THE REIGNS OF JOSIAH, JEHOAHAZ, JEHOIAKIM, JEHOIACHIN, AND ZEDEKIAH, AND THE END OF THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH.
JOSIAH was eight years old when he was made king. He reigned thirty-one years, and did what was right; for while he was yet a boy, he began to serve the Lord. He went out through all the land of Judah, and also among the people who were living in the land of Israel (for the ten tribes had been carried away captive before this time), and he made his servants destroy the altars of Baal wherever he found them, and tear down the images that were set up above the altars, and break them in pieces. Then he came back to Jerusalem, and set men at work to repair the temple where it had been allowed to go to decay; and the people brought money to the temple to pay for doing this.
And he sent one of his servants, saying, Go up to the high priest, and tell him to count the money which the people have brought, and let it be given to the carpenters, the builders, and the masons, who are at work repairing the temple. And the servant went and told the high priest, who did with the money as the king commanded. Then the high priest said to the servant, I have found in the temple the book of the law.
In the old times people did not know how to print as we do now. Instead of printing, they wrote with pen and ink, on long rolls of paper, or parchment. These rolls were called books. We have read that Moses before he died, wrote down in a book the laws which God had given him; and he commanded, that once in seven years those laws should be read out loud to all the people. But the wicked kings and people of Judah had not cared to hear God's laws, and had neglected the book until it was lost and forgotten, and Josiah had never seen it. But now, while the temple was being repaired, the high priest found it again. And he gave it to the king's servant, who took it to Josiah and said, The high priest has given me a book. And he read it to the king.
When king Josiah heard his servant read the words of the law, and heard him read also of the punishments which the Lord said he would send on the people for not obeying that law, he rent his clothes and wept. And he spoke to the high priest, saying, Go, and ask for me, what the Lord will do to us; for he is very angry, because our fathers have not obeyed the commands that are written in the book. Then the high priest went to a woman named Huldah, who was a prophetess, and asked her for the king. She answered, The Lord says, I will send upon Jerusalem and upon the people who live there, all the punishments that are written in the book, because they have turned away from serving me, and gone to serve other gods. But as for king Josiah, who sent you, go and say to him, Thus saith the Lord, Because thou wast grieved for the sins of the people, and didst humble thyself and weep before me, I will not send those punishments in thy days, and thou shalt not see all the evil that is coming upon Jerusalem. So the high priest came back and told king Josiah what the prophetess said.
Then Josiah sent and gathered the priests, the Levites, and all the people together, and went up to the temple, and he read to them the words that were written in the book which the high priest had found. And the king stood up by a pillar and made a covenant with the Lord, and promised to obey his commandments with all his heart and with all his soul. And he caused the people to promise that they, too, would obey them.
The wicked kings of Judah who lived before Josiah, had made spoons and forks and vessels, to be used in offering up sacrifices to Baal, and they had taken these things, into the temple. They had set up an idol also, in the court of the temple, and appointed men as priests, to burn incense to it, and burnt offerings. But now Josiah put down these priests and would have them no more; and he sent the priests of the Lord to bring out from the temple, all the vessels that had been used in worshipping Baal, and the image that had been set up there; and he took the image and the vessels, outside of the city, and burnt them. And Josiah punished, or sent out of the land, all those persons who talked with familiar spirits. He sent men also to the valley of Hinnom, where the people used to make their children pass through the fire before the idol Molech, and he defiled, or spoiled, the valley, so that they should not use it in this way again.
And Josiah went to Bethel, where Jeroboam, the king of Israel, had set up one of the golden calves which he made for the people of the ten tribes to worship. We have read how Jeroboam was burning incense on an altar to his idol, when a prophet came there and told him that a king should be born in Judah, named Josiah, who would burn men's bones on that altar, to defile it, and make it unclean. It had been more than three hundred years since the prophet spoke those words. Jeroboam had long since been dead, and the people of the ten tribes had been carried away captive; yet now the prophet's words came true. For Josiah went to Bethel to break down the idol's altar, which was still there, and as he turned around, he saw sepulchres in the mountain near that place. And he sent and took men's bones out of the sepulchres and burned them on the altar.
We have read how Hezekiah, while he was king, sent for the people to come to Jerusalem and keep the feast of the passover, Which they had not kept for many years. Yet after Hezekiah died, the people again neglected to keep it. But now Josiah called them to Jerusalem to keep that feast. And he gave them, out of his own flocks, thirty thousand lambs and kids, and three thousand bullocks, that they all might have sacrifices to offer. But, although they obeyed the command of the king, and came to keep the feast, the people did not love God, nor truly worship him; for in their hearts they still believed in their idols.
