THE RESTORATION OF BABYLON.
In the Median poems, from which Ctesias and Nicolaus have told us the
story of the overthrow of the Assyrian kingdom by the combined Medes and
Babylonians, the leader of the Medes naturally occupies the most
prominent place. From him the prudent and crafty leader of the
Babylonians obtains the satrapy of his home as the price of his
co-operation--co-operation which mainly consists in imparting advice on
the ground of his knowledge of astronomy. Afterwards he shows himself
faithless and thievish, and for this is condemned to death. But the
magnanimity of the Median prince not only grants his life, but even
assigns to him the satrapy of Babylonia, which, according to other songs
in those poems, remains in the hands of the descendants of the
dependant. The poems of the Medes could not leave altogether out of
sight the co-operation of the Babylonians in the overthrow of Assyria,
but they kept it in the back-ground, and gave their leader a
contemptible character. They could not deny that after the fall of
Nineveh Babylonia stood beside Media, but they could change this
independent kingdom into the principality of a vassal, a satrapy of
Media without payment of tribute. As a fact it must have been
Nabopolassar who gave the impulse to a decisive attack upon the remnant
of the Assyrian kingdom, and took the leading part in the decisive
struggle. This position of Nabopolassar breaks out even in the Median
poem, inasmuch as he is the first to rouse the Mede, and sustains the
courage of the confederates.[588]
Sprung from a priestly tribe in Babylonia, as the Median poems tell
us--and other evidence confirms the statement--and in the confidence of
the king of Assyria, Nabopolassar was nominated to be the viceroy of
Babylonia. For some years he holds this office, and then resolves on a
revolt; it is he who sets on foot and accomplishes the union of Media
and Babylonia, and establishes it by the alliance of his own house with
that of the Median king. It is he who relieves Media from the Lydian
war, and establishes peace and a marriage between Media and Lydia, so
that Media can turn with all her power against the remnant of Assyria.
The share which Nabopolassar receives in the prize of victory when the
goal has been won corresponds to his share in the decisive struggle. The
land of Assyria, so Herodotus tells us, fell to Media, "as far as the
Babylonian portion." From this it is clear that Cyaxares received the
Assyrian land as far as the Tigris. Had not this region been under the
supremacy of the Medes before the Persian dominion, the ruins of Nineveh
and Chalah could not have been pointed out to Xenophon as the ruins of
Median cities. The land to the west of the Tigris, Mesopotamia, as far
as the foot of the Armenian mountains, fell to the share of
Nabopolassar. We are definitely told by the Hebrews that the region of
the Chaboras belonged to the new kingdom of Babylon,[589] and, as we
saw, it was not the Median army which Necho met at Biredshik, but the
Babylonians, the army of Nabopolassar.
Whether it was Nabopolassar's intention to extend his power to the west
beyond the Euphrates, and enter upon the inheritance of Assyria as the
sovereign over Syria, or whether it was the advance of Necho into Syria,
and his march to the Euphrates, which first called forth this intention,
we cannot decide. In no case was he likely to suffer Egypt to establish
herself in Syria. Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopolassar, after his
victory at Karchemish, followed the retreating army of Egypt. The Syrian
lands once more looked forward to becoming the scene and seat of the war
between Babylonia and Egypt, as in previous times they had witnessed the
war between Assyria and Egypt. If the dominion of Egypt had been
recently imposed upon them in the place of the dominion of Assyria, it
depended on the approaching struggle of arms, whether they were to
become the subjects of a new master, of the new crown of Babylon.
Thus the defeat of Necho and the retreat of the Egyptian army aroused no
feelings of delight in Jerusalem at the blow which had there fallen upon
the lord of the Nile. There was a fear of the approach of the
Babylonians. We saw with what vigour the prophet Jeremiah, the son of
Hilkiah of Anathoth, had opposed the careless frivolity of Jehoiakim,
the king whom Necho had placed over the Jews (p. 317). After the
disastrous day at Megiddo, the fall of Josiah, and carrying away of
Jehoahaz to Egypt, the eye of the prophet had been directed to the
dangerous position of the kingdom. Necho's army was then in Syria; one
city after another succumbed to his arms. To the melancholy mind of
Isaiah the fall of the kingdom seemed unavoidable. This conviction he
expressed; he foretold to Jehoiakim the most disgraceful fall. In energy
and power of thought Jeremiah cannot be compared with Isaiah, but in the
boldness and incisiveness of his opposition to the king and nation he
surpasses him. Isaiah had firmly held to the preservation and
maintenance of the city of Jerusalem and the temple, even in the
judgment of Jehovah on Israel and Judah. The conception that Jehovah's
temple, and his habitation in the holy of holies of the temple, was a
pledge for the security of the city, that Jehovah could not abandon and
destroy his temple and shrine, was a fixed idea among most of the
prophets and among the people; it was confirmed by the fortunate
preservation from the army of Sennacherib, and the hordes of the Sacæ;
and the Jews had confidence in the impregnable nature and lasting
security of their temple and city. In this confidence Jeremiah detected
a grave evil. The people trusted to the impregnable nature of the shrine
and city; the Jews believed that in spite of their errors and sins they
would be secure of Jerusalem owing to the temple. Therefore he set
himself energetically to combat this belief. He is filled with the
conception of the approaching judgment, which will be brought on by the
defection of past times, "when Israel like a swift young dromedary went
after every stranger;"[590] and by her unrighteous conversation in the
present time. His conception, which in depth of religious feeling is
raised above the views of the earlier prophets, is that all external
customs and symbols must fall to the ground, not sacrifices only and
fasts, but the temple and the ark of the covenant. Not till a radical
destruction has taken place will the restoration of the people follow,
by means of a small remnant of the righteous, and a shoot from the stock
of David. In Jeremiah's view the people cannot be saved without the
stroke of annihilation, "for the Ethiop cannot change his skin, nor the
leopard his spots."[591] But after this judgment Jehovah will "make a
new covenant" with his people, "which is not like that which he made
with their fathers, when he led them out of Egypt." "I will put my law
in your inward parts," saith Jehovah, "and write it in your
hearts."[592] "In those days they will no more speak of the ark of
Jehovah; it will not come into the mind of any: none will miss it; nor
will another be made." Then will Jehovah set up shepherds after his own
heart of the branch of David,[593] who will pasture Israel with wisdom
and prudence; and all nations will gather together to the name of
Jehovah, and will not walk after the hardness of their evil heart.
Filled with these conceptions, Jeremiah cried aloud to the people
assembled in the court of the temple: "Amend your hearts, and listen to
the voice of Jehovah, your God. If ye will not walk in his law, which he
has set before you, and hearken to the words of the prophets, Jehovah
will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.[594] Trust
not in lying words: this is the temple of Jehovah. Ye steal, murder, and
commit adultery; ye offer incense to Baal, and knead dough to make cakes
for the queen of heaven,[595] and come into this house, which is called
by the name of Jehovah, and say: We are delivered to do all these
abominations. Go ye now unto my dwelling-place which was in Shiloh,
where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the
wickedness of my people Israel. So will I do to this house in which ye
trust, as I did to Shiloh, and will cast you out of my sight, as I cast
out your brethren, the seed of Ephraim."[596] At these words the priests
seized Jeremiah, and the people rose in anger to put him to death,
because he had announced the fall of the temple. Then certain of the
elders came forward, and reminded the people that in Hezekiah's time the
prophet Micah had announced: "Zion shall be ploughed as a field, and
Jerusalem shall become a heap of stones,"[597] and neither the king nor
the people had put him to death. Jeremiah himself said to the enraged
multitude: "Behold, I am in your hands; do with me as seemeth good and
meet unto you; but know ye for certain that ye will bring innocent blood
upon this city; for of a truth Jehovah hath sent me unto you to speak
all these words in your ears." The people retired from him.
