LECTURE XLII I.

HISTORY FROM THE CAPTIVITY TO THE ACCESSION OF ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES.

B. C. 588-175.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION. — KINGS OF BABYLON, NEBUCHADNEZZAR, EVILMERODACH, NERIGLISSOR, LABORASOARCHAD, BELSHAZZAR. CONDITION OF THE JEWS UNDER THESE MONARCHS. KINGS OF MEDIA, ARBACES, CYAXARES, ASTYAGES, DARIUS. CONQUEST OF BABYLON BY CYRUS. KINGS OF PERSIA, CAMBYSES, SMERDIS, DARIUS HYSTASPIS, XERXES I., ARTAXERXES LONGIMANUS, XERXES II., SOGDIANUS, DARIUS NOTHUS, ARTAXERXES MNEMON, OCHUS, DARIUS CODOMANUS. CONDITION OF THE JEWS UNDER THE PERSIAN RULE.GREEK CONQUESTS. VICTORIES OF ALEXANDER AT THE GRANICUS AND AT ISSUs. CONQUESTS OF SYRIA, PALESTINE, EGYPT, PERSIA, AND BABYLON. - DEATH OF ALEXANDER AT BABYLON. - PARTITION OF HIS EMPIRE. RELATIONS OF THE JEWS TO THE GOVERNMENTS OF MACEDONIA, ASIA MINOR, SYRIA, AND EGYPT. THEIR HISTORY BETWEEN THE AGE OF ALEXANDER AND THAT OF ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES ARRANGED UNDER THREE UNEQUAL PERIODS. SUCCESSION OF GREEK-EGYPTIAN AND GREEK-SYRIAN KINGS. SUCCESSION OF JEWISH HIGH-PRIESTS. EARLIEST RELATIONS OF THE JEWS TO ROME. ACCESSION OF ANTIOCHUS.

In order to a correct understanding of the later books of the Old Testament, it is important to have some clear view of the relations of the Jews to other nations. after the loss of their own political independence. To this end it is necessary to become acquainted with leading events in the history of the great empires of the world, as this history is recorded by the profane writers. The Jew Josephus, in his "Jewish Antiquities" and "Wars of the Jews," is one of the principal authorities relied on by moderns who have treated of the subject. Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Di

odorus Siculus, Hecatæus of Miletus, contemporary with Darius Hystaspis,* and Ctesias, of the age of Artaxerxes Mnemon, of whose treatise only some fragments remain, convey more or less information concerning the ancient empires which have left no literature of their own. Strabo, Cornelius Nepos, Quintus Curtius, Livy, Plutarch, Aulus Gellius, Pausanias, Arrian, Appian, Justin, Athenæus, Polybius, Ælian, Eusebius, and other writers, Pagan and Christian, furnish materials relating to the periods of Greek and Roman dominion.

The destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem by an order from Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to his general, Nebuzar-adan, took place in the year 588 before the Christian era, according to the vulgar reckoning of that epoch; which date corresponds with the year 387 from the revolt, or the separate existence of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, with the fourth year of the forty-seventh Olympiad, and with the year 162 from the foundation of Rome.

It will aid a recollection of the succession of events, to bear in mind the general statement, that, within the period now under notice, the Jews at first were successively the subjects of the three great empires of antiquity antecedent to the Roman, namely, the Chaldæan, Persian, and Greek; and that afterwards, when the latter empire was dismembered, they were, for the most part, under the dominion, now of the GreekEgyptian, and now of the Greek-Syrian monarchs, according as the changing fortune of long wars threw them into one or the other scale.

Five monarchs occupied the Chaldæan throne †

* Or, to speak more precisely, the work attributed to him, of which portions are preserved.

† See above, pp. 72, 143.

during the period of the subjection of the Jewish race to that empire; of whom, however, only the first and last reigned for a considerable time. Nebuchadnezzar, called by the Greeks Nebuchodonosor, reigned no less than forty-three years, twenty-six of which followed the destruction of Jerusalem. According to the current estimation of greatness, he was unquestionably one of the very great men of antiquity. His age lies sufficiently within the range of authentic history to prevent any doubt from resting on that question, after all allowance has been made for traditionary embellishments. From the condition of a small principality, lately emerged from that of a tributary province, he not only raised Babylon to be the mistress of a large portion of the Eastern continent, but pushed his victorious arms into Africa, humbling the rival power of Egypt; and even, according to credible accounts, penetrated to the Pillars of Hercules, at the extreme West, and back again through Spain to Thrace. In his old age he employed the vast wealth amassed in his military expeditions in erecting those temples, gardens, and other splendid monuments in and about his capital city, which made Babylon in after times. one of the wonders of the world.

