CHAPTER XXXIII.

JEHOAHAZ OF JUDAH AND JEHOIAKIM.

Accession of Josiah's second son, Shallum or Jehoahaz-Further conquests of Neco-His deposition of Jehoahaz--Feeling of the Jews with respect to Jehoahaz-Jehoiakim reigns as an Egyptian vassal for three years, B.C. 608-605-Character of his early reign-Battle of Carchemish, and first expedition of Nebuchadnezzar against Palestine-Conquests of Nebuchadnezzar-His return to Babylon-Fresh intrigues among the Palestinian monarchs-Revolts of Judæa and Tyre-Second expedition of Nebuchadnezzar, and execution of Jehoiakim-Estimate of his character.

JOSIAH at his death left behind him three sons-Eliakim, the eldest, who was twenty-five years of age (2 Kings xxiii. 36), Shallum (1 Chron. iii. 15) or Jehoahaz, the second, who was twenty-three (2 Kings xxiii. 31), and Mattaniah, afterwards Zedekiah, the third, who was a boy of the age of ten (ibid. xxiv. 17, 18). The Jews, on Josiah's decease, "took Jehoahaz," the second son," and anointed him king in his father's stead" (ibid. ver. 31), either because they preferred him to Eliakim, or because the latter was beyond their reach,' and the circumstances of the time made an immediate appointment imperative. After defeating the Jewish army at Megiddo, Neco, king of Egypt, had pressed forward, and made himself master of the entire tract between Samaria and the Euphrates, had taken Carchemish, and had established his dominion over the various states and kingdoms of Northern Syria, Cœle-Syria, and Phoenicia. But his conquests had occupied him some time, and it was not until three months had elapsed from the date of his victory over Josiah, that he again approached the Jewish frontier, and proceeded to arrange the affairs of the Judæan I Jehoiakim may have taken part in the battle of Megiddo, and have been made a prisoner; or he may have been accidentally absent from Jerusalem when Josiah died. 2 See 2 Kings xxiii. 31.

kingdom as he thought fit. Josephus tells us that he sent for Jehoahaz, to come to him at Hamath, and there seized his person, and put him in fetters. The statement of the writer of Kings (2 Kings xxiii. 33) is in harmony with this, except that "Riblah in the land of Hamath" is substituted for Hamath itself. It is clear that Neco disallowed the right of the Jews to appoint any one to the Judæan throne without his consent, and that he put down Jehoahaz and carried him a prisoner to Egypt (ibid. ver. 34), because his authority had been set at nought by the election. He then gave the crown to Eliakim, the eldest son of Josiah, who might seem to be naturally entitled to it, but.required him to change his name, probably as a mark of servitude, and laid upon him a heavy tribute (ibid. ver. 33).

Jehoahaz appears, during his short reign of three months, to have endeared himself greatly to his subjects. He was not a worthy successor of Josiah, for "he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done” (2 Kings xxiii. 32); but he pleased the popular imagination, which saw in him 66 a young lion," well trained to "catch the prey" and capable of "devouring men" (Ezek. xix. 3). The hope was entertained that he would raise the fallen fortunes of Judæa, and recover her glories for her (ibid. ver. 5); and when this hope was disappointed by his capture and deportation to Egypt, the regret was excessive. Among others, Jeremiah himself bewailed him. "Weep ye not for the dead,” he said, ¿.e., for Josiah, neither bemoan him, but weep sore for him that goeth away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country" (Jer. xxii. 10). No Jewish prince before him had died in exile; and the prophecy that he should do so touched the nation's heart with a feeling of deep commiseration. To have not only to descend from a throne, but to be carried to a distance from the land of one's nativity, and there to lead a joyless life, untinged by any, the faintest, hope of a return, seemed a thing almost too sad to contemplate. 66 It was worse than even that cutting off in the midst of one's days," with which Hezekiah had been threatened (2 Kings xx. 1; Isa. xxxviii. 10), and Josiah visited (2 Kings xxiii. 29).

66

Jehoiakim reigned, as an Egyptian vassal, for three years in

* "Ant. Jud." x. 5, § 2.

tranquillity. The country was heavily taxed to content the greed of Neco (ibid. ver. 33); but otherwise had little to complain of, and enjoyed a semblance of prosperity. Jehoiakim employed himself in enlarging and beautifying the royal palace, which he "cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion" (Jer. xxii. 14). His leanings were towards the heathenizing party, and he is pronounced to have "done evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done" (ibid. ver. 37; compare 2 Chron. xxxvi. 5); but he scarcely seems to have gone the lengths of Amon or of Manasseh. One act of extreme cruelty is, however, recorded against him, even in the earlier portion of his reign. A prophet named Urijah, the son of Shemaiah, of Kirjath-jearim, "prophesied in the name of the Lord" against Judah and Jerusalem, soon after Jehoiakim ascended the throne, much in the same strain as Jeremiah did afterwards. His words roused the anger of the king, the nobles, and the army, who at once threatened his life. Urijah, alarmed at the danger, fled into Egypt, where he hoped to be safe ; but he was relentlessly pursued, captured, and brought back to Jerusalem, by the command of Jehoiakim, who had him beheaded, and his body buried in the cemetery of the common people (Jer. xxvi. 20-23). The life of Jeremiah was about the same time threatened for similar reasons; but the influence of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, and of some other nobles, saved him from the fate of his brother prophet (ibid. vers. 16, 17, 24).

