_GEDALIAH_
B.C. 586
2 KINGS xxv. 22-30
"Vedi che son un che piango."--DANTE, _Inferno_.
"No, rather steel thy melting heart
To act the martyr's sternest part,
To watch with firm, unshrinking eye
Thy darling visions as they die,
Till all bright hopes and hues of day
Have faded into twilight grey."
KEBLE.
In deciding that he would not accompany Nebuchadrezzar to Babylon,
Jeremiah made the choice of duty. In Chaldæa he would have lived at
ease, in plenty, in security, amid universal respect. He might have
helped his younger contemporary Ezekiel in his struggle to keep the
exiles in Babylon faithful to their duty and their God. He regarded the
exiles as representing all that was best and noblest in the nation; and
he would have been safe and honoured in the midst of them, under the
immediate protection of the great Babylonian king. On the other hand, to
return to Judæa was to return to a defenceless and a distracted people,
the mere dregs of the true nation, the mere phantom of what they once
had been. Surely his life had earned the blessing of repose? But no! The
hopes of the Chosen People, the seed of Abraham, God's servant, could
not be dissevered from the Holy Land. Rest was not for him on this side
of the grave. His only prayer must be, like that which Senancour had
inscribed over his grave, "Éternité, deviens mon asile!" The decision
cost him a terrible struggle; but duty called him, and he obeyed. It has
been supposed by some critics[894] that the wild cry of Jer. xv. 10-21
expresses his anguish at the necessity of casting in his lot with the
remnant; the sense that they needed his protecting influence and
prophetic guidance; and the promise of God that his sacrifice should not
be ineffectual for good to the miserable fragment of his nation, even
though they should continue to struggle against him.
So with breaking heart he saw Nebuzaradan at Ramah marshalling the
throng of captives for their long journey to the waters of Babylon.
Before them, and before the little band which returned with him to the
burnt Temple, the dismantled city, the desolate house, there lay an
unknown future; but in spite of the exiles' doom it looked brighter
for them than for him, as with tears and sobs they parted from each
other. Then it was that--
"A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel
weeping for her children refuseth to be comforted, because they are
not. Thus saith the Lord, 'Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine
eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded,' saith the Lord; 'and
they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope
for thy time to come,' saith the Lord, 'that thy children shall come
again to their own border.'"[895]
Disappointed in the fidelity of the royal house of Judah, Nebuchadrezzar
had not attempted to place another of them on the throne. He appointed
Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, his satrap (_pakîd_)
over the poor remnant who were left in the land. In this appointment we
probably trace the influence of Jeremiah. There is no one whom
Nebuchadrezzar would have been so likely to consult. Gedaliah was the
son of the prophet's old protector,[896] and his grandfather Shaphan had
been a trusted minister of Josiah. He thoroughly justified the
confidence reposed in him, and under his wise and prosperous rule there
seemed to be every prospect that there would be at least some pale gleam
of returning prosperity. The Jews, who during the period of the siege
had fled into all the neighbouring countries, no sooner heard of his
viceroyalty than they came flocking back from Moab, and Ammon, and Edom.
They found themselves, perhaps for the first time in their lives, in
possession of large estates, from which the exiles of Babylon had been
dispossessed; and favoured by an abundant harvest, "they gathered wine
and summer fruits very much."[897]
Jerusalem--dismantled, defenceless, burnt--was no longer habitable. It
was all but deserted, so that jackals and hyænas prowled even over the
mountain of the Lord's House. All attempt to refortify it would have
been regarded as rebellion, and such a mere "lodge in a garden of
cucumbers" would have been useless to repress the marauding incursions
of the envious Moabites and Edomites, who had looked on with shouts at
the destruction of the city, and exulted when her carved work was
broken down with axes and hammers. Gedaliah therefore fixed his
headquarters at Mizpah, about six miles north of Jerusalem, of which
the lofty eminence could be easily secured.[898] It was the watchtower
from which Titus caught his first glimpses of the Holy City, as many a
traveller does to this day, and the point at which Richard I. averted
his eyes with tears, saying that he was unworthy to look upon the city
which he was unable to save. Here, then, Gedaliah lived, urging upon
his subjects the policy which his friend and adviser Jeremiah had
always supported, and promising them quietness and peace if they would
but accept the logic of circumstances--if they would bow to the
inevitable, and frankly acknowledge the suzerainty of Nebuchadrezzar.
It was perhaps as a pledge of more independence in better days to come
that Nebuzaradan had left Gedaliah in charge of the young daughters of
King Zedekiah, who had with them some of their eunuch-attendants. As
that unfortunate monarch was only thirty-two years old when he was
blinded and carried away, the princesses were probably young girls;
and it has been conjectured that it was part of the Chaldæan king's
plan for the future that in time Gedaliah should be permitted to marry
one of them, and re-establish at least a collateral branch of the old
royal house of David.
How long this respite continued we do not know. The language of
Jeremiah xxxix 2, xli. 1, compared with 2 Kings xxv. 8, might seem to
imply that it only lasted two months. But since Jeremiah does not
mention the year in xli. 1, and as there seems to have been yet
another deportation of Jews by Nebuchadrezzar five years latter (Jer.
lii. 30), which may have been in revenge for the murder of his satrap,
some have supposed that Gedaliah's rule lasted four years. All is
uncertain, and the latter passage is of doubtful authenticity; but it
is at least possible that the vengeful atrocity committed by Ishmael
followed almost immediately after the Chaldæan forces were well out of
sight. Respecting these last days of Jewish independence, "History,
leaning semisomnous on her pyramid, muttereth something, but we know
not what it is."
However this may be, there seem to have been guerilla bands wandering
through the country, partly to get what they could, and partly to
watch against Bedouin marauders. Johanan, the son of Kareah, who was
one of the chief captains among them,[899] came with others to
Gedaliah, and warned him that Baalis, King of Ammon, was intriguing
against him, and trying to induce a certain Ishmael, the son of
Nethaniah, the son of Elishama--who, in some way unknown to us,
represented, perhaps on the female side, the seed royal[900]--to come
and murder him. Gedaliah was of a fine, unsuspicious temperament, and
with rash generosity he refused to believe in the existence of a plot
so ruinous and so useless. Astonished at his noble incredulity,
Johanan then had a secret interview with him, and offered to murder
Ishmael so secretly that no one should know of it. "Why," he asked,
"should this man be suffered to ruin everything, and cause the final
scattering of even the struggling handful of colonists at Mizpah and
in Judah?" Gedaliah forbad his intervention. "Thou shalt not do this,"
he said: "thou speakest falsely of Ishmael."