His son Ilvarodamus, or Evil-merodach, as Scripture calls him, after reigning but two years, was as sassinated by his brother-in-law, Neriglissor, who is not named in Scripture, unless, as has been conjectured, he is the same with the courtier of Nebuchadnezzar, called Nergal-sharezer by Jeremiah.* He fell in battle with the Medes, after a reign of four years. His son and successor, Laborasoarchad, surviving him but a few months, was himself succeeded by Nabonned, the Belshazzar, or Balthasar, of the Book of Daniel.

* Jer. xxxix. 3.

He is believed to have been a conspirator and usurper, but of the royal blood. He reigned seventeen years, being slain at the taking of Babylon by Cyrus, in the year 540 B. C., as is expressly stated by Xenophon in the Cyropædia, as well as in the Book of Daniel. Xenophon says that he was an impious prince; * and from the account which Herodotus gives of the measures taken for the defence of the city by his mother Nitocris, he appears to have been but a cipher in the government. †

Of the condition of the Jews in the Babylonish territory, after their transportation, down to the close of the period which has been now surveyed, we have no important information from profane sources, additional to that which is occasionally presented in the prophetic and other books of the nation themselves, and which will come before us in its place, in the examina. tion of those books. The river Chebar, or Chaboras, to which it would appear that the first company of captives, consisting of about twenty thousand persons, was conveyed, was a branch of the Euphrates, emptying into it on the eastern side in latitude 34°; and in Mesopotamia, on the banks of this river, it is probable that the chief colony of Jews employed themselves in agricultural occupations. Their king, meanwhile, during the last part of his life, was in honorable imprisonment at the capital city, through the favor of Evil-merodach, son of his conqueror. § Of the his tory of Shealtiel, Jehoiachin's son and heir, we read nothing, except that he was father of Zerubbabel, || who is to appear before us hereafter in the character of restorer of the Jewish commonwealth.

* Cyropædia, Lib. VII. cap. 5, § 32.

† Herod., Lib. I. capp. 185, 186.

Comp. 2 Kings xxiv. 12-16 with Ezek. i. 1-3.

2 Kings xxv. 28, 29.

|| Ezra iii. 2.

The period in history at which we have arrived brings to our notice the two great kingdoms of Media and Persia, whose affairs now first connect themselves with those of the Jews. They lay at the east of Babylon and Assyria, the former to the north, the latter to the south, between the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea. The first king of Media mentioned in history is Arbaces, who is related to have overthrown the ancient empire of Babylon, then under the rule of Sardanapalus.† In the year 623 B. C., its army, allied with that of Babylon, made the conquest of modern Assyria, then under the sway of Saracus, and sacked its famous capital, Nineveh. The Median king at this time was Cyaxares the First, with whom it is commonly believed that Zoroaster was contemporary. ‡ Astyages, his son and successor, was father of Cyaxares the Second, called in Daniel, Darius the Mede, who succeeded him on the throne, and of Mandane, who, marrying Cambyses, king of Persia, according to Xenophon, or a noble of that country, according to Herodotus, gave birth to Cyrus the Great. The capital city of Media was Ecbatana.

Persia, otherwise called Elam, after the second son of Shem, as has been supposed, appears no otherwise, in the most ancient history, than as Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, is mentioned § as one of the alliance which disturbed the neighbours of Lot. In the reign of Neriglissor, king of Babylon, in the progress of a war between him and Cyaxares the Second, the Median

* See above, p. 72.

See above, pp. 71, 72.

According to others, he lived in the reign of Darius Hystaspis. See "L'Art de Vérifier les Dates," Tome II. p. 386. Comp. Lavoigne's "Atlas," No. 10.

§ Gen. xiv. 1.