JUDAH UNDER MANASSES AND JOSIAH.
Other cares and other efforts than the maintenance of a wide dominion,
the erection of splendid palaces, the restoration of impressive works of
art, the preparation of magnificent furniture, occupied a small region
which obeyed the lords of that military power, and those palaces,--the
kings of Asshur. The kingdom of Israel, though not annihilated by the
arms of Assyria, was thoroughly broken by them. Twenty years after,
Judah escaped the same disaster, but not without the severest wounds. It
was laid waste at that time throughout its whole extent; the cities were
taken or garrisoned; 200,000 of the inhabitants were carried away. Only
the metropolis was maintained and saved. Afterwards, in the last years
of Hezekiah, and under the reign of his son Manasses (he ascended the
throne in 697 B.C.), the land remained unmolested by the Assyrians for
more than 20 years, till Esarhaddon undertook to subjugate Syria again
to the dominion of Assyria, which his father had given up after raising
the siege of Jerusalem. Some years after this Manasses joined the
attempt of Tyre to resist the king of Asshur with the help of Tirhaka
(p. 154). We do not know what Judah had to suffer for this attempt of
the king: we only learn from the Hebrews that Manasses was carried away
captive, but at a later time restored to his kingdom. In any case Judah
beheld for the space of 20 years the armies of Assyria on their march to
and from the Nile (673-653 B.C.).[417]
In the first centuries after the settlement of the Hebrews in Canaan,
the rites of the Syrians had in isolated instances forced their way in
beside the worship of Jehovah. Under Saul, David, and Solomon the
worship of Jehovah was established and organised, and took firm root.
The earliest prophets, after the division of the kingdom, opposed the
introduction of the worship of Baal in Israel with the fiercest zeal. In
the time of Jeroboam II. and Uzziah, the renewed advances of these rites
had been successfully met by the great prophets with the deepened and
purified conception of the national deity. And now these hostile
tendencies once more met in the severest conflict. The Hebrew Scriptures
tell us that Manasses did not follow the example of his pious father;
that he turned back after the way of his grandfather Ahaz; that he
restored the worship of Baal, dedicated a place for fire-offerings in
the valley of Ben Hinnom, and burnt his son to Moloch. On the roof of
the royal palace and in the court of the temple altars were set up, and
priests established, "who burnt incense to the sun, the moon, the
zodiac, and all the host of heaven;" courtesans and women who wove tents
dwelt in the buildings of the temple, and the king even set up the
statue of Astarte (Istar) in the temple itself. In vain did the priests
set themselves in opposition to this movement; in vain did the prophets
announce: "The line and the plummet of destruction will be drawn over
Jerusalem as over Samaria." Manasses caused those who opposed his
arrangements and innovations to be put to death; he is said to have
filled Jerusalem from one end to the other with innocent blood. "Like a
destroying lion," says Jeremiah, "the sword devoured your
prophets."[418] The death of Manasses and the accession of his son Amon
brought no improvement. "He did that which was evil, and walked in the
way of his father, and served the idols which his father served."
The more energetically the prophets condemned the religion of the
Syrians, the more strongly they contended against all customs and
sacrifices, against sensuality, luxury, and debauchery, so much the more
closely did the elements thus attacked and almost overcome combine
together; the more stubbornly did the opposite party cling to the rites
of the neighbours, the more eagerly did they collect all the Syrian
deities in and round Jerusalem. The highest and the lowest religious
conceptions,--the worship of the one holy God in heaven, and the rites
of sensuality and mutilation--strove once more with each other with all
their force; in the one case with the deepest certainty and conviction,
in the other with the fierce impulse of the passions, and the support of
the crown. The last ten years of the long reign of Manasses seem to have
brought the severest persecution upon the priests and prophets of
Jehovah which they ever experienced. And when Amon, after two years, was
slain in the king's house by a conspiracy of his servants (640 B.C.),
and the people of the land slew all who had conspired against Amon, and
raised his son Josiah, a boy of eight years old, to the throne, it was
natural to the circle of the priests and prophets to guard against the
recurrence of such oppression of their faith and lives as had taken
place under Manasses and Amon. This was only possible if the religion
which they professed, and for which they suffered, finally obtained a
decisive victory, and became the exclusive religion of Judah. If the
persecution ceased in the minority of the king, the Syrian rites
continued to exist; and if the young king, when he came of age, should
join _that_ side, the times of Manasses would recur. Neither the
organisation of the priesthood of the temple, nor their religious
influence, was sufficient to retain the kings in the faith of Jehovah,
and prevent them from reformations and persecutions in the interest of
the Syrian rites. What the influence and authority of the priests failed
to accomplish, the mighty religious utterance of the prophets in the
fulness of their faith was also unable to avert.