After this occurrence in the temple, Jeremiah no longer ventured to come
forth in public; he contented himself for the present with dictating his
warnings and announcements to his scribe Baruch. After the battle of
Karchemish it was clear to him at once that the king of Babel would be
the instrument of Jehovah to accomplish the approaching judgment: the
mission which Isaiah had assigned to the Assyrians 100 years
previously--to destroy all nations--Jeremiah now saw given to the
Chaldæans. But as Isaiah then prophesied the fall of Assyria, when she
had accomplished the judgments of Jehovah, so, according to the views
of Jeremiah, the Chaldæans are to be destroyed when they have done their
work. After a rule of 70 years, _i.e._ after a period of ten
Sabbath-years (II. 219), this fortune will overtake the
Babylonians--such is the view of Jeremiah. "For 23 years," so Jeremiah
commanded his scribe Baruch to write,[598] "the word of Jehovah hath
come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but ye
have not hearkened; ye have hearkened to other prophets, not to the
servants of Jehovah. Therefore I will bring Nebuchadnezzar my servant
against this land and its inhabitants, saith Jehovah, and against all
the nations round about, and I will destroy out of them the voice of
mirth, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound
of the mill, and the light of the lamp. The whole land shall be a
desolation, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy
years. Take the wine-cup of this fury at my hand, so spake Jehovah to
me, and cause all the nations to drink it, that they may drink, and be
moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.
Cause Jerusalem to drink it, and the cities of Judah, the Pharaoh of
Egypt, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, the kings of
Tyre and Sidon, and the kings of the islands beyond the sea, the
Edomites, and the Moabites, and the kings of Arabia who dwell in the
deserts, and the kings of Media. Jehovah shall roar from on high, he
shall roar upon his habitation (Jerusalem); he shall give a shout, as
they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.
Jehovah will reckon with the nations; he will plead with all flesh, and
give them that are wicked to the sword. Evil shall go forth from nation
to nation, and the slain of Jehovah will be in that day from one end of
the earth to the other; they shall not be lamented, nor buried, they
shall be dung upon the ground."[599]
At Karchemish Necho had lost all the fruits of his struggles in Syria.
He did not venture to engage in a second battle for the possession of
Syria, but retired to the borders of Egypt. In Jerusalem a day of
fasting was kept at the approach of the Babylonian army. More than three
years and eight months had passed since Necho made Jehoiakim king of
Judah.[600] These and other announcements Jeremiah commanded Baruch to
read before the assembled multitude in the upper court of the temple on
the day of fasting. "It may be they will present their supplication
before Jehovah," he said, "for great is the anger that Jehovah hath
pronounced upon this people." Baruch carried out the command of
Jeremiah. The letter made a deep impression. Baruch had to read it again
before the captains of Jehoiakim, at their request. These told the king,
who was at that time in his winter house, of the prophecies of Jeremiah.
Jehoiakim caused three or four leaves to be read, then seized the roll,
cut it with a knife, threw the pieces into the pan of coals which stood
before him, and gave orders that Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch should
be brought before him, but both had hidden themselves, and the captains
were not inclined to discover them by any strict search.[601]
The Babylonian army did not appear before Jerusalem. Nabopolassar lay
sick at Babylon; the account of his death summoned Nebuchadnezzar back
to the metropolis. He hastened with a few companions through the deserts
to Babylon, in order to take the crown of the new kingdom. The army,
with the prisoners and the booty, were to follow (605 B.C.). Meanwhile
the priests at Babylon had made provision, and set up a regent from
among themselves who governed the kingdom till the return of
Nebuchadnezzar.[602]
As soon as the first succession to the throne of the new kingdom was
happily completed, and Nebuchadnezzar saw his position established, he
applied his forces to extending and securing his empire. If the new
dynasty was to take root, it was incumbent on it to renew the splendour
and power of the ancient kingdom of Babylon. The successes which
Nabopolassar had achieved against the Assyrians, the splendid victory
which Nebuchadnezzar had gained against the Egyptians, must have
confirmed the confidence of the new ruler in his own power, and the
strength of his army. Yet the first consideration was not merely
splendour and glory. Egypt could not indeed maintain her place in Syria,
but she was still in possession of Gaza; if the Syrian States were not
annexed, they would always incline to Egypt, and would soon join her
again. To abandon Syria was equivalent to handing over the country to
the Egyptians. A further consideration was, that the Median power in
league with which Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar had risen was far
superior to the Babylonians. At present, it was true, they were in the
closest and best relations with the Median and Lydian courts--but could
they count on the continuance of these relations? Was it not advisable
to create for the new kingdom of Babylon an empire which should form an
adequate counterpoise to the power of the Medes? The north and east
belonged to the Medes, the natural direction for the extension of
Babylon therefore lay to the south, on the coast of the Persian Gulf,
and to the west. The victorious campaigns of the Assyrian rulers pointed
in this direction; here, on the shore of the Mediterranean, lay the
cities of the Phenicians, who collected within their walls the trade of
the world, whose industry and wealth could bring to the new kingdom the
greatest sources of help.
Nebuchadnezzar's first object was to extend his power over the Arabians
on the lower Euphrates, in North Arabia, and in the Syrian desert. The
tribes of the Temanites, Dedanites, and Kedarites were subjugated. The
princes of the Arabians of Dedan, Tema, Kedar, and Hazor, became vassals
of Babylon.[603] Then Arpad, Hamath, and Damascus, which had resisted
Assyria so long and stubbornly, succumbed. Jerusalem trembled at the
fall of the neighbouring nations. "The Chaldæans are roused," says the
prophet Habakkuk; "that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march
through the breadth of the earth, and shall possess the dwelling-places
which are not theirs. Their horses are swifter than leopards, and more
fierce than evening wolves; proudly their horses spring from far: they
shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. And they shall scoff at the
kings, and the princes shall be a scorn to them; they shall deride every
stronghold, for they shall heap up earth against it, and take it, and
carry off prisoners like sand. Then will they go on like a storm-wind,
and their might is their god.[604] My knees quaked that I might look
with rest upon the day of trouble, upon the people which oppresses
us.[605] Shall they slay the nations continually without punishment? can
he not rest who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and
cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth
unto him all people? Will not the people suddenly rise up and demand
usury from thee? will not the nations plunder thee, whom thou hast
plundered?"[606] Of Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah says: "Like a lion he will
come up against the well-stocked pasture.[607] Flee, flee with all your
might, ye inhabitants of Hazor, for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
hath taken counsel against you, and hath conceived a purpose against
you. Get you up to the nation which hath neither gates nor bars, and
dwelleth alone; go up to Kedar and spoil the men of the East. Your tents
and your flocks will they take; your curtains and your camels they will
carry away; the multitude of your flocks shall be a spoil to them. I
will scatter to all the winds of the earth those who cut the corners of
their hair (the Arabians), saith Jehovah, and will bring destruction on
them from every side, and Hazor shall be a dwelling for the jackal, a
desolation for ever.[608] Cry, ye daughters of Rabbath (Rabbath Ammon,
II. 155), gird yourselves with sack-cloth, for Milcom shall go away
into misery, his priests and princes together.[609] Woe to thee, Moab;
the people of Camos (Chemosh, I. 372) perisheth. He shall fly like an
eagle, and spread his wings over Moab; the strong places are taken.[610]
Hamath is confounded, and Arpad. Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth
herself to flee.[611] Thou wert confident, O Edom, because thou dwellest
on the high rocks and the tops of the mountains. Though thou buildest
thy nest like the eagle thou shalt be thrown down."[612]
Five years had elapsed since the battle of Karchemish when
Nebuchadnezzar crossed the borders of Judah (600 B.C.).[613] Jehoiakim
submitted and thus escaped destruction. After the subjugation of Ammon,
Moab, and Judah, Nebuchadnezzar could turn his arms against the southern
coast of Syria. This advance of Nebuchadnezzar and the necessity of
preventing Babylonia from establishing herself on the borders of Egypt,
could not but bring Egypt again into arms. Necho had had time to recover
from the defeat of Karchemish. The hope of aid from Egypt induced
Jehoiakim to renounce his obedience three years after he had submitted
to Nebuchadnezzar, and to turn his arms against Babylonia. At
Nebuchadnezzar's command the troops of the neighbouring states who had
remained loyal, the Northern Syrians, the Ammonites, and Moabites, first
invaded the land of Judah. When the Egyptians had been driven back into
their borders, and the king of Babylon had "taken everything that
belonged to the king of Egypt from the river Euphrates to the brook of
Egypt," Nebuchadnezzar turned his arms back against Jerusalem to punish
the rebels.[614] Jehoiakim had recently died, and the people had raised
to the throne his son Jechoniah, a youth of eighteen years old.
