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Chapter 1
Solomon, then, king David's heir, was firmly seated on his throne, and the Lord his God was with him, brought him to great renown. And now he sent out his summons to the whole of Israel, to commander and captain and warrior chief, to all judges of the people and heads of their families, and, with such great retinue, betook himself to the hill-sanctuary at Gabaon. Gabaon was still the resting-place of that tabernacle which God's servant Moses fashioned, out in the desert, to be the witness of the divine covenant. The ark of God had left it, first for Cariathiarim, then for the site in Jerusalem where David had brought it, giving it a tent of its own. But the brazen altar which Beseleel made, Beseleel, son of Uri and grandson of Hur, was there still before the entrance of the Lord's tabernacle. To it Solomon repaired, and the whole assembly with him; on that brazen altar, before the tabernacle that bore witness of the Lord's covenant, he offered a thousand victims in sacrifice.
That same night, the Lord appeared to him, bidding him choose what gift he would. You have been very merciful, Solomon answered, to my father David, in granting him a son to succeed him; and now, Lord God, make good your promise to him. Since you have made me king over your people, a great people countless as the dust, grant me wisdom and discernment in all my dealings with them. How else should a man sit in judgement over such a people as this, great as your people is great? And the Lord answered, For this choice you have made, you shall be rewarded. You did not ask for riches or possessions, for glory, or vengeance upon your enemies, or a long life. your prayer was for wisdom and discernment, to make you a better judge for the subjects I have given you. Wisdom and discernment you shall have; and I will give you riches and possession too, and such glory as never king shall have before or after you.
So from the hill-sanctuary at Gabaon, from the entrance of that tabernacle which bears witness of the covenant, Solomon returned to Jerusalem. There he reigned over Israel, and mustered a great force of chariots and of horsemen; a thousand and four hundred chariots, and horsemen twelve thousand; some of these were kept in towns set apart for stabling them, others in Jerusalem at the king's side. Silver he made as common in Jerusalem as stone, and cedars as plentiful as the sycamores that grow in the valleys. And horses were brought to him from Egypt and from Coa, where his agents went to buy them for a fixed sum; six hundred silver pieces for a chariot, and for a horse a hundred and fifty; the kingdoms of the Hethites, too, and the kings of Syria sold him horses at the same price.
Chapter 2
A house Solomon would build, to be a shrine for the Lord's name, and for himself a royal palace. So he made a register of seventy thousand men that should carry burdens on their backs, and eighty thousand to quarry stone in the hills; of overseers, he would have three thousand six hundred. And he sent a message to Hiram, king of Tyre: When my father David was building the palace in which he dwelt, you did send him planks of cedar. Do as much for me, now that I would build a temple dedicated to the Lord, the God I worship; there to burn incense of rich spices, keep hallowed loaves set forth continually, offer sacrifice at morning and evening, at sabbath and at new moon, and on all the feasts our changeless rite enjoins in the Lord's honour. A great fabric it needs must be; great above all gods is the God we worship, and to build a house worthy of him is indeed too high a task for man's powers; who am I, that I should be his architect, whom heaven itself, and the heaven above the heavens, cannot contain? Yet into his presence we must come, to offer incense there. A craftsman I would have of you, that can work skillfully in gold and silver, bronze and iron, tapestry of purple and scarlet and blue; that can help the workmen my father David has left me, here in Jerusalem, carve the figures they would. Send me planks, too, of cedar and juniper and pine; I know well how deftly your men can fell trees on Lebanon; mine shall be apprenticed to them, and cut me planks in abundance; it is a great temple, a famous temple, I would build. Your woodmen shall have for their maintenance forty thousand quarters of wheat, and as many of barley, of wine and of oil six hundred and forty tuns.
To this Hiram, prince of Tyre, wrote in answer, A loving Lord this people has, to give them such a king as you are. Blessed be the name of the Lord God of Israel, maker of heaven and earth, for giving David an heir so wise and so versed in affairs, so prudent and so discerning, fit to build a temple for the Lord, a palace for the king! I am sending you a wise man and a skilful, one Hiram, that is a master of his craft. A woman of Dan was his mother, his father a Tyrian. Well he knows how to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, in marble and in wood, in tapestry of purple and blue, lawn and scarlet thread; to carve what carving you will, and devise all that needs devising, your craftsmen to aid him, and the craftsmen the king's grace, your father, left you. For the rest, my lord, do you send us wheat and barley, wine and oil, as you have promised, and we will set about cutting the planks you need, on mount Lebanon. They shall be brought in rafts by sea to Joppe, and it shall be your part to carry them to Jerusalem.
It was king Solomon, not content with the register his father David had made, who registered afresh all the aliens that dwelt in Israel; the number of these proved to be a hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred; seventy thousand to carry burdens on their backs, eighty thousand to quarry stone in the hills, and three thousand six hundred overseers.
Chapter 3
Solomon, then, set about the building of the Lord's house, there on mount Moria, the place of David's vision, where David had bought the threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite. It was in the second month of his fourth year as king that he began building, and the foundations he laid for the Lord's house, using the old cubit measure, were sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. In front was a porch twenty cubits long, to match the width of the temple, and (a hundred and) twenty cubits high, the gilding within was of the purest gold. The main building was faced with planks of pine, that had plates of fine gold attached to them, and it had a pattern of palm branches and chains interlaced; its floor was laid in precious marble, nobly patterned. The whole building, beam and pillar and wall and doorway, was faced with none but the purest gold, and on the walls of it were carvings of cherubim.
He made, too, an inner shrine, twenty cubits long like the width of the main building, and twenty cubits wide. Some six hundred talents of gold were used in the facing of it; the very nails were of gold, each of fifty sicles weight; even the upper rooms were faced with gold. Within the inner shrine stood two carved cherubs, all plated with gold; the four wings of them had twenty cubits stretch, either touching the wall with one of its wings, five cubits long, and its fellow cherub with the other. Thus, with outspread wings both of them, they occupied the whole space of twenty cubits; upright they stood on their feet, with their faces turned towards the outer building. A veil, too, he made, of fine linen thread twined with threads of blue, purple and scarlet, with a tapestry of cherubs. And before the doors of the temple he set up two pillars thirty-five cubits high, with capitals of five cubits; and he made chains (within the inner shrine) which he hung round the capitals, each interspersed with a hundred figured pomegranates. At the very entrance of the temple he set up these pillars, one on the right, to which he gave the name of Jachin, and one on the left, to which he gave the name of Booz.
Chapter 4
He made a brazen altar, too, twenty cubits in length and width, ten in height. And he cast a great round basin ten cubits from brim to brim, five cubits high, and with a girth of thirty cubits. It rested on figures of oxen, and without, a chain of moulding ran round its belly in two rows. The oxen were cast in metal, and supported the basin, twelve of them, three facing north, three west, three south, three east, with the basin so resting on them that their hind-quarters were hidden beneath it. The basin was a palm's breadth thick and its brim curved as the brim of a cup does, or of an open lily; it held ninety-six tuns. He also made ten smaller basins, and put five on the right, five on the left, for the washing of all that was to be offered in burnt-sacrifice; in the great basin the priests themselves washed.
Within the temple were ten golden lampstands, of a prescribed pattern, five to the right and five to the left, and ten tables disposed in the same way. And there were a hundred goblets, all of gold. There were precincts, too, for the priests, and a great court; the doors of this court so were covered with bronze. The great basin was put on the right, towards the southeast.
Pot and fork and bowl Hiram made, and all that the king needed for the service of the Lord's temple; pillar and soffit and capital, and net-work over capital and soffit; four hundred figured pomegranates, and two lengths of net-work pattern, two rows of pomegranates to each length of net-work, draped over capital and soffit alike. He made stands, and smaller basins for the stands to carry, the large basin, with the twelve oxen beneath it, and pot and fork and bowl besides all else. All such ornaments for the Lord's house did Hiram, king Solomon's master craftsman, fashion out of the purest bronze; the king had them cast in the clay soil of the Jordan valley, between Socoth and Saredatha; a great multitude of them, so that the weight of bronze was never counted or known.
Other appurtenances, too, of the Lord's house must Solomon make; the golden altar, and the golden tables on which the hallowed loaves were set out, the lampstand with its lamps, all of pure gold, ready to burn in due course before the shrine, and the flowered bosses for them, and the lamps themselves, and the tongs, of pure gold too. Nothing but must be made of the purest gold, incense-boat and censer and bowl and spoon. Carved doors within, leading to the shrine, temple doors without, alike were plated with gold. Thus Solomon completed all the work needed for the service of the Lord's house.
Chapter 5
And now Solomon must bring into the temple all the votive offerings his father David had made; silver and gold and lesser ware, all must be stored up in its treasure-chamber. Then he sent for the elders of Israel, the chiefs of the tribes and the heads of clans; all must meet at Jerusalem to bring the Lord's ark home from its resting-place in the Keep of David, which we call Sion. It was on the great feast day of the seventh month that all Israel obeyed the king's summons; and when the last of the chieftains had arrived, the Levites took up the ark and brought it in; the tabernacle, too, with all its equipment, and all the furniture of the sanctuary that remained still in the tabernacle, priests and Levites brought to the spot. Meanwhile king Solomon, with the whole Israelite assembly, all that had gathered before the ark, offered rams and bulls; so many were the victims that there was no counting them. So the ark that bears witness of the Lord's covenant was borne by the priests to the place designed for it, there in the temple's inner shrine where the cherubim spread their wings; spread them over the very place where the ark rested, to protect it and protect the poles that bore it. These poles jutted out indeed, being longer than the ark they bore, so that the ends of them could be seen by one standing before the shrine; but beyond the temple limits they were seen no more; and so they have remained to this day. And nothing was in the ark except the two tablets Moses laid up there on mount Horeb, when the Lord gave the sons of Israel a law to live by, after their escape from Egypt.
At last the priests left the sanctuary; all of them who were present had purified themselves so as to gain admission, for as yet they had no times and manners of service planned out for them. To the east of the altar stood Levites and singers, the clans of Asaph, Heman and Idithun alike, all robed in lawn, playing on their cymbals, zithers and harps; and now they had a hundred and twenty priests with them, sounding with trumpets. Trumpet and voice, cymbals and flute, with all the other instruments, sounded aloud so that the noise of them could be heard far off, as they praised the Lord together; Praise the Lord, they sang, the Lord is gracious; his mercy endures for ever. And with that, the whole of the Lord's house was wreathed in cloud; lost in that cloud, the priests could not wait upon the Lord with his accustomed service; his own glory was there, filling his own house.
Chapter 6
Where the cloud is, cried Solomon, the Lord has promised to be. It is true, then, the house I have built in his honour is to be, for ever, his dwelling- place. With that, the king turned to bless the whole assembly; all Israel, that stood waiting there. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, he said, who has fulfilled in act the promise he made to my father David. So many years since he had rescued his people from Egypt, and never a city among all the tribes of Israel had he chosen to be the site of his dwelling-place or the shrine of his name, never a prince had he appointed over his people of Israel, till at last he chose Jerusalem, to enshrine his name there, and David for his people's ruler. And when he, my father, would have built a house in honour of the Lord God of Israel, the Lord told him that he had done well to conceive such a purpose in his heart; But it is not for you, he said, to build me a house. A house shall be built in my honour, but by your son. the heir of your body. That promise of his the Lord has fulfilled; I have come forward in my father David's place, sit upon the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised I should; it has been mine to build a house to the honour of the Lord, Israel's God, and to find a home for this ark, witness of the covenant he made with Israel's sons.
Then Solomon stood before the Lord's altar in full view of all Israel, and stretched out his hands. In the midst of the great court he had bidden them set down a block of bronze, five cubits across either way and three feet in height; on this he mounted, and there, in the sight of all Israel, kneeling down with his hands lifted up towards heaven, he prayed. Lord God of Israel, he said, you reign without rival in heaven and earth, making good your merciful promises to all who follow you with undivided hearts. And you have not disappointed your servant, my father David; your act matches your word; this day, who doubts it? Do not forget, Lord God of Israel, that other promise of yours to David, that he should always have an heir to sit on the throne of Israel, would but his sons guide their steps, like David himself, as in your presence; let that promise too, Lord God of Israel, be ratified!
Folly it were to think that God has a dwelling-place on earth. If the very heavens, and the heaven that is above the heavens, cannot contain you, what welcome can it offer you, this house which I have built? Yet it has not been built in vain, Lord my God, if you will give heed to your servant's prayer, that sues for your favour, listen to the cry of entreaty he makes before you. This I ask, that your eyes should be ever watching, night and day, over this temple of yours, the chosen sanctuary of your name; be this the meeting-place where you will listen to your servant's prayer. Whatever requests I or my people Israel make shall find audience here; you will listen from your dwelling-place in heaven, and listening, will forgive.
Has a man wronged his neighbour, and is he ready to clear himself of the charge by an oath? Then, if he comes to this house of yours, to swear the lie before your altar, you, in heaven, will be listening, and will do justice between your servants, passing sentence upon the guilty and avenging the wrong, acquitting the innocent and granting him due redress.
