(2) With Ahaz, however, other foreign elements appear (B. C. 735-715). The horrible rite of hu man sacrifice is enforced by royal example, and an altar of foreign fashion is introduced into the temple (2 Kings xvi:1-4, 10-18). The custom of humin sacrifice seems not to have been unknown in earlier periods (Gen. xxii: Judg. xi:3o,31; R. V., margin), and was practiced among neighbor ing nations, the Israelites sharing in the opinion that it was effective (2 Kings iii:27). It also made its appearance in the northern kingdom, probably under the influence of the worship of Baal (2 Kings xvii :t7). But at Jerusalem and in the royal family the practice is suggestive of the inroad of heathen ideas. With Hezekiah (B. C. 715-686) a new era of reform was ushered in, suggested, no doubt, by the preaching of the prophets Isaiah and Micah. The obelisks and images were thrown and the brazen serpent, now become an object of veneration, was destroyed (2 Kings xviii:t-5). Hezekiah is reported to have abolished the high places as well, though these had remained undisturbed and seemingly approved through all the past, including the most strenuous periods of reform (t Kings xv:t4; xxii :43; 2 Kings xii :3; xv :4, 35..; xvi :4). It was (,nly later writers occu pying the standpoint of the ;:itv of Josiah's time, who disapproved of the country sanctuaries. Per haps their eyil effects had begun already to mani fest themselves to the prophets.
(3) The work of Isaiah and Micah brings a new influence to bear on the life of Judah. The former belonged to the higher circles in Jerusalem, and for forty years (B. C. 737-701) was prominent in the religious and political life of the people. Micah, as a countryman, was not so closely identi fied with the life of the court. -With these preach ers prophecy reaches its highest level, as an effort to save the nation from the consequences of its misdeeds. The picture of the times is graphic. Foreign relations have caused the bringing in of manners and customs unsuitable for the people of God. Jerusalem is full of luxury and idols (Is. ii :5-11). Monopolists, skeptics, perverters, and corrupt judges abound (v :8-24). The images to which the prophet refers, not so much in wrath as in contempt, seem not to have been the repre sentations of other deities, but the means by which the worship of faliveh was reduced to a mere superstition. The service of the temple was kept up carefully, but it could not be accepted as a substitute for righteousness (Is. i :to-i7). The vision by which Isaiah had been called to his prophetic work (Is. vi) gave him the keynote of his message—the holiness of God. Jahvell is for him henceforth the "Holy One of Israel," not in the later sense of tnere ceremonial separation, but of moral purity and spiritual grandeur. The rising power of Assyria, he predicted, would be permitted to come against Judah as a chastise ment of her offenses. The Assyrian king, as an instrument of God, would be used to humble the pride of the nation and bring it to repentance (x :5 sq.; v :26-3o). Throughout the period of As syrian activity in the western lands, the prophet made his sermons revolve about the one theme of judgment, emphasizing the four points—the people have sinned, they shall be punished, a good remnant shall remain, and the future will be prosperous and glorious under Messianic rule (viii :19-22 ; Xi :I ; xii :6). The character of God was disclosed by the preaching of Isaiah as never before. What he felt and saw of the divine life he gave to the nation, and it be came an inestimably precious spiritual inheritance for the future. The long reign of Manasseh (B. C. 686-641) was a time of disheartening reaction. The king was the patron of every foreign religious fad. Altars were erected for Baal and Astarte, the Babylonian planet worship was brought in and even given a place in the temple, bronze horses and chariots in honor of the sun were set up, and every form of divination was encouraged; the king himself offered his son in sacrifice, and a bitter persecution of the faithful began (2 Kings xxi:1-76). In such a period little could be done, and prophecy was silent. The inroad of the Scythians through the coast-lands (B. C. 627) gave occasion for the denunciation by Zephaniah of more terrible judgments to come.