Jerusalem was invested by the Babylonian army: Nebuchadnezzar came in
person to conduct the siege.[615] "By my life,"--such are the words
Jeremiah puts in the mouth of Jehovah,--"if Jechoniah were a signet on
my right hand, I would pluck him off, and give him into the hands of
those who seek after his life, into the hands of the Chaldæans. I cast
thee away and thy mother into another land, and they shall not bring
thee back unto the land whither thy heart yearns to return."[616]
Jechoniah had only sat three months on the throne when he saw himself
compelled by the advance of the siege to open the gates of Jerusalem to
the enemy. With his mother Nehustha, who appears to have been regent
for him, with the officers of his household and the eunuchs, he went
into the camp of the Chaldæans to give himself up to the king of Babylon
(597 B.C.).[617]
Nebuchadnezzar wished to be secure of the obedience of the Jews; he did
not intend that the hope of Egypt should again bring them under arms. He
caused not only the young king and his mother, the courtiers, the
treasures, and the best furniture of the temple to be carried to
Babylon, but also the influential people in the city, the captains of
the army, and all the men of war in Jerusalem to the number of 7000. In
order to disarm the city more completely, the workers in iron, the
smiths and lock-smiths, were carried away. In all, 10,023 souls were
transplanted by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylonia, only people of no
importance are said to have been left in Jerusalem. In Jechoniah's place
Nebuchadnezzar set up his uncle Zedekiah, the fourth son of Josiah, as
viceroy, and pledged him to obedience and fidelity by joining hands and
taking an oath.[618] The Jews carried away were settled, after the
example of the Assyrian princes, in Babylonia, in part on the Chaboras.
These rules for securing the obedience of the small territory did not
break the tough spirit of the Jews, their stubborn resistance, or their
eager desire for freedom and independence. Zedekiah and those around him
felt the disgrace of the yoke which was laid upon them, and shared with
the mass of the people the desire to shake it off on the first
opportunity. Many prophets favoured this tendency and promised victory
and success to a new rebellion in arms. Not long after Zedekiah had been
placed on the throne, the prophet Hananiah of Gibeon announced before
all the people in the temple: "In two years Jehovah will bring back to
this place all the furniture of the temple which Nebuchadnezzar has
carried to Babylon; and I will bring back, saith Jehovah, Jechoniah the
king of Judah and all the captives, for I will break the yoke of the
king of Babylon."[619] Jeremiah came forward in opposition and said:
"Wooden yokes thou wilt break, and lay on iron yokes. Behold, I will
remove thee from the earth, saith Jehovah; in this year thou shalt die,
for thou hast counselled rebellion." And Hananiah died, as tradition
adds, in the same year, in the seventh month.[620]
Jeremiah was never weary of opposing to the uttermost any view of this
kind. To him the Chaldæans were the instrument of Jehovah for the
punishment of the nations: to endure their rule was, in his view, the
will of Jehovah; any one who resisted the Chaldæans only brought on
himself a heavier yoke, and called down destruction more completely on
his head. If Isaiah had at least cherished the belief in the continuance
of Jerusalem and the temple, Jeremiah, as we have seen, did not share in
this hope. And therefore he preached without ceasing submission to the
yoke, and patient obedience; he was unwearied in taking from the people
every prospect of rescue; he sent letters to the Jews transplanted to
Babylonia, and urged them not to enter into conspiracies; he went so far
as to commend the lot of these captives, and requested them to build
houses in Babylon, and pray to Jehovah for the welfare of that
country.[621] But though the national feelings and impulses of his
nation were unknown to a prophet whose eyes were directed upwards,
though for him the feeling of nationality was lost in religious
conceptions,--the efforts of the people to win back its independent
existence, the stubborn tenacity with which the Jews were ready to fight
for their fatherland, and break the yoke of the foreigner, even when
they rested on deceptive calculations, were not less justified than the
intelligent calculation of the impossibility of such an attempt; and
even from the lofty religious position of Jeremiah, who regarded nothing
but the inward salvation, the purity, and elevation of the heart, could
claim appreciation, since even the common children of earth must have
their rights. Who could blame those who, even in the most hopeless,
desperate condition, estimated more highly the duty of dying for their
country, than the advice to submit quietly to the conqueror? That
persons who held these views should consider this step on the part of
Jeremiah as a corrupt movement, should demand that the prophet take the
side of his own nation against the foreigner, and brand his predictions
as treason to the state, is easily intelligible.
In such a sharp opposition of views, and in the strained position of
affairs in which Judah found herself between Babylon and Egypt, it was
impossible but that heavy accusations should be brought against
Jeremiah, and a hot persecution set on foot against him. He complains
bitterly how he was daily mocked and derided;[622] he is in despair and
laments his destiny; he tells us how he had determined to speak no more
in the name of Jehovah, but the inward voice compelled him; the fire was
kindled in his heart: "I could not stay."[623] "Cursed be the day," he
exclaims, "on which I was born! cursed be the man who brought glad
tidings to my father, and said unto him, 'A son is born unto thee!' Why,
Jehovah, didst thou not slay me in the womb, that I should see labour
and sorrow, and consume my days with shame?"[624] These moods alternate
with a fierce desire for vengeance on his opponents. He is guiltless.
