The Legends of the Jews

Contents

I.
JOSHUA

THE SERVANT OF MOSES

The early history of the first Jewish conqueror (1) in some respects is like
the early history of the first Jewish legislator. Moses was rescued from a
watery grave, and raised at the court of Egypt. Joshua, in infancy, was
swallowed by a whale, and , wonderful to relate, did not perish. At a distant
point of the sea-coast the monster spewed him forth unharmed. He was found by
compassionate passers-by, and grew up ignorant of his descent. The government
appointed him to the office of hangman. As luck would have it, he had to
execute his own father. By the law of the land the wife of the dead man fell to
the share of his executioner, and Joshua was on the point of adding to
parricide another crime equally heinous. He was saved by a miraculous sign.
When he approached his mother, milk flowed from her breasts. His suspicions
were aroused, and through the inquiries he set a foot regarding his origin, the
truth was made manifest. (2)

Later Joshua, who was so ignorant that he was called a fool, became the
minister of Moses, and God rewarded his faithful service by making him the
successor to Moses. (3) He was designated as such to Moses when, at the bidding
of his master, he was carrying on war with the Amalekites. (4) In this campaign
God’s care of Joshua was plainly seen. Joshua had condemned a portion of the
Amalekites to death by lot, and the heavenly sword picked them out for
extermination. (5) Yet there was as great a difference between Moses and Joshua
as between the sun and the moon. (6) God did not withdraw His help from Joshua,
but He was by no means so close to him as to Moses. This appeared immediately
after Moses had passed away. At the moment when the Israelitish leader was
setting out on his journey to the great beyond, he summoned his successor and
bade him put questions upon all points about which he felt uncertain. Conscious
of his own industry and devotion, Joshua replied that he had no questions to
ask, seeing that he had carefully studied the teachings of Moses. Straightway
he forgot three hundred Halakot, and doubts assailed him concerning seven
hundred others. The people threatened Joshua’s life, because he was not able to
resolve their difficulties in the law. It was vain to turn to God, for the
Torah once revealed was subject to human, not to heavenly, authority. (7)
Directly after Moses’ death, God commanded Joshua to go to war, so that the
people might forget its grievance against him. (8) But it is false to think
that the great conqueror was nothing more than a military hero. When God
appeared to him, to give him instructions concerning the war, He found him with
the Book of Deuteronomy in his hand, whereupon God called to him: “Be strong
and of good courage; the book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth.”
(9)

ENTERING THE PROMISED LAND

The first step in preparation for war was the selection of spies. To guard
against a repetition of what had happened to Moses, Joshua chose as his
messengers Caleb and Phinehas, on whom he could place dependence in all
circumstances. (10) They were accompanied on their mission by two demons, the
husbands of the she-devils Lilith and Mahlah. When Joshua was planning his
campaign, these devils offered their services to him; they proposed that they
be sent out to reconnoitre the land. Joshua refused the offer, but formed their
appearance so frightfully that the residents of Jericho were struck with fear
of them. (11) In Jericho the spies put up with Rahab. She had been leading an
immoral life for forty years, but at the approach of Israel, she paid homage to
the true God, lived the life of a pious convert, and, as the wife of Joshua,
became the ancestress of eight prophets and of the prophetess Huldah. (12) She
had opportunity in her own house of beholding the wonders of God. When the
king’s bailiffs came to make their investigations, and Rahab wanted to conceal
the Israelitish spies, Phinehas calmed her with the words: “I am a priest, and
priests are like angels, visible when they wish to be seen, invisible when they
do not wish to be seen.” (13)

After the return of the spies, Joshua decided to pass over the Jordan. The
crossing of the river was the occasion for wonders, the purpose of which was to
clothe him with authority in the eyes of the people. Scarcely had the priests,
who at this solemn moment took the place of the Levites as bearers of the Ark,
set foot in the Jordan, when the waters of the river were piled up to a height
of three hundred miles. All the peoples of the earth were witnesses of the
wonder. (14) In the bed of the Jordan Joshua assembled the people around the
Ark. A Divine miracle caused the narrow space between its staves to contain the
whole concourse. Joshua then proclaimed the conditions under which God would
give Palestine to the Israelites, and he added, if these conditions were not
accepted, the waters of the Jordan would descend straight upon them. Then they
marched through the river. When the people arrived on the further shore, the
holy Ark, which had all the while been standing in the bed of the river, set
forward of itself, and, dragging the priests after it, overtook the people.

The day continued eventful. Unassailed, the Israelites marched seventy miles to
Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, and there performed the ceremony bidden by Moses
in Deuteronomy: six of the tribes ascended Mount Gerizim, and six Mount Ebal.
The priests and the Levites grouped themselves about the holy Ark in the vale
between the two peaks. With their faces turned toward Gerizim, the Levites
uttered the words: “Happy the man that maketh no idol, an abomination unto the
Lord,” and all the people answered Amen. After reciting twelve blessings
similar to this in form, the Levites turned to Mount Ebal, and recited twelve
curses, counterparts of the blessings, to each of which the people responded
again with Amen. Thereupon an altar was erected on Mount Ebal with the stones,
each weighing forty seim, which the Israelites had taken from the bed of the
river while passing through the Jordan. The altar was plastered with lime, and
the Torah written upon it in seventy languages, so that the heathen nations
might have the opportunity of learning the law. At the end it was said
explicitly that the heathen outside of Palestine, if they would but abandon the
worship of idols, would be received kindly by the Jews.

All this happened on one day, on the same day on which the Jordan was crossed,
and the assembly was held on Gerizim and Ebal, the day on which the people
arrived at Gilgal, where they left the stones of which the altar had been
built. (15) At Gilgal Joshua performed the rite of circumcision on those born
in the desert, who had remained uncircumcised on account of the rough climate
and for other reasons. (16) And here it was that the manna gave out. It had
ceased to fall at the death of Moses, but the supply that had been stored up
had lasted some time longer. (17) As soon as the people were under the
necessity of providing for their daily wants, they grew negligent in the study
of the Torah. Therefore the angel admonished Joshua to loose his shoes from off
his feet, for he was to mourn over the decline of the study of the Torah, (18)
and bare feet are a sign of mourning. The angel reproached Joshua in particular
with having allowed the preparations for war to interfere with the study of the
Torah and with the ritual service. Neglect of the latter might be a venial sin,
but neglect of the former is worthy of condign punishment. (19) At the same
time the angel assured Joshua that he had come to aid him, and he entreated
Joshua not to draw back from him, like Moses, who had refused the good offices
of the angel. (20) He who spoke to Joshua was none other than the archangel
Michael. (21)

CONQUEST OF THE LAND

Joshua’s first victory was the wonderful capture of Jericho. The whole of the
city was declared anathema, because it had been conquered on the Sabbath day.
Joshua reasoned that as the Sabbath is holy, so also that which conquered on
the Sabbath should be holy. (22) The brilliant victory was followed by the
luckless defeat at Ai. In this engagement perished Jair, the son of Manasseh,
whose loss was as great as if the majority of the Sanhedrin had been destroyed.
(23) Presently Joshua discovered that the cause of the defeat was the
sinfulness of Israel, brought upon it by Achan, who had laid hands on some of
the spoils of Jericho. Achan was a hardened transgressor and criminal from of
old. During the life of Moses he had several times appropriated to his own use
things that had been declared anathema, (24) and he had committed other crimes
worthy of the death penalty. (25) Before the Israelites crossed the Jordan, God
had not visited Achan’s sins upon the people as a whole, because at that time
it did not form a national unit yet. But when Achan abstracted an idol and all
its appurtenances from Jericho, (26) the misfortune of Ai followed at once.

Joshua inquired of God, why trouble had befallen Israel, but God refused to
reply. He was no tale-bearer; the evil-doer who had caused the disaster would
have to be singled out by lot. (27) Joshua first of all summoned the high
priest from the assembly of the people. It appeared that, while the other
jewels in his breastplate gleamed bright, the stone representing the tribe of
Judah was dim. (28) By lot Achan was set apart from the members of his tribe.
Achan, however, refused to submit to the decision by lot. He said to Joshua:
“Among all living men thou and Phinehas are the most pious. Yet, if lots were
cast concerning you two, one or other of you would be declared guilty. Thy
teacher Moses has been dead scarcely one month, and thou has already begun to
go astray, for thou hast forgotten that a man’s guilt can be proved only
through two witnesses.”

Endued with the holy spirit, Joshua divined that the land was to be assigned to
the tribes and families of Israel by lot, and he realized that nothing ought to
be done to bring this method of deciding into disrepute. He, therefore, tried
to persuade Achan to make a clean breast of his transgression. (29) Meantime,
the Judeans, the tribesmen of Achan, rallied about him, and throwing themselves
upon the other tribes, they wrought fearful havoc and bloodshed. This
determined Achan to confess his sins. (30) The confession cost him his life,
but it saved him from losing his share in the world to come. (31)

In spite of the reverses at Ai, (32) the terror inspired by the Israelites grew
among the Canaanitish peoples. The Gibeonites planned to circumvent the
invaders, and form an alliance with them. Now, before Joshua set out on his
campaign, he had issued three proclamations: the nation that would leave Canaan
might depart unhindered; the nation that would conclude peace with the
Israelites, should do it at once; and the nation that would choose war, should
make its preparations. If the Gibeonites had sued for the friendship of the
Jews when the proclamation came to their ears, there would have been no need
for subterfuges later. But the Canaanites had to see with their own eyes what
manner of enemy awaited them, and all the nations prepared for war. The result
was that the thirty-one kings of Palestine perished, as well as the satraps of
many foreign kings, who were proud to own possessions in the Holy Land. (33)
Only the Girgashites departed out of Palestine, and as a reward for their
docility God gave them Africa as an inheritance. (34)

The Gibeonites deserved no better fate than all the rest, for the covenant made
with them rested upon a misapprehension, yet Joshua kept his promise to them,
in order to sanctify the name of God, by showing the world how sacred an oath
is to the Israelites. (35) In the course of events it became obvious that the
Gibeonites were by no means worthy of being received into the Jewish communion,
and David, following Joshua’s example, excluded them forever, a sentence that
will remain in force even in the Messianic time. (36)

THE SUN OBEYS JOSHUA

The task of protecting the Gibeonites involved in the offensive and defensive
alliance made with them, Joshua fulfilled scrupulously. He had hesitated for a
moment whether to aid the Gibeonites in their distress, but the words of God
sufficed to recall him to his duty. God said to him: “If thou dost not bring
near them that are far off, thou wilt remove them that are near by.” (37) God
granted Joshua peculiar favor in his conflict with the assailants of the
Gibeonites. The hot hailstones which, at Moses’ intercession, had remained
suspended in the air when they were about to fall upon the Egyptians, were now
cast down upon the Canaanites. (38) Then happened the great wonder of the sun’s
standing still, the sixth (39) of the great wonders since the creation of the
world.

The battle took place on a Friday. Joshua knew it would pain the people deeply
to be compelled to desecrate the holy Sabbath day. Besides, he noticed that the
heathen were using sorcery to make the heavenly hosts intercede for them in the
fight against the Israelites. He, therefore, pronounced the Name of the Lord,
and the sun, moon and stars stood still. (40) The sun at first refused to obey
Joshua’s behest, seeing that he was older than man by two days. Joshua replied
that there was no reason why a free-born youth should refrain from enjoining
silence upon an old slave whom he owns, and had not God given heaven and earth
to our father Abraham? (41) Nay, more than this, had not the sun himself bowed
down like a slave before Joseph? “But,” said the sun, “who will praise God if I
am silent?” (42) Whereupon Joshua: “Be thou silent, and I will intone a song of
praise.” (43) And he sang thus:

1. Thou hast done mighty things, O Lord, Thou has performed great deeds. Who is
like unto Thee? My lips shall sing unto Thy name.

2. My goodness and my fortress, my refuge, I will sing a new song unto Thee,
with thanksgiving I will sing unto Thee, Thou art the strength of my salvation.

3. All the kings of the earth shall praise Thee, the princes of the world shall
sing unto Thee, the children of Israel shall rejoice in Thy salvation, they
shall sing and praise Thy power.

4. In Thee, O God, did we trust; we said, Thou art our God, for Thou wast our
shelter and our strong tower against our enemies.

5. To Thee we cried, and we were not ashamed; in Thee we trusted, and we were
delivered; when we cried unto Thee, Thou didst hear our voice, Thou didst
deliver our souls from the sword.

6. Thou hast shown unto us Thy mercy, Thou didst give unto us Thy salvation,
Thou didst rejoice our hearts with Thy strength.

7. Thou wentest forth for our salvation; with the strength of Thy arm Thou
didst redeem Thy people; Thou did console us from the heavens of Thy holiness,
Thou didst save us from tens of thousands.

8. Sun and moon stood still in heaven, and Thou didst stand in Thy wrath
against our oppressors, and Thou didst execute Thy judgements upon them.

9. All the princes of the earth stood up, the kings of the nations had gathered
themselves together, they were not moved at Thy presence, they desired Thy
battles.

10. Thou didst rise against them in Thine anger, and Thou didst bring down Thy
wrath upon them, Thou didst destroy them in Thy fury, and Thou didst ruin them
in Thy rage.

11. Nations raged from fear of Thee, kingdoms tottered because of Thy wrath,
Thou didst wound kings in the day of Thine anger.

12. Thou didst pour out Thy fury upon them, Thy wrathful anger took hold of
them, Thou didst turn their iniquity upon them, and Thou didst cut them off in
their wickedness.

13. They spread a trap, they fell therein, in the net they hid their foot was
caught.

14. Thine hand found all Thine enemies, who said, through their sword they
possessed the land, through their arm thy dwelt in the city.

15. Thou didst fill their faces with shame, Thou didst bring their horns down
to the ground.

16. Thou didst terrify them in Thy wrath, and thou didst destroy them from
before Thee.

17. The earth quaked and trembled from the noise of Thy thunder against them;
Thou didst not withhold their souls from earth, and Thou didst bring down their
lives to the grave.

18. Thou didst pursue them in Thy storm, Thou didst consume them in the
whirlwind, Thou didst turn their rain into hail, they fell in floods, so that
they could not rise.

19. Their carcasses were like rubbish cast out in the middle of the streets.

20. They were consumed, and they perished before Thee, Thou hast delivered Thy
people in Thy might.

21. Therefore our hearts rejoice in Thee, our souls exult in Thy salvation.

22. Our tongues shall relate Thy might, we will sing and praise Thy wondrous
works.

23. For Thou didst save us from our enemies, Thou didst deliver us from those
who rose up against us, Thou didst destroy them from before us, and depress
them beneath our feet.

24. Thus shall all Thine enemies perish, O Lord, and the wicked shall be like
chaff driven by the wind, and Thy beloved shall be like trees planted by the
waters. (44)

WAR WITH THE ARMENIANS

Joshua’s victorious course did not end with the conquest of the land. His war
with the Armenians, after Palestine was subdued, marked the climax of his
heroic deeds. Among the thirty-one kings whom Joshua had slain, there was one
whose son, Shobach by name, was king of Armenia. With the purpose of waging war
with Joshua, he united the forty-five kings of Persia and Media, and they were
joined by the renowned hero Japheth. The allied kings in a letter informed
Joshua of their design against him as follow: “The noble, distinguished council
of the kings of Persia and Media to Joshua, peace! Thou wolf of the desert, we
well know what thou didst to our kinsmen. Thou didst destroy our palaces;
without pity thou didst slay young and old; our fathers thou didst mow down
with the sword; and their cities thou didst turn into desert. Know, then, that
in the space of thirty days, we shall come to thee, we, the forty-five kings,
each having sixty thousand warriors under him, all them armed with bows and
arrows, girt about with swords, all of us skilled in the ways of war, and with
us the hero Japheth. Prepare now for the combat, and say not afterward that we
took thee at unawares.”

The messenger bearing the letter arrived on the day before the Feast of Weeks.
Although Joshua was greatly wrought up by the contents of the letter, he kept
his counsel until after the feast, in order not to disturb the rejoicing of the
people. Then, at the conclusion of the feast, he told the people of the message
that had reached him, so terrifying that even he, the veteran warrior, trembled
at the heralded approach of the enemy. Nevertheless Joshua determined to accept
the challenge. From the first words his reply was framed to show the heathen
how little their fear possessed him whose trust was set in God. The
introduction to his epistle reads as follows: “In the Name of the Lord, the God
of Israel, who saps the strength of the iniquitous warrior, and slays the
rebellious sinner. He breaks up the assemblies of marauding transgressors, and
He gathers together in council the pious and the just scattered abroad, He the
God of all gods, the Lord of all lords, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God is the Lord of war! From me, Joshua, the servant of God, and from the holy
and chosen congregation to the impious nations, who pay worship to images, and
prostrate themselves before idols: No peace unto you, saith my God! Know that
ye acted foolishly to awaken the slumbering lion, to rouse up the lion’s whelp,
to excite his wrath. I am ready to pay you your recompense. Be ye prepared to
meet me, for within a week I shall be with you to slay your warriors to a man.”

Joshua goes on to recite all the wonders God had done for Israel, who need fear
no power on earth; and he ends his missive with the words: “If the hero Japheth
is with you, we have in the midst of us the Hero of heroes, the Highest above
all the high.”

The heathen were not a little alarmed at the tone of Joshua’s letter. Their
terror grew when the messenger told of the exemplary discipline maintained in
the Isrealitish army, of the gigantic stature of Joshua, who stood five ells
high, of his royal apparel, of his crown graven with the Name of God. At the
end of seven days Joshua appeared with twelve thousand troops. When the mother
of King Shobach, who was a powerful witch, espied the host, she exercised her
magic art, and enclosed the Isrealitish army in seven walls. Joshua thereupon
sent forth a carrier pigeon to communicate his plight to Nabiah, the king of
the trans-Jordanic tribes. He urged him to hasten to his help and bring the
priest Phinehas and the sacred trumpets with him. Nabiah did not tarry. Before
the relief detachment arrived, his mother reported to Shobach that she beheld a
star arise out of the East against which her machinations were vain. Shobach
threw his mother from the wall, and he himself was soon afterward killed by
Nabiah. Meantime Phinehas arrived, and, at the sound of his trumpets, the wall
toppled down. A pitched battle ensued, and the heathen were annihilated. (45)

ALLOTMENT OF THE LAND

At the end of seven years of warfare, (46) Joshua could at last venture to
parcel out the conquered land among the tribes. This was the way he did it. The
high priest Eleazar, attended by Joshua and all the people, and arrayed in the
Urim and Thummim, stood before two urns. One of the urns contained the names of
the tribes, the other the names of the districts into which the land was
divided. The holy spirit caused him to exclaims “Zebulon.” When he put his hand
into the first urn, lo, he drew forth the word Zebulon, and from the other came
the word Accho, meaning the district of Accho. Thus it happened with each tribe
in succession. (47) In order that the boundaries might remain fixed, Joshua had
had the Hazubah (48) planted between the districts. The rootstock of this plant
once established in a spot, it can be extirpated only with the greatest
difficulty. The plough may draw deep furrows over it, yet it puts forth new
shoots, and grows up again amid the grain, still marking the old division
lines. (49)

In connection with the allotment of the land Joshua issued ten ordinances
intended, in a measure, to restrict the rights in private property: Pasturage
in the woods was to be free to the public at large. Any one was permitted to
gather up bits of wood in the field. The same permission to gather up all
grasses, wherever they might grow, unless they were in a field that had been
sown with fenugreek, which needs grass for protection. For grafting purposes
twigs could be cut from any plant except the olive-trees. Water springs
belonged to the whole town. It was lawful for any one to catch fish in the Sea
of Tiberias, provided navigation was not impeded. The area adjacent to the
outer side of a fence about a field might be used by any passer-by to ease
nature. From the close of the harvest until the seventeenth day of Marheshwan
fields could be crossed. A traveler who lost his way among vineyards could not
be held responsible for the damage done in the effort to recover the right
path. A dead body found in a field was to be buried on the spot where it was
found. (50)

The allotment of the land to the tribes and subdividing each district among the
tribesmen took as much time as the conquest of the land. (51)

When the two tribes and a half from the land beyond Jordan returned home after
an absence of fourteen years, they were not a little astonished to hear that
the boys who had been too young to go to the wars with them had in the meantime
shown themselves worthy of the fathers. They had been successful in repulsing
the Ishmaelitish tribes who had taken advantage of the absence of the men
capable of bearing arms to assault their wives and children. (52)

After a leadership of twenty-eight years (53), marked with success (54) in war
and in peace, Joshua departed this life. His followers laid the knives he had
used in circumcising the Israelites (55) into his grave, and over it they
erected a pillar as a memorial of the great wonder of the sun’s standing still
over Ajalon. (56) However, the mourning for Joshua was not so great as might
justly have been expected. The cultivation of the recently conquered land so
occupied the attention of the tribes that they came nigh forgetting the man to
whom chiefly they owed their possession of it. As a punishment for their
ingratitude, God, soon after Joshua’s death, brought also the life of the high
priest Eleazar and of the other elders to a close, and the mount on which
Joshua’s body was interred began to tremble, and threatened to engulf the Jews.
(57)

II.
THE JUDGES

THE FIRST JUDGE

After the death of Joshua the Israelites inquired to God whether they were to
go up against the Canaanites in war. They were given the answer: “If ye are
pure of heart, go forth unto the combat; but if your hearts are sullied with
sin, then refrain.” They inquired furthermore how to test the heart of the
people. God ordered them to cast lots and set apart those designated by lot,
for they would be the sinful among them. Again, when the people besought God to
give it a guide and leader, an angel answered: “Cast lots in the tribe of
Caleb.” The lot designated Kenaz, and he was made prince over Israel. (1)

His first act was to determine by lot who were the sinners in Israel, and what
their inward thought. He declared before the people: “If I and my house be set
apart by lot, deal with us as we deserve, burn us with fire.” The people
assenting, lots were cast, and 345 of the tribe of Judah were singled out, 560
of Reuben, 775 of Simon, 150 of Levi, 665 of Issachar, 545 of Zebulon, 380 of
Gad, and 665 of Asher, 480 of Manasseh, 448 of Ephraim, and 267 of Benhamin.
(2) So 6110 (3) persons were confined in prison, until God should let it be
know what was to be done with them. The united prayers of Kenaz, Eleazar the
high priest, and the elders of the congregation, were answered thus: “Ask these
men now to confess their iniquity, and they shall be burnt with fire.” Kenaz
thereupon exhorted them: “Ye know that Achan, the son of Zabdi, committed the
trespass of taking the anathema, but the lot fell upon him, and he confessed
his sin. Do ye likewise confess your sins, that ye may come to life with those
whom God will revive on the day of the resurrection.” (4)

One of the sinful, a man by the name of Elah, (5) said in reply thereto: “If
thou desirest to bring forth the truth, address thyself to each of the tribes
separately.” (6) Kenaz began with his own, the tribe of Judah. The wicked of
Judah confessed to the sin of worshipping the golden calf, like unto their
forefathers in the desert. The Reubenites had burnt sacrifices to idols. The
Levites said: “We desired to prove whether the Tabernacle is holy.” Those of
the tribe of Issachar replied: “We consulted idols to know what will become of
us.” (7) The sinners of Zebulon: “We desired to eat the flesh of our sons and
daughters, to know whether the Lord loves them.” The Danites admitted, they had
taught their children out of the books of the Amorites, which they had hidden
then under Mount Abarim, (8) where Kenaz actually found them. The Naphtalites
confessed to the same transgression, only they had concealed the books in the
tent of Elah, and there they were found by Kenaz. The Gadites acknowledged
having led an immoral life, and the sinners of Asher, that they had found, and
had hidden under Mount Shechem, the seven golden idols called by the Amorites
the holy nymphs the same seven idols which had been made in a miraculous way
after the deluge by the seven sinners, Canaan, Put, Shelah, Nimrod, Elath,
Diul, and Shuah. (9) They were of precious stones from Havilah, which radiated
light, making night bright as day. Besides, they possessed a rare virtue: if a
blind Amorite kissed one of the idols, and at the same time touched its eyes,
his sight was restored. (10) After the sinners of Asher, those of Manasseh made
their confession they had desecrated the Sabbath. The Ephraimites owned to
having sacrificed their children to Moloch. Finally, the Benjamites said: “We
desired to prove whether the law emanated from God or from Moses.”

