Chapter II: The Comparative Religious Spirit

=1. As a people=, the Jews of the northern kingdom never were so warmly attached to the Temple worship as those of the southern, and hence all the Psalms which alluded to Jerusalem[103] and the Temple are supposed to have been written by the exiles of Judah, that is of the southern kingdom, who went into captivity B. C. 588 under Nebuchadnezzar, and were settled in Babylon or its vicinity. For the entire seventy years the people of Judah and those of Israel were separated by several hundred miles of country.

=2. During the many years= of captivity, Israel, that is the ten tribes, probably mingled with other nations in their midst and became very largely estranged from the father-land. There were fewer of the ties of religious faith with them than with Judah. Even the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, when they returned from the captivity and entered into their city Jerusalem and into the cities and lands surrounding, brought wives from the heathen about them,[104] the very priests and Levites being also guilty, Ezra 9:1, although the Mosaic law prohibited such marriages.

=3. Such heathen intermarriages= among the members of the tribes would, after 185 years, be less objected to than among the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and would naturally be followed by not only indifference to any return, but also by forgetfulness of the land and of the history of their origin, and it is not surprising that when the tribes of Judah and Benjamin accepted the permission granted by Cyrus, the king of Babylon, to return to Palestine, the ten tribes, as a whole, remained in Assyria and never returned, but probably became lost by being absorbed into the nations with whom they associated.

CONDITION DURING THE CAPTIVITY.

=4. During the captivity= the Jews in Assyria and Babylonia were allowed great privileges. They were considered more in the light of colonists than of slaves, and from the histories, both sacred and secular, we learn that, as stated in the books of Nehemiah, Esther, and Daniel, they were occasionally employed in high positions in the state and at court. Nehemiah, though born at Babylon during the captivity, was a Jew of the tribe of Judah, but was cup-bearer to the Persian king, Artaxerxes Longimanus, at Susa. Ezra also enjoyed great consideration at the Persian court during the reigns of several of the kings of Persia. And from the book of Esther it is evident that the Jews prospered greatly during the reign of Xerxes.

=5. The prophets=, during the captivity of Judah, were earnest in their endeavors to preserve the integrity and reverence of the people, and it was largely due to them that many of the observances of the Mosaic law, and a loving remembrance of the Temple and of Jerusalem, prevailed so far as it did in spite of the idolatries of the people by whom they were surrounded. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, with Obadiah, were the prophets of the captivities.

PROPHETS DURING THE CAPTIVITY.

=6. Before the captivity Jeremiah=[105] had foretold the captivity of Judah, for seventy years, in Babylon, Jer. 25:8‒12, and also the fall of Babylon (verses 13‒38). His faithfulness endangered his life, and when Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem he found Jeremiah in prison and released him, offering him a residence in Babylon. The prophet, however, chose to remain with the remnant of Judah who were not carried away, and when this remnant fled to Egypt, for fear of Nebuchadnezzar, they took Jeremiah with them. See the account in Jer. 43:6.

=7. A recent remarkable discovery= has been made, in Egypt, of the palace of Pharaoh-hophra, the Egyptian king who reigned at the time Jeremiah was carried to Egypt, about B. C. 585. The prophet protested against the departure to Egypt of the remnant of which we have spoken, and forewarned them that Nebuchadnezzar would go to Egypt and would overcome Pharaoh-hophra and would pitch his tent in the court of this palace. Several clay cylinders have been picked up in the vicinity bearing the name of Nebuchadnezzar, and proving that he had been here, and the brick pavement, or court, before the palace, which seems to be alluded to in Jer. 43:9, has been uncovered. It was here that the prophet hid the stones at the place he foretold as that where Nebuchadnezzar should set his pavilion. The palace was at Tahpanhes (pronounced tah´-pan-heez), Jer. 43:8‒13.

TAHPANHES.

