on the roof, which the rulers of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had set up in the two courts of the temple of Jehovah, and threw their dust into the Brook Kidron.

Josiah also tore down the altar and the ancient shrine at Bethel, broke its stones in pieces, and beat it to dust, and burned the image of the Canaanite goddess of fortune. Then he gave this command to all the people: Celebrate the passover to Jehovah your God, as is prescribed in this book of the covenant.' Such a passover as this had not been celebrated from the days of the judges who ruled Israel and during the period of the rulers of Israel and of Judah; but this passover was celebrated in Jehovah's honor in Jerusalem for the first time in the eighteenth year of Josiah's rule.

Josiah put away the mediums, the diviners, the idols, and all the abominations that were discovered in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might enforce the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the temple of Jehovah. Josiah was the first ruler who turned to Jehovah with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength in exact accord with the law of Moses, nor was any of his successors like him.

126. THE RAPID DECLINE OF THE SOUTHERN STATE

While Josiah ruled, Pharaoh-necho king of Egypt made an expedition to the River Euphrates against the king of Assyria. Josiah went out against him, but as soon as Pharaoh-necho saw him he killed him at Megiddo. Josiah's servants carried away his corpse in a chariot from Megiddo, brought it to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb.

Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him ruler in place of his father. But Pharaoh-necho imprisoned him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not rule in Jerusalem, and imposed on the land a tribute of ten thousand pounds of silver and one hundred of gold. And Pharaoh-necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah ruler in place of Josiah his father and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He then removed Jehoahaz to Egypt, where he died. Jehoiakim paid the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he had to tax the land to give the money demanded by Pharaoh.

During the rule of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim was subject to him for three years. And the king of Egypt came no more out of his land, but the king of Babylon took all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Brook of Egypt to the River Euphrates. Then Jehoiakim rebelled against him; and Jehovah sent against Jehoiakim guerilla bands of the Chaldeans, of the Arameans, of the Moabites, and of the Ammonites. When Jehoiakim died, his son Jehoiachin succeeded him; but he ruled in Jerusalem only three months, for at that time the soldiers of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem and besieged the city. And Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came to the city, while his soldiers were besieging it; and Jehoiachin the ruler of Judah, together with his mother, and his servants, his officers, and his court attendants, surrendered to the king of Babylon.

Then the king of Babylon carried away all the treasures of the temple of Jehovah and the treasures of the royal palace and broke in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon the ruler of Israel had made for the temple of Jehovah, as Jehovah had directed. He also

took captive the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all the officers and the warriors, ten thousand in all, and all the craftsmen and the smiths; none remained except the poorest people of the land. Jehoiachin and his mother, his wives, his court attendants, and the chief men of the land, Nebuchadrezzar carried into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. He also took captive to Babylon all the men who could carry arms, to the number of seven thousand, and a thousand of the craftsmen and the smiths, all who were capable of carrying on war.

Then the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin's uncle, ruler in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.

127. THE FINAL DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM

Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon, and in the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came with all his army and besieged Jerusalem; and they erected a siege wall about it. So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of Zedekiah's rule.

On the ninth day of the fourth month of the siege, when the famine was so severe in the city that there was no bread for the common people, a breach was made in the city wall, and Zedekiah and all the soldiers fled by night through the gate between the two walls, near the king's garden, and went in the direction of the Dead Sea. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued Zedekiah and overtook him on the plains of Jericho, after all his army had scattered and left him. They captured him and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and he passed judgment upon him. And they killed the sons of Zedekiah in his presence and

put out his eyes and carried him, bound in chains, to Babylon.

On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of the reign of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the commander of the bodyguard, an officer of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He burnt the temple of Jehovah and the royal palace and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house. And all the troops of the Chaldeans who were with the commander of the body-guard tore down the walls around Jerusalem.

Nebuzaradan the commander of the body-guard carried away captive the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had gone over to the king of Babylon. But some of the poorest of the land he left to take care of the vineyards and farms.

In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin the ruler of Judah, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he mounted the throne released Jehoiachin from prison and gave him a position of honor. He also spoke kindly to him and placed his seat above the seats of the kings with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes and, as long as he lived, ate at the royal table; and for his support a daily allowance was continually given him by the king.

DANIEL

THE STEADFASTNESS AND THE DIVINE PROTECTION OF THE EXILES

128. THE COURAGE OF FOUR JEWISH CAPTIVES

Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon commanded Ashpenaz, the chief of his court attendants, to bring in certain of the Israelites and some of the descendants of the royal line and of the nobles, youths in whom there was no physical defect, but who were attractive in appearance, learned in all wisdom, intelligent, able to acquire knowledge, and capable of serving in the king's palace, and to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans. And the king assigned to them for each day a portion of his delicacies and of the wine which he drank and directed that they should be educated three years and that at the end of that time they should enter the royal service.

Among these youths were the Judahites: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; but the chief of the court attendants gave other names to them. To Daniel he gave the name Belteshazzar, and to Hananiah, Shadrach, and to Mishael, Meshach, and to Azariah, Abednego.

But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the king's delicacies nor with the wine which he drank, so he requested the chief of the court attendants not to compel him to defile himself; and God enabled Daniel to win the kindness and consideration of the chief of the court attendants.

But the chief of the court attendants said to Daniel, "I fear that my lord the king who has assigned your