At the command of God these sinners and all their possessions were burnt with
fire at the brook of Pishon. Only the Amorite books and the idols of precious
stones remained unscathed. Neither fire nor water could do them harm. Kenaz
decided to consecrate the idols to God, but a revelation came to him, saying:
“If God were to accept what has been declared anathema, why should not man?” He
was assured that God would destroy the things over which human hands had no
power. Kenaz, acting under Divine instruction, bore them to the summit of a
mountain, where an altar was erected. The books and the idols were placed upon
it, and the people offered many sacrifices and celebrated the whole day as a
festival. During the night following, Kenaz saw dew rise from the ice in
Paradise and descend upon the books. The letters of their writing were
obliterated by it, and then an angel came and annihilated what was left. (11)
During the same night an angel carried off the seven gems, and threw them to
the bottom of the sea. Meanwhile a second angel brought twelve other gems,
engraving the names of the twelve sons of Jacob upon them, one name upon each.
No two of these gems were alike: (12) the first, to bear the name of Reuben,
was like sardius; the second, for Simon, like topaz; the third, Levi, like
emerald; the fourth, Judah, like carbuncle; the fifth, Issachar, like sapphire;
the sixth, Zebulon, like jasper; the seventh, Dan, like ligure; the eighth,
Naphtali, like amethyst; the ninth, Gad, like agate; the tenth, Asher, like
chrysolite; the eleventh, Joseph, like beryl; and the twelfth, Benjamin, like
onyx.

Now God commanded Kenaz to deposit twelve stones in the holy Ark, and there
they were to remain until such time as Solomon should build the Temple, and
attach them to the Cherubim. (13) Furthermore, this Divine communication was
made to Kenaz: “And it shall come to pass, when the sin of the children of men
shall have been completed by defiling My Temple, the Temple they themselves
shall build, that I will take these stones, together with the tables of the
law, and put them in the place whence they were removed of old, and there they
shall remain until the end of all time, when I will visit the inhabitants of
the earth. Then I will take them up, and they shall be an everlasting light to
those who love me and keep my commandments.” (14)

When Kenaz bore the stones to the sanctuary, they illumined the earth like unto
the sun at midday.

CAMPAIGNS OF KENAZ

After these preparations Kenaz took the field against the enemy, with three
hundred thousand men. (15) The first day he slew eight thousand of the foe, and
the second day five thousand. But not all the people were devoted to Kenaz.
Some murmured against him, and calumniating him, said: “Kenaz stays at home,
while we expose ourselves on the field.” The servants of Kenaz reported these
words to him. He ordered the thirty-seven (16) men who had railed against him
to be incarcerated, and he swore to kill them, if God would but grant him
assistance for the sake of His people.

Thereupon he assembled three hundred men of his attendants, supplied them with
horses, and bade them be prepared to make a sudden attack during the night, but
to tell none of the plans he harbored in his mind. The scouts sent ahead to
reconnoitre reported that the Amorites were too powerful for him to risk an
engagement. Kenaz, however, refused to be turned away from his intention. At
midnight he and his three hundred trusty attendants advanced upon the Amorite
camp. Close upon it, he commanded his men to halt, but to resume their march
and follow him when they should hear the notes of the trumpet. If the trumpet
was not sounded, they were to return home.

Alone Kenaz ventured into the very camp of the enemy. Praying to God fervently,
he asked that a sign be given him: “Let this be the sign of the salvation Thou
wilt accomplish for me this day: I shall draw my sword from its sheath, and
brandish it so that it glitters in the camp of the Amorites. If the enemy
recognize it as the sword of Kenaz, then I shall know Thou wilt deliver them
into my hand; if not, I shall understand Thou hast not granted my prayer, but
dost purpose to deliver me into the hand of the enemy for my sins.”

He heard the Amorites say: “Let us proceed to give battle to the Israelites,
for our sacred gods, the nymphs, are in their hands, and will cause their
defeat.” When he heard these words, the spirit of God came over Kenaz. He arose
and swung his sword above his head. Scarce had the Amorites seen it gleam in
the air when they exclaimed: “Verily, this is the sword of Kenaz, who has come
to inflict wounds and pain. But we know that our gods, who are held by the
Israelites, will deliver them into our hands. Up, then, to battle!” Knowing
that God had heard his petition, Kenaz threw himself upon the Amorites, and
mowed down forty-five thousand of them, and as many perished at the hands of
their own brethren, for God had sent the angel Gabriel (17) to his aid, and he
had struck the Amorites blind, so that they fell upon one another. On account
of the vigorous blows dealt by Kenaz on all sides, his sword stuck to his hand.
A fleeing Amorite, whom he stopped, to ask him how to loose it, advised him to
slay a Hebrew, and let his warm blood flow over his hand. Kenaz accepted his
advice, but only in part: instead of a Hebrew, he slew the Amorite himself, and
his blood freed his hand from the sword. (18)

When Kenaz came back to his men, he found them sunk in profound sleep, which
had overtaken them that they might not see the wonders done for their leader.
They were not a little astonished, on awakening, to behold the whole plain
strewn with the dead bodies of the Amorites. Then Kenaz said to them: “Are the
ways of God like unto the ways of man? Through me the Lord hath sent
deliverance to this people. Arise now and go back to your tents.” The people
recognized that a great miracle had happened, and they said: “Now we know that
God hath wrought salvation for His people; He hath no need of numbers, but only
of holiness.”

On his return from the campaign, Kenaz was received with great rejoicing. The
whole people now gave thanks to God for having put him over them as their
leader. They desired to know how he had won the great victory. Kenaz only
answered: “Ask those who were with me about my deeds.” His men were thus forced
to confess that they knew nothing, only, on awakening, they had seen the plain
full of dead bodies, without being able to account for their being there. Then
Kenaz turned to the thirty-seven men imprisoned, before he left for the war,
for having cast aspersions upon him. “Well,” he said, “what charge have you to
make against me?” Seeing that death was inevitable, they confessed they were of
the sort of sinners whom Kenaz and the people had executed, and God had now
surrendered them to him on account of their misdeeds. They, too, were burnt
with fire.

Kenaz reigned for a period of fifty-seven years. When he felt his end draw
nigh, he summoned the two prophets, Phinehas and Jabez, (19) together with the
priest Phinehas, the son of Eleazar. To these he spake: “I know the heart of
this people, it will turn from following after the Lord. Therefore do I testify
against it.” Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, replied: “As Moses and Joshua
testified, so do I testify against it; for Moses and Joshua prophesied
concerning the vineyard, the beautiful planting of the Lord, which knew not who
had planted it, and did not recognize Him who cultivated it, so that the
vineyard was destroyed, and brought forth no fruit. These are the words my
father commanded me to say unto this people.”

Kenaz broke out into loud wailing, and with him the elders and the people, and
they wept until eventide, saying: “Is it for the iniquity of the sheep that the
shepherd must perish? May the Lord have compassion upon His inheritance that it
may not work in vain.”

The spirit of God descended upon Kenaz, and he beheld a vision. He prophesied
that this world would continue to exist only seven thousand years, to be
followed then by the Kingdom of Heaven. These words spoken, the prophetical
spirit departed from him, and he straightway forgot what he had uttered during
his vision. Before he passed away, he spoke once more, saying: “If such be the
rest which the righteous obtain after their death, it were better for them to
die than live in this corrupt world and see its iniquities.” (20)

As Kenaz left no male heirs, Zebul was appointed his successor. Mindful of the
great service Kenaz had performed for the nation, Zebul acted a father’s part
toward the three unmarried daughters of his predecessor. At his instance, the
people assigned a rich marriage portion to each of them; they were given great
domains as their property. The oldest of the three, Ethema by name, he married
to Elizaphan; the second, Pheila, to Odihel; and the youngest, Zilpah, to Doel.

Zebul, the judge, instituted a treasury at Shiloh. He bade the people bring
contributions, whether of gold or of silver. They were only to take heed not to
carry anything thither that had originally belonged to an idol. His efforts
were crowned with success. The free-will offerings to the temple treasure
amounted to twenty talents of gold and two hundred and fifty talents of silver.

Zebul’s reign lasted twenty-five years. Before his death he admonished the
people solemnly to be God-fearing and observant of the law. (21)

OTHNIEL

Othniel was a judge of a very different type. His contemporaries said, that
before the sun of Joshua went down, the sun of Othniel, his successor in the
leadership of the people , appeared on the horizon. The new leader’s real name
was Judah; Othniel was one of his epithets, as Jabez was another. (22)

Among the judges, Othniel represents the class of scholars. His acumen was so
great that he was able, by dint of dialect reasoning, to restore the seventeen
hundred traditions (23) which Moses had taught the people, and which had been
forgotten in the time of mourning for Moses. Nor was his zeal for the promotion
of the study of the Torah inferior to his learning. The descendants of Jethro
left Jericho, the district assigned to them, and journeyed to Arad, only that
thy might sit at the feed to Othniel. (24) His wife, the daughter of his
half-brother Caleb, was not so well pleased with him. She complained to her
father that her husband’s house was bare of all earthly goods, and his only
possession was knowledge of the Torah. (25)

The first event to be noted in Othniel’s forty years’ reign (26) is his victory
over Adoni-bezek. This chief did not occupy a prominent position among the
Canaanitish rulers. He was not even accounted a king, nevertheless he had
conquered seventy foreign kings. (27) The next event was the capture of Luz by
the Israelites. The only way to gain entrance into Luz was by a cave, and the
road to the cave lay through a hollow almond tree. If the secret approach to
the city had not been betrayed by one of its residents, it would have been
impossible for the Israelites to reach it. God rewarded the informer who put
the Israelites in the way of capturing Luz. The city he founded was left
unmolested both by Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar, and not event the Angel of
Death has power over its inhabitants. They never die, unless, weary of life,
they leave the city. (28)

The same good fortune did not mark Othniel’s reign throughout. For eight years
Israel suffered oppression at the hands of Cushan, the evil-doer who in former
days had threatened to destroy the patriarch Jacob, as he was now endeavoring
to destroy the descendants of Jacob, for Cushan is only another name for Laban.
(29)

Othniel, however, was held so little answerable for the causes that had brought
on the punishment of the people, that God granted him eternal life; he is one
of the few who reached Paradise alive. (30)

BOAZ AND RUTH

The story of Ruth came to pass a hundred (31) years after Othniel’s reign.
Conditions in Palestine were of such a nature that if a judge said to a man,
“Remove the mote from thine eye,” his reply was, “Do thou remove the beam from
thine own.” (32) To chastise the Israelites God sent down them one of the ten
seasons of famine which He had ordained, as disciplinary measures for mankind,
from the creation of the world until the advent of Messiah. (33) Elimelech (34)
and his sons, (35) who belonged to the aristocracy of the land, attempted
neither to improve (36) the sinful generation whose transgressions had called
forth the famine, nor alleviated the distress that prevailed about them. They
left Palestine, and thus withdrew themselves from the needy who had counted
upon their help. They turned their faced to Moab. (37) There, on account of
their wealth and high descent, they were made officers in the army. (38) Mahlon
and Chilion, the sons of Elimelech, rose to still higher distinction, they
married the daughters of the Moabite king Eglon (39) But this did not happen
until after the death of Elimelech, who was opposed to intermarriage with the
heathen. (40) Neither the wealth nor the family connections of the two men
helped them before God. First they sank into poverty, and, as they continued in
their sinful ways, God took their life. (41)

Naomi, their mother, resolved to return to her home. Her two daughters-in-law
were very dear to her on account of the love they had borne her sons, a love
strong even in death, for they refused to marry again. (42) Yet she would not
take them with her to Palestine, because she foresaw contemptuous treatment in
store for them as Moabitish women. (43) Orpah was easily persuaded to remain
behind. She accompanied her mother-in-law a distance of four miles, and then
she took leave of her, shedding only four tears as she bade her farewell.
Subsequent events showed that she had not been worthy of entering into the
Jewish communion, for scarcely had she separated from Naomi when she abandoned
herself to an immoral life. But with God nothing goes unrewarded. For the four
miles which Orpah travelled with Naomi, she was recompensed by bringing forth
four giants, Goliath and his three brothers. (44)

Ruth’s bearing and history were far different. She was determined to become a
Jewess, and her decision could not be shaken by what Naomi, in compliance with
the Jewish injunction, told her of the difficulties of the Jewish law. Naomi
warned her that the Israelites had been enjoined to keep Sabbaths and feast
days, (45) and that the daughters of Israel were not in the habit of
frequenting the threatres and circuses of the heathen. Ruth only affirmed her
readiness to follow Jewish customs. (46) And when Naomi said: “We have one
Torah, one law, one command; the Eternal our God is one, there is none beside
Him,” Ruth answered: “Thy people shall be my people, thy God my God.” (47) So
the two women journeyed together to Bethlehem. They arrived there on the very
day on which the wife of Boaz was buried, and the concourse assembled for the
funeral saw Naomi as she returned to her home. (48)

Ruth supported herself and her mother-in-law sparsely with the ears of grain
which she gathered in the fields. Association with so pious a woman as Naomi
(49) had already exercised great influence upon her life and ways. Boaz was
astonished to notice that if the reapers let more than two ears fall, in spite
of her need she did not pick them up, for the gleaning assigned to the poor by
law does not refer to quantities of more than two ears inadvertently dropped at
one time. (50) Boaz also admired her grace, her decorous conduct, her modest
demeanor. (51) When he learned who she was, he commended her for her attachment
to Judaism. To his praise she returned: “Thy ancestors found no delight even in
Timna, (52) the daughter of a royal house. As for me, I am a member of a low
people, abominated by thy God, and excluded from the assembly of Israel.” For
the moment Boaz failed to recollect the Halakah bearing on the Moabites and
Ammonites. A voice from heaven reminded him that only their males were affected
by the command of exclusion. (53) This he told to Ruth, and he also told her of
a vision he had had concerning her descendants. For the sake of the good she
had done to her mother-in-law, kings and prophets would spring from her womb.
(54)

Boaz showed kindness not only to Ruth and Naomi, but also to their dead. He
took upon himself the decent burial of the remains of Elimelech and his two
sons. (55) All this begot in Naomi the thought that Boaz harbored the intention
of marrying Ruth. She sought to coax the secret, if such there was, from Ruth.
(56) When she found that nothing could be elicited from her daughter-in-law,
she made Ruth her partner in a plan to force Boaz into a decisive step. Ruth
adhered to Naomi’s directions in every particular, except that she did not wash
and anoint herself and put on fine raiment, until after she had reached her
destination. She feared to attract the attention of the lustful, if she walked
along the road decked out in unusual finery. (57)

The moral conditions in those days were very reprehensible. Though Boaz was
high-born and a man of substance, yet he slept on the threshing-floor, so that
his presence might act as a check upon profligacy. In the midst of his sleep,
Boaz was startled to find some one next to him. At first he thought it was a
demon. Ruth calmed his disquietude (58) with these words: “Thou art the head of
the court, thy ancestors were princes, thou art thyself an honorable man, and a
kinsman of my dead husband. As for me, who am in the flower of my years, since
I left the home of my parents where homage is rendered unto idols, I have been
constantly menaced by the dissolute young men around. (59) So I have come
hither that thou, who art the redeemer, mayest spread out thy skirt over me.”
(60) Boaz gave her the assurance that if his older brother Tob (61) failed her,
he would assume the duties of a redeemer. The next day he came before the
tribunal of the Sanhedrin (62) to have the matter adjusted. Tob soon made his
appearance, for an angel led him to the place where he was wanted, (63) that
Boaz and Ruth might not have long to wait. Tob, who was not learned in the
Torah, did not know that the prohibition against the Moabites had reference
only to males. Therefore, he declined to marry Ruth. (64) So she was taken to
wife (65) by the octogenarian (66) Boaz. Ruth herself was forty years old (67)
at the time of her second marriage, and it was against all expectations that
her union with Boaz should be blessed with offspring, a son Obed the pious.
(68) Ruth lived to see the glory of Solomon, but Boaz died on the day after the
wedding. (69)

DEBORAH

Not long after Ruth, another ideal woman arose in Israel, the prophetess
Deborah.

When Ehud died, there was none to take his place as judge, and the people fell
off from God and His law. God, therefore, sent an angel to them with the
following message: “Out of all the nations on earth, I chose a people for
Myself, and I thought, so long as the world stands, My glory will rest upon
them. I sent Moses unto them, My servant, to teach them goodness and
righteousness. But they strayed from My ways. And now I will arouse their
enemies against them, to rule over them, and they will cry out: ‘Because we
forsook the ways of our fathers, hath this come over us.’ Then I will send a
woman unto them, and she will shine for them as a light for forty years.” (70)

The enemy whom God raised up against Israel was Jabin, (71) the king of Hazor,
who oppressed him sorely. But worse than the king himself was his general
Sisera, one of the greatest heroes know to history. When he was thirty years
old, he had conquered the whole world. At the sound of his voice the strongest
of walls fell in a heap, and the wild animals in the woods were chained to the
spot by fear. The proportions of his body were vast beyond description. If he
took a bath in the river, and dived beneath the surface, enough fish were
caught in his beard to feed a multitude, and it required no less than nine
hundred horses to draw the chariot in which he rode. (72)

To rid Israel of this tyrant, God appointed Deborah and her husband Barak.
Barak was an ignoramus, like most of his contemporaries. It was a time
singularly deficient to scholars. (73) In order to do something meritorious in
connection with the Divine service, he carried candles, at his wife’s instance,
to the sanctuary, wherefrom he was called Lipidoth, “Flames.” Deborah was in
the habit of making the wicks on the candles very thick, so that they might
burn a long time. Therefore God distinguished her. He said: “Thou takest pains
to shed light in My house, and I will let thy light, thy flame, shine abroad in
the whole land.” Thus it happened that Deborah became a prophetess and a judge.
She dispensed judgement in the open air, for it was not becoming that men
should visit a woman in her house. (74)

Prophetess though she was, she was yet subject to the frailties of her sex. Her
self-consciousness was inordinate. She sent for Barak (75) to come to her
instead of going to him, (76) and in her song she spoke more of herself than
was seemly. The result was that the prophetical spirit departed from her for a
time while she was composing her song. (77)

The salvation of Israel was effected only after the people, assembled on the
Mount of Judah, had confessed their sins publicly before God and besought His
help. A seven days’ fast was proclaimed for men and women, for young and old.
Then God resolved to help the Israelites, not for their sakes, but for the sake
of keeping the oath he had sworn to their forefathers, never to abandon their
seed. Therefore He sent Deborah unto them. (78)

The task allotted to Deborah and Barak, to lead the attack upon Sisera, was by
no means slight. It is comparable with nothing less than Joshua’s undertaking
to conquer Canaan. Joshua had triumphed over only thirty-one of the sixty-two
kings of Palestine, leaving at large as many as he had subdued. Under the
leadership of Sisera these thirty-one unconquered kings opposed Israel. (79) No
less than forty thousand armies, each counting a hundred thousand warriors,
were arrayed against Deborah and Barak. (80) God aided Israel with water and
fire. The river Kishon and all the fiery hosts of heaven (81) except the star
Meros (82) fought against Sisera. The Kishon had long before been pledged to
play its part in Sisera’s overthrow. When the Egyptians were drowned in the Red
Sea, God commanded the Angel of the Sea to cast their corpses on the land, that
the Israelites might convince themselves of the destruction of their foes, and
those of little faith might not say afterward that the Egyptians like the
Israelites had reached dry land. The Angel of the Sea complained of the
impropriety of withdrawing a gift. God mollified him with the promise of future
compensation. The Kishon was offered as security that he would received half as
many bodies again as he was now giving up. When Sisera’s troops sought relief
from the scorching fire of the heavenly bodies in the coolness of the waters of
the Kishon, God commanded the river to redeem its pledge. And so the heathen
were swept down into the Sea by the waves of the river Kishon, whereat the
fishes in the Sea exclaimed: “And the truth of the Lord endureth forever.” (83)

Sisera’s lot was no better than the lot of the men. He fled from the battle on
horseback (84) after witnessing the annihilation of his vast army. When Jael
saw him approach, she went to meet him arrayed in rich garments and jewels. She
was unusually beautiful, and her voice was the most seductive ever a woman
possessed. (85) These are the words she addressed to him: “Enter and refresh
thyself with food, and sleep until evening, and then I will send my attendants
with thee to accompany thee, for I know thou wilt not forget me, and thy
recompense will not fail.” When Sisera, on stepping into her tent, saw the bed
strewn with roses which Jael had prepared for him, he resolved to take her home
to his mother as his wife, as soon as his safety should be assured.

