History of the Jews, Vol. 1 (of 6)

by Heinrich Graetz

But it was no slight task to remove the accumulated evils of idolatry and long-continued immorality. The Temple was deserted, and the country was filled with idols and altars. Hezekiah reopened the sanctuary, and restored it to its former dignity. In order to root out the evils of idolatry, he ordained that altars should be no longer erected on the mountains and heights, not even for the worship of the God of Israel, but that all who felt a desire to show Him honour should repair to Jerusalem. This precaution appeared to many as a hardship and an infringement on ancient customs. But Hezekiah felt that he dared not spare local predilections if he wished to ensure a purification of the popular religion. When the spring festival approached, he commanded that the paschal lamb, which had hitherto been sacrificed on private altars, should be offered in the sanctuary at Jerusalem only. He, however, postponed the celebration of the feast from the usual month to the one following, probably because the season was not sufficiently advanced. Meanwhile the courtiers did not mean to leave the king to his own devices in his government. The inspector of the palace—Shebna—appears to have gradually wrested all power from him. Hezekiah was a poet, an idealist, weak and yielding, and possessed of but little firmness of will. Men with such a disposition can easily be led, and even kings will submit to a strong mind. Shalmaneser's invasion of Tyre and Samaria, which occurred in the first year of Hezekiah's reign, naturally aroused great alarm and fear at Jerusalem and at the court. It was necessary to take a firm decision—either to join the allies, or to offer the Assyrian monarch pledges of loyalty. Hezekiah, from his peculiar character and mode of thought, was wavering as to the course he should take. Was it honourable to desert his fellow-tribesmen, who were bleeding to death under the three years' invasion of Samaria, and who, if conquered, could only have a most dismal fate? On the other hand, was it prudent to expose himself to the anger of the great monarch? Hezekiah was perhaps glad that Shebna and his ministers relieved him of the trouble of deciding.

In consequence of this want of harmony amongst the highest authorities of the country, Hezekiah's government appears full of contrasts—high-mindedness and meanness, moral improvement and degradation, pure faith in God and dependence on foreign aid; the king an ideal of justice, and his capital full of murderers. Not even in effecting the banishment of idolatry was Hezekiah successful. The nobles retained their silver and golden idols, and worshipped the handiwork of man; in their gardens remained the statues of Astarte under the thickly-laden terebinth trees, planted for idolatrous purposes. This internal double policy, due to the powerlessness of the king and the obstinacy of the palace inspector and the nobles, exercised a bad influence on the foreign relations of the government. The Judæan statesmen, after the fall of Samaria, followed a course of politics which would have been more wise and more honourable if it had been resolved upon earlier. They adopted the plan of breaking with Assyria and uniting themselves with Egypt. They took the same measures that Samaria had pursued a decade ago. They courted the aid of Egypt in order to obtain, if not an army, yet a sufficient number of horses to resist Assyria. The plan of rebelling against the sovereign power of Assyria was naturally developed in secret, for the premature report of their intentions might have led to great misfortunes. But, however secret their undertakings, the Judæan statesmen could not keep them concealed from public notice. They could not escape Isaiah's prophetic vision, and he exerted all his eloquence, in order, if possible, to prevent their rash proceedings. His most glorious, most thrilling speeches were made at this time of public anxiety. All the weapons of prophetic oratory—description of the threatening evils, scorn of the blindness of the leaders, and exhortations and cheering prospects for the future—all these he employed in order to win his obstinate countrymen from their undertakings. The most beautiful figures and most striking metaphors, the most touching thoughts dropped from his lips in powerful eloquence. Isaiah's advice was that Judah should remain neutral in the hot contest which was about to break out between Assyria and Egypt.

Meanwhile matters took their course regardless of Isaiah's exhortations and advice. King Hezekiah (for all steps were taken in his name) gave up his allegiance to the Assyrians; at least, he no longer sent tributary offerings to Nineveh, and the only result which could be expected followed. King Sennacherib collected a large army, with the intention of making an onslaught upon Judah as well as upon Egypt. Having subdued the intermediate lands of Aram, Phœnicia, Samaria and Philistia, the road to Egypt was paved and the obstacles in the way of direct attack removed. Judah prepared for defence. Her generals, feeling themselves too weak for open warfare, determined to occupy the mountain fastnesses, and hoped to check the progress of the Assyrian troops until the arrival of their Egyptian allies. Jerusalem was fortified with especial care. The weak parts of the wall were repaired, the wall itself raised, and those houses which had been built too near the wall in consequence of the extension of the city, were pulled down. Around the old fortifications of the town of David (Zion) and the lower town (Millo) a new outer wall, strengthened by towers, was erected. The upper lake, which was fed by the spring of Gihon, was closed up, and its water was conducted into the town by means of a subterranean canal. The aqueduct was also pulled down, in order to cut off the water supply of the enemy, and thus to make a protracted siege infeasible. The armoury, "the House of the Forest of Lebanon," was provided with instruments of warfare.

