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choice fir-trees, and will enter to the top of its height, to the forest of its Carmel. I have digged, and drunk water, and have dried up with the sole of my foot all the rivers shut up in banks. Hast thou not heard what I have done to him of old? from the days of old I have formed it and now I have brought it to effect: and it hath come to pass that hills fighting together, and fenced cities should be destroyed. The inhabitants of them were weak of hand; they trembled, and were confounded: they became like the grass of the field, and the herb of the pasture, and like the grass of the housetops, which withered before it was ripe. I know thy dwelling, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against Me. When thou wast mad against Me, thy pride came up to My ears therefore I will put a ring in thy nose, and a bit between thy lips: and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest. But to thee this shall be a sign: Eat this year the things that spring of themselves; and in the second year eat fruits: but in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. And that which shall be saved of the house of Juda, and which is left, shall take root downward, and shall bear fruit upward: for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and salvation from mount Sion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this. Wherefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of the Assyrians: He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow into it, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a trench about it. By the way that he came, he shall return: and into this city he shall not come, saith the Lord. And I will protect this city, and will save it for My own sake, and for the sake of David My servant. And the angel of the Lord went out, and slew in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. And they arose in the morning, and behold, they were all dead corpses. And Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians went out, and departed, and returned and dwelt in Ninive. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nesroch his god, that Adramelech and Sarasar his sons slew him with the

sword; and they fled into the land of Ararat: and Asarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

CHAP. XXXI. Sickness, Recovery, and Death of Ezechias. AFTER this Ezechias fell sick with a complaint of which he expected to die; and Isaias came and said to him: Thus saith the Lord God: Give charge concerning thy house; for thou shalt die, and not live. And he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying: I beseech thee, O Lord, remember how I have walked before Thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is pleasing before Thee. And Ezechias wept with much weeping. And before Isaias was gone out of the middle of the court, the word of the Lord came to him, saying: Go back, and tell Ezechias the captain of my people: Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, and I have seen thy tears and behold, I have healed thee: on the third day thou shalt go up to the temple of the Lord. And I will add to thy days fifteen years: and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians; and I will protect this city for My own sake and for David My servant's sake. And Isaias said: Bring me a lump of figs. And when they had brought it, and laid it upon his boil, he was healed. And Ezechias had said to Isaias: What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the temple of the Lord the third day? And Isaias said to him: This shall be the sign from the Lord, that the Lord will do the word which He hath spoken: Wilt thou that the shadow go forward ten lines, or that it go back so many degrees? And Ezechias said: It is an easy matter for the shadow to go forward ten lines: and I do not desire that this be done: but let it return back ten degrees. And Isaias the prophet called upon the Lord: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backwards by the lines, by which it had already gone down in the dial of Achaz. And the king was restored to health, and lived

fifteen years after that time. But on his recovery, puffed up with prosperity, he brought upon himself a bitter rebuke from the prophet who had been his unfailing friend and guide. The Babylonian king sent an embassy to congratulate him on his recovery from his sickness, and Ezechias was not satisfied without displaying to them, in the pride of his heart, all the treasures he possessed, as though they were the fruit of his own power and wisdom, and not of the favour of Almighty God. And Isaias came to him, and told him that these very riches which he had gloried in shewing to the idolaters should soon become their prey, and that the day was at hand when all his posterity would be carried into bondage by the very men whose envy he had excited by his foolish vanity.

CHAP. XXXII. The Reign of Manasses. Judith and Holofernes. WHEN Ezechias died, his son Manasses was but a boy, and he spent his youth in the wildest excesses, sacrificing to Baal and other idols, and shedding the blood of his subjects like water. He was at last carried captive into Babylon, where he repented of his sins; and he was restored to his liberty and his kingdom, over which he reigned in peace and prosperity altogether for fifty-five years.

During his reign the events which are related in the book of Judith are supposed to have taken place. Holofernes, the general of Nabuchodonosor the king of Assyria, invaded the territory of Juda, and laid waste the country wheresoever he came; while the people fled to the mountains and to the fortified places, where they prepared to resist him. Astonished at their courage, which he accounted senseless audacity, the Assyrian soldier inquired of his allies the Ammonites who they were that thus resisted his arms. Achior, the Ammonitish general, replied to him by relating the history of the Jews from the time of their captivity in Egypt, attributed their prosperity and courage to the protection of

the true God, and bade Holofernes beware how he lifted himself up against the Almighty, unless he could first learn that the Jews had provoked God's wrath by their own sins.

Amazed and irritated at what he heard, Holofernes sent Achior from his presence, and delivered him into the hands of the people of Bethulia, a city in Galilee, that when, as he expected, he should take the city, he might slay Achior with the rest of its inhabitants. Then marching against Bethulia, he laid siege to it with a large body of troops, and succeeded in cutting off all its supplies of water, so that the people were reduced to frightful distress.

From amongst their own number a deliverer then appeared. Judith, a widow woman of great beauty, hearing that the commander of the city was about to capitulate, presented herself before the chief persons of the place, and bade them humble themselves before God for their sins, and wait a while, while she executed a plan she had formed for their deliverance. Then, praying for strength and guidance from Almighty God, she attired herself in costly garments, and taking her maid with her, entered the camp of the Assyrians, and presented herself before Holofernes, telling him that she had fled from the city because, for its sins against God, it was about to perish. Holofernes, struck with her beauty, received her honourably, and gave her lodging in a tent with her maid. Four days afterwards, Holofernes sent to beg her to be present at a feast he was giving to his servants. And Judith came; and late at night she was left alone with Holofernes, who had fallen down dead drunk upon his couch. And bidding her maid wait outside the chamber, she went to the bedside, and praying to the Lord, she seized the sword which hung at the bed's head, and smote off the head of the proud captain as he lay before her. And she took the head, and put it into her bag which she had brought, and with her maid returned to the city. And the Bethulians, hearing what was done, sallied forth and attacked the Assyrians, who, terrified at their cap

tain's death, fled dismayed, and left their spoils to the

conquerors.

CHAP. XXXIII. Josias. The last Kings of Juda. AMON, the godless son of Manasses, succeeded to his father's throne, and, after a two years' reign, was slain by a conspiracy. Josias, his son, a child of eight years old, received the vacant crown, and for thirty-one years served God with all his heart. He destroyed idolatry, and restored the splendour of the temple-worship, which had been so utterly neglected that even the book of the law was forgotten, and its existence scarcely known. The high-priest, also, reading in the book the denunciations of Moses against the Jews if they should fall into idolatry, was struck with terror, and carried the tidings of what he had read to the king. Josias, also terrified, consulted a prophetess, Holda by name, distinguished for the gifts God had given her. And she said to the king's messengers: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel : Tell the man that sent you to me: Thus saith the Lord : Behold, I will bring evils upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, all the words of the law which the king of Juda hath read: because they have forsaken Me, and have sacrificed to strange gods, provoking Me by all the works of their hands: therefore My indignation shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched. But to the king of Juda, who sent you to consult the Lord, thus shall you say: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Forasmuch as thou hast heard the words of the book, and thy heart hath been moved to fear, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, hearing the words against this place, and the inhabitants thereof, to wit, that they should become a wonder and a curse: and thou hast rent thy garments, and wept before Me, I also have heard thee, saith the Lord: therefore I will gather thee to thy fathers: and thou shalt be gathered to thy sepulchre in peace, that thy eyes may not see all the evils which I will bring upon this place.

Thus warned and thus encouraged, Josias proceeded

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