Are your people of Israel condemned to flee before their enemies, in punishment of the sins they will surely commit? Then, if they come back to you in repentance, call on your name and plead with you in this temple of yours, you will be listening in heaven; forgive the sins of your people Israel, and restore them to the land which you gave to their fathers. Does the sky bar its gates against them, and give no rain, in punishment for their sins? Then, if they come here acknowledging you with prayer and repentance, and turn away, in their sore need, from their sins, do you, in heaven, listen, and grant your servants the people of Israel forgiveness; teach them to guide their steps aright, and send rain on the land you have given them for their home. Is there famine in the land, or pestilence, blight or mildew, plague of locust or caterpillar? Does some enemy press hard on it, besieging its city gates? Whatever be the plague or the sickness that weighs us down, if any one among your people, accepting that plague or sickness as his own, makes prayer to you, stretching out his hands in this temple, you, in heaven, your high dwelling-place, will be listening; do you relent, and send to each man the lot his deeds deserve, you, who alone read the hearts of human kind. So will men learn to fear you and to follow in your paths, long as they live to enjoy the land you gave to our fathers.
Nay, is it some stranger, with no part in your people Israel, who yet comes here from distant lands, for love of your renown, for the constraining force your power displays, and worships you in this temple? Still, in heaven, your secure dwelling-place, you will grant the alien's prayer. So shall all the world come to hear of your renown, and fear you no less than Israel itself; shall doubt no more that this temple I have built claims your protection. Sometimes your people will go out to levy war upon their enemies, here and there at your bidding. Then, as they fall to prayer, let them but turn in the direction of the city you have chosen, the temple I have built there in your honour, and you, in heaven, will listen to their prayer for aid, will maintain their cause.
But what, if they have offended you by their faults? No man but is guilty of some fault; it may be you will give them up, in your anger, into the power of their enemies, and as prisoners they will be banished into countries far away, or alien countries within sight of home. But ere long, in their banishment, they will come back to you with repentant hearts, crying out to you, poor exiles, We are sinners, we have done amiss, rebels all! In that alien land, the land of their captivity, they will turn back to you with all the purpose of their heart and soul. Then, if they turn in prayer towards the land you gave their fathers, the city of your choice, and the temple I have built in your honour, you, in heaven, on your peaceful throne, will once more listen to their prayer for aid, will maintain their cause still. And you will relent towards your people, though they have sinned against you.
My God! Ever be your eyes open, ever your ears attentive to the prayer that is offered here. Up, Lord, take possession of this, your home, with the ark that makes known your power; Lord God, let your priests go clad in triumph, your faithful people rejoice in your bounty. Lord God, do not reject my prayer, the king you have anointed; bethink you of the loving designs you had for your servant David before him.
Chapter 7
Scarce had Solomon finished his praying, when fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt-sacrifice, consumed all the victims; the glory of the Lord, too, filled the temple, and the priests might not enter; his own glory was there, filling his own house. The fire that fell, the brightness of the Lord's visible presence, was seen by all Israel; there on the stone pavement they fell down to earth in worship, crying, Praise the Lord, the Lord is gracious, his mercy endures for ever. King and people offered their victims in the Lord's presence; the beasts king Solomon slew that day, when he and all the people dedicated the Lord's house, were twenty-two thousand bulls and a hundred and twenty thousand rams. There stood the priests at their task, and the Levites with the instruments of sacred music, that king David had given them to praise the Lord with, playing David's own chant of everlasting mercy, while the priests led with their trumpets, and all the people stood around. That day, the king must needs hallow the middle part of the court before the Lord's house, burning there the burnt-sacrifice and the fat taken from the welcome-victims; the brazen altar he had made would not suffice for these and for the bloodless offerings too. After this, king Solomon spent seven days in keeping the feast of Tabernacles, and with him a great multitude from the whole land of Israel, that stretched from the pass of Emath down to the river of Egypt; and the eighth day he kept as a great holiday, after seven days given up to the temple dedication, and seven to the feast. At last, on the twenty-third day of the month, he sent the people home, rejoicing with full hearts over the mercies the Lord had shewn to David, to Solomon, and to his own people of Israel.
When Solomon had finished building the temple, and his own palace, and brought all his plans for one and the other to a prosperous issue, the Lord spoke to him in a vision seen by night. I have listened to your prayer, he said; this place, none other, shall be the home of my sacrifices. Shut I the heavens, so that no rain should fall, give I charge to the locust to ravage the country-side, send I pestilence to destroy my people; if they, this people of mine, thus dedicated to my name, will betake themselves to my presence in entreaty, and repent of their ill doings, I, in heaven, will listen, will pardon their sins, will bring healing to their country. Open my eyes shall be, my ears attentive to every man's prayer that here prays to me; I have set this place apart and hallowed it, to be the shrine of my name for all time; never a day but my eyes shall be watching, my heart be attentive here.
Do you guide your steps, like your father, as in my presence, do you fulfil all I command, hold true to observance and decree of mine; and I will raise up a dynasty to follow you; such was my promise to your father David, that he should always have an heir to sit on the throne of Israel. But if you are content to turn your backs upon me, neglecting the decrees and commands I have given you, betaking yourselves to the service and the worship of alien gods, then I will pluck you up by the roots out of the land I gave you, and this temple, which I have hallowed as the shrine of my name, shall be thrust away out of my sight; it shall be a proverb and a by-word among the nations. It shall be a monument to the passers-by, and they will ask in wonder, Why has the Lord treated this land, this house so cruelly? And the answer will come, Because they forsook the Lord their God, who rescued their fathers from the land of Egypt, and betook themselves to the worship and service of alien gods; that is why all this ruin has come upon them.
Chapter 8
Twenty years passed, after Solomon had built the Lord's temple and his own palace; then he set about fortifying the towns which Hiram had made over to him, and establishing Israelite inhabitants there. He marched against Emath Suba, and took possession of it, fortified Palmyra, out in the desert, and other fastnesses in the Emath country. He rebuilt Bethoron, upper and lower, making two walled cities there, bolted and barred against attack; Baalath, too, and all those other fortress-cities which bear Solomon's name, cities where he stationed his chariots and his horsemen. In Jerusalem, on Lebanon, all through his kingdom Solomon built whatever he had the whim to design. Some of the old population was still left, Hethites, Amorrhites, Pherezites, Hevites, Jebusites, that were no true breed of Israel, but came down from the stock which had been spared by the invaders; these king Solomon made into bondservants, as they are to this day. Among the Israelites, he would have no man enslaved to the royal service; it was from these he drew his warriors and his courtiers, the commanders of his chariots and his horsemen. Five hundred and fifty captains king Solomon had, that issued his commands to the people at large. He must build a new house, too, for Pharao's daughter, so that she might dwell in David's Keep no longer. I will not house wife of mine, said he, in David's home, that was king of Israel; the ark of the Lord has found its way there, and it is hallowed ground now.
Solomon used the altar he had built to the Lord in front of the temple porch for offering burnt-sacrifice day by day, as the law of Moses enjoined, on sabbaths, too, and at the new moon, and for the three feasts that came round yearly, the feasts of Unleavened Bread, of Weeks, and of Tabernacles. And he assigned to the priests the duties they were to perform, as his father David had prescribed them; and to the Levites their duties of singing praise, and of helping the priests with their task, as the needs of each day required; and to the door-keepers their various posts. All that God's servant David had enjoined must be done; neither priest nor Levite might go beyond the king's orders, in this or in the keeping of the sacred treasures. All that he needed king Solomon had by him, from the day when he laid the foundations of the Lord's house till the day when he finished it; after that, he betook himself to Asiongaber, and Ailath, in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea, where Hiram's men met him with ships and skilful mariners. These, with Solomon's own men, sailed for Ophir, and brought back four hundred and fifty talents of gold to the royal coffers.
Chapter 9
And now Solomon was visited by the queen of Saba. His fame had reached her, and she came to make trial of his power with knotty questions. Great was the wealth she brought with her to Jerusalem; her camels were loaded with spices and abundant gold and precious stones. And when she met Solomon, she told him all the thoughts that exercised her mind; every doubt he resolved, no question of hers but found an answer. And when she saw how wise a man he was, saw, too, the house he had built, the food that was on his table, the lodging of his servants, the order and splendour of his court, the fine attire of his cup-bearers, and what victims he offered in the Lord's temple, she stood breathless in wonder. And she said to the king, It was no false tale I heard in my own country, of the powers you have, of the wisdom which is yours. I could not believe what they told me, without coming and seeing it for myself; now I find that half of it was lost in the telling, here are wonders surpassing all I heard. Happy your folk, happy these servants of yours who wait ever on your presence, and listen to your wise words. Blessed be the Lord your God, that would have a throne for himself, and you, a king of his own, to sit on it! He loves Israel indeed, and means to preserve it evermore, that has appointed such a king to do justice and to make award for it.
A hundred and twenty talents weight of gold she gave to king Solomon, with many spices and precious stones; never were such spices as the queen of Saba gave to king Solomon. (though indeed Hiram's fleet, when it brought back gold from Ophir, brought sandal-wood, as well as precious stones; and of this sandal-wood king Solomon made pedestals for temple and palace, harp and zither for his musicians; never was such wood seen in Juda.) Solomon, in his turn, gave the queen of Saba all she desired and asked for, more than ever she brought with her; and so she went back to her own country, with all her retinue.
The weight of gold that reached Solomon every year was six hundred and sixty-six talents, not counting what was brought by the envoys of different countries, by his own merchantmen, and by the kings of Arabia, with the governors of their provinces; these, too, brought gold and silver to king Solomon. Two hundred shields king Solomon made of the gold; six hundred sicles of gold went to one shield; besides three hundred golden bucklers, three hundred sicles of gold being used for the plating of each; and all these the king put away in the store-chamber of the building that was called the Forest of Lebanon. He also made a great throne of ivory, and lined it with gold unalloyed; six steps led up to it, and the footstool was all of gold. This throne had an arm at either side, and a lion standing by it; twelve other lions stood on the steps, six on either side; no other kingdom had a throne to match it. Of gold all the plate was when the king feasted, of pure gold all the ornaments in the house called the Forest of Lebanon in those days, silver was little thought of. Every three years the king's fleet and Hiram's would sail to Tharsis, from where they came back laden with gold and silver; with ivory, too, and apes and peacocks for their freight.
So, both in riches and in renown, Solomon outvied all the kings of the world; and kings from every part of the world craved his audience, to make proof for themselves of the wisdom God had put in his heart. And all these brought him gifts, so that gold and silver ware, presents of clothes and armour, spices, too, and horses and mules came in year by year. Forty thousand horses king Solomon had in his stables, twelve thousand chariots, and horsemen with them; some he kept in his chariot cities, and others at his side in Jerusalem. And he was overlord of all the kings from the river Euphrates to Philistia, and to the frontiers of Egypt. Silver he made as common in Jerusalem as stone, and cedars as plentiful as the sycamores that grow in the valleys; horses he had from Egypt and from all the world over.
What else Solomon did, first and last, is to be found in the book that was written by the prophet Nathan, in the prophecy of Ahias the Silonite, and in the vision of the seer Addo that pronounces doom against Jeroboam son of Nabat. For forty years Solomon reigned at Jerusalem over all Israel; then they laid him to rest with his fathers, with the Keep of David for his burying-place, and the throne passed to his son Roboam.
Chapter 10
This Roboam betook himself to Sichem; at Sichem the whole of Israel had assembled to crown him king. But meanwhile Jeroboam, son of Nabat, who had fled to Egypt to be out of king Solomon's reach, had come back on hearing the news of his death; and he, too, was summoned to meet them. He, and all Israel, came to make a request of Roboam; your father, they said, made us bear a bitter yoke. Less you must ask of us than those cruel exactions, those stern commands, if we are ever to be servants of yours. Give me three days, he said, and then come back to hear my answer. So, when the people had left him, he asked advice first of the older men that had been courtiers in the life-time of his father; what answer should he make to the people? Why, they told him, if you will but court their favour, and win them with gracious words, they will never cease giving you loyal service. But he left their advice unheeded, and began to take counsel instead of the younger men who had grown up with him, and were of his following; How think you? he asked. What answer shall I make to the people's request that I would lighten the yoke my father laid on them? And these, men that had been brought up with him in luxurious ways, gave him advice in their turn. Do they complain that your father laid a heavy yoke on them, and ask for relief? Then tell them there is more strength in your little finger than in all the breadth of your father's back; if his yoke fell heavy on them, yours shall be heavier still, if your father's weapon was the lash, yours shall be the scorpion.
So the third day came, and Jeroboam, with all the people at his back, kept their tryst with him. And the king, instead of heeding the advice which the older men had given him, spoke to the people harshly, with such words as the younger men would have him use, If my father's yoke fell heavy on you, mine shall be heavier still, if his weapon was the lash, mine shall be the scorpion. Thus the king refused to fall in with the people's request; the Lord's will was to give effect to the promise he had made, through Ahias the Silonite, to Jeroboam son of Nabat. The people, thus churlishly answered, cried out, David is none of ours, not for us the son of Jesse; go back, men of Israel, to your homes! David's rule for David's tribe! And with that, Israel dispersed to their homes, leaving Roboam to reign over such Israelites as lived in the cities of Juda. And now, when Aduram, who had charge of the levy, came to them in the king's name, the Israelites stoned him to death; whereupon Roboam mounted his chariot and betook himself, with all speed, to Jerusalem. From that day to this, the men of Israel have refused allegiance to the dynasty of David.