(4) Presently Josiah (B. C. 639-6°9) came to the throne, and gave promise of better things. (See JostAH.) The work of repairing the temple was undertaken, and during the process discovery was made of a book of law. This code is now recog nized to have been the Deuteronomic law, which, based upon the Book of the Covenant, had gradu ally grown up in the period of the kingship, and being put into final form by some priest or priests, and perhaps also prophets, was laid away until the dark days, which the reigns of Manasseh and Amon brought, should pass away. The most
radical element in the new code was the centrali zation of worship at Jerusalem. Idolatry in its worst forms was creeping in. Isaiah had only alluded to idols with the contempt of one who saw in them a minor source of evil as compared with the prevailing immorality and corruption of hi., day. But the days of Manasseh had revealed the full horror of the worship of false gods, and the reformers set themselves to meet the evil. The temple could easily be controlled with a pious king on the throne. (See MANAssen.) Even the desecrations introduced by Manasseh could be re moved and forgotten. But the local sanctuaries throughout the land, which had hitherto been viewed as quite legitimate, were less easily super vised, and had shown themselves to bc the ele ments of danger. The remedy was drastic. The local sanctuaries,"with all their ancestral memor ies, were abolished at a stroke, and the temple alone made the center of all religious service (Deut. xii :1-28). Other portions of the code that appear to hint especially at existing conditions were those referring to pillars and obelisks (xvi: 21 sq.), the "host of heaven" (xvii :2-7), Moloch worship (xviii :to), and religious prostitution (xxiii:17 sq.). (See PROSTITUTION, SACRED.) Laws already uttered in the legislation of the Mo saic age, others growing out of traditions concern ing the great lawgiver and his work,and still others recent and dealing with the present situation, were included in the collection, and were set into a framework of Mosaic exhortation. The effect of this discovery could be nothing less than startling to a man of Josiah's nature (2 Kings xxii The work of reformation into conformity with the new law was begun at once, and in this thorough going process (2 Kings xxiii) he was ably as sisted by the priests, to whose order Jeremiah, the great prophet of Judah's decline and fall, belonged (Jer. i :I). (See JEREMIAH.) If Josiah could have lived till his reforms were thoroughly under stood and established, the sequel might have been different. But his untimely death in a needless battle left the reforming party without assistance, filled the questioning with doubt, and gave the ad vocates of the old regime a strength that the better leaders of the nation could not overcome. The end came on apace. Jeremiah, the saddest of the prophets, faced the coming darkness, and gave the people the only divine message that could come in such an hour : "Too late! The nation must die that it may be reborn. Captivity in Babylon is inevitable." (7) The Exile. (I) In B. C. 597 Nebuchadrez zar, king of Babylon, came westward and laid siege to Jerusalem. Jehoiachin, the king, a grand son of Josiah, gave himself into the hand of the Babylonian, who took him, together with some ten thousand captives from the better classes of Jerusalem, and, plundering the treasures of the palace and the temple, returned with the spoil, leaving Zedekiah (B. C. 597-586), a son of Josiah, on the throne. In the ninth year of his reign, Ne buchadrezzar returned and beseiged the city, re ducing it at last and destroying the temple, and ended the existence of the city for half a century, taking another company of the people to Babylon. A wretched remnant was left in the land, and a company of refugees made their way into Egypt, taking with them the unwilling Jeremiah. During these eventful years, he had stood constantly as the champion of God and righteousness in the midst of a vicious court and a worldly people, and more than once his life had been in danger. There is a deep pathos in the life and writings of this prophet, whose unhappy lot it was to be placed at a time when the tide of disaster could not be turned, and only the experiences of the exile could avail. His life came to its close among the refugees in Egypt. Among the exiles who went out to Babylonia in the first deportation was a young man named Ezekiel, a priest. (See EZEKIEL.) He was taken to Tel-Abib, on the me; Chebar, where presently the divine call came to him to be the mouthpiece of .1 allveh among his brethren (Ezek. :3). Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel express the conviction that no other prophets of the true faith arc to be found, though both in Jerusalem and Babylon the professional prophets were numerous (Jer. xxiii). It is noticeable that both these prophets are froin the priestly order.