Jehovah has driven him forth to speak, and put his word in his mouth; he
has often besought Jehovah to turn away from Judah the day of
destruction: Jehovah, for whom he suffers, must avenge him on his
enemies. He is so embittered and angry that he even calls down bloody
destruction upon his enemies. "Look on me, Jehovah," he says, "and
avenge me of my persecutors, and know that for thy sake I have suffered
rebuke.[625] I have not desired the woful day, thou knowest: that which
came out from my lips was before thee.[626] If thy words came to me, I
took them eagerly, and they are the joy and rejoicing of my heart; I sat
not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced. I sat alone, for thou
hast filled me with indignation. I was like a lamb led to the slaughter,
and knew not that they had devised devices against me.[627] Why is my
pain perpetual, and my wound incurable?[628] Wherefore doth the way of
the wicked prosper? Wherefore are they happy that deal very
treacherously?[629] Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and
prepare them for the day of destruction.[630] Consider how I stand
before thee, to turn away thy wrath from them. Therefore give up their
children to the famine, and deliver them to the sword. Let their men be
the sacrifice of death, and their women bereaved and widows. Thou
knowest all their counsel against me to slay me; forgive them not their
iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight."[631] Jeremiah then
received the answer of Jehovah, who said to him: "Gird thy loins; speak
to them all that I bid thee; be not afraid of them. I will make thee a
fenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole
land; against the king, the priests, the elders, and the people. They
shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee; I
will save thee from the hand of the wicked, and deliver thee from the
grasp of the furious."[632]
So Jeremiah prophesied again: "No doubt, their prophets say to them: Ye
shall not see the sword nor shall ye have famine, but the Lord will give
you happy days in this land. But Jehovah saith: I have not commanded
them nor spoken to them; they prophesy a false vision, and the deceit of
their heart, and divination. By the sword and famine shall they perish.
The people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of
Jerusalem.[633] They will say: We acknowledge, O Jehovah, our iniquity,
and the sin of our fathers, but do not abhor us, for thy name's sake; do
not disgrace the throne of thy glory; break not thy covenant with us.
But Jehovah saith to me: Pray not for this people; though Moses and
Samuel stood before me, my mind could not be towards them.[634] Sorrow
not with them. I have taken from them my salvation, my grace, and mercy.
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and graven with the
point of a diamond upon the table of their hearts, and upon the horns of
their altars."[635]
In such a contest of opposite views, in such an alternation of moods,
four years had passed for the Jews after Zedekiah was placed by
Nebuchadnezzar upon the throne, when the kings of Sidon and Tyre sent to
Jerusalem to call on the Jews to revolt against Nebuchadnezzar, by whose
attack they were threatened. Messengers also came from the Ammonites and
the Moabites, who had been in subjection longer than the Jews, and from
the Edomites (593 B.C.). If their forces were united there seemed to be
a prospect of success in resistance and rebellion, and the reduction of
the Phenician cities might be prevented. But Jeremiah spoke to the
envoys in the name of Jehovah: "I have made the earth, the man and the
beast, and I gave them to whom it seemed meet to me; and now I give all
these lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon,
my servant, and I have given him the beasts of the field also to
serve him. And the nation and the kingdom which will not serve
Nebuchadnezzar,--that nation I will punish with the sword, and with the
famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
If ye put your necks in the yoke of Babylon, ye shall live."[636] This
time the view of the prophet prevailed; Zedekiah repaired in person to
Babylon obviously to assure Nebuchadnezzar of his fidelity.[637]
The Phenicians were left to their fate, and subjugated by
Nebuchadnezzar.[638] Only Sidon seems to have made a vigorous
resistance.[639] The island city of Tyre retained her independence.
In the year 589 B.C., Hophrah, the grandson of Necho, ascended the
throne of Egypt. Zedekiah soon directed his eyes to the new ruler of the
valley of the Nile. He showed himself ready to venture on the struggle
with Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah dissuaded them: "Egypt is a very fair
heifer," he exclaims, "but destruction cometh from the North. O thou
daughter, dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into captivity; for
Noph (Memphis) shall be waste, and burnt, and desolate without an
inhabitant. The hired men in the midst of her are like fatted bullocks,
for they also are turned back and are fled away together; they did not
stand because the day of their calamity was come upon them, the time of
their visitation. The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded. Thus saith
Jehovah of Hosts: Behold, I will punish Ammon of No (Thebes), and
Pharaoh and Egypt, with their gods and their kings, even Pharaoh and all
them that trust in him. And I will deliver them into the hand of those
that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of
Babylon, and into the hand of his servants."[640]
But the prince and people of Judah were not to be restrained. Building
on the help of Egypt, Zedekiah, in the year 588 B.C., took up arms
against Babylonia.[641] But before Hophrah had finished his preparations
Nebuchadnezzar was in Judah with a powerful army.[642] The strong places
were invested: one city after another surrendered, only Lachish and
Aseka resisted for any length of time.[643] "At the meeting of the
ways," says the prophet Ezekiel, "the king of Babylon halts to make
divination; he shakes his arrows, consults with the teraphim, looks in
the liver of the victim. In his right hand is the divination for
Jerusalem, to throw up a wall against Jerusalem, to build towers, to
appoint battering-rams against the gates, to lift up the voice with
shouting. The head-band will be taken, and the crown removed from the
prince of Israel."[644]
The siege of Jerusalem commenced. If in former times, when the Assyrians
were encamped before Jerusalem, Isaiah had urged the nation and king to
a courageous endurance though arms had been taken up against his advice,
the absoluteness of his deep conviction, the certainty which he had
received from above, did not permit Jeremiah to take up the attitude of
his great predecessor; on the contrary, he did not cease even now to
condemn the resistance in the strongest terms. In his eyes it was a
rebellion against the counsels of God, against the divine order of the
world. When Zedekiah sent to him, to bid him inquire of Jehovah about
the issue of the siege, Jeremiah answered: "I will turn back the weapons
of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of
Babylon, and I will bring the Chaldæans into the city. I will fight
against you with an outstretched arm, and will deliver the city into the
hands of the king of Babylon, that he may burn it, and I will visit your
inhabitants with famine, sword, and pestilence, and those that are left
I will give into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, that he may smite them
with the edge of the sword. I set before you the way of life and the way
of death; he that abideth in the city shall fall by the sword; but he
that goeth out and falleth to the Chaldæans he shall live."[645] Though
these announcements were adapted to undermine the courage and strength
of the resistance, and heavy as was the weight given to them by the
position which Jeremiah held among the prophets, they did not discourage
the king and the population of the metropolis. The debtors and all
slaves of Hebrew birth were set at liberty in order to strengthen the
numbers for the defence.
Success seemed to come to the aid of their endurance and courage. The
Egyptian army advanced and compelled the Chaldæans to raise the siege of
Jerusalem (587 B.C.).[646] There was time to recover breath. Had not
Jehovah again delivered Jerusalem as in the day when Sennacherib
oppressed the city? Jeremiah's dreary proclamations seemed contradicted.
But he persisted in his position and announced: "Pharaoh's army which is
come forth to help you shall return into Egypt, and the Chaldæans shall
come again before the city, and shall take it. And though ye had smitten
the whole army of the Chaldæans and there remained but wounded men in
their tents, they would rise up and burn Jerusalem with fire."[647] It
was natural that Jeremiah, in consequence of these speeches and
predictions, should appear a traitor in the eyes of the nation, who were
struggling for freedom and existence. When, availing himself of the
raising of the siege, he wished to go to his plot of ground at Anathoth,
he was seized in the gate as a deserter to the Chaldæans and thrown into
prison. Yet the king allowed him to be kept in less severe custody, and
soon set him at liberty.[648]
The prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled. The Egyptians were defeated.
