Well might such feelings be excited by the battle of Megiddo. That great valley of Esdraelon, the lists of Palestine, the scene of the great victories of Barak and of Gideon, was now stained with a second defeat more disastrous than that in which Saul lost his life. Then it had witnessed the fall of the short-lived dynasty of the people's choice, but now it saw the virtual end of the earthly monarchy of the house of David. Hence may be traced the mystic significance which surrounds the name of this battle-field. The prophet Zechariah employs the mourning at Megiddo as a type of the more wholesome sorrow of Judah in the day when God shall pour out upon them the spirit of grace and prayer, as a preparation for his final destruction of all the nations that come up against Jerusalem; and his imagery is adopted in the visions of the Apocalypse. On the very scene of the two most signal defeats of Israel and Judah by their most inveterate enemies, the Philistines and Egypt, the seer beholds the mystic " Battle of Armageddon," which avenges all such defeats by the final overthrow of the kings of all the world in the great day of God Almighty."

The reign of Josiah was marked by the revival of prophecy, which had long been silent under Manasseh and Amon. To this period belong Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, and the greatest of all, Jeremiah. NAHUM's splendid prophecy of the destruction of Nineveh seems to have only preceded the event by a short time. The date of HABAKKUK, though far from certain, has been placed, upon strong internal evidence, about the twelfth or thirteenth year of Josiah (B.C. 630–629). The title of ZEPHANIAH's prophecy places him in the reign of Josiah; and, though it has been inferred from one passage" that he wrote after the restoration of Jehovah's worship, his vehement denunciations of the sins that prevailed in Judah seem rather applicable to an earlier period. JEREMIAH's long career began in the thirteenth year of Josiah (B.C. 629)" with 69 Zech. xii. 9-14; Rev. xvi. 14-16. and both with the scenes and events Armageddon" is the "fortress or that suggested it. Thus, when the "height of Megiddo," according as great spiritual victory which is to end we take the prefix for the Hebrew Ar man's rebellion against God is to be or Har (=Hor). The absurdities of revealed to John, he beholds in vision certain prophetical schools might have the armies of the world mustered in been avoided if they would only have the great valley of his native Galilee, recognized the essential character of as they had been against Deborah and the Apocalypse that it is imagery seen Gideon, against Saul and Josiah. in vision, not history foretold in logical That the victory is spiritual, is perlanguage; ana if they would have haps more clearly seen in Zechariah compared John's imagery with the than in the Apocalypse itself. Hebrew prophets who first used it, Zeph. iii. 5.

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71 Jer. i. 2.

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reproaches for sin and warnings of coming judgment, mingled with exhortations and encouragements to repentance, and promises of restoration. Though he is only once mentioned in the history of Josiah's reign, the language of his own book assures us that, both as priest and prophet, he animated the king and people in the work of reformation, and most vigorously denounced the policy of the Egyptian party. His final lamentation for the fate of Josiah must have been doubly embittered by seeing Israel again prostrate beneath her old oppressor. In his prophecies we also trace that strange perplexity concerning the ultimate fate of the people, which even now weighs upon the student of their history, and which must have been terribly felt while the event was still unknown. Was it possible for a state that had sunk so low, not only politically but morally, to be restored even by repentance and reformation? His only refuge from the despair involved in the true answer is in contemplating the past proofs of Jehovah's goodness to the nation, and uttering his inspired predictions of future glory.

§ 8. The death of Josiah, in B.C. 610, or rather 608,73 marks the virtual end of the kingdom of Judah. The four kings who followed him were the mere puppets of Egypt and Babylon, and the twenty-two years of their nominal reigns are occupied with successive conquests and deportations. These twenty-two years are divided into two equal parts by the captivity of Jehoiachin. To follow their events, we must first have a clear view of the family of Josiah, the stem of which is as follows:74.

