Half Hours in Bible Lands, Volume 2 / Patriarchs, Kings, and Kingdoms

by P. C. Headley

The Israelites Carried into Captivity.
THE BIBLE AND THE HOLY LAND.
PATRIARCHS, KINGS AND KINGDOMS.
PALESTINE UNDER PAGAN KINGS.
The picture which introduces these pages was drawn from a scene under
the sceptre of the first monarch mentioned in the Bible.
A comparatively unimportant prince, the "King of Sodom," whose small and
wicked realm Jehovah destroyed by fire and brimstone, is mentioned.
But the empire of the Pharaohs of Egypt, was large, rich, and
magnificent. And it is a singular thing, that of this nation, and all
others of antiquity, excepting what the Scriptures contain, the early
history is little known. A great German historian, Dr. Von Rotteck,
truly writes: "The principal trait that distinguishes the first period
of the ancient world is its obscurity."
The general belief is, that the founders of Egypt went from Ethiopia,
and the Ethiopians from East India or South Arabia.
"Where did the Indiamen have their origin?" you may ask; but no man can
certainly answer. That all races sprang from Adam we have no doubt, but
the lines of descent and emigration the wisest student of the past
cannot follow.
The living oracles, in brief statements, give us nearly all the reliable
accounts we have of the early history of the "Land of the Nile," as
Egypt was called. In them we learn that while the "chosen people of
God," the only nation whose annals of growth in the number of its
population and its civilization, has been handed down to us, was no more
than a tribe of wandering shepherds under Abraham, Egypt was the home of
art, and a garden of agricultural products.
And yet the very nomades, who roamed over the uncultivated plains, like
the Aborigines of this new world, have preserved the best records of the
early condition of that ancient and wonderful empire, whose origin is
lost in the distance and darkness of Pagan antiquities.
It seems, from the tenth chapter of Genesis, that Egypt was settled by
the descendants of Noah, through Ham, his second son.
The next reference made to this remarkable country is in the twelfth
chapter, where we are told of Abraham's visit there. Again, in the
twenty-first chapter, is recorded the marriage of Ishmael to an Egyptian
woman. In chapter twenty-ninth is related the story of Joseph's
captivity and career in the capital of the Pagan monarchy. He was the
twelfth son of Jacob, and one of Rachel's two boys--lovely in his
youthful character, and the idol of his father. During a period of
repose in sleep he had a singular dream. The first was, that while the
brothers were all in the harvest-field at work his sheaf suddenly rose
upright, and the sheaves of the eleven brethren stood up and bowed to
his own. The intimation that he was to rule over them made them angry,
and they hated him.
Soon after Joseph's sleep he was disturbed by another dream. The sun,
moon, and eleven stars, rendered homage to him. The interpretation of
this was the same as that of the other, with the addition of his father
and mother, who also bowed before him.
It may seem strange that Joseph should relate any thing so complimentary
to himself. But he evidently did it in no boasting mood. He simply
narrated the extraordinary dreams, without the least idea of what was
before him.
But God saw what he did hot know, that their jealousy and enmity would
be overruled for the temporal salvation of the family and nation.
The venerable, thoughtful father, silently pondered over the singular
experience of Joseph.
The elder sons were shepherds, and fed their flocks in Shechem. How
beautiful the ingenious, dutiful character of Joseph now appears! His
father called him to go and find his brethren, to see how they were
getting along. "Here am I," was his response. That is to say: "Although
my brethren hate me, I am ready to serve you, and do any thing for
them." He went to Shechem, but they had left; and the boy wandered about
in the field looking for them. A citizen happened to see him, and was
evidently interested in the beautiful stranger, bewildered and alone,
and asked what he wanted. Joseph told him the truth of the case, when
the man said that his brothers had taken their flocks to Dotham, a few
miles distant.
He started for that place, and while a "great way off," they saw and
knew him. The conspiracy was instantly formed to dispose of the
"dreamer."
The first proposition was to kill him, but Reuben would not agree to the
cruel suggestion. His plan was to cast the lad into a deep pit, till he
could manage to get him back to his father. This less bloody way of
disposing of Joseph was accepted, and when he came near they took off
the "coat of many colors" the doting father had given him, and putting
him in a pit without water which happened to be at hand, dipping it in
blood to make his father think a beast killed him, they took it home.
Scarcely was the interesting boy weeping in his prison before a caravan
of Ishmaelites, and then of Midianites, came in sight.