Chapter 11
Upon reaching Jerusalem, Roboam mustered the whole forces of Juda and Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand tried warriors, to do battle with the Israelites and recover his kingdom. But the Lord sent word to the prophet Semeias, Here is a message for Roboam, son of Solomon, king of Juda, and for all the Israelites of Juda and Benjamin. You are not to march out, the Lord says, and make war upon your own brethren; go home, every man of you; all this is my doing. Learning that this was the Lord's will, all went home, and never marched out against Jeroboam.
Roboam had his capital at Jerusalem, but there were many other cities in Juda he fortified, Bethlehem, Etam, Thecue, Bethsur, Socho, Odollam, Geth, Maresa, Ziph, Aduram, Lachis, Azecha, Saraa, Aialon and Hebron. All these cities of Juda and Benjamin were fastnesses of his, each of them walled about, and furnished with a commander, and stores of food, wine and oil, and an armoury full of shields and spears; no pains did he spare in making them secure. Juda and Benjamin were his subjects, and from their homes in every part of Israel the priests and Levites rallied to him. Precincts and lands must be left behind, to Juda and Jerusalem they must betake themselves, now that Jeroboam and his heirs would have none of their divinely appointed ministrations; Jeroboam must have his own priests, to serve the hill-shrines, and the devil-gods and the calves he had made. Nay, in all the tribes of Israel there were dedicated hearts that had recourse still to the Lord God of Israel; these, when they had victims to offer, would present themselves at Jerusalem, before the Lord God of their fathers. These added strength to the kingdom of Juda, and lent courage to Roboam, the son of Solomon, but only for three years. Only for three years did they follow loyally in the steps of David and Solomon.
Roboam married, first Mahalath, daughter of David's son Jerimoth, then Abihail, daughter of Jesse's son Eliab, the mother of Jehus, Somoria and Zoom, then Absalom's daughter Maacha, who bore him Abia, Ethai, Ziza and Salomith. Roboam had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, who bore him twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters; but Maacha, Absalom's daughter, he loved best of all. And it was to Maacha's son Abia that he gave the foremost place among the royal princes, meaning to make him king. This prince was abler than the rest, and had more influence up and down Juda and Benjamin, as well as in the garrison cities. All alike must be well cared for, and wives a many found for the royal house.
Chapter 12
Now that Roboam was strong, and firmly seated on his throne, he defied the divine law, and all his people did the like. Then, in his fifteenth year, their sin against the Lord was punished; Sesac, king of Egypt, marched on Jerusalem with a thousand and two hundred chariots, with sixty thousand horsemen; nay, there was no counting the hordes that followed with him, Libyan and Troglodyte and Ethiopian all at once. All the strongest cities fell before him, and at last he reached Jerusalem itself. Thereupon the prophet Semeias came into Roboam's presence, where he sat with all the chief men of Juda, that had taken refuge in Jerusalem at Sesac's approach. This is the Lord's message for you, he told them; You have abandoned me, and now I am abandoning you to the mercy of Sesac. King and chieftains cried out in dismay, The Lord's sentence is just. And now, seeing them humbled, the Lord sent his word to Semeias, Their pride is humbled; I will spare them from ruin. A little aid they shall have from me, nor shall my vengeance rain down upon Jerusalem with Sesac for its instrument. But he shall be their master; they shall learn the difference between serving me and serving an earthly king. Thus Sesac, king of Egypt, raised the siege of Jerusalem, but not until he had removed all the treasures of temple and palace. Among the spoils he carried away were the golden shields Solomon had made, and in place of these, Roboam made shields of bronze, which he handed over to the chief shield-bearers that kept guard at the palace entrance. When he made a progress into the Lord's house, they were brought in by the shield-bearers, and carried back afterwards to their armoury. Well for the men of Juda that their pride was humbled; they were spared the Lord's vengeance; were not doomed to perish, like a race in whom no good is to be found.
So Roboam took courage, and ruled his people yet. He was forty-one years old when he came to the throne, and for seventeen years he reigned at Jerusalem, the city the Lord chose, out of all Israel's tribes, to be the shrine of his name. His mother was called Naama, an Ammonitess. An ill life his; here was no heart that learned to have recourse to the Lord. All he did, first and last, is to be found set out fully in the writing of the prophet Semeias and the seer Addo. All through his reign there was war between him and Jeroboam. Then he was laid to rest with his fathers, with the Keep of David for his burying-place; and the throne passed to his son Abia.
Chapter 13
Abia, coming to the throne of Juda in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam, reigned three years at Jerusalem; his mother was called Michaia, daughter of Uriel from Gabaa. Between Jeroboam and Abia, a state of war continued.
With four hundred thousand warriors, picked men all, Abia came out to offer battle, and with eight hundred thousand, picked men too, Jeroboam came out to meet him. It was at mount Semeron, in Ephraim, and there Abia took his stand; Here is a message, he cried, for Jeroboam, a message for all the men of Israel. Doubt there is none that the Lord God of Israel has pledged the kingship of it to David and all his heirs for all time, by an oath inviolable. Yet here is Jeroboam, son of Nabat, that held office under king Solomon, David's heir, rebelling against his own master; here are restless spirits, upstart rogues, have rallied to his side, and had their way against Roboam, that was true heir to Solomon. What could he do to withstand them, so new to his task and so faint-spirited? Think you now to maintain yourselves against that kingdom which David's line rules by divine commission? Your numbers indeed are many; but what gods protect you? Only the golden calves Jeroboam made for you. For these, you have cast out the priests of the Lord, Aaron's race, and the Levites with them; you must needs make priests of your own, like the heathen around you; the first comer, bring he a bull with him or seven rams for his hallowing, may be a priest, fit priest for the gods that are no gods. Our God is the Lord, unforsaken still; the priests that serve him are of Aaron's true breed; we have Levites to be their ministers. Day in, day out, they offer the Lord burnt-sacrifice; incense is ours, made as the law prescribes, and the loaves set out on the hallowed table; the golden lamp- stand is ours, and the lamps ever lit at evening; the commands of the Lord our God, among you so slighted, we keep. Here, then, is an army that has God for its leader; it is his priests that will sound their trumpets for the attack. Men of Israel, do not fight against the Lord, or it will go ill with you.
While he thus addressed himself to them, Jeroboam was laying an ambush in his rear; still confronting them, he would surround the men of Juda unawares. And they, when they looked about them and found themselves attacked from front and rear at once, cried out to the Lord, while the priests with their trumpets sounded the alarm; a great shout went up from the men of Juda, and as they shouted, the Lord struck terror into Jeroboam's heart, and the hearts of all Israel that were Abia's and Juda's enemies; to Juda the Lord gave the mastery, and they drove Israel before them in flight. A great victory Abia won that day, and there were five hundred thousand of Israel's warriors that fell; a sore blow for Israel's pride, and a day of great rejoicing for Juda, that put their trust in the Lord God of their fathers. Abia pursued Jeroboam in his flight, and took three cities of his, Bethel and Jesana and Ephron, with their daughter villages, nor, while Abia reigned, might Jeroboam any more withstand him. Afterwards the Lord's vengeance fell on Jeroboam, and he died. So was Abia firmly established on his throne; fourteen wives he wedded, and had twenty-two sons by them, and sixteen daughters. What else Abia did, the life he led and all his exploits, may be found fully set down in the writings of the prophet Addo.
Chapter 14
So Abia was laid to rest with his fathers, with the Keep of David for his burying-place, and the throne passed to his son Asa; for the first ten years of his reign, the land was at peace. His was a life well lived, in obedience to the Lord's will; altar and hill-shrine of alien worship he overthrew, broke the images, cut down the forest sanctuaries, and bade Juda have recourse to the Lord, the God of their fathers, carrying out all his law enjoined. No city in Juda but he rid it of altar and of shrine, and so he reigned in peace. And now, the Lord so blessing him with peace, his reign free from every alarm of battle, he set about fortifying the cities in his realm. Rebuild we these cities, he said to the men of Juda, and wall them about, making them fast with tower and bolt and bar, while we are still free from wars, and the Lord God of our fathers grants to us, his worshippers, a time of peace with our neighbours. So build they did, without let or hindrance.
Three hundred thousand men of Juda this Asa had in his army, that carried shield and spear, besides two hundred and eighty thousand men of Benjamin, armed with shield and bow, trained warriors all. When Zara the Ethiopian marched in, and reached as far as Maresa, he had a million of fighting men and three hundred chariots to match against them. But Asa went to meet him, and offered battle in the valley of Sephata, close by Maresa. And there he made his plea to the Lord God; It is all one to you, Lord, be they few or many to whom you would bring your aid. Help us now, Lord our God; in you, in your name we put our trust, boldly offering battle to such hordes as these. Lord, you are our own God; do not let man have the mastery of you. With that, the Lord struck terror into the Ethiopians as Asa and the men of Juda approached, so that they turned and fled; all the way to Gerara Asa and his men pursued them, till nothing was left of them; it was the Lord that smote them, his army that did battle against them; and rich were the spoils of that victory. All the cities about Gerara, now overcome with terror, they conquered and plundered, carrying away their booty with them; the sheep-folds, too, they broke down, and drove away sheep and camels in abundance. And so they returned to Jerusalem.
Chapter 15
It was then that the spirit of the Lord moved Azarias, son of Oded, to prophesy. He it was went out to meet Asa, and thus greeted him: Listen to me, Asa, listen to me, tribes of Juda and Benjamin. If the Lord declares for you, it is because you have declared yourselves for him; have recourse to him, and he is yours, forsake him, and you will find yourselves forsaken. Israel he has abandoned; long must they wait without true God, true prophet or true law, till affliction brings them back to the Lord, their own God, and they look for him again, and find him. Meanwhile no peace, only constant marching to and fro; alarm of battle in the kingdoms all around, nation fighting against nation, city against city, because the Lord would have them ever restless, ever in sore straits. But you, take courage; never slacken your resolve; still for your loyal service you shall have reward.
Upon hearing the inspired words of this prophet, Azarias son of Oded, Asa's courage rose; never an idol was left in Juda or Benjamin, or the cities he had recovered in the hill-country of Ephraim. He also dedicated anew the altar of the Lord before the temple porch, summoning all Juda and Benjamin, and with them new-comers from Ephraim, Manasses and Simeon; not a few of these Israelites had transferred their allegiance to him, when they saw what favour he enjoyed with the Lord his God. In the third month of Asa's twenty-fifth year they assembled at Jerusalem, and sacrificed to the Lord that day, out of their spoil and out of the cattle they had driven away, seven hundred bulls and seven thousand rams. Then he set about solemnly ratifying the covenant which bound them to have recourse to the Lord God of their fathers, heart and soul. Death to high or low, death to man or woman, Asa cried, that turns to any god save the Lord God of Israel! Loud were their cries of acclaim, loud rang trumpet and horn, as the oath was taken, binding every man in the territory of Juda under a curse. Loyally they swore, loyally kept their oath, nor did they turn to the Lord in vain; peace undisturbed on every frontier was their reward.
His own mother, Maacha, Asa deprived of her royal dignity, for making a forest shrine that had Priapus' image in it; the image he broke, and burnt the fragments of it, and cast the ashes into the river Cedron. He did not abolish the hill-shrines, but all his days his heart was true to the Lord; and he enriched the Lord's house with gold and silver and great array of other ornaments, some dedicated by his father, some in performance of his own vows. And war there was none till Asa's reign had reached its thirty-fifth year.
Chapter 16
Then, in the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign, Baasa king of Israel invaded Juda, and began making a fortified city of Rama, so as to deny Asa's subjects free passage. Whereupon Asa took out all the silver and gold that was left in the treasure-chambers of temple and palace; this he sent to Benadad, king of Syria, at Damascus, with the message, There is an alliance between us; were not your father and mine ever at peace? Witness these gifts of silver and gold I send you; do you annul the treaty you have made with Baasa, king of Israel, and help me drive him out of my country. Thus approached, Benadad sent out his generals with orders to attack the cities of Israel; Ahion they overcame, and Dan, and Abelmaim, and all the fortified cities of Nephthali. So Baasa, when the news reached him, left his plan of fortifying Rama half-finished; and Asa, with all Juda at his back, carried off the stones and wood-work that should have been used towards it, and with these fortified Gabaa and Maspha instead.
Thereupon the prophet Hanani came into the royal presence, with this message: This was ill done, to call the king of Syria to your aid. If you had put your trust in the Lord, the army of Syria itself should have been at your mercy. Stronger in chariots and horsemen, stronger in their huge array, were the Libyans and Ethiopians over whom the Lord gave you mastery, in return for your trust. Wide as earth is the Lord's scrutiny, and there he gives mastery where he finds hearts that have utter faith in him. you have played a fool's part; henceforward, there shall be no lack of wars to threaten you. At this, Asa fell into a rage, and had the prophet committed to prison, to vent his high displeasure; it was at this time, too, that he put many of his subjects to death.
All that Asa did, first and last, is set down in the Annals of the kings of Israel and Juda. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, a malignant disease attacked his feet; nor, in that sickness, did he have recourse to the Lord, trusting rather in the skill of physicians. So, dying in the fortieth year of his reign, he was laid to rest with his fathers, and they buried him in the tomb that had been dug for him by his own orders, in the Keep of David. There he lay, on his own bed, that was piled high with spices and rare ointments, mingled with all the perfumer's art; and these, in high funeral pomp, they burned over his grave.