The tendencies of the priests and prophets were already regarded as in a
process of assimilation. The views of the prophets were not without
influence on the habits and usages of the priests. The prophetic word
had already begun to penetrate the old narrow views of the tribal god of
Israel, holding a place beside other gods, the rigid rule of external
service, the traditions of the priesthood, with its powerful mysticism,
inwardness, and deeper idea of God; while, on the other hand, the
prophets could borrow from the priests clear and established forms, and
thereby felt themselves impelled to fix the relation of inspired
religion to the rites of worship. The persecutions of Manasses had
brought these two directions in which the religious life of Judah had
developed more closely together than at any previous time. In this union
men felt themselves stronger than before. If the crown could be attached
to the worship of Jehovah, if the lasting support of royal authority
could be secured for it, if the worship of Jehovah could be elevated to
the position of a legally established state-religion,--if by this means
it became possible to apply the penalties of the law and religious
influence with equal force in favour of the national religion, the hope
might be entertained that the religion could be strictly enforced, that
the utterances of priests and prophets, naturally supporting each other,
and expressed in a popular form, would secure a lasting victory--that
the worship of Jehovah could be greatly strengthened, the Syrian rites
for ever excluded, the position of the priesthood secured, and future
dangers turned aside from it.
The chief aim was to fill the hearts of the king and the people with
more lively faith; to attach the king and nation more closely to the
worship of Jehovah, and, if possible, to pledge them definitely to
support it; to gain the power of the state and the force of the law for
the maintenance of this worship. The ancient writings of the priests
contained, as we saw, in addition to the account of the fortunes of the
people in ancient times, the ritual, the rubrics for the priests, the
rules of purification, the most ancient legal sentences and canons of
blood-vengeance and family law, together with all the usages of justice.
The contents of these writings formed a code for the priests rather than
the laity; this fact, and the connection in which these regulations
stood with the historical narrative, as well as the extent of the whole,
made these books ill-adapted for presenting to the king and the nation a
synopsis of the most essential duties, and for impressing these duties
upon them. The detailed rules for the priests must be removed; a
law-book for the laity was required. For this purpose the regulations
scattered through the old books were collected and arranged into a
compendium of the requirements which every Israelite had to fulfil. The
new conceptions of the prophets must be assimilated to the old
regulations, and these brought into harmony with the deeper views of the
prophets. Something was also deducted from any excessive and very ideal
demands, in order to give a more certain currency to more moderate
rules. Only of such a law could the hope be entertained that it would
find adoption and win hearts, and be recognised by ruler and people as
the fixed canon, the principal law of the land, and that it could be
strictly enforced.
Josiah was of age when his kingdom was visited by a heavy calamity.