Invested once more, Jerusalem was pressed more severely than ever.[649]
The lines of the Chaldæans ran even to the walls of the city,[650] but
the defenders were unwearied. The houses and even the buildings of the
palaces were in part pulled down in order to strengthen the shattered
walls, or build new portions.[651] That Jeremiah under such
circumstances continued to preach the abandonment of the siege, and
subjection to the Chaldæans, roused at length the captains. They
demanded his death from the king: "He weakeneth the hands of the men of
war that remain, and the hands of the people: he seeketh not the welfare
of the Jews, but the hurt."[652] As Zedekiah allowed them to do with
Jeremiah according to their pleasure, they seized him, brought him for
custody to the hill of Zion, and there caused him to be thrown into the
well of the prison. But there was only mud in the well, and when an
Ethiopian eunuch of the king interceded with him for the prophet,
Zedekiah gave command that Jeremiah should be taken out of the well, and
confined in the court of the prison.[653]
Meantime "the famine prevailed in the city;" the distress rose to the
highest pitch. "The priests and the elders," so we are told in the
Lamentations, "sought food in vain: the sword destroys without, the
famine within. The people sought food with sighs, and whatsoever a man
had of price he gave for food. The children and the sucklings swooned;
they cried to their mothers, where is corn and wine, when they swooned
as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured
out into their mothers' bosoms. Better was it for those who were slain
with the sword than for those who were slain with hunger; the hands of
pitiful women have sodden their children for food."[654] At length the
Chaldæans, whose attack was directed to the most accessible part, the
north side of the city, succeeded in taking the suburb surrounded by the
outer wall.[655] Having gained possession of this, they directed their
efforts against the middle gate, which guarded the entrance into the
city beside the fortress of Millo (p. 128). Led by Nergal Sarezer, and
Sarsechim, the captain of the eunuchs, the Babylonians took the middle
gate in the night by storm, and firmly established themselves there.
Zedekiah despaired of being able to maintain the city any longer, with
the motley crowd of soldiers weakened by hunger, and the inhabitants who
doubtless suffered still more in numbers and strength. He attempted to
break through with his army. He succeeded in passing the lines and
gaining the open country, but the Chaldæans in pursuit came up with the
troop which had so boldly broken out in the plain of Jericho. The troop
was dispersed; a part, including Zedekiah, was captured, the rest
escaped. The inhabitants, even after the king and army had left the
city, stubbornly defended themselves in the various parts--in the
citadel and the temple--so that some weeks elapsed before the city was
completely in the hands of the Babylonians (July, 586 B.C.). The siege
had lasted one year five months and seven days.[656]
The first rebellion of the Jews had been punished by Nebuchadnezzar by
the dethronement and abduction of the king, by carrying away the
influential people and the army of Jerusalem, and by disarming the city.
These arrangements had not been sufficient to secure the obedience of
the little country. For the future Egypt was no longer to find
confederates in Southern Syria, and support in Jerusalem. The stubborn
resistance of the Jews was to be broken; an end must be put for ever to
their intrigues with Egypt. Zedekiah, who was placed on the throne by
Nebuchadnezzar himself, and swore obedience to him, was not to escape
the punishment of this breach of faith. Nebuchadnezzar was not with the
besieging army; he was at Riblah, on the Orontes, the grassy plain where
Necho had pitched his camp after the battle of Megiddo. Thither Zedekiah
was brought. In his presence were first executed the captive leaders of
the Jews, and among them his own sons. Then his eyes were put out; he
was laden with chains, and carried away to Babylon. There he died in
prison.[657] The punishment of Jerusalem was carried out by Nebusaradan,
the chief of the body-guard of Nebuchadnezzar. The high priest, Seraiah,
together with the second priest, Zephaniah, the overseers of the temple,
a number of public officers, and sixty of the most distinguished men in
the city, were also taken to Riblah, and put to death, seventy-two in
number.[658] The brazen pillars at the entrance to the temple, and the
brazen sea (II. 182, 184), all the vessels and furniture of the temple
which still remained, and everything that was to be found of value in
the palace, was carried off to Babylon.[659] The Chaldæan army levelled
the walls; city, palace, and temple were burned to the ground. The
inhabitants who survived were carried away, "except the poor people who
had nothing;" even from the country the richer men were carried away
with their wives and children, and only the common people left
behind.[660] Over the remnant of the population a Jew, Gedaliah, the son
of Ahikam (p. 317), who must previously have given proof of his Chaldæan
sentiments, was placed as viceroy. He took up his abode in Mizpeh, where
a Babylonian garrison remained.[661]
"O daughter of Zion, let thy tears flow like rivers day and night"--so
the Jews lamented--"give thyself no rest. The kings of the earth, and
all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the
besieging army could have entered into the gates of Jerusalem. Jehovah
hath cast off his altar, and abhorred his sanctuary. The stones of the
sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. The Lord hath
thrown down from heaven to earth the beauty of Jerusalem, and remembered
not his footstool in the day of his anger. He hath poured out his fury
like fire upon the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion.[662] The elders
of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence; they cast
dust upon their heads; they are girded with sackcloth. The virgins of
Jerusalem hang down their heads to the earth. They that go by strike the
hands together, and shake the head over the daughter of Jerusalem. Is
this the city which was called the garland of beauty, the joy of the
whole earth? Thy enemies shoot out their lips at thee; hiss and say: We
have swallowed her up: this is the day that we looked for; we have done
it. The gates are desolate; the ways to Zion mourn; no one cometh to the
festival. Behold and see, all ye that pass by, if there is any sorrow
like unto my sorrow.[663] Our possession is fallen to strangers, our
houses to aliens; we are orphans without a father; our mothers are like
widows. Servants rule over us; they weaken our wives and virgins: they
hang up the captains: they honour not the faces of the elders; we have
drunken our water for money; our wood is sold to us. The young men grind
the mill-stones, and the children fall under the wood.[664] The
punishment of my people is greater than the punishment of Sodom.[665]
All mine enemies rejoice at my trouble, and laugh at my overthrow, but
thou, Jehovah, will bring the day when they will be as I am; do to them
as thou hast done to me.[666] Our fathers have sinned and are not; we
have borne their iniquities. Take us again to thee, Jehovah; is it right
that thou shouldest utterly throw us away and be so wroth with us?"[667]
Jeremiah was still a prisoner in the court of the citadel when the
Chaldæans forced their way into it. With the rest of the inhabitants of
Jerusalem he had been taken to Ramah, in order to be carried away into
Babylonia from thence, when Nebusaradan, at the command of
Nebuchadnezzar, to whom in the interim Jeremiah's conduct must have been
known, caused his fetters to be taken off, and gave him the choice
whether he would remain or go to Babylonia. It was in his power to go
where he would: if he went to Babylonia he would not be neglected there.
Jeremiah answered that he wished to remain in the land. Nebusaradan then
gave him maintenance and a present, and put him in the hands of the
viceroy, Gedaliah, to convey him to his house at Anathoth.
Gedaliah exercised his new authority in a spirit of conciliation; he
attempted to establish order and peace. If Nebusaradan, before his
departure from the conquered city, had given the unoccupied fields and
vineyards before the gates to the people "who had nothing," Gedaliah
summoned his countrymen who had fled to the Ammonites, Moabites, and
Edomites, back to Mizpeh, "and they gathered summer fruits and wine in
great abundance." He also entered into negotiations with the chieftains
and their soldiers, who with Zedekiah had broken through the lines and
escaped the defeat at Jericho, in order to put an end to their
plundering in the land; he offered to give up to them the places of
which they had taken possession; if they would dwell there and serve the
king of Babylon it would be well with them.[668] The greater number
accepted these proposals, and put themselves under the rule of Gedaliah,
whose wise arrangements had their effect, and seemed to promise further
success. Jeremiah himself remained at Mizpeh with Gedaliah, to whose
action his advice, counsel, and influence could give considerable
support.[669] Two months had not passed since the capture of Jerusalem,
and already a number of men out of Samaria, Shechem, and Shilo, ventured
to go to the ruins of Jerusalem with frankincense and meat-offerings, in
order to sacrifice at the holy place, the seat of the temple.
