the city, "took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in Jerusalem, and repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon. He could not, however, remedy the effects of his own early bad example. "The people sacrificed still in the highplaces, but unto the Lord only. After a long but disastrous reign of fifty-five years, "he slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house." The happy scene of his father's reign was thus quickly overcast with heavy clouds; and though his repentance seems sincere, yet we may see how little a late repentance can atone for an early crime, and how little in itself it stays the progress of God's justice. He did much evil, though we may hope that he died a good man.

Amon succeeded his father at the age of twenty-two. "He also did that which was evil, as his father Manasseh did, and served and worshipped the idols that his father served, and forsook the Lord God of his fathers." He did not, however, follow his father in his good days. "He did not humble himself as his father did." After a reign of two years, of which we hear nothing, "he was slain by his servants in his own house." The people, however, revenged the murder of the king, and slew those "who had conspired against Amon," "and made Josiah his son king in his stead."

SECTION XIX.

JOSIAH'S REIGN-THE FINDING OF THE COPY OF THE LAW-JOSIAH'S REFORMATION -JEHOAHAZ AND JEHOIAKIM-THE FIRST REMOVAL OF THE PEOPLE TO BABYLON —JEHOIAKIM-THE SECOND REMOVAL TO BABYLON-ZEDEKIAH, THE LAST KING OF JUDAH-THE CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM.

JOSIAH was only eight years of age when he was placed upon the throne. But the change was a happy one for the kingdom. From the first he was well inclined. "He did that which was right," followed the steps of David, "and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left." In his sixteenth year he began to show more clearly his disposition, and in the twentieth he commenced the work which characterized his reign. Judah and Jerusalem were again purged of the high-places, the altars of Baalim were broken down, and the images and groves cut down, and the molten images ground to "dust and sown upon the graves of those who had sacrificed to them." The bones of the priests were burnt upon the altars. Not content with cleansing Judah and Jerusalem, he went also and did the same in the cities which had belonged to Israel.

In the eighteenth year of his reign, and twenty-sixth of his age, he began to repair the house of the Lord his God. According to the king's commandment, the officers over the treasury

went to Hilkiah the priest, and took the sum of the money which the people had offered, "and gave it to the workmen who had the oversight of the house of the Lord." The men did the work faithfully and honestly.

In the course of this pious work, Hilkiah the high-priest found "a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses," which seems to imply that it was the original copy as written by Moses himself. When this was read to the king, it produced the greatest consternation. Whether he was entirely ignorant of the law previously, which is scarcely probable, or whether the denunciations against the sins of the land, coming from that venerable and authoritative copy, may have produced convictions of sin which other copies had failed to produce; in whatever way we may account for it, the reading of this book alarmed even this pious king with the sense of his sin, and the fearful sins and dangers of the kingdom.

In his alarm, Josiah sent his servants with Hilkiah, "to inquire of the Lord for them that are left in Israel and Judah." They went "to Huldah the prophetess," with the message of the king. Her answer assured him that the wrath which he feared should surely come. "Thus saith the Lord, I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book" of the law: "Because they have forsaken me and have burned incense unto other gods, therefore my wrath shall be poured upon this place, and shall not be quenched." The piety of Josiah was not, however, left unrewarded. His repentance, and humility, and prayers, gained for him the sentence that he should "be gathered to the grave in peace, and his eye should not see all the evil" that was to come upon Jerusalem.

Upon receiving this answer from the prophetess, the king immediately "gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, and went up to the temple, with the priests and prophets, and all the people, both small and great," and read the book of the law in their hearing. "And he stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord, to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all their heart, and with all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were writen in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant."

Having thus in their hearts returned to God, they at once carried out a thorough reformation throughout the land. The temple was cleansed of its remaining pollutions; the images and altars of Baal were everywhere destroyed; all the idolatrous priests were put down; the high-places, where they had burned incense, were defiled. Moreover, the king, in person, went to Bethel, brake down the altar and grove, took the bones of the

idolatrous priests "and burned them upon the altar, according to the word of the Lord," which he spake by the man of God to Jeroboam. As he had done in Bethel, so he did throughout Samaria-breaking down the altars, slaying the idolatrous priests, and polluting their places of worship with the bones of men. All the workers with familiar spirits were banished.

When this was done, and the king had returned to Jerusalem, he prepared to celebrate the passover. Placing the priests in their charges, and the Levites in their courses, according to the writing of David, he commanded to kill the passover, and sanctify themselves "according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses." Josiah, and the princes and the priests, gave willingly to the people victims for the passover and offerings. Every thing was done carefully, and strictly in accordance with the institution given by Moses. The singers, also, were present. In its conformity with the Mosaic institution, and perhaps in its magnificence, "there was not holden such a passover from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept."

But all this availed not to avert the calamities which were now threatening them. The hour of God's mercy had passed, for "the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him."

The time for that removal which had been promised Josiah was now at hand. His kingdom was probably tributary to Assyria or Chaldea; and when Pharaoh-nechoh went up against Assyria, Josiah came out to meet him. Pharaoh sent ambassadors to persuade the king of Judah not to fight; urging that he was in haste to execute the commands of God. "But Josiah would not turn his face from him." The battle was fought in the valley of Megiddo, and the king of Judah was wounded in the fight. His servants took him from his war-chariot, and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died, after a reign of thirtyone years. No king so "followed the Lord with all his heart" as Josiah. No king was more sincerely lamented by his people. By the good, he was universally mourned. The prophet Jeremiah composed an elegiac ode to his memory, which was long preserved among the people.* He did what he could to stay the progress of the destruction fast coming upon his kingdom; and though his efforts were vain, he was yet kindly taken away from the evil which was approaching.

