lii. 29, it is said that at the last carrying into captivity only 832 were taken from Jerusalem. Probably only heads of families are reckoned in the passage in Jeremiah. It is not to be wondered at that the numbers were no greater, when it is remembered how many had perished by famine and the sword, and what numbers had fled from the city.

§ 187.

Gedaliah (1) and the Remnant of the People.

A remnant of the people, among whom was Jeremiah, who was by Nebuchadnezzar's express command treated with the greatest respect (Jer. xxxix. 11-14, xl. 1-6), was left in the land; and fields and vineyards were assigned to them by Nebuzaradan, xxxix. 10. Nebuchadnezzar placed over them as his viceroy, Gedaliah son of Ahikam (the son of Shaphan), who appears, 2 Kings xxii. 12, in high official position under Josiah, and to whom Jeremiah owed his deliverance when accused under Jehoiakim (Jer. xxiv. 24, comp. ver. 16) (2). Gedaliah, with a small Chaldee garrison, took up his abode at Mizpah, in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem (3). After the departure of the Chaldean army (see Jer. xl. 7 sqq., 2 Kings XXV. 22 sqq.), a great number of Jews, who had by reason of the war been scattered in the neighbouring countries, returned to Judea. Certain Jewish captains also, and others who had borne arms against the Chaldeans, settled at Mizpah, where they were kindly received by Gedaliah, who promised them pardon and protection if they would submit to the Chaldeans. The viceroyship of Gedaliah, however, which had held out to a considerable portion of the people the prospect of the peaceable possession of their native soil, lasted only two months. One of these captains, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, of the seed royal, instigated by Baalis king of the Ammonites, placed himself at the head of a conspiracy against Gedaliah, who, not

esteeming so base a treachery possible, and therefore rejecting the warning given him of it, was, together with the Chaldeans and Jews dwelling with him at Mizpah, slain during a banquet at which he was entertaining the conspirators (the circumstances are related Jer. xli. 1 sqq., comp. 2 Kings xxv. 25) (4). The scarcely settled Jews, fearing the vengeance of Nebuchadnezzar, then determined, in spite of the warnings of Jeremiah, to emigrate to Egypt, whither the prophet also followed them. Surrendering themselves in Egypt to the worship of idols, to the intermission of which they attributed the misfortunes of Judea (see the remarkable passage, Jer. xliv. 17 sqq.), Jeremiah was here also constrained to exercise his office of reprover, and probably terminated his storm-tossed life in this country (ch. xl.-xliv. belong to this period) (5). His predictions (xliii. 8-14, xliv. 30) were fulfilled, for in the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem (584), Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt, slew its king, and again carried away a host of Jews to Babylon; see Josephus, Ant. x. 9. 7 (6). Whether this is the deportation mentioned Jer. li. 30, or whether the latter refers to a remnant still existing in Judea, cannot be determined. At all events Judea lay desolate (comp. Zech. vii. 14; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21), so far as it was not occupied by the neighbouring nations, particularly the Philistines and Edomites. The latter especially, who had long coveted the Israelite districts (Ezek. xxxv. 10), must have taken possession of the southern part of the country; see the Greek Ezra, the so-called third book of Esdras, iv. 50 (7).

(1) Comp. my article Gedaliah in Herzog's Realencyklop. iv. p. 699 sq.

(2) Undoubtedly Gedaliah also favoured Jeremiah. He was one of that party in Jerusalem which, according to the word of that prophet, regarded Zedekiah's revolt from Nebuchadnezzar as a criminal breach of faith, and considered submission to the Chaldees the only means of safety. That Nebuchadnezzar well knew those Jews who were thus minded, is shown by the friendly treatment Jeremiah experienced. This, too, explains

the confidence placed in Gedaliah by the Chaldeans, even if he had not, as some Rabbinists affirm, betaken himself to the Chaldean camp as a deserter before the taking of Jerusalem.

(3) That a place of worship was, as some affirm, immediately set up in Mizpah, cannot be inferred from Jer. xli. 5. By the house of the Lord there mentioned is probably rather to be understood the destroyed temple; see Hitzig in loc., and Bertheau in his treatises on the history of the Israelites, p. 383.