In the hearts of the great majority fierce resentment must have been
raging against the destroyers of Jerusalem and the temple, against the
conquerors of Judah. If Nebuchadnezzar could not be reached, his viceroy
was in the land. A distinguished man of the Jewish stock had submitted
to be the servant of the deadly enemy. This traitor and servant could be
found. Ishmael, a man of the royal blood, and of the family of
David,[670] one of the fugitives, came with ten men to Mizpeh. He put on
the appearance of submission. Gedaliah invited him to the banquet, at
which with his associates he cut down Gedaliah, the Chaldæans, and the
Jews who were present. The king's daughter and others who had been
placed in Gedaliah's care, the Jews who were assembled at Mizpeh,
followed Ishmael. He acted in union with Baalis, the king of Ammon, with
whom he had intended to take refuge. But the other chieftains, who had
made their peace with Gedaliah, pursued after him, overtook him at the
pool of Gibeon, and took away the prisoners from him; Ishmael himself
escaped to the king of Ammon.
The chiefs of the Jews, who were assembled at Mizpeh, were afraid that
Nebuchadnezzar would still avenge on them the murder of Gedaliah. They
resolved to fly to Egypt. Jeremiah was to entreat Jehovah, and declare
his will to them. After ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah,
and he spake: "Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, for I am with you,
saith Jehovah, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication. I am
with you to help you, and deliver you from the hand of the king of
Babylon. If ye will not obey the voice of Jehovah, your God, saying: We
will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war nor hear the
sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; the sword which ye
feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine
whereof ye were afraid shall follow close upon you, and there shall ye
die. Jehovah hath spoken to you, ye remnant of Judah. Go ye not into
Egypt; know certainly that I have admonished you this day." The warning
voice was in vain. With the captains at their head, the fugitives who
had assembled at Mizpeh, and the king's daughters, men and women, and
all whom Nebusaradan had left behind with Gedaliah, set out to Egypt.
Jeremiah and Baruch also followed, apparently under compulsion.
The fate which the Assyrians had prepared for the state of the ten
tribes 136 years previously had now fallen on the kingdom of Judah. The
temple was destroyed with the metropolis, and with the temple the last
hope of the nation was gone; the remainder of the community, founded
under Joshua's guidance 700 years previously, was annihilated; the
sanctuaries were in the hands of the conqueror. Like the Israelites, the
nation of Judah was now shattered and torn asunder. By the canals in
Egypt, and by the waters of Babylon, on the Chaboras in Mesopotamia, and
on the mouths of the Nile, lingered the fugitives and exiles.[671]
Nothing remained to them but the remembrance of David's glory, and
sorrow for the fall of Israel. But the longer duration which was allowed
to the kingdom of Judah had borne good fruits. It had given the Jews
time to strengthen and deepen their religious and national feeling. It
was not merely that the throne of Judah remained in the possession of
the descendants of David, or that the kingdom of Judah possessed a
highly revered centre in the temple, and thus had maintained a strong
organisation of the priesthood; in the sufferings and struggles of the
last seventy years these priests, in connection with the prophets, and
filled with their views, had learned to regard the faith in Jehovah in a
more inward manner, and plant it more deeply in the hearts of the
people. They had given a legal basis to the worship of Jehovah, and
exalted it to be the recognised religion of the state. If by this means
the state gained nothing in regard to external power and security, an
inestimable treasure was gained in regard to the confirmation and
development of religious feeling. There was hardly any fear that the
captive and fugitive Jews would lose themselves in the foreign nations
among whom they dwelt, like the Israelites, who had been transplanted to
Assyria and Media, or that they would give up their national faith.
Behind the punishment induced by the sins of the people, the prophets
had proclaimed the restoration of the purified Israel. The punishment
had burst upon them, they did not doubt that the restoration would come.
If Asshur had fallen, the hour of Babylon might strike; Jeremiah had
already fixed the time for it. Thus the destruction of their state and
their shrines did not make the Jews despair of the help of their God, or
cause them to fall from their faith. Those who remained behind, no less
than those who were driven out, cherished the hope of Jehovah's help as
deeply as they felt the pain of the fall of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem fell nineteen years after the battle of Karchemish. Step by
step Nebuchadnezzar had overcome Syria. First Arpad, Hamath and Damascus
had succumbed, then the Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites. After Judah
had recognised his supremacy in the year 600 B.C., the rebellion on
which Jehoiakim ventured three years afterwards had brought upon that
country a severe punishment, and a condition of greater dependence. Four
years afterwards, 593 B.C., the cities of the Phenicians were reduced
except Tyre. The second rebellion of Judah was followed by the
annihilation of the country. The prophets of the Jews looked forward to
the war of Nebuchadnezzar against Egypt--to the punishment for the
campaign which Hophrah had undertaken against Syria, and which had
compelled Nebuchadnezzar to raise the siege of Jerusalem. Ezekiel, who
was among the Jews carried away with Jechoniah in 597 B.C., and with
part of them had received a habitation on the Chaboras beyond the
Euphrates, proclaimed the destruction and fall of Egypt. "Egypt," he
says, "has been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. When they took
hold of thee by the hand then thou didst break, and rend all their
shoulder; and when they leaned upon thee, thou didst break and madest
their loins to totter. Thou wast as a dragon in the seas, and camest
forth in thy rivers. The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon
thee. By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitudes to fall:
and I will water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to
the mountain; I will destroy all the beasts thereof from beside the
great waters; neither shall the foot of man, nor the hoof of beasts,
trouble them any more. Go down to them that are sunk in the pit, and be
thou laid with the uncircumcised."[672] The same fortune was announced
to the Pharaoh Hophrah and his land by Jeremiah among the emigrants at
Tachpanhes[673] on the Pelusiac arm of the Nile: "Behold, I will give
Pharaoh Hophrah, king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies, and into
the hand of them that seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah, king of Judah,
into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, his enemy, that sought
his life. Behold, I will send and fetch Nebuchadnezzar, the king of
Babylon, my servant. At the entrance of Pharaoh's house, in Tachpanhes,
he will spread out his royal pavilion, and he will come and smite the
land of Egypt, and deliver to death such as are for death, and to
captivity such as are for captivity, and to the sword such as are for
the sword. And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt,
and he shall burn them and carry them away captive, and he shall break
the pillars of Bethshemesh (the obelisks of Heliopolis), and the houses
of the gods of Egypt shall he burn with fire."[674]
Nebuchadnezzar did not fulfil these expectations. He was not a conqueror
who sought to press on beyond all bounds, and extend his power further
and further. On the contrary, he sought to keep his empire within the
natural boundaries, and not go beyond the desert which separated him
from Egypt. The subjugation of Syria was not complete so long as Tyre
did not obey his authority. He directed his arms not against Hophrah but
against Tyre. It was difficult to reach the island city without a fleet.