And God sent Jeremiah, the prophet, who spoke to them, saying, Thus saith the Lord, What evil have I done, that you have left me and gone to serve idols? I brought you into a good land that you might eat of its fruits and be happy there. But when you came into it, you did wickedly. Yet, if you will obey me I will forgive you, and will keep back the punishments which are coming upon you. But the people would not hear what the prophet said to them. No man repented of his evil acts. They all went on in their wickedness, and sinned more and more. And while Jeremiah was speaking to them, they said one to another, Let us kill him. But God saved him out of their hands.
After these things, the king of Egypt came up with his army into the land of Israel, and Josiah went out against him. And the king of Egypt sent word that he had not come to fight with Josiah, but was going to make war against the king of Assyria, and he told Josiah to let him alone. But Josiah would not turn back; he took off his own garments and put on others, that no one might know him, and went into the battle. And the archers of the king of Egypt shot their arrows at him and struck him; then he said to his servants, Take me out of the battle, for I am sore wounded. And they took him out of his chariot and put him into another that was near, but he died; and they brought him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in the sepulchre of the kings. And all the people mourned for him; and they made Jehoahaz, his son, king over Judah.
Jehoahaz was twenty-two years old when he was made king, and he reigned but three months. He did not do right as his father had done, neither did the people obey God. And Pharaoh, king of Egypt, came up against them; he took Jehoahaz and bound him with fetters, and carried him away to Egypt; there he kept him until he died. And Pharaoh made Jehoiakim, the brother of Jehoahaz, king in his place. But he forced Jehoiakim, and the people of Judah. to pay him a great sum of money—a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. After Pharaoh had gone, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against Judah, and Jehoiakim was not able to fight against him, so he promised to obey him and be his servant. And Nebuchadnezzar took some of the sacred vessels out of the temple, and carried them to Babylon, and put them in the house of his idol there.
In the fourth year that Jehoiakim was king, the Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah and commanded him to write down in a book all the punishments that were coming on the children of Israel. For the Lord said, that when the people should hear of those punishments, perhaps they would repent, so that he might, even yet, forgive them. And Jeremiah called to him a man named Baruch, who was a scribe, or writer; and Baruch wrote down the words as Jeremiah eee spoke them. Afterward Jeremiah told him to go and
read them to the people. Then Baruch took the book up to the temple and read it, where all the people could hear.
And the princes who sat in the king's palace, heard of the book, and sent for Baruch to come and read it to them. So he took the roll in his hand and went to them. And they said to him, Sit down now and read it to us. When they heard all the things that the Lord had spoken against the children of Israel, and of the punishments that he was going to send upon them, they were afraid, and said, Tell us now how didst thou write these words? Baruch answered, Jeremiah spoke them to me with his mouth, and I wrote them down with ink in the book. Then the princes said to Baruch, We will tell the king. But go and hide, thou and Jeremiah, and let no man know where you are, lest the king be angry with you and seek to harm you.
So they told king Jehoiakim of the book, and he sent his servant to bring it. And his servant brought it, and read it before the king, and before all the princes who stood beside him. Now the king sat by the fire that was burning on the hearth, for it was winter. And as soon as his servant had read three or four leaves of the book, the king took his penknife and cut them out, and threw them into the fire; so he did till all the book was burned. Some of the princes who were with him begged him not to burn it, but he would not listen to them; neither was he troubled, nor afraid, when he heard of all the evil that was coming upon the people for their sins. Yet he was angry at Jeremiah and Baruch for writing the book, and sent his servants to take them, but the Lord hid them from him.
Then the Lord commanded Jeremiah to take another roll and write in it all the words that were written in the one which the king had burned. And Jeremiah took another roll and gave it to Baruch, and repeated to him the words that had been written in the first roll, and beside these, many more that the Lord spoke to him. But the people hated Jeremiah for telling them of their sins, and he complained to the Lord, saying, Though I have done them no evil, yet every one of them doth curse me. Then the Lord promised that when the enemies of Jerusalem should come to take the city, they should not harm Jeremiah: Truly, the Lord said, I will cause them to treat thee kindly.
Jehoiakim reigned eleven years, and he died, and Jehoiachin, his son, was made king in his place.
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he was made king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. Then Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against him, as he had come up against his father. And Jehoiachin promised to obey him. Then Nebuchadnezzar went into the temple, as he did before, and carried out more of the vessels of gold which Solomon made, and he cut them in pieces; he came also into the king's palace and took away the treasures that were there. And he took king Jehoiachin, his mother, his wives, and the princes of Judah; also the builders, the smiths, and the carpenters, and all the strong and brave soldiers that were in Jerusalem, and carried them to Babylon.
After they had gone to Babylon, the prophet Jeremiah wrote a letter to them, telling them to build houses, and plant gardens, and be contented in that land, because the Lord said they should stay there and serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. But when the seventy years were ended, and they should repent of their sins and pray to be forgiven, then, Jeremiah said, the Lord would bring them back to their own land again.