But Johanan's story was only too true. Shortly afterwards, Ishmael,
with ten confederates,[901] came to visit Gedaliah at Mizpah, perhaps
on the pretext of seeing his kinswomen, the daughters of Zedekiah.
Gedaliah welcomed this ambitious villain and his murderous accomplices
with open-handed hospitality. He invited them all to a banquet in the
fort of Mizpah; and after eating salt with him, Ishmael and his
bravoes first murdered him, and then put promiscuously to the sword
his soldiers, and the Chaldæans who had been left to look after
him.[902] The gates of the fort were closed, and the bodies were flung
into a deep well or tank,[903] which had been constructed by Asa in
the middle of the courtyard, when he was fortifying Mizpah against the
attacks of Baasha, King of Israel.
For two days there was an unbroken silence, and the peasants at Mizpah
remained unaware of the dreadful tragedy. On the third day a sad
procession was seen wending its way up the heights. There were scattered
Jews in Shiloh and Samaria who still remembered Zion; and eighty
pilgrims, weeping as they went, came with shaven beards and rent
garments to bring a _minchah_ and incense to the ruined shrine at
Jerusalem. In the depth of their woe they had even violated a law (Lev.
xix. 28, xxi. 5), of which they were perhaps unaware, by cutting
themselves in sign of their misery. Mizpah would be their last
halting-place on the way to Jerusalem; and the hypocrite Ishmael came
out to them with an invitation to share the hospitality of the murdered
satrap. No sooner had the gate of the charnel-house closed upon
them,[904] than Ishmael and his ten ruffians began to murder this
unoffending company. Crimes more aimless and more brutal than those
committed by this infinitely degenerate scion of the royal house it is
impossible to conceive. The place swam with blood. The story "reads
almost like a page from the annals of the Indian Mutiny." Seventy of the
wretched pilgrims had been butchered and flung into the tank, which must
have been choked with corpses, like the fatal well at Cawnpore,[905]
when the ten survivors pleaded for their lives by telling Ishmael that
they had large treasures of country produce stored in hidden places,
which should be at his disposal if he would spare them.[906]
As it was useless to make any further attempt to conceal his
atrocities, Ishmael now took the young princesses and the inhabitants
of Mizpah with him, and tried to make good his escape to his patron
the King of Ammon. But the watchful eye of Johanan, the son of Kareah,
had been upon him, and assembling his band he went in swift pursuit.
Ishmael had got no farther than the Pool of Gibeon, when Johanan
overtook him, to the intense joy of the prisoners. A scuffle ensued;
but Ishmael and eight of his blood-stained desperadoes unhappily
managed to make good their escape to the Ammonites. The wretch
vanishes into the darkness, and we hear of him no more.
Even now the circumstances were desperate. Nebuchadrezzar could not in
honour overlook the frustration of all his plans, and the murder, not
only of his viceroy, but even of his Chaldæan commissioners. He would
not be likely to accept any excuses. No course seemed open but that of
flight. There was no temptation to return to Mizpah with its frightful
memories and its corpse-choked tank. From Gibeon the survivors made
their way to Bethlehem, which lay on the road to Egypt, and where they
could be sheltered in the caravanserai of Chimham. Many Jews had
already taken refuge in Egypt. Colonies of them were living in
Pathros, and at Migdol and Noph, under the kindly protection of
Pharaoh Hophrah. Would it not be well to join them?
In utter perplexity Johanan and the other captains and all the people
came to Jeremiah. How he had escaped the massacre at Mizpah we do not
know; but now he seemed to be the only man left in whose prophetic
guidance they could confide. They entreated him with pathetic
earnestness to show them the will of Jehovah; and he promised to pray
for insight, while they pledged themselves to obey implicitly his
directions.
The anguish and vacillation of the prophet's mind is shown by the fact
that for ten whole days no light came to him. It seemed as if Judah
was under an irrevocable curse. Whither could they return? What
temptation was there to return? Did not return mean fresh intolerable
miseries? Would they not be torn to pieces by the robber bands from
across the Jordan? And what could be the end of it but another
deportation to Babylon, with perhaps further massacre and starvation?
All the arguments seemed against this course; and he could see very
clearly that it would be against all the wishes of the down-trodden
fugitives who longed for Egypt, "where we shall see no war, nor hear
the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread."
Yet Jeremiah could only give them the message which he believed to
represent the will of God. He bade them return. He assured them that
they need have no fear of the King of Babylon, and that God would
bless them; whereas if they went to Egypt, they would die by the
sword, the famine, and the pestilence. At the same time--doomed always
to thwart the hopes of the multitude--he reproved the hypocrisy which
had sent them to ask God's will when they never intended to do
anything but follow their own.
Then their anger broke out against him. He was, as always, the prophet
of evil, and they held him more than half responsible for being the
_cause_ of the ruin which he invariably predicted. Johanan and "all
the proud men" (_zēdim_) gave him the lie. They told him that the
source of his prophesy was not Jehovah, but the meddling and
pernicious Baruch. Perhaps some of them may have remembered the words
of Isaiah, that a day should come when five cities, of which one
should be called Kir-Cheres ("the City of Destruction")--a play on the
name Kir-Heres, "the City of the Sun," On or Heliopolis should--speak
the language of Canaan and swear by the Lord of hosts, and there
should be an altar in the land of Egypt and a _matstsebah_ at its
border in witness to Jehovah, and that though Egypt should be smitten
she should also be healed.[907]
So they settled to go to Egypt; and taking with them Jeremiah, and
Baruch, and the king's daughters, and all the remnant, they made their
way to Tahpanhes or Daphne,[908] an advanced post to guard the road to
Syria. Mr. Flinders Petrie in 1886 discovered the site of the city at
Tel Defenneh, and the ruins of the very palace which Pharaoh Hophrah
placed at the disposal of the daughters of his ally Zedekiah. It is
still known by the name of "The Castle of the Jew's Daughters"--_El
Kasr el Bint el Jehudi_.[909]
In front of this palace was an elevated platform (_mastaba_) of brick,
which still remains. In this brickwork Jeremiah was bidden by the word
of Jehovah to place great stones, and to declare that on that very
platform, over those very stones, Nebuchadrezzar should pitch his
royal tent, when he came to wrap himself in the land of Egypt, as a
shepherd wraps himself in his garment, and to burn the pillars of
Heliopolis with fire.[910]
Jeremiah still had to face stormy times. At some great festival
assembly at Tahpanhes he bitterly reproached the exiled Jews for their
idolatries. He was extremely indignant with the women who burned
incense to the Queen of Heaven. The multitude, and especially the
women, openly defied him. "We will not hearken to thee," they said.