Nevertheless Ezekiel looked forward to the speedy success of the
Babylonians, and the immediate fall of the great trading city. Tyre will
fall because she rejoiced over the fall of Jerusalem, because she cried:
"I shall be full, since thou art desolate."[675] He describes in a
lively manner how Nebuchadnezzar will set up his battering-rams against
the walls of Tyre; how he will throw down their towers with his engines
of war; will cast up a trench against them, and raise the shield upon
them.[676] He sees the island already changed into a naked rock for
spreading out nets.[677] These prophecies also were not fulfilled in
their whole extent. The siege, after the capture of the old city, was no
more than a blockade from the mainland, a cutting off of all intercourse
of the city towards the coast, such as had once before been carried on
in the time of Shalmanesar IV. and Assurbanipal of Assyria (pp. 83,
166), and now as then it was only feebly sustained from the sea by the
ships which the subject neighbour-harbours had to furnish.
Nebuchadnezzar's troops are said to have remained thirteen years before
Tyre. The blockade was brought to an end, as it seems, in the year 573
B.C., by an arrangement in which the Tyrians recognised the supremacy
of the king of Babylon. "A heavy service," says the prophet Ezekiel,
"has Nebuchadnezzar compelled his army to perform against Tyre. Every
head is bald, and every shoulder peeled, and there is no wages in his
army for Tyre." The Tyrians, as it seems, allowed Nebuchadnezzar to
elect their king. Ethbaal, king of Tyre, resigned the throne, and
Nebuchadnezzar set up Baal in his place.[678]
After repeated struggles Nebuchadnezzar had driven the Egyptians out of
Syria, had repulsed their attempts to support the rebellions of the
Syrians. In addition to the tribes of the Arabs between Libanus and
Antilibanus he had brought the states and cities of the Syrians to
obedience; he had united under his supremacy the Semitic tribes from the
Tigris to the Syrian coast, from the Persian to the Arabian Gulf. Never
had the ancient kingdom of Babylon won such power, and taken up such a
position. Yet this wide extent of dominion scarcely bore comparison with
the empire of the Medes, in concert with which Babylonia had overthrown
the Assyrians. But the territory of Babylon between the Mediterranean
and the Persian Gulf, as compared with the long stretch of the Median
Empire, which reached from the Halys to the middle, and to the southern
edge of the table-land of Iran, was better rounded off, and the
population of Babylonia was more homogeneous. It belonged to one tribe
only. These advantages, combined with the profuse fertility and the
highly-developed industrial activity of the native land, with the trade
and maritime resources of the Phenician cities, could compensate to
Babylonia in intensive power the advantage which Media had in extent.
For the present the courts of Babylon, Media, and Lydia, were peacefully
connected by the ties of relationship.
FOOTNOTES:
[588] Above, p. 250. Joseph. "c. Apion.," 1, 19. "Antiq." 10, 11, 2.
[589] Ezek. i. 1, 3; iii. 15, 23; x. 15; xx. 22; xliii. 3.
[590] Jerem. ii. 23.
[591] Jerem. xiii. 23.
[592] Jerem. xxiii. 5.
[593] Jerem. xxxi. 31-35.
[594] Jerem. xxvi. 1-5, 13.
[595] Jerem. vii. 18.
[596] Jerem. vii. 1-15; viii. 8; xxvi. 6.
[597] Micah iii. 12.
[598] Jerem. xxv. 1-3. By this date the identity of these warnings with
the writing which, according to xxxvi. 1, 2, was read on the fast day,
is established, an identity which is also proved by internal reasons.
[599] Jerem. ch. xxv.
[600] Jerem. xxxvi. 1, 22.
[601] Jerem. xxxvi. 9-26.
[602] Beros. ap. Joseph. "Antiq." 10, 11, 2. "c. Apion," 1, 19. In these
passages the acts of Nebuchadnezzar in Syria are put together in such a
general way, that from them we cannot draw the conclusion that
Nebuchadnezzar in his first campaign into Syria passed the borders of
Judah, and that even then he had not only set foot in Syria but had
incorporated it. The uncertainty of the succession in the new kingdom
must have called him back as quickly as possible to his home, and the
retirement of the whole army is expressly mentioned. Besides, from
Jeremiah xxxvi. 1, 9, 22, and xxv. 1, 3, it follows that Nebuchadnezzar,
in the years 605-604 B.C., and 604-603 B.C., _i.e._ in the fourth and
fifth of the reign of Jehoiakim, had not yet marched with his army
through Judah. Joseph., "Antiq." 10, 6, 1, represents Nebuchadnezzar as
conquering Syria, except Judah, after the victory of Karchemish. The
statement in the Book of Daniel (i. 1 ff) that Nebuchadnezzar took
Jerusalem in the third year of Jehoiakim, _i.e._ in the year 606-605
B.C., is not a cogent proof.
[603] Jerem. xxv. 20-23; xlix. 28-33.
[604] Habakkuk i. 6-11.
[605] Habakkuk iii. 16.
[606] Habakkuk i. 17; ii. 5-8.
[607] Jerem. xlix. 19.
[608] Jerem. xlix. 28-33.
[609] Jerem. xlix. 3.
[610] Jerem. xlviii. 40, 46.
[611] Jerem. xlix. 23, 24.
[612] Jerem. xlix. 16.
[613] 2 Kings xxiv. If it is stated here that Jehoiakim served
Nebuchadnezzar for three years, and then revolted from him; if the
punishment for this revolt falls not on him but on his successor
Jechoniah, it is clear that these three years must be reckoned from the
end of the reign of Jehoiakim, so that in this way the first subjugation
falls in the year 600 B.C. So Josephus ("Antiq." 10, 6, 1,) states that
the subjugation of Jehoiakim took place in the eighth year of his reign,
_i.e._ in 601-600 B.C.
[614] 2 Kings xxiv. 1-10. That Jehoiakim could not have attempted a
rebellion without reliance on the help of Egypt, is clear without
further proof. Josephus ("Antiq." 10, 6, 2) says: Jehoiakim had revolted
because he heard that the Egyptians were taking the field against
Nebuchadnezzar; but the Egyptians had not had the courage really to take
the field. An attack of Nebuchadnezzar on Egypt, as well as Egyptian
prisoners who are led from Syria to Babylonia, are mentioned in the
statements of Berosus, quoted by Josephus above, p. 328, _n._ But these
statements are so general that they may also be referred to the war
which Nebuchadnezzar carried on with the Egyptians in 587 B.C., p. 341.
Nevertheless, the observation in the Second Book of Kings, which follows
after Jehoiakim's death, "that Nebuchadnezzar had taken all the land, as
far as the brook of Egypt (2 xxiv. 7), which belonged to the king of
Egypt," may have reference to a struggle then going on with Egypt.
Beyond their own borders the Egyptians could only have maintained Gaza,
and a few other cities of the Phenicians. The statement of the
Chronicles that Jehoiakim was carried to Babylon in chains cannot be
maintained against the accounts of the Books of Kings.
[615] 2 Kings xxiv. 10, 11.
[616] Jerem. xxii. 24-27.
[617] This date is fixed by the remark that it occurred in the eighth
year of Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings xxiv. 12).
[618] Ezekiel xvii. 13. 2 Kings xxiv. 13-17. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 13. In
Jerem. xxxix. 1-3, and lii. 28, the number of the captives is given at
3023; the passages quoted from the Books of Kings put the number of the
soldiers at 7000, of the captives generally at 10,000.
