ISRAEL
Early
in
586,
Hophra
marched
an
army
into
Palestine,
and
Nebuchadnezzar
was
obliged
to
raise
the
siege
to
send
his
full
force
against
the
Egyptian.
Jerusalem
was
then
wild
with
joy,
thinking
deliverance
had
come.
Jeremiah
and
his
party
were
laughed
to
scorn.
But
Hophra
was
soon
defeated,
the
siege
of
Jerusalem
renewed
and
pressed
to
completion.
In
August
the
city
surrendered,
its
wall
was
broken
down,
its
glorious
Temple
destroyed,
another
large
body
of
captives
trans-ported
to
Babylonia,
and
Zedekiah
after
being
blinded
was
taken
there
too
(2
K
25).
Thus
Jerusalem
suffered
the
fate
of
Samaria.
Providentially,
however,
before
Jerusalem
fell,
the
work
of
the
prophets
had
so
taken
root,
and
such
reforms
had
been
instituted,
that
the
future
of
spiritual
religion
was
assured.
Those
who
had
been
deported
were
again
the
more
prominent
citizens.
The
poorer
people
and
the
peasantry
were
not
disturbed.
GedaUah
was
made
governor
of
Judsea,
and,
because
Jerusalem
was
desolate,
Mizpeh,
five
miles
to
the
north-west,
was
made
the
capital.
Gedaliah
had
been
in
oflice
but
two
months
when
he
was
assassinated,
and
this
event
so
terrified
some
friends
of
Jeremiah,
who
had
been
permitted
with
the
prophet
to
remain
in
Palestine,
that
they
took
Jeremiah,
contrary
to
his
advice,
and
fled
to
Egypt
(2
K
25™-
and
Jer
41-43).
23.
The
Exile.
—
Counting
women
and
children,
perhaps
fifty
thousand
Jews
had
been
transported
to
Babylonia
in
the
two
deportations
of
Nebuchadnezzar.
These,
with
the
exception
of
a
few
political
leaders,
were
settled
in
colonies,
in
which
they
were
permitted
to
have
houses
of
their
own,
visit
one
another
freely,
and
engage
in
business
(Jer
29>^-).
Ezekiel
gives
us
the.picture
of
one
of
these
at
Tel-abib
(Ezk
3"
8'
20"-241'
etc.),
by
the
river
Chebar
(a
canal
near
Nippur;
ct.
Bab.
Ex.
of
Univ.
of
Pa.,
Cun.
Texts,
ix.
28),
in
wtifch
the
Fajestinian
organization
of
'elders'
was
perpetuated.
In
such
communities
the
Jews
settled
down
in
Babylonia.
The
poorer
ones
in
Palestine
kept
up
as
best
they
could
the
old
religion,
in
an
ignorant
and
superstitious
way
(cf.
Jer
41^-),
while
the
priests
and
the
more
intelligent
of
the
religious
devotees
trans-ported
to
Babylon
cherished
the
laws
of
the
past,
and
fondly
framed
ideals
for
a
future
which
they
were
confident
would
come.
Such
an
one
was
Ezekiel,
who
lived
and
wrote
among
the
captives
till
about
B.C.
570.
After
the
destruction
of
the
city
he
elaborated
a
new
religious
polity
for
the
nation,
hoping
that
it
would
form
the
basis
of
Israel's
organization
when
the
time
for
the
re-construction
of
the
State
came.
Some
years
later
another
writer
(P)
wrote
the
'Holiness
Code'
gathering
up
the
traditions
of
the
past,
and
shaping
them
with
a
view
to
a
future
religious
ideal.
Meantime
many
of
the
practically
minded
Jews
had
engaged
in
business
in
Babylonia
and
were
acquiring
wealth.
Thus
time
passed
on,
Nebuchadnezzar
died,
and
Ills
weak
successors
were
rapidly
follovring
one
another,
when
in
the
East
a
new
political
figure
appeared.
Cyrus,
a
petty
king
of
Anshan,
a
small
district
of
Elam,
had
conquered
Persia,
then
Media
and
the
Indo-Europffian
hordes
called
in
the
inscriptions
'Manda,'
and
was
pushing
his
arms
westward
to
the
subjugation
of
Croesus
of
Lydia.
At
this
juncture
one
of
the
world's
great
poets
and
prophets
appeared
among
the
captives,
and
in
most
eloquent
and
poetic
strain
taught
them
that
Cyrus
was
the
instrument
of
Jahweh,
the
God
of
heaven,
that
he
was
conquering
for
Jahweh
and
for
them,
and
that
it
was
Jahweh's
will
that
they
should
return
to
rebuild
Jerusalem
and
the
desolations
of*
Judah.
The
name
of
this
prophet
is
lost,
but
his
work
now
forms
chs.
40-45
of
the
Book
of
Isaiah.
The
hope
of
this
poet
in
Cyrus
was
justified,
for
in
538
Cyrus
captured
Babylon,
overturning
the
Chaldaean
empire,
and
reversed
the
policy
of
transportation
which
Assyrians
and
Babylonians
alike
had
pursued
from
the
time
of
Tiglath-pileser
iii.
