The multitude having assembled, they first took the altars of incense in the city, "and cast them into the brook Kidron." Then they killed the passover, and the priests sanctified themselves, "and presented the offerings according to the law of Moses." Many of the people, gathered in such haste, were not ceremonially clean, but Hezekiah prayed, "The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek the Lord God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary." The prayer was heard, and the people were healed. So profound was the impression of this service, that the whole multitude resolved to keep "other seven days and they kept them with gladness. During these days the Levites were employed in teaching the people. "So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon there was not the like in Jerusalem. Then the priests blessed the people; and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling-place, even unto heaven.

From this feast, the people, full of pious enthusiasm, went throughout the land, breaking the images in pieces, cutting down the groves, and throwing down the high-places and altars, till they had destroyed every vestige of idolatry, when every man returned to his own abode.

The courses of the priests and Levites were next set in order, the set feasts established, and the tithes secured. From every quarter the willing people brought in abundance, "from the third to the seventh month." Store-rooms were prepared for that which was left, after the abundant supply of the priests. Over these free-will-offerings and dedicated things men were appointed, whose office it was to distribute to the priests according to their genealogy. "Thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah; and in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, he did it with all his heart and prospered." "He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him."

Having thus accomplished this great work of reformation, he marched his armies against the Philistines, "and smote them unto Gaza." Encouraged by this success, he threw off the yoke of Assyria. Sennacherib the king of Assyria came at once with an army to bring him to subjection. Unable to cope with so formidable a power in battle, Hezekiah prepared himself and Jerusalem for a protracted siege. The fountains were closed, the walls were repaired, and a second wall built around the city; weapons were made, and captains set over the men. In this emergency the king encourages his men, "Be strong, and not dismayed, for there be more with us than with him. With him

is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God, to help us, and to fight our battles."*

At length, however, when the Assyrians had reached Lachish, Hezekiah's courage and faith failed, and he sent to Sennacherib, saying, "I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear." Sennacherib consented to withdraw his army on payment of "three hundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold." Hezekiah gave him the gold and silver of the royal treasures, and of the temple, and the gold which was upon the pillars of the temple.

The Assyrian king broke faith with Hezekiah, and still carried on the war. While he continued at Lachish he sent forward his servant, Rabshakeh. Coming to Jerusalem, Rabshakeh delivered his message in the most insulting manner to the king, and to Jehovah, whom they worshipped. He charges them with relying upon Egypt; he blasphemes the God in whom they trusted; he taunts them with their weakness; and at last pleads that he was obeying a divine commission in thus seeking to destroy Jerusalem. Turning from the king's messengers, he addresses himself to the people; urges them to renounce their trust in Jehovah, to rebel against their king, to pay a tribute, to Sennacherib, to wait until he should come and remove them from their land, and closes his oration with a blasphemous assertion that the God whom they trusted was in no way different or more powerful than the gods of Hamath or Arpad. To this insulting speech no answer was given. When the report came to Hezekiah, he went at once to the temple. His only refuge now was in God. To Isaiah the prophet, the king sent a report of this speech; with an expression of his hope and confidence that God would hear the words of the king of Assyria, and vindicate his own name and honour. For this result he asks the prophet to pray. To this message Isaiah was directed by God to reply, "Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."

Meanwhile Rabshakeh had returned to his master, who was now besieging Libnah. He heard the rumour that the king of Ethiopia was coming to meet him. Enraged at his disappointment, he sent again to Hezekiah other messengers, with a threatening letter containing much the same boasting and insult as before.

With this letter Hezekiah went in before the Lord and prayed: "O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the

From Isaiah xxx., which was written about this time, it appears that some of the nobles (probably not the king) had sent to Egypt for aid.

cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear; open, Lord, thine eyes, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he hath sent to reproach the living God." "Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only."

Isaiah was sent with an answer to this prayer, strengthening the faith of the king. He charges Sennacherib with his blasphemy; shows him the true position in which he stands, as the instrument of God, and not, as he supposes, doing what he did for his own aggrandizement: tells him that his work was accomplished, and that it was the purpose of God that he should go no further. He then promises blessings to the remnant of Judah, and the escaped of Zion; and closes with a most positive prediction, that the king of Assyria should not so much as come near the city, "for, saith the Lord, I will defend this city, to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.' "On that very night the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and eighty-five thousand." "Sennacherib returned to Nineveh, and as he was worshipping in the house of his god, his own sons smote him with the sword." Thus Jehovah interfered for his own honour, and saved his people who trusted in him.