[619] Jerem. xxviii. 1-4.
[620] Jerem. xxviii. 12-17.
[621] Jerem. xxix.; cf. xxiv. 5 ff.
[622] Jerem. xx. 7, 8.
[623] Jerem. xx. 9.
[624] Jerem. xx. 14-18.
[625] Jerem. xv. 15.
[626] Jerem. xvii. 6.
[627] Jerem. xi. 19.
[628] Jerem. xv. 16-18.
[629] Jerem. xii. 1.
[630] Jerem. xii. 3.
[631] Jerem. xviii. 21-23.
[632] Jerem. i. 17-19; xv. 20, 21.
[633] Jerem. xiv. 11-16.
[634] Jerem. xiv. 20-22; xv. 1.
[635] Jerem. xvii. 1.
[636] Jerem. xxvii. 1-12.
[637] Jerem. li. 59.
[638] This conclusion is rendered certain by the fact that afterwards
the island city of Tyre is the only one spoken of as not subjugated. Cf.
p. 352.
[639] Ezek. xxxii. 29 mentions Sidon among the nations which had
succumbed to the sword of the king before the twentieth year of
Nebuchadnezzar. Cf. xxviii. 21-26. Jerem. xlvii. 4.
[640] Jerem. xlvi. 19, 26. The position of affairs shows that this
announcement belongs to this date. According to Ezek. viii. 1, Zedekiah
appears to have had dealings with Egypt as early as 591 B.C. Cf. Joseph.
"Antiq." 10, 7, 5.
[641] 2 Kings xxv. 1-3, 8. Jerem. xxxiv. 1-7. Ezek. xxiv. 1.
[642] 2 Kings xxv. 1.
[643] Jerem. xxxiv. 7.
[644] Ezek. xxi. 21, 22, 25, 26.
[645] Jerem. xxi. 1, 10.
[646] Jerem. xxxvii. 5. Ezekiel prophesies the ruin of the Egyptians in
the tenth month of the tenth year of his captivity, _i.e._ in the year
587 B.C.; in this year, no doubt, the march of the Egyptians took place.
[647] Jerem. xxxvii. 6-10.
[648] Jerem. xxxvii. 11-21.
[649] Joseph. "Antiq." 10, 7, 1. Ezek. xvii. 17. At the beginning of the
eleventh year of Zedekiah (586 B.C.), Ezekiel says: "I have broken the
arm of Pharaoh," xxx. 21; cf. xxxi. 1.
[650] 2 Kings xxv. 1-3. Jerem. lii. 4, 5. Cf. Ezek. iv. 2; xvii. 17;
xxi. 21.
[651] Jerem. xxxiii. 4.
[652] Jerem. xxxviii. 4.
[653] Jerem. xxxvii. 21; xxxviii. 28.
[654] Jerem. xix. 9. Ezek. iv. 16, 17; v. 11, 12. Lamentations i. 19,
20; ii. 20; iv. 9, 10; ii. 11, 12.
[655] Vol. II., p. 186. Jerem. xxxix. 3; lii. 6, 7. 2 Kings xxv. 3, 4.
It was this outer wall of which the western front had to be pulled down
for 400 cubits under Amaziah. Vol. II., p. 261.
[656] The capture took place in the fourth month of the eleventh year of
the reign of Zedekiah, in the nineteenth of Nebuchadnezzar. Cf. Ideler,
"Handbuch der Chronologie," 1, 529. Ezekiel, chap. xii.
[657] Jerem. xxxix. 6, 7; lii. 11. 2 Kings xxv. 7.
[658] Jerem. xxxix. 6, where the statement is quite general, "all the
nobles of Judah also the king of Babylon slew;" and lii. 16, "all the
princes of Judah also he slew at Riblah."
[659] 2 Kings xxv. 13-17. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 18. Jerem. lii. 12-28. The ark
of the covenant was not mentioned separately; it may have been already
taken away in 597 B.C.
[660] 2 Kings xxv. 8-11, 18-21. Jerem. xxxix. 9, 10.
[661] Jerem. xl. 5-10.
[662] Lamentations iv. 12; ii. 7; iv. 1.
[663] Lamentations ii. 14-18; i. 12.
[664] Lamentations v. 1-14.
[665] Lamentations iv. 6.
[666] Lamentations i. 7, 21, 22.
[667] Lamentations v. 7, 21, 22.
[668] Jerem. xl. 9.
[669] Jerem. xl. 6.
[670] Jerem. xl. 8.
[671] Jerem. xxiv. 1, 8; chaps. xl.-xliv. Ezek. i. 1-3, &c.
[672] The announcements of Ezekiel, chaps, xxix.-xxxii., belong to the
period from the tenth to the twelfth year of the captivity, _i.e._ to
the years 587 to 585 B.C.
[673] Daphne in Herod. 2, 30, 107.
[674] Jerem. xliii. 8-13; xliv. 30.
[675] Ezekiel, chaps, xxvi.-xxviii. The prophecy begins in the eleventh
year after the captivity of Jechoniah, on the first day of the month,
and therefore four months before the capture of Jerusalem; from xxvi. 7
it is clear that the siege of Tyre had not yet begun: because Tyre
rejoiced in the fall of Jerusalem, she also was to be destroyed.
Afterwards, in the year 570 B.C., Ezekiel declares that the Chaldæans
have received no reward for their heavy service against Tyre (xxix. 17).
Hence the siege of Tyre, which, according to Josephus, lasted for 13
years, falls between 586-570 B.C. This result is confirmed by the
quotations of Josephus from Phenician annals ("c. Apion." 1, 21;
"Antiq." 10, 11, 1). According to these, Cyrus ascended the throne in
the fourteenth year of Hiram, king of Tyre. Before Hiram Merbaal reigned
for four years; before him the judges Mutton and Gerastrat, and king
Balator, for six years, the arch-priest Abbar for three months, the
judges Eknibal and Chelbes for 12 months, king Baal for 10 years, and
before him Ithobal, under whom Tyre was besieged for 13 years. The reign
of Cyrus is obviously calculated from the date at which he conquered
Babylon and the Persians took the place of the Chaldæans, _i.e._ from
the year 538 B.C. If we calculate the dates given by Josephus to this
point, the siege of Tyre came to an end in the year 573 B.C., and began
immediately after the conquest of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. The addition of
Josephus that the siege of Tyre began in the seventh year of
Nebuchadnezzar (599 B.C.) is a direct contradiction to the other more
detailed statements. No doubt we ought to read the seventeenth year of
Nebuchadnezzar for the seventh year with M. Niebuhr ("Assur und Babel,"
s. 107).
[676] Ezek. xxvi. 8, 9, 10.
[677] Ezek. xxvi. 14.
[678] That Tyre, though not captured, was subjugated by the Babylonians,
must be concluded from the statement of Berosus, general though that
is--that all Phoenicia was subjugated by Nebuchadnezzar (supr. p. 328,
_n._), and further from the fact that Josephus ("c. Apion." 1, 21) tells
us that Merbaal and Hiram were fetched by the Tyrians from Babylon; and,
finally, from the circumstance that the reign of Ithobal ceases with the
end of the siege, and that of Baal commences. Hence it follows that
Ithobal was deposed, and his race carried away to Babylon. That the
deportation of kings and elevation of others in their place was usual
among the Babylonians, as among the Assyrians, is clear from the example
of Jechoniah, and from 2 Kings xxv. 28.