Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/242

 ISRAELITES

200

ISRAELITES

IX. The Kingdom of Juda. — Of the two kingdoms formed upon the disruption of Solomon's empire, the Southern Kingdom, or Kingdom of Juda, was in sev- eral respects the weaker, and yet was the better fitted to withstand the assaults of foreign enemies. Its gen- eral relations with Lsrael, Egypt, and Assyria, during

were deported to Babylon. Thus began the Babylo- nian exile (see Captivities of the Iskaelites).

X. After the Babylonian Exile. — " Politically and nationally the Babylonian captivity put an end for ever to the people of Israel. Even when, 350 years later, there was once more a Jewish state, those who

the existence of the Northern Kingdom, have been formed it were not the people of Israel, not even the briefly mentioned in connexion with the history of Jewish nation, but that portion which remained in the

that kingdom, and need not be more fully set forth here. Hence the foUomng sketch of the Kingdom of Juda deals exclusively with the period of its existence subsequent to the overthrow of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians. At the time of the fall of Samaria, Ezechias was King of Juda (725-696 b. c). He long persevered in the allegiance which his father,

mother country of a great religious organization scat- tered over all Asia and Egypt" (Cornill). The exiles who, in 538 B. c, availed themselves of Cyrus's per- mission to return to Palestine, were mostly Judeans, whose varied fortunes after their settlement in and around Jerusalem belong in a very particular manner to the history of Judaism and consequently need be

Achaz, had pledged to Assyria; Sargon's death, how- set forth only in the briefest manner in the present ever, in 705 b. c, appeared to him and other Western article. Prompted by the religious impulse which had princes a favourable opportunity to throw off the led them to come back to the land of their fathers,

Assyrian yoke. He therefore formed with them a power- ful league against Sennacherib, Sar- gon's successor. In due time (701 b. c), the Assyrian forces invaded Western Asia, captured sev- eral Judean cities, and com]jclled Eze- chias to renounce the league and pay an enormous fine. Not long afterwards, Sennacherib ravaged Juda again, and haughtily threat- ened Jerusalem with destruction. In ac- cordance with Isaias's prophecy, however, his threats came to naught:

" the Angel of the Lord " decimated his army, and dis- turbances in the East recalled him to Nineveh (IV Kings, xviii, 13; xix). It was under Ezechias that Juda came in contact for the first time with Baby- lonia (IV Kings, xx). The long reign of his son. Ma- Jewish military colony at Elephantine, the existence nasses (696-^1 B. c), was, almost throughout, marked and religious worship of which have been disclosed by by religious degeneracy and faithful vassalage to As- Judeo-Aramean papyri discovered quite recently. The Syria. In the latter part of it, Juda rebelled against conqueror of Persia, Alexander the Great, seems to Asarhaddon, Sennacherib's son and successor, but the have bestowed special privileges upon the Jewish com- insurrection was speedily crushed, and misfortune munity of Palestine, and to have granted to the Jews brought back Manasses to the worship of the true who settled in Alexandria — a city which he foimded God. The brief reign of Amon (641-39 B. c.) was an and called after his name — equal civil rights with the imitation of the first and the worst practices of liis Macedonians (331 b. c).

father. In 60S b. c. Palestine was traversed by an Alexander died before consolidating his empire. Egyptian army imder Nechao II, a prince of the twen- During the periotl of bloodshed which followed his ty-sixth dynasty, ambitious to restore to liis country death, Palestine was the bone of contention between an Asiatic empire. As a faithful vassal of Assyria, the the Syrian and Egyptian kings, often changed mas-

RaS SuFSAFEJi

The northern peak of Jebel Miisa {Mountain of Mosi the traditional site of the BibUcal Sinai

s),

their first concern in reaching it was to resume God's holy worship. Their per- severance in rearing the second Temple was finally crowned with success in 516 B.C., despite the bit- ter and prolonged opposition of the Samaritans. Their great leaders — not only the Prophets of the time (Zachary and Malachy), but also their local sec- ular heads (Nehe- mias and Esdras) — were religious re- formers, whose one purpose was to secure the people's fidelity to God's law and worship. They made

no attempt to set up a monarchy of their o^nti, and as long as the Persian Empire lasted they and their descendants gloried in their loyalty to its rulers. Within the Persian period falls the formation of the

pious King Josias (639-08 B. c.) marched out to arrest Pharaoh's progress. He was defeated and slain at Mageddo, and his kingtlom became an Egyptian de- pendency. This vassalage was indeed short-lived.

ters, and suffered oppression and misery at each change. As time went on, the welfare, moral and religious, of the Palestinian Jews was more and more seriously threatened by the influence of Hellenism,

The Chaldean Nabuchodonosor, on his victorious at first chiefly exercised by the Ptolemies from Alex- march to Egypt, invaded Juda for the first time, and andria as the centre (323-202 b. c), and later by Joakim (A. V. Jehoiakim) (608-597 B.C.), the eldest Antiochus III, the Great, of Syria, and his two suc- son and second successor of Josias, became a vassal of cessors, Seleucus IV and Antiochus Epiphanes, reign- Babylon in 60i b. c. Despite the advice of the Prophet ing at Antioch (202-l.'J b. c). Under this last- Jeremias, the Jewish king rebelled in 598. Next year, named Syrian prince, Ilellonism appeared to be on the newly enthroned king, Joachin (A. V. Jehoia- the point of stamping Judaism out of Palestine. The chin), was taken, with Jerusalem, and was carried high-priests of the time, who were the local riders of captive to Bal)ylon tiigclhcr withniany of hissubjects, Jerusalem, adopted Gn^-k names, and courted the among whoiin was the I'mphct Ezcchiel. In 588 b. c, king's favour by introducing or encouraging Hellenic JucLi rolx'llcd agiun under StMlccias (597-86 H. c), the practices among the inhabitants of the Holy City, third .son of Josias. In Jidy, 5S ii. c, the Holy City At length Antiochus himself resolved to transform eurrendered, and its blinded king and most of his people Jerusalem into a Greek city, and to destroy Judaism