Erratum.
Page 169, line 22, for 66 read 72.
OUTLINES OF JEWISH HISTORY.
BOOK I.
500 B.C. TO 70 A.C.
IN THE SHADOW OF THE SWORD.
אֲסִירֵי עֳנִי וּבַרְזֶל
PSALM cvii. 10.
‘Life fulfils itself in many ways.’
CHAPTER I.
THE JEWS IN BABYLON.
1. Babylonian Exiles.—Nearly two thousand five hundred years ago Jerusalem fell under the siege of Nebuchadnezzar, and a great many Jews were led away captives into Babylon. Daniel was one of these captives, and Ezekiel was another; and most, even of the rank and file, were men of some character and some learning. Gradually, the exiles took up the position rather of colonists than of captives. Lands were allotted to them, they grew to love and own the soil they cultivated, and their prophets kept alive in them the sense that, though Babylonians now instead of Palestinians, they were still Jews. The name of Jews instead of Israelites came into usefrom this period, as the greater number of the Babylonian exiles belonged to the kingdom of Judah. No records, in which much trust can be put, have come down to us of the fate of the ten tribes which made up the kingdom of Israel. Thousands of them, it is certain, were carried off into foreign captivity when Palestine was invaded by Shalmaneser about 130 years before the fall of Jerusalem. The ten tribes have thenceforward no separate history.