At some period after, or as some think, before[423] this signal deliverance, Hezekiah was seized with a serious illness and was warned by the prophet Isaiah to put his house in order, for the decree had gone forth that he must die. This announcement caused the greatest distress to the good king. He had striven to set a good example while he lived, and had done much to reform his people and their religion, and now in the very midst of his work he must die! With many tears, therefore, he turned his face to the wall, and pleaded his case with God, praying that the prophet’s words might not be so immediately fulfilled. His prayer was heard. Isaiah was bidden to assure him that his life would be prolonged for a space of 15 years, and as a sign to confirm this assurance, the shadow on the great dial of his father Ahaz went 10 degrees backwards, and by the application of a plaster of figs, often used medicinally in such cases, his malady was healed. News of his recovery, and of the astronomical marvel accompanying it, was conveyed into many lands, and various ambassadors with letters and gifts came to his court. Amongst the rest camethose of Merodach-Baladan[424], king of Babylon, who with their retinue were escorted over the royal treasures. For the pride and ostentation with which he displayed his rich stores, Hezekiah was rebuked by Isaiah, who foretold that a day was coming, when all these treasures would be carried away into the country of the very king whose ambassadors had now come to congratulate him, and that his sons would be compelled to serve as eunuchs in the Babylonian court (2 K. xx. 17–19).
The remainder of Hezekiah’s reign appears to have been spent in peace and security. His treasury was full; the agricultural resources of the country were developed; various new and useful improvements were carried out in his capital; and on his death, lamented by all Judah and Jerusalem, he was buried with especial honour in the chiefest of the sepulchres of the sons of David, B.C. 698 (2 Chr. xxxii. 27–33).
CHAPTER VI.
REIGN OF MANASSEH. REFORMS OF JOSIAH.
2 Kings xxi.–xxiii. 2 Chron. xxxiii.–xxxv. B.C. 698–623.
ON the death of Hezekiah, his son Manasseh succeeded to the throne at a very early age, having been born in all probability twelve years before hisfather’s death, B.C. 710. His mother, whose name was Hephzibah[425] (the delightsome one, Isai. lxii. 4), was descended from one of the princes of Jerusalem. His own name is remarkable, and was borne by no one else in the history of the kingdom of Judah. It is the name of the tribe second only to Ephraim in hostility to Judah, and has been supposed to have been given to him in remembrance of the fond hope of his father to unite the remnants of Manasseh and other northern tribes in a common worship and faith[426].
The accession of this king at the early age of 12 years was the signal for an entire revolution in the religious policy which his father had so consistently carried out. It has been suggested that the idolatrous party, which had sided with Ahaz, and had only been repressed during the reign of Hezekiah, now recovered its old ascendancy, and exercised a baneful influence over the youthful monarch. Whether this was so or not, the spirit of loyalty to Jehovah which Hezekiah had evinced was exchanged for a more general adoption of heathen modes of worship than had disfigured even the idolatrous days of Ahaz. Not only were the high places restored, but the worst enormities of Ahab were introduced into Jerusalem. Altars were erected in honour of Baal and Ashtaroth and all the host of heaven, even within the sacred precincts of the Temple (2 Chr. xxxiii. 4, 5). The king himself, not only observed times, and used enchantments, and witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards (2 Chr. xxxiii. 6), but even dedicated some of his sons in the fire to Moloch, and slaughtered others (Ez. xxiii. 37–39). The cries of human victims offered in honour of this hideous deity of the Ammonites re-echoed throughout the valley of Hinnom, and the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were practisedwith impunity in that city where Jehovah had said that he would put His Name for ever (2 Chr. xxxiii. 4). The consequent moral degeneracy was fearful. The old faith was everywhere neglected and despised. The altar of Jehovah was broken down (2 Chr. xxxiii. 16), even the ark was displaced (2 Chr. xxxv. 3), and so systematic was the destruction of the Sacred Books, that fifty years later the discovery of the Book of the Law was an event exciting wonder and astonishment (2 K. xxii. 8), while the Sabbath, the sign between the elect nation and Jehovah, was polluted (Isai. lvi. 2; lviii. 13), and under the influence of the king and his idolatrous advisers, the people did more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel (2 K. xxi. 9).