He asked her for milk to drink, saying: “My soul burns with the flame which I
saw in the stars contending for Israel.” Jael went forth to milk her goat,
meantime supplicating God to grant her His help: “I pray to Thee, O Lord, to
strengthen Thy maid-servant against the enemy. By this token shall I know that
Thou wilt aid me if, when I enter the house, Sisera will awaken and ask for
water to drink.” Scarcely had Jael crossed the threshold when Sisera awakened
and begged for water to quench his burning thirst. Jael gave him wine mixed
with water, which caused him to drop into a sound sleep again. The woman then
took a wooden spike in her left hand, approached the sleeping warrior, and
said: “This shall be the sign that Thou wilt deliver him into my hand if I
draw him from the bed down on the ground without awaking him.” She tugged at
Sisera, and in very truth he did not awaken even when he dropped from the bed
to the floor. Then Jael prayed: “O God, strengthen the arm of Thy maid-servant
this day, for Thy sake, for the sake of Thy people, and for the sake of those
that hope in Thee.” With a hammer she drove the spike into the temple of
Sisera, who cried out as he was expiring: “O that I should lose my life by the
hand of a woman!” Jael’s mocking retort was: “Descend to hell and join thy
fathers, and tell them that thou didst fall by the hand of a woman.” (86)

Barak took charge of the body of the dead warrior, and he sent it to Sisera’s
mother, Themac, (87) with the message: “Here is thy son, whom thou didst expect
to see returning laden with booty.” He had in mind the vision of Themac and her
women-in-waiting. When Sisera went forth to battle, their conjuring tricks had
shown him to them as he lay on the bed of a Jewish woman. This they had
interpreted to mean that he would return with Jewish captives. “One damsel, two
damsels for ever man.” (88) they had said. Great, therefore, was the
disappointment of Sisera’s mother. No less than a hundred cries did she utter
over him. (89)

Deborah and Barak thereupon intoned a song of praise, thanking God for the
deliverance of Israel out of the power of Sisera, and reviewing the history of
the people since the time of Abraham. (90)

After laboring for the weal of her nation for forty years, Deborah departed
this life. Her last words to the weeping people were an exhortation not to
depend upon the dead. They can do nothing for the living. So long as a man is
alive, his prayers are efficacious for himself and for others. They avail
naught once he is dead.

The whole nation kept a seventy days’ period of mourning in honor of Deborah,
and the land was at peace for seven years. (91)

GIDEON

Elated by the victory over Sisera, Israel sang a hymn of praise, the song of
Deborah, and God, to reward them for their pious sentiments, pardoned the
transgression of the people. (92) But they soon slipped back into the old ways,
and the old troubles harassed them. Their backsliding was due to the witchcraft
of a Midianite priest named Aud. He made the sun shine at midnight, and so
convinced the Israelites that the idols of Midian were mightier than God, and
God chastised them by delivering them into the hands of the Midianties. (93)
They worshipped their own images reflected in the water, (94) and they were
stricken with dire poverty. They could not bring so much as a meal offering,
the offering of the poor. (95) On the eve of one Passover, Gideon uttered the
complaint: “Where are all the wondrous works which God did for our fathers in
this night, when he slew the first-born of the Egyptians, and Israel went forth
from slavery with joyous hearts?” God appeared unto him, and said: “Thou who
art courageous enough to champion Israel, thou art worthy that Israel should be
saved for thy sake.” (96)

An angel appeared, and Gideon begged him for a sign, that he would achieve the
deliverance of Israel. He excused his petition with the precedent of Moses, the
first prophet, who likewise has asked for a sign. The angel bade him pour water
on the rock, and then gave him the choice of how he would have the water
transformed. Gideon desired to see one-half changed into blood, and one-half
into fire. Thus it happened. The blood and the fire mingled with each other,
yet the blood did not quench the fire, nor did the fire dry out the blood.
Encouraged by this and other signs, (97) Gideon undertook to carry on the war
against the Midianites with a band of three hundred God-fearing men, and he was
successful. Of the enemy one hundred and twenty thousand corpses covered the
field, and all the rest fled precipitately. (98)

Gideon enjoyed the privilege of bringing salvation to Israel because he was a
good son. His old father feared to thresh his grain on account of the
Midianites, and Gideon once went out to him in the field and said: “Father,
thou art too old to do this work; go thou home, and I shall finish thy task for
thee. If the Midianites should surprise me out here, I can run away, which thou
canst not do, on account of thy age.” (99)

The day on which Gideon gained his great victory was during the Passover, and
the cake of barley bread that turned the camp of the enemy upside down, of
which the Midianite dreamed, was a sign that God would espouse the cause of His
people to reward them for bringing a cake of barley bread as an ‘Omer offering.
(100)

After God had favored Israel with great help through him, Gideon had an ephod
made. In the high priest’s breastplate, Joseph was represented among the twelve
tribes by Ephraim alone, not by Manasseh, too. To wipe out this slight upon his
own tribe, Gideon made an ephod bearing the name of Manasseh. He consecrated it
to God, but after his death homage was paid to it as an idol. (101) In those
days the Israelites were so addicted to the worship of Beelzebub that they
constantly carried small images of this god with them in their pockets, and
every now and then they were in the habit of bringing the image forth and
kissing it fervently. (102) Of such idolaters were the vain and light fellows
who helped Abimelech, the son of Gideon by his concubine from Shechem, to
assassinate the other sons of his father. But God is just. As Abimelech
murdered his brothers upon a stone, so Abimelech himself met his death through
a millstone. It was proper, then, that Jotham, in his parable, should compare
Abimelech to a thorn-bush, while he characterized his predecessors, Othniel,
Deborah, and Gideon, as an olive-tree, or a fig-tree, or a vine. This Jotham,
the youngest of the sons of Gideon, was more than a teller of parables. He knew
then that long afterward the Samaritans would claim sanctity for Mount Gerizim,
on account of the blessing pronounced from it upon the tribe. For this reason
he chose Gerizim from which to hurl his curse upon Shechem and it inhabitants.
(103)

The successor to Abimelech equalled, if he did not surpass, him in wickedness.
Jair erected an altar unto Baal, and on penalty of death he forced the people
to prostrate themselves before it. Only seven men remained firm in the true
faith, and refused to the last to commit idolatry. Their names were Deuel, Abit
Yisreel, Jekuthiel, Shalom, Ashur, Jehonadab, and Shemiel. (104) They said to
Jair: “We are mindful of the lessons given us by our teachers and our mother
Deborah. ‘Take ye heed,’ they said, ‘that your heart lead you not astray to the
right or to the left. Day and night ye shall devote yourselves to the study of
the Torah.’ Why, then, dost thou seek to corrupt the people of the Lord,
saying, ‘Baal is God, let us worship him’? If he really is what thou sayest,
then let him speak like a god, and we will pay him worship.” For the blasphemy
they had uttered against Baal, Jair commanded that the seven men be burnt. When
his servants were about to carry out his order, God sent the angel Nathaniel,
the lord over the fire, and he extinguished the fire though not before the
servants of Jair were consumed by it. Not only did the seven men escape the
danger of suffering death by fire, but the angel enabled them to flee
unnoticed, by striking all the people present with blindness. Then the angel
approached Jair, and said to him: “Hear the words of the Lord ere thou diest. I
appointed thee as prince over my people, and thou didst break My covenant,
seduce My people, and seek to burn My servants with fire, but they were
animated and freed by the living, the heavenly fire. As for thee, thou wilt
die, and die by fire, a fire in which thou wilt abide forever.”

Thereupon the angel burnt him with a thousand men, whom he had taken in the act
of paying homage to Baal. (105)

JEPHTHAH

The first judge of any importance after Gideon was Jephthah. He, too, fell
short of being the ideal Jewish ruler. His father had married a woman of
another tribe, an unusual occurrence in a time when a woman who left her tribe
was held in contempt.(106) Jephthah, the offspring of this union, had to bear
the consequences of his mother’s irregular conduct. So many annoyances were put
upon him that he was forced to leave his home and settle in a heathen district.
(107)

At first Jephthah refused to accept the rulership which the people offered him
in an assembly at Mizpah, for he had not forgotten the wrongs to which he had
been subjected. In the end, however, he yielded, and placed himself at the head
of the people in the war against Getal, the king of the Ammonites. At his
departure, he vowed before God to sacrifice to Him whatsoever came forth out of
the doors of his house to meet him when he returned a victor from the war.

God was angry and said: “So Jephthah has vowed to offer unto me the first thing
that shall meet him! If a dog were the first to meet him, would a dog be
sacrificed to me? Now shall the vow of Jephthah be visited on his first-born,
on his own offspring, yea, his prayer shall be visited on his only daughter.
But I assuredly shall deliver my people, not for Jephthah’s sake, but for the
sake of the prayers of Israel.”

The first to meet him after his successful campaign was his daughter Sheilah.
Overwhelmed by anguish, the father cried out: “Rightly was the name Sheilah,
the one who is demanded, given to thee, that thou shouldst be offered up as a
sacrifice. Who shall set my heart in the balance and my soul as the weight,
that I may stand and see whether that which happened to me is joy or sorrow?
But because I opened my mouth to the Lord, and uttered a vow, I cannot take it
back.” Then Sheilah spoke, saying: “Why dost thou grieve for my death, since
the people was delivered? Dost thou not remember what happened in the day of
our forefathers, when the father offered his son as a burnt offering, and the
son did not refuse, but consented gladly, and the offerer and the offered were
both full of joy? Therefore, do as thou hast spoken. But before I die I will
ask a favor of thee. Grant me that I may go with my companions upon the
mountains, sojourn among the hills, and tread upon the rocks to shed my tears
and deposit there the grief for my lost youth. The trees of the field shall
weep for me, and the beasts of the field mourn for me. I do not grieve for my
death, nor because I have to yield up my life, but because when my father vowed
his heedless vow, he did not have me in mind. I fear, therefore, that I may not
be an acceptable sacrifice, and that my death shall be for nothing.” Sheilah
and her companions went forth and told her case to the sages of the people, but
none of them could give her any help. Then she went up to Mount Telag, where
the Lord appeared to her at night, saying unto her: “I have closed the mouth of
the sages of my people in this generation, that they cannot answer the daughter
of Jephthah a word; that my vow be fulfilled and nothing of what I have thought
remain undone. I know her to be wiser than her father, and all the wise men,
and now her soul shall be accepted at her request, and her death shall be very
precious before My face all the time.” Sheilah began to bewail her fate in
these words: “Hearken, ye mountains, to my lamentations, and ye hills, to the
tears of my eyes, and ye rocks, testify to the weeping of my soul. My words
will go up to heaven, and my tears will be written in the firmament. I have not
been granted the joy of wedding, nor was the wreath of my betrothal completed.
I have not been decked with ornaments, nor have I been scented with myrrh and
with aromatic perfumes. I have not been anointed with the oil that was prepared
for me. Alas, O mother, it was in vain thou didst give birth to me, the grave
was destined to be my bridal chamber. The oil thou didst prepare for me will be
spilled, and the white garments my mother sewed for me, the moth will eat them;
the bridal wreath my nurse wound for me will wither, and my garments in blue
and purple, the worms will destroy them, and my companions will all their days
lament over me. And now, ye trees, incline your branches and weep over my
youth; ye beasts of the forest, come and trample upon my virginity, for my
years are cut off, and the days of my life grow old in darkness.” (108)

Her lamentations were of as little avail as her arguments with her father. In
vain she sought to prove to him from the Torah that the law speaks only of
animal sacrifices, never of human sacrifices. In vain she cited the example of
Jacob, who had vowed to give God a tenth of all the possessions he owned, and
yet did not attempt later to sacrifice one of his sons. Jephthah was
inexorable. All he would yield was a respite during which his daughter might
visit various scholars, who were to decide whether he was bound by his vow.
According to the Torah his vow was entirely invalid. He was not even obliged to
pay his daughter’s value in money. But the scholars of his time had forgotten
this Halakah, and they decided that he must keep his vow. The forgetfulness of
the scholars was of God, ordained as a punishment upon Jephthah for having
slaughtered thousands of Ephraim.

One man there was living at the time who, if he had been questioned about the
case, would have been able to give a decision. This was the high priest
Phinehas. But he said proudly: “What! I, a high priest, the son of a high
priest, should humiliate myself and go to an ignoramus!” Jephthah on the other
hand said: “What! I, the chief of the tribes of Israel, the first prince of the
land, should humiliate myself and go to one of the rank and file!” So only the
rivalry between Jephthah and Phinehas caused the loss of a young life. Their
punishment did not miss them. Jephthah dies a horrible death. Limb by limb his
body was dismembered. As for the high priest, the holy spirit departed from
him, and he had to give up his priestly dignity. (109)

As it had been Jephthah’s task to ward off the Ammonites, so his successor
Abdon was occupied with protecting Israel against the Moabites. The king of
Moab sent messengers to Abdon, and they spoke thus: “Thou well knowest that
Israel took possession of cities that belonged to me. Return them.” Abdon’s
reply was: “Know ye not how the Ammonites fared? The measure of Moab’s sins, it
seems, out against the enemy, slew forty-five thousand of their number, and
routed the rest. (110)

SAMSON

The last judge but one, Samson, was not the most important of the judges, but
he was the greatest hero of the period and, except Goliath, the greatest hero
of all times. He was the son of Manoah of the tribe of Dan, and his wife
Zelalponit (111) of the tribe of Judah, (112) and he was born to them at a time
when they had given up all hope of having children. Samson’s birth is a
striking illustration of the shortsightedness of human beings. The judge Ibzan
had not invited Manoah and Zelalponit to any of the one hundred and twenty
feasts in honor of the marriage of his sixty children, which were celebrated at
his house and at the house of their parents-in-law, because he thought that
“the sterile she-mule” would never be in a position to repay his courtesy. It
turned out that Samson’s parents were blessed with an extraordinary son, while
Ibzan saw his sixty children die during his lifetime. (113)

Samson’s strength was superhuman, (114) and the dimensions of his body were
gigantic he measured sixty ells between the shoulders. Yet he had one
imperfection, he was maimed in both feet. (115) The first evidence of his
gigantic strength he gave when he uprooted two great mountains, and rubbed them
against each other. Such feats he was able to perform as often as the spirit of
God was poured out over him. Whenever this happened, it was indicated by his
hair. In began to move and emit a bell-like sound, which could be heard far
off. Besides, while the spirit rested upon him, he was able with one stride to
cover a distance equal to that between Zorah and Eshtaol. (116) It was Samson’s
supernatural strength that made Jacob think that he would be the Messiah. When
God showed him Samson’s latter end, then he realized that the new era would not
be ushered in by the hero-judge. (117)

Samson won his first victory over the Philistines by means of the jawbone of
the ass on which Abraham had made his way to Mount Moriah. It had been
preserved miraculously. (118) After this victory a great wonder befell. Samson
was at the point of perishing from thirst, when water began to flow from his
own mouth as from a spring. (119)

Besides physical prowess, Samson possessed also spiritual distinctions. He was
unselfish to the last degree. He had been of exceeding great help to the
Israelites, but he never asked the smallest service for himself. (120) When
Samson told Delilah that he was a “Nazarite unto God,” she was certain that he
had divulged the true secret of his strength. She knew his character too well
to entertain the idea that he would couple the name of God with an untruth.
There was a weak side to his character, too. He allowed sensual pleasures to
dominate him. The consequences was that “he who went astray after his eyes,
lost his eyes.” Even this severe punishment produced no change of heart. He
continued to lead his old life of profligacy in prison, and he was encouraged
thereto by the Philistines, who set aside all considerations of family purity
in the hope of descendants who should be the equals of Samson in giant strength
and stature. (121)

As throughout life Samson had given proofs of superhuman power, so in the
moment of death. He entreated God to realize in him the blessing of Jacob,
(122) and endow him with Divine strength. (123) He expired with these words
upon his lips: “O Master of the world! Vouchsafe unto me in this life a
recompense for the loss of one of my eyes. For the loss of the other I will
wait to be rewarded in the world to come.” Even after his death Samson was a
shield unto the Israelites. Fear of him had so cowed the Philistines that for
twenty years they did not dare attack the Israelites. (124)

THE CRIME OF THE BENJAMITES

A part of the money which Delilah received from the Philistine lords as the
price of Samson’s secret, she gave to her son Micah, and he used it to make an
idol for himself. (125) This sin was the more unpardonable as Micah owed his
life to a miracle performed by Moses. During the times of the Egyptian
oppression, if the prescribed number of bricks was not furnished by the
Israelites, their children were used as building material. Such would have been
Micah’s fate, if he had not been saved in a miraculous way. Moses wrote down
the Name of God, and put the words on Micah’s body. The dead boy came to life,
and Moses drew him out of the wall of which he made a part. (126) Micah did not
show himself worthy of the wonder done for him. Even before the Israelites left
Egypt, he made his idol, (127) and it was he who fashioned the golden calf. At
the time of Othniel the judge, (128) he took up his abode at a distance of not
more than three miles from the sanctuary at Shiloh, (129) and won over the
grandson of Moses (130) to officiate as priest before his idol.

The sanctuary which Micah erected harbored various idols. He had three images
of boys, and three of calves, one lion, an eagle, a dragon, and a dove. When a
man came who wanted a wife, he was directed to appeal to the dove. If riches
were his desire, he worshipped the eagle. For daughters both, to the calves; to
the lion for strength, and to the dragon for long life. Sacrifices and incense
alike were offered to these idols, and both had to be purchased with cash money
from Micah, even didrachms for a sacrifice, and one for incense. (131)

The rapid degeneration in the family of Moses may be accounted for by the fact
that Moses had married the daughter of a priest who ministered to idols. Yet,
the grandson of Moses was not an idolater of ordinary calibre. His sinful
conduct was not without a semblance of morality. From his grandfather he had
heard the rule that a man should do “Abodah Zarah” for hire rather than be
dependent upon his fellow-creatures. The meaning of “Abodah Zarah” here
naturally is “strange,” in the sense of “unusual” work, but he took the term in
its ordinary acceptation of “service of strange gods.” (132) So far from being
a whole-souled idolater, he adopted methods calculated to harm the cause of
idol worship. Whenever any one came leading an animal with the intention of
sacrificing it, he would say: “What good can the idol do thee? It can neither
see nor hear nor speak.” But as he was concerned about his won livelihood, and
did not want to offend the idolaters too grossly, he would continue: “If thou
bringest a dish of flour and a few eggs, it will suffice.” This offering he
would himself eat.

Under David he filled the position of treasurer. David appointed him because he
thought that a man who was willing to become priest to an idol only in order to
earn his bread, must be worthy of confidence. However sincere his repentance
may have been, he relapsed into his former life when he was removed from his
office by Solomon, who filled all position with new incumbents at his accession
to the throne. Finally he abandoned his idolatrous ways wholly, and became so
pure a man that the was favored by God with the gift of prophecy. This happened
on the day on which the man of God out of Judah came to Jeroboam, for the
grandson of Moses is none other than the old prophet at Beth-el who invited the
man of God out of Judah to come to his house. (133)

The mischief done by Micah spread further and further. Especially the
Benjamites distinguished themselves for their zeal in paying homage to his
idols. God therefore resolved to visit the sins of Israel and Benjamin upon
them. The opportunity did not delay to come. It was not long before the
Benjamites committed the outrage of Gibeah. Before the house of Bethac, a
venerable old man, they imitated the disgraceful conduct of the Sodomites
before the house of Lot. When the other tribes exacted amends from the
Benjamites, and were denied satisfaction, bloody combats ensued. At first the
Benjamites prevailed, in spit of the fact that the Urim and Thummim questioned
by Phinehas had encouraged the Israelites to take up the conflict, with the
words: “Up to war, I shall deliver them into your hands.” After the tribes had
again and again suffered defeat, they recognized the intention of God, to
betray them as a punishment for their sins. They therefore ordained a day of
fasting and convocation before the holy Ark, and Phinehas the son of Eleazar
entreated God in their behalf: “What means this, that Thou leadest us astray?
Is the deed of the Benjamites right in Thine eyes? Then why didst Thou not
command us to desist from the combat? But if what our brethren have done is
evil in Thy sight, then why dost Thou cause us to fall before them in battle? O
God of our fathers, hearken unto my voice. Make it known this day unto Thy
servant whether the war waged with Benjamin is pleasing in Thine eyes, or
whether thou desirest to punish Thy people for its sins. Then the sinners among
us will amend their ways. I am mindful of what happened in the days of my
youth, at the time of Moses. In the zeal of my soul I slew two for the sin of
Zimri, and when his well-wishers sought to kill me, Thou didst send an angel,
who cut off twenty-four thousand of them and delivered me. But now eleven of
Thy tribes have gone forth to do Thy bidding, to avenge and slay, and, lo, they
have themselves been slain, so that they are made to believe that Thy
revelations are lying and deceitful. O Lord, God of our forefathers, naught is
hidden before Thee. Make it manifest why this misfortune has overtaken us.”

God replied to Phinehas at great length, setting forth why eleven tribes had
suffered so heavily. The Lord had wanted to punished them for having permitted
Micah and his mother Delilah to pursue their evil ways undisturbed, though they
were zealous beyond measure in avenging the wrong done to the woman at Gibeah.
As soon as all those had perished who were guilty of having aided and abetted
Micah in his idolatrous practices, whether directly or indirectly, God was
willing to help them in their conflicts with the Benjamites.

