[416] Layard, loc. cit. p. 304.
CHAPTER X.
JUDAH UNDER MANASSES AND JOSIAH.
Other cares and other efforts than the maintenance of a wide dominion, the erection of splendid palaces, the restoration of impressive works of art, the preparation of magnificent furniture, occupied a small region which obeyed the lords of that military power, and those palaces,—the kings of Asshur. The kingdom of Israel, though not annihilated by the arms of Assyria, was thoroughly broken by them. Twenty years after, Judah escaped the same disaster, but not without the severest wounds. It was laid waste at that time throughout its whole extent; the cities were taken or garrisoned; 200,000 of the inhabitants were carried away. Only the metropolis was maintained and saved. Afterwards, in the last years of Hezekiah, and under the reign of his son Manasses (he ascended the throne in 697B.C.), the land remained unmolested by the Assyrians for more than 20 years, till Esarhaddon undertook to subjugate Syria again to the dominion of Assyria, which his father had given up after raising the siege of Jerusalem. Some years after this Manasses joined the attempt of Tyre to resist the king of Asshur with the help of Tirhaka (p. 154). We do not know what Judah had to suffer for this attempt of the king: we only learn from the Hebrews that Manasses was carried away captive, but at a later time restored to his kingdom. In any case Judah beheld for the space of 20 years the armies of Assyria on their march to and from the Nile (673-653 B.C.).[417]
In the first centuries after the settlement of the Hebrews in Canaan, the rites of the Syrians had in isolated instances forced their way in beside the worship of Jehovah. Under Saul, David, and Solomon the worship of Jehovah was established and organised, and took firm root. The earliest prophets, after the division of the kingdom, opposed the introduction of the worship of Baal in Israel with the fiercest zeal. In the time of Jeroboam II. and Uzziah, the renewed advances of these rites had been successfully met by the great prophets with the deepened and purified conception of the national deity. And now these hostile tendencies once more met in the severest conflict. The Hebrew Scriptures tell us that Manasses did not follow the example of his pious father; that he turned back after the way of his grandfather Ahaz; that he restored the worship of Baal, dedicated a place for fire-offerings in the valley of Ben Hinnom, and burnt his son to Moloch. On the roof of the royal palace and in the court of the temple altars were set up, and priests established, "who burnt incense to the sun, the moon, the zodiac, and all the host of heaven;" courtesans and women who wove tents dwelt in the buildings of the temple, and the king even set up the statue of Astarte (Istar) in the temple itself. In vain did the priests set themselves in opposition to this movement; in vain did the prophets announce: "The line and the plummet of destruction will be drawn over Jerusalem as over Samaria." Manasses caused those who opposed his arrangements and innovations to be put to death; he is said to have filled Jerusalem from one end to the other with innocent blood. "Like a destroying lion," says Jeremiah, "the sword devoured your prophets."[418] The death of Manasses and the accession of his son Amon brought no improvement. "He did that which was evil, and walked in the way of his father, and served the idols which his father served."
The more energetically the prophets condemned the religion of the Syrians, the more strongly they contended against all customs and sacrifices, against sensuality, luxury, and debauchery, so much the more closely did the elements thus attacked and almost overcome combine together; the more stubbornly did the opposite party cling to the rites of the neighbours, the more eagerly did they collect all the Syrian deities in and round Jerusalem. The highest and the lowest religious conceptions,—the worship of the one holy God in heaven, and the rites of sensuality and mutilation—strove once more with each other with all their force; in the one case with the deepest certainty and conviction, in the other with the fierce impulse of the passions, and the support of the crown. The last ten years of the long reign of Manasses seem to have brought the severest persecution upon the priests and prophets of Jehovah which they ever experienced. And when Amon, after two years, was slain in the king's house by a conspiracy of his servants (640 B.C.), and the people of the land slew all who had conspired against Amon, and raised his son Josiah, a boy of eight years old, to the throne, it was natural to the circle of the priests and prophets to guard against the recurrence of such oppression of their faith and lives as had taken place under Manasses and Amon. This was only possible if the religion which they professed, and for which they suffered, finally obtained a decisive victory, and became the exclusive religion of Judah. If the persecution ceased in the minority of the king, the Syrian rites continued to exist; and if the young king, when he came of age, should join that side, the times of Manasses would recur. Neither the organisation of the priesthood of the temple, nor their religious influence, was sufficient to retain the kings in the faith of Jehovah, and prevent them from reformations and persecutions in the interest of the Syrian rites. What the influence and authority of the priests failed to accomplish, the mighty religious utterance of the prophets in the fulness of their faith was also unable to avert.