Savage tribes from the north suddenly over-flowed Syria and Judah, laid
waste the land far and wide, rolled on to Egypt, and then flowed
backwards to their homes. If Jerusalem resisted, and perhaps the
stronger cities also, the land was nevertheless cruelly devastated (625
B.C.). Judah was again brought to the brink of destruction, as in the
days of Hezekiah, and again Jehovah had not made "a full end;" again he
had saved his people. The king caused improvements to be made in the
temple; for this purpose the doorkeepers collected money among the
sacrificers. When Josiah sent his scribe Zaphan to the high priest
Hilkiah to receive the collected money; the high priest said, that "he
had found the book of the law in the house of Jehovah," and gave the
scribe a roll. He brought the book to the king, and read it before him.
Josiah was deeply moved by the contents, and the threats denounced in it
against those who transgressed the law of Jehovah. He directed the high
priest, Zaphan, and some others to "enquire of Jehovah about the words
of the book that had been discovered." They went to Huldah, a
prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the chamberlain. The prophetess
declared the words of the volume to be Jehovah's words. Then the "king
(it was in the year 622 B.C.) assembled the elders of Judah and all the
people in the house of Jehovah, and read in their ears all the words of
the book, which was found in the house of Jehovah."[419]
According to this book--the second law--Moses, after the giving of the
law on Sinai, had once more, in the land of Moab, on the borders of
Canaan, shortly before his death, proclaimed the law of Jehovah, and
renewed the covenant of Jehovah with Israel. The introduction to the
book is a speech of Moses, which, after the manner of the prophets, is
directly addressed to the Israelites, and gathers together the
kindnesses which Jehovah had shown to his people in Egypt, and after the
exodus from that land. The lofty style of this description, compared
with the composition of the older law, is evidence of the effect
subsequently exercised by the prophetic mode of conception and
expression. But not the form only, the contents also of the new law are
determined in essential points by the idea of God developed in the
circles of the prophets (p. 26). Jehovah, who has created earth and
heaven,[420] whose is "the heaven and the heaven of all heavens," "the
God of gods and Lord of lords,"[421] who alone is true being, while all
besides is transitory appearance, who guides nature and men according to
his word and will, "who does justice to the widow and the orphan, and
regards the person of no man,"[422] remains in the new law, as in the
old, a jealous God, "who dips his arrows in the blood of his enemies;"
but in this law he is also, as the prophets taught, a merciful God who
has no pleasure in the punishment of evil-doers, but in their amendment;
who, it is true, "visits the sins of the fathers upon the children to
the third and fourth generation, but also has mercy on thousands who
love him."[423] This God may not be worshipped under an image; for, as
the book of the law expresses itself in an argument drawn from history:
"Ye saw no manner of similitude on the day when the Lord spoke to you
from Horeb, out of the midst of the fire."[424]
If the prophets raised their eyes beyond and above the relation of this
one Lord of heaven and earth to the people of Israel to the conception
of a divine government of the world; if Isaiah had spoken of the plan
according to which Jehovah had arranged the fortunes of the nations and
lands since the beginning of days; the law is naturally confined to the
relation of Jehovah to Israel. But this relation is conceived chiefly in
the feeling of the prophets. We saw how the prophets had been led by the
conception of the peculiar fortunes experienced by the Israelites to
reconstruct the relation of the tribal god in such a manner that the one
Almighty Lord of heaven was regarded as having chosen Israel as his
people: a relation which is brought forward by the prophets in the most
various applications. Owing to this peculiar relation Jehovah gave
Canaan to the Israelites; for this reason he chose Sion for his
mountain, Jerusalem for his dwelling-place, and the temple for his