(4) The occasion of this conspiracy can scarcely have been that Ishmael, as Josephus thinks (Ant. x. 9. 3), himself aspired to the government of the Jews; see, on the other hand, the article cited, p. 701. The motive for the deed is rather to be sought in the odium incurred by Gedaliah as the friend of the Chaldeans. The Ammonite king, however, whose tool Ishmael was, might have desired not only to get rid of the inconvenient neighbourhood of a Chaldean basis of military operations, but also to see the detested Jews utterly expelled from the country. For although, in Jer. xxvii. 3, the king of Ammon appears to have been an ally of Zedejiah in the beginning of the latter's reign, Ezek. xxv. 2 sqq. leaves no doubt of the crafty disposition of the Ammonites towards the Jews.

(5) According to patristic tradition, Jeremiah was stoned by his fellow-countrymen. Hated and abhorred during his life, his name was honoured after his death in the legends and hopes of his people. Compare the dream of the Jew Maccabæus, 2 Macc. xv. 14 sq., also Matt. xvi. 14, according to which his appearance seems to have been expected before that of Messiah.

(6) An account, the correctness of which has been impugned, but upon insufficient grounds.

(7) Hebron seems to have been possessed by them not only in the Maccabean times, but to be also regarded as belonging to Idumea by Josephus, Bell. jud. iv. 9. 7.

FIFTH DIVISION.

HISTORY OF THE JEWISH NATION FROM THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY TO THE CESSATION OF PROPHECY (ABOUT 400 B.C.).

§ 188.

Condition of the People and Agency of the Prophets during the Captivity.

The condition of the Jews in captivity does not seem, so far as we can ascertain from the writings of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, to have been one of especial oppression (comp. e.g. xxix. 5-7). The people dwelt apart, maintaining their tribal distinctions, under their own elders (1). In the apocryphal narrative of Susannah, also, it is assumed that the Jews in Babylon formed a special community, with a jurisdiction of its own. A true Israelite could indeed know no real happiness at a distance from the Lord's land (Ps. cxxxvii.) (2). To such an one it would be a state of continued mourning " to eat defiled bread among the Gentiles;" Ezek. iv. 13, comp. with Hos. ix. 7 sq. (see § 136, 2, with note 2). But the same word of prophecy, whose truth was proved by the judgment which had fallen upon them, exhorted them to wait with patience for the hour when the deliverance of Israel should appear in the doom of Babylon. For this future deliverance was Israel to be preserved in captivity, to be treated like the unfaithful wife, who, though put away by her husband, might not be married to any other, and therefore received no bill of divorce (Isa. 1. 1, comp. with Hos. iii.). In many, indeed, the propensity to idolatry was not even yet eradicated by the judgments that had overtaken them (see Ezek. xiv. 3 sqq., and still later, Isa. lxv. 3 sqq.). This made it all the more needful to keep the people in as decided

a state of separation as possible from their heathen surroundings. And as the Levitical worship could not be carried on upon heathen soil (see Hos. ix. 4), and the sacrifice of prayer had now to take the place of animal sacrifices, it was important to keep all the more strictly to those legal institutions whose observance was not connected with the Holy Land. Such ordinances would form a salutary fence for the people thus thrown in contact with the heathen, and a protection against a heathen mode of life; and this consideration explains why Ezekiel so emphatically insisted on the observance of the ceremonial law, and especially on the sanctification of the Sabbath (3). The example of Ezekiel, comp. xiv. 1, xx. 1, also viii. 1, xi. 25, xxiv. 19, also shows that now, when the two other theocratic offices, the kingship and priesthood, were annulled, the leadership of the people devolved exclusively on the prophets, who, by the proclamation of God's word and the delivery of prophetic counsel, afforded to the dispersion (Golah) a point of support similar to that which they had furnished to the pious in the kingdom of the ten tribes. Perhaps it was from the custom which now arose among the Israelites, of gathering around a prophet to hear the word of God, that synagogues (3) originated. It was during the captivity, according to Zech. vii. 3, 5, viii. 19, that four days of mournful commemoration, kept by fasting, were added to the celebration of the Sabbath, viz., 1st, The ninth day of the fourth month, because on this day (2 Kings xxv. 3, Jer. lii. 6 sq.) the Chaldeans entered Jerusalem (4); 2d, The above-mentioned tenth of the fifth month (Jer. lii. 12) (subsequently, see § 186, note 6, exchanged for the ninth), in remembrance of the destruction of the city and temple; 3d, A fast in the seventh month (Tisri), in remembrance of the murder of Gedaliah (2 Kings xxv. 25, Jer. xli. 1) (5); and also, 4th, A fast on the tenth day of the tenth month (Tebeth), because on this day (2 Kings xxv. 1, Jer. lii. 4) the siege of Jerusalem commenced.

But the prophets of God had, during the captivity, a mission