The tendencies of the priests and prophets were already regarded as in a process of assimilation. The views of the prophets were not without influence on the habits and usages of the priests. The prophetic word had already begun to penetrate the old narrow views of the tribal god of Israel, holding a place beside other gods, the rigid rule of external service, the traditions of the priesthood, with its powerful mysticism, inwardness, and deeper idea of God; while, on the other hand, the prophets could borrow from the priests clear and established forms, and thereby felt themselves impelled to fix the relation of inspired religion to the rites of worship. The persecutions of Manasses had brought these two directions in which the religious life of Judah had developed more closely together than at any previous time. In this union men felt themselves stronger than before. If the crown could be attached to the worship of Jehovah, if the lasting support of royal authority could be secured for it, if the worship of Jehovah could be elevated to the position of a legally established state-religion,—if by this means it became possible to apply the penalties of the law and religious influence with equal force in favour of the national religion, the hope might be entertained that the religion could be strictly enforced, that the utterances of priests and prophets, naturally supporting each other, and expressed in a popular form, would secure a lasting victory—that the worship of Jehovah could be greatly strengthened, the Syrian rites for ever excluded, the position of the priesthood secured, and future dangers turned aside from it.
The chief aim was to fill the hearts of the king and the people with more lively faith; to attach the king and nation more closely to the worship of Jehovah, and, if possible, to pledge them definitely to support it; to gain the power of the state and the force of the law for the maintenance of this worship. The ancient writings of the priests contained, as we saw, in addition to the account of the fortunes of the people in ancient times, the ritual, the rubrics for the priests, the rules of purification, the most ancient legal sentences and canons of blood-vengeance and family law, together with all the usages of justice. The contents of these writings formed a code for the priests rather than the laity; this fact, and the connection in which these regulations stood with the historical narrative, as well as the extent of the whole, made these books ill-adapted for presenting to the king and the nation a synopsis of the most essential duties, and for impressing these duties upon them. The detailed rules for the priests must be removed; a law-book for the laity was required. For this purpose the regulations scattered through the old books were collected and arranged into a compendium of the requirements which every Israelite had to fulfil. The new conceptions of the prophets must be assimilated to the old regulations, and these brought into harmony with the deeper views of the prophets. Something was also deducted from any excessive and very ideal demands, in order to give a more certain currency to more moderate rules. Only of such a law could the hope be entertained that it would find adoption and win hearts, and be recognised by ruler and people as the fixed canon, the principal law of the land, and that it could be strictly enforced.
Josiah was of age when his kingdom was visited by a heavy calamity. Savage tribes from the north suddenly over-flowed Syria and Judah, laid waste the land far and wide, rolled on to Egypt, and then flowed backwards to their homes. If Jerusalem resisted, and perhaps the stronger cities also, the land was nevertheless cruelly devastated (625 B.C.). Judah was again brought to the brink of destruction, as in the days of Hezekiah, and again Jehovah had not made "a full end;" again he had saved his people. The king caused improvements to be made in the temple; for this purpose the doorkeepers collected money among the sacrificers. When Josiah sent his scribe Zaphan to the high priest Hilkiah to receive the collected money; the high priest said, that "he had found the book of the law in the house of Jehovah," and gave the scribe a roll. He brought the book to the king, and read it before him. Josiah was deeply moved by the contents, and the threats denounced in it against those who transgressed the law of Jehovah. He directed the high priest, Zaphan, and some others to "enquire of Jehovah about the words of the book that had been discovered." They went to Huldah, a prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the chamberlain. The prophetess declared the words of the volume to be Jehovah's words. Then the "king (it was in the year 622 B.C.) assembled the elders of Judah and all the people in the house of Jehovah, and read in their ears all the words of the book, which was found in the house of Jehovah."[419]