But Hezekiah was to experience another salvation at the hand of God. At the same time that he was delivered from the Assyrians, "he fell sick unto death." Isaiah came to him with a message from the Lord confirming his worst fears. "Thus saith the Lord, set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live." The love of life, and the state of his kingdom, led him to pray that the sentence might be changed; "I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight." The prayer was heard. Before the prophet. had left the palace, the word of the Lord came to him, "Tell Hezekiah, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee; on the third day thou shalt go up to the house of the Lord. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years. At Isaiah's command a lump of figs was laid upon the boil, and he recovered. In the meantime, however, while the cure was going on, Hezekiah demanded a sign to confirm his faith. At his request the sign was given him, the shadow of the sun went back upon the dial of Ahaz, "ten degrees, which it had gone down."*

In the account of this miraculous cure, given us in Isaiah xxxviii., we have the song of Hezekiah upon his recovery. With the close of Hezekiah's reign, a large part of the prophet's duties were finished.

The miraculous destruction of the Assyrian army, and cure of Hezekiah, drew the attention of foreign powers. Among others, the king of Babylon sent presents, "for he had heard of Hezekiah's sickness.' "Hezekiah's heart was lifted up" at his importance, and made a display of all his treasures to the Babylonish ambassadors. For this he was reproved by the prophet, with this startling announcement, that all that was in his house, and his own descendants, should be carried captive by this very kingdom of Babylon. With his usual submission to the providence of God, Hezekiah replied, "Good is the word of the Lord, which thou hast spoken, is it not good if peace and truth be in my days." The rest of his reign was prosperous. He increased in wealth, beautified Jerusalem, increased the number of store cities, and after the fifteen years were passed, he was gathered to his fathers, and slept in the chiefest of the sepulchres of the sons of David. His character and memory were held in the highest respect, and he was sincerely mourned by a whole people, the best tribute to the life of a wise and good king. He is the most spotless of the kings of Judah.

His son Manasseh came to the throne at the early age of twelve years. The enemies of Hezekiah's reform appear to have had the control of his early years. Either from this cause, or from his own disposition, he took directly the opposite course from his father: "He did evil in the sight of the Lord, after the abominations of the heathen." The altars which Hezekiah had broken down, were again rebuilt; altars for Baal were placed again in the temple, even in its very courts; his sons were made to pass through the fire; familiar spirits were sought for, and a graven image that he had made, placed in the house of God, where Jehovah had placed his name. Under the influence of this king, the people were seduced to do more evil than did the nations which God had cast out before them.

Prophets were sent to reprove him, but in vain. The judgments which had fallen upon Samaria were shown to be impending over Jerusalem, but they excited no alarm: instead of a reformation, they hardened the infatuated king, and he added. to his iniquities "by shedding innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another." At length the threatenings of God's just displeasure were executed. The Assyrian generals came with an irresistible host. Manasseh attempted flight, "but was overtaken among the thorns, bound with fetters, and carried away to Babylon." In this affliction, he came to himself, "and besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers." if to show that sincere prayer was never vain, this miserable king was heard and restored to his kingdom in Jerusalem. On his return he built the wall without the city of David, fortified

As

the city, "took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in Jerusalem, and repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon. He could not, however, remedy the effects of his own early bad example. "The people sacrificed still in the highplaces, but unto the Lord only.' After a long but disastrous reign of fifty-five years, "he slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house." The happy scene of his father's reign was thus quickly overcast with heavy clouds; and though his repentance seems sincere, yet we may see how little a late repentance can atone for an early crime, and how little in itself it stays the progress of God's justice. He did much evil, though we may hope that he died a good man.

Amon succeeded his father at the age of twenty-two. "He also did that which was evil, as his father Manasseh did, and served and worshipped the idols that his father served, and forsook the Lord God of his fathers." He did not, however, follow his father in his good days. "He did not humble himself as his father did." After a reign of two years, of which we hear nothing, he was slain by his servants in his own house." The people, however, revenged the murder of the king, and slew those who had conspired against Amon," "and made Josiah his son king in his stead."

66

SECTION XIX.

JOSIAH'S REIGN-THE FINDING OF THE COPY OF THE LAW-JOSIAH'S REFORMATION -JEHOAHAZ AND JEHOIAKIM-THE FIRST REMOVAL OF THE PEOPLE TO BABYLON JEHOIAKIM-THE SECOND REMOVAL TO BABYLON-ZEDEKIAH, THE LAST KING OF JUDAH-THE CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM.

JOSIAH was only eight years of age when he was placed upon the throne. But the change was a happy one for the kingdom. From the first he was well inclined. "He did that which was right," followed the steps of David, "and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left." In his sixteenth year he began to show more clearly his disposition, and in the twentieth he commenced the work which characterized his reign. Judah and Jerusalem were again purged of the high-places, the altars of Baalim were broken down, and the images and groves cut down, and the molten images ground to "dust and sown upon the graves of those who had sacrificed to them." The bones of the priests were burnt upon the altars. Not content with cleansing Judah and Jerusalem, he went also and did the same in the cities which had belonged to Israel.

In the eighteenth year of his reign, and twenty-sixth of his age, he began to repair the house of the Lord his God. According to the king's commandment, the officers over the treasury