house; for this reason Jehovah was, to the prophets, the real king of
Israel. Like the old, the new book of the law regards the relation of
Jehovah to the Israelites as a covenant, a treaty between two parties,
each of whom can stand on his rights; Jehovah on his worship; Israel on
the services rendered in return by Jehovah, on the land granted to him
for the service of Jehovah, on the enjoyment of his fields and
vineyards, on peace and security against enemies, on the increase of his
race and prosperity. Jehovah is the master, and Israel the servant; the
servant must serve, but the master cannot keep back the wages. Jehovah
has announced his commands to Israel; the Israelites have pledged
themselves to fulfil them, and so long as they perform their obligation,
Jehovah will not shorten the reward of their service. If on the ground
of such a covenant the prophets regard all the evil which overtakes
Israel as a consequence of the breach of it; if the "strife" between
Jehovah and Israel concerning the observation and non-observation of the
contract is a current idea with them, with which is connected the
announcement of a day of judgment, and of the severe punishment which
Jehovah will execute on those who transgress the covenant (p. 28); the
book of the law is here marked by something of the priestly character,
inasmuch as it concludes with the blessing which will attend the
maintenance of the covenant, and the curse which will follow upon the
breach of it: to which Moses adds; "he knows that the Israelites will do
evil after his death."[425] In the first case "the fruit of the womb
will be blessed in Israel," "the fruit of the fields, the increase of
the kine, and the lambs of the sheep, the basket, and the kneading
trough," and "Israel will lend to many nations and borrow of none;"[426]
in the second case Jehovah will visit them "with the scab, with boils of
Egypt on the knees and thighs, from the top of the head to the sole of
the foot; with fever, pestilence, consumption, inflammation; with
blindness, madness, and astonishment of heart;" "the heaven above them
will be of brass, and the earth under them of iron; they will be to all
the kingdoms of the earth for oppression, and their carcases will be the
food of the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field; they will
live scattered among all nations from one end of the earth to the other;
they will become an astonishment, a by-word, and a derision to the
nations."[427]
If the prophets announced the day of judgment and the destruction of the
unfaithful, they seldom forgot to describe, in the most glowing colours,
Israel's restoration; they remained in the firm conviction that
Jehovah's mercy would be as great as his anger: that Jehovah, through
the remnant of the faithful and the regenerate Israel, would turn all
nations to his service; that again in the future "a shoot would spring
from the stock of Jesse;" that the race of David would reign with a
renewed divine power (p. 28, 133). These great ideas of the restoration
of the renewed and purified Israel, these hopes of the Saviour and
restorer from the house of David, are wanting in the Book of the Law. It
is simply pointed out, in regard to the kingdom of Israel, "that if
Israel returns, Jehovah will lead back the captives, and gather Israel
again, and circumcise his heart."[428]
If it is a subordinate point of view that the Israelites ought to serve
Jehovah in order that it may be well with them, this conception
nevertheless follows necessarily from the position of the tribal god to
the tribe recommended to his protection--and to any unfettered mind the
assumption is natural that reward should attend good actions; that the
good must prosper and the evil suffer on the earth. The centre of this
class of conceptions among the Israelites is not so much to serve for
the sake of the hire, as that the worship of Jehovah would have this
reward as its immediate consequence. But if at the same time the
recompense for service was brought more strongly into prominence among
the Jews than among any other nation, if in no other people this legal
state of the relation between God and man is established so much in the
form of a compact, the prophets had already given an inward and moral
meaning to the simple relation of contract between Jehovah and Israel.
