At this time Jehoiakim revolted from the king of Babylon, whose generals, that were still in Judea, marched against him, and committed all kinds of hostilities upon this country.[1041] “He slept with his fathers,” is all the Scripture says of his death. Jeremiah had prophesied, that he should neither be regretted nor lamented; but should “be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem:” this was no doubt fulfilled, though it is not known in what manner.
Jechonias[1042] succeeded both to the throne and iniquity of his father. Nabuchodonosor's lieutenants continuing the blockade of Jerusalem, in three months' time he himself came at the head of his army, and made himself master of the city. He plundered both the temple and the king's palace of all their treasures, and sent them away to Babylon, together with all the golden vessels remaining, which Solomon had made for the use of the temple: he carried away likewise a vast number of captives, amongst whom was king Jechonias, his mother, his wives, with all the chief officers and great men of his kingdom. In the room of Jechonias, he set upon the throne his uncle Mattaniah, who was otherwise called Zedekiah.
This prince had as little religion and prosperity as his forefathers.[1043] Having made an alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, he broke the oath of fidelity he had taken to the king of Babylon. The latter soon chastised him for it, and immediately laid siege to Jerusalem. The king of Egypt's arrival at the head of an army gave the besieged a gleam of hope; but their joy was very short-lived; the Egyptians were defeated, and the conqueror returned against Jerusalem, and renewed the siege, which lasted near a twelvemonth.
A.M. 3415. Ant. J.C. 589.
At last the city was taken by storm, and a terrible slaughter ensued. Zedekiah's two sons were, by Nabuchodonosor's orders, killed before their father's face, with all the nobles and principal men of Judah. Zedekiah himself had both his eyes put out, was loaded with fetters, and carried to Babylon, where he was confined in prison as long as he lived. The city and temple were pillaged and burnt, and all their fortifications demolished.
Upon Nabuchodonosor's return to Babylon, after his successful war against Judea, he ordered a golden statue to be made,[1044] sixty[1045] cubits high, assembled all the great men of the kingdom to celebrate the dedication of it, and commanded all his subjects to worship it, threatening to cast those that should refuse into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Upon this occasion it was that the three young Hebrews, Ananias, Misael, [pg 346] and Azarias, who with an invincible courage refused to comply with the king's impious ordinance, were preserved after a miraculous manner in the midst of the flames. The king, himself a witness of this astonishing miracle, published an edict, whereby all persons whatsoever were forbidden, upon pain of death, to speak any thing amiss against the God of Ananias, Misael, and Azarias. He likewise promoted these three young men to the highest honours and employments.
Nabuchodonosor, in the twenty-first year of his reign, and the fourth after the destruction of Jerusalem, marched again into Syria, and besieged Tyre, at the time when Ithobal was king thereof. Tyre was a strong and opulent city, which had never been subject to any foreign power, and was then in great repute for its commerce: by which many of its citizens were become like so many princes in wealth and magnificence.[1046] It had been built by the Sidonians two hundred and forty years before the temple of Jerusalem. For Sidon being taken by the Philistines of Ascalon, many of its inhabitants made their escape in ships, and founded the city of Tyre. And for this reason we find it called in Isaiah “the daughter of Sidon.”[1047] But the daughter soon surpassed the mother in grandeur, riches, and power. Accordingly, at the time we are speaking of, she was in a condition to resist, thirteen years together, a monarch, to whose yoke all the rest of the East had submitted.
It was not till after so long an interval, that Nabuchodonosor made himself master of Tyre.[1048] His troops suffered incredible hardships before it; so that, according to the prophet's expression, “every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled.”[1049] Before the city was reduced to the last extremity, its inhabitants retired, with the greatest part of their effects, into a neighbouring isle, half a mile from the shore, where they built a new city; the name and glory whereof extinguished the remembrance of the old one, which from thenceforward became a mere village, retaining the name of ancient Tyre.
Nabuchodonosor and his army having undergone the utmost fatigues during so long and difficult a siege,[1050] and having found [pg 347] nothing in the place to requite them for the service they had rendered Almighty God (it is the expression of the prophet) in executing his vengeance upon that city, to make them amends, God was pleased to promise by the mouth of Ezekiel, that he would give them the spoils of Egypt. And indeed they soon after conquered that country, as I have more fully related in the history of the Egyptians.[1051]
When this prince had happily finished all his wars, and was in a state of perfect peace and tranquillity, he employed himself in putting the last hand to the building, or rather to the embellishing of Babylon. The reader may see in Josephus[1052] an account of the magnificent structures ascribed to this monarch by several writers. I have mentioned a great part of them in the description already given of that stately city.