So it came. In the battle fought soon after, seventy-five thousand Benjamites
fell slain. Only six hundred of the tribe survived. (134) Fearing to remain in
Palestine, the small band emigrated to Italy and Germany. (135)

At the same time the punishment promised them by God overtook the two chief
sinners. Micah lost his life by fire, and his mother rotted alive; worms
crawled from her body. (136)

In spite of the great mischief caused by Micah, he had one good quality, and
God permitted it to plead for him when the angel stood up against him as his
accusers. He was extremely hospitable. His house always stood wide open to the
wanderer, and to his hospitality he owed it that he was granted a share in the
future world. (137) In hell Micah is the first in the sixth division, which is
under the guidance of the angel Hadriel, and he is the only one in the division
who is spared hell tortures. (138) Micah’s sons was Jeroboam, whose golden
calves were sinful far beyond anything his father had done. (139)

In those days God spake to Phinehas: “Thou art one hundred and twenty years
old, thou hast reached the natural term of man’s life. Go now, betake thyself
to the mountain Danaben, and remain there many years. I will command the eagles
to sustain thee with food, so that thou returnest not to men until the time
when thou lockest fast the clouds and openest them again. Then I will carry
thee to the place where those are who were before thee, and there thou wilt
tarry until I visit the world, and bring thee thither to taste of death.” (140)

III.
SAMUEL AND SAUL

ELKANAH AND HANNAH

The period of the Judges is linked to the period of the Kingdom by the prophet
Samuel, who anointed both Saul and David as kings. Not only was Samuel himself
a prophet, but his forebears also has been prophets, (1) and both his parents,
Elkanah and Hannah, were endowed with the gift of prophecy. (2) Aside from this
gift, Elkanah possessed extraordinary virtue. He was a second Abraham, the only
pious man of his generation, who saved the world from destruction when God,
made wroth by the idolatry of Micah, was on the point of annihilating it
utterly. (3) His chief merit was that he stimulated the people by his example
to go on pilgrimages to Shiloh, the spiritual centre of the nation. Accompanied
by his whole household, including kinsmen, he was in the habit of making the
three prescribed pilgrimages annually, and though he was a man of only moderate
means, (4) his retinue was equipped with great magnificence. In all the towns
through which it passed, the procession caused commotion. The lookers-on
invariably inquired into the reason of the rare spectacle, and Elkanah told
them: “We are going to the house of the Lord at Shiloh, for thence come forth
the law. Why should you not join us?” Such gentle, persuasive words did not
fail of taking effect. In the first year five households undertook the
pilgrimage, the next year ten, and so on until the whole town followed his
example. Elkanah chose a new route every year. Thus he touched at many towns,
and their inhabitants were led to do a pious deed. (5)

In spite of his God-fearing ways, Elkanah’s domestic life was not perfectly
happy. He had been married ten years, and his union with Hannah had not been
blessed with offspring. (6) The love he bore his wife compensated him for his
childlessness, but Hannah herself insisted upon his taking a second wife.
Peninnah embraced every opportunity of vexing Hannah. In the morning her
derisive greeting to Hannah would be: “Dost thou not mean to rise and wash thy
children, and send them to school?” (7) Such jeers were to keep Hannah mindful
of her childlessness. Perhaps Peninnah’s intentions were laudable: she may have
wanted to bring Hannah to the point of praying to God for children. (8) However
it may have been forced from her, Hannah’s petition for a son was fervent and
devout. She entreats God: “Lord of the world! Hast Thou created aught in vain?
Our eyes Thou hast destined for sight, our ears for hearing, our mouth for
speech, our nose to smell therewith, our hands for work. Didst Thou not create
these breasts above my heart to give suck to a babe? (9) O grant me a son, that
he may draw nourishment therefrom. Lord, Thou reignest over all beings, the
mortal and the heavenly beings. The heavenly beings neither eat nor drink, they
do not propagate themselves, nor do they die, but they live forever. Mortal man
eats, drinks, propagates his kind and dies. If, now, I am of the heavenly
beings, let me live forever. But if I belong to mortal mankind, let me do my
part in establishing the race.” (10)

Eli the high priest, who at first misinterpreted Hannah’s long prayer,
dismissed her with the blessing: “May the son to be born unto thee acquire
great knowledge in the law.” (11) Hannah left the sanctuary, and at once her
grief-furrowed countenance changes. She felt beyond a doubt that the blessing
of Eli would be fulfilled. (12)

THE YOUTH OF SAMUEL

Hannah’s prayer was heard. At the end of six months and a few days (13) Samuel
was born to her, in the nineteenth year of her married life, (14) and the one
hundred and thirtieth of her age. (15) Samuel was of a frail constitution, (16)
and required tender care and nurture. For this reason he and his mother could
not accompany Elkanah on his pilgrimages. Hannah withheld her boy from the
sanctuary for some years. Before Samuel’s birth a voice from heaven had
proclaimed that in a short time a great man would be born, whose name would be
Samuel. All men children of that time were accordingly named Samuel. As they
grew up, the mothers were in the habit of getting together and telling of their
children’s doings, in order to determine which of them satisfied the
expectations the prophecy had aroused. When the true Samuel was born, and by
his wonderful deed excelled all his companions, it became plain to whom the
word of God applied. (17) His preeminence now being undisputed, Hannah was
willing to part with him.

The following incident is an illustration of Samuel’s unusual qualities
manifested even in infancy. He was two years old when his mother brought him to
Shiloh to leave him there permanently. An occasion at once presented itself for
the display of his learning and acumen, which were so great as to arouse the
astonishment of the high priest Eli himself. On entering the sanctuary Samuel
noticed that they were seeking a priest to kill the sacrificial animal. Samuel
instructed the attendants that a non-priest was permitted to kill the
sacrifice. The high priest Eli appeared at the moment when, by Samuel’s
directions, the sacrifice was being killed by a non-priest. Angered by the
child’s boldness, he was about to have him executed, regardless of Hannah’s
prayer for his life. “Let him die,” (18) he said, “I shall pray for another in
his place.” Hannah replied: “I lent him to the Lord. Whatever betide, he
belongs neither to thee nor to me, but to God.” (19) Only then, after Samuel’s
life was secure, Hannah offered up her prayer of thanksgiving. Beside the
expression of her gratitude, it contains also many prophecies regarding
Samuel’s future achievements, and it recited the history of Israel from the
beginning until the advent of Messiah. (20) Her prayer incidentally brought
relief to the Sons of Korah. Since the earth had swallowed them, they had been
constantly sinking lower and lower. When Hannah uttered the words, “God
bringeth down to Sheol, and bringeth up,” (21) they came to a standstill in
their downward course.

Hannah was spared to witness, not only the greatness of her son, but also the
undoing of her rival. Every time Hannah bore a child, Peninnah lost two of
hers, until eight of her ten children had died, and she would have had to
surrender all, had not Hannah interceded for her with prayer. (22)

ELI AND HIS SONS

Shortly (23) before Samuel entered upon his novitiate in the sanctuary, Eli
succeeded to the three highest offices in the land: he was made high priest,
president of the Sanhedrin, and ruler over the political affairs of Israel. Eli
was a pious man, and devoted to the study of the Torah, wherefore he attained
to a good old age and to high honors. (24) In his office as high priest he was
successor to no less a personage than Phinehas, who had lost his high-priestly
dignity on account of his haughty bearing toward Jephthah. With Eli the line of
Ithamar rose to power instead of the line of Eleazar. (25) However, the
iniquitous deed of his two sons brought dire misfortune upon Eli and upon his
family, though the Scriptural account of their conduct may not be taken
literally. The sons of Eli transgressed only in that they sometimes kept the
women waiting who came to the sanctuary to bring the purification offerings,
and so they retarded their return to their families. (26) This was bad enough
for priest of God. Their misdeeds recoiled upon their father, who was not
strict enough in rebuking them. Eli’s punishment was that he aged prematurely,
and, besides, he had to give up his various offices.

During his lifetime, his youngest son Phinehas, the worthier of the two, (27)
officiated as high priest. The only reproach to which Phinehas laid himself
open was that he made no attempt to mend his brother’s ways.

The worst of God’s decree against Eli he learned from Elkanah, (28) the man of
God who came unto Eli, and who announced that the high-priestly dignity would
be wrested from his house, and once more conferred upon the family of Eleazar,
and, furthermore, his descendant would all die in their prime. The latter doom
can be averted by good deeds, devotion in prayer, and zealous study of the
Torah. These means were often employed successfully. (29) But against the loss
of the high priest’s office there is no specific. The house of Eli forfeited it
irrevocably. Abiathar, the great-grandson of Eli’s son Phinehas, (30) the last
of the high priest of the line of Ithamar, had to submit to the fate of seeing
David transfer his dignity to Zadok, in whose family it remained forever.

The sons of Eli brought misfortune also upon the whole of Israel. To their sins
and the ease with which the people condoned them was attributed the unhappy
issue of the war with the Philistines. The holy Ark, the receptacle for the
broken table of the law, which accompanied the people to the camp, (31) did not
have the expected effect of compelling victory for the Israelites. What Eli
feared happened. He enjoined upon his sons not to appear before him if they
should survive the capture of the Ark. (32) But they did not survive it; they
died upon the battlefield on which their nation had suffered bitter defeat. The
Philistines, to be sure, had to pay dearly for their victory, especially those
who had spoken contemptuous words when the holy Ark had appeared in the
Israelitish camp: “The God of the Israelites had ten plagues, and those he
expended upon the Egyptians. He no longer has it in His power to do harm.” But
God said: “Do ye but wait to see. I shall bring plague down upon you like of
which hath never been.” (33) This new plague consisted in mice crawling forth
out of the earth, and jerking the entrails out of the bodies of the Philistines
while they eased nature. If the Philistines sought to protect themselves by
using brass vessels, the vessels burst at the touch of the mice, and, as
before, the Philistines were at their mercy. (34) After some months of
suffering, when they realized that their god Dagon was the victim instead of
the victor, they resolved to send the Ark back to the Israelites. Many of the
Philistines, (35) however, were not yet convinced of God’s power. The
experiment with the milch kine on which there had come no yoke was to establish
the matter for them. The result was conclusive. Scarcely had the cows begun to
draw the cart containing the Ark when they raised their voices in song:

Arise thou, O Acacia! Soar aloft in the fulness of thy splendor,

Thou who art adorned with gold embroidery,

Thou who art reverenced within the Holiest of the palace,

Thou who art covered by the two Cherubim! (36)

When the holy Ark was thus brought into the Israelitish domain, there was
exceeding great rejoicing. Yet the people were lacking in due reverence. They
unloaded the holy vessel while doing their usual work. God punished them
severely. (37) The seventy members of the Sanhedrin perished, and with them
fifty thousand of the people. (38) The punishment was meet for another reason.
At first sight of the Ark some of the people had exclaimed: “Who vexed these
that thou didst feel offended, and what had mollified thee now?” (39)

THE ACTIVITIES OF SAMUEL

In the midst of the defeats and other calamities that overwhelmed the
Israelites, Samuel’s authority grew, and the respect for him increased, until
he was acknowledged the helper of his people. His first efforts were directed
toward counteracting the spiritual decay in Israel. When he assembled the
people at Mizpah for prayer, he sought to distinguish between the faithful and
the idolatrous, in order to mete out punishment to the disloyal. He had all the
people drink water, whose effect was to prevent idolaters from opening their
lips. (40) The majority of the people repented of their sins, and Samuel turned
to God in their behalf: “Lord of the world! Thou requirest naught of man but
that he should repent of his sins. Israel is penitent, do Thou pardon him.”
(41) The prayer was granted, and when, after his sacrifice, Samuel led an
attack upon the Philistines, victory was not withheld from the Israelites. God
terrified the enemy first by an earthquake, and then by thunder and lightning.
Many were scattered and wandered about aimlessly; many were precipitated into
the rents torn in the earth, the rest had their faces scorched, and in their
terror and pain their weapons dropped from their hands. (42)

In peace as in war Samuel was the type of a disinterested, incorruptible judge,
who even refused compensation for the time, trouble, and pecuniary sacrifices
entailed upon him by his office. (43) His sons fell far short of resembling
their father in these respects. Instead of continuing Samuel’s plan of
journeying from place to place to dispense judgment, they had the people come
to them, and they surrounded themselves with a crew of officials who preyed
upon the people for their maintenance. (44) In a sense, therefore, the curse
with which Eli threatened Samuel in his youth was accomplished: both he and
Samuel had sons unworthy of their fathers. (45) Samuel at least had the
satisfaction of seeing his sons mend their ways. One of them is the prophet
Joel, whose prophecy forms a book of the Bible. (46)

Though, according to this account, the sons of Samuel were by no means so
iniquitous as might be inferred from the severe expressions of the Scripture,
still the demand for a king made by the leaders of the people was not
unwarranted. All they desired was a king in the place of a judge. What
enkindled the wrath of God and caused Samuel vexation, was the way in which the
common people formulated the demand. “We want a king,” they said, “that we may
be like the other nations.” (47)

THE REIGN OF SAUL

There were several reasons for the choice of Saul as king. He had distinguished
himself as a military hero in the unfortunate engagement of the Philistines
with Israel under the leadership of the sons of Eli. Goliath captured the
tables of the law. When Saul heard of this in Shiloh, he marched sixty miles to
the camp, wrested the tables from the giant, and returned to Shiloh on the same
day, bringing Eli the report of the Israelitish misfortune. (48) Besides, Saul
possessed unusual beauty, (49) which explains why the maidens whom he asked
about the seer in their city sought to engage him in a lengthy conversation.
(50) At the same time he was exceedingly modest. When he and his servant failed
to find the asses they were looking for, he said, “My father will take thought
of us,” putting his servants on a level with himself, (51) and when he was
anointed king, he refused to accept the royal dignity until the Urim and
Thummin were consulted. (52) His chief virtue, however, was his innocence. He
was as free from sin as “a one year old child.” (53) No wonder, then, he was
held worthy of the prophetic gift. The prophecies he uttered concerned
themselves with the war of Gog and Magog, the meting out of reward and
punishment at the last judgment. (54) Finally, his choice as king was due also
to the merits of his ancestors, especially his grandfather Abiel, a man
interested in the public welfare, who would have the streets lighted so that
people might go to the houses of study after dark. (55)

Saul’s first act as king was his successful attack upon Nahash, king of the
Ammonites, who had ordered the Gileadites to remove the injunction from the
Torah barring the Ammonites from the congregation of Israel. (56) In his next
undertaking, the campaign against the Philistines, he displayed his piety. His
son Jonathan had fallen under the severe ban pronounced by Saul against all who
tasted food on a certain day, and Saul did not hesitate to deliver him up to
death. Jonathan’s trespass was made know by the stones in the breastplate of
the high priest. All the stones were bright, only the one bearing the name
Benjamin had lost its brilliancy. By lot it was determined that its dimmed
lustre was due to the Benjamite Jonathan. Saul desisted from his purpose of
executing Jonathan only when it appeared that he had transgressed his father’s
command by mistake. A burnt offering and his weight in gold paid to the
sanctuary were considered an atonement for him. (57) In the same war Saul had
occasion to show his zeal for the scrupulous observance of the sacrificial
ordinances. He reproached his warriors with eating the meat of the sacrifices
before the blood was sprinkled on the altar, (58) and he made it his task to
see to it that the slaughtering knife was kept in the prescribed condition. As
recompense, an angel brought him a sword, there being none beside Saul in the
whole army to bear one. (59)

Saul manifested a different spirit in the next campaign, the war with the
Amalekites, whom, at the bidding of God, he was to exterminate. When the
message of God’s displeasure was conveyed to Saul by the prophet Samuel, he
said: “If the Torah ordains that a heifer of the herd shall be beheaded in the
valley as an atonement for the death of a single man, how great must be the
atonement required for the slaughter of so many men? And granted they are
sinners, what wrong have their cattle done to deserve annihilation? And granted
that the adults are worthy of their fate, what have the children done?” Then a
voice proclaimed from heaven, “Be not overjust.” Later on, when Saul
commissioned Doeg to cut down the priests at Nob, the same voice was heard to
say, “Be not overwicked.” (60) It was this very Doeg, destined to play so
baleful a part in his life, who induced Saul to spare Agag, the king of
Amalekites. His argument was the law prohibits the slaying of an animal and its
young on the same day. How much less permissible is it to destroy at one time
old and young, men and children. (61) As Saul had undertaken the war of
extermination against Amalek only because forced into it, he was easily
persuaded to let the people keep a part of the cattle alive. As far as he
himself was concerned, he could have had no personal interest in the booty, for
he was so affluent that he took a census of the army by giving a sheep to every
one of his soldiers, distributing not less than two hundred thousand sheep.
(62)

Compared with David’s sins, Saul’s were not sufficiently grievous to account
for the withdrawal of the royal dignity from him and his family. The real
reason was Saul’s too great mildness, a drawback in a ruler. Moreover, his
family was of such immaculate nobility that his descendants might have become
too haughty. (63) When Saul disregarded the Divine command about the
Amalekites, Samuel announced to him that his office would be bestowed upon
another. The name of his successor was not mentioned on that occasion, but
Samuel gave him a sign by which to recognize the future king: he who would cut
off the corner of Saul’s mantle, would reign in his stead. Later on, when David
met Saul in the cave and cut off a piece of the king’s skirt, Saul knew him for
a certainty to be his destined successor. (64)

So Saul lost his crown on account of Agag, and yet did not accomplish his
purpose of saving the life of the Amalekite king, for Samuel inflicted a most
cruel death upon Agag, and that not in accordance with Jewish, but with
heathen, forms of justice. No witnesses of Agag’s crime could be summoned
before the court, nor could it be proved that Agag, as the law requires, had
been warned when about to commit the crime. (65) Though due punishment was
meted out to Agag, in a sense it came too late. Had he been killed by Saul in
the course of the battle, the Jews would have been spared the persecution
devised by Haman, for, in the short span of time that elapsed between war and
his execution, Agag became the ancestor of Haman. (66)

The Amalekite war was the last of Saul’s notable achievements. Shortly
afterward he was seized by the evil spirit, and the rest of his days were
passed mainly in persecuting David and his followers. Saul would have died
immediately after the Amalekite war, if Samuel had not interceded for him. The
prophet prayed to God that the life of the disobedient king be spared, at least
so long as his own years had not come to their destined close: “Thou regardest
me equal to Moses and Aaron. (67) As Moses and Aaron did not have their
handiwork destroyed before their eyes during their life, so may my handiwork
not cease during my life.” God said: “What shall I do? Samuel will not let me
put an end to Saul’s days, and if I let Samuel die in his prime, people will
speak ill of him (68) Meanwhile David’s time is approaching, and one reign may
not overlap the time assigned to another by his hairbreadth.” God determined to
let Samuel age suddenly, and when he died at fifty-two, (69) the people were
under the impression the days of an old man had come to an end. So long as he
lived, Saul was secure. (70) Scarcely was he dead, when the Philistines began
to menace the Israelites and their king. Soon it appeared how well justified
had been the mourning services for the departed prophet in all the Israelitish
towns. (71) It was not remarkable that the mourning for Samuel should have been
universal. During his active administration as judge, he had been in the habit
of journeying through every part of the country, and so he was known personally
to all the people. This practice of his testifies not only to the zeal with
which he devoted himself to his office, but also to his wealth, for the
expenses entailed by these journeys were defrayed from his own purse. Only one
person in all the land took no part in the demonstrations of grief. During the
very week of mourning Nabal held feasts. “What!” God exclaimed, “all weep and
lament over the death of the pious, and this reprobate engages in revelry!”
Punishment was not withheld. Three days after the week of mourning for Samuel
Nabal dies. (72)

There was none that felt the death of Samuel more keenly than Saul. Left alone
and isolated, he did not shrink from extreme measures to enter into
communication with the departed prophet. With his two adjutants, (73) Abner and
Amasa, he betook himself to Abner’s mother, the witch of En-dor. (74) The king
did not reveal his identity, but the witch had no difficulty in recognizing her
visitor. In necromancy the peculiar rule holds good that, unless it is summoned
by a king, a spirit raised from the dead appears head downward and feet in the
air. (75) Accordingly, when the figure of Samuel stood upright before them, the
witch knew that the king was with her. Though the witch saw Samuel, she could
not hear what he said, while Saul heard his words, but could not see his person
another peculiar phenomenon in necromancy: the conjuror sees the spirit, and
he for whom the spirit had been raised only hears it. Any other person present
neither sees nor hears it.

The witch’s excitement grew when she perceived a number of spirits arise by the
side of Samuel. The dead prophet, when he was summoned back to earth, thought
that the judgement day had arrived. He requested Moses to accompany him and
testify to his always having executed the ordinances of the Torah as Moses had
established them. With these two great leaders a number of the pious arose, all
believing that the day of judgment was at hand. Samuel was apparelled in the
“upper garment” his mother had made for him when she surrendered him to the
sanctuary. This he had worn throughout his life, and in it he was buried. At
the resurrection all the dead wear their grave clothes, and so it came about
that Samuel stood before Saul in his well-known “upper garment.”

Only fragments of the conversation between Samuel and Saul have been preserved
in the Scriptures. Samuel reproached Saul with having disturbed him. “Was it
not enough,” he said, “for thee to enkindle the wrath of thy Creator by calling
up the spirits of the dead, must thou need change me into an idol? For is it
not said that like unto the worshippers so shall the worshipped be punished?”
Samuel then consented to tell the king God’s decree, that he had resolved to
rend the kingdom out of his hand, and invest David with the royal dignity.
Whereupon Saul: “These are not the words thou spakest to me before.” (76) “When
we dwelt together,” rejoined Samuel, “I was in the world of lies. Now I abide
in the world of truth, and thou heardest lying words from me, for I feared thy
wrath and thy revenge. Now I abide in the world of truth, and thou hearest
words of truth from me. As to the thing the Lord hath done unto thee, thou hast
deserved it, for thou didst not obey the voice of the Lord, nor execute his
fierce wrath upon Amalek.” Saul asked: “Can I still save myself by flight?”
“Yes,” replied Samuel, “if thou fleest, thou art safe. But if thou acceptest
God’s judgment, by to-morrow thou wilt be united with me in Paradise.”