"We will continue to burn incense, and offer offerings to the Queen of
Heaven, _as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our
princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem_; for
then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. It is
only since we have left off making cakes for her and honouring her
that we have suffered hunger and desolation; and our husbands were
always well aware of our proceedings."
Never was there a more defiantly ostentatious revolt against God and
against His prophet! Remonstrance seemed hopeless. What could Jeremiah
do but menace them with the wrath of Heaven, and tell them that in
sign of the truth of his words the fate of Pharaoh Hophrah should be
the same as the fate of Zedekiah, King of Judah, and should be
inflicted by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar.[911]
So on the colony of fugitives the curtain of revelation rushes down in
storm. The prophet went on the troubled path which, if tradition be
true, led him at last to martyrdom. He is said to have been stoned by
his infuriated fellow-exiles. But his name lived in the memory of his
people. It was he (they believed) who had hidden from the Chaldæans
the Ark and the sacred fire, and some day he should return to reveal
the place of their concealment.[912] When Christ asked His disciples
six hundred years later, "Whom say the people that I am?" one of the
answers was, "Some say Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He became, so
to speak, the guardian saint of the land in which he had suffered such
cruel persecutions.
But the historian of the Kings does not like to leave the close of his
story in unbroken gloom. He wrote during the Exile. He has narrated
with tears the sad fate of Jehoiachin; and though he does not care to
dwell on the Exile itself, he is glad to narrate one touch of kindness
on the part of the King of Babylon, which he doubtless regarded as a
pledge of mercies yet to come. Twenty-six years had elapsed since the
capture of Jerusalem, and thirty-seven since the captivity of the
exiled king, when Evil-Merodach, the son and successor of
Nebuchadrezzar, took pity on the imprisoned heir of the House of
David.[913] He took Jehoiachin from his dungeon, changed his garments,
spoke words of encouragement to him, gave him a place at his own
table,[914] assigned to him a regular allowance from his own
banquet,[915] and set his throne above the throne of all the other
captive kings who were with him in Babylon. It might seem a trivial
act of mercy, yet the Jews remembered in their records the very day of
the month on which it had taken place, because they regarded it as a
break in the clouds which overshadowed them--as "the first gleam of
heaven's amber in the Eastern grey."
FOOTNOTES:
[894] So Grätz and Cheyne.
[895] Jer. xxxi. 15-17.
[896] Jer. xxvi. 24.
[897] Jer. xl. 12.
[898] Some identify it with _Shaphat_, a mile from Jerusalem.
[899] They are called _sarî_ ("princes").
[900] There is no Elishama in the royal genealogy, except a son of
David. Ishmael may have been the son or grandson of some Ammonite
princess. An Elishama was scribe of Jehoiakim (Jer. xxxvi. 12).
[901] The Hebrew text calls these ten ruffians _rabbî hammelech_,
"chief officers of the king" of Ammon.
[902] Josephus records or conjectures that the governor was
overpowered by wine, and had sunk into slumber (_Antt._, X. ix. 2).
[903] In Jer. xli. 9, for "because of Gedaliah," the better reading is
"was a great pit" (LXX., φρέαρ μέγα).
[904] Ishmael--a marvel of craft and villainy--put into practice the
same stratagem which on a larger scale was employed by Mohammed Ali in
his massacre of the Mamelukes at Cairo in 1806 (Grove, _s.v._ _Bibl.
Dict._). For "the midst of the city" (Jer. xli. 7), we ought to read
"courtyard," as in Josephus.
[905] Comp. Jehu's treatment of the family of Ahaziah (2 Kings x. 14).
[906] The dark deed is still commemorated by a Jewish fast, as in the
days of Zechariah (Zech. vii. 3-5, viii. 19).
[907] Isa. xix. 18-22.
[908] Jer. ii. 16, xliv. 1; Ezek. xxx. 18; Jer. xliii. 7, xlvi. 14;
Herod., ii. 30.
[909] Fl. Petrie, _Memoir on Tanis_ (Egypt. Explor. Fund, 4th memoir),
1888.
[910] Jer. xliii. 13, Beth-shemesh. Only one pillar of the Temple of
the Sun is now standing. It is said to be four thousand years old. It
is certain that Nebuchadrezzar invaded Egypt and defeated Amasis, the
son of Hophrah, B.C. 565, reducing Egypt to "the basest of kingdoms"
(Ezek. xxix. 14, 15). Three of Nebuchadrezzar's terra-cotta cylinders
have been found at Tahpanhes.
[911] How far the prophecy was fulfilled we do not know. Assyrian and
Egyptian fragments of record show that in the thirty-seventh year of
his reign Nebuchadrezzar invaded Egypt and advanced to Syene (Ezek.
xxix. 10).
[912] 2 Macc. ii. 1-8; comp. xv. 13-16. The tradition is singular when
we recall the small store which Jeremiah set by the Ark (Jer. iii. 16).
[913] Evil-Merodach (Avil-Marduk, "Man of Merodach") only reigned two
years, and was then murdered by his brother-in-law Neriglissar
(Berosus _ap._ Jos.: comp. _Ap._, i. 20). The Rabbis have a
story--perhaps founded on that of Gaius and Agrippa I.--that
Evil-Merodach had been imprisoned by his father for wishing his death,
and in prison formed a friendship for Jehoiachin.