=8. Tahapenes=, also written Tahpanhes, Jer. 43:7, 9, or Tehaph´nehes, Ezek. 30:18, was an Egyptian city on the east of the Delta, seventy-eight miles east-northeast from the present Cairo, and upon the most eastern branch of the Nile. In 1886 Mr. Petrie discovered, at this place, the palace above alluded to, at which the Pharaoh (Hophra) then reigning probably received king Zedekiah’s daughters, to which there seems a reference in the traditional name “Castle of the Jew’s daughter.” The place is now called Tell Defenneh, but there exist only ruins covered by a mound.

DANIEL.

=9. Daniel went into captivity= six or seven years before the captivity of Ezekiel, when Nebuchadnezzar first laid siege to Jerusalem, B. C. 606. At this time the king of Babylon took captive Daniel and his companions, who were young and of noble families, and had them sent to his palace to be educated for the king’s service. The Assyrian records show that it was a custom among the kings to select young men of talent and educate them at royal expense, that they might be special officers at court. Daniel was so chosen, with three others, and they were “taught the learning and the tongue of the Chaldæans,” Dan. 1:4. Their great skill and wisdom roused a jealousy among the princes of the court against the companions of Daniel, and while Daniel was absent on some commission, or other duty, his companions were condemned to be burned alive, but were delivered by divine interference, Dan. 3.

EZEKIEL.

=10. The prophet Ezekiel= went into captivity with Jehoiachin king of Judah, eleven years before the final captivity, and was placed with a Jewish company at the river Chebar, which may be the same as “The royal Canal,” just north of Babylon, and which was dug by Nebuchadnezzar to unite the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris. This prophet was skilled in the law and a faithful priest and teacher, and his influence was great among the captives.

OBADIAH.

=11. Obadiah was the fourth prophet=, whose prophecies seem to have been delivered about B. C. 587, or during the captivity of Judah and soon after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. He appears as specially commissioned to foretell the punishment of the Edomites for their pride and insulting rejoicing at the destruction of Jerusalem and the distress of the Jews. According to Josephus, this warning received its fulfilment about five years after the prophecy.

ASSYRIAN KINGS OF THE CAPTIVITY.

=12. Of the kings of Assyria and Babylon= during the captivities the first mentioned in Scripture is Tiglath-pileser, of whom and his successors we have already spoken, pages 159, 160. These kings were active only in the captivities of Israel. Nebuchadnezzar was connected with the captivities of Judah.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR.

=Nebuchadnezzar= began to reign B. C. 604. During his reign of forty-three years Babylon rose to its highest splendor and remained a magnificent city until his death in B. C. 562. His madness, spoken of by Daniel, is not distinctly stated in Assyrian history, but an inscription, now in the East India House at London, gives an account of the various works of Nebuchadnezzar, and abruptly says that his heart was hardened against the Chaldæan astrologers. “He would grant no benefactions for religious purposes. He intermitted the worship of Merodach, and put an end to the sacrifice of victims. _He labored under the effects of enchantment._”

This last sentence seems to accord with the statement of Daniel (chapters 1‒4). The record referred to was found in the ruins on the Tigris.

=13. The son and successor= of Nebuchadnezzar was Evil-merodach, B. C. 561. He released the captive king of Judah, Jehoiachin, and treated him as a prince and with special favor. His sister’s husband, Neriglissar, succeeded him B. C. 559. He is mentioned in 2 Kings 25:27; Jer. 52:31.

=14. This Neriglissar=, or, as the monuments present it, Nergal-Sharezer, held the throne only three years, and was followed by his son, a minor, who perished in a conspiracy of the nobles after a reign of only nine months. One of these nobles, Nabonidus by name, ascended the throne and held it till the city was captured by Cyrus. It was his son, Belshazzar, who, as eldest son, reigned with his father when Babylon was taken, his father having entrusted him with the care of the city while he, with the main part of the army, was engaged with Cyrus, eight miles off at Borsippa.

=15. Cyrus did not assume the rule= of Babylon immediately as its titular king. He was supreme over all Asia from India to the Bosphorus, but, for some reason, a Median prince was established for a time as nominal king, although Cyrus retained all the power. That prince was Darius, the son of Cyaxares, a childless man of sixty-two years of age. When, two years after his appointment, he died, Cyrus assumed the power and became king of Babylon.[106]