C. toto) Solomon built his temple upon AIount Aloriah. By him and his fathcr Jerusalem had been made the imperial residence of the king of all Israel: and the temple, often called 'the house of Jehovah,' constituted it' at the zame time the residence of the King of Kings, thc supreme head of the theocratical state, whose vicegerents the human kings were taught' to regard them selves. It now belonged, even less than a town of the Levites, to a particular tribe: it was the center of all civil and religious affairs, the very place of which Moses spoke (Dcut. xii :5) : 'The place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thon shalt come' (comp. ix :6; xiv:23; xvi:t 1-'6; Ps. cxxii). (See Sol.omoN.) (5) Rehoboam. The importance and splendor of Jerusalem were considerably lessened after the death of Solomon; inider whose son, Rehoboam, ten of the tribes rebelled, Judah and Benjamin only remaining in their allegiance. Jeru,alein was then only the capital of thc very small state of Judah. And when Jeroboam instituted the worship of golden calves in Bethel and Dan, the ten tribes tvent no longer up to Jerusalem to wor ship and sacrifice in the house of the Lord (1 Kings xii :26-3o).
After this time thc history of Jerusalem is con tinued in the history of Judah, for which the second books of the Kings and of the Chronicles are the principal sources of information.
(6) The Rule of Different Kings. After the time of Solomon, the kingdom of Judah was al most alternately ruled by good kings, 'who did that which tvas right in the sight of the Lord.' and by such as were idolatrous and evil-disposed; and the reign of the same king often varied, and was by turns good or evil. The condition of the kingdom, and of Jerusalem in particular as its metropolis, was very much affected by these muta tions. Under good kings the city flourished, and under bad kings it suffered greatly.
(7) Destroyed by Shishak, and Restored. Under Rehoboam (B. C. 97o) it was conquered by Shishak, king of Egypt, who pillaged the treasures of the temple (2 Chron. xii:9). Under Arnaziah it was taken by Joash, king of Israel, who broke down four hundred cubits of the wall of the city, and took ill the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the temple (2 Kings xiv:13, 14). Uzzialt, son of Amazialt, who at first reigned well, built towers in Jerusalem at the corner-gate, at the valley-gate, and at the turning of the wall, and fortified them (2 Chron. xxvi:9). His son, Jotham, built the high gate of the temple, and reared up many other structures (2 Chron. xxvii: 3, 4)• (B. C. about 755.) (8) Hezekiah. Hezekiah (B. C. 728) added to the other honors of his reign that of an im prover of Jerusalem. His most eminent work in that character was the stopping of the upper course of Gihon, and bringing its waters by a subterraneous aqueduct to the west side of the city (2 Citron. xxxii :30). This work is inferred, from 2 Kings xx, to have been of great impor tance to Jerusalem, as it cut off a supply of water front any besieging enemy and bestowed it upon the inhabitants of the city. (See King, Recent Discoveries on the Te»zple Hezekiah's son, Manasseh, in his later and best years, built a strong and very high wall on the west side of Jerusalem (2 Chron. xxxiii :14). The works in the city connected with the natnes of the suc ceeding kings of Judah were, so far as recorded, confined to the defilement of the house of the Lord by bad kings, and its purgation by good kings, till about one hundred years after Manas seh, when, for the abounding iniquities of the na tion, the city and temple were abandoned to de struction.
(9) Nebuchadnezzar. After a siege of three years, Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, who razed its walls, and destroyed its temple and palaces with firc (2 Kings xxv; 2 Citron. xxxvi; Jer. xxxix). (B. C. 588.) Thus was Jerusalem smitten with the calamity which Moses had proph esied would befall it if the people would not keep the commandments of the Lord, but broke his covenant (Lev. xxvi:14; Deut. xxviii).
(10) Exile of Israel. The ten tribes forming the kingdom of Israel had been already upwards of one hundred and thirty years before trans ported to Assyria, when Judah also was exiled to Babylon. The castle of David, the temple of Solo mon, and the entire city, lay in ruins, and to all appearance there was an end of the people as well as of the holy city, which the Lord had chosen to himself. But God, before whom a thousand years are as one day, gave to the afflicted people a glimpse beyond the present calamity. and retribu tive judgment, into a distant futurity. The same prophets who foretold the destruction of Jeru salem also announced the consolidations of a com ing time.
