Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/414

350 Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the heathen; and they polluted the house of the which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of the arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or ancient: he gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with

14. polluted the house] Jer. vii. 9—11, xxiii. 11—14; Ezek. viii. 5—16.

15. rising up early and sending] The words are absent from 1 Esdras i. 50, and are perhaps a late addition to Chron. derived from Jeremiah; cp. Jer. xxvi. 5. See note on ver. 5 above.

16. mocked the messengers] Jeremiah was imprisoned, beaten, and threatened with death, Urijah (Jer. xxvi. 20—23) was put to death. Of the fate of Habakkuk (who probably lived during the Chaldean period, Hab. i. 6) nothing is known.

17. Chaldeans] Their name in Hebrew is Casdim and in Assyrio-Babylonian Caldu (the change of "s" for "l" before a dental is not uncommon in the latter language). They were a people originally living south of Babylon on the sea, but Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadrezzar, conquered Babylon and established a Chaldeo-Babylonian Empire.

in the house of their sanctuary] Cp. Ezekiel's vision of the slaughter; Ezek. ix. 1—11.

18. all the vessels] i.e. all the vessels which remained after the previous spoliation (ver. 10). They were perhaps chiefly of brass; cp. 2 Kin. xxv. 13—15.

19. brake down the wall] The Heb. verb here used (nittēç) implies a more thorough breaking down than the pāraṣ of xxv. 23 (see note), xxvi. 6.