Josiah fell in battle, and did not appoint his successor. The

* This prophet commenced his prophecy in the thirteenth year of Josiah. From the general strain of his prophecy, we may infer that in the midst of the external reformation under Josiah, the mass of the people were still corrupt. Subsequent history proves this.

people therefore took (Shallum) Jehoahaz his son, and anointed him king. He did that which was evil, (notwithstanding his father's example) and reigned but three months. It seems strange, that in this short time he could so have corrupted himself, as to deserve this bad character. But there are no limits to the evil heart, aside from the grace of God. At the end of three months Pharaoh returned from a successful expedition, took Jehoahaz captive, placed his elder brother (Eliakim) Jehoiakim on the throne, and laid the land under a heavy tribute.

Jehoiakim was compelled to tax the people, in order to raise the tribute money for Pharaoh. He also, like his brother, did evil in the sight of the Lord. It is plain now that many of the royal household could not have partaken in the revival of pure religion under Josiah. The hearts of these sons remained untouched. We hear little of the first year of his reign, but from hints in the prophecy of Jeremiah, we may gather that he was oppressive to the people, and the determined enemy of the prophets. In the third year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against him and took him captive, with the design of removing him to Babylon; but afterwards restored him to the throne. Some of the vessels of the temple, and a number of the people, among whom was Daniel, were at this time carried to Babylon. In the following year the Egyptians were defeated on the banks of the Euphrates. (Jer. xlvi. 2.) In the same year Jeremiah caused a collection of his prophecies to be made, and to be publicly read in the temple. Jehoiakim sent for it, to hear what it contained. Displeased with its bold reproofs, he took the leaves as they were read and cast them into the fire. Upon this a new roll was made, to which were added heavier denunciations still. But all this had no effect upon the king.

After three years he threw off the yoke of the Chaldeans, in the face of the earnest remonstrances of Jeremiah. For this he lost his throne. The armies of the Chaldeans soon came, and took possession of Jerusalem. Jehoiakim was slain, and his body left without burial, as Jeremiah had foretold. He reigned eleven years. The king of Babylon placed his son Jehoiachin on the throne; but soon afterwards returned and besieged Jerusalem. When Nebuchadnezzar appeared before the city, Jehoiachin immediately went out and surrendered, with all his family and the whole court. He was carried to Babylon, with all his household, princes, artificers, craftsmen, and smiths, to the number of ten, or perhaps eighteen thousand men. With these there were taken also the royal treasures, the treasures of the temple, and the vessels of the temple, which Solomon had made. Little was left now but the mere form of nationality. Still it was not now Nebuchadnezzar's

purpose to destroy Jerusalem. Accordingly he placed (Mattaniah) Zedekiah, the youngest son of Josiah, upon the throne. Jehoiachin, as we afterwards learn, was held as a captive until Nebuchadnezzar's death, when he was taken from prison, and made to sit at the king's table, "and his throne was placed above the thrones of all the captive kings at Babylon."

Zedekiah was but twenty-one when he began to reign. He followed in the footsteps of his father, and, as a consequence, was left of God without support in his afflictions. He followed the advice of his nobles, rather than that of Jeremiah. In the fourth year of his reign (Jer. li. 59) he went to Babylon, and returned. In the face of the most solemn oath, he rebelled against the king of Babylon, (probably about the ninth year of his reign,) and made alliance with Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar soon came to punish his faithless vassal. In the ninth year and the tenth month, he laid siege to Jerusalem. For a year and a half it resisted the whole force of the Chaldeans. While the siege was going forward, the king of Egypt came and interrupted the progress of the Chaldean arms. In these moments of respite, Zedekiah sent to Jeremiah to inquire what would be the fate of the war, and to ask his prayers for success. Jeremiah replied that the Chaldeans should return and capture the city. When the prophet attempted to pass from the city, to the land of his inheritance, he was arrested, under the pretence that he was about deserting to the enemy, and cast into prison. For a time he was cruelly treated; afterwards he was placed in the court of the prison, but at last, at the instigation of the nobles, cast into a loathsome dungeon, from which he was taken at the request of Ebed-melech, one of the king's servants.*

As Jeremiah foretold, the Chaldeans returned; and in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, and the fourth month, the city was broken up, and the men of war fied. It was only by the closest blockade that this result was secured. Zedekiah was pursued and overtaken at Jericho, and brought to Nebuchadnezzar, who was then at Riblah. By the command of the Babylonian king, his sons were inhumanly slain before his eyes, and his eyes then put out, and the miserable king, loaded with irons, was borne to Babylon.

In the following month, Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, came to Jerusalem, burnt the temple, the royal palace, all the houses of the nobles, and brake down the walls. The brazen pillars, and all the vessels of the temple which remained, were now carried to Babylon. The officers of Zedekiah were taken

The prophetic writings of Jeremiah, while they do not contain so many historical statements, are yet so connected with the history, that we must read them in connection with these latter reigns, if we wish to gain any correct view of the moral state of the nation.