[914] "Lifted up his head." Comp. Gen. xl. 13, 20.
[915] To be thus ὁμοτράπεζος, or σύσσιτος, of the king was a high honour
(Herod., iii. 13, v. 24. Comp. Judg. i. 7; 2 Sam. ix. 13, etc.).
EPILOGUE
"On Jordan's banks the Arab's camels stray,
On Zion's hills the False One's votaries pray,
The Baal-adorer bows on Sinai's steep;
Yet there--e'en there--O God, Thy thunders sleep."
BYRON.
"God, Thou art Love: I build my faith on that."
BROWNING.
Before concluding I should like to add a few words (1) on what some may
regard as the too favourable attitude towards what is called the "Higher
Criticism" adopted in this book; and (2) on the deep, essential, eternal
lessons which we have found in chapter after chapter of it.
1. As regards the first, I need only say that the one thing I seek,
the sole thing I care for, is Truth,--truth, not tradition. Even St.
Cyprian, devoted as he was to custom and tradition, warns us that
"Custom without Truth is only antiquated error," and that what we
believe must be established by reason, not prescribed by tradition.
And it cannot be laid down too clearly that the old view of
Inspiration--which defined it as consisting in verbal dictation, which
made the sacred writers "not only the penmen but the pens of the Holy
Spirit," and which spoke of every sentence, word, syllable, and every
letter of Scripture as Divine and infallible--was a dangerous and
absolute falsity, and that any attempt in these days to enforce it as
binding on the intellect and conscience of mankind could only lead to
the utter shipwreck of all sincere and reasonable religion. "Not
needlessly," says the learned author of _Italy and her
Invaders_--himself an able opponent of many modern conclusions on the
subject--"should I wish to shake even that faith which practically
believes that the whole Bible, exactly in its present shape, yes, almost
the English Bible just as we have it, came straight down from heaven.
But we do want to get away from all mere theories as to the way in which
God _might_ have revealed Himself, and to learn as much as we can of the
way in which He _has_ revealed Himself in actual fact, and in real human
lives."[916]
To do this has been one of my objects in this volume, and in the
preceding volume on the First Book of Kings.
2. We have now only to cast one last glance on this book, and on the
lessons which it is meant to teach.
Consider, first, its deep and varied interest. It has the combined
value of History and of Biography; and, in dealing with both, its aim
is to pass over all minor and earthly details, and to show the method
of God's dealings both with nations and with the individual soul.
If we look at the book only as a History, it shows us in the briefest
possible compass a series of national events of the greatest
importance in the annals of mankind. We become witnesses of the fierce
occasional struggles between Israel and Judah, and of the constant
warfare of both with those wild surrounding nations--the people of
Moab, and of Edom, Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek, the Philistines also,
and them that dwell at Tyre. We watch the indomitable resistance of
Tyre to Assyria and Babylon. We see the Northern Kingdom of Israel
rise into wealth, power, and luxury, only to sink into deep moral
corruption, until, at last, the patience of God is exhausted, and He
obliterates its very existence in an apparently final and irremediable
overthrow. We witness the rise, culmination, and fall of Syria; the
culmination and the crashing overthrow of Nineveh; the rise and the
splendour of Babylon. We see the surging tide of the nomad Scythians
and Cimmerians rise into flood and ebb away with spent and shallow
waves. We see the petty fortress of Zion triumph in its defiance of
the mighty hosts of Sennacherib because it is strong in reliance upon
God, and we see it grow faithless to God until it succumbs to the
captains of Nebuchadrezzar. Again and again we observe that the
Almighty stills the raging of the sea, the noise of his waves, and the
madness of the people.
The conviction is borne upon our soul with overwhelming power, as we
read the pages of Amos, of Isaiah, and of Jeremiah, that, in spite of
all their rage and tumult, and apparently irresistible dominance, God
still sitteth above the water-floods, and God remaineth a King for ever.
Side by side with this spectacle of the dealing of God with nations, in
which we see written in large letters, in characters of blood and of
fire, His dealing with guilty nations, we have abundantly in these
chapters the narrower yet more intense interest which arises from the
contemplation of human nature--one and the same in its general elements,
but infinitely varied in its conditions--in the lives of individual men.
It is revealed to us as in a picture--it is brought home to us, not by
didactic inferences, but with the silent conviction which springs from
the evidence of facts--that wealth is nothing, and rank nothing, and
power nothing, but that the only thing of essential importance in human
lives is whether a man does that which is good or that which is evil in
the sight of the Lord. Good and bad kings pass before us; and though the
best kings, like Hezekiah and Josiah, were no more free from earthly
misfortune than are any of the saints of God--though Hezekiah had to
suffer anguish and humiliation, and Josiah died in defeat on the
battle-field,--yet we are irresistibly led to the belief: "Say ye of the
righteous that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit
of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! It shall be ill with him; for the
work of his hands shall be done to him."
We all have a guide in life. "We are not left to steer our course even
by the stars, which the clouds of earth may dim. The ship has something
on board which points towards the spiritual pole of the universe. I will
not venture to call it an _infallible_ guide. It wavers with tremulous
sensitiveness; it may be deflected by disturbing influences; but still
in the main it points with mysterious fidelity towards the pole of our
spirits, even God. And what is this compass which we have for our
guidance? Some would call it Conscience; but we call it by a holier
name, and say that even as the needle is acted on by the magnetic
current, so our spiritual compass is the spirit of man acted on by the
Spirit of the living and infinite God." The lesson of this book--of
every book of biography or of history--is that men are noble and useful
in proportion as they are true to that law of an enlightened conscience
which represents to them the will and the voice of God.
