Of such appears to have been the next high priest, Jaddua, who succeeded his father, Johanan, 341 b.c. This faithful servant of God endeavoured to follow in the steps of Nehemiah, expelling his own brother Manasses for marrying the daughter of Sanballat, the Cuthite governor of Samaria. Manasses then repaired to his wife’s father, and the Samaritans availed themselves of the presence of a member of the pontifical family to erect a temple of their own upon the Mount Gerizim, of which Manasses was made high priest. This measure greatly widened the breach between the Jews and the Samaritans; the rivalry of the two nations increased the bitter antipathy which had long existed between them.
The period at length arrived when the Jews were to exchange the yoke of Persia for that of another foreign nation. The winged leopard of Grecia, beheld in vision by Daniel, was now to follow the Assyrian lion and the bear of Persia; the kingdom of brass, as the prophet had foretold to Nebuchadnezzar, was to succeed to the kingdom of silver. [Alexander the Great], king of Macedon, at the head of his Greeks, in a great [victory at Issus] crushed the power of the Persian Darius, which he afterwards completely destroyed.
The conqueror marched into Syria after his victory, summoned its various nations to yield submission, and laid siege to the [city of Tyre], a place of great strength and importance, 332 b.c.
TYRE.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
Tyre was a stronghold of superstition and idolatry. Celebrated for her commerce, her merchants were princes, her traffickers the honourable of the earth. But the destruction of this idolatrous city had been foretold centuries previously, both by the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel. “I will cast thee to the ground, I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth, in the sight of all them that behold thee,” had been the message of the Lord while yet Tyre stood in her strength and beauty, with no one to make her afraid. And now the prophecy was literally though unconsciously fulfilled by Alexander. With extreme difficulty, but with a perseverance which overcame every obstacle, the great Macedonian seized upon the mighty city. He mercilessly burned it to the ground, and destroyed or enslaved its people. In vain had the Tyrians called upon their idols, prayed to the deaf ears that could not hear, sought help of the hands that could not save! Eight thousand of the unfortunate citizens fell in the sack of the town, and were buried beneath its ashes; and two thousand were barbarously crucified by order of the stern Alexander.