They looked on it as a marriage (p. 40), and consequently they did not
merely reprove the breach of the contract as an outrage on right, but
branded it as faithlessness. The Book of the Law also does not remain at
the point of the mere contract. The Book asks: "Whether such a mighty
thing was ever done or heard of on the earth, as that a God had
attempted to take a people to himself out of the midst of the nations by
signs, and wonders, and war, and a strong hand and an outstretched arm,
by great and wonderful deeds."[429] But we are further told, "Jehovah
has not inclined to you, and chosen you, because ye were more than all
nations--ye were the least of the nations--but because Jehovah loved
you."[430] "It is the grace of Jehovah that he has inclined to the
fathers of Israel, and to them only, to lead them."[431] If the relation
of the protecting lord to his people thus passes into a relation of free
choice and love, the Book of the Law, on the other hand, requires from
the Israelites something more than an external worship of Jehovah by
gifts and sacrifices. "The command which I give thee is not hidden from
thee, nor is it far off, that thou shouldst say, Who will go up to
heaven and bring it down, or who will go over the sea and announce it
to us? The word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy
heart."[432] "Circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer
stiff-necked."[433] "Ye will find Jehovah if ye seek him with all your
heart, and all your soul."[434] "What does Jehovah require of thee? That
thou shouldst love him with all thy strength, and walk in his
ways."[435] "Love Jehovah, thy God, with all thy heart, and all thy
soul, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his
commandments alway."[436]
If the new law seeks to give a value to inwardness, to lifting up the
heart, and love to God; if it recognises the moral nature of Jehovah in
the heart of man, and in this point is fully in harmony with the
requirements of the prophets; yet at the same time, in accordance with
the view of the priests, the whole sacrificial service was retained,
with the regulations for purification. Even if the priests had been able
to adopt the point of view of the prophets--the conception of purely
inward elevation, and service with the heart--how could this have been
brought into force, and established among the people, or with the kings,
who found it no easy task to keep up the ritual of the service of
Jehovah beside the sensual Syrian rites? The ritual for the priests, the
regulations for their rights and duties, were in existence; the new law
was not intended to instruct the priests, it was essentially a rule of
life for the laity. Hence in this respect the new law had only to work
its way as a supplement, to impress more definitely on the people unity
of the worship, and its concentration in the temple at Jerusalem. Thus
it was decisively commanded that the Passover also should be kept by all
Israelites in Jerusalem (II. 210). In order finally to put an end to
the ancient custom of worshipping Jehovah "in the high places," the rule
was enforced that all sacrifices should be offered in the temple at
Jerusalem: every other place of sacrifice was expressly forbidden, and
every sacrifice which was not presented by the priests of the temple. On
the other hand, in other departments, the new law exhibits greater
moderation. At the festival of the new bread it was enough if every one
offered freewill-offerings according to the measure in which "Jehovah
has blessed him;" but the Israelite was not to appear before Jehovah
with utterly empty hands.[437] The new. law moderated the demands for
giving the tithe to the Levites. The tithe of the harvest was still to
be offered according to ancient custom as a thank-offering for Jehovah
in the temple; but it was permitted to redeem the tithe in kind and
exchange it for money: finally, the law declared itself content if the
tithe were duly paid at least in each third year.[438] The tithe of
cattle was entirely dropped in the Book of the Law; only the claim of
the priests to the male first-born of animals was retained: "With such
oxen ye shall not plough: such sheep shall not be shorn; they shall be
eaten before Jehovah year by year."[439] The new law provided a
compensation for the diminution of the tithe, by allowing the Levites,
like the priests, to have a share in the sacrifices, if they did service
in the temple, and by the rule that the Israelites should invite the
Levites to the sacrificial feasts at the thank-offerings and
festivals.[440] Other requirements of the old law--that a part of the
spoils of war should be given to the priests--that in enumerations and
levies of the people every one should pay a poll-tax to the temple,
were not repeated in the new law.
The most essential point was to put an end to the Canaanitish rites in
Israel, and prevent their entrance for the future. The new law therefore
had to retain in all its sharpness the opposition to the Canaanites: in
the conquered cities at least all that was male was to be "cursed" with
the edge of the sword.[441] And not less must the strict regulations of
the ancient law be kept up about the exclusiveness of Israel towards all
other nations, the prohibition of marriages with them (a rule only
relaxed in the case of women captured in war),[442] and against
receiving strangers as citizens and partners of the community. Even the
closely-related tribes of the Ammonites and Moabites were not to be
received, though families of these tribes in the tenth generation were
living in Israel. The only exception allowed by the Book of the Law was
in favour of the Edomites, the most closely-related tribe (I. 415).
