top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, that they were all broken in pieces."

When Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians, the Edomites took an active part in the calamities inflicted upon the Jews. The prophet Obadíah declares that Edom "stood on the other side in the day that the strangers carried away captive Judah's forces, and foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem. Edom rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction, spoke proudly in the day of their distress, and laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity." The Edomites also "stood in the crossway, to cut off those that did escape, and to deliver up those that remained." Edom (says the prophet A'mos), "did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever." During the captivity of the Jews, the Edomites conquered the southern part of Palestine and seized the city of Hébron; the name of Idumeans was thenceforth given to those who occupied the frontiers of Palestine, while those who remained in Pétra were called Nabatheans. Against this people Athenæ'us, the general of Antig'onus, was sent during the wars between the successors of Alexander; the greater part of the Nabatheans having gone to a neighboring fair to meet a caravan from the south to receive spices in exchange for the woollen goods of Tyre, had left their passes lightly guarded; Athenæ'us therefore surprised the magazines at Pétra, and returned laden with plunder to the borders of Syria. The Nabatheans, enraged at the tidings of this calamity, collected their forces, and urging their dromedaries with incredible velocity through the desert, overtook Athenæ'us near Gáza, and almost annihilated his army. Demétrius hasted to avenge this loss, but the fastnesses and deserts of Arábia baffled his intentions; we are told that an Arab chief addressed the Grecian general from a rock, and set before him in such lively terms the danger of the enterprise in which he was engaged, that Demétrius, convinced of the great hazard of his undertaking, immediately returned to Syria.

The Idumeans who had settled in Judea, exhibited their ancient aversion to the Jews during the wars of the Maccabees; but they were severely punished by Judas Maccabæus, who took and sacked their chief city Hébron, destroyed more than forty thousand of their soldiers, and levelled their strongholds to the ground. Their subjugation was completed by John Hyrcanus (B. c. 130), who reduced them to the necessity of embracing the Jewish religion or quitting their country. They chose the former alternative, and submitting to be circumcised, became so completely incorporated with the Jews, that they were regarded as one people, so that during the first century after Christ, the name of Idumean was lost and quite disused.

The Nabatheans long maintained their independence. Pétra, their capital city, was vainly besieged by the Romans under Pompey and Trájan; but it sunk by gradual decay when the commerce which had caused its prosperity was directed into other channels. So completely was ancient E'dom cut off from the rest of the world, that the very existence of the once flourishing Pétra fell into oblivion, and its recent discovery in the loneliness of its desolation seemed as if the earth had

given up the dead. No human habitation is in it or near it, and the fearful denunciation of the prophet Isaiah is literally fulfilled: "The cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be a habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate."

SECTION VII.-The History of the Jews from their return out of the Babylonish Captivity to the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus.

FROM B. c. 536 TO A. D. 73.

WHEN Cy'rus, as God had foretold, issued a decree permitting the return of the Jews to their native land (B. c. 536), he intrusted the execution of it to Zerubbab'el, who was the grandson of the last king of Judah. The number of those who returned appears not to have exceeded fifty thousand persons; and hence the Jewish traditions declare that "only the bran came out of Babylon, while the flour stayed behind." When the returned exiles began to rebuild their city, the Samaritans, who were descended from the mixed multitude which had occupied the country around Samaria when the ten tribes were carried away captive by the Assyrians, applied to Zerubbab'el to receive them into communion, and thus form a single nation. The application was peremptorily refused, and hence arose the grievous feuds between the Jews and the Samaritans which continued to rage during the six succeeding centuries.

The Samaritans, after their repulse, successfully exerted themselves to impede the progress of the work, representing to the Persian court that the Jews sought to erect a fortress, which might become the focus of a general insurrection, and sending out armed detachments to harass those who were employed in collecting materials. Daríus Hystas'pes, however, renewed the decree of Cy'rus (B. c. 518), and the Jews taking courage, labored so strenuously, that in three years the temple was completed. Under the reign of Xer'xes, the Jews appear to have been treated with great respect: they furnished a contingent to the army which that monarch led into Greece, and are said to have shown more bravery than any other division of the host.