Moses Found in the Bulrushes.
A new idea now flashed upon their minds. They could avoid the unpleasant
consciousness of probable murder, and make something out of his sale as
a slave to the wandering traders. A bargain was soon made, and young
Joseph, casting backward a farewell look of sad reproach, was carried
away, and sold by the Midianites to the Ishmaelites, of whom Potiphar,
the captain of Pharaoh's guard, bought him for a servant. God blessed
the youth, and he was soon made overseer of the officer's household. But
Potiphar's wife was a vile woman, and because Joseph was nobly true to
God and virtue, made a false report of him, and had him put in prison.
Egypt's monarch had wonderful dreams about a famine his astrologers
could not explain; and a released prisoner, who had forgotten Joseph's
kindness in explaining a dream of deliverance, advised the king to send
for the Hebrew. [The young man was taken to the palace, and gave a true
interpretation of the dreams.] Pharaoh was delighted; and from his
dungeon Joseph went to the secret place of authority second to the king.
Pharaoh said: "Only in the throne will I be greater than thou." He then
put a ring on his finger, a gold chain on his neck, and arrayed him in
fine apparel. The beautiful illustration sets this sudden and splendid
promotion before us--the honor God put upon his youthful servant.
Soon the predicted famine came, for which the gifted and prudent Joseph
had made complete provision by storing up the abundant harvests. Among
the sufferers from failing crops and pasturage, was the large family of
Jacob--his sons and their households.
In their extremity they turned to Egypt. Joseph's influence was such
that the patriarch's delegation found favor with the king. The
prime-minister of Egypt knew his brethren, but they had forgotten him.
So he managed to find out all about his father's house, and made his
brothers bring dear Benjamin, when he wept aloud, and made himself known
to them all. Pharaoh sent for the whole race, and soon the Hebrew
caravan reached the fruitful land of Goshen, which was exactly suited to
the life of shepherds. Here the strangers grew in numbers and wealth,
until Joseph died, and the friendly monarch also. His successor cared
neither for Joseph nor his countrymen. He was a tyrant, and enslaved the
dwellers in Goshen. Centuries of captivity wore away, and God determined
to deliver his people, and send them back again to Palestine.
[The scene displayed in this picture you will recognize at a glance.]
Moses, the Hebrew babe, afloat on the Nile, in a small boat made of
bulrushes by his mother, because Pharaoh was slaying the children of her
nation, to get rid of them.
Neither the haughty and cruel monarch, nor the mother, nor the little
voyager, thought of Moses as the future deliverer of his countrymen from
bondage--the great leader and lawgiver of Israel.
We have already had glimpses of the Hebrews in the wilderness, their
progress and rulers in Palestine, after the moving multitude reached the
"promised land."
The ages of changing sovereigns, and fortunes of crimes and discipline
brought them at last to another mournful captivity.
About six hundred years before Christ, while that wicked Manassah was
king in Palestine, the monarch of Assyria--a grand and powerful
empire--invaded it, and took Jerusalem. Manassah was carried in chains
to Babylon, the splendid Assyrian capital. His son, Amon, became the
sovereign under the Assyrian conqueror, but was soon assassinated, and
Josiah took the throne.
During his reign, the King of Egypt marched into Palestine and conquered
it, killing Josiah, the king.
A few years later, Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian monarch, besieged and
took Jerusalem, the "City of David."
The massive walls of the cities of old was their chief protection. Those
of Babylon, according to the old Roman historians, were marvelously
great. Think of them rising three hundred and fifty feet, eighty-seven
feet in thickness, and extending sixty miles around the city! One writer
says, that two four-horse chariots could pass each other on the top.
They were built of brick, cemented together with bitumen.
They had twenty gates made of solid brass, and were surmounted with two
hundred and fifty towers.
The city had six hundred and seventy-six squares, each over two miles in
circumference. The river Euphrates flowed through the entire extent,
from north to south.
The hanging gardens, suspended from the walls, were gorgeous, and the
public buildings rich and elegant.
Such was the home of the Hebrew exiles for seventy years or more.
Quintus Curtius, a Roman, has described the entrance of the great and
victorious Alexander into Babylon, at a later period, who soon after
died there of dissipation, while yet a young man. The pleasant sketch
gives a vivid impression of the glory and pomp of this ancient capital
of Babylon:

Christ Declaring Who is Greatest.
