ISRAEL
to
persuade
their
countrymen
that
it
was
a
foreign
cult.
This
turn
of
affairs
drove
those
who
cherished
the
ideals
of
Isaiah
into
retirement,
where,
being
able
to
do
noth-ing
else
tor
the
cause
they
loved,
one
of
them,
about
650,
drew
up
the
legal
code
of
Deuteronomy
as
the
expression
of
the
conditions
which
the
prophetic
experience
had
found
to
be
necessary
to
the
reahzation
of
their
ideal.
The
brief
reign
of
Amon
was
but
a
continuation
of
the
reign
of
his
father.
21.
Josiahand
the
Deuteronomic
Beform.
—
Of
the
early
part
of
the
reign
of
Josiah,
who
ascended
the
throne
as
a
boy
of
eight,
we
know
Uttle.
Probably
the
customs
which
the
previous
reign
had
established
were
continued.
In
his
thirteenth
year,
Jeremiah,
a
young
priest
from
Anathoth,
came
forward
as
a
prophet.
In
the
next
year
the
great
Assyrian
king
Ashurbanipal
died,
and
Assyria,
whose
power
had
been
shattered
by
a
great
rebellion
twenty
years
before,
rapidly
sank
to
her
end.
In
Josiah's
eighteenth
year
repairs
on
the
Temple
were
undertaken
at
the
king's
command.
During
the
progress
of
these,
it
was
reported
to
him
that
in
making
the
repairs
they
had
found
the
copy
of
a
code
purporting
to
be
the
Law
of
Moses.
When
this
was
read
to
the
king
he
was
filled
with
consternation,
since
the
current
cult
violated
it
in
almost
every
particular.
To
test
the
genuineness
of
the
Law
it
was
submitted
to
an
old
proph-etess,
Huldah,
who,
since
it
agreed
with
her
concep-tions
o£
the
ideal
reUgion
of
Jahweh,
declared
it
to
be
the
genuine
Law
of
Moses
(2
K
22).
Upon
this
Josiah
set
himself
to
adjust
the
rehgious
worship
andinstitutions
of
his
kingdom
to
this
standard,
and
to
a
great
reform,
which
swept
away
from
Judah
all
shrines
except
the
Temple
in
Jerusalem,
all
pillars
as
representatives
of
deity,
and
all
ashSrahs,
together
with
all
immorahty
practised
under
the
guise
of
religion
(2
K
23).
Modern
criticism
has
clearly
demonstrated
that
the
Law
which
came
into
operation
at
this
time
was
the
Law
of
Deuteronomy.
This
reform
cost
a
long
struggle.
People
who
had
all
their
lives
regarded
certain
spots
as
places
where
Jahweh
revealed
Himself,
and
who
knew
that
their
ancestors
for
centuries
had
done
the
same,
did
not
tamely
yield
to
the
new
order.
All
the
authority
of
the
king
and
all
the
strength
of
the
prophetic
order
were
needed
to
carry
it
through,
and
the
struggle
continued
for
a
generation.
It
was
this
reform,
however,
that
began
the
creation
of
the
Jew.
But
for
it,
he
would
not
still
be
a
distinct
figure
in
the
world.
This
struggle
for
a
better
religion
went
on
successfully
for
some
years,
when
the
little
Judsean
State
was
over-
taken
by
a
sad
misfortune.
Assyria
was
tottering
to
its
fall.
Babylon,
which
had
regained
its
independence
upon
the
death
of
Ashur-banipal,
in
625,
was
rapidly
growing
in
power.
Egypt,
which
under
the
26th
dynasty
now
possessed
once
more
a
Une
of
native
kings,
had
a
monarch,
Necho
ii.,
ambitious
to
re-establish
for
her
an
Asiatic
empire.
In
609
or
608
Necho
marched
an
army
into
Asia
and
moved
northward
along
the
Maritime
Plain.
Josiah,
probably
because
he
determined
to
claim
sovereignty
over
all
the
territory
formerly
occupied
by
Israel,
marched
northward
with
an
army,
fought
Necho
at
the
ancient
battlefield
of
Megiddo,
and
met
with
defeat
and
death
(2
K
232"«).
A
greater
calamity
could
scarcely
have
befallen
the
party
of
rehgious
reform.
Not
only
was
their
king
fallen,
but
their
hope
of
a
prosperous
Jud«an
kingdom,
faithful
to
Jahweh's
new
Law,
was
rudely
dashed
to
the
ground.
22.
Last
Days
of
the
Kingdom.
—
When
the
news
of
the
defeat
at
Megiddo
reached
Jerusalem,
the
leaders
of
the
people
there
placed
Jehoahaz,
a
son
of
Josiah,
on
the
throne.
Necho
meantime
proceeded
northward,
taking
possession
of
the
country,
and
established
his
headquarters
at
Riblah
in
the
territory
of
Hamath.
Thither
he
summoned
Jehoahaz,
threw
him
into
bonds.
ISRAEL
sent
him
to
Egpyt
as
a
prisoner,
and
made
his
brother
Eliakim
king,
imposing
aheavy
tribute
upon
the
country
(2
K
2331-M).
