THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH ONLY.
Hezekiah falls sick; but, through his humiliation and 2 Kings x.
prayer, has fifteen years added to his life.
Merodach Baladan sends to congratulate Hezekiah on his
recovery, and to inquire into the circumstances; to whose
ambassadors he makes an ostentatious display of his riches,
for which he is severely reproved.
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sends a blasphemous letter
to Hezekiah, which he spreads before the Lord; and the
same night an angel of the Lord slays 185,000 men in the
Assyrian army. On the next morning Sennacherib returns
to Nineveh, and is soon afterwards murdered by his own
Manasseh, at twelve years old, succeeds his father Heze- 2Kingsnu
kiah, and reigns 55 years. He establishes idolatry, and
sheds much innocent blood: wherefore God delivers him
into the hands of the Assyrians, who, in the 22d year of his
reign, carry him captive to Babylon; but, upon his repent-
ance, God restores him to his liberty and his kingdom.
Manasseh dies; and his son Amon succeeds him, at 22
years of age, and reigns two years. He was an idolater,
indeed, as his father, but no penitent: he is murdered by
Josiah, a child of only eight years, succeeds his father
Amon, and reigns 31 years.
In his time lived Huldah the
prophetess, and some of the prophetic writers. (See our
Table, p. 262.)
In the twelfth year of his reign, he begins a reformation
in Judah and Jerusalem, which he successfully carries on.
xxii. 1,2
2 Chron.
xxxiv.
Six years after, he gives orders to repair the temple; and
Hilkiah the high priest, finding there the sacred book of the
law, sends it to the king, who hears the whole read over to
him. Upon this he asks counsel of Huldah the prophetess,
who predicts the destruction of Jerusalem, but not in his
days. Then collecting together the elders of Jerusalem,
with the priests and prophets, he causes the book to be read
over before all the people, and renews the covenant between 2 Chres
God and them he then holds a most solemn passover, and
desecrates the idol altar at Bethel, by burning human bones
upon it.
War breaking out at this time between the kings of
Egypt and Assyria, Josiah unadvisedly takes part with
the latter, is slain in the valley of Megiddo, and publicly
lamented by all Judah and Jerusalem." The prophet Je-
remiah, also, on this occasion writes Lamentations, but not
those we now have. (See our introduction to Jeremiah.)
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After the death of Josiah, the people anoint Shallum,
one of his youngest sons, to reign over them; but after three
B. C. months he is deposed by Pharoah Necho, king of Egypt,
who makes Eliakim, his elder brother, king, by the name of
Jehoiakim; but Jehvahas (his other brother) he carries into
Egypt, where he dies. Jehoiakim is 25 years old when he
begins to reign, and reigns eleven years.
Uriah and Jeremiah prophecy against Jerusalem: the Jer. xxvi.
latter set at liberty, but the former cruelly put to death.
Nebuchadnezzar is this year associated with his father
Nebopolazzer, in the kingdom of Assyria and Babylon; and
into the hands of the former is Jehoiakim delivered, and
606 carried in chains to Babylon; but upon his submission, and
promise of obedience, he is suffered to live three years in
his own house, as servant to Nebuchadnezzar; and from
the commencement of this period are the seventy years of Jer. xxv.11.
the Babylonish captivity usually reckoned. (See our Expo-
sition of Jer. xxv.)
Nebuchadnezzar orders the master of the eunuchs to carry
away some of the choicest youths of the children of Israel
(both the nobility and blood royal), that after being educated
three years in the Chaldean learning, they might be pre-
pared to serve the king in his palace: he accordingly se-
lects (among others) Daniel, and the three Hebrew children,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
While pursuing his victories in Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar,
hearing of his father's death, hastens to Babylon, where he
is received as his successor, and whither he orders the
choicest of the sacred vessels in the temple to be brought,
and placed in the house of his idol, Belus.
This year (being the second of Nebuchadnezzar's sole
reign, after his father's death), Daniel recovers and inter-
prets Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a great statue, intending
four great monarchies; upon which he and his companions
are highly honoured and promoted.
600 Nebuchadnezzar sends an army against Jehoiakim, who
had rebelled against him, and carries him prisoner to Baby-
599 lon, with 3023 other captives; he is put to death, and his
carcase thrown without the walls unburied, as had been pre-
dicted by Jeremiah.
