Palestine

Egypt and Babylon.

At this stage disturbances, now by Aramaean tribes, now by Arabia, combine with the new rise of Egypt and the weakness of Assyria to mark a turning-point in the world's history. Psammetichus (Psamtek) I. (663-609) with his Greeks, Carians, Ionians and soldiers from Palestine and Syria, established once more an Egyptian Empire, and replaced the loose relations between Palestine and the small dynasts of the Delta by a settled policy. The effort was made to re-establish the ancient supremacy over Palestine and Syria. The precise meaning of these changes for Palestinian history and life can only incom pletely be perceived, and even the significance of the great Scythian invasion and of the greater movements with which it connected is uncertain (see SCYTHIA). A weak Assyria was falling before the Chaldaean Nabopolassar, the founder of the Neo-Babylonian empire. Nineveh fell in 612 and the gov ernment removed to Harran. Necho of Egypt marched into Asia to help Assyria—though not unready to take advantage of her troubles. Josiah of Judah, in turn, was perhaps not without hopes of utilizing the situation. He was overthrown at Megiddo, where about nine centuries previously the victory of Thutmosis III. had made Egypt supreme over Palestine and Syria. But Egypt was at once confronted by Nabopolassar who, as the heir of Assyria, claimed the Mediterranean coast-lands. The defeat of Necho by his son Nebuchadrezzar at Carchemish (6o5) is one of the world-famous battles.

Although Syria and Palestine now became Babylonian, the revival of Egypt aroused hopes in Judah of deliverance and led to revolts (under Jehoiachin and Zedekiah), in which Judah was apparently not alone. They culminated in the fall of this kingdom in 586. Henceforth the history of Palestine is disconnected and fragmentary, and the few known events of political importance are isolated and can be supplemented only by inferences from the movements of Egypt, Philistia or Phoenicia, or from the Old Testament. The Babylonian Nabonidus (553) found it necessary to quell the coastlands ; and claims that all the kings from Gaza to the Euphrates assisted in his buildings. Chaldean policy gen erally appears to have been favourable towards faithful vassals. But a new age had now dawned in the east in the person of Cyrus the Great the leader of the Persians. After a series of successes he captured Babylonia (559), and forthwith claimed, in his famous inscription, the submission of Amor.

The Persian Empire.

The petty states of Palestine and Syria now became part of one of the largest empires of antiquity. The prophets who had marked in the past the advent of Assyrians and Chaldeans fixed their eyes upon the advance of Cyrus, con fident that the fall of Babylon would bring the restoration of their fortunes. Cyrus was hailed as the divinely appointed saviour, the anointed one of Yahweh. The poetic imagery in which the prophets clothed the doom of Babylon, like the ro mantic account of Herodotus (i. 191), falls short of the simple contemporary account of Cyrus himself. He did not fulfil the detailed predictions; nevertheless, if Cyrus was not a worshipper of Yahweh (Isa. xli. 25), he was tolerant towards subject races and their religions, and the Jews received marked favour.

Throughout the Persian age Palestine was naturally influenced by the course of events in Phoenicia and Egypt. Thus, when Cam byses, the son of Cyrus, made his great expedition against Egypt, with the fleets of Phoenicia and Cyprus, and with the camels of the Arabians, Palestine itself was doubtless involved. Also, the revolt which broke out in the Persian provinces at this junc ture may have extended to Palestine ; although the usurper Darius encountered his most serious opposition in the north and north-east of his empire. An outburst of Jewish religious feeling is dated in the second year of Darius (52o), but whether Judah was making a bold bid for independence or had received special favour for abstaining from the above revolts, external evidence alone can decide. Towards the close of the reign of Darius there was a fresh revolt in Egypt; it was quelled by Xerxes (485 465), who did not imitate the tolerance of his predecessors.

Under Artaxerxes I. Longimanus (465-425) flourished the Jew ish reformers Nehemiah and Ezra (see JEws). Revolts occurred in Egypt, and for these and also for the rebellion of the Persian satrap Megabyxus, independent evidence for the position of Judah is needed, since a catastrophe apparently befell the un fortunate state before Nehemiah appears upon the scene. Little is known of the mild and indolent Artaxerxes II. Mnemon (4o4 359). With the growing weakness of the Persian empire Egypt reasserted its independence for a time. In the reign of Artaxerxes III. Ochus (359-338), Egypt, Phoenicia and Cyprus were in revolt ; the rising was quelled without mercy, and the details of the vengeance are suggestive of the possible fate of Palestine itself. The Jewish historian Josephus (Ant. xi. 7) records the enslavement of the Jews, the pollution of the Temple by a cer tain Bagoses (see BAGOAS), and a seven years' punishment. Other late sources narrate the destruction of Jericho and a deportation of the Jews to Babylonia and to Hyrcania (on the Caspian Sea). The evidence for the catastrophes under Artaxerxes I. and III. (see ARTAXERXES), contained in biblical and in external tradition respectively, is of particular importance, since several biblical passages refer to disasters similar to those of 586 but presuppose different conditions and appear to be of later origin. The murder of Artaxerxes III. by Bagoses gave a set-back to the revival of the Persian Empire. Under Darius Codomannus (336-33o) the advancing Greek power brought matters to a head, and at the battle of Issus in 333 Alexander settled its fate. The overthrow of Tyre and Gaza secured the possession of the coast and the Jewish state entered upon the Greek period. Very gradually the face of history had been undergoing a complete change. The old empires of the Near East had practically ex hausted themselves. Egypt had resumed its earlier connections with the Levantine heirs of the old Aegean world. Once more the tide was to flow from the west to the east, and centuries were to pass before the oriental world reasserted itself in the rise of Christianity, the establishment of Rabbinical Judaism and the revival of oriental paganism.