Chapter 17
The throne passed to his son Josaphat, who made his territories secure against threat from Israel; all the fortified cities of Juda he garrisoned, and kept troops on guard throughout Juda, and in the cities his father Asa had taken from Ephraim. Josaphat reigned, and the Lord was with him, because the first years of his father (David) were the example he followed; he put his trust, not in gods of the country-side, but in his own father's God; kept close to the divine commandments, far from the sins of Israel. So the Lord gave him a firm hold on the reins of government; from all parts of Juda gifts came to Josaphat, till riches and renown were his in abundance. Boldly he upheld the Lord's commandments, sweeping away hill-shrine and forest sanctuary from Juda.
In the third year of his reign, he would have some of his chief officers go out and give instruction in the townships of Juda, Benhail, Obdias, Zacharias, Nathanael, and Michaeas, and with them certain Levites, Semeias, Nathanias, Zabadias, Asael, Semiramoth, Jonathan, Adonias, Tobias and Tob-Adonias, and two priests, Elisama and Joram. They took a copy of the Lord's law with them, the better to instruct the men of Juda, and went round all its cities, teaching the common folk.
Never a king in all the countries about Juda durst levy war against Josaphat, such terror the Lord had struck into their hearts; the very Philistines brought him gifts, and paid a tribute of silver, and the Arabs must bring in their herds, seven thousand seven hundred rams and as many goats. Josaphat, then, grew to great magnificence, filling Juda with fortresses and walled towns; and all through the cities of Juda he had store in abundance. At Jerusalem, he was surrounded by brave warriors, clans thus enrolled: from Juda, three hundred thousand fighting men under the command of Ednas, one of his chieftains; two hundred and eighty thousand under Johanan, and two hundred thousand under Amasias son of Zechri, that was set apart for the Lord's service. And (from Benjamin) two hundred thousand with bow and spear under brave Eliada, and a hundred and eighty thousand, well equipped for battle, under Jozabad. All these were close to the king's side, not counting those he had marshalled in the walled cities from end to end of Juda.
Chapter 18
Rich and renowned, Josaphat had allied his house by marriage with the house of Achab; and now, when some years had passed, he went to visit him at Samaria. Many a ram, many a bullock did Achab slaughter to make him and his retinue welcome; then he had a plan to put before him, that they should march against Ramoth-Galaad. And what answer made Josaphat, king of Juda, when Achab, king of Israel, proposed that they should attack Ramoth-Galaad together? You and I, said he, are all at one; my army is all yours, we will stand at your side in battle. But he would have Achab consult the Lord first. So Achab sent for his prophets, four hundred in number, and asked whether they should attack Ramoth-Galaad or let it be? Go to the attack, they said; the Lord means to make the king's grace master of it. But still Josaphat asked whether there was no prophet of the Lord to be found, so that they could make enquiry through him. Why yes, the king of Israel told him, there is one man through whom we might ask for the Lord's counsel; yet is he no friend of mine, still he will be prophesying that ill fortune is to befall me, never good; Michaeas is his name, the son of Jemla. Nay, my lord king, said Josaphat, think better of it. So Achab summoned one of his chamberlains, and bade him fetch Michaeas the son of Jemla with all speed.
There sat the king of Israel and Josaphat king of Juda, each on his throne, in all their royal state, in an open space by the gate of Samaria; and there in their presence all the prophets said their say. One of them, Sedecias the son of Chanaana, had provided himself with a pair of horns fashioned in iron; With these, he said, you shall toss Syria about, till you have made an end of it. And all the prophets had the same word for him; Go and attack Ramoth-Galaad, they told him, and a blessing on your journey! The Lord means to make the king's grace master of it. So the messenger who went to summon Michaeas told him, Here are all the prophets bidding the king good speed, like one man; pray join your voice to theirs, and prophesy good fortune. Nay, answered he, as the Lord is a living God, the word I speak shall be the word he gives me.
So he came into the king's presence, and when he was asked whether it were better to attack Ramoth-Galaad, or to let it be, he answered, Go to the attack; all shall be well with you, and your enemies shall beat your mercy. What, cried Achab, shall I never cease adjuring you in the Lord's name to tell me only the truth? Listen then, said he; I had a vision of all Israel straying over the mountains like sheep that had no shepherd, and the Lord's word came, They have no master now; let them disperse to their homes in peace. (It is as I told you, Achab said to Josaphat; still he is prophesies ill fortune, never good.) Then Michaeas went on, Here is a message to you from the Lord. I had a vision of the Lord sitting on his throne, with all the host of heaven waiting on his pleasure, to right and left. And the Lord said, Who is to beguile Achab, king of Israel, so that he will march to Ramoth-Galaad, and there meet his fall? One said this, one that; till at last a spirit came forward and stood in the Lord's presence, offering to beguile Achab. And how will you beguile him? the Lord asked. I will go abroad, said he, and on the lips of all his prophets I will make myself an influence to deceive. Deceive them you shall, the Lord said, and have your way with them; go abroad, then, and carry out your errand. And now, see what a lying influence the Lord has spread among these prophets of yours! For indeed the Lord has determined on your ruin.
At that, Sedecias son of Chanaana went up and gave Michaeas a blow on the cheek; Has the spirit of the Lord passed me by, he asked, and spoken to none but you? And Michaeas only answered, you shall live to see the day when you must needs take refuge in an inner room, to hide there. Then the king of Israel gave his orders; Take Michaeas hence, said he, and put him in the charge of Amon, the city governor, and of Joas, son of Amelech. And give them this royal command of mine, that they are to imprison him, and give him scant allowance of food and drink, till I come back safe and sound. Come you back safe and sound, Michaeas said, and mine was no message from the Lord. Witness my words, all you that stand here!
So the king of Israel, and Josaphat king of Juda, marched out to attack Ramoth-Galaad. And Achab said he himself would go into battle in disguise; let Josaphat, meanwhile, wear his royal robes. So none knew the king of Israel by his array, when he went into battle. To all the captains of his cavalry the king of Syria had given the same orders: Press for no other mark, high or low, but the king of Israel himself. And these, upon sight of Josaphat, cried out that; his was the king of Israel, so that armed men surrounded him on all sides; but he cried out to the Lord, who brought him succour, and turned aside their attack. Then, seeing that this was not the king of Israel, the captains of the cavalry let him be. It was an archer, letting fly a shaft at haphazard, that gave Achab a chance wound; it fell between neck and shoulder-blades, and Achab bade his charioteer wheel about, and carry him away from the fight, wounded as he was. With night, the battle came to an end; all day, the king of Israel had stood upright in his chariot, facing the Syrians, and did not die till evening.
Chapter 19
But Josaphat came home safe and sound to Jerusalem. There he was met by the prophet Jehu, son of Hanani, who said, What, will you comfort the sinner, ally yourself with the Lord's enemies? Nay, you would have brought the Lord's vengeance on yourself, but for those worthy deeds you have to shew. Well for you that you have rid Juda of those shrines, taken that resolve to have recourse only to the God of your fathers! And now, returned to his capital, Josaphat set out on a progress all through his kingdom, from Bersabee to the hill country of Ephraim, recalling the Lord God of their fathers to his people's minds anew. In every fortified city he appointed judges; and this was the charge he gave them: Take heed how you perform your office; it is the Lord's commission you hold, not man's, and according to the award you make, yourselves will be judged. As you fear the Lord's vengeance, do not spare yourselves any pains; when the Lord our God gives sentence, there is no wrongful award, no room for flattery of the great, or for bribery. At Jerusalem, too, he set up courts, under Levites, and priests, and heads of families, to give sentence and award in the Lord's name to the citizens. As you fear the Lord's vengeance, he warned them, go about your work faithfully, with sincere hearts. Suits will be remitted to you by your brethren in the other cities, of feud between clan and clan, of issues between law and decree, between statute and award given; yours to resolve their doubts, lest they should incur guilt in the Lord's eyes, and bring punishment on you and themselves alike. So shall your duty be done faultlessly; where God's rights are concerned, your high priest Amarias will preside over you, and Zabadias son of Ismahel, Juda's own chieftain, will have charge of every case that touches the king's prerogative. The Levites are at your side to instruct you; boldly and carefully set about your task, and the Lord will be with you to defend the right.
Chapter 20
After this the Moabites and the Ammonites, with certain tribesmen that lived in the Ammonite country, mustered their forces to levy war on Josaphat; and messengers came to tell him that a great army was marching against him, from the country beyond the Dead Sea and from Syria; they were encamped even now at Asasonthamar (which is the same as Engaddi). Most fervently, in his great dismay, Josaphat betook himself to prayer, proclaiming a fast for the whole of Juda; whereupon all Juda gathered to offer the Lord their plea; from every city they assembled to prefer their common request.
There, then, Josaphat stood in the Lord's house, at the entrance to the New Court, with all Jerusalem and Juda assembled round him. Lord God of our fathers, he prayed, from your throne in heaven you rule all earthly kingdoms, holding a sceptre of such majesty that none may resist you. You it was did overthrow all the dwellers in this land to make room for your people Israel; your irrevocable gift it was to the sons of Abraham, your friend. Here, then, they dwelt, and built a temple in your honour. And if we come into your presence, they said, here in the shrine of your own name, crying out to you in time of need, when disaster falls upon us, pestilence, or famine, or the avenging sword, then do you hear, and save. See now what need is here! We are attacked by Ammon, Moab and Edom, the very nations whose frontiers you did forbid Israel to cross, after the march out of Egypt. Our fathers turned aside, leaving them unharmed, and this is our reward; we are to be driven out from the home you have given us. It is for you, our God, to grant redress; we have no strength of our own to meet such an onslaught as this; despairing hearts, that know not where else to turn, we look to you!
All Juda stood about him, there in the Lord's presence, even mothers with babes in their arms, children at their side. And now, upon one man in all that throng, the Lord's spirit fell; it was a Levite of Asaph's clan, Jahaziel, come down from Mathanias through Zacharias, Banaias and Jehiel. Listen, Juda, he cried, listen, citizens of Jerusalem, listen, king Josaphat, to a message from the Lord. Put an end to your fears, do not be dismayed at the sight of this great army; it is God's battle, not yours. Go down to-morrow and offer them battle, as they climb up the slope of Sis; it is there you will find them, at the head of the ravine which faces the Jeruel desert. Not yours the battle, you have but to stand firm, Juda and Jerusalem, and watch the Lord coming to your aid. No flinching, no faint hearts; go down tomorrow, and the Lord will be at your side.
At this, Josaphat and Juda and all the citizens of Jerusalem fell down face to earth, there in the Lord's presence; and the Levites, sons of Caath and Core, cried aloud till the heavens rang, in praise of the Lord God of Israel. Dawn came, and they began their march across the desert of Thecue; Josaphat, as they set out, came forward to speak. Listen to me, he said, men of Juda; listen, citizens of Jerusalem. Trust in the Lord your God, and you have nothing to fear; trust his prophets, and all shall go well with you. Thus he encouraged them, and would have the Lord's minstrels praise him in chorus, marching before the army and singing, Praise the Lord, the Lord is gracious; his mercy endures for ever.
As the chant rose, the Lord turned the stealthy approach of Juda's enemies, Ammon and Moab and Edom, to their own discomfiture. First Ammon and Moab fell on the Edomites, cutting them down till there was nothing left of them; and when this was done, the two armies turned against one another, till their feud brought destruction on both. And when the men of Juda reached the vantage-ground that overlooks the desert, nothing was to be seen, look where they would, but the corpses of the slain; not a man was left there alive. So Josaphat and his men went down to strip them of their spoil, and found there, among the dead, such plunder of harness and clothes and precious ornaments as they could not carry with them; it was three days before all the booty was taken away. Then, on the fourth day, they mustered in the Valley of Blessing, which still bears the name they gave it when they returned thanks to the Lord there; and so went back to Jerusalem, men of Jerusalem and men of Juda alike, with Josaphat at their head, full of joy at the triumph the Lord had given them over their enemies; into Jerusalem they came, and into the Lord's house, with harp and zither and trumpets playing. So the Lord struck terror into the hearts of the heathen, with the news that he himself had fought against Israel's enemies; Josaphat reigned in security, and on every frontier God gave him peace.
This reign of his over Juda began when he was thirty-five years old, and for twenty-five years it lasted, there in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azuba, daughter of Selahi. He followed the example of his father Asa, and never swerved aside from the Lord's will; though indeed he did not abolish the hill-shrines; not yet had his people turned their whole minds to worshipping the Lord, the God of their fathers. What else Josaphat did, first and last, is told in the record preserved by Jehu son of Hanani, among the Annals of the kings of Israel.
At the end of his life, Josaphat made an alliance between Juda and Israel, under king Ochozias, that reigned very evilly. Together they would build a fleet that should sail for Tharsis; and build it they in Asiongaber; but Eliezer, son of Dodau from Maresa, prophesied to king Josaphat, The Lord has shattered those hopes of yours, because of your alliance with Ochozias; and the ships were wrecked before ever they reached Tharsis.
