A Manual of Ancient History

by M. E. Thalheimer

107. Hezekiah, his son, delivered the land from foreign dominion and from heathen superstitions. He became for a time tributary to Sennacherib, but afterward revolted and made an alliance with Egypt. During a second invasion, the army of Sennacherib was destroyed and his designs abandoned; but the kingdom of Judah continued to be dependent upon the empire.

108. Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, brought back all the evil which his father had expelled. Even the temple at Jerusalem was profaned by idols and their altars, and the Law disappeared from the sight and memory of the people, while those who tried to remain faithful to the God of their fathers were violently persecuted. In the midst of this impiety, Manasseh fell into disgrace with the Assyrian king, who suspected him of an intention to revolt. He was carried captive to Babylon, where he had leisure to reflect upon his sins and their punishment. On his return to Jerusalem, he confessed and forsook his errors, and wrought a religious reformation in his kingdom.

109. His son Amon restored idolatry; but his life and reign were speedily ended by a conspiracy of his servants, who slew him in his own house.

The assassins were punished with death, and Josiah, the rightful heir, ascended the throne at the age of eight years. He devoted himself with pious zeal and energy to the cleansing of his kingdom from the traces of heathen worship; carved and molten images and altars were ground to powder and strewn over the graves of those who had officiated in the sacrilegious rites. The king journeyed in person not only through the cities of Judah, but through the whole desolate land of Israel, as far as the borders of Naphtali and the upper waters of the Jordan, that he might witness the extermination of idolatry. This part of his work being completed, he returned to Jerusalem to repair the Temple of Solomon, which had fallen into ruins, and restore, in all its original solemnity, the worship of Jehovah.

110. In the progress of repairs an inestimable manuscript was found, being no less than the “Book of the Law of the Lord, given by the hand of Moses.” These sacred writings had been so long lost, that even the king and the priests were ignorant of the curses that had been pronounced upon idolatry. The tender conscience of the king was overwhelmed with distress as he read the pure and perfect Law, which presented so stern a contrast with the morals of the people; but he was comforted with the promise that he should be gathered to his grave in peace before the calamities which the Law foretold, and the sins of Judah had deserved, should come upon the kingdom. In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign a grand passover was held, to which all the inhabitants of the northern kingdom who remained from the captivity were invited. This great religious festival, which signalized the birth of the nation and its first deliverance, had not been kept with equal solemnity since the days of Samuel the prophet. The entire manuscript lately discovered was read aloud by the king himself in the hearing of all the people, and the whole assembly swore to renew and maintain the covenant made of old with their fathers.

B. C. 634-632.

111. The end of Josiah’s reign was marked by two great calamities. A wild horde of Scythians,[11] from the northern steppes, swept over the land, carrying off flocks and herds. They advanced as far as As´calon, on the south-western coast, where they plundered the temple of Astarte, and were then induced to retire by the bribes of the king of Egypt. One trace of their incursion remained a thousand years, in the new name of the old city Bethshan, on the plain of Esdrae´lon. It was named by the Greeks Scythopolis, or the city of the Scythians. This was the first eruption of northern barbarians upon the old and civilized nations of southern Asia and Europe. Later events in the same series will occupy a large portion of our history.

B. C. 609.

112. The other and greater calamity of Josiah’s reign arose from a different quarter. Necho, king of Egypt, had become alarmed by the growth of Babylonian power, and was marching northward with a great army. Though in no way the object of his hostility, Josiah imprudently went forth to meet him, hoping to arrest his progress in the plain of Esdraelon. The battle of Megid´do followed, and Josiah was slain. Never had so great a sorrow befallen the Jewish people. The prophet Jeremiah, a friend and companion of Josiah from his youth, bewailed the nation’s loss in his most bitter “Lamentation”: “The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.” For more than a hundred years the anniversary of the fatal day was observed as a time of mourning in every family.

113. In the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, Nebuchadnezzar, prince of Babylon, gained a great victory[12] over Necho, and extended his father’s kingdom to the frontier of Egypt. Jehoiakim submitted to be absorbed into the empire, but afterward revolted and was put to death.