South Country fell to Judah. Shishak so completely weakened Judah that
it appears to have early lost control of the Edomites. Amaziah, the
father of Uzziah, was the first who succeeded in winning a decisive
victory over these southern foes of the Hebrews. The battle was
fought, as in the days of David, in the Valley of Salt, southwest of
the Dead Sea. The narrative adds that he took Sela (the Rock) by
storm. It is not clear whether this was a border fortress or, as many
hold, Petra, the marvellous capital city of the Edomites, which lies
in a narrow gorge, cut out of the heart of the many-colored limestone
mountains that rise between the Ghôr and the Arabian desert.^{(50)}
Elated by this victory, Amaziah foolishly challenged the king of
Northern Israel to battle. The decisive engagement was fought at
Beth-shemesh, the prosperous town that lay on the southern side of the
Valley of Sorek. It was almost due west of Jerusalem and in the heart
of the lowlands along which the northern army probably approached.
Following up the victory, the Northern Israelites tore down two
hundred yards of the northwestern wall of Jerusalem at the point where
the city mounted the northern plateau and was, therefore, most
exposed. They also looted the temple and royal palace, thus completing
the humiliation of the southern kingdom. The conspiracy which resulted
in the flight and execution of Amaziah at Lachish, the southwestern
outpost of Judah, was probably the fruit of his folly.
=Uzziah's Strong Reign.= Uzziah, who succeeded his father, rebuilt the
walls of Jerusalem and strengthened them by towers that guarded the
northwestern and southwestern gates of the city. He also extended the
influence of Judah in the south, building the important port of Elath.
In a campaign against the Philistines he captured Gath, whose power
had already been broken by the Arameans, Jabneh, west of Gezer, and
Ashdod farther south. The death of this strong king, therefore, marked
a crisis in the life of Judah, for his successors were inefficient and
at this time Assyrian armies began to invade Palestine.
=Isaiah of Jerusalem.= It was in the year that Uzziah died that
Judah's great prophet, Isaiah, entered upon his work. His intense
loyalty to his nation and his conception of the transcendent majesty
of the Divine King who ruled over Israel, reveal his southern birth
and training. His familiarity with king, court, and the problems of
the nation leave little doubt that he was a citizen of Jerusalem and
possibly a scion of one of its noble families. At first, like Amos, he
devoted himself to denouncing the crimes of the ruling class and the
inevitable result of their cruelty, greed, and disregard of public
responsibility.
=His Advice to Ahaz in the Crisis of 734 B.C.= When, in 735, Northern
Israel and Damascus united and endeavored to force Judah to combine
with them in a coalition against the invader, Tiglath-pileser IV,
Isaiah entered upon his work as a statesman. In person he went to
advise Ahaz, as the king was probably investigating the defences of
Jerusalem, in view of the possibilities of an impending siege. The
place of meeting was evidently south of the city, where the valley of
the Tyropœon joined that of the Hinnom near the pool where, in earlier
days, Adonijah had rallied his followers.^{(107)} Isaiah's advice,
however, to make no alliances, but to simply trust Jehovah for
deliverance, was rejected by king and people. Ahaz became a vassal of
Assyria, and not only turned over the silver and gold of the temple
and palace to the invader, but went in person to Damascus to pay
homage to Tiglath-pileser.
=The Great Rebellion of 703 B.C.= The great crisis that called forth
the majority of Isaiah's recorded sermons came thirty years later,
when Judah was again tempted to enter into an alliance with the other
states of Palestine in an endeavor to break free from the rule of
Assyria. In common with the other little states of Palestine, it was a
victim of its intermediate position between the great world-powers,
Assyria and Egypt. Under a new Ethiopian dynasty, Egypt's ambitions
were again beginning to stir and Assyria was the chief barrier to
their realization. Therefore, Egypt by promises of help encouraged the
states of Palestine to revolt against Assyria. In 711 B.C. the
Philistine towns of Ashdod and Gath did actually rebel. It was only by
going about in the garb of the captive, proclaiming in this objective
way what would be the consequence if Judah rebelled against Assyria,
that Isaiah was able to arrest the attention of the nation and save it
from fatally compromising itself. When the great Assyrian king,
Sargon, died in 705 B.C. the temptations to rebel were too strong to
be resisted. Merodach-baladan, of the ancient Babylonian royal line,
at once instigated a successful revolt in the lower Tigris-Euphrates
valley and sent emissaries to Palestine to stir up the vassal states
in a general uprising against Assyria. Tyre, Edom, Moab, Ammon the
Philistine cities, and certain of the neighboring Bedouin tribes
united in raising the standard of revolt against their common foe.