"A great part of the inhabitants of Babylon stood on the walls, eager to
catch a sight of their new monarch; many went forth to meet him. Among
these Bagophanes, keeper of the citadel and of the royal treasure,
strewed the entire way before the king with flowers and crowns; silver
altars were also placed on both sides of the road, which were loaded not
merely with frankincense, but all kinds of odoriferous herbs. He brought
with him for Alexander gifts of various kinds, flocks of sheep and
horses; lions, also, and panthers were carried before him in their dens.
The magi came next, singing in their usual manner their ancient hymns.
After them came the Chaldeans with their musical instruments, who are
not only the prophets of the Babylonians, but their artists. The first
are wont to sing the praises of the kings; the Chaldeans teach the
motion of the stars, and the changes of the seasons. Then followed, last
of all, the Babylonian knights, whose equipments, as well as that of
their horses, showed the passion of the people for luxury. The king,
Alexander, attended by armed men, having ordered the crowd of the
townspeople to proceed in the rear of his infantry, entered the city in
a chariot and repaired to the palace. The next day he carefully surveyed
the household treasures of Darius, and all his money. For the rest, the
beauty of the city and its age turned the eyes not only of the king, but
of everyone in itself, and that with good reason."
The kings and conquerors of old had no canals for boats, no railways,
and not many good roads. Consequently, their invasions and various
public enterprises were carried forward in a slow and toilsome manner.
Heavy wagons and chariots, the latter sometimes armed with scythes or
long blades for battle, were the best vehicles in use.
There were no monitors, nor fire-arms. Large swords, daggers, slings,
the catapulta and battering-ram, were the principal weapons.
The last named instrument was a massive machine with a movable beam,
crowned with a very hard end, often shaped like a ram's head, which
could be thrown against a wall with tremendous force, beating it down.
The catapulta, which was placed upon city walls, was a great cross-bow
for hurling arrows upon an enemy. In it was combined the bow and arrow,
and the sling. The mammoth arrow was put in the groove, the twisted
ropes were connected with levers, and the powerful recoil would send the
strong and sharp arrow a great distance.
Some of the machines were large enough to discharge beams loaded with
iron; and one kind, called the balista, would send great stones,
crushing through the houses on which they fell.
Among the spoil, taken by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon, were the costly
vessels of the temple; and he graced his train with members of the royal
family and the principal nobles.
He placed Zedekiah on the throne of his Hebrew province, who soon after
rebelled against him.
In consequence of this revolt, the Babylonian king invaded Judea with a
great army, and, after taking most of the principal towns, sat down
before Jerusalem. Early in the next year the Egyptians marched an army
to the relief of their ally, but being intimidated by the alacrity with
which the Babylonians raised the siege and advanced to give them battle,
they returned home without risking an engagement. The return of the
Chaldeans to the siege, destroyed all the hopes which the approach of
the Egyptian succors had excited. The siege was now prosecuted with
redoubled vigor; and at length Jerusalem was taken by storm at midnight,
in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, and in the eighteenth month from the
commencement of the siege. Dreadful was the carnage. The people, young
and old, were slaughtered wherever they appeared; and even the temple
was no refuge for them; the sacred courts streamed with blood. Zedekiah
himself, with his family and some friends, contrived to escape from the
city; but he was overtaken and captured in the plains of Jericho. He was
sent in chains to Nebuchadnezzar, who had left the conclusion of the war
to his generals, and was then at Riblah in Syria. After sternly
reproving him for his ungrateful conduct, the conqueror ordered all the
sons of Zedekiah to be slain before his eyes, and then his own eyes to
be put out, thus making the slaughter of his children the last sight on
which his tortured memory could dwell. He was afterward sent in fetters
of brass to Babylon, where he remained until his death.
Nebuchadnezzar evidently felt that his purposes had not been fully
executed by the army, or else he was urged by the Edomites and others to
exceed his first intentions. He therefore sent Nebuzaradan, the captain
of the guard, with a sufficient force to complete the desolation of
Judah and Jerusalem. He burned the city and the temple to the ground; he
collected and sent to Babylon all the gold and silver which former
spoilers had left; and he transported all the people who had been left
behind in Jehoiachin's captivity, save only the poor of the land, who
were left to be vine-dressers and husbandmen. Four years after,
Nebuzaradan again entered Judea, and gleaned a few more of the miserable
inhabitants, whom he sent off to Babylon.