Chapter 21
Josaphat, then, was laid to rest with his fathers, with the Keep of David for his burying-place, and the throne passed to his son Joram. Many brothers Joram had, princes of the blood; Azarias, Jahiel, Zacharias (Azarias), Michael and Saphatias were all sons of Josaphat, king of Juda, and to all these their father gave rich presents of silver and gold, money for their needs, and walled cities in Juda to be their homes, but to Joram, the eldest, he left his kingdom. So Joram came to his father's throne, and when he was firmly established on it, he slew all these brethren of his, and some of the chief men of Juda with them.
This Joram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and his reign at Jerusalem lasted eight years. He followed the example of the Israelite kings, just as Achab's line did; he himself had married a daughter of Achab's. So he defied the Lord's will; but the Lord would not bring ruin upon David's race; had he not made a covenant with him, promising to keep the lamp of his line unquenched for ever? It was in Joram's days that the Edomites renounced their allegiance to Juda, and set up a king of their own choice. Joram indeed marched out across the river, with his captains and all the horsemen he could muster, and when the Edomites surrounded him, he broke through them with a night attack, broke through the commanders of their chariots; but Edom has never been subject to Juda from that day to this. Lobna, at the same time, revolted from his allegiance. An ill day it was for him when he forsook the Lord, the God of his fathers, raised hill-shrines in the cities of his realm, taught Jerusalem to betray her troth, and made sinners of Juda.
A letter, too, was brought to him, written by the prophet Elias, with a message from the Lord, the God of his father David: Not for you the example of your father Josaphat, and of king Asa, that reigned in Juda before you; you would play the wanton, like the house of Achab, teach the men of Juda and Jerusalem to betray their troth, after Israel's fashion, and would slay your brethren, princes of your own father's line, better men than yourself. A heavy punishment the Lord will send upon you, taking toll of your people, of your sons, of your wives, and of all you have; and for yourself, a foul disease shall attack your inward parts, that grows worse from day to day until your very bowels drop out.
After this, the Lord embroiled the Philistines against Joram, and the Arab tribesmen, too, that dwell next the Ethiopians. These marched upon Juda and ravaged it, carrying off all the palace treasures, and his sons and wives with them; never a son was left to Joram but Joachaz, the youngest is of all. And, not content with this, the Lord smote him with an incurable disease of his inward parts. Wearily the days passed, lengthened themselves out till two whole years had run their course; till at last he voided his very bowels, and his sickness ended only with death. Right foul was the manner of his ending, and his subjects made no burning at his funeral, as they did for his ancestors. He had reigned but eight years, that was thirty-two years old when he came to the throne; a life ill lived. And they laid him to rest in David's Keep, but not in the burying-place of the kings.
Chapter 22
It was his youngest son, Ochozias, that the citizens of Jerusalem made king in his place. All his elder brothers had been killed by Arab freebooters, that fell on the camp where they were lodged; and so Ochozias became Joram's heir, and reigned in Juda. When he came to the throne, he had lived (twice) a score of years and two, and his reign at Jerusalem lasted but a year. His mother's name was Athalia, descended from Amri. He too followed the example of Achab's line, his mother prompting him to impious deeds. Little wonder if he defied the Lord's will no less than Achab's race, since these were his counsellors, to his undoing, after his father died.
He shared, too, their designs, and marched with the king of Israel, Joram that was son to Achab, against Hazael, king of Syria. They met at Ramoth-Galaad, and there Joram was wounded by the Syrians, so that he must go back to Jezrahel to recover; wounds a many he had received in the battle we speak of. And when Joram, son of Achab, lay sick at Jezrahel, Ochozias son of Joram king of Juda came there to visit him. It was the divine will, for Ochozias' punishment, that he should pay Joram this visit, and with him should offer battle to Jehu, son of Namsi, whom the Lord had anointed king to make an end of Achab's line. Jehu it was that fell in with the princes of Juda, sons of Ochozias' kinsmen and courtiers of his, and slew them, at the time when he was exterminating the line of Achab; Jehu it was that made enquiry after Ochozias himself, who was found hiding in the kingdom of Samaria, and so brought before him and slain. Yet he was given burial; was he not descended from king Josaphat, a king who had set his whole heart on following the Lord?
Little hope there seemed then of Juda being governed any longer by Ochozias' kindred. The more so because his mother, Athalia, no sooner heard the news of her son's death, than she set about exterminating all the blood royal of Joram's dynasty. Only Joas, Ochozias son, was rescued by the princess Josabeth, who stole him away while all the other princes were being slain, and hid him, with his nurse, in the room where the bedding was stored up. This Josabeth, who hid him, was a daughter of king Joram's, sister to Ochozias and wife to the high priest Joiada. Joas, then, escaped murder at Athalia's hands, and for the six years of her life that remained he was hidden away in the house of God.
Chapter 23
Then, in the seventh year, Joiada was emboldened to act. He took some of the captains into his confidence, Azarias son of Jeroham, Ismahel son of Johanan, Azarias son of Obed, Maasias son of Adaia and Elisaphat son of Zechri; and these went round the whole of Juda, mustering the Levites and the clan chiefs in each city and summoning them to Jerusalem. There, in the Lord's own house, they all engaged their loyalty to the king; Here, said Joiada, is the heir to the throne; we must make him king, in pursuance of the Lord's will for the posterity of David. And now, here is your task. Those of you, priests, Levites and door-keepers, whose turn it is to mount guard this week, will be keeping watch, a third of them over the gates, a third over the royal palace, and a third at the Foundation-stone Gate. All the rest are to be in the temple courts, none entering the Lord's house itself, except those who have kept themselves free of defilement for that end, priests and Levites who are their ministers, but all alike attentive to the Lord's command. The king must have a bodyguard of Levites, all fully armed, ready to slay anyone else who tries to enter the temple, attending the king closely wherever he goes.
All the commands which the high priest Joiada gave them, the Levites, and the rest of Juda with them, faithfully carried out; mustered their men, alike those who mounted guard and those who were relieved of duty that week, since the high priest would not let the companies who had finished go home. Joiada supplied the captains with spears, shields and bucklers, that king David had put up as offerings in the Lord's house; and from right to left of the temple, facing the altar and the temple itself, he drew up the whole array of his supporters, that were armed with daggers, to protect the king. Then they brought the young prince out, and gave him the crown and the pledge that went with it, a copy of the law to be held in his hand, and so they made him king. The high priest Joiada, with his sons, anointed him and prayed over him, and cried out, Long live the king! Meanwhile, the noise of all this stir and shouting reached the ears of Athalia, and she made her way into the temple, where the crowd was gathered, to find the king standing on a dais, there at the entry, with chieftains and bodyguard about him, while all the folk rejoiced, blowing trumpets and playing on instruments of many kinds, and shouting their praises. Well might she rend her clothes, and cry out, Treason, treason! Thereupon Joiada came out, and bade the captains and the commanders of the army lead her away beyond the temple precincts, and there dispatch her; She must not be slain in the Lord's house, the priest told them. So they caught her by the neck, and as she passed along the horse-way that leads to the palace, she was slain.
After this, Joiada would have a covenant made, that bound himself and the people and the new king to be the Lord's own people. And the whole populace went into Baal's temple and destroyed it, breaking down its altars and its images, and killing Mathan, that was Baal's priest, there before the altar. Then Joiada set up officers to look after the Lord's temple; but under the direction of those priests and Levites to whom David had assigned their tasks there, in offering burnt-sacrifice to the Lord as Moses bade them, and singing praise after David's own fashion. Porters, too, he placed at all the temple gates, that should forbid entry to all who were in any way defiled. Then, with the captains and the men of renown, with the nobles and all the common folk of the land, he escorted the king from the Lord's house by way of the upper gate into the palace, and there they set him on his royal throne. All through the land were great rejoicings, and the city had rest, now that Athalia lay dead.
Chapter 24
Thus Joas came to the throne as a boy of seven years old, and his reign at Jerusalem lasted forty years. His mother's name was Sebia, a woman of Bersabee. As long as the high priest Joiada was alive, Joas obeyed the Lord's will, and it was Joiada who found him his two wives, that bore sons and daughters to him.
And now Joas had a mind to put the Lord's house in repair. He summoned priests and Levites, and bade them go round the cities of Juda, collecting money from all that were of Israel's race every year, so as to repair the temple of the Lord their God; and this he would have them do with all speed. But the Levites went about their work slowly, and the king must needs send for the high priest Joiada; Why have you been at no pains, he asked, to make the Levites collect money throughout Juda and Jerusalem, the same money which the Lord's servant Moses bade all Israel devote to the needs of the tabernacle? Here is God's house all laid waste by Athalia, the godless queen, and those sons of hers, that would deck Baal's temple with all the votive offerings that were once in the temple of the Lord, Then the king bade them have a chest made, and this they put by the outer gate of the Lord's house. And word went round Juda and Jerusalem that each man was to pay the tax Moses enjoined on all Israel, out in the desert. Gladly did chieftains and common folk together come in with their gifts for the Lord's treasury, piling the chest high till it was full. When the Levites saw that a great sum was amassed, it was time they should take it into the royal presence. The king's secretary would come in, and with him one that was appointed by the high priest; together they poured out the money that was in the chest, which they then put back in its place. Every day this was done, and the great sum thus collected was paid over by the king and Joiada to the master-builders, who hired stone-cutters with it, and other craftsmen, to repair the Lord's house; workers, too, in iron and bronze, so as to prop up what was like to fall down. Busily these men went about their tasks, till the breach was healed under their hands, and the building restored to its former state; the house stood firm once more. It was only when they had finished all this that the rest of the money collected was brought before the king and Joiada; with this they made all the appurtenances for worship and offering sacrifice in the temple; bowls, too, and other ornaments of gold and silver.
All through Joiada's life-time burnt-sacrifice was offered in the Lord's house; but at last he grew old, and the full tale of his years was complete; he died at the age of a hundred and thirty. And for his great services to Israel and to David's house, they buried him in David's own Keep, among the kings. But now that he was dead, the chieftains of Juda came in to do the king reverence, and with their smooth speech won him over to another mind; forgotten, now, was the Lord's temple, God of their fathers though he were; they must worship before forest shrines, and carved images. This guilt of theirs brought the Lord's vengeance on Juda and Jerusalem; still he would send them prophets, to bring them back to him, but their protest went unheeded. At last the divine spirit fell on the high priest Zacharias, that was son to Joiada; full in the presence of the people he stood up and gave them a message from the Lord God: What means it that you so transgress the Lord's command, to your peril, forsaking him, and by him forsaken? But they, at the king's orders, gathered about him and stoned him, there in the court of the Lord's house. Such was the gratitude of Joas; for the great services the father had done him, the son must die. And as he died, he said, May the Lord look on this, and exact the penalty.
A year passed, and the army of Syria was on the march against Joas. Into Juda, into Jerusalem they came, killed all that were of note among the people, plundered, and sent back what they had plundered to their master at Damascus. It was but a small force of Syrians that came, yet the Lord gave them the mastery over a great host; and all because Juda had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers. A shameful punishment Joas must undergo, and when they left him, they left him a prey to heavy sickness. Then, in vengeance for the murder of the high priest's son, courtiers of his own conspired against him and slew him in his bed. So dying, he received burial in the Keep of David, but not in the burying-place of the kings. It was Zabad, son of the Ammonitess Semmaath, and Josabad, son of the Moabitess Semarith, that made the plot against him. What sons he had, what moneys he amassed, how he restored the house of God, may all be found set out in the Records of the Kings; and the throne passed to his son Amasias.
Chapter 25
Amasias was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and his reign at Jerusalem lasted twenty-nine years; his mother's name was Joadan, a woman of Jerusalem. This Amasias obeyed the Lord's will, but not with full obedience. Once his power was firmly established, he put his father's murderers to death, but not their children; the Lord's injunction, laid down by the terms of Moses law, was that a father must not die for his son's guilt, or a son for his father's; no guilt but his own should bring a man to death.
Then he mustered the whole of Juda, marshalling them by their clans, and appointing commanders and captains for the whole of Juda and Benjamin. When the count was taken of all that were above the age of twenty, he found himself in command of three hundred thousand fighting men, armed with spear and shield. To these he added a force of a hundred thousand warriors from Israel, hired for a hundred talents of silver. But now a messenger from God came and told him, My lord king, this force of Israelites must not march with you; to Israel, to the whole kingdom of Ephraim, the Lord denies his aid. Count as you will on the strength of your array, God will give your enemies the mastery; he alone sends victory and defeat. And when Amasias asked what was to become of the hundred talents he had spent on the mercenaries from Israel, the answer came, Worse losses yet the Lord can make good to you. Thereupon Amasias drew off the Israelite troops and bade them go home; go home they did, but full of indignation against Juda. And he, with renewed confidence, led his own army out to the Valley of the Salt-pits, where they killed a thousand Edomites on the field; ten thousand more they captured alive, and took them to a steep rock, from whose summit they threw them down headlong, so that all were dashed to pieces. But meanwhile the army which Amasias had sent home, instead of taking them into battle with him, scattered here and there among the cities of Juda, all the way (from Samaria) to Bethoron, killing three thousand of the inhabitants, and carrying away great store of plunder.