Meanwhile the voice of the prophets was not hushed. Heedless of the doom they incurred, the Lord’s true servants bore their faithful testimony against the deeds of the king. They predicted the coming of such judgments on Judah and Jerusalem, that whoever heard of them, both his ears would tingle (2 K. xxi. 12). The line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab should be stretched over the capital of Judah, and it should be wiped as a man wipeth a dish, and its people should be delivered into the hands of their enemies (2 K. xxi. 13, 14). These outspoken rebukes met with their natural reward. It was now, according to the ancient Jewish tradition, that the aged Isaiah was sawn asunder[427], while of other less known but no less faithful servants of Jehovah, such numbers were murdered, that the streets of Jerusalem ran with blood (2 K. xxi. 16).
Such a policy brought its inevitable punishment. Risings of the Philistines, Moabites, and Ammonites (Zeph. ii. 4–15; Jer. xlvii.–xlix.), were speedily followed by an invasion of the territory of Judah by the Assyrians (2 Chr. xxxiii. 11). The captains of Esarhaddon, who had crushed the rebellion of Merodach-Baladan, invested Jerusalem[428], took Manasseh captive, and carried him off to Babylon[429], where loaded with fetters he was cast into prison. But in the solitude of his dungeon the Jewish king repented of the awful wickedness he had committed, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, who in His infinite mercy listened to his petitions for forgiveness. His defection was pardoned by Esarhaddon[430], and he was permitted to return to Jerusalem (2 Chr. xxxiii. 13). The lessons learnt in captivity were not forgotten by the restored monarch. He set himself to effect so much of a religious reformation as his previous character would allow. The worship of Jehovah was renewed, sacrifices were once more offered in His honour, and the heathen altars within the sacredprecincts of the Temple were destroyed. But the change was naturally but partial (2 Chr. xxxiii. 17). During his long reign of 55 years the evil he had done had sunk too deeply to be easily removed. The recollection of the innocent blood he had shed was never forgotten, and at his death he was not laid in the sepulchres of the kings, but in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza, B.C. 643 (2 K. xxi. 26).
Amon his son now succeeded to the throne, and, after a short reign of 2 years, fell a victim to a conspiracy and was slain in his own palace. The people, however, put the conspirators to death, and secured the throne for his son Josiah, now only 8 years of age, B.C. 641. Young as he was, the new king displayed a remarkable spirit of loyalty to Jehovah, and surpassed even the best of his predecessors in his zeal for the true faith. In the 12th year of his reign (2 Chr. xxxiv. 3), B.C. 629, he commenced a great reform. In Jerusalem itself he removed the altars dedicated to Baal and all the host of heaven, and burnt the symbol of Ashtaroth at the brook Kidron, and the sacred horses that had been dedicated to the Sun. He then commenced a personal tour, not only throughout his own dominions, but throughout Simeon, Ephraim, Manasseh, and even distant Naphtali (2 Chr. xxxiv. 6). At Bethel he visited Jeroboam’s chapel, and agreeably to the remarkable prophecy of the disobedient Prophet, uttered 300 years before[431], broke down the altar and high places that king had set up, exhumed the bones from the sepulchres in the neighbouring mount, and scattered them over the altars. A little further, one of the sepulchres attracted his attention, and in answer to his enquiries, he learnt that it contained the remains of the old prophet of Bethel and his victim the man of God from Judah. On this hedirected that the sepulchre should be spared, and the venerable relics carefully preserved (2 K. xxiii. 15–19).
Returning to Jerusalem, in the 18th year of his reign he empowered a special commission to restore the Temple, and to levy contributions for this purpose. In the course of the repairs, Hilkiah the high-priest found a roll containing the Book of the Law, probably the Book of Deuteronomy, which he delivered to Shaphan the scribe, or royal secretary. By him portions were read in the ears of the king, who struck with alarm at its awful denunciations, rent his clothes, and directed that the Divine Will should be instantly consulted, that the wrath of heaven might not descend on the apostate nation. The High-priest and the rest thereupon sought the advice of a prophetess named Huldah, the wife of Shallum, keeper of the royal wardrobe, who resided in one of the sacred cloisters of the Temple. In reply, she assured them that the Divine judgments would certainly be fulfilled, not indeed in the reign of Josiah, whose early piety had found favour with Jehovah, but after he had been gathered to his fathers. This answer was in due course returned to the king, who instantly repaired to the Temple, and caused the awful denunciations on idolatry to be publicly read in the ears of the assembled people. The effect was very great. The people, conscience-stricken and appalled, made a solemn covenant, and promised to adhere thenceforward to the worship of the true God, and agreed to a still more thorough reformation. After a restoration of the ancient Levitical service in the Temple, a national celebration of the Passover was decreed, and was carried out with a grandeur and magnificence exceeding anything that had been seen on any former occasion (2 K. xxiii. 21–23).