Egypt again promised assistance, and, although Isaiah protested with
all his powers, Judah was drawn into the coalition. Hezekiah was made
the southern leader of the rebellion.
=Home of the Prophet Micah.= Sennacherib, the successor of Sargon,
after putting down the rebellion in southern Babylonia, advanced with
a large army to the reconquest of the eastern Mediterranean states. It
was probably while the Assyrian king was advancing from the north that
Isaiah's contemporary, Micah, uttered his warning against the venal
and greedy nobles of Judah. The home of the prophet was
Moresheth-gath. Eusebius and Jerome describe it as a small village a
little east of the modern Beit-Jibrin, which commands the entrance to
the Valley of Zephathah, through which ran the highway from Jerusalem
to Gaza. Another important road ran from Hebron past the mound which
represents without reasonable doubt the ancient Gath, and thence along
the coast plains to the north. It was the centre of a prosperous
agricultural life and at the same time shared the peculiar
characteristics of these frontier towns. From his home among the
foot-hills^{(108)} Micah was able to watch the movement of Assyrian
armies and to keep in close touch with the world-politics of his day.
Like Amos, he was inspired by the sense of approaching danger to turn
his attention to conditions within the nation and to endeavor with all
his prophetic power to prepare it for the coming crisis. The note of
alarm sounds through all his early utterances. In imagination he
pictures the effects of the coming invasions and in the sound of the
names of the villages about his home he finds suggestions of the
calamity about to overtake them. His eyes fall first on Gath, which
lay to the northwest on the highway along which the Assyrian army
would naturally approach. His vision sweeps southward, including
Shaphir, the modern Suafir, five miles southeast of Ashdod on the
Philistine Plain, Zaanan and Lachish to the southwest, and other small
villages on the western borders of Judah. His eye rests last of all
upon Mareshah, which has recently been identified beyond doubt with
the large Tell es-Sandahannah, one mile south of Beit-Jibrin. The
latter was the most important city near Micah's home, for it guarded
the pass and stood near the junction of the great highways that
radiate from this point.
=Judah's Fate in 701 B.C.= Judah experienced in 701 B.C. the
calamities that Isaiah and Micah had predicted. The annals of
Sennacherib state that the Assyrian king conquered forty-six of the
cities of Judah, together with innumerable fortresses and small towns
in their neighborhood; over two hundred thousand captives, and horses,
mules, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep without number were carried away
as spoils. In the picturesque language of the conqueror, "Hezekiah was
shut up like a bird in a cage in the midst of Jerusalem" until he was
forced to surrender and to pay a huge tribute of gold and silver.
=Isaiah's Counsel in a Later Crisis.= In this great crisis the wisdom
of Isaiah's counsel was vindicated beyond question and his authority
became so strong with king and people that an attempt was made to
remove certain of the surviving heathen symbols from the popular
worship. In the later crisis of 690 B.C., when Sennacherib advanced to
the conquest of Egypt, the prophet by his advice was able to save
Jerusalem. While engaged in the siege of Lachish, the imposing
fortress on the Philistine Plain on the southern side of the Wady
el-Hesy, Sennacherib sent messengers demanding the unconditional
surrender of Judah's capital. From the point of view of the Assyrian
king it was dangerous to leave in his rear a strong fortress like
Jerusalem, which had already proved a centre of rebellion. His demand,
however, was unreasonable, for there is no evidence that Jerusalem, at
this later time, was guilty of sedition. In the light of these changed
conditions, instead of predicting calamity as a penalty for rebellion,
Isaiah advised Hezekiah to refuse to surrender his city to
destruction. The calm, unflinching faith of the prophet overcame the
fears of the king and thus preserved Jerusalem for another century.
Without waiting to carry out his threats against Jerusalem,
Sennacherib advanced against Egypt. From the variant traditions it
appears that in the marshy land on the eastern side of the Nile delta
his army was overtaken by a plague and he was forced ignominiously to
retreat.
