Jehoiakim's character deteriorated as time went on. In his later years he was given up to covetousness, employed forced labour for the construction of his palaces, and was guilty of many acts of oppression and violence (Jer. xxii. 13, 17). “In the recollections of his countrymen, he was the last example of those cruel, selfish, luxurious princes, the natural product of Oriental monarchies, the disgrace of the monarchy of David." Among his various crimes, that which will perhaps live the longest in human memory is his audacious act in cutting to pieces with a penknife the roll of Jeremiah's prophetic warnings, which was being read to him by the courtier, Jehudi, and his casting of the pieces into the brazier by which he was warming himself, until the whole roll was consumed (Jer. xxxvi. 23). It is hard to say whether folly or impiety had the larger part in this action, which only led to the re-inscription of all the words of the first upon a second roll, and the adding thereto of "many like words " (ibid. ver. 32).

I

Stanley, "Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol. ii. p. 452.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

JEHOIACHIN AND ZEDEKIAH.

Jehoiachin made king by Nebuchadnezzar-His evil and short reign-He is carried captive to Babylon-Zedekiah, his uncle, made king in his place-Zedekiah's early efforts to introduce reforms-He succumbs to the influence of the nobles-Rebels and allies himself with ApriesLast invasion of Nebuchadnezzar-Siege of Jerusalem commencedAdvance of Apries-Siege raised-Renewed and final investmentJerusalem taken-Capture and punishment of Zedekiah-His weak

character.

FOLLOWING a practice not uncommon in the East, Nebuchadnezzar, while executing the rebel king who had defied his authority, made no change in the natural order of succession, but placed his son, Jehoiachin or Jeconiah, upon the throne. Jehoiachin had reached the age of eighteen at his father's death2 (2 Kings xxiv. 8), was married to several wives (ibid. ver. 15), and had at least one child (Jer. xxii. 28). His mother, Nehushta, was the daughter of El-nathan, one of the nobles of Jehoiakim's court, the same who had been sent in pursuit of Urijah the prophet, and had brought him back to Jerusalem (Jer. xxvi. 22, 23). She held the rank and position of QueenMother, an office of high dignity even in the last extremity of the royal house. Whether she had any influence over her son is unknown to us, but if so, its exercise had no salutary effect. Jehoiachin, like all the kings of Josiah's stock, "did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord" (2 Kings xxiv. 9; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9), and provoked Jeremiah, after he had reigned a few months, to declare that he was "a despised broken idol, a vessel wherein there was no pleasure" (Jer. xxvi. 28). On I See Herod. iii. 15; and compare the ordinary practice of the Assyrians ("Eponym Canon," pp. 129, 133, &c.).

2

"Eight years old" in 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9 is clearly a corrupt reading.

him, as on Jehoahaz, went forth the sentence that he should be cast out of his own land, and carried into another country, where he was not born, and should die there" (ibid. vers. 26, 27). Nebuchadnezzar, probably suspecting him of an intention to revolt, sent an army against him under some of his generals, who laid siege to Jerusalem (2 Kings xxiv. 10), but were not allowed to have the glory of its capture. Nebuchadnezzar, after a brief delay, came up in person against the place, which was soon reduced to extremities and forced to surrender. The king, his mother, the eunuchs of the court, and the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, "went out to the king of Babylon and placed themselves at his disposal (ibid. ver. 12). The Baby

lonian army entered the city, plundered the Temple and the royal palace of their treasures, rudely broke in pieces the vessels of gold which Solomon had made for the Temple service, and added them to the rest of their booty, but spared the fabric of the Temple and of the palace, and do not seem to have plundered the houses of the inhabitants generally (ibid. ver. 13). A multitude of captives were, however, seized and carried off, including the king, the Queen-Mother, the king's wives, the court eunuchs, "all the princes," the best soldiers of the army to the number of seven thousand, and a thousand craftsmen and smiths (ibid. vers. 14-16).

Still, the Babylonian monarch did not push the rights of the conqueror to the uttermost. It was his glory to be a "king of kings," and until a subject nation proved incorrigibly rebellious, it was, under the Babylonian system, allowed to retain its laws, its native rulers, and its nationality. He therefore, before returning to his capital with his captives and his rich booty, appointed to the vacant throne of Judæa a new monarch. This was Mattaniah, the third son of Josiah, who had now reached the age of twenty-one (2 Kings xxiv. 18), and was therefore regarded as fully competent to take the reins of government. Once more the condition was made, that the new king must take a new name, and Mattan-jah (= "Gift of Jehovah ") changed his name to Zedek-jah (= "Righteousness of Jehovah "), perhaps with some reference to the prophecy of Jeremiah, that a time was coming when a king of the house of David should "reign and prosper," whose name should be "The Lord" (Jehovah) our Righteousness" (Jer. xxiii. 5, 6). Ezek. xxvi. 7; Dan. ii. 37.

