tribes had not been so complete as the final captivity of the people around Samaria; and the remnant had come to look to the king of Judah for encouragement and protection. We find them responding to the invitation which Hezekiah sent through all the tribes, with the consent of Hoshea, to keep the Passover at Jerusalem. After the extinction of the kingdom of Israel, and when Samaria was occupied only by a few scattered settlers, terrified, as we have seen, by the desolation of the country, the northern tribes naturally drew closer to Josiah, and may have hoped to see him revive the united monarchy. These circumstances help us to understand the very different relations of the Jews to the Galilæans and Samaritans after the return from the captivity.

Meanwhile, great revolutions were taking place in the kingdoms of Assyria and Egypt. After a temporary recovery, under Esarhaddon, the great Assyrian empire was fast falling before the revolt of the Medes and the Babylonians; while in Egypt the new dynasty, founded by Psammetichus, aimed at reviving the empire of the old Pharaohs. The expedition of Pharaoh Necho to the Euphrates has already been related.* The motive usually assigned for Josiah's opposition to Necho's march is fidelity to his relation as a tributary of Assyria; but we would rather ascribe it to the ardent patriotism which could not endure any invader in the Holy Land, and to a desire to protect the northern tribes. But it was too late the doom of the monarchy was sealed. The march of Necho lay through the great plain of Esdraelon; and Josiah, heedless of his warnings to let him pass through peaceably, led forth all his force to meet him, ventured his person in the battle under a disguise, and was slain by the Egyptian archers in the valley of Megiddo. The prophet Jeremiah led the lamentations of the people over a fall which involved that of the kingdom (B.c. 608). The people proclaimed Shallum, one of Josiah's sons (not the eldest), as king, under the name of Jehoahaz; but the Egyptian conqueror, on his return from Carchemish, deposed him, and set up his brother Jehoiakim as a tributary vassal (B. c. 608).

While the new king began to play the tyrant under the protection of Egypt, the voice of Jeremiah was lifted up to predict the desolation of Judah and the Seventy Years' Captivity at Babylon; and the fulfilment of his word was rapidly accomplished. Nineveh was taken, and the Assyrian monarchy overthrown, by *Chapter vii. p. 133.

B.C. 605-586.]

THE SUCCESSIVE CAPTIVITIES.

185

the united forces of the Medes and Babylonians.* The empire of Babylon was founded by Nabopolassar; and his son Nebuchadnezzar turned back the tide of Egyptian invasion by a great victory over Necho at Carchemish. Then, having succeeded his father on the throne, he drove the Egyptians out of Palestine, and advanced upon Jerusalem. The city was taken and the temple plundered; the king was taken away as a prisoner, but restored to his throne on the condition of paying a large tribute. The choicest youths of the princely houses of Judah were carried off to Babylon as hostages, among whom were Daniel and his three companions (B.c. 605), From this epoch of the FIRST CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH we must reckon the Seventy Years of the Captivity, to the first year of Cyrus, in B.c. 536.

Judah was now nothing more than a dependency of Babylon, and Jehoiakim was the creature of Nebuchadnezzar.. But the king and the princes of Judah still dreamed of independence by the help of Egypt, in spite of the warnings of Jeremiah. His revolt (in B.c. 603) subjected Judæa to the ravages of predatory bands from the surrounding nations, who carried off thousands of captives. A Chaldæan army laid siege to Jerusalem, and Jehoiakim was killed in a sally (B.c. 597). His son Jehoiachin + had only reigned for three months in the beleaguered city, when Nebuchadnezzar came to conduct the siege in person. Jerusalem soon-surrendered; Jehoiachin was carried away to Babylon, with 10,000 captives, among whom were Ezekiel and Mordecai, and few but the poorer sort of people were left behind. Over this remnant Nebuchadnezzar set up as king, Zedekiah, the youngest son of Josiah (B.c. 597). But not even in this abject state could the Jews submit to the fate which their long course of apostasy had brought upon them. Jeremiah, who still remained at Jerusalem, became engaged in a constant conflict with the false prophets, who predicted a speedy return from the captivity, and his warnings were echoed back by Ezekiel from the banks of the river Chebar. The latter prophet gives a description of the idolatry and profligacy of the princes and priests of Judah, who remained at Jerusalem, which is confirmed by their savage persecution of the former. At length the first successes of Pharaoh-Hophra (Apries) encouraged Zedekiah to renew the Egyptian alliance and revolt against Nebuchadnezzar. The King of Babylon now resolved to crush these repeated rebellions in the ruins of Jerusa

The history of these kingdoms is pursued in chapters ix. and x.