"From the Edomite thou shalt not turn away; he is thy brother?" Edomites
were to be received in the third generation. The new law goes further
than the old in threatening the worship of every other god than Jehovah
with the punishment of death, in demanding that every one who served
another god should be brought out to death. Least of all were the next
of kin to spare the apostate: they were rather to take the foremost
place in the persecution. He who served other gods was brought before
the gate, on the evidence of two or three witnesses, and stoned, the
witnesses throwing the first stone at him: but the Book of the Law says
expressly that the evidence of one witness was not enough.[443] In the
same way false prophets, who incited to the worship of other gods, even
if they did signs and wonders, were put to death.[444] "If thy brother,"
the Book continues, "or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy
bosom, or thy friend, which is as thy own soul, entice thee to serve
other gods, thou shalt not spare him; thy hand shall be the first upon
him to stone him to death."[445] If a city practises idolatry, the
inhabitants and every live thing in the city, even the cattle, are to be
"cursed" and put to the edge of the sword; all furniture and property is
to be brought into the market-place and burnt as a burnt-offering for
Jehovah. Then the houses are to be destroyed with fire and never
rebuilt.[446]
The Book of the Law sought to avoid the greatest danger of all, by the
provision that the people should not choose any stranger to be king. How
could a stranger be king in Israel when no strangers were to be admitted
into the people? The king of the people which Jehovah chose must belong
to the chosen race. But the new law also adds, that the people are "to
make him king whom Jehovah shall choose," a regulation which, in so far
as it recognises and sanctions the old right of election, must be
intended to guard against the influence of the priests on the possession
of the throne, and their decision. For the king himself the Book lays
down the rule: not to multiply horses and wives to himself, that his
heart turn not away, as had been the case with Solomon and Ahab, and not
to greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. He is also to make a
copy of the law when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom, that it may
be with him, and "he may read therein all the days of his life, that he
may learn to fear Jehovah, and observe all the words of the law, and
that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren."[447]
The old law gave the rules of blood-right, and family-right, and in
addition canons on the rights of the person, and the protection of
property. In the new law the main object was to secure the carrying out
and application of these rules of justice in the practice of the
tribunal. For this object a definite influence of the priests on the
tribunal was required. In principle the Book declares, that "every
sentence shall be given after the decision of the priests and
Levites,"[448] for practice it is contented to prescribe, that judges
and overseers were to be placed at all the gates; and then adds: "If
there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment between blood and
blood, and between plea and plea, and stroke and stroke in the gates,
then thou shalt arise and get thee to the place which Jehovah shall
choose (the temple), and come to the priests and Levites and the judge,
who shall be there, and do according to the sentence which they
pronounce for thee." The man who will not listen to the priest who
stands there to minister before Jehovah is to be put to death.[449]
In the judicial process the new law lays emphasis on the rule that only
the testimony of two or three witnesses is to be sufficient,[450] and
that the testimony is to be strictly proved. The judges are to inquire,
and "if the witness is a false witness, and has spoken falsely against
his brother, ye shall do to him as he thought to do to his
brother."[451] Like the old law, the new warns the judge to "have no
respect of persons," and adds that he is to take no gift, that he is
never to give crooked judgments; least of all, in the case of widows
and orphans. "Cursed is he that perverteth the judgment of the
fatherless and widow."[452]
In the canons of law, as in the regulations about the tithes, the new
code makes changes only with a view to the carrying out of the law in
practice. It goes decidedly beyond the old in the regulations,
instituted even in the old law, for the diminution of the severity of
the law of debt, and in regard for the oppressed and poor (II. 221). The
arrangements about the years of Sabbath and of Jubilee are dropped as
impracticable in the new law, and are reduced to the much simpler rule,
that in every seventh year, i.e. in the year of Sabbath, an "acquitment
is to be made," i.e. every unpaid loan, made before this year, is to be
cancelled, with the income upon it. Feeling the evil consequences which
might spring from this regulation, the Book of the Law at the same time
gives warning that no one is to be misled into refusing loans to the
poor from the fear that he could not count on repayment after the year
of acquitment.[453] The older law requires, as has been already
remarked, that in lending to the poor no interest should be taken;[454]
the new law went further: interest is not to be taken from any
Israelite, but only from strangers (_i.e._ Phenician merchants).[455]
But here also it is added, that no one for this reason "is to harden his
heart, and close his hand before his poor brother; thou shalt lend to
him on a pledge (_i.e._ on sufficient security), what is requisite for
his need, and Jehovah will bless thee in all the work of thy
hands."[456] Thus in Israel money was, in fact, only lent on pledge. The
old law forbids to take the cloak of the poor in pledge;[457] the new
law forbids the creditor, who demands his loan, to enter the house in
order to choose a pledge for himself, and lays down the rule that the
man who lends money is to wait outside till the debtor brings a pledge.