Shebna, the lieutenant and inspector of the palace, appears to have been the moving spirit in all these arrangements. Both he and the princes of Judah, with their adherents, were of good courage, and without fear expected the advance of the Assyrians. In fact, excessive wantonness ruled in Jerusalem; the evenings were spent in feasting; people ate and drank and made merry. As though impatient of the arrival of the enemy, they ascended the roofs of the houses in order to espy them. Isaiah could not allow such folly and daring to pass unreproved. In an exhortation, every word of which was of crushing force, he portrayed to the nation, or rather to the nobles, their thoughtless confidence (Isaiah xxii. 1–14).—Turning towards Shebna, he exclaimed, "What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here that thou hast hewn out for thyself a sepulchre?... Behold, the Lord will thrust thee about with a mighty throw, O man! ... thou, disgrace of the house of thy lord!" (Ib. 16–25).

This speech of Isaiah's, directed as it was against the most powerful man in Jerusalem, could not but have created a great sensation. It surely roused King Hezekiah from his contemplative and passive attitude, for soon after this we find Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, occupying the post which Shebna had so long maintained. This new superintendent of the palace acted according to the advice of Isaiah, and Hezekiah, through his means, appears to have been drawn into an active interest in public affairs. Shebna's fall initiated a change for the better. What had been done could not, however, be undone. The Assyrian monarch Sennacherib, filled with anger at Hezekiah's rebellion, was already on his way to Judah in order to devastate it. A part of his army, having crossed the Jordan, proceeded to the interior of the country. All fortified towns that lay on the way were taken by storm and destroyed, and the inhabitants fled weeping to the capital. The roads were laid desolate, no traveller could cross the country, for the enemy respected no man. The bravest lost courage whilst the enemy came ever nearer to the capital; their daring was changed to despair. Every thought of resistance was abandoned. But when all despaired, the prophet Isaiah remained steadfast, and inspired the faint-hearted with courage. In one of the open places of Jerusalem he delivered another of those orations, sublime in thought and perfect in form, such as have never flowed from other lips than his (Isaiah x. 5-xi. 10). He predicted to Assyria the frustration of her plans, and unrolled before Israel a glorious future which was to follow their deliverance from the threatening enemy. The scattered would return from the lands of their dispersion; the exiles of the Ten Tribes would be reunited with Judah; jealousy and enmity would appear no more; the miracles of the time of the Exodus from Egypt would be repeated, and the nation once more raise its voice in inspired hymns. What marvellous strength of mind, what all-conquering faith in God, in the ultimate victory of justice and the realisation of the ideal of everlasting peace, amidst the terror, devastation, and despair, and the deathlike gloom of the present!

Sennacherib had marched his troops (then proceeding to the attack on Egypt) through the Philistine lowland southward without turning towards Jerusalem, while he himself put up his headquarters at Lachish, which was one of the most important of the provincial cities of Judah. He had no reason to besiege the town of Jerusalem, fortified as it was by nature and human art. When the country was completely conquered, the capital would be forced to surrender of itself. If this plan had succeeded, Jerusalem would have suffered a fate similar to that of Samaria, and the few remaining tribes would have been carried off into captivity and scattered abroad, to be irretrievably lost amongst the various nationalities. In spite of this hopeless prospect, Isaiah held firm to the prediction that Judah would not fall. It would suffer under the dominion of Sennacherib, but these very sufferings would tend to the reformation of a part of the nation, if not of the whole of it.

Isaiah was not the only prophet who, at this day of oppression and imminent destruction, held aloft the banner of hope, and predicted a glorious future for Israel, in which all the nations of the earth would take part. Micah spoke in a similar strain, though his speeches were not so artistic or striking. But amidst the din of battle he spoke yet more decidedly than Isaiah of the everlasting peace of the world, and thus endeavoured to raise the fallen hopes of Jerusalem (Micah iv.-v.).