Ahaziah and Jehoram of Judah, tainted with the blood of Jezebel, and
perverted by the example of Ahab, live wretchedly, reign contemptibly,
and perish miserably; while good Jehoshaphat and pious Josiah are
richly blessed. In the vaunting elation of Amaziah, in the
blood-stained ferocity of Jehu, in the ruthless examples of usurpation
and murder set by king after king in Israel, and in the consequences
which befell them, we see that "fruit is seed." Shallum, Menahem,
Pekah, Athaliah, have to pay a terrible price for brief spells of
troubled royalty; and the slow corruption and disintegration of the
people reflects the vile example of their rulers. Like king, like
people; like people, like priest. We look on at a succession of
thrilling scenes--the horrors of beleaguered cities, the raptures of
unexpected deliverance, the insulting vanities of triumph; we hear the
wail that rises from long lines of fettered captives as they turn
their backs weeping upon their native land. And we are told "strange
stories of the deaths of kings." We see the King of Moab sacrificing
his eldest son to Chemosh upon the wall of Kir-Haraseth in the sight
of three invading hosts. We shudder to think of Ahaz and Manasseh
passing their children through the fire before the grim bull-headed
monster in the valley of the children of Hinnom. We see the two
ghastly piles of the heads of young princes on either side the gates
of Jezreel. We see Jehu driving his fierce chariot over the body of
the painted Tyrian Queen. We catch a glimpse of the sackcloth under
the purple of the King of Israel as he rends his clothes at the
horrible cry of mothers who have devoured their babes. We see the
child Joash standing with the high priest in the Temple amid the blast
of trumpets, while the alien murderess is pushed out and hewn to the
ground. We see Manasseh dragged with hooks to Babylon. We watch the
haggard face of the miserable Zedekiah as his sons are slaughtered
before the eyes which thenceforth are blinded for evermore. We burn
with indignation to see the villain Ishmael close with corpses the
well of Mizpah. But even when the phantasmagoria seems most appalling
and most bloody, we watch the Day-star from on high begin to shed its
glory over the grey east. In due time that Day-star was to rise in
men's hearts and on the world, with healing in His wings; and we feel
that somehow, beyond the smoke and stir of earth's anguish,
"God's in His heaven,
All's right with the world."
And like a Greek chorus amid the agonies of destiny stand the
prophets, those clearest and greatest of moral teachers. They, in
spite of their holiness and faithfulness, are not exempt from the
calamities of life. Amos was insulted and expelled by the high priest
of Bethel; Urijah was martyred; Hosea's prophecy is one long and
almost unbroken wail; Isaiah was mocked and slandered by the priests
of Jerusalem, and, if the tradition be true, sawn asunder; Micah,
though spared, prophesied under imminent peril; Jeremiah, saddest of
mankind, type of the suffering servant of Jehovah, was smitten in the
face by the priest Pashur, thrust into the stocks for the general
derision, flung into a deathful prison, let down into a miry well,
hurried into exile, defied, denounced, insulted, at last in all
probability martyred. Prophets in general were hated and disbelieved.
They were the eternal antagonists of priests and mobs. With priests
they had so little affinity, that when a prophet was born a priest,
like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, he might count on the undying hatred and
antagonism of his order. Priests, with scarcely an exception, under
every erring or apostatising king, from Rehoboam to Ahaz, from Ahaz to
Zedekiah, with a monotony of meanness, did nothing but acquiesce,
careful mainly for their own rights and revenues; prophets did little
but raise, against them and their party, an unavailing protest. When,
in the days of the priest-regent Jehoiada, the priests had power, he
had made a special ordinance that there should be overseers in the
Temple whose function it should be to put in the stocks and the collar
"every man that is mad, and that maketh himself a prophet";[917] and
Shemaiah was quite indignant that there should be any delay in putting
this convenient ordinance into force. Priests were chiefly absorbed in
functions and futilities in the exact spirit of their guilty
successors in the days of Christ. There could be little sympathy
between them and the inspired messengers who spoke of such reliance on
observances with almost passionate scorn, and to whom religion meant
righteousness towards men and faith in the Living God.
This high lesson of Prophecy came into greater prominence with each
succeeding generation. It had been taught by Amos, the first of the
literary prophets, with emphatic distinctness. It was summarised by
Hosea in words which our Saviour loved to quote: "Go ye and learn what
that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." It had been
uttered by Micah in an outburst of splendid poetry which summed up all
that God requires. It was reiterated in many forms by Isaiah and by
Jeremiah in words of richer moral value than all that came from the
teaching of the priestly functionaries from the days when Aaron
seduced Israel with his golden calf till the days when Caiaphas and
Annas goaded the multitude to prefer Barabbas to Jesus, and to shout
of their Messiah, "Let Him be crucified."
It was the richest fruit which sprang from the long Divine discipline of
the nation,--the knowledge that outward things are of no avail to save
any man; that God requires righteousness, that God looketh at the heart.
And the prophets themselves had to learn by the irony of events that
no suppression of local sanctuaries under Hezekiah, no multiplication
of ceremonies and acceptance of Deuteronomic Codes under Josiah, were
deep enough to change men's hearts. Isaiah, like Amos, dwells with
anger on the reliance upon vain ritual, which is so cheap a substitute
for genuine holiness; and Jeremiah, despairing utterly of that
reformation under Josiah of which he had once felt hopeful, had to
denounce the new reliance on the Temple and its sacrifices. He
ultimately felt no confidence in anything except in a new covenant in
which God Himself would write His law upon men's hearts, and all
should know Him from the least even to the greatest.
But the History of Prophecy also in this epoch is marked by events of
world-wide importance. In the days of Isaiah we see the change of
Israel from a nation into a church of the faithful, for which alone he
has any permanent hope. In him, too, we hear the first distinct
utterances of the final form in which should be fulfilled the
Messianic hope. Under Jeremiah there was still further advance. He
points, as Joel does, to the epoch of the gift of the Holy Spirit, and
shows that God does not only deal with men as nations, or as churches,
or even as families, but as beings with individual souls.
This and much besides we have seen in the foregoing pages, in which we
have endeavoured to point the lessons of the Books of Kings. The one
main lesson which the narrative is meant to teach is absolute faith
and trust in God, as an anchor which holds amid the wildest storms of
ruin, and of apparently final failure. Not until we have realised that
truth can we hear the words of God, or see the vision of the Almighty.
When we have learnt it, we shall not fear, though the hills be moved
and carried into the midst of the sea. It is the lesson which gets
behind the meaning of failure, and raises us to a height from which we
can look down on prosperity as a thing which--except in fatally
delusive semblance--cannot exist apart from righteousness and faith.