The mill and the mill-stone (as indispensable to every household), and
the garment of the widow, are not to be demanded.[458]
The new law repeatedly gives command that the debtor, who from inability
to pay has become the slave of his creditor (II. 221), is not to be
called upon to perform the duties of a slave, but is rather to be kept
in the house as a hired servant and a serf. It requires that all slaves
should participate, not only in the rest of the Sabbath, but in the
enjoyment of the festivals of harvest and vintage. It repeats the
command to liberate Hebrew slaves in the seventh year, and adds: "And
when thou sendest him away free, thou shalt not let him go empty; thou
shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and
out of thy winepress. Remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of
Egypt, and that Jehovah thy God redeemed thee." Runaway slaves, who had
escaped into another community, were not to be delivered up again to
their master, according to the new code.[459]
The old law gave command: "The hire of the day labourer shall not remain
with thee till the morning" (II. 225). The new law requires that it
shall be paid before sunset: "for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon
it."[460] The poor, the widow and the orphan in the land, are not to be
oppressed; they must be supported before the court, and the hand opened
towards them. At the harvest there is to be no gleaning. The scattered
ears are not to be gathered any more than the fallen berries in the
vineyard. "Hast thou forgotten a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not
return to take it; this sheaf shall be, like the gleanings, for the
stranger, the widow and the orphan."[461] Strictly as the new law
maintained the exclusiveness of Israel towards the neighbours (p. 221),
it is equally emphatic in taking the part of the individual unprotected
stranger who dwells in Israel. "Cursed is he who perverts the judgment
of the stranger."[462] The law forbids the mocking of afflicted persons
owing to infirmities of body; the dumb man is not to be reviled, nor a
stumblingblock to be placed in the way of the blind; the man is accursed
who causes a blind man to go out of his way.[463] A man shall not see
the ox or sheep of his brother go astray without leading it back, or
keeping it, if the owner is unknown to him; and the same shall be done
with all lost property.[464] Only the young ones are to be taken from
the nest of the bird, and not the mother with them.[465] Fruit trees are
to be spared even in the land of an enemy.[466] The mouth of the
thrashing-ox is not to be tied, and even animals must rest on the
Sabbath.[467]
When king Josiah had read this book before the assembly of the elders
and the people in the house of Jehovah (p. 213), he vowed that he "would
turn after Jehovah, and keep his ordinances and commands, and fulfil
with all his heart and soul the words of the covenant written in the
book." "And all the people entered into the covenant." The king went
vigorously to work to destroy the altars, statues, and symbols of
foreign rites which remained in Jerusalem, in the neighbourhood, and the
whole country, from the time of Manasses and a yet earlier date. The
image of Astarte (p. 209) was removed from the temple, and burnt on the
brook Kidron; the altars on the roof of the king's palace, which Ahaz
had made, as well as those which Manasses had set up in the court of the
temple, were torn down; the place for offering burnt-offerings to Moloch
in the valley of Ben Hinnom; the altars of Milcom and Camus, which since
Solomon's time had existed on the high places near Jerusalem (II. 195),
were purified, "that no one should any more make his son or his daughter
to pass through the fire." All the vessels of the worship of Baal and
the star-gods were removed, and the houses of the male worshippers
thrown down. When the king proceeded to put an end to the ancient
worship of Jehovah on the heights, he found greater resistance than in
the removal of these foreign rites and their priests. He commanded all
the priests of the cities of Judah to come to Jerusalem, and purified
the high places "from Geba to Beersheba," even the places at Bethel
which Jeroboam II. had set up, against which Amos and Hosea had
declaimed.[468] The priests who did not obey, and continued to sacrifice
at the old places of sacrifice, and on the high places, he caused to be
slain as sacrifices at the altars which they refused to desert. Then the
Passover was celebrated according to the regulations of the law, "as
never before under the kings of Israel and Judah," and tradition proudly
declares of Josiah "that before him there arose no king like unto him,
nor after him."[469]
FOOTNOTES:
[417] Above, p. 157, 162 ff.