"? Jer. ii. 18, 36; 2 Chron. xxxv. 25. | 74 1 Chron. iii. 15. The second 73 This is the most convenient place Zedekiah is probably inserted by the to adopt the correction, required by common confusion between "brothrecent investigations, of lowering by er" and "uncle," which is made in two years the dates of the received 2 Chron. xxxvi. 11, as the age of Zed. chronology. ekiah shows.

The place of Jehoahaz, the successor of Josiah, is purposely left doubtful in this pedigree. If the question were to be de cided only by probability, we could scarcely hesitate to iden tify Jehoahaz with Johanan, as in the margin of our version. The name" and the succession both favor this view; and it involves no necessary alteration of the dates, though it is at least suspicious to find that Jehoiakim was born when his father was only fifteen. But it seems to have been overlooked that Jehoiakim had a different mother from Jehoahaz and Zedekiah: his mother's name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah, of Ruma; theirs was Hamutai, the daughter of Jeremiah, of Libnah.70 If Hamutai was the first wife of Josiah, her eldest son would take precedence of the eldest son of the second wife, even though younger, both in the statement of the pedigree and in the succession to the kingdom. We have, however, the express authority of a passage in Jeremiah, unless there be some corruption of the text, for identifying Je hoahaz with Shallum." In this case, we must transpose his place in the genealogy, and make him the third instead of the fourth son of Josiah; for Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old in B.C. 610, and was therefore born in B.C. 633, thirteen years before Zedekiah. The absence of any mention of Johanan is accounted for by the supposition that he died before his father, or fell with him at Megiddo; and the preference of Shallum to Eliakim may have been due to the superior rank of his mother.

JEHOAHAZ, the seventeenth king of Judah, was raised to the throne by the people after Josiah's death, while Pharaohnecho proceeded on his expedition against Carchemish. Having (it seems) taken that city, he summoned Jehoahaz to Riblah in Hamath (on the Orontes) and there kept him as a prisoner till his return to Egypt. Entering Jerusalem as a conqueror, he placed on the throne Eliakim (the brother of Je hoahaz), to whom he gave the name of Jehoiakim,78 and imposed a tribute of 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold (about £40,000), which Jehoiakim collected by a tax on the land. Jehoahaz was carried by Pharaoh-necho to Egypt, 75 Johanan, the common Hebrew The change of the last letter would name familiar to us in the shorter form be naturally made at his accession. of John, is an abbreviation of Jehoha- 76 2 K. xxiii. 31, 36, xxiv. 18: this nan (the Gift of Jehovah, equivalent Jeremiah is a different person from to the Greek Theodore): hence its the prophet. 77 Jer. xxii. 11. application to John the Baptist (Luke i. 13, 60-63; for other Johns, see Bib. Dict. arts. Jehohanan and Johanan). Jehoahaz means possession of Jehovah.

78 The name itself looks more as if it had been given by the priests. The change is from El (God) to Jeho (Je. hovah).

where he died soon afterward. His brief reign was charac terized by wickedness and oppression, but he was lamented as the last king of the people's choice. Jeremiah, who had mourned so bitterly for Josiah, now says:-"Weep ye not for the dead, neither honor him: weep sore for him that goeth away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country. The fortunes of Jehoahaz and his two successors are described in highly poetical imagery by Ezekiel.8

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The expedition of Pharaoh-necho is related by Herodotus, who places the victory over "the Syrians," as he calls the people of Josiah, at Magdolus, evidently by a confusion between Migdol and Megiddo. After the battle he took Cadytis, a great city of the Syrians, and he sent the garment he had worn in the campaign as an offering to the Temple of Apollo at Branchide of the Milesians. It is commonly assumed that Cadytis is Jerusalem, the name being derived from its ancient appellation "Kodesh" (the Holy City), which it still bears in Arabic (el-Khuds.) But this is scarce ly to be reconciled with another passage, in which Herodo tus makes the country of "the Syrians of Palestine" extend from Phonice to Cadytis (a city not much smaller than Sardis), after which are the places of traffic along the sea belonging to the Arabian king.": It is not improbable that GAZA may be the city which Herodotus calls Cadytis.

