Page:The House of the Lord.djvu/58

42 and carried away part of the sacred treasures. Next, Jehoash, king of one part of the divided nation, took away gold and silver and sacred vessels from the House of the Lord and carried them into Samaria. It is thus shown that the desecration of the Temple was not effected wholly by the enemies of Israel; the people to whom the House had once been sacred contributed to its profanation. Ahaz, the wicked king of Judah, removed the altar from its place and substituted therefor another fashioned by his own order after the pattern of the altars of the heathen; moreover he took down the molten sea and dismantled the lavers. Mannasseh, another evil king who reigned in Judah, followed after Baal and set up idolatrous shrines within the very precincts of the Temple. The precious things of the House of the Lord were used as barter between kings. So, Asa king of Judah purchased the aid of Ben-hadad, to fight against Israel; so also did Jehoash purchase peace from Hazael king of Syria; and so did Hezekiah strip the House of the Lord for plunder wherewith to pay tribute to the Assyrians.

Some attempts were made to repair the worst of the ravages upon and within the Temple but it seemed that the House had been abandoned to its fate. In the year 586 B. C, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, completed the destruction of the Temple in connection with