After the death of Joshua (about 1350 n.c.), the want of a chief to the young state became sadly palpable. Little regard was paid to the'' Mosaic" institutions; the single tribes pursued their own individual interests; intermarriages with the idolatrous natives weakened the bond of union still further; and the next consequence was that the tribes were singly subdued by the surrounding. nations. At this juncture there arose at intervals valiant men and women—shofetim—judges, who liberated the people from their oppressors, the Moabitcs, Philistines, Ammonities, Amaiekites, etc. Fifteen of those are named, some of whom appear to have been contemporary with each other, and to have exercised authority in different parts of 'the country. This period con stitutes the "heroic" age of Hebrew history. Among these judges, the prophetess Deborah (q.v.), Gideon (q.v.), Jephthah (q.v.), the herculean Samson (q.v.), and the prophet Samuel (q.v.), are especially notable: the last mentioned was, in every sense of the word, the greatest Hebrew that had as yet appeared since the days of Moses. With him begins a new and higher stage in the development of the national character, chiefly through the instrumentality of the priestly order, whose spiritual, for the most part well directed and humanizing, influence was by him first exalted and most distinctly brought to bear upon the commonwealth. Samuel, the first of the prophets, was also th..?. last of the republican chiefs of the confederate tribes. Wearied of their intestine feuds, harassed by the incursions of their predatory neighbors, chiefly, however, goaded by the character istic desire "to be like all the other nations" (1 Sam. viii. 5), the people compelled him, when lie had become "old and gray-headed" (I Sam. xii. 2)—while the behavior of his sons, whom he bad made judges, unfitted them to be his successors—to choose for them a king (1080 The first who exercised regal authority was Saul (q.v.), the Benjamite. But though a distinguished warrior and a man of royal presence, lie appears not to have possessed the mind of a statesman; and his willfulness, and the pr.roxyams of insanity, brought on chi..fly, as it would seem, by the openly-expressed dissatisfaction of Samuel, finally alienated from him many of the bravest and best of his subjects. After his death on Mt. Gilboa, David (q.v.), his son-in-law, was 'proclaimed king. This monarch was by far the greatest that ever sat on the throne of Israel. He ruled, as is commonly computed, 1058-1018 B.C. His reign, and that of his equally famous son, Solomon (q.v.), :we regarded as the golden time of Hebrew history; the remaining aborigines of Canaan and its borders—viz., the Philistines, Edomitcs, Amalekites, 3Ioabites, etc., were thoroughly subdued; the boundaries of the Hebrew kingdom were extended as far as the Eupliratest tnd the Red sea; .Jerusalem was captured by escalade, and made the capital of the con queror; the priesthood was reorganized on a splendid scale; the arts of poetry, music, and architecture were cultivated; schools of prophecy (first established, probably, by. Samuel) began to flourish; a magnificent temple for the worship of Jehovah was built in the capital; and commercial intercourse was carried on with Plienicia, Arabia, Egypt, with India and Ceylon,. and perhaps with even Sumatra, Java, and the Spice islands. But there was a canker at the root of all this prosperity. The enormous and wasteful expenditure of Solomon forced him to lay heavy taxes on the people. His wealth i,id not enrich them; it rather made them poorer; and although gifted with tran scendent wisdom and the most brilliant mental powers, towards the end of his life ha presents the sad spectacle of a common eastern despot, voluptuous, idolatrous, occasion ally even cruel, :me his reign (1018-978 n.e.) cannot but be regarded, both politically and financially, as a splendid failure. After his death (978), the Hebrew monarchy, in which the germs of dissension—chiefly jealousy against the influence of Judah—had been silently growing up for many a year, split under Rehoboam into two sections (915 lac.); the kingdom of Judah, under Rehoboam, soh of Solomon; and the kingdom of Israel, under Jeroboam the Ephraimite. The forther of these countries comprised the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, together, probably, with some Danite and Simeonite cities; the latter, the remaining 10. After 19 kings, of different dynasties, among whom Jeroboam, Ahab, Joram, Jeroboam II., Pekah may be mentioned, had reigned in Israel, few of whom succeeded to the throne otherwise than by the murder of theirpredecessors, the country was finally conquered by Salmantissar, king of Assyria; its sovereign, thrown into prison; the mass of the people carried away captive (720 u.c.) into the far east, the mountainous regions of Media, and their place supplied by Assyrian colonists, brought from Babylon, Persia, Shushan, Elam, and other places by Asnappar. These, mingling and intermarrying with the remnant of the Israelites, formed the mixed pt:ople called Srunaritans (q.v.). Among the 20 kings of the house of David who ruled over Judah, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Hezekiah, and Josiah distinguished themselves both by their abilities as rulers, and by their zeal for the worship of Jehovah. Yet even they were, for the most part, unable to stay the idolatrous practices of the people, against which the prophets' voices even could not prevail.- Other kings were, for the most part, more or less unfaithful themselves to the religion of their fathers and unable to with shunt the power of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians, to each of whom they in turn became tributary, until at last Nebuchadnezzar stormed Jerusalem (581$ n.c.), plun dered and burned the temple, put out the eyes of king Zedekiali, and carried off the most illustrious and wealthy. of the inhabitants prisoners to Babylon. The Israelites, who had been exiled 134 years before the inhabitants of Judah, never returned. What became of them has always been, ann we presume will always remain, matter of vaguest speculation. See BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY.