After this victory over the Edomites, Amasias brought home with him some of the idols men worshipped there in Seir; and these gods he made his own, worshipping them himself and burning incense before them. And the Lord, much angered with him, sent a prophet to ask, What gods are these you worship, that could not rescue their own people from your onslaught? He answered, What, would you be the king's counsellor? Peace, or your life shall pay for it! And the prophet said, as he turned to go, So much ill done, and no heed paid to my counsel! Certain it is the Lord has doomed you to die. And now Amasias, upon ill advice taken, sent a challenge to Joas, son of Joachaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, Come, let us have a trial of strength! And this message he had in answer: Said Lebanon thistle to Lebanon cedar, Let my son have your daughter to wife. But down came wild beasts from Lebanon forest, and all the thistle got was, he was trampled underfoot. At the thought of your victory over Edom, your heart is puffed up with pride. Keep yourself at home, do not invite disaster, to your own and Juda's ruin. But Amasias would have his way; the Lord's will was that he should fall into his enemy's hands, to punish him for worshipping the gods of Edom. So Joas, king of Israel, marched out, and they faced one another while Amasias, king of Juda, was still in his own territory, at Bethsames; here the men of Juda were routed by the Israelites, and scattered to their homes in flight. Thus Amasias, son of Joas, son of Joachaz, king of Juda, was captured by Joas king of Israel at Bethsames, and taken back to his own city of Jerusalem; where Joas made a breach in the wall four hundred cubits long, from the gate of Ephraim to the Corner gate, carried off all the gold and silver and other ware that was to be found in the temple, in the treasury of Obededom, and in the royal treasury, took hostages besides, and so made his way back to Samaria.
Amasias, son of Joas, king of Juda, survived this Joas, son of Joachaz, king of, Israel, fifteen years. What else Amasias did, first and last, is set down in the Record of the kings of Israel and Juda. But ever since he forsook the Lord, fresh troubles befell him. A conspiracy was made against him in Jerusalem, and when he fled to Lachis they sent in pursuit of him and put him to death there; afterwards his body was brought back to Jerusalem in a horse-litter, and there buried with his fathers in David's Keep.
Chapter 26
Thereupon the whole people of Juda chose one of his sons Ozias, a boy of sixteen years, to succeed his father Amasias; he it was who carried out the designs of his dead father by fortifying the harbour of Ailath and restoring it to the possession of Juda. Sixteen years old he was when he came to the throne, and his reign at Jerusalem lasted fifty-two. His mother's name was Jechelia, a woman of Jerusalem. He obeyed the Lord's will, as faithfully as once his father Amasias did. As long as Zacharias lived, a man taught by divine visions, Ozias had recourse to the Lord, and as long as he had recourse to the Lord, all went well with him.
He it was that marched out to battle with the Philistines, and laid in ruins the walls of Geth, and Jabnia, and Azotus; and built towns to command Azotus and the Philistines. Such victory God gave him over the Philistines, the Arabs, too, that dwelt in Gurbaal, and the Ammonites; the Ammonites paid him tribute, and the renown of his many victories reached the very frontiers of Egypt. It was Ozias, too, that fortified the Corner Gate, the Valley gate, and the other gates on that side of Jerusalem, by building towers over them. Towers, too, he built out in the desert, and dug cisterns in plenty, for his many herds that grazed both in the lowlands and in the desert solitudes; he had vines, too, and vine-dressers to tend them, in the hill-country and about the town of Carmel; he was a man that loved husbandry.
He had an army of fighting men, marshalled in readiness for battle by the scribe Jehiel and the controller Maasias; and out of all his generals he chose Hananias to command it. The clan chiefs that led it, all tried warriors, were two thousand six hundred in number; and the whole force under their command was one of three hundred and seven thousand five hundred fighting men, to maintain the king against his enemies. For all this great array Ozias provided shield and spear, helmet and breastplate, bows, too, and slings for shooting stones. At Jerusalem, he contrived engines of many sorts, poised on tower or on wall-corner, that discharged arrows and great boulders. Far spread his fame, such help the Lord gave him, and such greatness.
But this greatness of his made his heart proud, to his own undoing. He slighted the Lord his God; into the temple he would go, and there burn incense at the censing-altar. Close at his heels the high priest Azarias entered, and eighty priests with him, strong men all, to withstand the royal will. Not for you, Ozias, they cried, to burn incense in the Lord's honour; that is for the priests, the sons of Aaron, that are set apart for this office. Leave this holy place, and profane it no more; you will win no favour from the Lord God by such doings as these. At this, Ozias turned round in anger, the censer already in his hand with the incense ready for lighting, and began to threaten them. And with that, in the priests presence, there in the Lord's house, by the censing-altar, the mark of leprosy started out on his brow. No time they lost, Azarias and his fellow priests, that sign once seen, in thrusting out the leper; he himself, feeling the stroke of the Lord's present judgement, was in haste to be gone.
King Ozias remained a leper till the day of his death, dwelling apart in a house of his own, while his son Joatham had charge of the palace, and heard the complaints of his subjects. What else Ozias did, first and last, stands recorded by the prophet Isaias, son of Amos. At last he was laid to rest with his fathers, not among the royal tombs, because he was a leper, but in the same burying-ground. And the throne passed to his son Joatham.
Chapter 27
This Jotham was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and his reign at Jerusalem lasted sixteen years; his mother's name was Jerusa, daughter of Sadoc. He obeyed the Lord's will, imitating the piety of Ozias, but not his sacrilege; among the people, there were corrupt ways of worship still. He it was built the high gate that leads into the Lord's house, and added much to the Ophel wall; there are walled cities, too, in the hill-country of Juda, fortresses and towers in woodland places, that are of his building. He gave battle to the Ammonites and defeated them; a hundred talents of silver the Ammonites must pay him, with ten thousand measures of wheat, and as many of barley, that year and in the two years that followed. Such greatness Joatham achieved by his obedience to the Lord's will. What else he did, the battles he fought and the life he lived, may be found set down in the Record of the kings of Israel and Juda. So, when he had lived forty-one years, and reigned sixteen years at Jerusalem, Joatham was laid to rest with his fathers, with the Keep of David for his burying-place, and the throne passed to his son Achaz.
Chapter 28
This Achaz was twenty years old when he came to the throne, and his reign at Jerusalem lasted sixteen years. He did not obey the Lord's will like his father David before him; he followed the example of the Israelite kings, casting images of the countryside gods. He it was that burnt incense in the ravine of Benennom, and consecrated his sons by passage through the fire, after the wont of those nations which the Lord overthrew to make room for Israel. Never a high hill or a mountain slope or a leafy wood but Achaz must do sacrifice and offer incense there.
So the Lord his God left him at the mercy of the king of Syria, who defeated him, and robbed his kingdom of rich spoils, which he carried off to Damascus. The king of Israel, too, had the mastery of him, and inflicted grievous loss; a hundred and twenty thousand men of Juda, all tried warriors, did Phacee son of Romelia slay in one day's space, and all because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. At the same time Maasias, a royal prince, and Ezrica, the controller of the household, and Elcana, that was the king's chief minister, were put to death by Zechri, one of the great warriors of Ephraim.
Two hundred thousand captives the men of Israel took, women, and boys, and girls, their own flesh and blood, with much booty besides, and conveyed them to Samaria. But there was a prophet of the Lord dwelling there at this time, Oded by name, who went out to meet the army on their way into the city, and expostulated with them. Here are the men of Juda, said he, left at your mercy, only because the Lord, the God of your fathers, is angry with them; and you have made murderous use of your victory; the tale of your cruelties mounts up to heaven. That is not enough for you; against all right, you would seize bondmen and bondwomen from Juda and Jerusalem. What, have you no sins of your own to account for? Be guided by me; take the captives home, that are your own flesh and blood; if not, a bitter punishment from the Lord awaits you. And now four of Ephraim's chieftains barred the way against the returning army; Azarias son of Johanan, Barachias son of Mosollamoth, Ezechias son of Sellum, and Amasa son of Adali. Never offend the Lord, they cried, by bringing in these captives with you! Would you add sin to sin, crown the guilt that long stands at our door? Here is grievous wrong; here is a bitter punishment from the Lord threatening Israel! So, before their chieftains and before all the multitude assembled, the warriors gave up their booty and their prey. And the four men we have named stood there befriending the captives; those that went naked must be clothed out of the spoils; then, clothed and shod, they must be refreshed with food and drink, must be anointed after their journey. No care was wanting; some, that could not walk, or were of feeble age, must ride on asses. And so they escorted them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, and restored them to their kindred, and themselves went back to Samaria.
So evil were those times, that Achaz must send to the king of the Assyrians to beg for aid. The Edomites came in and slew many of Juda's folk, taking rich spoils besides, and the Philistines spread out their forces among the cities of the plain, and over the southern part of Juda, taking Bethsames, Aialon, Gaderoth, Socho, Thamnan, Gamzo and their daughter townships to settle in. Thus did the Lord humble Juda, to shew how Achaz had robbed them of all aid, by slighting the divine will. As for the king of the Assyrians, Thelgath-Phalnasar, the Lord made him an enemy, not an ally, to Juda, which he oppressed and plundered, with none to oppose him, till Achaz was fain to court his favour with gifts, stripping temple and royal palace and princely palace of their treasures, but no help did he win thereby. Such a man was this Achaz, that times of adversity did but minister to the contempt he shewed for the Lord; he would even offer victims to the gods of Damascus, that were his enemies; These Syrian gods, thought he, help their own country now, they will be on my side instead, if I win them over with gifts. But in truth these gods were his ruin, and all Israel's. All the ornaments of the Lord's house he had already taken away and broken up; now he closed the temple doors, and built altars of his own in every corner of Jerusalem; altars, too, in every city of Juda the smoke of whose incense enraged the Lord, the God of his fathers. What else he did, all his history, first and last, may be found in the Record of the kings of Juda and Israel. So Achaz was laid to rest with his fathers, with the city of Jerusalem for his burying-place; but among the tombs of Israel's kings they would not lay him. And the throne passed to his son Ezechias.
Chapter 29
Ezechias was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and his reign at Jerusalem lasted twenty-nine years. His mother's name was Abia, the daughter of Zacharias. Here was one that obeyed the Lord's will no less than his father David before him. In the first year of his reign, when the first month came round, he opened the gates of the Lord's house again, and put them in repair. Then he summoned the priests and the Levites to assemble in the open space east of the temple. Men of Levi, he said, it is my will that you should cleanse yourselves; cleanse, too, the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and rid his sanctuary of all defilement. Ours is an inheritance of guilt, from fathers who have disobeyed the Lord our God, and forsaken him; turned their backs on his dwelling-place, where their eyes should ever be. Fast shut were the gates of yonder porch, spent the lamps, never did incense smoke, never was victim offered in the sanctuary of the God of Israel. What wonder if the Lord was angry with Juda and Jerusalem, doomed them to unrest, and ruin, and disgrace, such as you see all around? What wonder if they fell in battle, these fathers of ours; if sons and daughters and wives were carried off into exile? Here, then, is my resolve; we must bind ourselves by a covenant to the Lord our God, if his fierce anger is to relent. As my own sons I charge you, do not stand by with folded hands; on you the Lord's choice has fallen, to wait upon his presence, ministering, and doing worship, and burning incense before him.
Well did the Levites answer his call; Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azarias, Caathites; Cis son of Abdi and Azarias son of Jalaleel, Merarites; Joah son of Zerruna and Joah's son Eden, Gersonites; of Elisaphan's sons, Samri and Jahiel, of Asaph's, Zacharias and Mathanias, of Heman's, Jahiel and Semei, of Idithun's, Semeias and Oziel. Mustering their brethren, they purified themselves, and so, obedient to the royal command and the divine will, entered into God's house to cleanse it. The priests, too, were in the Lord's temple for the cleansing; no unhallowed thing they found in porch or temple but the Levites carried it away, into the Cedron valley beyond. It was on the first day of the first month that they set about their task; on the eighth day of the same month they were still in the porch, and then they took eight days more ridding the temple itself of defilement; by the sixteenth day, their undertaking was complete. And now they craved audience with king Ezechias; We have cleansed the Lord's house, they told him, and the altar of burnt-sacrifice, with all that belongs to it, the table of hallowed loaves, and all that belongs to the table. We have cleansed all the temple furniture that was profaned in the time of king Achaz, when he fell a-sinning; all this you will find laid out before the Lord's altar.
Next day, Ezechias was abroad early, with all the chief men of the city gathered about him, to make his way into the house of the Lord. Seven bulls they offered, seven rains, seven lambs; seven goats, too, as an offering for fault; all this on behalf of the royal house, of the priestly line, and of Juda. And the king bade the priests, Aaron's sons, offer the victims at the Lord's altar. So bulls and rams and lambs were slaughtered, and the altar received their blood; the goats were brought out into the presence of king and people, who laid their hands on them, and then the priests slaughtered them, and poured out their blood at the altar to expiate Israel's common guilt; the king's command was that burnt-sacrifice and offering for fault should both be offered on behalf of the whole people. He had bidden the Levites take their stations, there in the Lord's house, with cymbals, harp, and zither, as David enjoined; as Gad, the man of visions, and the prophet Nathan enjoined, for it was through these prophets of his that David had learned the Lord's will. There stood the Levites, with instruments of David's own, and the priests with their trumpets; and when Ezechias gave the word, and the burnt-sacrifice began, loud echoed their praises to the Lord, loud the trumpets blew, loud rang the music planned by David, king of Israel, long ago. Still must singer and trumpeter be at their task among the throng of worshippers, till all the sacrifice was consumed; and when this was over, while the king and all his company bowed down to adore, these Levites were bidden by the king and his nobles to praise the Lord with psalms of David, and of Asaph, the man of visions. Praise him they did with hearts full of joy, and they too bowed down to worship.