The actual present, however, formed a striking contrast to Isaiah's and Micah's high-soaring predictions of a most brilliant and noble future. King Hezekiah, seeing the distress of Jerusalem resulting from the subjection and devastation of the country, sent messengers to Sennacherib in Lachish, to ask pardon for his rebellion and give assurances of his submission. The Assyrian king demanded in the first place the immense sum of 300 khikars (talents) of silver, and 30 khikars of gold. Hezekiah succeeded in collecting this sum, but he did it with a heavy heart, for he found himself obliged to remove the golden ornaments which adorned the temple. When Sennacherib had received this sum, he demanded more—unconditional surrender. In order to add weight to his demand, he sent a division of his army to Jerusalem. This detachment was stationed to the north-east of the city on the way to the upper lake, and made preparations for a siege. Before beginning it, however, the Assyrians summoned King Hezekiah to an interview. Rab-shakeh, one of the Assyrian officials, representing Sennacherib, spoke with as much disdain as if the conquest of Jerusalem were as easy as robbing a bird's nest. The Judæan warriors stationed on the outer wall waited with great anxiety for the result of the interview. In order to daunt their courage, Rab-shakeh uttered his bold and daring speech in the Hebrew or Judæan tongue, in order that the listeners might understand him. When Hezekiah's officers requested Rab-shakeh to address them rather in the Aramæan language, he replied that he desired to speak in their own language, so that the warriors on the outer wall might understand him, and be disabused of Hezekiah's delusion. In order to win them to his side, Rab-shakeh called aloud to them that they should not be persuaded by Hezekiah into the belief that God would save them. Were the gods of those countries subdued by the Assyrians able to save their people? Nor had the God of Israel been able even to rescue Samaria from the king of Assyria. Rab-shakeh openly demanded of the Judæan warriors that they should desert their king and acknowledge Sennacherib, and he would then lead them into a land as fruitful as that of Judah. The people and the warriors silently listened to those words. But when they became known in Jerusalem, they spread fear and consternation amongst all classes of the inhabitants. Hezekiah, therefore, appointed a fast and a penitent procession to the Temple, to which he himself repaired in mourning garments. Isaiah made use of this opportunity in order to appeal to the blinded princes of Judah, whose danger could not wean them from sin, and to impress on them that mere outward piety, such as sacrifices and fasts, was of no avail (Isaiah i.). The address he gave could not but have a crushing effect. Safety and rescue, said the prophet, could only be brought about by a thorough moral regeneration; but how could this be effected in a moment? Rab-shakeh insisted on a decision, and the troops as well as the nation were disheartened. What if, in order to save their lives they opened the gates and admitted the enemy? All eyes were, therefore, turned on the prophet Isaiah. The king sent the highest dignitaries and the elders of the priests to him, that he might pray in behalf of the unworthy nation, and speak a word of comfort to the remnant of the people that was crowded together in Jerusalem. Isaiah's message was brief but reassuring. He exhorted the king to throw off his terror of the scornful victor, and predicted that Sennacherib, scared by some report, would raise the siege and return to his own country. This announcement appears to have pacified not only the king, but also the terror-stricken nation. Hezekiah then sent to Rab-shakeh a reply for which the latter was unprepared. He refused to surrender. How exasperated the great sovereign must have been when Rab-shakeh reported to him the decision of Hezekiah! A petty prince, who had nothing left to him but his capital, had dared defy him! He immediately sent a messenger with a letter to Hezekiah, in which he gave utterance to his contempt for the little state and for the God in whom Hezekiah trusted. He enumerated therein the fortresses which had been subdued by the Assyrians: "Have their gods been able to save them, and dost thou hope that confidence in thy God will save thee?"

The reply to this blasphemous epistle was dictated by Isaiah. In it he predicted that Sennacherib would return to his country in abject defeat, for God was not willing to give up the city. Before Rab-shakeh could bring the answer to Sennacherib, a change had already taken place. Tirhakah, the Ethiopian king of Egypt, who desired to prevent the advance of the Assyrians, went to meet them with a large army. Hearing of the advance of the Egyptian and Ethiopian troops, Sennacherib left his encampment in Lachish, collected his scattered forces, and proceeded southward as far as the Egyptian frontier town, Pelusium, which he besieged.

Hezekiah's despair at Sennacherib's blasphemous letter was calmed by Isaiah's prediction that the land would indeed suffer want in this and in the coming year, but after this it would once more regain its fertility; 'yea, the remnant of Judah would again strike its root downward, and bear fruit upward, and this revival would proceed from Jerusalem; but Sennacherib would not be permitted to direct even an arrow against Jerusalem.' Whilst the king and the nobles who believed in Isaiah's prophecy, gave themselves up to hope, looking upon the departure of the besieging troops from before Jerusalem as the beginning of the realisation of the prophetic prediction, an event occurred which roused fresh terror in Jerusalem. Hezekiah was afflicted with a virulent tumour, and was in such imminent danger that even Isaiah advised him to put his house in order and arrange for the succession, as he would not recover from his sickness. The death of the king, without heirs, in this stormy time, would have been a signal for disunion among the princes of Judah, and would have occasioned a civil war in the distressed capital. The nation was strongly attached to its gentle and noble king. He was the very breath of its life; and the prospect of losing him made him doubly dear to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. At this sorrowful prediction, Hezekiah, lying on his sick bed, turned his face to the wall, and tearfully prayed to God. Then Isaiah announced to him that his prayers had been heard, that God would send him health, and that on the third day he would repair to the Temple. By the application of soft figs the ulcer disappeared, and he became well again. On his recovery the king composed a heartfelt psalm of praise, which was probably sung in the Temple. (Isaiah xxxviii. 10–20.)