=The Reactionary Reign of Manasseh.= Assyria continued, during the
reign of Hezekiah's successor, Manasseh, to maintain its control of
Palestine. Assyrian and Babylonian customs and religious institutions
pervaded the land as never before. Two legal contracts, drawn up in
the usual Assyrian form and dating from the years 651 and 648 B.C. in
the reign of Manasseh, have been discovered in the mound of Gezer. The
one records the sale of a field and the other of an estate with the
house and land. The owner of the land was a Hebrew (Nethaniah) but the
joint owners of the estate and the twelve witnesses were nearly all
Assyrians, indicating how strong was this foreign influence at the
time. The weak Manasseh was a leader in a wide-spread reaction against
the exalted religious and ethical teachings of the prophets. The old
Canaanite cults were largely revived and the worship of Babylonian and
Assyrian deities was introduced even into the temple at Jerusalem.
Silenced by persecution, the faithful prophets and priests devoted
themselves to putting the principles proclaimed by Amos, Hosea, and
Isaiah into definite laws that would shape the daily life of the
people. The results of their work are preserved in the book of
Deuteronomy, which became the basis of the later reformation of
Josiah.
=Two Prophetic Reformers.= The two leaders in the great reform
movement were Jeremiah of Anathoth and Zephaniah, who seems to have
had great influence over his kinsman, the young Josiah. Zephaniah was
apparently a native of Jerusalem. Most of his prophecy is devoted to
denouncing the different forms of apostasy and the crimes of
oppression then prevalent in the capital. While Jeremiah was not a
citizen of Jerusalem, he came from a neighboring village and was also
in close touch with the political, social, and religious life of the
capital.
=Situation of Anathoth.= The little town of Anathoth,^{(109)} his
home, lay to the northeast of Jerusalem, just over the Mount of
Olives, at the point where the hills began to descend to the barren
wilderness to the east. It stood on a low, rounded hill. The limestone
rocks crop out at many points, imparting a rugged appearance to the
landscape. A thriving fig orchard on the western side of the modern
town recalls the forceful figure by which Jeremiah contrasted the Jews
left in Palestine with the exiles in Babylonia. The low stone and mud
buildings of the present town are crowded close together and the dirty
streets and people remind the traveller of the men of ancient Anathoth
who persecuted their illustrious townsman. On the south the view is
shut off by the rising hills, but toward the northeast lies Gibeon and
Ramah and to the north Michmash, with its inspiring memories. The
chief view from Anathoth, like that from Tekoa, is toward the Jordan
valley and the Dead Sea. The gray, barren hills let themselves down in
gradual terraces to the depths below. To the northeast are the
tree-clad hills of Gilead, while across the Dead Sea rise the rounded,
rocky cliffs of the Moabite plateau. Like the homes of most of the
great Hebrew prophets, it is a place of broad outlook. The general
impression of Anathoth is grim, stern, and sombre, although here the
harsh, barren landscape of the south merges into the more fertile and
pleasing hill country of the north. Even so in the character of
Jeremiah were blended the sternest, most exalted sense of justice and
a love for his nation and his countrymen so tender and strong that he
was ready to give his life, if need be, to save them from the evils
which he saw impending. Through all his sermons these two motives
struggle, sometimes the one and sometimes the other breaking forth
into expression.
=Josiah's Reign.= In Josiah the reformers found an energetic leader.
It was during his reign that the Scythian hordes poured down from
southeastern Europe. Some of these wild barbarians swept down the
eastern coast of the Mediterranean, giving Zephaniah and Jeremiah the
texts of their earlier sermons. Others, turning to the east, flung
themselves against the Assyrian empire and ultimately, in union with
the Babylonians, succeeded in conquering Nineveh itself. The impending
fall of Assyria favored the work of the reformers, so that in 621 B.C.
the prophetic law-book was brought from the temple and publicly
adopted by Josiah in behalf of the people. The record of the
institution of this new law indicates that Josiah's authority extended
beyond the old bounds of Judah. After the withdrawal of the Assyrian
governors it was natural that the surviving tribes of the north should
again look to Jerusalem for political and religious leadership. This
fact explains why Josiah's last fatal battle was fought against the
Egyptian king, Necho, in the vicinity of the old Canaanite fortress of
Megiddo.
=The Brief Rule of Egypt.= Necho, the son of Psamtik I, a Libyan who
had succeeded in conquering Egypt, was inspired by the oft-recurring
ambition to recover the Asiatic possessions once held by the empire.