Both Zedekiah's old and his new name seemed to attach him to the worship of Israel's true God; and it might perhaps have been expected that he would walk in the steps of his pious father, Josiah, rather than in those of his unfortunate and wicked brothers, Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim. He did indeed at first show signs of an intention to obey the Law of Moses, and in his foreign policy to follow the counsels of Jeremiah : he persuaded the nobler and the wealthier classes to make in the Temple a solemn league and covenant with Jehovah, binding themselves to set free all those of their nation whom, in spite of the Mosaic ordinance to the contrary (Exod. xxi. 2; Lev. xxv. 39-41), they were holding in permanent slavery (Jer. xxxiv. 8-10); and he sent a peaceable embassy to Babylon, with advice to the Jewish exiles there to be quiet subjects of the Great King, and “seek the peace of the city whither they had been carried away captive, and to pray unto the Lord for it" (ibid. xxix. 3-7). He also went himself to Babylon in his fourth year, B.C. 594 (ibid. li. 59), probably to renew his fealty, and to disabuse Nebuchadnezzar's mind of any suspicions that he was entertaining respecting him. The oath of allegiance, which he had taken at Jerusalem on his appointment to be king (Ezek. xvii. 13), was most likely on this occasion repeated, and the king returned to his capital more than ever pledged to be a faithful vassal of the Babylonian crown.

He had, however, by this time fallen completely under the influence of the party at Jerusalem which opposed Jeremiah, and regarded him as a coward and a traitor. Trust in Egypt had revived with the accession to the throne of a young and enterprising prince, by name Uapra or Hophra.' Nebuchadnezzar had perhaps suffered reverses in the far East. At any rate, Syria and Palestine were once more stirred with the hope of shaking themselves free from the Chaldæan yoke, and prophecies were floating about that the Babylonian power was about to fall (Jer. xxviii. 1-11). Many of the petty kings whose territories bordered on Judæa sent ambassadors to Jerusalem to induce Zedekiah to join them in open rebellion (ibid. xxvii. 3). Zedekiah himself sent ambassadors to the court of Hophra,

2

I Herodotus calls the king "Apries" (ii. 161), and this name is commonly used by historians.

2 Compare Joseph. "Ant. Jud." x. 7, § 2, with Jer. xxvii. 16, and xxviii.

2-4.

offering his alliance, and asking that a large body of troops might be sent to his assistance (Ezek. xvii. 15). A secret treaty was probably made, and about B.C. 589, in the ninth year of his reign, the Jewish king took the last fatal step, and, despite the warnings of Jeremiah, broke his fealty,' and openly raised the standard of rebellion against his suzerain (2 Kings xxiv. 20; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 13).

The forces of Nebuchadnezzar were immediately put in motion. Ever since his expedition against Jehoiakim (B.C.. 598), he had been maintaining an army on the coast of Syria, which had been for ten years besieging Tyre; but this body of troops could not be spared from its uncompleted task. Nebuchadnezzar deemed it necessary to come in person "with all his host" (2 Kings xxv. 1) from Babylon, and to sit down before Jerusalem in full strength. He was no doubt aware that Judæa was not his only, or indeed his principal, enemy in this quarter. Moab, Ammon, Philistia, Edom, were all of them more or less hostile; and behind these secondary powers, which by themselves would not have been very greatly to be feared, stood the towering form of Egypt, the strength of which could not as yet be accurately estimated. At a certain point of his advance, he came to a spot where the route which he had hitherto followed divided, the left-hand road leading to Rabbath, the capital of Ammon, and the right-hand road to Jerusalem. Here the king experienced a momentary doubt. Standing at the parting of the ways, he had recourse to divination in three forms-by means of arrows made bright for the purpose, by means of images, and by inspecting the entrails of victims (Ezek. xxi. 20-22). All the omens were in accord, and pointed to Jerusalem, whither accordingly he came. While his army ravaged Judæa far and wide, capturing all the provincial strongholds, except Lachish and Azekah (Jer. xxxiv. 7), he himself, with his best troops, invested the capital. Mounds were raised against the walls, especially toward the north, moveable towers were brought up, the place was assailed with battering-rams, and engines of various kinds, slingers and

I Note the frequent reference to this as a heinous crime in Ezekiel (ch. xvii. 15, 16, 18, 19; xxi. 25 ; &c.).

2

Egypt, it must be remembered, employed in her army negroes from the Soudan, as well as large bodies of Greek and Carian mercenaries (Herod. ii. 152, 163, &c.).