It was not enough; Here, said Ezechias, are hands consecrated to the Lord afresh; come forward, and present victim and thank-offering in the Lord's house. Thereupon the whole multitude brought victims and thank-offerings, and some, in their devotion whole burnt-sacrifice. In burnt-sacrifice devotion, offered seventy bulls, a hundred rams, and two hundred lambs, and consecrated to the Lord six hundred cattle and three thousand sheep. The priests were too few in number to flay so many burnt-offerings at once, and the Levites must needs help them to finish their task, till such time as more priests should have rid themselves of defilement; such cleansing is an easier matter for Levite than for priest. So much work there was to do with all the burnt-sacrifice that must be performed; the fat, too, of the welcome-offerings must be burned, and libations poured over the sacrifices.
Thus was the worship of the Lord's house restored in full. Greatly did Ezechias and all the people rejoice over their duty well done for all that the resolve was taken so suddenly.
Chapter 30
Then Ezechias sent out a summons to Juda and all Israel (for his word went out by letter even to Ephraim and Manasses), bidding them come up to the Lord's house at Jerusalem, and keep his paschal feast there. The king and his nobles and all Jerusalem were of this advice, that the pasch should be kept in the second month; keep it at the appointed time they might not, but must wait till priests had cleansed themselves in sufficient number, and the people could assemble at Jerusalem. Such was the resolve taken by the king and his subjects; and because so many had long neglected the law's injunction, the summons should go out to all Israel, from Bersabee to Dan, bidding them keep the pasch there at Jerusalem, in the Lord's honour, that was all Israel's God. So couriers went out in the king's service, bearing letters in his name and in the name of his nobles to Israel and Juda alike, and this was their purport; Come back, Israelites, to the Lord, all that remnant of you the Assyrian king has spared; and he, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, will come back to your side. See how your fathers and brethren have deserted the Lord, the God of their race, and been left to their doom; be wiser than they. Do not rebel, as your fathers did, against his yoke; surrender to the Lord, and come up to this sanctuary, which he has hallowed for all time; obey him, the Lord, the God of your fathers, and his fierce anger will be appeased. When you have come back to the Lord, the victors will relent, and allow your banished sons and brethren to return home; so gracious the Lord is, so merciful; turn back to him, and his face shall be hidden from you no more.
Swiftly the couriers went from city to city of Ephraim and Manasses, right up to Zabulon, meeting everywhere with scorn and derision; but there were some tribesmen of Aser, Manasses and Zabulon that fell in with the proposal, and came. In Juda, such was the Lord's enabling power, they had but one thought, to obey the Lord's will, obey the command of the king and of his nobles. So it was a great throng that came to Jerusalem to keep this feast of unleavened bread in the second month. First they set about destroying the altars up and down Jerusalem, overthrowing all the shrines at which incense had been burned to false gods; and these they threw down into Cedron valley. Then, on the fourteenth day of the second month, they slew the paschal victim. Priest and Levite, cleansed of their defilement at last, offered burnt-sacrifice in the Lord's house, keeping their due order, according to the terms of that law which God's servant Moses gave. Only it was the Levites that must hand over to the priests the blood which was to be poured out, so many of the worshippers were still uncleansed; for all those who had not come in time to rid themselves of their defilement, the Levites must slay the victim. There were many from Ephraim, Manasses, Issachar and Zabulon that must overstep the bounds of the law by eating their paschal meal while they were yet defiled; but Ezechias made intercession for these; surely the Lord, in his goodness, would pardon such as made the Lord God of their fathers their whole heart's quest; cleansed or no, he would not find fault with them. In answer to this prayer, the Lord gave his people quittance.
So, amid great rejoicing, for seven days together, all the Israelites assembled at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread. Day by day priest and Levite stood there praising the Lord as best their music might; Ezechias himself spoke to hearten them, sons of Levi that had such skill in the Lord's service. All the seven days of the feast they ate the victims of their own welcome-offerings, giving thanks to the Lord, their fathers' God. And now the whole multitude resolved to keep festival seven days more, and right gladly they did it. A thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep were given to them by king Ezechias, a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep by the nobles; task enough for the many priests that had cleansed themselves by now. Glad was Juda that day, glad were priest and Levite, and new-comers from Israel, and men of alien birth from Israel's domain and Juda's alike; such high festival was kept in Jerusalem as the city had never seen since the days of David's son Solomon, that was king of all Israel. Then priests and Levites stood up to bless the people, nor did their voices go unheard; heaven's holy dwelling-place echoed to their prayer.
Chapter 31
When this was duly done, all the Israelites there assembled went about among the cities of Juda breaking the idols and cutting down the shrines from forest and hill-side, and destroying the altars; and this they did not only in Juda and Benjamin, but all over the territory of Ephraim and Manasses, till none were left. Then the Israelites made their way home to their own cities.
And now Ezechias assigned the various companies of priests and Levites their duties; for each his own task, attending to burnt-sacrifice and welcome-offering, thanking and praising the Lord, or watching over his gates, where his tent was pitched on earth. The offering of burnt-sacrifice each morning and evening, on the first day of the month and at other times when the law of Moses required it, should be defrayed at the royal expense; it was for the citizens of Jerusalem to provide for the priests and Levites, so that they might devote all their time to the demands of the Lord's law. No sooner was this decree made public, than the people began sending in the first-fruits of their corn, wine and oil; tithes, too, of their honey and of all their lands produced; and all who dwelt in Juda's cities, men of Israel and of Juda alike, gave tithes of cattle and sheep, and of all the offerings they had vowed to the Lord. These tithes they brought themselves, and piled them up all around; from the third month to the sixth, ever greater grew these heaps, and when Ezechias and his nobles came to see them, they blessed the Lord's name, and blessed the people of Israel.
But when Ezechias asked the priests and Levites why the offerings were left to lie in heaps thus, their answer was, they had eaten their fill ever since the first-fruits began to come in, and now, such plenty had the Lord granted to his people, much was left unconsumed; it was this surplus that lay before him. So Ezechias bade them make granaries in the Lord's house; and in these granaries, once built, they bestowed carefully first-fruits and tithes and vowed gifts alike. They were in charge of the Levite Chonenias, with his brother Semei to aid him; and under Chonenias and Semei were ten others, Jahiel, Azarias, Nahath, Asael, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Elel, Jesmachias, Mahath and Banaias. But king Ezechias and Azarias, that was controller of God's house, had the direction of all. Gifts that were freely made, and what was set apart for the priests and for holy uses, were in charge of Core, son of Jemna, the Levite that was doorkeeper of the eastern gate. Under him were Eden, Benjamin, Jesue, Semeias, Amarias and Sechenias; their office was to distribute portions to their brethren in the various priestly cities, young and old alike, except men (and their sons of three years and over) who were on duty at the time in the Lord's house, and had portions assigned to them during their turn of office. The priests, family by family, the Levites of twenty years and more, company by company, together with all who belonged to them, wives and sons and daughters, had their food duly allotted to them out of the consecrated gifts. Other officers were appointed here and there to distribute the allowance to boys and men of priestly or Levitical race in the country-side, and in the precincts round each of their cities.
Such were the provisions Ezechias made for his whole realm, a king ever true and loyal to the will of the Lord his God; such loving care he bestowed on the Lord's house, its laws and observances, resolved to make God his whole heart's quest; and so doing he reigned prosperously.
Chapter 32
After all this faithful service done, Juda was invaded by Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians who laid siege to its fortified cities, thinking to make them his own. Ezechias, warned by his approach that Jerusalem was the chief object of his attack, bade his nobles and commanders consider the plan of shutting in the water courses that ran beyond the city walls. To this all agreed, and he set a multitude of hands to work stopping up all the springs, as well as the stream that flowed through the open country; should there be water flowing freely for the kings of Assyria to profit by it? No pains did he spare to rebuild the wall where it had fallen into disrepair, with towers to crown it and a second wall within; Mello, too, in the Keep of David he fortified anew, and prepared shields and all other weapons of defence. Then he appointed commanders for his army; and these he bade assemble in the open space by the city gate, where he spoke to them for their encouragement. Play the man, he said, and keep your courage high; let there be no shrinking, no faint hearts at the sight of the Assyrian king and the hordes that follow him; we have many more on our side than they on theirs. Theirs is but mortal strength; we have the Lord our God to aid us, and fight on our side. In such words from king Ezechias the hearts of the men of Juda found support.
Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, was laying siege with his army to Lachis; and now he sent envoys to Jerusalem with a message for king Ezechias and for all the citizens; Word to you, they said, from the king of Assyria. What confidence is it that makes you so bold, cooped up there in Jerusalem? Will you die there of hunger and thirst, deluded by Ezechias' promise that the Lord your God will deliver you from the power of the Assyrian king? Tell me, who is Ezechias? Is he not the man who has robbed this God of hill-shrine and altar, leaving you but one altar to repair to, when you would do worship and burn incense before him? See how I and my fathers have subdued the world, and the gods of a whole world could not rescue it from me! Tell me, in all these countries my fathers and I have laid waste, was there ever a god found could save his people from my power, that you should trust this God of yours when the same power threatens you? Do not be deluded by the persuasions of Ezechias; do not listen to him. All those peoples and kingdoms my fathers and I have conquered, their gods notwithstanding; will your God do better? Much else these courtiers said in dispraise of the Lord God, and his servant Ezechias; there was a letter, too, Sennacherib wrote, full of blasphemy against the Lord God of Israel, boasting that Ezechias' God could not save his people from attack, where the gods of so many other nations had failed them. Nay, they must needs raise a cry in the Hebrew tongue, to daunt the folk who sat on Jerusalem walls, and persuade them to yield up the city. Lightly did they speak of Jerusalem's God, as if he had been all one with those old gods the Chanaanites worshipped, idols made by human hands.
Against such blasphemers, king Ezechias and the prophet Isaias, son of Amos, fell to prayer, crying out to heaven for aid; and with that, the Lord sent out his angel, who smote down warrior and chieftain and commander in the Assyrian king's camp, so that he went home in sorry plight. And there, when he was at worship in the temple of his god, two sons of his own body drew their swords on him and slew him. Thus it was the Lord rescued Ezechias and the men of Jerusalem from the Assyrian king's power, and of all else that assailed them; on every side he kept them free from alarm. Many were the victims and offerings that were brought to the Lord at Jerusalem; many were the gifts made by Ezechias king of Juda, whom all the nations held thenceforward in high renown.
And now Ezechias fell sick, and was at death's door; but he prayed to the Lord, and the Lord answered his prayer, giving him a sign of his recovery. Yet it was an ill return he made for all these benefits; his heart was puffed up with pride so that he brought punishment upon himself; on Juda, too, and Jerusalem; for this pride of his, both he and the citizens of Jerusalem afterwards humbled themselves, and it was not in Ezechias' own time that the Lord's vengeance fell. Great were the riches of Ezechias and his fame; great was the store of silver and gold, of jewels and spices, of weapons for every purpose and of precious ware, that king Ezechias laid up. He had store-houses too, for corn, wine and oil, stables full of beasts, and folds full of flocks; new cities he must build, so many were his herds of sheep and cattle, so abundant were the possessions the Lord had given him. It was this Ezechias that blocked the upper waters of the Gihon stream, and conveyed them under ground into the western part of the Keep of David. In all that he did, he prospered; and if, when the princes of Babylon came to enquire about the portent that had happened in his country, God left him to his own counsel, it was but to try him, and test the dispositions of his heart. What else Ezechias did, all his acts of piety, may be found set down in the Vision of Isaias, son of Amos, and in the Record of the kings of Juda and Israel. So Ezechias was laid to rest with his fathers, on the slope where the tombs of David's sons are; and all Juda and Jerusalem did honour to his funeral. And the throne passed to his son Manasses.
Chapter 33
This Manasses was twelve years old when he came to the throne, and his reign at Jerusalem lasted fifty-five years. And he defied the Lord's will, by courting the false gods of those nations which the Lord destroyed to make room for the sons of Israel. He restored once again the hill-shrines which his father Ezechias had overthrown; he raised altars to the gods of the country-side, and set up sacred trees, and gave to all the host of heaven worship and observance. Nay, he must set up these altars of his in the temple itself, where the Lord fulfilled his promise that Jerusalem should be the shrine of his name for ever; altars there must be for all the host of heaven in the two temple courts. He consecrated his own sons by passing them through the fire in the ravine of Benennom; there was watching for dreams and taking of auguries, there was practising of magical arts; he surrounded himself with diviners and soothsayers, until this defiance of his provoked the Lord's anger. He carved an image, too, and cast a sheath for it, and set this up in the Lord's house. And this was at Jerusalem, the Lord's choice among all the cities of Israel; this was in the temple that was to be the everlasting shrine of his name; so he had promised David and Solomon, Nevermore will I let the sons of Israel be dislodged from the land I gave their fathers, if only they will be true to law and observance and decree Moses enjoined on them in my name. The very nations which the Lord destroyed to make room for the sons of Israel were guilty of less wrong than Juda and Jerusalem did, when they were led astray by the example of Manasses. Warnings enough the Lord sent to him and to his people, but they went unheeded; and the next emissaries he sent to them were the captains of the Assyrian army, who made Manasses their prisoner, and carried him away, loaded with chains and fetters, to Babylon. It was to his own God, the Lord, that he turned in this time of distress; before him, the God of his fathers, he made humble amends, and sought his favour with earnest prayer. That prayer the Lord answered, and restored him to his throne at Jerusalem. Such good proof had Manasses that the Lord only was God.