This is the lesson of life, the lesson of lessons. If it does not
solve all problems on their intellectual side, it scatters all
perplexities in the spiritual sphere. It shows us that duty is the
reward of duty, and that there can be no happiness save for those who
have learnt that duty and blessedness are one. And thus even by this
book of annals--annals of wild deeds and troubled times--we may be
taught the truths which find their perfect illustration and proof in
the life and teaching of the Son of God. When those truths are our
real possession, the work of life is done. Then
"Vigour may fail the towering fantasy,
But yet the Will rolls onward, like a wheel
In even motion by the love impelled
That moves the sun in heaven and all the stars."
FOOTNOTES:
[916] T. Hodgkin, _Friends' Quarterly_, September 1893, p. 401.
[917] Jer. xxix. 25-27.
APPENDIX I
_THE KINGS OF ASSYRIA, AND SOME OF THEIR
INSCRIPTIONS._
Dates from the _Eponym Canon_ and the Assyrian Monuments; Schrader,
_Cuneiform Inscriptions, and the Old Testament_, E. Tr., 1888, pp.
167-187.
B.C.
860.--Shalmaneser II.
854.--Battle of Karkar. War with _Ahab_ and _Benhadad_.
842.--War with Hazael. Tribute of _Jehu_.
825.--Samsi-Ramman.[918]
812.--Ramman-Nirari.
783.--Shalmaneser III.
773.--Assur-dan III.
763.--June 15th. Eclipse of the sun.
755.--Assur-Nirari.
745.--Tiglath-Pileser II.
742.--Azariah (Uzziah) heads a league of nineteen Hamathite
districts against Assyria (?).
740.--Death of Uzziah (?).
738.--Tribute of Menahem, Rezin, and Hiram.
734.--Expedition to Palestine against Pekah. Tribute of Ahaz.
732.--Capture of Damascus. Death of Rezin. First actual
collision between Israel and Assyria.
728.--Hoshea refuses tribute.
727.--Shalmaneser IV.
724.--Siege of Samaria begun.
722.--Sargon. Fall of Samaria.
721.--Defeat of Merodach-Baladan.
720.--Battle of Raphia. Defeat of Sabaco, King of Egypt.
715.--Subjugated people deported to Samaria. Accession of
Hezekiah.
711.--Capture of Ashdod.
707.--Building of great palace of Dur-Sarrukin.
709.--Sargon expels Merodach-Baladan, and becomes King of
Babylon.
705.--Assassination (?) of Sargon.
705.--Sennacherib.
704.--Embassy of Merodach-Baladan to Hezekiah.
703.--Belibus made King of Babylon.
702.--Construction of the Bellino Cylinder.
721.--Siege of Ekron. Defeat of Egypt at Altaqu. Siege of
Jerusalem. Campaign against Hezekiah and Tirhakah
disastrously concluded at Pelusium and Jerusalem.
681.--Murder of Sennacherib.
681.--Esar-haddon.
676.--Manasseh pays tribute.
668.--Assur-bani-pal (Sardanapalus).
608.--Death of Josiah in the battle of Megiddo against Pharaoh
Necho.
The dates and names of Assyrian kings as given in _Records of the
Past_ (ii. 207, 208) do not exactly accord with these in all cases.
B.C.
Tiglath-Pileser II. 950
Assur-dan II. 930
Rimmon-Nirari II. 911
Tiglath-Uras II. 889
Assur-natzu-pal 883
Shalmaneser II. 858
Assur-dain-pal (a rebel) 825
Samsi-Rimmon II. 823
Rimmon-Nirari III. 810
Shalmaneser III. 781
Assur-dan III. 771
Assur-Nirari 753
Tiglath-Pileser III. (Pul) 745
Shalmaneser IV. (an usurper) 727
Sargon (Jareb?) (usurper) 722
Sennacherib 705
Esar-haddon I. 681
Assur-bani-pal 668
* * * * * *
Destruction of Nineveh under Esar-haddon
II., or Sarakos 606
INSCRIPTION OF SHALMANESER II. ON THE BLACK OBELISK
IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM[919]
It begins with an invocation to the gods Rimmon, Adar, Merodach,
Nergal, Beltis, Istar, and proceeds:--
"I am Shalmaneser, the strong king, king of all the four Zones of the
Sun, the marcher over the whole world, ... who has laid his yoke upon
all lands hostile to him, and has swept them like a whirlwind."
It tells of his campaigns against the Hittites etc., etc.
The allusion to Jehu runs as follows:--
"The tribute of Yahua, son of Khumri, silver, gold, bowls of gold,
vessels of gold, goblets of gold, pitchers of gold, lead, sceptres for
the king's hand, staves, I received."
This inscription is supplemented by another on a monolith found at
Karkh, twenty miles from Diarbekr (_Records_, iii 81-100), which
mentions the battle of Karkar, with its slaughter of fourteen thousand
of the enemy, among whom was Sirlai--_i.e._, Ahab of Israel.
II
TIGLATH-PILESER II. (CIRC. B.C. 739)
In his Records he mentions no less than five Hebrew kings--Azariah,
Jehoahaz (Ahaz), Menahem, Pekah, Hoshea--as well as Rezin of Damascus,
Hiram of Tyre, etc. His name perhaps means "He who puts his trust in
Adar." See _Records of the_ _Past_, v. 45-52; Schrader, _Keilinschr._,
pp. 149-151; G. Smith, _Assyrian Discoveries_, pp. 254-287.
Unfortunately the inscriptions are very mutilated and fragmentary.
III
Our chief knowledge of SARGON is from the great inscription in the
Palace of Khorsabad. It is translated by Prof. Dr. Jules Oppert,
_Records of the Past_, ix. 1-21. The king's inscription at Bavian,
north-east of Mosul, is in the same volume, pp. 21-28, translated by
Dr. T. G. Pinches. See, too, _id._, vii. 21-56, xi. 15-40.
The Khorsabad inscription has these passages:--
"The great gods have made me happy by the constancy of their affection;
they have granted me the exercise of my sovereignty over all kings."