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim (B.C. 605) the crisis predicted by these "prophets of evil" arrived. Nebuchadnezzar, son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, in the last year of his father's reign,' led the forces of the Babylonian Empire to the far west, with the object of chastising the bold Pharaoh, who had laid his hand on provinces which Babylon regarded as her own, and of wresting them from the grasp of the usurper." Neco, aware of his intention, marched to meet him ; and the two armies came into collision at Carchemish on the Middle Euphrates, the site now known as Jerabus, or Jerabolus. "Egypt rose up as a flood, and her waters were moved like the rivers-I will go up, he said, I will cover the earth-come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come * See the fragment of Berosus preserved by Josephus ("Ant. Jud." x. II, § 1).

* See Jer. xlvi. 7-9 ; Joseph. "Ant. Jud." x. 6, § I.

forth the Ethiopians and the Libyans, that handle the shield; and the Lydians, that handle and bend the bow" (Jer. xlvi. 8, 9). On the other side was the mighty power of Babylon—the army seen in vision by Habakkuk, "terrible and dreadful— their horses swifter than the leopards, and more fierce than the evening wolves-their horsemen spreading themselves, and coming from far, and flying upon the prey as straight and as quick as the eagle” (Hab. i. 7, 8). Awful was the shock of battle-terrible "the day of the Lord God of Hosts, the day of his vengeance when he avenged himself of his adversaries—the day that the Lord God of Hosts had a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates" (Jer. xlvi. 10). And complete was the discomfiture of Egypt. "They were dismayed and turned away back; their mighty ones were broken to pieces; they fled apace and looked not back; they stumbled and fell towards the north by the river Euphrates" (ibid. vers. 5, 6). God "made many to fall; yea, one fell upon another; and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword" (ibid. ver. 16). Pharaoh's valued mercenaries, Greeks and Carians,' were of no service

the "hired men " also were “turned back, and fled away together; they did not stand, because the day of their calamity was come upon them, the time of their visitation " (ibid. ver. 21).

The hasty flight of Neco and his army left the whole of Syria open to the invaders. Nebuchadnezzar's host poured like a torrent over mountain and plain, from Carchemish to Aleppo, from Aleppo down the broad Cœle-Syrian valley, across the roots of Lebanon, over Galilee, Samaria, Judæa, Philistia, Edom, into Egypt. No one thought of resistance any more. Jehoiakim was only too glad to submit, and become Nebuchadnezzar's servant (2 Kings xxiv. 1) instead of Neco's, and pay his homage and his tribute to his new sovereign. The kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, probably also those of Tyre and Sidon, did the same. Nebuchadnezzar, however, was prevented from punishing Neco as he desired, or completing his arrangements for the future government of Syria and Palestine, by intelligence which reached him as he was about to ascend the valley of the Nile. His father, Nabopolassar, had succumbed to his weight of years, and died at Babylon, in the twenty-first year of his reign, Herod. ii. 152, perhaps called "Lydians" in Jer. xlvi. 9.

towards the close of B.C. 605. To avoid a disputed succession, it was of the greatest importance that Nebuchadnezzar should return to his capital at once. He therefore broke up his camp, entrusted the bulk of his forces, together with his prisoners and booty, to some of his generals, with orders to return to Babylon by the usual circuitous route, through Cole-Syria, and then by Aleppo and Carchemish to the Euphrates valley, while he himself, with a few light troops, crossed the desert and hastened to the capital by way of Tadmor or Palmyra.'

Arrived at Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne without difficulty, but the state of affairs seeming to require his presence in the East rather than in the West, he for some time left Syria and Palestine to themselves-a policy which was almost sure to result in fresh troubles. A single defeat was not likely to have cowed the possessor of an old and powerful monarchy; and the petty kingdoms of South-western Asia were almost certain to incline to that one of the two rival Empires which was not at the time their master. Neco, under the circumstances, naturally encouraged this disposition, and it was not long before some of the petty kings openly revolted and declared themselves independent of Babylon. Jehoiakim was the first to take the plunge. In the fourth year after his subjugation, B.C. 602, despite the warnings of Jeremiah, he "turned and rebelled against " Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings xxiv. 1). At first the Great King was content to punish him by sending against him a few "bands" of Chaldæans, which, in combination with some of the neighbouring nations—as the Syrians, the Moabites, and the Ammonites, plundered and ravaged his territory2; but, about the year B.C. 598, Ithobal, king of Tyre, having also rebelled,3 he became convinced that his personal presence was needed in the Palestinian region, and marched at the head of a large army into Syria. The sieges of Tyre and Jerusalem were formed simultaneously; but, while Tyre resisted with great obstinacy, Jerusalem very soon succumbed. Jehoiakim fell into Nebuchadnezzar's hands, was executed, and received at first "the burial of an ass" (Jeremiah xxii. 19); but his remains were afterwards collected, and interred in the sepulchre of Manasseh (2 Kings xxiv. 6).