[418] 2 Kings xxi. 3-16; xxiii. 4-14, 26; xxiv. 3. Jer. ii. 30; vii. 31;
viii. 2, 19; xv. 4; xix. 4, 5.
[419] 2 Kings xxii. 3-20; Deut. xxxi. 9-13. The less weight will be
given to the somewhat circumstantial account of the discovery given in
Chronicles as compared with the Books of Kings because the details are
only a development of what Hilkiah says to Zaphan.
[420] Deut. iv. 32.
[421] Deut. x. 14, 17.
[422] Deut. x. 18.
[423] Deut. v. 9.
[424] Deut. iv. 15.
[425] Deut. xxxi. 27.
[426] Deut. xxviii. 12.
[427] Deut. xxviii. 15; cf. iv. 27.
[428] Deut. xxx. 1-10.
[429] Deut. iv. 32-34.
[430] Deut. vii. 7, 8.
[431] Deut. x. 14, 15; iv. 37.
[432] Deut. xxx. 11-14.
[433] Deut. x. 16.
[434] Deut. iv. 29.
[435] Deut. xix. 9; x. 12.
[436] Deut. xiii. 3; xi. 1; cf. vi. 4-6.
[437] Deut. xii.; xvi. 16.
[438] Deut. xv. 19, 20; iv. 22-29; xxvi. 12-15.
[439] Deut. xii. 6, 11, 17; xiv. 27-29.
[440] Deut. xviii. 6-8.
[441] Deut. xx. 10-17.
[442] Deut. vii. 1-4.
[443] Deut. xvii. 2-7.
[444] Deut. xiii. 1-5.
[445] Deut. xiii. 6-11.
[446] Deut. xiii. 12-17. Cf. Exod. xxii. 18, 20.
[447] Deut. xvii. 14-20.
[448] Deut. xxi. 5.
[449] Deut. xvi. 8-12; xix. 17; xxv. 13.
[450] Deut. xvii. 4, 6; xix. 15.
[451] Deut. xix. 19.
[452] Deut. xvi. 19; xxvii. 19.
[453] Deut. xv.
[454] Vol. II. p. 220.
[455] Deut. xv. 6; xxiii. 20; xxviii. 12.
[456] Deut. xv. 7-11.
[457] Vol. II. p. 220.
[458] Deut. xxiv. 6, 10-13, 17.
[459] Deut. xii. 12; xvi. 11, 14; xv. 12-18.
[460] Deut. xxiv. 15.
[461] Deut. xxiv. 19-22.
[462] Deut. xxvii. 19.
[463] Deut. xxvii. 18. Cf. Levit. xix. 14.
[464] Deut. xxii. 1-4.
[465] Deut. xxi. 6.
[466] Deut. xx. 19, 20.
[467] Deut. xxv. 4.
[468] Above, p. 31.
[469] 2 Kings xxiii. 4-25. 2 Chron. xxxiv.; xxxv. 1-9. Jesus, Son of
Sirach, xlix. 1, 2.