Moses had long before predicted that if in the land of their captivity they repented of their evil, they should be brought back again to the land out of which they had been cast (Dent. xxx:1-5; comp. Kings viii :46-53 ; Neh. i :8, 9). The Lord also, through Isaiah, condcscended to point out the agency through which the restoration of the holy city was to be accomplished, and even named long before his birth the very person, Cy rus, under whose orders this was to be effected (Is. xliv :28; comp. Jer. :2, 7, 8; xxiii :3 ; xxxi: to; xxxii:36, 37). Among the remarkably pre cise indications should be mentioned that in which Jeremiah (xxv :9-12) limits the duration of Ju dah's captivity to seventy years. (See CAPTIV ITY.) (11) Daniel and Cyrus. These encourage ments were continued through the prophets, who themselves shared the captivity. Of this number was Daniel (Dan. ix:16, 19), who lived to see the reign of Cyrus, king of Persia (Dan. x:1),
and the fulfilment of his prayer. It was in the year B. C. 536, 'in the first year of Cyrus,' that in accomplishment of the prophecy of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of this prince, who made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, ex pressed in these remarkable words: 'The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel' (Ezra i:2, 3). This important call was answered by a considerable number of persons, particularly priests and Levites; and the many who declined to quit their houses and possessions in Babylonia, committed valuable gifts to the hands of their more zealous brethren. Cyrus also caused the sacred vessels of gold and silver which Nebuchad nezzar had taken from the temple to be restored to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah, who took them to Jerusalem followed by 42,36o people, be side their servants, of whom there were 7,337, (Ezra i (12) Rebuilding of the Temple. On their arrival at Jerusalem they contributed according to their ability to rebuild the temple; Jeshua, the priest, and Zerubbabel, reared up an altar to offer burnt-offerings thereon; and when in the follow ing year the foundation was laid of the new house of God, 'the people shouted for joy, but many of the Levites who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice' "(Ezra iii :2, 12). When the Samaritans expressed a wish to share in the pious labor, Zerubbabel declined the offer ; and in re venge the Samaritans sent a deputation to king Artaxerxes of Persia, carrying a presentment in which Jerusalem was described as a rebellious city of old time. which, if rebuilt, and its walls set up again, would not pay toll, tribute, and custom, and would thus endanger the public revenue. The deputation succeeded, and Artaxerxes ordered that the building of the temple should cease. The interruption thus caused lasted to the second year of the reign of Darius (Ezra iv:24), when Zerub babel and Jeshua, supported by the prophets Hag gai and Zechariah, again resumed the work, and would not cease though cautioned by the Persian governor of Juda. (B. C. 52o.) On the matter coming before Darius Hystaspis, and the Jews re minding him of the permission given by Cyrus, he decided in their favor, and also ordered that the expenses of the work should be defrayed out of thc public revenue (Ezra vi :8). In the sixth year of the reign of Darius the temple was fin ished, when they kcpt the Feast of Dedication with great joy, and next celebrated the Passover (Ezra vi :15, 16, 19). (B. C. 516.) (13) Artaxerxes II. Afterwards, in the sev enth year of the sccond Artaxerxes, Ezra, a de scendant of Aaron, came up to Jerusalem, accom panied by a large number of Jews who had re mained in Babylon. He was highly patronized by the king, who not only made him a large present in gold and silver, but published a decree enjoin ing all treasurers of Judaea speedily to do what ever Ezra should require of them; allowing him to collect money throughout the whole province of Babylon for the wants of the temple at Jerusa lem; and also giving him full power to appoint magistrates in his country to judge the people (Ezra vii-viii). At a later period, in the twen tieth year of King Artaxerxes,Nehemiah, who was his cupbearer, obtained permission to proceed to Jerusalem, and to complete the rebuilding of the city and its wall, which he happily accomplished, despite all the opposition which he received from the enemies of Israel (Neh. ii, iv, vi). (B. C. 446.) The city was then capacious and large, but the people in it were few, and many houses lay still in ruins (Neh. vii :4). At Jerusalem dwelt the rulers of the people and 'certain of the children of Judah and of the children of Benja min': but it was now determined that the rest of the people should cast lots to bring one of ten to the capital (Neh. xi:1-41. (B. C. about 44o.) All strangers, Samaritans, Ammonites, Moabites, etc., were removed, to keep the chosen people from pollution ; ministers were appointed to the tem ple, and the service was performed according to the law of Moses (Ezra x; Neh. viii, x, xii, xiii). Of the Jerusalem thus by such great and long continued exertions restored, very splendid prophecies were uttered by those prophets who flourished after the exile: the general purport of which was to describe the temple and city as destined to be glorified far beyond the former, by the advent of the long and eagerly expected Mes siah. 'the desire of all nations' (Zech. ix:9; xii: to; Hag. ii :6, 7). (See EZRA ; NEHEMIAH.) (14) Josephus and Alexander the Great. It is said by Josephus (Antiq. xi:8) that when the dominion of this part of the world passed from the Persians to the Greeks, Alexander the Great advanced against Jerusalem to punish it for the fidelity to the Persians which it had manifested while he was engaged in the siege of Tyre. His hostile purposes, however, were averted by the ap pearance of the high-priest Jaddua at the head of a train of priests in their sacred vestments. Alex ander recognized in him the figure which in a dream had encouraged him to undertake the con quest of Asia. He therefore treated him with respect and reverence, spared the city against which his wrath had been kindled, and granted to the Jews high and important privileges. The historian adds that the high-priest failed not to apprise the conqueror of those prophecies in Dan iel by which his successes had been predicted.