Also called Jeconiah and Coniah.

lem. On his forming the siege of the city, Jeremiah advised an immediate surrender; but the king and princes trusted to relief from Egypt. Pharaoh-Hophra did indeed advance; and when Nebuchadnezzar drew off his forces to meet him, the city exulted as if the war were ended. But the Egyptian king dared not meet the Chaldæan ariny; the siege was again formed; and soon Jerusalem was taken by storm, and the city, with its temple, were razed to the ground by Nebuzaradan, the general of Nebuchadnezzar.* Zedekiah, siezed in the attempt to escape before the final capture, was brought before Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah in Hamath. His eyes were put out, after he had seen his sons killed, and he died in close captivity at Babylon. His nephew Jehoiachin was more fortunate. After a captivity of thirty-seven years he was released from prison by Evil-Merodach, the son of Nebuchadnezzar (B.c. 561), and treated with royal honours till his death.

The whole Jewish nation were now carried away as captives to Babylon, except a miserable remnant of the very poorest people, who were left to cultivate the land. Gedaliah was appointed as their governor; and the prophet Jeremiah remained with him; the seat of government being the fortress of Mizpeh. But even this wretched fragment of the once favoured nation fell a prey to faction. Shemaiah, a member of the royal house, killed Gedaliah treacherously at a feast, and tried to carry off the remnant of the people into slavery to the Ammonites. His scheme was frustrated by Johanan, an officer of Gedaliah, who fled to Egypt with the greater number of the people, including Jeremiah and Baruch. The few who remained, numbering only 745, were carried away to Babylon by Nebuzaradan four years later; and the land was left to entire desolation, except for a few scattered settlers from the nomad tribes of the desert.

This very desolation, however, formed in one respect a favourable contrast to the condition of the former land of the Ten Tribes. Judæa was not re-peopled by heathen settlers, who might have disputed its possession with the people on their own return, or have corrupted both their race and their religion by their intermixture. The land of Judah, marked out to the eye of man as the special object of Divine judgment, was in truth preserved by the care of God, with all the monuments of former idolatries swept from its surface, to be again the country of His

* Respecting the slightly different dates of this event, see the note on Scripture Chronology, p. 10. Ussher assigns it to B.C. 588; but the true date is now pretty well fixed at B.C. 586. From the dates of months and days given in the Scripture narrative, and still observed as fasts by the Jews, we know that it took place about July or August.

B.C. 586-536.] CONDITION OF THE CAPTIVE JEWS.

187

people, when they were purified by the discipline of captivity from their proneness to those idolatries. "The land kept her sabbaths," in compensation for the sabbatic years of which it had been deprived by the cupidity of its owners; and it was restored to them, renovated by its rest, as they were renovated by the ordeal of their captivity.

For all we know of the history of the captives proves that the interval was such an ordeal. Like the forty years' wandering in the wilderness, it effectually separated the old generation, who had shared ir the corruptions of the dying monarchy, from the new one which began a fresh life with their return. The restored nation had many faults, so many and great as again to involve their rejection; but they never relapsed into idolatry. Of their condition during the Captivity we have little information; but the elevation of Daniel and his comrades at the court of Babylon, and the impression made upon Nebuchadnezzar by the decisive proofs of Jehovah's power, must have secured for the Jews a high degree of consideration. Jeremiah's command for them to build houses and buy lands implies their possession, not only of personal liberty, but also of civil rights. Their later history proves that they preserved the records of their genealogies; and there are clear indications of some kind of internal government under their patriarchal princes. Some mention is made of a sort of head, called the Prince of the Captivity, but the existence of such an officer is by no means certain. At all events, an organization was maintained, which made it not difficult to gather together such of them as were willing to obey the edict of Cyrus for their return to their own country (B.c. 536). The fact, that their obedience to that edict was voluntary, was of itself a means of separation between the pious Jews, who had preserved their faith in the promises of their restoration, from those who had lapsed into the idolatries of the provinces in which they were settled; and it seems probable that nearly all the remnant of the Ten Tribes who had not thus apostatized, joined with the people of Judah in their return to Palestine. As to the rest, their fate, as well as the ultimate destiny of their brethren, scattered abroad after the last destruction of Jerusalem, does not belong to the historian to discuss.