As for the people who were still left in the land of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar made Zedekiah, the brother of Jehoiakim, king over them. But Zedekiah was the servant of the king of Babylon, and had to promise before the Lord that he would obey him. Yet, after Nebuchadnezzar had gone back to Babylon, Zedekiah rebelled against him; the priests and the people of Judah, also, did wickedly. Then Nebuchadnezzar came up again with all the army of the Chaldeans, and made forts around Jerusalem, from which they shot darts and arrows at the men of Judah, who were on the walls and towers of the city; and Jerusalem was besieged, so that no one could go out or come in.
Now Jeremiah, the prophet, was shut up in Jerusalem with the rest of the people. And king Zedekiah, because he was afraid of the Chaldeans, sent word to him, asking him to pray to God that Jerusalem might be saved. But the Lord commanded Jeremiah to tell the king, that the Chaldeans should certainly take the city and burn it with fire. Yet, Jeremiah said, if the people would bear the punishment which the Lord was sending upon them, and would go out to the king of Babylon and be his servants, without fighting any more against him, they should not be put to death. Whoever would go out should be saved alive, but whoever stayed in the city, should be killed by the sword, the famine, or the pestilence. For the Lord said that Jerusalem should be taken by the King of Babylon, and he should burn it with fire, because the Lord would punish the people for their sins.
But some of the princes of Judah came to King Zedekiah, and said, We pray thee let Jeremiah be put to death, for he makes the people afraid, because he says the Lord will send famine and pestilence upon us, and will give the city to the king of Babylon. And the king told the princes they might do with Jeremiah as they chose. Then they took him and let him down with cords into a deep pit, or dungeon, that was in the prison; at the bottom of the dungeon was mire, so Jeremiah sank in the mire.
But one of the officers at the king's palace, when he heard what had been done, went to the king, and said, My lord the king, these men have done wickedly in putting Jeremiah into the dungeon, for he may die there of hunger. Then the king commanded the officer, saying, Take thirty men with thee, and bring Jeremiah out of the dungeon, that he die not. So the officer took men, and they carried with them some pieces of old clothes and rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah. And the officer called to him, saying, Put now these pieces of clothes and rags under thy arms, that the cords may not hurt thee. Jeremiah did as the officer said, and they drew him up by the cords out of the dungeon. Yet they did not set him free, for he was still kept in another part of the prison.
Then king Zedekiah sent to Jeremiah again, after he had been taken up out of the dungeon, and he brought him into the entry of the temple, where he might talk with him secretly. And the king said to him, I will ask thee a question; do not hide the answer from me. Jeremiah answered, If I tell thee, wilt thou promise not to put me to death? The king said, As surely as the Lord liveth I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee to the men who want to kill thee.
Then Jeremiah answered, saying, Thus saith the Lord, If thou wilt go out to the king of Babylon and be his servant, thou and thy family shall be saved alive and this city shall not be burned. The king said, I am afraid if I shall go out to the Chaldeans, that they will give me back to some of the Jews (that is, some of the men of Judah) who are against me, and that the Jews will treat me cruelly. Jeremiah answered, The Chaldeans shall not give thee back to them. Do not be afraid, but obey, I beseech thee, the command of the Lord, so that it may be well with thee, and thou shalt be saved alive. But if thou refuse to go out to the king of Babylon, thy wives and thy children shall be given to the Chaldeans, and thou thyself shalt not escape from them, and this city also shall be burned with fire.
But king Zedekiah would not obey the command of the Lord, and go out to the king of Babylon. Therefore the Chaldeans fought against Jerusalem, and after they had besieged it for eighteen months the bread was all gone in the city; there was no more left for the people to eat. And in the night Zedekiah fled out of the city with his army. But the Chaldeans followed after him and caught him, and brought him to the king of Babylon. Then that cruel king killed Zedekiah's two sons before his eyes: after he had done this he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him with chains and carried him to Babylon. There he kept him in prison till he died.
And the captain of Nebuchadnezzar's army burnt the temple at Jerusalem, and the palace of the king, and the houses of the people, and broke down the walls all around the city. He carried away to Babylon the two pillars of brass, which Solomon had made to stand before the temple, and the sea of brass that stood on the backs of twelve oxen in the court of the temple, and whatever vessels of gold and silver were still left there. And the people of Jerusalem who were not slain, he carried away captive, except some of the poor of the land, whom he left to work in the fields and vineyards. Over these Nebuchadnezzar set Gedaliah to be their governor.
So the kingdom of Judah was ended, as the kingdom of Israel had been, on account of the sins of the people. It had lasted three hundred and eighty-eight years, ever since Rehoboam was made king over the tribes of Judah and Benjamin; nineteen kings and one queen had ruled over the people during that time; of these, we are told, that fifteen did wickedly and five served the Lord. But even while they had good kings, the people worshipped idols. And though the Lord waited long, and gave them time to repent, and sent his prophets to warn and persuade them, they would not obey him and cease doing evil. Therefore, at last, he sent the people of Judah, as he had before sent the people of Israel, out of the land of Canaan.