Artaxerxes, the Ahasuerus of Scripture, was induced by his wicked vizier, Háman, to issue an edict for the extirpation of the Jews; but his queen, Est'her, who was of Jewish descent, revealed to the monarch the wickedness of his minister, and obtained from him a second prociamation, permitting the Jews to stand upon their defence. Soon afterward, probably through the queen's influence, Ez'ra received a com

mission from Artaxer'xes to return to Jerusalem, with as many as chose to accompany him, and there to regulate all matters of church and state as he should deem most expedient.

Ez'ra continued to rule the Jews for about thirteen years, during which time he collected all the sacred books, arranged them in order, and thus formed the canon of the Old Testament. He restored the worship of the temple, according to its ancient form before the captivity, adding particular prayers and thanksgivings for the festivals, which were added to commemorate the dedication of the new temple, and the deliverance of the Jews from the malice of Háman. On account of these services, the Jews regarded him as a second Moses, and assert that the blessings he conferred on their nation were not inferior to those derived from their great legislator.

Ez'ra was succeeded in the government by Nehemiah, who had been cup-bearer to the king of Persia (B. c. 445). Under his administration the fortifications of the city were completed, in spite of the opposition made by the Samaritans and other adversaries; several evils which had arisen in the government were corrected, and the observance of the Sabbath strictly enforced. After Nehemiah's death, Judea appears to have been joined to the satrapy of Syria, and the government to have been administered by the high-priests under the Persian prefect. When Alexander invaded the Persian empire, the Jews, faithful to their obligations, resisted him while they could; but when the conquest of Tyre left them exposed to the victor, the high-priest Jaddúa made offers of submission, which were graciously accepted.

After the death of Alexander, and the division of his empire among his generals, Judea was exposed to great calamities; being situate between Syria and Egypt, it was coveted by the rulers of both, and suffered severely from alternate invasions. Ptolemy Sóter besieged Jerusalem, and stormed it on the sabbath-day; he carried away one hundred thousand captives; whom he dispersed through Egypt, Lib'ya, and the country round Cyréne, where their posterity continued to exist as a separate people for several centuries. During this anxious period, Símon surnamed the Just, possessed the high-priesthood; he was eminent for his virtues as a prince and governor, but he was still more remarkable for his piety. It was under his direction that the canon of the Old Testament was completed, and thenceforward received and transmitted to future generations without further revisal or correction (B. C. 292). It was about this time that the sect of the Sadducees was formed, which denied the doctrines of the resurrection and a future state. This creed was chiefly embraced by the rich and powerful, while the opposite doctrine of the Pharisees was more popular with the lower orders. In the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and under his patronage, the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek, for the benefit of the Jews residing in Egypt. This version is usually called the Septuagint, because, according to tradition, its preparation was intrusted to seventy persons. In general the Egyptian monarchs proved kind sovereigns to their Jewish subjects, and it was with equal folly and ingratitude that they abandoned the cause of Ptolemy Epiphanes, and placed themselves under Antiochus the Great, king of Syria.

The descendants of Seleúcus, who possessed the kingdom of Syria,

were anxious to establish a uniformity of customs throughout their dominions, and to frame all institutions, civil and religious, on a Grecian model. We have already seen how their effort to Hellenize the Persians led to their being deprived of the empire of upper Asia; but this loss did not hinder them from making similar attempts on the Jews. A pretext for interference was afforded during the high priesthood of Onías, who expelled Símon, the governor of the temple. Símon sought refuge with the Syrians, and informed them that there were vast treasures preserved in the sanctuary of Jerúsalem; and the Syrian monarch Seleucus, whose own resources were exhausted, sent his servants to bring them to Antioch. Onías had sufficient energy to prevent this profanation; he went in person to Seleúcus, and afforded him such satisfactory explanations that Símon was banished.