He says:--
"I besieged and occupied the town of Samaria; I took twenty-seven
thousand two hundred and eighty of its inhabitants captive. I took
from them fifty chariots, but left them the rest of their belongings.
I placed my lieutenants over them; I renewed the obligations imposed
upon them _by one of the kings who preceded me_." [Tiglath-Pileser,
whom Sargon does not choose to name.]
"Hanun, King of Gaza, and Sabaco, Sultan of Egypt, allied themselves
at _Raphia_ to oppose me. I put them to flight. Sabaco fled, and no
one has seen any trace of him since. I imposed a tribute on Pharaoh,
King of Egypt."
He tells us that he defeated the usurper Ilubid of Hamath, who had
been a smith; burnt Karkar; and flayed Ilubid alive.
He defeated Azuri and Jaman of Ashdod, and his most persistent enemy,
Merodach-Baladan, son of Jakin, King of Chaldæa.
He ends with a prayer that Assur may bless him.
IV
Bellino's Cylinder comprises the first two years of SENNACHERIB. It is
translated by Mr. H. F. Talbot, _Records of the Past_, i. 22-32. It
was published by Layard in the first volume of _British Museum
Inscriptions_, pl. 63. The facsimile of it was made by Bellino.
It begins:--
"SENNACHERIB, the great king, the powerful king, the king of Assyria,
the king unrivalled, the pious monarch, the worshipper of the great
gods, ... the noble warrior, the valiant hero, the first of all kings,
the great punisher of unbelievers who are breakers of the holy
festivals.
"Assur, my lord, has given me an unrivalled monarchy. Over all princes
he has raised triumphantly my arms.
"In the beginning of my reign I defeated Marduk-Baladan, King of
Babylon, and his allies the Elamites, in the plains near the city of
Kish. He fled alone; he got into the marshes full of reeds and rushes,
and so saved his life."
(He proceeds to narrate the spoiling of Marduk's camp, and his palace
in Babylon, and how he carried off his wife, his harem, his nobles.)
We see here an illustration of the vaunting tones of this king which
are so faithfully reproduced in 2 Kings xviii.
His Bull Inscription, chiefly relating to his defeats of
Merodach-Baladan, is translated by Rev. J. M. Rodwell (_Records of the
Past_, vii. 57-64).
V
The Taylor Cylinder, so called from its former possessor, is a hexagonal
clay prism found at Nineveh in 1830, and now in the British Museum
(translated by Mr. H. F. Talbot, _Records of the Past_, i. 33-53).
The first two campaigns of Sennacherib are related as on the Bellino
Cylinder. The Taylor Cylinder narrates campaigns of his first eight
years.
The story of the third campaign narrates the defeat of Elulæus, King
of Sidon; the tribute of Menahem, King of Samaria; the defeat of
Zidka, King of Askelon; the revolt of Ekron, which deposed the
Assyrian vassal Padi, and sent him in iron chains to Hezekiah; the
battle of Egypt and Ethiopia at Altaqu (Eltekon, Josh. xv. 59), and
the capture of Timnath. Of Hezekiah the king says:--
"And Hezekiah, King of Judah, who had not bowed down at my feet,
forty-six of his strong cities, castles, and smaller towns, with
warlike engines, I captured; 200,500 people, small and great, male and
female, horses, sheep, etc., without number, I carried off. Himself I
shut up like a bird in a cage inside Jerusalem. Siege-towers against
him I constructed. I gave his plundered cities to the kings of Ashdod,
Ekron, and Gaza. I diminished his kingdom; I augmented his tribute.
The fearful splendour of my majesty had overwhelmed him. The horsemen,
soldiers, etc., which he had collected for the fortification of
Jerusalem his royal city, now carried tribute, thirty talents of gold,
eight hundred of silver, scarlet, embroidered woven cloth, large
precious stones, ivory couches and thrones, skins, precious woods; his
daughters, his harem, his male and female slaves, unto Nineveh, my
royal city, after me he sent; and to pay tribute he sent his envoy."
He then narrates his fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh campaigns
against Elam, etc. His eighth was against "the children of Babylon,
wicked devils," etc. He ends by describing the splendour of the palace
which he built.
VI
An inscription of ESAR-HADDON, found at Kouyunjik, now in the British
Museum, mentions his receipt of the intelligence of his father's
murder by his unnatural brothers, while he was commanding his fathers
army on the northern confines.
"From my heart I made a vow. My liver was inflamed with rage.
Immediately I wrote letters, saying I assumed the sovereignty of my
Father's House." He prayed to the gods and goddesses; they encouraged
him, and in spite of a great snowstorm he reached Nineveh, and defeated
his brother, because Istar stood by his side and said to their army, "An
unsparing deity am I" (_Records of the Past_, iii, 100-108).
VII
A terra-cotta cylinder of ASSUR-BANI-PAL (the Sardanapalus of the
Greeks) is now in the British Museum. It is translated by Mr. G.
Smith, _Records of the Past_, i. 55-106, ix. 37-64; Oppert, _Mémoire
sur les Rapports de l'Egypte et l'Assyrie_; and G. Smith, _Annals of
Assur-bani-pal_.
Its most interesting parts relate to the campaign of his father
Esar-haddon against Egypt, and how Tirhakah, King of Egypt and
Ethiopia, reoccupied Memphis. He defeated the army of Tirhakah, who,
to save his life, fled from Memphis to Thebes. The Assyrians then took
Thebes, and restored Necho's father, Psamatik I., to Memphis and Sais,
and other Egyptian kings, friends of Assyria, who had fled before
Tirhakah. The kings, however, proved ungrateful, and made a league
against him. He therefore threw them into fetters, and had them
brought to Nineveh, but subsequently released Necho with splendid
presents. Tirhakah fled to Ethiopia, where he "went to his place of
night"--_i.e._, died.
FOOTNOTES:
[918] Up to the time of Tiglath-Pileser II., the Eponym Year (which is
not here given) marks the second complete year of each king's reign.
[919] This Shalmaneser died about B.C. 825, after a reign of
thirty-five years (Sayce in _Records of the Past_, v. 27-42; Oppert,
_Hist. des Empires de Chaldée et d'Assyrie_; Ménant, _Annales des Rois
d'Assyrie_, 1874).