Jehoiachin (called also Jeconias, and Conias) succeeds
his father, and reigns three months in Jerusalem.
Dan. i. 3, 4.
Isa. xxxix.
Dan. i. 2.
2 Chron.
xxxvi. 7.
2 Kings
xxiv. 2.
Jer. xxii.
18, 19.
Against him, Nebuchadnezzar leads an army to besiege 2 Chron.
Jerusalem; but Jehoiachin, with all his kindred and cour-
tiers, come out to meet him. Nebuchadnezzar makes them
ali prisoners, and taking them, with all the riches of the
temple and the palace, carries them with him to Babylon.
Also 10,000 able-bodied men, and 8000 artificers, and
leaves only the poorest of the people. Among the captives
were Mordecai and Ezekiel.
Before Nebuchadnezzar's departure,
Mattaniah, Jehoiachin's uncle, king,
however, he makes
changing his name
B. C. | to Zedekiah. Beginning his reign at 21 years old, he reigns | 2 Kings
eleven years; but by his sin against God, and his rebellion
against Nebuchadnezzar, he brings upon the nation of the
Jews those calamities, of which the prophets had long fore-
588 warned them. For, in the close of Zedekiah's reign, Jeru-
salem being taken, after a long siege, Zedekiah attempting
to escape by night, is arrested, and being carried to Riblah,
Nebuchadnezzar's head-quarters, here, first his children
are slain before his face, then his eyes are put out, and,
lastly, he is carried captive, loaden with chains, to Babylon.
Nor do the calamities of the Jews end here. About a month
after the capture of the city, Nebuzaradan, captain of the
guard to Nebuchadnezzar, makes his public entry into the
city, sets fire to the temple, the palace, and the houses of
the nobility, and thus lays the whole city in ashes; and the
walls of Jerusalem being razed to the ground, the conque-
ror carries off with him all the remaining people and trea-
sure he can find to Babylon.
Thus was Judah carried out of her own land, 468 years
after David began to reign; 388 years after the separation
of the ten tribes, and 134 years after the captivity of the
latter.
§ VIII. FROM THE CAPTIVITY TO THE CLOSE OF THE
From hence many reckon the seventy years' captivity
foretold by Jeremiah; but others carry them back ten or
twelve years farther, as we have done in our Exposition of
Jeremiah xxv. as above remarked. And to that period
Ezekiel is understood to refer in his prophecies, chap. i. 2, 3;
xvii. 12.
At this time, Gedaliah is made governor of the remnant
of the people left in Judea, but is soon after treacherously
slain.
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Upon this, the rest of the people fly into Egypt, to avoid
the vengeance of Nebuchadnezzar; and they carry Jere- Jer. L
miah with them, who continues his predictions.
The King of Babylon sets up a golden image to be wor-
shipped, and the three Hebrew children are cast into a fiery
furnace for refusing; but upon their miraculous preserva-
tion, the king magnifies their God as the only true one.
Nebuchadnezzar takes Tyre, after thirteen years' siege;
and proceeds to war against Egypt, as had been predicted.
He dreams of a great tree, the interpretation of which is
given by Daniel.
Nebuchadnezzar, proud of his successes, and boasting of
the magnificence of his capital, is suddenly deprived of his
reason, and being driven from human society, herds among
562 the cattle for seven years. Being duly humbled by this
B. C. | affliction, his senses are restored, and he again glorifies the
one true God. Soon after this, however, he dies, having
560 reigned 43 years, from his father's death, beside twenty
months before, in conjunction with him.
Evil-merodach, his son, succeeding him, and finding Je-
hoiachim in the 37th year of his captivity, releases him, and
admits him to eat at his own table. He reigns, however,
but one year, and is succeeded by his son, Belshazzar.
Soon after Belshazzar's accession to the throne, he makes
a feast for a thousand of his lords, and drinks wine to the
honour of his idols, out of the vessels of gold which had
been brought from the temple of Jerusalem, when suddenly
a hand writing appears upon the wall, which none but Da-
niel could interpret, implying that his kingdom was at an
end. The same night Babylon is taken by Cyrus, Belshaz-
zar is slain, and the empire is transferred to the Medes and
Persians.
