, the good in Israel I have
slaughtered. Dost thou desire the destruction of the whole people?"
Then the blood ceased to seethe.
Nebuzaradan was startled by the thought, if the Jews, who had a single
life upon their conscience, were made to atone so cruelly, what would
be his own fate! He left Nebuchadnezzar and became a proselyte. (30)