APPENDIX II
_INSCRIPTION IN THE TUNNEL OF SILOAM_
The inscription of Siloam is the oldest known Hebrew inscription. "It is
engraved on the rocky wall of the subterranean channel which conveys the
water of the Virgin's Spring at Jerusalem into the Pool of Siloam. In
the summer of 1880 one of the native pupils of Dr. Schick, a German
architect, was playing with other lads in the Pool, and while wading up
the subterranean channel slipped and fell into the water. On rising to
the surface he noticed, in spite of the darkness, what looked like
letters on the rock which formed the southern wall of the channel. Dr.
Schick visited the spot, and found that an ancient inscription,
concealed for the most part by the water, actually existed there." The
level of the water was lowered, but the inscription had been partly
filled up with a deposit of lime, and the first intelligible copy was
made by Professor Sayce in February 1881, and six weeks later by Dr.
Guthe. Professor Sayce had to sit for hours in the mud and water,
working under masonry or earth. There can be little doubt that this work
is alluded to in 2 Kings xx. 20; 2 Chron. xxxii. 30; Isa. viii. 6 ("the
waters of Shiloah ["the tunnel"?] which flow softly").
The alphabet is that used by the prophets before the exile, somewhat
like that on the Moabite Stone, and on early Israelitish and Jewish
seals. The language is pure Hebrew, with only one unknown
word--_zadah_, in line three: perhaps "excess" or "obstacle."
Professor Sayce thinks that it proves that "the City of David" (Zion)
must have been on the southern hill, the so-called Ophel. If so, the
Valley of the Sons of Hinnom must be the rubbish-choked Tyropœon,
under which must be the tombs of the kings, and the relics of the
Temple and Palace destroyed by Nebuchadrezzar.
The inscription is:--
"The excavation! Now this is the history of the excavation. While the
excavators were lifting up the pick each towards his neighbour, and
while there were yet three cubits [to excavate], there was heard the
voice of one man calling to his neighbour, for there was an excess in
the rock on the right hand [and on the left?]. And after that on the
day of excavating, the excavators had struck pick against pick, one
against another, the water flowed from the spring [_môtsâ_, "exit," 2
Chron. xxxii. 30] to the Pool" (that of Siloam, which therefore was
the only one which then existed) "for twelve hundred cubits. And
[part] of a cubit was the height of the rock over the head of the
excavators" (Sayce, _Records of the Past_, i. 169-175).
The letters are on an artificial tablet cut in the wall of rock,
nineteen feet from where the subterranean conduit opens on the Pool of
Siloam, and on the right-hand side. The conduit is at first sixteen
feet high, but lessens in one place to no more than two feet. It is,
according to Captain Conder, seventeen hundred and eight yards long,
but not in a straight line, as there are two _culs-de-sac_, caused by
faulty engineering. The engineers, beginning, as at Mount Cenis, from
opposite ends, intended to meet in the middle, but failed. The floor
has been rounded to allow the water to flow more easily. It is a
splendid piece of engineering for that age.
The Pool of Siloam is at the south-east end of a hill which lies to
the south of the Temple hill: the Virgin's Fountain is on the opposite
side of the hill, more to the north, and is the only natural spring or
"Gihon" near Jerusalem, so that its water was of supreme importance.
Being outside the city wall, a conduit was necessary. Hezekiah
"stopped all the fountains" (2 Chron. xxxii. 4)--_i.e._, concealed
them. By providing a subterranean channel for them, he saved them from
the enemy and secured the water-supply of the besieged city.
APPENDIX III
_WAS THERE A GOLDEN CALF AT DAN?_
The question might seem absurd, but for its solution I must refer to
my paper on the subject in the _Expositor_ for October 1893.
The _sole_ authorities for a calf at Dan are 1 Kings xii. 28-30; 2
Kings x. 29. If in the former passage we alter _one letter_, and read
האפד (the "ephod") for האחד (the "one")--as Klostermann suggests--we
throw light on an obscure and perhaps corrupt passage. The allusion
then would be to Micah's old idolatrous image (which _may_ have been a
calf) at Dan. The two words "and in Dan" in 2 Kings x. 29 may easily
have been (as Klostermann thinks) an exegetical gloss added from the
error of one letter in 1 Kings xii. 30.
Dan was a most unlikely place to select: for (1) It was a remote
frontier town; and (2) there was no room, and no necessity there, for
a new cultus beside the ancient one established some centuries
earlier, and still served by priests who were direct lineal
descendants of Moses (Judg. xviii. 30, 31).
This would further account for the absolute silence of prophets and
historians about any golden calf at Dan; and it adds to the inherent
probability, also supported by some evidence, that there were _two_
cherubic calves at Bethel.
For further arguments I must refer to my paper.
APPENDIX IV
_DATES OF THE KINGS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH, AS
GIVEN BY KITTEL AND OTHER MODERN CRITICS[920]_
ISRAEL
B.C.
Ahaziah 855-854
Jehoram 854-842
Jehu 842-814
Jehoahaz 814-797
Joash 797-781
Jeroboam II. 781-740
Zachariah 740
Shallum 740
Menahem 740-737
Pekahiah 737-735
Pekah 735-734
Hoshea 734-725
JUDAH
B.C.
Jehoram ben-Jehoshaphat 851-843
Ahaziah ben-Jehoram 843-842
Athaliah 842-836
Joash ben-Ahaziah 836-796
Amaziah 796-783
Amaziah-Uzziah 783-737
Jotham 737-735
Ahaz 735-715
Hezekiah 715-686
Manasseh 686-641
Amon 641-639
Josiah 639-608
Jehoahaz 608
Jehoiakim 608-597
Jehoiachin 597
Zedekiah 597-586
FOOTNOTE:
[920] Many of these dates can only be regarded as uncertain and
approximate. Kamphausen dates the commencement of all the latter kings
a year later (_Die Chronologie der hebräischen Könige_, Bonn, 1883).
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout.
Inconsistent hyphenation left as in the original text.
Missing footnote anchors have been placed, when possible to determine
placement.
Footnote 198: Greek has been corrected to add accents.
Footnote 215: Greek has been corrected.