The approaching fall of Assyria gave him a favorable opportunity. With
the aid of the Greek mercenaries in his service, he succeeded in
conquering the Philistine cities. The defeat of Josiah at Megiddo in
608 B.C. gave him practical possession of Palestine. In the same way
the different states of Syria fell before him, so that between 608 and
605 B.C. he was master of the eastern Mediterranean. This brief
Egyptian rule, however, was overthrown by the new Chaldean kingdom,
which arose in lower Babylonia and, after the fall of Nineveh, quickly
fell heir to the southern and western part of the Assyrian empire. The
decisive battle between the Egyptians and Chaldeans was fought at
Carchemish, by the Euphrates, in 605 B.C. and resulted in the complete
defeat of Necho's army. The Egyptians were speedily driven from Syria
and Palestine and the Chaldean authority established in their stead.
=Jehoiakim's Reign.= By the death of Josiah the cause of the patriotic
prophetic party in Judah suffered severely. The younger son of the
dead king, who was first put on the throne, was soon deposed by Necho
and the selfish Jehoiakim was established as a vassal of Egypt. His
sympathies were with the party of reaction and he proved another
Manasseh. When the Chaldeans appeared in Palestine their rule was
readily accepted, but after a reign of ten years Jehoiakim listened to
the seductive promises of Egypt and rebelled against his Chaldean
master. It was during the reign of Jehoiakim that Jeremiah delivered
the greater part of his sermons. By direct address and object-lesson
he denounced the follies and crimes of the king and people and tried
to save them from the calamity which he saw impending. When the spirit
of rebellion was rife he used all his influence to keep his countrymen
loyal to the Chaldeans, but in vain. While Judah was being overrun by
the Chaldean armies, Jehoiakim died and was succeeded by his young
son, Jehoiachin.
=The First Captivity.= In 597 B.C. Jerusalem itself fell before the
army of Nebuchadrezzar. The king, his nobles, and between eight and
ten thousand of the prominent men and artisans, representing in all
between thirty and forty thousand souls, were transported to
Babylonia. The object of Nebuchadrezzar was to strip the land of its
leaders and all who might assist in carrying through another
rebellion. Over the Judeans who were left behind was placed Zedekiah,
a son of Josiah. The new king was inclined to listen to the voice of
Jeremiah and to rule for the best interests of his subjects, but he
was helpless in the hands of his headstrong nobles. For nearly a
decade Judah submitted to the strong and, on the whole, benign rule of
Nebuchadrezzar; but by 593 B.C. the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre,
and Sidon encouraged, as of old, by Egypt were again plotting
rebellion. Jeremiah did all in his power to save Judah from these
fatal entanglements, but false prophets undermined his influence and
encouraged the people to hope that Jehovah would perform a miracle in
their behalf.
=The Second Captivity.= In 588 B.C. Zedekiah rebelled against the
Chaldeans. Syria and Palestine proved themselves again, as throughout
all their long history, a land incapable of united action.
Nebuchadrezzar established his head-quarters at Riblah, on the upper
Euphrates, beside the great northern highway. From this strategic
point, from which history had already demonstrated that the Hebrew
coastlands could best be ruled, he directed the campaign against the
rebellious states. Most of them surrendered at once. Tyre and
Jerusalem alone held out against a protracted siege. The Egyptian army
which came to relieve Jerusalem was defeated on the borders of
Palestine. It was only the fear of the judgment that would be visited
upon them that inspired the followers of Zedekiah to resist as long as
they did. Even at the risk of imprisonment and death at the hands of
the unprincipled nobles, Jeremiah asserted that the only hope lay in
surrender. At last Zedekiah in desperation, after the northern walls
of the city had already been broken down by the besiegers, fled by
night through the southeastern gate of the city, down through the
gorge of the Kidron to Jericho. Here he was captured by the Chaldeans
and carried to Riblah on the Orontes. While his life was spared, the
nobles and religious leaders who had been active in the rebellion were
put to death. About five thousand of the prominent men of Jerusalem
were carried with Zedekiah to Babylon. The city and temple were
stripped of their wealth and the walls were thrown down, leaving
Judah's capital "a ruin and a heap." Israel's feasts were transformed
into fasts and her songs into lamentations.^{(110)}
=The End of the Southern Kingdom.= Not wishing to leave the territory