When Abner and Amasa questioned Saul about his interview with Samuel, he
replied: “Samuel told me I should go into battle to-morrow, and come forth
victorious. More than that, my sons will be given exalted positions in return
for their military prowess.” The next day his three sons went with him to the
war, and all were stricken down. God summoned the angels and said to them:
“Behold the being I have created in my world. A father as a rule refrains from
taking his sons even to a banquet, lest he expose them to the evil eye. Saul
goes to war knowing that he will lose his life, yet he takes his sons with him,
and cheerfully accepts the punishment I ordain.” (77)

So perished the first Jewish king, as a hero and a saint. His latter days were
occupied with regrets on account of the execution of the priest of Nob, (78)
and his remorse secured pardon for him. (79) Indeed, in all respects his piety
was so great that not even David was his equal: David had many wives and
concubines; Saul had but on wife. David remained behind, fearing to lose his
life in battle with his son Absalom; Saul went into the combat knowing he
should not return alive. Mild and generous, Saul led the life of a saint in his
own house, observing even the priestly laws of purity. Therefore God reproached
David with having pronounced a curse upon Saul in his prayer. (80) Also, David
in his old age was punished for having cut off the corner of Saul’s mantle, for
no amount of clothing would keep him warm. (81) Finally, when a great famine
fell upon the land during the reign of David, God told him it had been
inflicted upon him because Saul’s remains had not been buried with the honor
due to him, and at that moment a heavenly voice resounded calling Saul “the
elect of God.” (82)

THE COURT OF SAUL

The most important figure at the court of Saul was his cousin Abner, the son of
the witch of En-dor. (83) He was a giant of extraordinary size. A wall
measuring six ells in thickness could be moved more easily than one of Abner’s
feet. (84) David once chanced to get between the feet of Abner as he lay
asleep, and he was almost crushed to death, when fortunately Abner moved them,
and David made his escape. (85) Conscious of his vast strength he once cried
out: “If only I could seize the earth at some point, I should be able to shake
it.” Even in the hour of death, wounded mortally by Joab, he grasped his
murderer like a worsted ball. He was about to kill him, but the people crowded
round them, and said to Abner: “If thou killest Joab, we shall be orphaned, and
our wives and children will be prey to the Philistines.” Abner replied: “What
can I do? He was about to extinguish my light.” The people consoled him:
“Commit thy cause to the true Judge.” Abner thereupon loosed his hold upon
Joab, who remained unharmed, while Abner fell dead instantly. God had decided
against him. (86) The reason was that Joab was in a measure justified in
seeking to avenge the death of his brother Asahel. Asahel, the supernaturally
swift runner, (87) so swift that he ran through a field without snapping the
ears of wheat (88) had been the attacking party. He had sough to take Abner’s
life, and Abner contended, that in killing Asahel he had but acted in
self-defense. Before inflicting the fatal wound, Joab held a formal court of
justice over Abner. He asked: “Why didst thou no render Asahel harmless by
wounding him rather than kill him?” Abner replied that he could not have done
it. “What,” said Joab, incredulous, “if thou wast able to strike him under the
fifth rib, dost thou mean to say thou couldst not have made him innocuous by a
wound, and saved him alive?” (89)

Although Abner was a saint, (90) even a “lion in the law,” (91) he perpetrated
many a deed that made his violent death appear just. It was in his favor that
he had refused to obey Saul’s command to do away with the priests of Nob. (92)
Yet a man of his stamp should not have rested content with passive resistance.
He should have interposed actively, and kept Saul from executing his blood
design. And granted that Abner could not have influenced the king’s mind in
this matter, (93) at all events he is censurable for having frustrated a
reconciliation between Saul and David. When David, holding in his hand the
corner of the king’s mantle which he had cut off, sought to convince Saul of
his innocence, it was Abner who turned the king against the suppliant fugitive.
“Concern not thyself about it,” he said to Saul. “David found the rag on a
thornbush in which thou didst catch the skirt of thy mantle as thou didst pass
it.” (94) On the other hand, no blame attaches to Abner for having espoused the
cause of Saul’s son against David for two years and a half. He knew that God
had designated David for the royal office, but, according to an old tradition,
God had promised two kings to the tribe of Benjamin, and Abner considered it
his duty to transmit his father’s honor to the son of Saul the Benjamite. (95)

Another figure of importance during Saul’s reign, but a man of radically
different character, was Doeg. Doeg, the friend of Saul from the days of his
youth, (96) died when he was thirty-four years old, (97) yet at that early age
he had been president of the Sanhedrin and the greatest scholar of his time. He
was called Edomi, which means, not Edomite, but “he who causes the blush of
shame,” because by his keen mind and his learning he put to shame all who
entered into argument with him. (98) But his scholarship lay only on his lips,
his heart was not concerned in it, and his one aim was to elicit admiration.
(99) Small wonder, then, that his end was disastrous. At the time of his death
he had sunk so low that he forfeited all share in the life to come. (100)
Wounded vanity caused his hostility to David, who had got the better of him in
a learned discussion. (101) From that moment he bent all his energies to the
task of ruining David. He tried to poison Saul’s mind against David, by
praising the latter inordinately, and so arousing Saul’s jealousy. (102) Again,
he would harp on David’s Moabite descent, and maintain that on account of it he
could not be admitted into the congregation of Israel. Samuel and other
prominent men had to bring to bear all the weight of their authority to shield
David against the consequences of Doeg’s sophistry. (103)

Doeg’s most grievous transgression, however, was his informing against the
priests of Nob, whom he accused of high treason and executed as traitors. For
all his iniquitous deeds he pressed the law into his service, and derived
justification of his conduct from it. Abimelech, the high priest at Nob,
admitted that he had consulted the Urim and Thummim for David. This served Doeg
as the basis for the charge of treason, and he stated it as an unalterable
Halakah that the Urim and Thummim may be consulted only for a king. In vain
Abner and Amasa and all the other members of the Sanhedrin demonstrated that
the Urim and Thummim may be consulted for any on whose undertaking concerns the
general welfare. Doeg would not yield, and as no one could be found to execute
the judgement, he himself officiated as hangman. (104) When the motive of
revenge actuated him, he held cheap alike the life and honor of his fellow-man.
He succeeded in convincing Saul that David’s marriage with the king’s daughter
Michal had lost its validity from the moment David was declared a rebel. As
such, he said, David was as good as dead, since a rebel was outlawed. Hence his
wife was no longer bound to him. (105) Doeg’s punishment accorded with his
misdeeds. He who had made impious use of his knowledge of the law, completely
forgot the law, and even his disciples rose up against him, and drove him from
the house of study. In the end he died a leper.

Dreadful as this death was, it was not accounted an atonement for his sins. One
angel burned his soul, and another scattered his ashes in all the house of
study and prayer. (106) The son of Doeg was Saul’s armor-bearer, who was killed
by David for daring to slay the king even though he longed for death. (107)

Along with Abner and Doeg, Jonathan distinguished himself in the reign of his
father. His military capacity was joined to deep scholarship. To the latter he
owed his position as Ab Bet Din. (108) Nevertheless he was one of the most
modest men known in history. (109) Abinadab was another one of Saul’s sons who
was worthy of his father, wherefore he was sometimes called Ishvi. (110) As for
Saul’s grandson Mephibosheth. He, too, was reputed a great man. David himself
did not scorn to sit at his feet, and he revered Mephibosheth as his teacher.
(111) The wrong done him by David in granting one-half his possessions to Ziba,
the slave of Mephibosheth, did not go unavenged. When David ordered the
division of the estate of Mephibosheth, a voice from heaven prophesied:
“Jeroboam and Rehoboam shall divide the kingdom between themselves.” (112)

IV.
DAVID

DAVID’S BIRTH AND DESCENT

David, the “elect of God,” (1) was descended from a family which itself
belonged to the elect of Israel. Those ancestors of his who are enumerated in
the Bible by name are all of them men of distinguished excellence. Besides,
David was a descendant of Miriam, (2) the sister of Moses, and so the strain of
royal aristocracy was reinforced by the priestly aristocracy. Nor was David the
first of his family to occupy the throne of a ruler. His great-grandfather Boaz
was one and the same person with Ibzan, the judge of Bethlehem. (3) Othniel,
too, the first judge in Israel after the death of Joshua, and Caleb, (4) the
brother of Othniel, were connected with David’s family. As examples of piety
and virtue, David had his grandfather and more particularly his father before
him. His grandfather’s whole life was a continuous service of God, (5) whence
his name Obed, “the servant,” and his father Jesse was one of the greatest
scholars of his time, (6) and one of the four who died wholly untainted by sin.
(7) If God had not ordained death for all the descendants of our first parents
after their fall, Jesse would have continued to live forever. As it was, he
died at the age of four hundred, (8) and then a violent death, by the hand of
the Moabite king, (9) in whose care David, trusting in the ties of kinship
between the Moabites and the seed of Ruth, left his family when he was fleeing
before Saul. Jesse’s piety will not go unrewarded. In the Messianic time he
will be one of the eight princes to rule over the world. (10)

In spite of his piety, Jesse was not always proof against temptation. One of
his slaves caught his fancy, and he would have entered into illicit relations
with her, had his wife, Nazbat, the daughter of Adiel, not frustrated the plan.
She disguised herself as the slave, and Jesse, deceived by the ruse, met his
own wife. The child borne by Nazbat was given out as the son of the freed
slave, so that the father might not discover the deception practiced upon him.
This child was David. (11)

In a measure David was indebted for his life to Adam. At first only three hours
of existence had been allotted to him. When God caused all future generations
to pass in review before Adam, he besought God to give David seventy of the
thousand years destined for him. A deed of gift, signed by God and the angel
Metatron, was drawn up. Seventy years were legally conveyed from Adam to David,
and in accordance with Adam’s wishes, beauty, dominion, and poetical gift (12)
went with them.

ANOINTED KING

Beauty and talent, Adam’s gifts to David, did not shield their possessor
against hardship. As the supposed son of a slave, he was banished from
association with his brothers, and his days were passed in the desert tending
his father’s sheep. (13) It was his shepherd life that prepared him for his
later exalted position. With gentle consideration he led the flocks entrusted
to him. The young lambs he guided to pastures of tender grass; the patches of
less juicy herbs he reserved for the sheep; and the full-grown sturdy rams were
given the tough weeds for food. Then God said: “David knows how to tend sheep,
therefore he shall be the shepherd of my flock Israel.” (14)

In the solitude of the desert David had opportunities of displaying his
extraordinary physical strength. One day he slew four lions and three bears,
(15) though he had no weapons. His most serious adventure was with the reem.
David encountered the mammoth beast asleep, and taking it for a mountain, he
began to ascend it. Suddenly the reem awoke, and David found himself high up in
the air on its horns. He vowed, if he were rescued, to build a temple to God
one hundred ells in height, as high as the horns of the reem. Thereupon God
sent a lion. The king of beasts (16) inspired even the reem with awe. The reem
prostrated himself, and David could easily descend from his perch. At that
moment a deer appeared. The lion pursued after him, and David was saved from
the lion as well as the reem. (17)

He continued to lead the life of a shepherd until, at the age of twenty-eight,
(18) he was anointed king by Samuel, who was taught by a special revelation
that the despised youngest son of Jesse was to be king. Samuel’s first charge
had been to anoint one of the sons of Jesse, but he was not told which one.
When he saw the oldest, Eliab, he thought him the king of God’s choice. God had
allowed him to be deceived, in order to punish Samuel for his excessive
self-consciousness in calling himself the seer. It was thus proved to him that
he could not foresee all things. (19) However, Samuel’s error was pardonable.
God’s first choice had rested upon Eliab. Only on account of his violent
nature, his swiftness to anger against David, the position destined for him was
transferred to his youngest brother. (20) Eliab was in a sense compensated by
seeing his daughter become the wife of Rehoboam. Thus he, too, enjoys the
distinction of being among the ancestors of the Judaic kings, and Samuel’s
vision of Eliab as king was not wholly false. (21)

The election of David was obvious from what happened with the holy oil with
which he was anointed. (22) When Samuel had tried to pour the oil on David’s
brothers, it had remained in the horn, but at David’s approach it flowed of its
own accord, and poured itself out over him. The drops on his garments changed
into diamonds and pearls, and after the act of anointing him, the horn was as
full as before.

The amazement was great that the son of a slave should be made king. Then the
wife of Jesse revealed her secret, and declared herself the mother of David.
(23)

The anointing of David was for a time kept a secret, but its effect appeared in
the gift of prophecy which manifested itself in David, (24) and in his
extraordinary spiritual development. His new accomplishments naturally earned
envy for him. None was more bitterly jealous than Doeg, the greatest scholar of
his time. When he heard that Saul was about to have David come to court as his
attendant, Doeg began to praise David excessively, with the purpose of arousing
the king’s jealousy and making David hateful in his eyes. He succeeded, (25)
yet Saul did not relinquish his plan of having David at court. David had become
known to Saul in his youth, and at that time the king had conceived great
admiration for him. The occasion was one on which David had shown cleverness as
well as love of justice. A rich woman had had to leave her home temporarily.
She could not carry her fortune with her, nor did she wish to entrust it to any
one. She adopted the device of hiding her gold in honey jars, and these she
deposited with a neighbor. Accidentally he discovered what was in the jars, and
he abstracted the gold. On her return the woman received her vessels, but the
gold concealed in them was gone. She had no evidence to bring up against her
faithless neighbor, and the court dismissed her complaint. She appealed to the
king, but he was equally powerless to help. When the woman came out of the
palace of the king, David was playing with his companions. Seeing her
dejection, he demanded an audience of the king, that truth might prevail. The
king authorized him to do as he saw fit. David ordered the honey jars to be
broken, and two coins were found to adhere to the inner side of the vessels.
The thief had overlooked them, and they proved his dishonesty. (26)

ENCOUNTER WITH GOLIATH

David was not long permitted to enjoy the ease of life at court. The aggressive
manner assumed by Goliath drove him to the front. It was a curious chance that
designated David to be the slayer of Goliath, who was allied with him by the
ties of blood. Goliath, it will be remembered, was the son of the Moabitess
Orpah, (27) the sister-in-law of David’s ancestress Ruth, and her sister as
well, both having been the daughters of the Moabite king Eglon. (28) David and
Goliath differed as widely as their grandams, for in contrast to Ruth, the
pious, religious Jewess, Orpah had led a life of unspeakable infamy. Her son
Goliath was jeered at as “the son of a hundred fathers and one mother.” (29)
But God lets naught go unrewarded, even in the wicked. In return for the forty
steps Orpah had accompanied her mother-in-law Naomi, (30) Goliath the
Philistine, her son, was permitted to display his strength and skill for forty
days, and in return for the four tears Orpah had shed on parting from her
mother-in-law, she was privileged to give birth to four giant sons. (31)

Of the four, Goliath was the strongest and greatest. What the Scriptures tell
about him is but a small fraction of what might have been told. The Scriptures
refrain intentionally from expatiating upon the prowess of the miscreant. Nor
do they tell how Goliath, impious as he was, dared challenge the God of Israel
to combat with him, and how he tried by every means in his power to hinder the
Israelites in their Divine worship. Morning and evening he would appear in the
camp at the very time when the Israelites were preparing to say the Shema. (32)

All the more cause, then, for David to hate Goliath and determine to annihilate
him. His father encouraged him to oppose Goliath, for he considered it David’s
duty to protect Saul the Benjamite against the giant, as Judah, his ancestor,
had in ancient days pledged himself for the safety of Benjamin, the ancestor of
Saul. (33) For Goliath was intent upon doing away with Saul. His grievance
against him was that once, when, in a skirmish between the Philistines and the
Israelites, Goliath had succeeded in capturing the holy tables of the law, Saul
had wrested them from the giant. (34) In consequence of his malady, Saul could
not venture to cross swords with Goliath, and he accepted David’s offer to
enter into combat in his place. David put on Saul’s armor, and when it appeared
that the armor of the powerfully-built king fitted the erstwhile slender youth,
Saul recognized that David had been predestined for the serious task he was
about to undertake, but at the same time David’s miraculous transformation did
not fail to arouse his jealousy. (35) David, for this reason, declined to array
himself as a warrior for his contest with Goliath. He wanted to meet him as a
simple shepherd. Five pebbles came to David of their own accord, (36) and when
he touched them, they all turned into one pebble. (37) The five pebbles stood
for God, the three Patriarchs, and Aaron. Hophni and Phinehas, the descendants
of the last, had only a short time before been killed by Goliath. (38)

Scarcely did David begin to move toward Goliath, when the giant became
conscious of the magic power of the youth. The evil eye David cast on his
opponent sufficed to afflict him with leprosy, (39) and in the very same
instant he was rooted to the ground, unable to move. (40) Goliath was so
confused by his impotence that he scarcely knew what he was saying, and he
uttered the foolish threat that he would give David’s flesh to the cattle of
the field, as though cattle ate flesh. One can see, David said to himself, that
he is crazy, and there can be no doubt he is doomed. (41) Sure of victory,
David retorted that he would cast the carcass of the Philistine to the fowls of
the air. At the mention of fowls, Goliath raised his eyes skyward, to see
whether there were any birds about. The upward motion of his head pushed his
visor slightly away from his forehead, and in that instant the pebble aimed by
David struck him on the exposed spot. (42) An angel descended and cast him to
the ground face downward, so that the mouth that had blasphemed God might be
choked with earth. He fell in such wise that the image of Dagon which he wore
on his breast touched the ground, and his head came to lie between the feet of
David, who now had no difficulty in dispatching him. (43)

Goliath was encased, from top to toe, in several suits of armor, and David did
not know how to remove them and cut off the head of the giant. At this juncture
Uriah the Hittite offered him his services, but under the condition that David
secure him an Israelitish wife. David accepted the condition, and Uriah in turn
showed him how the various suits of armor were fastened together at the heels
of the giant’s feet.

David’s victory naturally added fuel to the fire of Saul’s jealousy. Saul sent
Abner, his general, to make inquiry whether David, who, he knew, was of the
tribe of Judah, belonged to the clan of the Perez or to the clan of the Zerah.
In the former case his suspicion that David was destined for kingship would be
confirmed. Doeg, David’s enemy from of old, observed that David, being the
descendant of the Moabitess Ruth, did not even belong to the Jewish communion,
and Saul need entertain no fears from that quarter. A lively discussion arose
between Abner and Doeg, as to whether the law in Deuteronomy regarding Moabites
affected women as well as men. Doeg, an expert dialectician, brilliantly
refuted all of Abner’s arguments in favor of the admission of Moabitish women.
Samuel’s authority had to be appealed to in order to establish for all times
the correctness of Abner’s view. (44) Indeed, the dispute could be settled only
by recourse to threats of violence. Ithra, the father of Amasa, in Arab
fashion, for which reason he was sometimes called the Ishmaelite, threatened to
hew down any one with his sword who refused to accept Samuel’s interpretation
of the law, that male Moabites and male Ammonites are forever excluded from the
congregation of Israel, but not Moabite and Ammonite women. (45)

PURSUED BY SAUL

As God stood by David in his duel with Goliath, so he stood by him in many
other of his difficulties. Often when he thought all hope lost, the arm of God
suddenly succored him, and in unexpected ways, not only bringing relief, but
also conveying instruction on God’s wise and just guidance of the world.

David once said to God: “The world is entirely beautiful and good, with the one
exception of insanity. What use does the world derive from a lunatic, who runs
hither and thither, tears his clothes, and is pursued by a mob of hooting
children?” “Verily, a time will come,” said God in reply, “when thou wilt
supplicate me to afflict thee with madness.” Now, it happened when David, on
his flight before Saul, came to Achish, the king of the Philistines, who lived
in Gath, that the brothers of Goliath formed the heathen king’s body-guard, and
they demanded that their brother’s murderer be executed. Achish, though a
heathen, was pious, for which reason he is called Abimelech in the Psalms,
after the king of Gerar, who also was noted for piety. He therefore sought to
pacify David’s enemies. He called their attention to the fact that Goliath had
been the one to challenge the Jews to combat, and it was meet, therefore, that
he should be left to bear the consequences. The brothers rejoined, if that view
prevailed, then Achish would have to give up his throne to David, for,
according to the conditions of the combat, the victor was to have dominion over
the vanquished as his servants. In his distress, David besought God to let him
appear a madman in the eyes of Achish and his court. God granted his prayer. As
the wife and daughter of the Philistine king were both bereft of reason, we can
understand his exclamation: “Do I lack madmen, that ye have brought this fellow
to play the madman in my presence?” Thus it was that David was rescued.
Thereupon he composed the Psalm beginning with the words, “I will bless the
Lord at all times,” which includes even the time of lunacy. (46)

On another occasion David expressed his doubt of God’s wisdom in having formed
such apparently useless creatures as spiders are. They do nothing but spin a
web that has no value. He was to have striking proof that even a spider’s web
may serve an important purpose. On one occasion he had taken refuge in a cave,
and Saul and his attendants, in pursuit of him, were about to enter and seek
him there. But God sent a spider to weave its web across the opening, and Saul
told his men to desist from fruitless search in the cave, for the spider’s web
was undeniable proof that no one had passed through its entrance. (47)

Similarly, when David became indebted to one of them for his life, he was cured
of his scorn for wasps. He had thought them good for nothing but to breed
maggots. David once surprised Saul and his attendants while they were fast
asleep in their camp, and he resolved to carry off, as proof of his
magnanimity, the cruse that stood between the feet of the giant Abner, who like
the rest was sleeping. Fortunately his knees were drawn up, so that David could
carry out his intention unhindered. But as David was retiring with the cruse,
Abner stretched out his feet, and pinned David down as with two solid pillars.
His life would have been forfeit, if a wasp had not stung Abner, who
mechanically, in his sleep, moved his feet, and released David. (48)

There were still other miracles that happened to David in his flight. Once,
when Saul and his men compassed David round about, an angel appeared and
summoned him home, to repulse the raid of the Philistines upon the land. Saul
gave up the pursuit of David, but only after a majority had so decided, for
some had been of the opinion that the seizure of David was quite as important
as the repulse of the Philistines. (49) Again, in his battle with the
Amalekites, David enjoyed direct intervention from above. Lightning in flashes
and sheets illumined the dark night, so enabling him to carry on the struggle.
(50)

WARS

David’s first thought after ascending the throne was to wrest Jerusalem, sacred
since the days of Adam, Noah, and Abraham, from the grasp of the heathen. The
plan was not easy of execution for various reasons. The Jebusites, the
possessors of Jerusalem, were the posterity of those sons of Heth who had ceded
the Cave of Machpelah to Abraham only on condition that their descendants
should never be forcibly dispossessed of their capital city Jerusalem. In
perpetuation of this agreement between Abraham and the sons of Heth, monuments
of brass were erected, and when David approached Jerusalem with hostile intent,
the Jebusites pointed to Abraham’s promise engraven upon them and still plainly
to be read. (51) They maintained that before David could take the city, which
they had surrounded with a high wall, he would have to destroy the monuments.
Joab devised a plan of getting into Jerusalem. He set up a tall cypress tree
near the wall, bent it downward, and standing on David’s head, he grasped the
very tip of the tree. When the tree rebounded, Joab sat high above the wall,
and could jump down upon it. Once in the city, he destroyed the monuments, and
possessed himself of Jerusalem. (52) For David a miracle had happened; the wall
had lowered itself before him so that he could walk into the city without
difficulty. David, however, was not desirous of using forcible means. He
therefore offered the Jebusites six hundred shekels, fifty shekels for each
Israelitish tribe. The Jebusites accepted the money, and gave David a bill of
sale. (53)

Jerusalem having been acquired, David had to prepare for war with the
Philistines, in which the king gave proof at once of his heroic courage and his
unshakable trust in God. The latter quality he displayed signally in the battle
that took place in the Valley of the Giants. God had commanded David not to
attack the host of the Philistines until he heard “the sound of marching in the
tops of the mulberry trees.” God desired to pass judgment upon the tutelary
angels of the heathen, before surrendering the heathen themselves to the pious,
(54) and the motion of the tops of the trees was to indicate that the battle
could proceed. The enemy advanced until there were but four ells between them
and the Israelites. The latter were about to throw themselves against the
Philistines, but David restrained them, saying: “God forbade me to attack the
Philistines before the tops of the trees begin to move. If we transgress God’s
command, we shall certainly die. If we delay, it is probable that we shall be
killed by the Philistines, but, at least, we shall die as pious men that keep
God’s command. Above all, let us have confidence in God.” Scarcely had he ended
his speech when the tops of the trees rustled, and David made a successful
assault upon the Philistines. Whereupon God said to the angels, who were
constantly questioning him as to why he had taken the royal dignity from Saul
and given it to David: “See the difference between Saul and David.” (55)

Of David’s other campaigns, the most notable is his war with Shobach the
Aramean, whom he conquered in spite of his gigantic size and strength. Shobach
was very tall, as tall as a dove-cote, and one look at him sufficed to strike
terror to the heart of the beholder. (56) The Aramean general indulged in the
belief that David would treat the Syrians gently on account of the monument,
still in existence at that time, which Jacob and Laban had erected on the
frontier between Palestine and Aram as a sign of their covenant that neither
they nor their descendants should wage war with each other. But David destroyed
the monument. (57) Similarly, the Philistines had placed trust in a relic from
Isaac, the bridle of a mule which the Patriarch had given to Abimelech, the
king of the Philistines, as a pledge of the covenant between Israel and his
people. David took it from them by force. (58)

However, David was as just as he was bold. Disregard of the covenants made by
the Patriarchs was far removed from his thoughts. Indeed, before departing for
the wars with the Arameans and the Philistines, he had charged the Sanhedrin to
investigate carefully the claims of the two nations. The claims of the
Philistines were shown to be utterly unfounded. In no sense were they the
descendants of those Philistines who had concluded a treaty with Isaac; they
had immigrated from Cyprus at a much later date. The Arameans, on the other
hand, had forfeited their claims upon considerate treatment, because under the
“Aramean” Balaam, and later again, in the time of Othniel, under their king
Cushan-rishathaim, they had attacked and made war upon the Israelites. (59)

AHITHOPHEL

Among David’s courtiers and attendants, a prominent place is occupied by his
counsellor Ahithophel, (60) with whom the king was connected by family ties,
Bath-sheba being his granddaughter. (61) Ahithophel’s wisdom was supernatural,
for his counsels always coincided with the oracles rendered by the Urim and
Thummim, and great as was his wisdom, it was equalled by his scholarship.
Therefore David did not hesitate to submit himself to his instruction, (62)
even though Ahithophel was a very young man, at the time of his death not more
than thirty-three years old. (63) The one thing lacking in him was sincere
piety, (64) and this it was that proved his undoing in the end, for it induced
him to take part in Absalom’s rebellion against David. Thus he forfeited even
his share in the world to come. (65)

To this dire course of action he was misled by astrologic and other signs,
which he interpreted as prophecies of his own kingship, when in reality they
pointed to the royal destiny of his granddaughter Bath-sheba. (66) Possessed by
his erroneous belief, he cunningly urged Absalom to commit an unheard-of crime.
Thus Absalom would profit nothing by his rebellion, for, though he accomplished
his father’s ruin, he would yet be held to account and condemned to death for
his violation of family purity, and the way to the throne would be clear for
Ahithophel, the great sage in Israel. (67)

The relation between David and Ahithophel had been somewhat strained even
before Absalom’s rebellion. Ahithophel’s feelings had been hurt by his being
passed over at the time when David, shortly after ascending the throne,
invested, on a single day, no less than ninety thousand functionaries with
positions.