It was after this that he built the wall beyond David's Keep, out in the ravine west of Gihon, all the way round from the Fishmongers' Gate to Ophel, raising it to a great height; set captains, too, on garrison duty in all the fortified towns of Juda. Meanwhile, there was an end of the false gods, of the idol that stood in the Lord's house, of the altars he had set up on the temple hill and all over Jerusalem; he cast them away beyond the city walls. The Lord's altar must be restored; to this he brought his victims, his welcome-offerings and thank-offerings, and bade Juda serve the Lord, the God of Israel. None the less, men still sacrificed at the hill-shrines, but only to the Lord their God. What else Manasses did, the prayer he offered to his God, and the warnings that were given to him by prophets in the name of the Lord God of Israel, may be found set down in the Record of the Israelite kings. The Chronicle of Hozai, too, tells of his prayer and how his prayer was answered; of his defiance, and of all the places where he set up hill-shrine and forest shrine and image, before the time of his repentance. So Manasses was laid to rest with his fathers, with his own house for his burying-place, and the throne passed to his son Amon.
This Amon was twenty-two years old when he came to the throne, and his reign at Jerusalem lasted two years; he defied the Lord like his father Manasses. No idol Manasses had made but Amon must sacrifice and pay worship to it; nor did he ever imitate his father by making humble amends, rather he outwent him in guilt. He was slain in his own house, through a conspiracy among his own servants; but the common folk put them to death, and gave the crown to the son of Amon, that was called Josias.
Chapter 34
Josias was eight years old when he came to the throne, and his reign at Jerusalem lasted thirty-one years; he was obedient to the Lord's will, and followed the example of his ancestor, king David, never swerving to right or left. It was while he was still a boy, in the eighth year of his reign, that he betook himself to the God his father David worshipped; and in the twelfth year of his reign he rid Juda and Jerusalem of hill-shrine and forest shrine, carved image and molten image. All the altars of the countryside gods must be destroyed in his presence; sacred trees and statues he cut down everywhere and broke in pieces, which he scattered on the tombs of their worshippers; and on the altars that were raised to false gods he burned the bones of their own priests, till Juda and Jerusalem were defiled no more. Then he must carry out the same work of destruction in the cities of Manasses, Ephraim and Simeon, and all the way to Nephthali; altars were thrown down, images crushed to pieces, and shrines demolished, all over the land of Israel; and so he returned to Jerusalem.
Then, in the eighteenth year of his reign, the land and the temple now purged, he commissioned Saphan, son of Eselias, and Maasias that was governor of the city, and Joha son of Joachaz, that kept the records, to see that the house of the Lord their God was put in repair. So they made their way to the high priest, Helcias, who handed over to them the offerings collected by Levites and door-keepers for the temple fabric; offerings from Manasses and Ephraim and all the rest of Israel, as well to as Juda, Benjamin and Jerusalem. These they paid out to the overseers of the Lord's house, bidding them restore it and put it in repair. And they, in their turn, gave it to the craftsmen and masons, that must buy stone from the quarries; wood, too, for joiner's work, and for roofing the buildings which earlier kings had left in ruins. All this was faithfully carried out; the work was hastened on by these overseers, the Merarites Jahath and Abdias, the Caathites Zacharias and Masollam, Levites all and musicians; the workmen that did but carry burdens at need were under the command of the secretaries and the chief doorkeepers.
It was just when they came to take away the temple offerings that Helcias found a copy of the law which the Lord gave through Moses; and he told Saphan, the secretary, how he had found, there in the temple, a copy of the law, which he gave him to read. Saphan took the book with him when he went to the king to report that the commission had been faithfully executed. They have collected all the money, said he, that was there in the temple, and paid it out through the overseers to craftsmen and to masons. And here is a book the high priest, Helcias, has given me.
This book, then, Saphan read out in the royal presence; and the king, upon hearing the terms of the law, rent his garments about him. Then he gave orders to Helcias, and Ahicam son of Saphan, and Abdon son of Micha, and Asaas, one of his courtiers; Go and consult the Lord, he told them, for me and all that is left of Israel and Juda, about this new-found copy of the law. What wonder if the Lord should rain down vengeance on us, a race that has left his warnings unheeded, his bidding undone? So Helcias and his companions went on the king's errand to the prophetess Olda. She was wife to Sellum, son of Thecuath, son of Hasra, that once kept the royal wardrobe; her dwelling was at Jerusalem, in the new part of the city. So they told her their business, and she, in return, gave them this message from the Lord God of Israel for the man that sent them; Thus says the Lord, For this city and its citizens I have punishments in store, all the punishments threatened in yonder book which has been read out to the king of Juda. The men of Juda have forsaken me, and offered sacrifice to alien gods; all they do is done in defiance of me; the fire of my vengeance must needs rain down on this city, and there is no quenching it. But to the king of Juda, who sent you here to consult the Lord, give this message from the Lord God of Israel: Well for you you did listen to the warnings this book gave you! Well for you that your heart failed you, and you did humble yourself before God, at hearing him threaten city and citizens with doom; that you did make amends, by tearing your garments about you, and had recourse to me with tears. And you have won my audience, the Lord says; I will lay you to rest with your fathers, in quiet times you shall go to your grave. Not for your eyes the great calamities I mean to bring on city and citizens of yours.
When they brought the king his answer, he summoned all the elders of Juda and Jerusalem; then he went up to the Lord's temple, and all the men of Juda bore him company, all the citizens of Jerusalem, priest and Levite and common folk high and low. There, in their hearing, he read the whole book out to them. Standing on the dais, he made a promise there in the Lord's presence; they would make the Lord their leader, holding fast by command and decree and observance of his, heart and soul, obeying all the terms of the law they had listened to. And he bound them by an oath, all the men of Jerusalem and of Benjamin. This pact with the Lord God of their fathers was kept loyally.
So Josias swept away from the whole realm of Israel all detestable worship, and made the remnant that were left in Israel obey the Lord their God. Never again did they forsake the Lord, their fathers' God, while Josias life lasted.
Chapter 35
And now Josias proclaimed a paschal feast at Jerusalem; the victims should be duly slain on the fourteenth day of the first month. To the priests, he assigned their several tasks, and put heart into them for their long ministrations in the Lord's house. And he had his word for the Levites, too, that must teach all Israel and hallow it to the Lord's service: Let the ark of God rest in its shrine in the temple David's son Solomon, that was king of all Israel, built for it; no need any longer for you to carry it this way and that. You have tasks to perform for the Lord your God, and for his people of Israel. Range yourselves by the order of your clans and families, as David king of Israel and his son Solomon prescribed, each household, each company of Levites ready to do its own office in the sanctuary. Rid yourselves of defilement, to keep the pasch, and make all in readiness for your brethren, so that they can carry out the commands which the Lord gave them through Moses. For those who were present at this paschal feast, Josias provided the flocks they had need of, thirty thousand lambs and kids, as well as three thousand bulls, all of the king's bounty. Other gifts had been promised, for priests, Levites and people, by the men of his court; the controllers of the Lord's house, Helcias, Zacharias and Jahiel, gave the priests, for their paschal victims, two thousand six hundred lambs and kids, and three hundred bulls; and there were five thousand lambs and kids and five hundred bulls for the Levites pasch, from Chonenias, his brothers Semeias and Nathanael, and the Levite chiefs Hasabias, Jehiel and Jozabad. Thus preparation was made for the ceremony, and the priests stood ready for their task, with the Levites to aid them, ranged at the king's bidding in their several companies.
The paschal victims were killed; blood was sprinkled from priestly hands, Levites flayed the burnt-sacrifice, and victims were distributed to all the worshippers, clan by clan, household by household, ready to be offered to the Lord as Moses commanded, the bulls with the rest. The paschal victim itself was roasted over the fire, as the law enjoins; the welcome-offerings were cooked in pan and pot and caldron, and so divided among the people without more ado. This done, the Levites had still the paschal feast to make ready for themselves and for the priests; these had been busy over the burnt-sacrifice up to night-fall, so that Aaron's sons must be served last, and the Levites with them. All the musicians had kept their ranks, as David would have them, and his royal spokesmen Asaph, Heman and Idithun; all the door-keepers had remained on guard at their several gates, never released from duty for an instant; for these, too, their brother Levites must needs make ready the feast. Nothing of due observance was left unfulfilled that day; the pasch was kept, and burnt-sacrifice, too, was offered to the Lord on his altar, at king Josias' bidding. And all the Israelites who were present kept, at this time, not only the pasch but the feast of unleavened bread, for seven days together. Never was such is a paschal feast as this in all Israel's history since the days of the prophet Samuel; never a king, of all who reigned in Israel, so kept it as Josias did, with priests and Levites and pilgrims from Juda and Israel, besides the citizens of Jerusalem. It was the eighteenth year of his reign when the pasch was so kept.
After Josias' restoration of the temple was finished, news came that Nechao, king of Egypt, was on his way to attack Charcamis, on the Euphrates. Josias marched out to bar his way, whereupon he sent him a message, Nay, king of Juda, I have no quarrel with you. At God's bidding I march, and with all speed, against another kingdom, not yours; God is on my side; cross his will, and he will slay you. But there was no turning Josias back from his warlike intent; listen to Nechao he would not, though it was God's own lips that warned him; he was for offering battle in the plain of Mageddo. And there, wounded by a volley from the archers, he bade his men carry him out of the fight; My hurt, said he, is grievous. He had a second chariot, as kings will, that followed behind him; into this they removed him out of his own chariot, and bore him away to Jerusalem. So he died, and was buried where his fathers lay. All Juda and Jerusalem mourned for him, but none so grievously as Jeremias; to this day man and maid, singing the dirge for Josias, say..., till it has become a custom in Israel; it is all to be found in the book of Dirges.
What else Josias did, all his acts of piety in carrying out the terms of the divine law, all his history, first and last, is set down in the Record of the kings of Juda and Israel.
Chapter 36
The choice of the people now fell upon Josias son Joachaz, whom they crowned at Jerusalem to succeed his father. He was twenty-three years old when he came to the throne, and his reign at Jerusalem lasted but three months; then he was deposed by the king of Egypt, who marched to Jerusalem and levied a fine from the country, a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. Joachaz he carried off with him to Egypt, and set up one of the other princes to rule Juda and Jerusalem, Eliakim, whose name he changed to Joakim. This Joakim was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and his reign at Jerusalem lasted eleven years, during which he defied the will of the Lord his God. Then he was attacked by the king of Babylon, Nabuchodonosor, who led him off to Babylon in chains; he also carried off (some of) the furniture of the Lord's house, and laid it up in his own temple there. What else Joakim did, all his idolatry and the story of the life he lived, may be found in the Record of the kings of Juda and Israel; he was succeeded by his son Joachin. This Joachin was eight(een) years old when he came to the throne, and his reign at Jerusalem lasted three months and ten days. He too defied the Lord's will, and when the spring came round, Nabuchodonosor had him brought to Babylon, with all the most precious of the furniture that was left in the Lord's house. And he set up as king of Juda and Jerusalem Joachin's uncle Sedecias.
This Sedecias was twenty-one years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned at Jerusalem eleven years. He defied the Lord's will, nothing abashed by the prophet Jeremias, that carried threats to him from the Lord's own lips. He rebelled against Nabuchodonosor, though he had plighted his allegiance to him in the name of God; refused ever the yoke, steeled ever his heart, and would not come back to the Lord, the God of Israel. All the chief priests, too, and the common folk did heinous wrong by following the detestable ways of the heathen; desecrated that sanctuary the Lord had set apart for himself at Jerusalem. He, the God of their fathers, sent messengers to warn them; never a day dawned but he was already pleading with them, so well he loved his people and his dwelling-place. And they? They mocked the Lord's own messengers, made light of his warnings, derided his prophets, until at last the Lord's anger was roused against his people, past all assuaging. Then it was that he embroiled them with the king of Babylon, who came and put their young men to the sword in the sanctuary itself, pitying neither young man nor maid, old man nor cripple; none might escape his attack. All the furniture of the Lord's house, great and small, all the treasures of temple and king and princes, must be carried off to Babylon. Enemy hands set fire to the Lord's house, pulled down Jerusalem's walls, burnt its towers to the ground, destroyed all that was of price. Those who escaped massacre were carried off to Babylon, where they must live as slaves to the king and his heirs until their empire should pass to the king of Persia; then, at last, the Lord's prophecy through Jeremias would be fulfilled, then the land of Juda would have lain fallow long enough. Fallow it must lie, until seventy years had come and gone.
So, in the first year of the Persian king, Cyrus, the Lord made good the promise which Jeremias had uttered in his name. He put a resolve into the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia; who thereupon published a written decree all through his dominions; A message, it said, from Cyrus, king of Persia. The Lord God of heaven has made me master of the world, and now he will have me rebuild his own temple for him at Jerusalem, a city of Judaea. Who is left among you of his own people? Let him go to the task, with the Lord his God to speed him.