Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/604

 590 HEBREWS of Lamentations contains touching elegies on this tragic end. Ezekiel too laments the disper- sion of his nation. Providence is arraigned by Habakkuk and Jeremiah, and also in the book of Job, a sublime lyrical drama, which numer- ous critics regard as a production of that time. A number of psalms, too, belong to the last period of the kingdom of Judah. But Baby- lonia, the prison of the Jewish nation (for this name had now become the most familiar), was destined also to become the cradle of its re- generation. The most eminent of the people had been transplanted there with Jeconiah, and afterward, among others, Ezekiel, Daniel, and his pious companions at the court of Nebu- chadnezzar, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah ; and their activity in reviving the spirit of re- ligion and nationality is evident from the nu- merous contributions to the Hebrew literature of that period, all glowing with enthusiasm and unconquered hope. The court, that source of corruption, was no more ; the priests of Baal and Moloch, so long fattened on lies, had disappeared with the altars of their idols ; the voluptuous groves of Ashtoreth could not be transplanted into the land of dreary captivity ; Zion was regretfully remembered, and the true admonishers of the people, who had predicted all this, now found more willing ears. Their consolations, too, and the deliverance which they promised, were soon to be confirmed ; and the captives, who were full of revengeful ha- tred toward their oppressor, the profligate and treacherous mistress of the world, heard with secret delight of the warlike preparations of the Medo-Persian empire against her. The last ruler of Babylon, Belshazzar, was drinking wine with his lords, his wives, and his concubines, from the golden and silver vessels of the tem- ple of Jerusalem, when " one messenger was running to meet another " to tell him " that his city was taken at one end " (538). The Persian conqueror did not disappoint those who had pre- dicted, and perhaps secretly promoted, his tri- umph. He allowed the Jews to return to their country, where they could be useful by forming a kind of outpost against Egypt, and to rebuild their capital and temple. The first and largest body of returning patriots consisted of more than 42,000 persons, under the lead of Zerub- babel, a prince of the house of David, and the high priest Jeshua. But the idolatrous Samari- tans, whom the Jews would not admit to have a share in the new temple, exerted themselves to prevent their rebuilding and fortifying Je- rusalem, calumniating them at the court of Persia, particularly under Cambyses (529-'22) and Pseudo-Smerdis (522). Darius, however, fully confirmed the permission of Cyrus (521). The prophets Haggai and Zechariah (assisted, perhaps, by Obadiah, who seems to have been their contemporary) inspired Zerubbabel, the griests, and the people with fresh zeal, and after ve years the new temple was completed (516). The events which are described in the book of Esther the elevation of the Jewess of that name (or Hadassah) to the dignity of Persian queen, the high official career of her relative Mordecai, the schemes of Haman, a courtier and personal enemy of the latter, to destroy all the Jews of the Persian empire, his fall, and the al- most miraculous escape of the people through Mordecai and Esther probably refer to the reign of Xerxes (486-'65), the son of Darius, though the name Ahasuerus is used in the Scrip- tures to designate various monarchs of the Persian empire. Under the following reign of Artaxerxes, Ezra, the pious scribe (or critic, sopher}, led a new colony of Jews from beyond the Euphrates to Jerusalem, where he carried through a series of important reforms, com- pleting the restoration of the Mosaic law, for which he was afterward revered as the second lawgiver of his people. The condition of the Jews in Palestine, however, or rather in Jeru- salem and its vicinity, was not cheering. The city had no walls or gates, and poverty pre- vailed. To remedy these evils Nehemiah, the Jewish cup-bearer of Artaxerxes, started from Susa with the permission of the monarch and the dignity of governor (445). The w r ork of restoring and fortifying Jerusalem was now carried on and executed with the utmost zeal, though the laborers were often obliged to work under arms, the Samaritans and their friends threatening an attack. Notwithstanding his dignity, Nehemiah voluntarily shared the toils and privations of his brethren. He restored order, assisted the poor, abolished the abuses of the rich, and strengthened the observance of the law. After a long absence at the royal court, during which fresh disorder had arisen, he resumed his pious and patriotic work, in which he was assisted by Malachi, the last of the known prophets. The enmity of the Samari- tans, though baffled in its first assaults, remained active down to a much later period, their sep- aration having been sanctioned by a rival tem- ple on Mount Gerizim. The Jewish temple on Mount Moriah had a successive line of hered- itary high priests in the direct descendants of Jeshua, of whom Jaddua held that most influ- ential office at the time of the conquest of the Persian empire by Alexander, whose wrath he is said to have diverted from Jerusalem (332). The names of the Persian governors during the last century of that empire are unknown, this being altogether the most obscure period in the history of the Jews. It seems to have been a time of comparative tranquillity and prosperity; at least it included no particular national disaster, as it added no day of fasting to those recently established in commemora- tion of the fall of Jerusalem, the death of Geda- liah, &c. But the same century, together with the time of Ezra, may certainly be regarded as the period of the most important religious de- velopments, of a permanent consolidation of Judaism. The first impulse had probably been given in Babylonia, during the active literary period of the captivity. But Ezra the sopher, his contemporaries Haggai, Zechariah, Nehe-