We have now to look back upon the history of those great monarchies which succeeded each other on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, from before the migration of Abraham to the full establishment of the Persian Empire.

CHAPTER IX.

THE CHALDEAN, ASSYRIAN, AND BABYLONIAN EMPIRES.

"The Eastern front was glorious to be behold,
With diamond flaming and barbaric gold;

There Ninus shone, who spread the Assyrian fame,
And the great founder of the Persian name.

The sage Chaldæans robed in white appeared
And Brachmans deep in desert woods revered."

POPE-Temple of Fame.

EMPIRES ON THE EUPHRATES AND TIGRIS-DESCRIPTION OF MESOPOTAMIA—THE GREAT PLAIN OF CHALDEA-ITS BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT-ITS PHYSICAL CHARACTER-INUNDATIONS AND CANALS CLIMATE-NATURAL PRODUCTS-ANIMALS-MINERALS-BRICK-MAKING-BIBLICAL HISTORY OF CHALDEA-BABEL-NIMROD—THE CHALDEAN RACE-THEIR CUSHITE ORIGIN AND LANGUAGE-MEANINGS OF THE CHALDEAN NAME-FOR A TRIBE, A NATION, AND A CASTE -TRACES OF A STILL EARLIER TURANIAN POPULATION-THE DYNASTIES OF BEROSUS-ASTRONOMICAL RECORDS CONTEMPORARY WITH THE BEGINNING OF THE MONARCHY-ITS EPOCH-DYNASTY OF NIMROD-TWO DIVISIONS OF CHALDEA, EACH WITH ITS TETRAPOLIS-CITIES SACRED TO THE HEAVENLY BODIES—THE CHALDÆAN TEMPLE-TOWERS—THEIR DESIGN, FORM, MATERIALS, AND RUINS-CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS-STAGES IN THE INVENTION OF WRITING -INTERPRETATION OF THE INSCRIPTIONS-HISTORY OF THE EARLIER CHALDEAN DYNASTY— NIMROD, THE FOUNDER-URUKH, THE BUILDER, THE FIRST KING NAMED ON THE INSCRIPTIONS -LATER CHALDEAN DYNASTY-CHEDORLAOMER, THE CONQUEROR-SEMITIC MIGRATIONS, ABRAHAM AND THE PHOENICIANS-THE FOUR NATIONS" OF CHALDEA-CHECK TO CHAL

DEAN CONQUESTS—OVERTHROW OF THE MONARCHY BY THE ARABS-GROWTH OF SEMITIC INFLUENCE THE CHALDEAN CASTE AND LEARNING SURVIVE-CHALDEAN ART AND SCIENCE --ARCHITECTURE, TEMPLES, HOUSES, AND TOMBS-POTTERY-IMPLEMENTS-METAL-WORK— TEXTILE FABRICS-ARITHMETIC AND ASTRONOMY-WEIGHTS AND MEASURES THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE GREEK TRADITIONS THE UPPER DYNASTY-TIGLATH-PILESER I.-SARDANAPALUSSHALMANESER I.-THE BLACK OBELISK-PUL-SEMIRAMIS-THE LOWER DYNASTY-TIGLATHPILESER II.-SHALMANESER II.-SARGON-CONQUEST OF MEDIA-SENNACHERIB-ESARHADDON-BABYLON SUBJECT TO ASSYRIA-THE SARDANAPALUS OF THE GREEKS-FALL OF NINEVEH-LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE-NABONASSAR AND SEMIRAMIS-MERODACH-BALADAN —ESARHADDON-NABOPOLASSAR-WARS WITH LYDIA AND EGYPT-NEBUCHADNEZZAR-EVILMERODACH AND HIS SUCCESSORS-NABONADIUS-LEAGUE AGAINST PERSIA-BELSHAZZAR— FALL OF BABYLON-ITS LATER HISTORY.

ALMOST at every step in the preceding narrative, we have had to refer to the great empires established from the earliest times in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. Of the six great eastern monarchies-for that of David and Solomon must not be excluded from the reckoning-four ruled successively in this valley, the Chaldæan, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Medo-Persian. In the absence of a trustworthy chronology, it cannot be positively decided whether the Euphrates or the Nile was the earlier seat of civilization and royal power. We have given the precedence to Egypt, as having the earliest historic records. The order of the Scripture narrative, and proximity to the primitive