On that day a remarkable incident occurred. When the Ark was to be brought up
from Geba to Jerusalem, the priests who attempted to take hold of it were
raised up in the air and thrown violently to the ground. In his despair the
king turned for advice to Ahithophel, who retorted mockingly: “Ask thy wise men
whom thou hast but now installed in office.” It was only when David uttered a
curse on him who knows a remedy and withholds it from the sufferer, that
Ahithophel advised that a sacrifice should be offered at every step taken by
the priests. Although the measure proved efficacious, and no further disaster
occurred in connection with the Ark, yet Ahithophel’s words had been insincere.
He knew the real reason of the misadventure, and concealed it from the king.
Instead of following the law of having the Ark carried on the shoulders of
priests, David had had it put on a wagon, and so incurred the wrath of God.
(68)

Ahithophel’s hostility toward David showed itself also on the following
occasion. When David was digging the foundations of the Temple, a shard was
found at a depth of fifteen hundred cubits. David was about to lift it, when
the shard exclaimed: “Thou canst not do it.” “Why not?” asked David. “Because I
rest upon the abyss.” “Since when?” “Since the hour in which the voice of God
was heard to utter the words from Sinai, ‘I am the Lord thy God,’ causing the
earth to quake and sink into the abyss. I lie here to cover up the abyss.”
Nevertheless David lifted the shard, and the waters of the abyss rose and
threatened to flood the earth. Ahithophel was standing by, and he thought to
himself: “Now David will meet with his death, and I shall be king.” Just then
David said: “Whoever knows how to stem the tide of waters, and fails to do it,
will one day throttle himself.” (69) Thereupon Ahithophel had the Name of God
inscribed upon the shard, and the shard thrown into the abyss. The waters at
once commenced to subside, but they sank to so great a depth that David feared
the earth might lose her moisture, and he began to sing the fifteen “Songs of
Ascents,” to bring the waters up again. (70)

Nevertheless David’s curse was realized. Ahithophel ended his days by hanging
himself. His last will contained the following three rules of conduct: (71) 1.
Refrain from doing aught against a favorite of fortune. 2. Take heed not to
rise up against the royal house of David. 3. If the Feast of Pentecost falls on
a sunny day, then sow wheat. (72)

Posterity has been favored with the knowledge of but a small part of
Ahithophel’s wisdom, and that little through two widely different sources,
through Socrates, (73) who was his disciple, and through a fortune-book written
by him. (74)

JOAB

Joab, the warrior, was a contrast to Ahithophel in every essential. He was
David’s right hand. It was said, if Joab had not been there to conduct his
wars, David would not have had leisure to devote himself to the study of the
Torah. He was the model of a true Jewish hero, distinguished at the same time
for his learning, piety, and goodness. His house stood wide open for all
comers, and the campaigns which he undertook redounded invariably to the
benefit of the people. They were indebted to him for luxuries even, (75) and
more than that, he took thought for the welfare of scholars, he himself being
the president of the Sanhedrin. (76)

It interested Joab to analyze the character of men and their opinions. When he
heard King David’s words: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord
pitieth them that fear him,” he expressed his astonishment that the comparison
should be made with the love of a father for a child, and not with the love of
a mother; mother love as a rule is considered the stronger and the more
self-sacrificing. He made up his mind to keep his eyes open, and observe
whether David’s idea was borne out by facts. On one of his journeys he happened
into the house of a poor old man who had twelve children, all of whom the
father supported, however meagrely, with the toil of his own hands. Joab
proposed that he sell him one of the twelve children; he would thus be relieved
of the care of one, and the selling-price could be applied to the better
support of the rest. The good father rejected the proposition brusquely. Then
Joab approached the mother, offering her a hundred gold denarii for one of the
children. At first she resisted the temptation, but finally she yielded. When
the father returned in the evening, he cut the bread, as was his wont, into
fourteen pieces, for himself, his wife, and his twelve children. In allotting
the portions he missed a child, and insisted upon being told its fate. The
mother confessed what had happened during his absence. He neither ate nor
drank, and next morning he set out, firmly resolved to return the money to Joab
and to slay him if he should refuse to surrender the child. After much
parleying, and after the father had threatened him with death, Joab yielded the
child to the old man, with the exclamation: “Yes, David was right when he
compared God’s love for men to a father’s love for his child. This poor fellow
who has twelve children to support was prepared to fight me to the death for
one of them, which the mother, who calmly stayed at home, had sold to me for a
price.”

Among all the heroic achievements of Joab, the most remarkable is the taking of
the Amalekite capital. For six months the flower of the Israelitish army,
twelve thousand in number, under the leadership of Joab, had been besieging the
capital city of the Amalekites without result. The soldiers made
representations to their general, that it would be well for them to return home
to their wives and children. Joab urged that this not only would earn for them
contempt and derision, but also would invite new danger. The heathen would be
encouraged to unite against the Israelites. He proposed that they hurl him into
the city by means of a sling, and then wait forty days. If at the end of this
period they saw blood flow from the gates of the fortress, it should be a sign
to them that he was still alive.

His plan was executed. Joab took with him one thousand pieces of money and his
sword. When he was cast from the sling, he fell into the courtyard of a widow,
whose daughter caught him up. In a little while he regained consciousness. He
pretended to be an Amalekite taken prisoner by the Israelites, and thrown into
the city by his captors, who thus wished to inflict death. As he was provided
with money, which he dispensed lavishly among his entertainers, he was received
kindly, and was given the Amalekite garb. So apparelled, he ventured, after ten
days, on a tour of inspection through the city, which he found to be of
enormous size.

His first errand was to an armorer, to have him mend his sword, which had been
broken by his fall. When the artisan scanned Joab’s weapon, he started back—he
had never seen a sword like it. He forged a new one, which snapped in two
almost at once when Joab grasped it firmly. So it happened with a second sword,
and with a third. Finally he succeeded in fashioning one that was acceptable.
Joab asked the smith whom he would like him to slay with the sword, and the
reply was, “Joab, the general of the Israelitish king.” “I am he,” said Joab,
and when the smith in astonishment turned to look at him, Joab ran him through
so skillfully that the victim had no realization of what was happening.
Thereupon he hewed down five hundred Amalekite warriors whom he met on his way,
and not one escaped to betray him. The rumor arose that Asmodeus, the king of
demons, was raging among the inhabitants of the city, and slaying them in large
numbers.

After another period of ten days, which he spent in retirement with his hosts,
Joab sallied forth a second time, and caused such bloodshed among the
Amalekites that his gory weapon clave to his hand, and his right hand lost all
power of independent motion, it could be made to move only in a piece with his
arm. He hastened to his lodging place to apply hot water to his hand and free
it from the sword. On his way thither the woman who had caught him up when he
fell into the city called to him: “Thou eatest and drinkest with us, yet thou
slayest our warriors.” Seeing himself betrayed, he could not but kill the
woman. Scarcely had his sword touched her, when it was separated from his hand,
and his hand could move freely, for the dead woman had been with child, and the
blood of the unborn babe loosed the sword.

After Joab had slain thousands, the Israelites without, at the very moment when
they were beginning to mourn their general as dead, saw blood issue from the
city, and joyfully they cried out with one accord: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is
our God, the Lord is One.” Joab mounted a high tower, and in stentorian tones
shouted: “The Lord will not forsake his people.” Inspired with high and daring
courage, the Israelites demanded permission to assault the city and capture it.
As Joab turned to descend from the tower, he noticed that six verses of a Psalm
were inscribed on his foot, the first verse running thus: “The Lord answers
thee in the day of trouble, the name of the God of Jacob is thy defense.” Later
David added three verses and completed the Psalm. Thereupon the Israelites took
the Amalekite capital, destroyed the heathen temples in the city, and slew all
its inhabitants, except the king, whom, with his crown of pure gold on his
head, they brought before David. (77)

DAVID’S PIETY AND HIS SIN

Neither his great achievements in war nor his remarkable good fortune moved
David from his pious ways, or in aught changed his mode of life. Even after he
became king he sat at the feet of his teachers, Ira the Jairite (78) and
Mephibosheth. To the latter he always submitted his decisions on religious
questions, to make sure that they were in accordance with law. (79) Whatever
leisure time his royal duties afforded him, he spent in study and prayer. He
contented himself with “sixty breaths” of sleep. (80) At midnight the strings
of his harp, (81) which were made of the gut of the ram sacrificed by Abraham
on Mount Moriah, (82) began to vibrate. The sound they emitted awakened David,
and he would arise at once to devote himself to the study of the Torah. (83)

Besides study, the composition of psalms naturally claimed a goodly portion of
his time. Pride filled his heart when he had completed the Psalter, and he
exclaimed: “O Lord of the world, is there another creature in the universe who
like me proclaims thy praise?” A frog came up to the king, and said: “Be not so
proud; I have composed more psalms than thou, and, besides, every psalm my
mouth has uttered I have accompanied with three thousand parables.” (84) And,
truly, if David indulged in conceit, it was only for a moment. As a rule he was
the exemplar of modesty. The coins which were stamped by him bore a shepherd’s
crook and pouch on the obverse, and on the reverse the Tower of David. (85) In
other respects, too, his bearing was humble, as though he were still the
shepherd and not the king. (86)

His great piety invested his prayer with such efficacy that he could bring
things in heaven down to earth. (87) It is natural that so godly a king should
have used the first respite granted by his wars to carry out his design of
erecting a house of worship to God. But in the very night in which David
conceived the plan of building the Temple, God said to Nathan the prophet:
“Hasten to David. I know him to be a man with whom execution follows fast upon
the heels of thought, and I should not like him to hire laborers for the Temple
work, and then, disappointed, complain of me. I furthermore know him to be a
man who obligates himself by vows to do good deeds, and I desire to spare him
the embarrassment of having to apply to the Sanhedrin for absolution from his
vow.” (88)

When David heard Nathan’s message for him, he began to tremble, and he said:
“Ah, verily, God hath found me unworthy to erect His sanctuary.” But God
replied with these words: “Nay, the blood shed by thee I consider as
sacrificial blood, but I do not care to have thee build the Temple, because
then it would be eternal and indestructible.” “But that would be excellent,”
said David. Whereupon the reply was vouchsafed him: “I foresee that Israel will
commit sins. I shall wreak My wrath upon the Temple, and Israel will be saved
from annihilation. However, thy good intentions shall receive their due reward.
The Temple, though it be built by Solomon, shall be called thine.” (89)

David’s thinking and planning were wholly given to what is good and noble. He
is one of the few pious men over whom the evil inclination had no power. (90)
By nature he was not disposed to commit such evil-doing as his relation to
Bath-sheba involved. God Himself brought him to his crime, that He might say to
other sinners: “Go to David and learn how to repent.” (91) Nor, indeed, may
David be charged with gross murder and adultery. There were extenuating
circumstances. In those days it was customary for warriors to give their wives
bills of divorce, which were to have validity only if the soldier husbands did
not return at the end of the campaign. Uriah having fallen in battle,
Bath-sheba was a regularly divorced woman. As for the death of her husband, it
cannot be laid entirely at David’s door, for Uriah had incurred the death
penalty by his refusal to take his ease in his own house, according to the
king’s bidding. (92) Moreover, from the first, Bath-sheba had been destined by
God for David, but by way of punishment for having lightly promised Uriah the
Hittite an Israelitish woman to wife, in return for his aid in unfastening the
armor of the prostrate Goliath, the king had to undergo bitter trials before he
won her. (93)

Furthermore, the Bath-sheba episode was a punishment for David’s excessive
self-consciousness. He had fairly besought God to lead him into temptation,
that he might give proof of his constancy. It came about thus: He once
complained to God: “O Lord of the world, why do people say God of Abraham, God
of Isaac, God of Jacob, and why not God of David?” The answer came: “Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob were tried by me, but thou hast not yet been proved.” David
entreated: “Then examine me, O Lord, and try me.” And God said: “I shall prove
thee, and I shall even grant thee what I did not grant the Patriarchs. I shall
tell thee beforehand that thou wilt fall into temptation through a woman.”

Once Satan appeared to him in the shape of a bird. David threw a dart at him.
Instead of striking Satan, it glanced off and broke a wicker screen which hid
Bath-sheba combing her hair. The sight of her aroused passion in the king. (94)
David realized his transgression, and for twenty-two years he was a penitent.
Daily he wept a whole hour and ate his “bread with ashes.” (95) But he had to
undergo still heavier penance. For a half-year he suffered with leprosy, and
even the Sanhedrin, which usually was in close personal attendance upon him,
had to leave him. He lived not only in physical, but also in spiritual
isolation, for the Shekinah departed from him during that time. (96)

ABSALOM’S REBELLION

Of all the punishments, however, inflicted upon David, none was so severe as
the rebellion of his own son.

Absalom was of such gigantic proportions that a man who was himself of
extraordinary size, standing in the eye-socket of his skull, sank in down to
his nose. (97) As for his marvellous hair, the account of it in the Bible does
not convey a notion of its abundance. Absalom had taken the vow of a Nazarite.
As his vow was for life, and because the growth of his hair was particularly
heavy, the law permitted him to clip it slightly every week. (98) It was of
this small quantity that the weight amounted to two hundred shekels.

Absalom arranged for his audacious rebellion with great cunning. He secured a
letter from his royal father empowering him to select two elders for his suite
in every town he visited. With this document he travelled through the whole of
Palestine. In each town he went to the two most distinguished men, and invited
them to accompany him, at the same time showing them what his father had
written, and assuring them that they had been chosen by him because he had a
particular affection for them. So he succeeded in gathering the presidents of
two hundred courts about him. This having been accomplished, he arranged a
large banquet, at which he seated one of his emissaries between every two of
his guests, for the purpose of winning them over to his cause. The plan did not
succeed wholly, for, though the elders of the towns stood by Absalom, in their
hearts they hoped for David’s victory. (99)

The knowledge that a part of Absalom’s following sided with him in
secret,—that, though he was pursued by his son, his friends remained true to
him,—somewhat consoled David in his distress. He thought that in these
circumstances, if the worst came to the worst, Absalom would at least feel pity
for him. (100) At first, however, the despair of David knew no bounds. He was
on the point of worshipping an idol, when his friend Hushai the Archite
approached him, saying: “The people will wonder that such a king should serve
idols.” David replied: “Should a king such as I am be killed by his own son? It
is better for me to serve idols than that God should be held responsible for my
misfortune, and His Name thus be desecrated.” Hushai reproached him: “Why didst
thou marry a captive?” “There is no wrong in that,” replied David, “it is
permitted according to the law.” Thereupon Hushai: “But thou didst disregard
the connection between the passage permitting it and the one that follows
almost immediately after it in the Scriptures, dealing with the disobedient and
rebellious son, the natural issue of such a marriage.” (101)

Hushai was not the only faithful friend and adherent David had. Some came to
his rescue unexpectedly, as, for instance, Shobi, the son of Nahash, who is
identical with the Ammonite king Hanun, the enemy of David at first, and later
his ally. (102) Barzillai, another one of his friends in need, also surprised
him by his loyalty, for on the whole his moral attitude was not the highest
conceivable. (103)

Absalom’s end was beset with terrors. When he was caught in the branches of the
oak-tree, he was about to sever his hair with a sword stroke, but suddenly he
saw hell yawning beneath him, and he preferred to hang in the tree to throwing
himself into the abyss alive. (104) Absalom’s crime was, indeed, of a nature to
deserve the supreme torture, for which reason he is one of the few Jews who
have no portion in the world to come. (105) His abode is in hell, where he is
charged with the control of ten heathen nations in the second division.
Whenever the avenging angels sit in judgment on the nations, they desire to
visit punishment on Absalom, too, but each time a heavenly voice is heard to
call out: “Do not chastise him, do not burn him. He is an Israelite, the son of
My servant David.” Whereupon Absalom is set upon his throne, and is accorded
the treatment due to a king. (106) That the extreme penalties of hell were thus
averted from him, was on account of David’s eightfold repetition of his son’s
name in his lament over him. Besides, David’s intercession had the effect of
re-attaching Absalom’s severed head to his body. (107)

At his death Absalom was childless, for all his children, his three sons and
his daughter, died before him, as a punishment for his having set fire to a
field of grain belonging to Joab. (108)

DAVID’S ATONEMENT

All these sufferings did not suffice to atone for David’s sin. God once said to
him: “How much longer shall this sin be hidden in thy hand and remain unatoned?
On thy account the priestly city of Nob was destroyed, (109) on thy account
Doeg the Edomite was cast out of the communion of the pious, and on thy account
Saul and his three sons were slain. What dost thou desire now—that thy house
should perish, or that thou thyself shouldst be delivered into the hands of
thine enemies?” David chose the latter doom.

It happened one day when he was hunting, Satan, in the guise of a deer, enticed
him further and further, into the very territory of the Philistines, where he
was recognized by Ishbi the giant, the brother of Goliath, his adversary.
Desirous of avenging his brother, he seized David, and cast him into a
winepress, where the king would have suffered a torturous end, if by a miracle
the earth beneath him had not begun to sink, and so saved him from
instantaneous death. His plight, however, remained desperate, and it required a
second miracle to rescue him.

In that hour Abishai, the cousin of David, was preparing for the advent of the
Sabbath, for the king’s misfortune happened on Friday as the Sabbath was about
to come in. When Abishai poured out water to wash himself, he suddenly caught
sight of drops of blood in it. Then he was startled by a dove that came to him
plucking out her plumes, and moaning and wailing. Abishai exclaimed: “The dove
is the symbol of the people of Israel. It cannot be but that David, the king of
Israel, is in distress.” Not finding the king at home, he was confirmed in his
fears, and he determined to go on a search for David on the swiftest animal at
his command, the king’s own saddle-beast. But first he had to obtain the
permission of the sages to mount the animal ridden by the king, for the law
forbids a subject to avail himself of things set aside for the personal use of
a king. Only the impending danger could justify the exception made in this
case.

Scarcely had Abishai mounted the king’s animal, when he found himself in the
land of the Philistines, for the earth had contracted miraculously. He met
Orpah, the mother of the four giant sons. She was about to kill him, but he
anticipated the blow and slew her. Ishbi, seeing that he now had two opponents,
stuck his lance into the ground, and hurled David up in the air, in the
expectation that when he fell he would be transfixed by the lance. At that
moment Abishai appeared, and by pronouncing the Name of God he kept David
suspended ‘twixt heaven and earth.