Antiochus Epiphánes, soon after succeeding to the throne of his father Seleucus, was bribed to deprive Onías of the priesthood; he conferred it on Jáson, who had already so far conformed to Greek customs as to abandon his original name, Jesus. Under Jáson's rule a general apostacy overspread the nation, the service of the temple was neglected, academies on the Greek model were opened in Jerúsalem, and the high-priest himself publicly sent an offering to the Tyrian Her'cules. Jáson was, in his turn, supplanted by his brother Menelaus, who stripped the temple of all its ornaments to pay the large bribe he had promised to the king. Onías, who since his deposition had lived at Antioch, remonstrated against this sacrilege; his denunciations alarmed the wicked Meneláus, and he procured the murder of the worthy priest, who fell regretted even by the idolators. Meneláus now pursued his iniquitous course without restraint, until the multitude, unable to endure his exactions, raised a formidable riot in the city, and killed the captain of the Syrian guard, which had been brought to protect the high-priest. The sanhedrim, or Jewish council, allayed the tumult, and sent three deputies to represent the state of affairs to the king, Antiochus, and expose the crimes of Menelaus. But the crafty priest was prepared to meet the danger; he had won the royal favorites by large bribes, and at their instigation the deputies, when they presented themselves to Antiochus, instead of being heard were hurried to execution. This atrocity was so revolting, that the Tyrians, though generally hostile to the Jews, showed their sense of the injustice that had been committed by giving the bodies of the unfortunate deputies an honorable burial.

Antiochus invaded Egypt (B. c. 170), and while he was engaged in the conquest of that country, a report was spread through Syria and Palestine, that he had been killed before Alexandria. Jáson, believing that this was a favorable opportunity for recovering the authority of which he had been deprived, mustered a small army, marched to Jerúsalem, and being admitted into the city by some of his partisans, butchered all whom he suspected of opposing his claims. The return of Antiochus soon induced Jáson to seek shelter in exile; he wandered about from city to city, detested by all who knew him, as a betrayer of his country, and monster of mankind.

Antiochus was highly provoked by Jáson's rebellion, especially as he was informed that the Jews had made public rejoicings on hearing the

report of his death. He marched against Jerúsalem, and, after encountering a sharp resistance, forced his way into the city. He spared no cruelty against the unhappy inhabitants; in three days forty thousand were slain, and as many more sold as slaves to the neighboring nations. Nor did his fury stop here: he entered into the Holy of Holies, offered unclean animals upon the altar of burnt-offerings, polluted the whole building by sprinkling it with water in which flesh had been boiled, dedicated the temple itself to Jupiter Olympius, and erected the statue of that deity, "the abomination of desolation," foretold by the prophet Daniel, on the altar of the Lord in the inner court of the temple. All who refused to worship the idol were cruelly tortured until they either complied or sunk under the hands of the executioner. An edict was issued, forbidding the observance of the sabbath, or of the rite of circumcision; and two women having been found guilty of circumcising their children on the eighth day according to the law of Moses, were led round the city with the infants hung from their necks, and then cast headlong from the highest pinnacle of the city walls. To escape these cruelties, many of the Jews fled to the craggy rocks and caverns which abound in Palestine, living upon wild roots and herbs, to avoid the dangers of death or apostacy.

Even in these desolate places of refuge they were pursued by the emissaries of the cruel king; in one cave more than a thousand Jews, who had assembled to celebrate the sabbath, were massacred by the soldiers of the provincial governor. The noble constancy exhibited by many Jewish martyrs of every age, sex, and condition, frequently compelled the idolators to yield them involuntary admiration, and many of the Syrian officers secretly evaded the orders of their tyrannical master, and tried to win the Jews by gentleness and persuasion instead of persecution and torture.

Mattathías, the head of the Asmónean family, which was the first in the classes of the hereditary priesthood, unable to endure the scenes of cruelty and profaneness which were displayed at Jerúsalem, retired to his native place, the village of Módin, where for some time he was permitted to follow the religion of his fathers. At length a Syrian officer was sent to this remote place; he assembled the inhabitants, and offered the king's favor and protection as a reward for apostacy. Some miserable wretches complied, but as one of them was about to offer sacrifice to the idol, Mattathías slew the renegade upon the spot. His sons, imitating his example, overthrew the altar, and broke the idol. But as they were aware that their conduct would be regarded as treasonable, they abandoned their village, and withdrew into the Jewish deserts, whither they were soon followed by bands of brave followers, determined at all hazards to vindicate the law of Moses. Mattathías restored the worship of the Lord in several of the cities from which he had expelled the Syrian garrisons, and he would probably have recovered Jerúsalem itself, had he not been prevented by death (B. c. 166). In his last moments he appointed his son Júdas to command the army of the faithful, and exhorted his sons to persevere in their heroic efforts for restoring the purity of Divine worship.

The contest between the Syrians and the Jewish insurgents now assumed the form and importance of regular war. The latter were named