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CHAPTER XII.

THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH.

THE fall of the kingdom of Israel having secured for the survivors a happy escape, as Assyrian colonists, from Hebrew anarchy, the less fortunate kingdom of Judah had to endure, for a longer period, the calamities inseparable from fanatical reliance on the supernatural, and in her fall to transmit to a doomed remnant of the Hebrew race the fatal superstition which has set them apart for centuries as defenceless minorities among alien communities, whose inconsistent theologians have adopted a Jew as their Deity, whilst persecuting or ostracising the Hebrew race.

Although the dynasty of David retained dominion in Judah, the rule of even the most virtuous kings did not exempt the Jews from the denunciation of prophets or the judgments of God. Hezekiah excelled all the other kings of Judah in piety, and yet, during his reign, the kingdom twice suffered the devastations of foreign invasion, and he himself was divinely condemned to premature death, when only forty years old. The desire of the prophets and the will of the Deity had been fulfilled in the reign of a great religious reformer, who extirpated idolatry and restored the national worship, and yet Judah was to be plunged into social and political anarchy by cutting off the dynasty of David, through the premature death of a childless king.

Hezekiah, who had no hope beyond the grave, succeeded, however, in changing the divine purpose through prayer, and thus obtained a respite from death of fifteen years, during which period an heir to the throne was born. The Gospel according to Matthew traces the descent of Jesus through this son of Hezekiah. If, therefore, the divine decree had not been annulled, Jesus would never have been born, and modern communities would now be found worshipping some other Deity.

The predestined death of Hezekiah occurred when he was only fifty-six: he was, therefore, succeeded by a boy of twelve, who, deprived of paternal guardianship, grew up to restore idolatry, sacrifice human victims, and massacre his subjects. Thus revelation depicts the special dispensations of Providence among the Chosen Race.

The Hebrew annalist assures us that, in consequence of the extreme wickedness of Manasseh, the nation was condemned to final destruction,' but the judgment had been already pronounced by Isaiah in the previous reign, because Hezekiah had shown the national treasures to the ambassadors of the king of Babylon.2 For this simple act of courtesy Jehovah decreed the Babylonian captivity. Apologists tell us that Hezekiah was guilty of vanity; but what would become of individuals and nations if divinely punished because their rulers are merely human ?

As the condemnation of a people for the venial offence of a ruler is irreconcilable with our conceptions of the Hebrew bard, whose sublimity commands the admiration of posterity, let us compare the alleged facts 1 2 Kings xxi. 22 Kings xx. 12-19.

of the sacred annalist with the inspired utterance of the prophet.

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According to 2 Chron. xxix., Jehovah was wroth with Judah and Jerusalem because they had 'not burnt incense, and offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel.' Hezekiah, who did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord,' rivalled Solomon in sacrificial ritualism, pouring forth the blood of bullocks, and of lambs, and of goats as burnt offerings for the sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of the Lord.' These, according to the sacred annalist, were works of piety wrought during the lifetime of Isaiah in harmony with the will of Jehovah. But what says the prophet? Hear the word of the Lord, give ear unto the law of our God. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.'1

If sacred annalists and inspired prophets thus differ in defining Hebrew piety, who shall disclose to us the will of the Hebrew God?

Hezekiah having been succeeded by two wicked kings, we again have a pious monarch in Josiah, zealous in the extirpation of idolatry and the restoration of

1 Isa. i. 10-14.

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Judaism. During the execution of repairs in the temple, Hilkiah the priest said unto Shaphan the scribe : 'I have found the book of the Law in the house of the Lord.' The king, terrified by the imprecations contained in this mysterious volume, consulted Huldah, an inspired prophetess, and learned with dismay that the most appalling curses ever uttered by human lips2 were to be inevitably inflicted on the people for not obeying the words of a book the contents of which were unknown to them. What further interest could the doomed nation, therefore, feel in the worship of a Deity whose inspired prophetess had thus annulled his promises, and rendered the future ministration of prophets a mere mockery of men who had finally lost all the hopes of religion?

The theory of divine intervention in Hebrew politics becomes even more confused when we read of Josiah, a monarch surpassing even David in piety, prematurely slain in battle in violation of the inspired prediction of Huldah, that he should be borne to his grave in peace.

The tragedy of Judah now hastens to a close, under the auspices of Jeremiah, the most fanatical of all the Hebrew prophets, who discloses, in his varying moods, all the symptoms of insanity. He tells us that the Lord put forth His hand, touched his mouth, and gave him supreme control over the prosperity or destruction of kingdoms and nations. Anon, he suffers inevitable reaction from this mental exaltation, curses the day of his birth, and anathematises all who differ from him in

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opinion;1 and yet some eminent commentators see in this poor victim of cerebral disease the veritable type of Jesus of Nazareth!

Earlier prophets had encouraged national repentance, and sustained national hope, by depicting Jehovah as the divine partisan of their race, ever prepared to miraculously resist foreign invaders in fulfilment of his solemn covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but, marvellous to relate, Jeremiah suddenly announces : Thus saith the Lord, I have made the earth, and given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. And now I have given all this land into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant. The nations and kingdoms which will not put their necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them with his hand.' Is not this the language of insanity? Could foreign nations know or accept the decrees of the Hebrew God, of whom they could only have heard as the spiritual enemy of their race? Could the heirs of Abraham believe that Jehovah had doomed them to appalling calamity for reliance on the divine promises? Jeremiah might proclaim Nebuchadnezzar as the chosen servant of God, but rival prophets uttered conflicting oracles, the inspiration of which could only be tested by waiting for their fulfilment or the premature death of the prophets: meanwhile, the responsible rulers of the country might passively await impending destruction.

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Can we wonder if the men, whose common sense approved the Egyptian alliance as the only means of

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