Abishai questioned David how such evil plight had overtaken him, and David told
him of his conversation with God, and how he himself had chosen to fall into
the hands of the enemy, rather than permit the ruin of his house. Abishai
replied: “Reverse thy prayer, plead for thyself, and not for thy descendants.
Let thy children sell wax, and do thou not afflict thyself about their
destiny.” The two men joined their prayers, and pleaded with God to avert
David’s threatening doom. Abishai again uttered the Name of God, and David
dropped to earth uninjured. Now both of them ran away swiftly, pursued by
Ishbi. When the giant heard of his mother’s death, his strength forsook him,
and he was slain by David and Abishai. (110)

VISITATIONS

Among the sorrows of David are the visitations that came upon Palestine during
his reign, and he felt them all the more as he had incurred them through his
own fault. There was first the famine, which was so desolating that it is
counted among the ten severest that are to happen from the time of Adam to the
time of the Messiah. (111) During the first year that it prevailed, David had
an investigation set on foot to discover whether idolatry was practiced in the
land, and was keeping back the rain. His suspicion proved groundless. The
second year he looked into the moral conditions of his realm, for lewdness can
bring about the same punishment as idolatry. Again he was proved wrong. The
third year, he turned his attention to the administration of charity. Perhaps
the people had incurred guilt in this respect, for abuses in this department
also were visited with the punishment of famine. (112) Again his search was
fruitless, and he turned to God to inquire of Him the cause of the public
distress. God’s reply was: “Was not Saul a king anointed with holy oil, did he
not abolish idolatry, is he not the companion of Samuel in Paradise? Yet, while
you all dwell in the land of Israel, he is ‘outside of the land.'” David,
accompanied by the scholars and the nobles of his kingdom, at once repaired to
Jabesh-gilead, disinterred the remains of Saul and Jonathan, and in solemn
procession bore them through the whole land of Israel to the inheritance of the
tribe of Benjamin. There they were buried. The tributes of affection paid by
the people of Israel to its dead king aroused the compassion of God, and the
famine came to an end. (113)

The sin against Saul was now absolved, but there still remained Saul’s own
guilt in his dealings with the Gibeonites, who charged him with having killed
seven of their number. David asked God why He had punished His people on
account of proselytes. God’s answer to him was: “If thou dost not bring near
them that are far off, thou wilt remove them that are near by.” To satisfy
their vengeful feelings, the Gibeonites demanded the life of seven members of
Saul’s family. David sought to mollify them, representing to them that they
would derive no benefit from the death of their victims, and offering them
silver and gold instead. But though David treated with each one of them
individually, the Gibeonites were relentless. When he realized their hardness
of heart, he cried out: “Three qualities God gave unto Israel; they are
compassionate, chaste, and gracious in the service of their fellow-men. The
first of these qualities the Gibeonites do not possess, and therefore they must
be excluded from communion with Israel.” (114)

The seven descendants of Saul to be surrendered to the Gibeonites were
determined by letting all his posterity pass by the Ark of the law. Those who
were arrested before it were the designated victims. Mephibosheth would have
been one of the unfortunates, had he not been permitted to pass by unchecked in
answer to the prayer of David, (115) to whom he was dear, not only as the son
of his friend Jonathan, but also as the teacher who instructed him in the
Torah. (116)

The cruel fate that befell the descendants of Saul had a wholesome effect. All
the heathen who saw and heard exclaimed: “There is no God like unto the God of
Israel, there is no nation like unto the nation of Israel; the wrong inflicted
upon wretched proselytes has been expiated by the sons of kings.” So great was
the enthusiasm among the heathen over this manifestation of the Jewish sense of
justice that one hundred and fifty thousand of them were converted to Judaism.
(117)

As for David, his wrong in connection with the famine lay in his not having
applied his private wealth to the amelioration of the people’s suffering. When
David returned victorious from the combat with Goliath, the women of Israel
gave him their gold and silver ornaments. He put them aside for use in building
the Temple, and even during the three years’ famine this fund was not touched.
God said: “Thou didst refrain from rescuing human beings from death, in order
to save thy money for the Temple. Verily, the Temple shall not be built by
thee, but by Solomon.” (118)

David is still more blameworthy on account of the census which he took of the
Israelites in defiance of the law in the Pentateuch. When he was charged by the
king with the task of numbering the people, Joab used every effort to turn him
away from his intention. But in vain. Incensed, David said: “Either thou art
king and I am the general, or I am king and thou art the general.” Joab had no
choice but to obey. He selected the tribe of Gad as the first to be counted,
because he thought that the Gadites, independent and self-willed, would hinder
the execution of the royal order, and David would be forced to give up his plan
of taking a census. The Gadites disappointed the expectations of Joab, and he
betook himself to the tribe of Dan, hoping that if God’s punishment descended,
it would strike the idolatrous Danites. Disliking his mission as he did, Joab
spent nine months in executing it, though he might have dispatched it in a much
shorter time. Nor did he carry out the king’s orders to the letter. He himself
warned the people of the census. If he saw the father of a family of five sons,
he would bid him conceal a few of them. Following the example set by Moses, he
omitted the Levites from the enumeration, likewise the tribe of Benjamin,
because he entertained particularly grave apprehensions in behalf of this
greatly decimated tribe. (119) In the end, David was not informed of the actual
number obtained. Joab made two lists, intending to give the king a partial list
if he found that he had no suspicion of the ruse. (120)

The prophet Gad came to David and gave him the choice of famine, oppression by
enemies, or the plague, as the penalty for the heavy crime of popular
census-taking. David was in the position of a sick man who is asked whether he
prefers to be buried next to his father or next to his mother. The king
considered: “If I choose the calamities of war, the people will say, ‘He cares
little, he has his warriors to look to.’ If I choose famine, they will say, ‘He
cares little, he has his riches to look to.’ I shall choose the plague, whose
scourge strikes all alike.” (121) Although the plague raged but a very short
time, (122) it claimed a large number of victims. The most serious loss was the
death of Abishai, whose piety and learning made him the counterpoise of a host
of seventy-five thousand. (123)

David raised his eyes on high, and he saw the sins of Israel heaped up from
earth to heaven. In the same moment an angel descended, and slew his four sons,
the prophet Gad, and the elders who accompanied him. David’s terror at this
sight, which was but increased when the angel wiped his dripping sword on the
king’s garments, settled in his limbs, and from that day on they never ceased
to tremble. (124)

THE DEATH OF DAVID

David once besought God to tell him when he would die. His petition was not
granted, for God has ordained that no man shall foreknow his end. One thing,
however, was revealed to David, that his death would occur at the age of
seventy on the Sabbath day. David desired that he might be permitted to die on
Friday. This wish, too, was denied him, because God said that He delighted more
in one day passed by David in the study of the Torah, than in a thousand
holocausts offered by Solomon in the Temple. Then David petitioned that life
might be vouchsafed him until Sunday; this, too, was refused, because God said
it would be an infringement of the rights of Solomon, for one reign may not
overlap by a hairbreadth the time assigned to another. Thereafter David spent
every Sabbath exclusively in the study of the Torah, in order to secure himself
against the Angel of Death, who has no power to slay a man while he is occupied
with the fulfillment of God’s commandments. The Angel of Death had to resort to
cunning to gain possession of David. (125) One Sabbath day, which happened to
be also the Pentecost holiday, (126) the king was absorbed in study, when he
heard a sound in the garden. He rose and descended the stairway leading from
his palace to the garden, to discover the cause of the noise. No sooner had he
set foot on the steps than they tumbled in, and David was killed. The Angel of
Death had caused the noise in order to utilize the moment when David should
interrupt his study. The king’s corpse could not be moved on the Sabbath,
which was painful to those with him, as it was lying exposed to the rays of the
sun. So Solomon summoned several eagles, and they stood guard over the body,
shading it with their outstretched pinions. (127)

DAVID IN PARADISE

The death of David did not mean the end of his glory and grandeur. It merely
caused a change of scene. In the heavenly realm as on earth David ranks among
the first. The crown upon his head outshines all others, and whenever he moves
out of Paradise to present himself before God, suns, stars, angels, seraphim,
and other holy beings run to meet him. In the heavenly court-room a throne of
fire of gigantic dimensions is erected for him directly opposite to the throne
of God. Seated on this throne and surrounded by the kings of the house of David
and other Israelitish kings, he intones wondrously beautiful psalms. At the end
he always cites the verse: “The Lord reigns forever and ever,” to which the
archangel Metatron and those with him reply: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of
hosts!” This is the signal for the holy Hayyot and heaven and earth to join in
with praise. Finally the kings of the house of David sing the verse: “And the
Lord shall be king over all; in that day shall the Lord be one, and His name
one.” (128)

The greatest distinction to be accorded David is reserved for the judgment day,
when God will prepare a great banquet in Paradise for all the righteous. At
David’s petition, God Himself will be present at the banquet, and will sit on
His throne, opposite to which David’s throne will be placed. At the end of the
banquet, God will pass the wine cup over which grace is said, to Abraham, with
the words: “Pronounce the blessing over the wine, thou who art the father of
the pious of the world.” Abraham will reply: “I am not worthy to pronounce the
blessing, for I am the father also of the Ishmaelites, who kindle God’s wrath.”
God will then turn to Isaac: “Say the blessing, for thou wert bound upon the
altar as a sacrifice.” “I am not worthy,” he will reply, “for the children of
my son Esau destroyed the Temple.” Then to Jacob: “Do thou speak the blessing,
thou whose children were blameless.” Jacob also will decline the honor on the
ground that he was married to two sisters at the same time, which later was
strictly prohibited by the Torah. God will then turn to Moses: “Say the
blessing, for thou didst receive the law and didst fulfil its precepts.” Moses
will answer: “I am not worthy to do it, seeing that I was not found worthy to
enter the Holy Land.” God will next offer the honor to Joshua, who both led
Israel into the Holy Land, and fulfilled the commandments of the law. He, too,
will refuse to pronounce the blessing, because he was not found worthy to bring
forth a son. Finally God will turn to David with the words: “Take the cup and
say the blessing, thou the sweetest singer in Israel and Israel’s king. And
David will reply: ‘Yes, I will pronounce the blessing, for I am worthy of the
honor.'” (129) Then God will take the Torah and read various passages from it,
and David will recite a psalm in which both the pious in Paradise and the
wicked in hell will join with a loud Amen. Thereupon God will send his angels
to lead the wicked from hell to Paradise. (130)

THE FAMILY OF DAVID

David had six wives, including Michal, the daughter of Saul, who is called by
the pet name Eglah, “Calfkin,” in the list given in the Bible narrative. (131)
Michal was of entrancing beauty, (132) and at the same time the model of a
loving wife. Not only did she save David out of the hands of her father, but
also, when Saul, as her father and her king, commanded her to marry another
man, she acquiesced only apparently. She entered into a mock marriage in order
not to arouse the anger of Saul, who had annulled her union with David on
grounds which he thought legal. Michal was good as well as beautiful; she
showed such extraordinary kindness to the orphan children of her sister Merab
that the Bible speaks of the five sons of Michal “whom she bore to Adriel.”
Adriel, however, was her brother-in-law and not her husband, but she had raised
his children, treating them as though they were her own. (133) Michal was no
less a model of piety. Although the law exempted her, as a woman, from the
duty, still she executed the commandment of using phylacteries. (134) In spite
of all these virtues, she was severely punished by God for her scorn of David,
whom she reproached with lack of dignity, when he had in mind only to do honor
to God. Long she remained childless, and at last, when she was blessed with a
child, she lost her own life in giving birth to it. (135)

But the most important among the wives of David was Abigail, in whom beauty,
wisdom, and prophetical gifts were joined. With Sarah, Rahab, and Esther, she
forms the quartet of the most beautiful women in history. She was so bewitching
that passion was aroused in men by the mere thought of her. (136) Her
cleverness showed itself during her first meeting with David, when, though
anxious about the life of her husband Nabal, she still, with the utmost
tranquility, put a ritual question to him in his rage. He refused to answer it,
because, he said, it was a question to be investigated by day, not by night.
Thereupon Abigail interposed, that sentence of death likewise may be passed
upon a man only during the day. Even if David’s judgment were right, the law
required him to wait until daybreak to execute it upon Nabal. David’s
objection, that a rebel like Nabal had no claim upon due process of law, she
overruled with the words: “Saul is still alive, and thou art not yet
acknowledged king by the world.”

Her charm would have made David her captive on this occasion, if her moral
strength had not kept him in check. By means of the expression, “And this shall
not be unto thee,” she made him understand that the day had not yet arrived,
but that it would come, when a woman, Bath-sheba, would play a disastrous part
in his life. Thus she manifested her gift of prophecy.

Not even Abigail was free from the feminine weakness of coquetry. The words
“remember thine handmaid” should never have been uttered by her. As a married
woman, she should not have sought to direct the attention of a man to herself.
(137) In the women’s Paradise she supervises the fifth of the seven divisions
into which it is divided, and her domain adjoins that of the wives of the
Patriarchs, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah. (138)

Among the sons of David, Adonijah, the son of Haggith, must be mentioned
particularly, the pretender to the throne. The fifty men whom he prepared to
run before him had fitted themselves for the place of heralds by cutting out
their spleen and the flesh of the soles of their feet. That Adonijah was not
designated for the royal dignity, was made manifest by the fact that the crown
of David did not fit him. This crown had the remarkable peculiarity of always
fitting the legitimate king of the house of David. (139)

Chileab was a son worthy of his mother Abigail. The meaning of his name is
“like the father,” which had been given him because of his striking resemblance
to David in appearance, a circumstance that silenced the talk against David’s
all too hasty marriage with the widow of Nabal. (140) Intellectually, too,
Chileab testified to David’s paternity. In fact, he excelled his father in
learning, as he did even the teacher of David, Mephibosheth, the son of
Jonathan. (141) On account of his piety he is one of the few who have entered
Paradise alive. (142)

Tamar cannot be called one of the children of David, because she was born
before her mother’s conversion to Judaism. Consequently, her relation to Amnon
is not quite of the grave nature it would have been, had they been sister and
brother in the strict sense of the terms.

To the immediate household of David belonged four hundred young squires, the
sons of women taken captive in battle. They wore their hair in heathen fashion,
and, sitting in golden chariots, they formed the vanguard of the army, and
terrified the enemy by their appearance. (143)

HIS TOMB

When David was buried, Solomon put abundant treasures into his tomb. Thirteen
hundred years later the high priest Hyrcanus took a thousand talents of the
money secreted there to use it in preventing the siege of Jerusalem by the
Greek king Antiochus. King Herod also abstracted great sums. But none of the
marauders could penetrate to the resting-place of the kings,—next to David his
successors were interred,—for it was sunk into the earth so skillfully that it
could not be found. (144)

Once on a time, a Moslem pasha visited the mausoleum, and as he was looking
through the window in it, a weapon of his ornamented with diamonds and pearls
dropped into the tomb. A Mohammedan was lowered through the window to fetch the
weapon. When he was drawn up again, he was dead, and three other Mohammedans
who tried to enter in the same way met the fate of their comrade. At the
instigation of the kadi, the pasha informed the Rabbi of Jerusalem that the
Jews would be held responsible for the restoration of the weapon. The Rabbi
ordered a three days’ fast, to be spent in prayer. Then lots were cast to
designate the messenger who was to be charged with the perilous errand. The lot
fell upon the beadle of the synagogue, a pious and upright man. He secured the
weapon, and returned it to the pasha, who manifested his gratitude by kindly
treatment of the Jews thereafter. The beadle later told his adventures in the
tomb to the Hakam Bashi. When he had descended, there suddenly appeared before
him an old man of dignified appearance, and handed him what he was seeking.
(145)

Another miraculous tale concerning the tomb of David runs as follows: A poor
but very pious Jewish washerwoman was once persuaded by the keeper of the tomb
to enter it. Hardly was she within, when the man nailed up the entrance, and
ran to the kadi to inform him that a Jewess had gone in. Incensed, the kadi
hastened to the spot, with the intention of having the woman burnt for her
presumptuousness. In her terror the poor creature had begun to weep and implore
God for help. Suddenly a flood of light illumined the dark tomb, and a
venerable old man took her by the hand, and led her downward under the earth
until she reached the open. There he parted from her with the words: “Hasten
homeward, and let none know that thou wert away from thy house.” The kadi had
the tomb and its surroundings thoroughly searched by his bailiffs, but not a
trace of the woman could be discovered, although the keeper again and again
swore by the Prophet that the woman had entered. Now the messengers whom the
kadi had sent to the house of the woman returned, and reported they had found
her washing busily, and greatly astonished at their question, whether she had
been at the tomb of David. The kadi accordingly decided that for his false
statements and his perjury, the keeper must die the very death intended for the
innocent woman, and so he was burnt. The people of Jerusalem suspected a
miracle, but the woman did not divulge her secret until a few hours before her
death. She told her story, and then bequeathed her possessions to the
congregation, under the condition that a scholar recite Kaddish for her on each
anniversary of her death. (146)

V.
SOLOMON

SOLOMON PUNISHES JOAB

At the youthful age of twelve (1) Solomon succeeded his father David as king.
His real name was Jedidiah, the “friend of God,” but it was superseded by the
name Solomon on account of the peace that prevailed throughout the realm during
his reign. He bore three other names besides: Ben, Jakeh, and Ithiel. He was
called Ben because he was the builder of the Temple; Jakeh, because he was the
ruler of the whole world; and Ithiel, because God was with him. (2)

The rebellion Adonijah intended to lead against the future king was suppressed
during David’s lifetime, by having Solomon anointed in public. On that occasion
Solomon rode upon a remarkable she-mule, remarkable because she was not the
product of cross-breeding, but of a special act of creation. (3)

As soon as he ascended the throne, Solomon set about executing the instructions
his father had given him on his death-bed. The first of them was the punishment
of Joab. (4)

Notwithstanding all his excellent qualities, which fitted him to be not only
David’s first general, but also the president of the Academy, (5) Joab had
committed great crimes, which had to be atoned for. Beside the murder of Abner
(6) and Amasa of which he was guilty, he had incurred wrong against David
himself. The generals of the army suspected him of having had Uriah the Hittite
put out of the way for purposes of his own, whereupon he showed them David’s
letter dooming Uriah. David might have forgiven Joab, but he wanted him to
expiate his sins in this world, so that he might be exempt from punishment in
the world to come. (7)

When Joab perceived that Solomon intended to have him executed, he sought the
protection of the Temple. He knew full well that he could not save his life in
this way, for the arm of justice reaches beyond the doors of the sanctuary, to
the altar of God. What he wished was to be accorded a regular trial, and not
suffer death by the king’s order. In the latter case he would lose fortune as
well as life, and he was desirous of leaving his children well provided for.
Thereupon Solomon sent word to him that he had no intention of confiscating his
estates. (8)

Though he was convinced of Joab’s guilt, Solomon nevertheless granted him the
privilege of defense. The king questioned him: “Why didst thou kill Abner?”

Joab: “I was the avenger of my brother Asahel, whom Abner had slain.”

Solomon: “Why, it was Asahel who sought to kill Abner, and Abner acted in
self-defense.”

Joab: “Abner might have disabled Asahel without going to extremes.”

Solomon: “That Abner could not do.”

Joab: “What! Abner aimed directly at Asahel’s fifth rib, and thou wouldst say
he could not have managed to wound him lightly?”

Solomon: “Very well, then, we shall drop Abner’s case. But why didst thou slay
Amasa?”

Joab: “He acted rebelliously toward King David. He omitted to execute his order
to gather an army within three days; for that offense he deserved to suffer the
death penalty.”

Solomon: “Amasa failed to obey the king’s order, because he had been taught by
our sages that even a king’s injunctions may be set at defiance if they involve
neglect of the study of the Torah, which was the case with the order given to
Amasa. And, indeed,” continued Solomon, “it was not Amasa but thou thyself who
didst rebel against the king, for thou wert about to join Absalom, and if thou
didst refrain, it was from fear of David’s strong-fisted troops.” (9)

When Joab saw that death was inevitable, he said to Benaiah, who was charged
with the execution of the king’s order: “Tell Solomon he cannot inflict two
punishments upon me. If he expects to take my life, he must remove the curse
pronounced by David against me and my descendants on account of the slaying of
Abner. If not, he cannot put me to death.” Solomon realized the justness of the
plea. By executing Joab, he transferred David’s curse to his own posterity:
Rehoboam, his son, was afflicted with an issue; Uzziah suffered with leprosy;
Asa had to lean on a staff when he walked; the pious Josiah fell by the sword
of Pharaoh, and Jeconiah lived off charity. So the imprecations of David were
accomplished on his own family instead of Joab’s. (10)

THE MARRIAGE OF SOLOMON

The next to suffer Joab’s fate was Shimei ben Gera, whose treatment of David
had outraged every feeling of decency. His death was of evil portent for
Solomon himself. So long as Shimei, who was Solomon’s teacher, was alive, he
did not venture to marry the daughter of Pharaoh. When, after Shimei’s death,
Solomon took her to wife, the archangel Gabriel descended from heaven, and
inserted a reed in the sea. About this reed more and more earth was gradually
deposited, and, on the day on which Jeroboam erected the golden calves, a
little hut was built upon the island. This was the first of the dwelling-places
of Rome. (11)

Solomon’s wedding-feast in celebration of his marriage with the Egyptian
princess came on the same day as the consecration of the Temple. (12) The
rejoicing over the king’s marriage was greater than over the completion of the
Temple. As the proverb has it: “All pay flattery to a king.” Then it was that
God conceived the plan of destroying Jerusalem. It was as the prophet spoke:
“This city hath been to me a provocation of mine anger and of my fury from the
day that they built it even unto this day.”

In the nuptial night Pharaoh’s daughter had her attendants play upon a thousand
different musical instruments, which she had brought with her from her home,
and as each was used, the name of the idol to which it was dedicated was
mentioned aloud. The better to hold the king under the spell of her charms, she
spread above his bed a tapestry cover studded with diamonds and pearls, which
gleamed and glittered like constellations in the sky. Whenever Solomon wanted
to rise, he saw these stars, and thinking it was night still, he slept on until
the fourth hour of the morning. The people were plunged in grief, for the daily
sacrifice could not be brought on this very morning of the Temple dedication,
because the Temple keys lay under Solomon’s pillow, and none dared awaken him.
Word was sent to Bath-sheba, who forthwith aroused her son, and rebuked him for
his sloth. “Thy father,” she said, “was known to all as a God-fearing man, and
now people will say, ‘Solomon is the son of Bath-sheba, it is his mother’s
fault if he goes wrong.’ Whenever thy father’s wives were pregnant, they
offered vows and prayed that a son worthy to reign might be born unto them. But
my prayer was for a learned son worthy of the gift of prophecy. Take care,
‘give not thy strength unto women nor thy ways to them that destroy kings,’ for
licentiousness confounds the reason of man. Keep well in mind the things that
are necessary in the life of a king. (13) ‘Not kings, Lemuel.’ Have naught in
common with kings who say: ‘What need have we of a God?’ It is not meet that
thou shouldst do like the kings who drink wine and live in lewdness. Be not
like unto them. He to whom the secrets of the world are revealed, (14) should
not intoxicate himself with wine.” (15)

Apart from having married a Gentile, whose conversion to Judaism was not
dictated by pure motives, Solomon transgressed two other Biblical laws. He kept
many horses, which a Jewish king ought not to do, and, what the law holds in
equal abhorrence, he amassed much silver and gold. Under Solomon’s rule silver
and gold were so abundant among the people that their utensils were made of
them instead of the baser metals. (16) For all this he had to atone painfully
later on.

HIS WISDOM

But Solomon’s wealth and pomp were as naught in comparison with his wisdom.
When God appeared to him in Gibeon, in a dream by night, and gave him leave to
ask what he would, a grace accorded to none beside except King Ahaz of Judah,
and promised only to the Messiah in time to come, (17) Solomon chose wisdom,
knowing that wisdom once in his possession, all else would come of itself. (18)
His wisdom, the Scriptures testify, was greater than the wisdom of Ethan the
Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the three sons of Mahol. This means
that he was wiser than Abraham, (19) Moses, (20) Joseph, (21) and the
generation of the desert. (22) He excelled even Adam. (23) His proverbs which
have come down to us are barely eight hundred in number. Nevertheless the
Scripture counts them equal to three thousand, for the reason that each verse
in his book admits of a double and a triple interpretation. In his wisdom he
analyzed the laws revealed to Moses, and he assigned reasons for the ritual and
ceremonial ordinances of the Torah, which without his explanation had seemed
strange. (24) The “forty-nine gates of wisdom” were open to Solomon as they had
been to Moses, but the wise king sought to outdo even the wise legislator. He
had such confidence in himself that he would have dispensed judgment without
resort to witnesses, had he not been prevented by a heavenly voice. (25)

The first proof of his wisdom was given in his verdict in the case of the child
claimed by two mothers as their own. When the women presented their difficulty,
the king said that God in His wisdom had foreseen that such a quarrel would
arise, and therefore had created the organs of man in pairs, so that neither of
the two parties to the dispute might be wronged. on hearing these words from
the king, Solomon’s counsellors lamented: “Woe to thee, O land, when thy king
is a youth.” In a little while they realized the wisdom of the king, and then
they exclaimed: “Happy art thou, O land, when thy king is a free man.” The
quarrel had of set purpose been brought on by God to the end that Solomon’s
wisdom might be made known. In reality the two litigants were not women at all,
but spirits. That all doubt about the fairness of the verdict might be
dispelled, a heavenly voice proclaimed: “This is the mother of the child.” (26)

During the lifetime of David, when Solomon was still a lad, he had settled
another difficult case in an equally brilliant way. A wealthy man had sent his
son on a protracted business trip to Africa. On his return he found that his
father had died in the meantime, and his treasures had passed into the
possession of a crafty slave, who had succeeded in ridding himself of all the
other slaves, or intimidating them. In vain the rightful heir urged his claim
before King David. As he could not bring witnesses to testify for him, there
was no way of dispossessing the slave, who likewise called himself the son of
the deceased. The child Solomon heard the case, and he devised a method of
arriving at the truth. He had the father’s corpse exhumed, and he dyed one of
the bones with the blood first of one of the claimants, and then of the other.
The blood of the slave showed no affinity with the bone, while the blood of the
true heir permeated it. So the real son secured his inheritance. (27)

After his accession to the throne, a peculiar quarrel among heirs was brought
before Solomon for adjudication. Asmodeus, the king of demons, once said to
Solomon: “Thou art the wisest of men, yet I shall show thee something thou hast
never seen.” Thereupon Asmodeus stuck his finger in the ground, and up came a
double-headed man. He was one of the Cainites, who live underground, and are
altogether different in nature and habit from the denizens of the upper world.
(28) When the Cainite wanted to descend to his dwelling-place again, it
appeared that he could not return thither. Not even Asmodeus could bring the
thing about. So he remained on earth, took unto himself a wife, and begot seven
sons, one of whom resembled his father in having two heads. When the Cainite
died, a dispute broke out among his descendants as to how the property was to
be divided. The double-headed son claimed two portions. Both Solomon and the
Sanhedrin were at a loss; they could not discover a precedent to guide them.
Then Solomon prayed to God: “O Lord of all, when Thou didst appear to me in
Gibeon, and didst give me leave to ask a gift of Thee, I desired neither silver
nor gold, but only wisdom, that I might be able to judge men in justice.”