of Judah in utter desolation, Nebuchadrezzar appointed Gedaliah, a
grandson of Josiah's counsellor, Shaphan, governor over the Jews
remaining in Jerusalem. The new ruler selected as the centre of his
government Mizpah,^{(20, 21)} the most commanding point in northern
Judah, four and a half miles northwest of Jerusalem. This was one of
the two border cities which had been fortified by Asa, in his war
against Northern Israel. The northern position of his capital
suggests that his authority, like that of Josiah, extended over a part
of southern Samaria. This inference is supported by the fact that
Israelites from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria came, under the
protection of his rule, to present offerings at the ruined temple at
Jerusalem. Many Jewish refugees soon returned from Moab, Ammon, and
Edom to put themselves under the protection of Gedaliah's just and
kindly rule. The bright promise of an early restoration of Judah's
fortunes was destroyed by the treachery of a certain Ishmael, of the
Judean royal line, who, at the instigation of the king of Ammon, went
to Mizpah and treacherously slew Gedaliah. Contrary to Jeremiah's
advice, the Judahites who survived fled to Egypt, taking him with
them. Thus Judah was overtaken with an even more overwhelming fate
than that of the northern kingdom. Yet in the hour of its deepest
humiliation two brave souls, Jeremiah in Palestine and Ezekiel in
distant Babylon, proclaimed in clearest terms that Judah would again
be inhabited and that a noble destiny yet awaited their nation. Above
all, Jeremiah declared that inasmuch as the old covenant between
Jehovah and the nation had been broken by the crimes of the rulers and
people, a new and more spiritual covenant would be established between
Jehovah and each individual.
XX
THE BABYLONIAN AND PERSIAN PERIODS
=Jewish Refugees in Egypt.= After the destruction of Jerusalem in 586
B.C. the Jews were to be found in three great centres--Egypt,
Babylonia, and Palestine. Egypt, because of its friendly attitude
toward the Jews and its nearness to southern Palestine, was the refuge
to which most of the Jewish fugitives fled. Inasmuch as the approach
of the Chaldean armies was from the north, the main highway running
south from Hebron through the solitary desert was the most natural
line of escape. The result was that a very large proportion of the
Jewish race were to be found from this time on in the land of the
Nile. Even before the final destruction of Jerusalem, both Jeremiah
and Ezekiel addressed the Jewish refugees in Egypt. They were found in
four important towns. The two nearest to Palestine were Migdol and
Tahpanhes. Migdol means tower or fortress, and the reference is
evidently to one of the frontier towns that guarded the eastern
boundary of Egypt. It was probably the Migdolos mentioned in the
_Itinerarium Antonini_, and was situated midway between Pelusium on
the Mediterranean coast and Sele, a little west of the Crocodile Lake,
the present Lake Timsah. This would identify it with the ruins known
as the Tell es-Semut, twelve miles southwest of Pelusium, beside the
ancient caravan route that ran from Palestine to Egypt.
[Illustration: BABYLONIAN EMPIRE
PERSIAN EMPIRE
ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE
THE M.-N. CO.
]
=Situation of Tahpanhes.= Tahpanhes, the biblical name of the
Græco-Egyptian city, Daphne, is represented by the modern Tell
Defenneh. It lay on the right bank of the Pelusiac branch of the
Nile and close to the caravan route from Palestine. On the north was
the marshy Lake Menzaleh. It was, however, close to the fertile lands
of the Nile Delta and from the days of Psamtik I an important military
and commercial town. Here were settled Greek and Phœnician colonists,
and here the Jews who fled with Jeremiah after the murder of Gedaliah
found refuge. Here and at Migdol the refugees were in closest touch
with their kinsmen who had remained behind in Palestine and were in a
position to return thither whenever conditions were favorable. They
were also in the midst of a cosmopolitan life that offered them ample
opportunity to engage in trade, which must have been the chief
occupation of these semi-desert towns.
=Memphis.= A third home of Jewish colonists in Egypt was Noph, which
was the biblical designation of the sacred city of Memphis. This great
city lay ten miles south of Cairo, at the southern end of the Nile
Delta. It was a large metropolitan city, with an exceedingly diverse
population. Herodotus found in the vicinity of the Egyptian temple of
Ptah a Tyrian colony with a temple dedicated to the "foreign
Aphrodite." Here were probably settled the Jews who had decided to
make permanent homes in Egypt, and who may have reared here a temple
to Jehovah.