Cyrus
himself
tells
in
a
cuneiform
inscription
(KIB
uV.
121''0
that
he
permitted
captive
ISRAEL
peop
les
to
return
to
their
lands
and
rebuild
their
temples.
This
gave
the
Jews
the
opportunity
for
which
the
Second
Isaiah
(so-called)
had
hoped.
The
prophet's
faith
in
his
own
people
was
not
so
well
justified.
It
was
years
before
any
considerable
number
of
the
captives
made
use
of
their
newly
acquired
liberty
(see
§
24).
They
were
interested
in
their
religion,
but
they
had
learned
to
practise
it
outside
of
Palestine
without
sa,crificial
ritual,
and
the
opportunities
in
Babylonia
for
wealth
and
trade
were
too
good
to
be
abandoned
for
the
sterile
soil
of
the
land
of
their
fathers.
Here,
accord-ingly,
they
continued
to
live
for
fifteen
hundred
years.
They
frequently
sent
money
contributions
to
their
brethren
in
Jerusalem;
and
occasionally
a
few
of
them
returned
thither.
After
a
time
they
chose
Exiliarchs,
or
'
Princes
of
the
Captivity.'
Schools
of
Jewish
learning
developed
here.
In
due
time
the
Babylonian
Talmud
%
was
compiled
in
these
schools.
These
communities
thus
survived
the
vicissitudes
of
Persian,
Macedonian,
Parthian,
Sassanian,
and
Arabian
rule,
continuing
to
have
their
Exiliarchs
till
the
llth
cent,
a.d.,
when
the
oppressions
to
which
they
were
subjected
led
them
gradually
to
migrate
(cf.
JE
v.
288-291).
24.
Beconstructionof
the
JewishState.—
Wehavebeen
accustomed
to
suppose,
on
the
authority
of
the
Book
of
Ezra,
that
when
Cyrus
issued
his
permission
to
exiled
peoples
to
return
and
rehabiUtate
their
shrines
and
their
States,
a
large
number
at
once
went
back.
Recent
investigation
has,
however,
discredited
this
view.
Haggai
and
Zechariah
twenty
years
later
know
of
no
such
return,
and
probably
it
did
not
take
place.
Twenty
years
later
we
find
Zerubbabel,
a
grandson
of
the
un-fortunate
king
Jehoiachin,
present
in
Jerusalem
as
governor,
and
a
high
priest
named
Joshua
in
charge
of
the
worship.
The
altar
of
Jahweh
had
been
rebuilt
on
the
old
site,
but
Jerusalem
and
the
Temple
were
still
in
ruins.
The
tolerance
of
the
Persians
is
shown
in
allowing
the
Jews
a
governor
of
their
own
royal
family.
He,
with
a
small
retinue,
had
no
doubt
returned
from
Babylonia,
but
we
have
no
evidence
that
others
had
come
back.
The
Jewish
population
which
had
been
left
behind
in
Palestine,
equally
with
those
in
Babylonia,
expected
at
some
time
the
re-construction
of
the
Jewish
institu-tions.
A
prolonged
famine
led
Haggai
in
the
second
year
of
Darius
i.
(b.c.
519)
to
persuade
the
people
that
Jahweh
withheld
rain
because
He
was
displeased
that
the
Temple
was
not
yet
rebuilt.
Another
prophet,
Zechariah,
took
up
the
same
burden,
and
under
their
leadership
and
inspiration
the
Temple
was
rebuilt
by
B.C.
516
on
the
lines
of
the
old
wall.
Contributions
to
aid
this
enterprise
had
been
received
from
their
brethren
in
Babylonia.
The
first
six
years
of
the
reign
of
Darius
were
troublous
times.
The
reign
of
the
false
Bardlya
had
made
nations
suspect
that
the
govern-ment
of
Persia
was
weak,
and
it
became
necessary
for
Darius
to
reconquer
his
empire,
as
many
of
the
subject
nations
took
the
opportunity
to
rebel.
It
is
probable
that
Zerubbabel
represents
such
a
movement.
Scholars
now
have
no
doubt
that
Zechariah
regarded
Zerub-babel
as
the
Messiah,
and
expected
him
to
be
crowned
and
to
reign
jointly
with
the
high
priest
Joshua.
Such
is
the
meaning
which
underlies
the
text
of
Zee
3
(cf.
H.
P.
Smith,
OT
Hist.
357
fl.).
How
these
expecta-tions
were
thwarted
we
can
only
guess.
We
know
with
what
a
strong
arm
the
great
Darius
put
down
revolutions
elsewhere,
and
certain
it
is
that
Jewish
hopes
for
independence
were
not
at
this
time
realized.
Our
knowledge
of
the
next
eighty
years,
till
the
arrival
of
Nehemiah,
is
derived
from
Is
56-66,
large
parts
of
which
appear
to
come
from
this
period,
and
from
the
anonymous
prophet
called
Malachi,
who,
perhaps,
wrote
shortly
before
Nehemiah's
return.
The
tone
of
these
writings
is
one
of
depression
and
anarchy,
both
in
civil
and
in
religious
affairs.
Zerubbabel
had
been
succeeded
by
a
foreign
governor
(Mai
1*),
who
probably