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9. JEHOIAKIM, the eighteenth king of Judah, was twentyfive years old when he was placed on the throne by Pharaoh-necho, instead of his brother Jehoahaz; and he reigned eleven years at Jerusalem, doing evil in the sight of Jehovah. Jeremiah sternly rebukes his injustice and oppression, his cruelty and avarice, and his reckless luxury in building himself a magnificent palace, and contrasts all this with his father's justice to the poor:** and in the Chronicles his name is dismissed with an allusion to "all the abominations that he did." From the very commencement of his reign, the voice of Jeremiah is heard plainly predicting, and prefiguring by striking signs, the captivity at Babylon as a judgment rendered inevitable by the people's sins, but adding the promise of their future restoration. Attempts were made

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79 2 K. xxiii. 31-34; 2 Chron. strongly to Kedesh on the Orontes, xxxvi. 1-4; Jer. xxii. 10-12. which has been suggested by some Orientalists.

80 Ezek. xix. 1-9.

1 Herod ii. 159.

83 2 K. xxii. 36, 37; 2 Chron 82 Herod. iii. 5. The arguments xxxvi. 5. 84 Jer. xxii. 13-17. against Jerusalem apply still more 2 Chron. xxxvi. 8.

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86 Jer. xiii.xix.

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to silence him by the princes, priests, and false prophets of the Egyptian party, who represented him as a traitor. He often complains of these enemies, and he expressly predicts the captivity of Pashur, the priest and governor of the Temple, who had beaten him and put him in the stocks (or pillory.) Still he faithfully delivered the messages which Jehovah now gave him to the King of Judah by name, as plainly as Nathan had been sent to David. This directness of language is a striking character of the prophecies of Jeremiah, and indeed of most of the historical prophecies. In one of these prophecies, after mourning the death of Josiah and the hopeless captivity of Jehoahaz, he predicts the fate of Jehoiakim to the very details of his dishonored end. On another occasion the prophet took his stand in the court of the Temple, amid an assemblage from all the cities of Judah, to proclaim that God would even yet repent him of the coming evil if they turned to Him, but if not, that His house should be destroyed like the tabernacle at Shiloh, and the city made a curse to all nations.89 The priests and prophets now resolved on Jeremiah's death: and they had a precedent in the case of URIJAH, the son of Shemaiah of Kirjath-jearim, who, having uttered prophecies like those of Jeremiah, had been pursued by the envoys of Jehoiakim into Egypt, and brought back to suffer an ignominious death. The princes of Judah, however, before whom Jeremiah was arraigned, appealed to the better precedent of the times of Hezekiah, who allowed MICAH to prophesy with impunity, and Jeremiah's life was saved by the influence of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and other old counselors of Josiah." These warnings were given in the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign, and their fulfillment was soon begun by the overthrow of his Egyptian protector.

The fourth year of Jehoiakim (B.c. 605-4) is a marked epoch both in secular and sacred history, though the destruction of Nineveh, once assigned to it by chronologers, is now referred to an earlier date. In this year we first meet with NEBUCHADNEZZAR," the greatest of the Babylonian kings, and the destined destroyer of the Jewish monarchy. His

87 Jer. xx.
89 Jer. xxvi. 1-7.
20 Jer. xxvi.

88 Jer. xxii. 1-23.

The

protector against misfortune). year B.C. 605, the fourth of Jehoiakim, is reckoned the first year of his Also called Nabuchodonosor, and reign by Jeremiah (xxv. 1). The by Jeremiah, Nebuchadrezzar. The date is further fixed as the twentylast form is the nearest to his native third year from the 13th of Josiah, name Nabu- Kuduri-utsur (Nebo is the when Jeremiah began to prophesy.