PRIEST 578 PRIEST L law with them'), and that there was then no religious instruction in synagogues (Campegius Vitringa, Synag. Vet., pt. ii. lib. i. c. 9). Al though the priests, by the ceremonies they per formed, no doubt incidentally revived religious principles in the minds of the people, yet they were never public teachers of religion in the cus tomary sense of the words. Those of the prophets who collected assemblies on the Sabbaths and new moons, approached the nearest of any to religious teachers tinder the Gospel (comp. Ezek. xxxiii. 30, 31 ; Jahn, Bibilsches Archad., sec. 371, 372). Jehoshaphat shortly afterwards (n.c. 897) estab lished a permanent court at Jerusalem, composed of priests and Levites, and of the chief of the Fathers of Israel, for the decision of all causes, with the high-priest presiding over them in regard to ecclesiastical concerns (2 Chron. xix. 8-11). About 120 years after, Jehu destroyed all the priests of Baal, and extirpated his worship from Israel (2 Kings X. 15-29). The account of this incident affords additional illustration of the general re semblance observable between idolatrous worship and that of the true God, viz., prophets of Baal,' priests,' `servants' who waited on the latter in the capacity of Levites, a solemn assembly,' `a temple for the god, sacrifices,'`burnt-offerings,' vestments for the priests.' About B.C. 884 the high-priest Jehoiada recovers the throne of Judah for its youthful heir Joash ; and, after a long life of influence and usefulness, dies, aged 130 years, and is buried in the royal sepulchre at Jerusalem (2 Kings xi. 12 ; 2 Chron. xxiii. ; xxiv. 15, 16). During this reign the priests were empowered, under royal authority, to raise money for the repair of the temple, but at last forfeited this commission by their negligent discharge of it (2 Kings xii. 4-12). At the public humiliation for the famine, ordered by the prophet Joel (B.C. 787), a form of prayer is delivered for the use of the priests (ii. 17 ; comp. Hosea xiv. 2).
Some time between B.C. 787 and 765, the attempt of Uzziah, king of Judah, to burn incense in the temple, calls forth the resistance of the high ` priest Azariah and eighty of the priests, and ends with the king becoming leprous for life (2 Chron. xxvi. 16, 21). The ignorance and depravity of the idolatrous priests of Israel at this period are vividly described (Hosea iv. 6-8 ; vi. 9). These priests are called Kemarim (2 Kings xxiii. 5 ; Hosea x. 5 ; Zeph. i. 4), from the Syr. laza=, Kuntro, the idolatrous priests of Palestine being, as might be expected, derived from Syria. The abandoned character of the priests of Judah nearly at the same period is described, Is. xxviii. 7, 8 ; Micah iii. r1. In the reign of Aliaz, king of Judah (n.c. 739), a flagrant violation of divine commands is permitted by Utah the high-priest, by the intro duction into the temple of an altar similar to one which the king had seen at Damascus (2 Kings xvi. to-16 ; comp. Exod. xxvii. t, 2). The pro phecy of Hosea, addressed to the priests (v. 1, etc.), is referred to this period. Better things marked the reign of Hezekiah, who reinstated the priests in their office (2 Chron, xxix. 4) ; they restore the Passover (xxx.), and are reinstated in their revenues (xxxi. 4-1o), are also properly pro vided for in their own cities (ver. 15), and have the care cf their genealogies restored (ver, 16-21), B.C. 726. During the captivity of the ten tribes, at least one priest was sent back from Assyria to teach the Assyrian colonists in Samaria the man ner of the God of the land' (2 Kings xvii. 27) ;
but the colonists themselves also appointed priests for this purpose (ver. 32). Josiah, king of Judah, degrades idolatry by burning the bones of its priests upon their altars (2 Chron. xxxiv. 5), expels some of the survivors (2 Kings xxiii. 8), yet affords some of them an allowance (ver. 9), but puts others to death (ver. 2o). Jeremiah, a sacer dotal prophet, flourishes B.C. 630 ; he is informed that his commission was partly directed against the priests of Judah (i. 18), whose degeneracy is adverted to (ii. 8), and even idolatry (ver. 26, 27). In his time the office of second priest, or sagan, as he is called by the Jews in later times, is referred to (Jer. iii. 24; 2 Kings xxv. 18). This was a sort of deputy, or vice high priest, whose duty it was to officiate for his superior in case of sudden illness, etc. Many references to the depravity of the priests mark this period (2 Chron. xxxvi. 14 ; vi. 13 ; Ezek. xxii. 26), in which they were joined by the prophets (Jer. v. 31 ; viii. to ; xxvi. 8 ; Lam. iv. 13). Jeremiah records the attempt of a false prophet, Shemaiah, the Nehelamite, to induce Zephaniah, the second priest, to assume the office of high-priest at Jerusalem during the captivity of Judah (n.c. 597). He predicts the restoration of the sacerdotal office (xxix. 24-32). About this time Seraiah, the high-priest, and his sagan Ze phaniah, were carried to Babylon, and put to death (2 Kings xxv. 18, 20). Jeremiah describes the miseries of the priests at this period (Lam. i. 4, 19). At the decree of Cyrus to rebuild yerusalent (B,c, 536), some of the priests ia exile at Babylon, with the fathers and Levites, avail themselves of the royal permission to return (Ezra i. 5). These belonged to four of the courses which retained the names of their original heads (comp. ii. Chron. xxiv. 7, 8, 14 ; I Chron. ix. 12), amount ing in all to 4289 priests, besides others who could not produce their genealogy, and whom the governor' would not allow to eat the priests' por tion till their claim should be verified by a priest • with Urim and Thummim (ver. 61-64). These were followed by a second company (vii. 7). The proportion of the priests who returned seems large in comparison with the number of the people who returned, and who scarcely amounted to 50,000. Some of the fathers who returned presented a hun dred priests' garments (Ezra ii. 69). The priests were restored to their cities (ver. 70); the service was (iii. 3-5); and, under Joshua, the son of Josedcdi, the temple was rebuilt (Flagg. i. and dedicated (p.c. 519). The priests who had married strange wives were compelled to separate from them (Ezra x. 18-22). Ezra the scribe publicly reads the law (Neh. viii. 4), and the priests trans late the passages read into the Aramaean dialect (ver. 7). They revive the feast of tabernacles (ver. 13-18), and the chief of them signed the covenant of the Lord as representatives of the rest (ix. 38, etc.) At the distribution of the inhabi tants, 1760 priests remained at Jerusalem (t Chron. ix. 13). In Neh. xii. 10, II, an account is given of the succession of the high-priests from the re turn of the captivity to Jaddua, or Jaddus, who held an interview with Alexander the Great. Thus, as Grotius observes, the Scripture history ends where the very light of times, viz., the affairs of Alexander, begin, from which time profane history