All that we know of the condition of the Hebrews during the captivity, relates exclusively to the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah. And so mild, especially during
the later years, was the treatment which they received in the Babylonian empire, that when liberty was announced to the whole body of the captives, only the lowest of the low returned, together with the Levites and priests (cf. Taint. Kidd. iv. 1). The book of Esther likewise bears testimony to the vast numbers that had remained scattered over the vast empire. See BABYLONISII CAPTIVITY.
The influence of this exile, however, was of a most striking and lasting nature. Babylon henceforth became and remained, up to about 1000 D.C., the "second land of Israel"—in many respects even more highly prized than Palestine. To this brief period of the captivity must be traced many of the most important institutions of the synagogue in its wider sense. Common religious meetings, with prayer, were established; many of the Mosaic laws were re-enforced in their primitive rigor; and the body of the `• oral law" began to shape itself, however rudely, then and there. Besides, there began to grow up and unfold itself the belief in a Messiah, a deliverer, one who should redeem the people from their bondage; The writer of the last 27 chapters of Isaiah, who is usually called by modern scholars the " Younger Isaiah," is held to belong to this period, and expresses in glowing language the hopes of the exiles; no less do many of the psalms belong to this time. "From this period, likewise, the immortality of the soul and the belief in another life appear more distinctly in the popular creed, in which, if they had existed at all, they had been obscured by the more immediate hopes and appre hensions of temporal rewards and punishments revealed in the law. But in the writings of the Babylonian prophets, in the vision of dry bones by Ezekiel, and in the last chap ter of Daniel these doctrines assume a more important place; and from the later books, which are usually called the Apocrypha, these opinions appear to have entered fully into the general belief. In other respects, particularly in their notions of angels, who now appear under particular names, and forming a sort of hierarchy, Jewish opinions acquired a new and peculiar coloring from their intercourse with the Babylonians" (dean Milman's History of the Jews, Loud. 1829, vol. ii. pp. 18, 14). Compare articles DEMONS and DEVIL.
The exile is generally computed to have lasted 70 years. This is not strictly correct; it, lasted 70 years if reckoned from the appearance of Nebuchadnezzar in anterior Asia (300), but only 52, counting from the destruction of Jerusalem. When Cyrus, the Persian king, had overthrown the Babylonian kingdom (538 fix.), the condition of the llebrews improved considerably. The new monarch must have felt that he could rely on them, as being really strangers in the land, and necessarily more or less hostile to their conquerors, the Babylonians. Daniel rose higher and higher in dignity and power, and finally became "supreme head of the pashas to whom the provinces of the vast Persian empire were committed." Through his influence, Cyrus was prevailed upon to issue an edict permitting the exiles to return home. A minute account of the circum stances attending this joyous event is given in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Upwards of 40,000 persons, including 4 of the 24 courses of priests, set out under the leadership of Zerubbabel, a descendant of their old kings.
Notwithstanding the many and harassing obstacles raised by •the Samaritans, the mixed people of Assyrians and Israelites, against whom the scrupulous exiles enter tained strong religious and national objections, the rebuilding of the " temple of the Lord" was at last commenced in the that year of Darius, and in the sixth year of his reign it was finally completed. [1-Diaom; nonAnt411.] The waste cities were like wise rebuilt and repeopled. During the long reign of Darius the Jews were blessed with 'a high degree of material prosperity. Under his successor, Xerxes, probably occurred the incidents recorded in the Book of Esther. In the seventh year of Arta xerxes, the successor of Xerxes, Ezra the priest, invested with high powers, and accom panied with a great retinue of his professional brethren, headed a second migration. Thirteen years later, during the reign of the same monarch, Nehemiah. his cup-bearer, but a man of Jewish family, was ordered to proceed to Jerusalem, and, aided by Ezra and others, succeeded in secretly fortifying the city, notwithstanding the continuous opposition from Samaritans, Ammonites, and Arabians. The strictest observance of the " written law," even of those of its parts which had been for sonic reason or other disregarded, was now rigorously enforced, and many `oral ordinances" were put into practice, which do not seem to have been much heard of previously. The supreme spiritual authority was vested it. a society of pious and pre-eminently learned men, founded by Ezra, out of which grew the "great synagogue," of whose existence mod ern scholars no longer see any reason to doubt. The compilation and transcription of time sacred records began, periodical public readings and expoundings of the law wet e instituted, and the vast targumic, as well as the so-called rabbinical literature, generally dates—in its earliest beginnings—from this point. During time life of Nehemiah the breach between the Jews and Samaritans became final, by the erection on Mt. Gerizim (near Samaria) of a rival temple to that at Jerusalem, and the creation of a rival priest hood. For more than a hundred years the Jews lived quietly under the Persian yoke, too insignificant to excite any attention from the Greeks, then in the full meridian of their political and literary greatness; and scanty are the accounts which, as yet, have, out of the mazes of ancient Jewish literature, been brought to light, with respect to the inner intellectual life of the Jews during that period. That, although silent, it must have been extremely active and rich, is amply evidenced by the sudden appearance, immediately afterwards, of a vast number of literary productions.