Eleven years aftenvards Jerusalem was visited by another eminent reformer, Nehemiah, a great Jewish officer of the court of Artaxerxes Longimanus. Morally and externally the Holy City was at this time in a lamentable condition, its walls unbuilt, its houses in ruins, and mixed marriages and other bad practices continued. A report of the state of things determined Nehemiah, with the sanction and credentials of his royal master, who appointed him Tirshatha, or governor of the district, to visit Jeru salem. His arrival caused dismay to the principal foreigners, one of whom had a daughter married into the high-priest's family. On the third day after his arrival he made a secret inspection of the walls by night, and soon afterwards called all the people together, and exhorted them to lay them selves out with one accord for the work of rebuild ing them ; and they undertook this work with so much system, zeal, and perseverance, that in spite of the opposition, both open and secret, of the powerful foreigners, which obliged them to build with arms in their hands and be ready at any moment for a hostile interruption, the whole wall was finished in fifty-two days. Other work was done in the meantime, 'usury renounced, restitution made, a genealogical enumeration of the people recorded, and strict and self-denying economy intro duced. Public readings and explanations of the law by Ezra, and an appointed staff of priests and Levites, were set on foot. The Feast of Taber nacles was celebrated for the first time since the days of Joshua (Neh. viii. 17), a solemn fast with confession of sin was held, and a covenant of obedience made and signed in the name of the people, of princes, priests, and Levites. The numbers who were to live at Jerusalem were. ap pointed, and an unceasing effort made by the great and good Nehemiah to comet, by his personal influence, every practice inconsistent with the character of the people of God.
In the last chapter of the book of Nehemiah, which closes the inspired records, we learn that one of the sons, i.e., grandsons, of Joiada the son of Eliashib, the high-priest, was son-in-law to San ballat the Horonite. This disposition to an ad mixture with powerful foreigners on the part of the rulers of the people is a key to much of their subsequent history.
Eliashib was succeeded in the high-priesthood by his son Joiada, and he in time by his son Jonathan or Johanan xii. 1, 22), who killed his own brother Joshua in the Temple for having endea voured through Persian influence to supplant him in his office. Jonathan had two sons, Jaddua and Manasseh. It was Manasseh who had married the daughter of the Horonite. He seems notwith standing this to have had at one time some share in the high-priesthood at Jerusalem (Josephus), but being obliged to give it up, probably through the same influence which caused the expulsion of To biah from the Temple (Neh. xiii. 8), he became the first priest of the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim. Jaddua succeeded Jonathan. He is the high-priest who is said to have met Alexander the Great, with a company of priests in white robes, when he came from the siege of Tyre with hostile intentions to Jerusalem. Jaddua had refused to
assist him against Tyre on account of his allegiance to Darius, but he obtained his favour and important immunities for the Jews by shewing him the pro phecies concerning himself in the book of Daniel. ' JacIdua was succeeded by Onias I. the year before the death of Alexander.
The short-lived empire which Alexander raised on the ruins of the empire of Persia split at his death into four kingdoms (Dan. xi. 1-4), governed by four of his generals. These were Thrace, ruled by Lysimachus, Asia Minor by Antigonus, Syria by Seleucus Nicator, and Egypt by Ptolemy Soter. In 32o a c. 'I'tolemy Soter made an incursion into Syria and took Jerusalem, his conquest being facilitated by the refusal of the Jews to fight on the Sabbath. They suffered severely afterwards, and multitudes of the people were carried captive to Egypt and Northern Africa.
The possession of Jerusalem was secured to the Ptolemies by the defeat of Antigonus at Ipsus, B.C. 301, and remained in their hands for more than too years. In the following year Simon the Just succeeded Onias I. in the high-priesthood, He adorned the Temple, extended and deepened its foundations, and strengthened the walls of the city. Under the peaceful rule of the Ptolemies Jerusalem increased in wealth and prosperity.
Philadelphus, the immediate successor of Soter, caused the Hebrew Bible to be translated into Greek [SEPTUAGINT.] He also made many pre sents to the Temple. This was during the high priesthood of Eleazar, who had succeeded his bro ther Simon the Just, B.C. 291 ; Eleazar, the brother, was succeeded by Manasseh, the uncle, and he by Onias II., the son of Simon the Just. Onias II. was of a mean and covetous disposition ; he al lowed the tribute payable to Egypt to fall into arrear for a long time, and when Ptolemy Eueigetes sent to reclaim it, he allowed his nephew Joseph to go to Egypt and plead for its remission. Joseph not only succeeded in this object, but ol3tained from the court of Egypt for himself and his family the valuable privilege of farming the revenues of Judma, Samaria, Phoenicia, and Ccele-Syria. This was a source of such great wealth to his house that it soon rivalled that of the high-priest in power and influence, while the quarrels and intrigues which this rivalry occasioned provoked the interference of the ruling state.
From Onias II. the high-priesthood descended successively to Simon II. his son, and Onias III. his grandson. During the high-priesthood of Simon II., Ptolemy Philopator,who had succeeded Euergetes (B.c. 220, visited Jerusalem, and offered a sacrifice in the court of the Temple, but to his extreme indignation was prevented by Simon from entering the sanctuary. This offence cost the Jews a good deal of persecution and the loss of many immunities which they had previously en joyed.