Eliakim
upon
his
accession
took
the
name
of
Jehoiakim
(2
K
23").
Judah
thus
became
tributary
to
Egypt.
Jehoiakim
proved
to
be
a
man
of
quite
different
religious
interests
from
his
father,
as
the
Book
of
Jeremiah
makes
clear.
Events
in
Western
Asia
were
changing
rapidly,
and
within
a
few
years
they
gave
Jehoiakim
a
new
master.
The
new
Babylonian
power
was
pushing
westward
to
secure
as
much
of
the
Euphrates
valley
and
of
the
West
as
possible.
Assyria
had
fallen
at
the
hands
of
Indo-European
hordes
in
the
year
606.
Necho
was
ambitious
to
follow
up
his
previous
success
and
to
check
the
growth
of
the
Babylonian
power.
Accordingly
in
604
he
entered
Asia
again
and
marched
to
the
Eu-phrates.
Here
he
was
met
by
Nebuchadnezzar,
the
Baby-lonian
crown
prince,
and
so
crushingly
defeated
that
he
fled
rapidly
homeward,
Nebuchadnezzar
following
closely
upon
his
heels
(Jer
46).
Thus
perished
Necho's
dreams
of
Asiatic
empire,
and
thus
Judah
passed
into
vassalage
to
Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar,
on
the
border
of
Egypt,
ready
to
invade
and
conquer
it,
was
informed
of
the
death
of
his
father
in
Babylon,
and
hastened
home
to
secure
his
crown.
So
important
in
the
history
of
his
people
did
Jere-miah
consider
this
crisis,
that
at
this
time
he
first
began
to
put
the
substance
of
his
prophecies
in
writing,
that
they
might
have
wider
and
more
permanent
influence
(Jer
36).
Nebuchadnezzar
appears
not
to
have
been
able
to
establish
order
in
Western
Asia
all
at
once,
so
distracted
was
the
country.
He
established
liis
head-quarters
at
Riblah,
and
for
several
years
sent
out
bands
of
soldiers
whither
they
were
most
needed.
Jehoialdm,
thinldng
to
take
advantage
of
the
unsettled
state,
withheld
his
tribute,
and
some
of
these
bands,
composed
of
men
of
neighbouring
tribes,
were
sent
against
him
(2
K
24'B).
Jehoiakim
continued
obstinate,
however,
and
Nebuchadnezzar
finally,
in
598,
sent
a
large
army.
Before
it
arrived
Jehoiakim
was
no
more,
and
his
young
son
Jehoiachin
was
occupying
his
throne.
Nebuchad-nezzar
laid
siege
to
Jerusalem,
which
after
three
months
was
compelled
to
capitulate,
whereupon
the
Baby-lonian
took
ten
thousand
of
the
most
prominent
men,
princes,
warriors,
priests,
and
craftsmen,
and
transported
them
to
Babylonia.
Another
son
of
Josiah,
who
now
took
the
name
of
Zedekiah,
was
placed
upon
the
throne,
subject
of
course
to
a
heavy
Babylonian
tribute.
Jehoiachin,
a
youth
of
twenty,
was
taken
prisoner
to
Babylon,
to
languish
in
prison
for
many
years.
It
was
now
to
be
seen
whether
Judah
would
repeat
the
history
of
the
Northern
Kingdom
or
whether
her
king
would
have
wisdom
to
remain
faithful
to
Babylon.
Jeremiah,
as
he
had
done
for
years,
steadily
proclaimed
that
Judah's
sole
safety
lay
in
fidelity
to
Babylon;
such
was
the
will
of
Jahweh.
There
was
in
Jerusalem,
however,
a
strong
party
who
advocated
an
alliance
with
Egypt
as
a
means
of
securing
freedom
from
Babylon.
The
king
himself
was
weak
and
unwise.
Finally,
in
588,
when
Hophra,
filled
with
ambitions
for
an
Asiatic
empire,
ascended
the
Egyptian
throne,
he
made
such
promises
of
aid
to
Judah
that
the
standard
of
revolt
was
raised.
Jeremiah,
one
of
the
greatest
rehgious
teachers
that
ever
lived,
did
not,
Uke
Isaiah
a
century
before,
proclaim
Jerusalem
inviolate.
He
had
seen
further
Into
the
heart
of
religion,
and
now
declared
Jhat
Jahweh
would
abandon
Jerusalem,
and
establish
%n
inner
covenant
of
the
heart
with
all
who
were
faithful.
His
younger
contemporary,
Ezekiel,
a
young
priest
who
had
been
carried
to
Babylonia
in
598,
and
had
in
693
become
a
prophet
there,
was
also
teaching
a
similarly
high
conception
of
religion,
and,
with
Jeremiah,
preparing
the
faith
of
the
people
to
survive
the
approaching
shock.
In
587
the
Babylonian
army
appeared
and
the
siege
of
Jerusalem
began.
The
tedious
suffering
of
its
weary
months
may
be
traced
in
the
Book
of
Jeremiah.