Cyrus having resigned the kingdom of Babylon to Darius
the Mede, returns himself to visit Persia.
Darius begins his reign at the age of 62; and Daniel
being, for his pre-eminent wisdom, appointed chief of all
the princes of Babylon, the others conspire against him, and
having persuaded the king to issue a decree, which they
knew that Daniel could not conscientiously obey; knowing
also that the laws of the Medes and Persians admitted no
alteration, they bring him under the sentence of being cast
into the lions' den, which is executed upon him: Daniel
being, however, miraculously preserved, the king early in the
morning goes to visit and deliver him, and inflicts the same
sentence on his accusers, who are instantly devoured; on
which Darius publishes a decree, that all men should honour
the God of Daniel.
About this time, Daniel is favoured with the vision of the
seventy weeks, in answer to his prayers.
His father Cambyses, and his father-in-law Cyaxares,
both dying, Persia falls to Cyrus by inheritance, and Media
by contract of marriage; and thus he becomes possessed of
the whole Eastern empire, and in this first year of his ex-
tended empire, he gives the Jews leave to return to their
own country (the seventy years of their captivity being
now expired), and to rebuild their temple, offering
them his assistance, and returning the sacred vessels of
the temple.
Ezra i. 2.
Isa. xlv.
1, 13.
The Jews therefore commence returning, the poorer sort Ezra i. 5, 6.
having allowances made them for their journey, and the
whole congregation, when collected at Jerusalem, amounted
to nearly 50,000.
The foundation of the new temple is laid in the second Ezra iii, 8,
year after their return; the young people rejoicing in
its success, and the old lamenting its inferiority to the
former.
The Samaritans, by bribing some of the officers in the Ezra iv. 5.
court of Cyrus, disturb the progress of the work.
In the beginning of the reign of his successor, Artaxerxes
(otherwise called Cambyses), the same persons openly ac-
cuse the Jews, and get its progress interdicted.
We now come to the interesting history of Ahasuerus,
whom Archbishop Usher and our translators took to be Da-
rius Hystaspes, but whom Dean Prideaux, and most since
his time, explain to be Artaxerxes Longimanus (see our In-
troduction to the book of Esther): this Ahasuerus, on the
ground of a supposed insult, divorces Vashti his queen, and
519 next year espouses in her stead, Esther, the niece of Mor-
decai the Jew.
In the second year of Darius, Zerubbabel and Joshua, in-
cited by Haggai and Zechariah, press forward the building
of the temple and the former predicts that its glory shall Haggai
exceed that of Solomon, referring, no doubt, to its being
honoured with the presence of the Messiah.
In this year is the temple finished, and dedicated with
great joy and abundant sacrifices: the passover is also ce-
lebrated.
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While things proceed thus favourably at Jerusalem, in the
court of Ahasuerus plan is formed by Haman, an Ama-
lekite, and the king's chief favourite, who, in revenge for
want of respect being paid to him by Mordecai the Jew, pro-
cures from the king a decree, that all the Jews throughout Esther
his dominions should be put to death upon a certain day.
Upon hearing this, Esther, Mordecai, and the other Jews
with them, humble themselves before God by prayer and
fasting.
King Ahasuerus hearing it read in the national chroni-
cles, that Mordecai had some time before discovered a con-
spiracy against the king, by which discovery his life had
been preserved, inquires eagerly if he had been rewarded,
and finding that no notice had been taken of him, the king
next morning orders Haman to pay him the most distin-
guished honours, and that immediately.
Haman, who, in the mean time, had provided a gallows
whereon to hang Mordecai, now sinks into despondency,
and, in the issue, is hanged thereon, for conspiring against
the life of the queen, and of her countrymen the Jews.
Mordecai is immediately promoted into Haman's place;
and, as the laws of the Medes and Persians might not be
altered, orders are sent off to the Jews to defend themselves,
wherever they might be attacked. In memory of this re-
markable deliverance, the feast of Purim is observed by the
Jews to this day.
Ezra, the priest, a man deeply skilled in the law of Mo-Ers
ses, obtains a full commission from Artaxerxes Longimanus
(or Ahasuerus), to settle the Jewish commonwealth, and
|