God heard his prayer. When the sons of the Cainite again came before Solomon,
he poured hot water on one of the heads of the double-headed monster, whereupon
both heads flinched, and both mouths cried out: “We are dying, we are dying! We
are but one, not two.” Solomon decided that the double-headed son was after all
only a single being. (29)

On another occasion Solomon invented a lawsuit in order to elicit the truth in
an involved case. Three men appeared before him, each of whom accused the
others of theft. They had been travelling together, and, when the Sabbath
approached, they halted and prepared to rest and sought a safe hiding-place for
their money, for it is not allowed to carry money on one’s person on the
Sabbath. They all three together secreted what they had in the same spot, and,
when the Sabbath was over, they hastened thither, only to find that it had been
stolen. It was clear one of the three must have been the thief, but which one?

Solomon said to them: “I know you to be experienced and thorough business men.
I should like you to help me decide a suit which the king of Rome has submitted
to me. In the Roman kingdom there lived a maiden and a youth, who promised each
other under oath never to enter into a marriage without obtaining each other’s
permission. The parents of the girl betrothed their daughter to a man whom she
loved, but she refused to become his wife until the companion of her youth gave
his consent. She took much gold and silver, and sought him out to bribe him.
Setting aside his own love for the girl, he offered her and her lover his
congratulations, and refused to accept the slightest return for the permission
granted. On their homeward way the happy couple were surprised by an old
highwayman, who was about to rob the young man of his bride and his money. The
girl told the brigand the story of her life, closing with these words: ‘If a
youth controlled his passion for me, how much more shouldst thou, an old man,
be filled with fear of God, and let me go my way.’ Her words took effect. The
aged highwaymen laid hands neither on the girl nor on the money.

“Now,” Solomon continued to the three litigants, “I was asked to decide which
of the three persons concerned acted most nobly, the girl, the youth, or the
highwayman, and I should like to have your views upon the question.”

The first of the three said: “My praise is for the girl, who kept her oath so
faithfully.” The second: “I should award the palm to the youth, who kept
himself in check, and did not permit his passion to prevail.” The third said:
“Commend me to the brigand, who kept his hands off the money, more especially
as he would have been doing all that could be expected of him if he had
surrendered the woman he might have taken the money.”

The last answer sufficed to put Solomon on the right track. The man who was
inspired with admiration of the virtues of the robber, probably was himself
filled with greed of money. He had him cross-examined, and finally extorted a
confession. He had committed the theft, and he designated the spot where he had
hidden the money. (30)

Even animals submitted their controversies to Solomon’s wise judgment. A man
with a jug of milk came upon a serpent wailing pitifully in a field. To the
man’s question, the serpent replied that it was tortured with thirst. “And what
art thou carrying in the jug?” asked the serpent. When it heard what it was, it
begged for the milk, and promised to reward the man by showing him a hidden
treasure. The man gave the milk to the serpent, and was then led to a great
rock. “Under this rock,” said the serpent, “lies the treasure.” The man rolled
the rock aside, and was about to take the treasure, when suddenly the serpent
made a lunge at him, and coiled itself about his neck. “What meanest thou by
such conduct?” exclaimed the man. “I am going to kill thee,” replied the
serpent, “because thou art robbing me of all my money.” The man proposed that
they put their case to King Solomon, and obtain his decision as to who was in
the wrong. So they did. Solomon asked the serpent to state what it demanded of
the man. “I want to kill him,” answered the serpent, “because the Scriptures
command it, saying: ‘Thou shalt bruise the heel of man.'” Solomon said: “First
release thy hold upon the man’s neck and descend; in court neither party to a
lawsuit may enjoy an advantage over the other.” The serpent glided to the
floor, and Solomon repeated his question, and received the same answer as
before from the serpent. Then Solomon turned to the man and said: “To thee
God’s command was to bruise the head of the serpent do it!” And the man
crushed the serpent’s head. (31)

Sometimes Solomon’s assertions and views, though they sprang from profound
wisdom, seemed strange to the common run of men. In such cases, the wise king
did not disdain to illustrate the correctness of his opinions. For instance,
both the learned and the ignorant were stung into opposition by Solomon’s
saying: “One man among a thousand have I found; but a virtuous woman among all
those have I not found.” Solomon unhesitatingly pledged himself to prove that
he was right. He had his attendants seek out a married couple enjoying a
reputation for uprightness and virtue. The husband was cited before him, and
Solomon told him that he had decided to appoint him to an exalted office. The
king demanded only, as an earnest of his loyalty, that he murder his wife, so
that he might be free to marry the king’s daughter, a spouse comporting with
the dignity of his new station. With a heavy heart the man went home. His
despair grew at sight of his fair wife and his little children. Though
determined to do the king’s bidding, he still lacked courage to kill his wife
while she was awake. He waited until she was tight asleep, but then the child
enfolded in the mother’s arms rekindled his parental and conjugal affection,
and he replaced his sword in its sheath, saying to himself: “And if the king
were to offer me his whole realm, I would not murder my wife.” Thereupon he
went to Solomon, and told him his final decision. A month later Solomon sent
for the wife, and declared his love for her. He told her that their happiness
could be consummated if she would but do away with her husband. Then she should
be made the first wife in his harem. Solomon gave her a leaden sword which
glittered as though fashioned of steel. The woman returned home resolved to put
the sword to its appointed use. Not a quiver of her eyelids betrayed her
sinister purpose. On the contrary, by caresses and tender words she sought to
disarm any suspicion that might attack to her. In the night she arose, drew
forth the sword, and proceeded to kill her husband. The leaden instrument
naturally did no harm, except to awaken her husband, to whom she had to confess
her evil intent. The next day both man and wife were summoned before the king,
who thus convinced his counsellors of the truth of his conviction, that no
dependence can be placed on woman. (32)

The fame of Solomon’s wisdom spread far and wide. Many entered the service of
the king, in the hope of profiting by his wisdom. Three brothers had served
under him for thirteen years, and, disappointed at not having learnt anything,
they made up their minds to quit his service. Solomon gave them the alternative
of receiving one hundred coins each, or being taught three wise saws. They
decided to take the money. They had scarcely left the town when the youngest of
the three, regardless of the protests of his two brothers, hastened back to
Solomon and said to him: “My lord, I did not take service under thee to make
money; I wanted to acquire wisdom. Pray, take back thy money, and teach me
wisdom instead.” Solomon thereupon imparted the following three rules of
conduct to him: “When thou travellest abroad, set out on thy journey with the
dawn and turn in for the night before darkness falls; do not cross a river that
is swollen; and never betray a secret to a woman.” The man quickly overtook his
brothers, but he confided nothing to them of what he had learned from Solomon.
They journeyed on together. At the approach of the ninth hour three hours after
noon they reached a suitable spot in which to spend the night. The youngest
brother, mindful of Solomon’s advice, proposed that they stop there. The others
taunted him with his stupidity, which, they said, he had begun to display when
he carried his money back to Solomon. The two proceeded on their way, but the
youngest arranged his quarters for the night. When darkness came on, and with
it nipping cold, he was snug and comfortable, while his brothers were surprised
by a snow storm, in which they perished. The following day he continued his
journey, and on the road he found the dead bodies of his brothers. Having
appropriated their money, he buried them, and went on. When he reached a river
that was very much swollen, he bore Solomon’s advice in mind, and delayed to
cross until the flood subsided. While standing on the bank, he observed how
some of the king’s servants were attempting to ford the stream with beasts
laden with gold, and how they were borne down by the flood. After the waters
had abated, he crossed and appropriated the gold strapped to the drowned
animals. When he returned home, wealthy and wise, he told nothing of what he
had experienced even to his wife, who was very curious to find out where her
husband had obtained his wealth. Finally, she plied him so closely with
questions that Solomon’s advice about confiding a secret to a woman was quite
forgotten. Once, when his wife was quarrelling with him, she cried out: “Not
enough that thou didst murder thy brothers, thou desirest to kill me, too.”
Thereupon he was charged with the murder of their husbands by his two
sisters-in-law. He was tried, condemned to death, and escaped the hangman only
when he told the king the story of his life, and was recognized as his former
retainer. It was with reference to this man’s adventures that Solomon said:
“Acquire wisdom; she is better than gold and much fine gold.” (33)

Another of his disciples had a similar experience. Annually a man came from a
great distance to pay a visit to the wise king, and when he departed Solomon
was in the habit of bestowing a gift upon him. Once the guest refused the gift,
and asked the king to teach him the language of the birds and the animals
instead. The king was ready to grant his request, but he did not fail to warn
him first of the great danger connected with such knowledge. “If thou tellest
others a word of what thou hearest from an animal,” he said, “thou wilt surely
suffer death; thy destruction is inevitable.” Nothing daunted, the visitor
persisted in his wish, and the king instructed him in the secret art.

Returned home, he overheard a conversation between his ox and his ass. The ass
said: “Brother, how farest thou with these people?”

The ox: “As thou livest, brother, I pass day and night in hard and painful
toil.”

The ass: “I can give thee relief, brother. If thou wilt follow my advice, thou
shalt live in comfort, and shalt rid thyself of all hard work.”

The ox: “O brother, may thy heart be inclined toward me, to take pity on me and
help me. I promise not to depart from thy advice to the right or the left.”

The ass: “God knows, I am speaking to thee in the uprightness of my heart and
the purity of my thoughts. My advice to thee is not to eat either straw or
fodder this night. When our master notices it, he will suppose that thou art
sick. He will put no burdensome work upon thee, and thou canst take a good
rest. That is the way I did to-day.”

The ox followed the advice of his companion. He touched none of the food thrown
to him. The master, suspecting a ruse on the part of the ass, arose during the
night, went to the stable, and watched the ass eat his fill from the manger
belonging to the ox. He could not help laughing out loud, which greatly amazed
his wife, who, of course, had noticed nothing out of the way. The master evaded
her questions. Something ludicrous had just occurred to him, he said by way of
explanation.

For the sly trick played upon the ox, he determined to punish the ass. He
ordered the servant to let the ox rest for the day, and make the ass do the
work of both animals. At evening the ass trudged into the stable tired and
exhausted. The ox greeted him with the words: “Brother, hast thou heard aught
of what our heartless masters purpose?” “Yes,” replied the ass, “I heard them
speak of having thee slaughtered, if thou shouldst refuse to eat this night,
too. They want to make sure of thy flesh at least.” Scarcely had the ox heard
the words of the ass when he threw himself upon his food like a ravenous lion
upon his prey. Not a speck did he leave behind, and the master was suddenly
moved to uproarious laughter. This time his wife insisted upon knowing the
cause. In vain she entreated and supplicated. She swore not to live with him
any more if he did not tell her why he laughed. The man loved her so devotedly
that he was ready to sacrifice his life to satisfy her whim, but before taking
leave of this world he desired to see his friends and relations once more, and
he invited them all to his house.

Meantime his dog was made aware of the master’s approaching end, and such
sadness took possession of the faithful beast that he touched neither food nor
drink. The cock, on the other hand, gaily appropriated the food intended for
the dog, and he and his wives enjoyed a banquet. Outraged by such unfeeling
behavior, the dog said to the cock: “How great is thy impudence, and how
insignificant thy modesty! Thy master is but a step from the grave, and thou
eatest and makest merry.” The cock’s reply was: “Is it my fault if our master
is a fool and an idiot? I have ten wives, and I rule them as I will. Not one
dares oppose me and my commands. Our master has a single wife, and this one he
cannot control and manage.” “What ought our master to do?” asked the dog. “Let
him take a heavy stick and belabor his wife’s back thoroughly,” advised the
cock, “and I warrant thee, she won’t plague him any more to reveal his
secrets.”

The husband had overheard this conversation, too, and the cock’s advice seemed
good. He followed it, and death was averted. (34)

On many occasions, Solomon brought his acumen and wisdom to bear upon foreign
rulers who attempted to concoct mischief against him. Solomon needed help in
building the Temple, and he wrote to Pharaoh, asking him to send artists to
Jerusalem. Pharaoh complied with his request, but not honestly. He had his
astrologers determine which of his men were destined to die within the year.
These candidates for the grave he passed over to Solomon. The Jewish king was
not slow to discover the trick played upon him. He immediately returned the men
to Egypt, each provided with his grave clothes, and wrote: “To Pharaoh! I
suppose thou hadst no shrouds for these people. Herewith I send thee the men,
and what they were in need of.” (35)

Hiram, king of Tyre, the steadfast friend of the dynasty of David, who had done
Solomon such valuable services in connection with the building of the Temple,
was desirous of testing his wisdom. He was in the habit of sending
catch-questions and riddles to Solomon with the request that he solve them and
help him out of his embarrassment about them. Solomon, of course, succeeded in
answering them all. Later on he made an agreement with Hiram, that they were to
exchange conundrums and riddles, and a money fine was to be exacted from the
one of them who failed to find the proper answer to a question propounded by
the other. Naturally it was Hiram who was always the loser. The Tyrians
maintain that finally Solomon found more than his match in one of Hiram’s
subjects, one Abdamon, who put many a riddle to Solomon that baffled his wit.
(36)

Of Solomon’s subtlety in riddle guessing only a few instances have come down to
us, all of them connected with riddles put to him by the Queen of Sheba. (37)
The story of this queen, of her relation to Solomon, and what induced her to
leave her distant home and journey to the court at Jerusalem forms an
interesting chapter in the eventful life of the wise king.

THE QUEEN OF SHEBA

Solomon, it must be remembered, bore rule not only over men, but also over the
beasts of the field, the birds of the air, demons, spirits, and the spectres of
the night. He knew the language of all of them and they understood his
language. (38)

When Solomon was of good cheer by reason of wine, he summoned the beasts of the
field, the birds of the air, the creeping reptiles, the shades, the spectres,
and the ghosts, to perform their dances before the kings, his neighbors, whom
he invited to witness his power and greatness. The king’s scribes called the
animals and the spirits by name, one by one, and they all assembled of their
own accord, without fetters or bonds, with no human hand to guide them.

On one occasion the hoopoe (39) was missed from among the birds. He could not
be found anywhere. The king, full of wrath, ordered him to be produced and
chastised for his tardiness. The hoopoe appeared and said: “O lord, king of the
world, incline thine ear and hearken to my words. Three months have gone by
since I began to take counsel with myself and resolve upon a course of action.
I have eaten no food and drunk no water, in order to fly about in the whole
world and see whether there is a domain anywhere which is not subject to my
lord the king. (40) and I found a city, the city of Kitor, in the East. Dust is
more valuable than gold there, and silver is like the mud of the streets. Its
trees are from the beginning of all time, and they suck up water that flows
from the Garden of Eden. The city is crowded with men. On their heads they wear
garlands wreathed in Paradise. They know not how to fight, nor how to shoot
with bow and arrow. Their ruler is a woman, she is called the Queen of Sheba.
If, now, it please thee, O lord and king, I shall gird my loins like a hero,
and journey to the city of Kitor in the land of Sheba. Its kings I shall fetter
with chains and its rulers with iron bands, and bring them all before my lord
the king.”

The hoopoe’s speech pleased the king. The clerks of his land were summoned, and
they wrote a letter and bound it to the hoopoe’s wing. The bird rose skyward,
uttered his cry, and flew away, followed by all the other birds.

And they came to Kitor in the land of Sheba. It was morning, and the queen had
gone forth to pay worship to the sun. Suddenly the birds darkened his light.
The queen raised her hand, and rent her garment, and was sore astonished. Then
the hoopoe alighted near her. Seeing that a letter was tied to his wing, she
loosed it and read it. And what was written in the letter? “From me, King
Solomon! Peace be with thee, peace with the nobles of thy realm! Know that God
has appointed me king over the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the
demons, the spirits, and the spectres. All the kings of the East and the West
come to bring me greetings. If thou wilt come and salute me, I shall show thee
great honor, more than to any of the kings that attend me. But if thou wilt not
pay homage to me, I shall send out kings, legions, and riders against thee.
Thou askest, who are these kings, legions, and riders of King Solomon? The
beasts of the field are my kings, the birds my riders, the demons, spirit, and
shades of the night my legions. The demons will throttle you in your beds at
night, while the beasts will slay you in the field, and the birds will consume
your flesh.”

When the Queen of Sheba had read the contents of the letter, she again rent her
garment, and sent word to her elders and her princes: “Know you not what
Solomon has written to me?” They answered: “We know nothing of King Solomon,
and his dominion we regard as naught.” But their words did not reassure the
queen. She assembled all the ships of the sea, and loaded them with the finest
kinds of wood, and with pearls and precious stones. Together with these she
sent Solomon six thousand youths and maidens, born in the same year, in the
same month, on the same day, in the same hour all of equal stature and size,
all clothed in purple garments. They bore a letter to King Solomon as follows:
“From the city of Kitor to the land of Israel is a journey of seven years. As
it is thy wish and behest that I visit thee, I shall hasten and be in Jerusalem
at the end of three years.”

When the time of her arrival drew nigh, Solomon sent Benaiah the son of
Jehoiada to meet her. Benaiah was like unto the flush in the eastern sky at
break of day, like unto the evening star that outshines all other stars, like
unto the lily growing by brooks of water. When the queen caught sight of him,
she descended from her chariot to do him honor. Benaiah asked her why she left
her chariot. “Art thou not King Solomon?” she questioned in turn. Benaiah
replied: “Not King Solomon am I, only one of his servants that stand in his
presence.” Thereupon the queen turned to her nobles and said: “If you have not
beheld the lion, at least you have seen his lair, and if you have not beheld
King Solomon, at least you have seen the beauty of him that stands in his
presence.”

Benaiah conducted the queen to Solomon, who had gone to sit in a house of glass
to receive her. The queen was deceived by an illusion. She thought the king was
sitting in water, and as she stepped across to him she raised her garment to
keep it dry. On her bared feet the king noticed hair, and he said to her: “Thy
beauty is the beauty of a woman, but thy hair is masculine; hair is an ornament
to a man, but it disfigures a woman.” (41)

Then the queen began and said: (42) “I have heard of thee and thy wisdom; if
now I inquire of thee concerning a matter, wilt thou answer me?” He replied:
“The Lord giveth wisdom, out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.”
She then said to him:

1. “Seven there are that issue and nine that enter; two yield the draught and
one drinks.” Said he to her: “Seven are the days of a woman’s defilement, and
nine the months of pregnancy; two are the breasts that yield the draught, and
one the child that drinks it.” Whereupon she said to him: “Thou art wise.”

2. Then she questioned him further: “A woman said to her son, thy father is my
father, and thy grandfather my husband; thou art my son, and I am thy sister.”
“Assuredly,” said he, “it was the daughter of Lot who spake thus to her son.”

3. She placed a number of males and females of the same stature and garb before
him and said: “Distinguish between them.” Forthwith he made a sign to the
eunuchs, who brought him a quantity of nuts and roasted ears of corn. The
males, who were not bashful, seized them with bare hands; the females took
them, putting forth their gloved hands from beneath their garments. Whereupon
he exclaimed: “Those are the males, these the females.”

4. She brought a number of men to him, some circumcised and others
uncircumcised, and asked him to distinguish between them. He immediately made a
sign to the high priest, who opened the Ark of the covenant, whereupon those
that were circumcised bowed their bodies to half their height, while their
countenances were filled with the radiance of the Shekinah; the uncircumcised
fell prone upon their faces. “Those,” said he, “are circumcised, these
uncircumcised.” (43) “Thou art wise, indeed,” she exclaimed.

5. She put other questions to him, to all of which he gave replies. “Who is he
who neither was born nor has died?” “It is the Lord of the world, blessed be
He.”

6. “What land is that which has but once seen the sun?” “The land upon which,
after the creation, the waters were gathered, and the bed of the Red Sea on the
day when it was divided.”

7. “There is an enclosure with ten doors, when one is open, nine are shut; when
nine are open, one is shut?” “That enclosure is the womb; the ten doors are the
ten orifices of man his eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, the apertures for the
discharge of the excreta and the urine, and the navel; when the child is in the
embryonic state, the navel is open and the other orifices are closed, but when
it issues from the womb, the navel is closed and the others are opened.”

8. “There is something which when living moves not, yet when its head is cut
off it moves?” “It is the ship in the sea.” (44)

9. “Which are the three that neither ate, nor did they drink, nor did they have
bread put into them, yet they saved lives from death?” “The signet, the cord,
and the staff are those three.”

10. “Three entered a cave and five came forth therefrom?” “Lot and his two
daughters and their two children.”

11. “The dead lived, the grave moved, and the dead prayed: what is that?” “The
dead that lived and prayed, Jonah; and the fish, the moving grave.”

12. “Who were the three that ate and drank on the earth, and yet were not born
of male and female?” “The three angels who visited Abraham.” (45)

13. “Four entered a place of death and came forth alive, and two entered a
place of life and came forth dead?” “The four were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael,
and Azariah, and the two were Nadab and Abihu.”

14. “Who was he that was born and died not?” “Elijah and the Messiah.”

15. “What was that which was not born, yet life was given to it?” “The golden
calf.”

16. “What is that which is produced from the ground, yet man produces it, while
its food is the fruit of the ground?” “A wick.”

17. “A woman was wedded to two, and bore two sons, yet these four had one
father?” “Tamar.”

18. “A house full of dead; no dead one came among them, nor did a living come
forth from them?” “It is the story of Samson and the Philistines.”

19. The queen next ordered the sawn trunk of a cedar tree to be brought, and
she asked Solomon to point out at which end the root had been and at which the
branches. He bade her cast it into the water, when one end sank and the other
floated upon the surface of the water. That part which sank was the root, and
that which remained uppermost was the branch end. Then she said to him: “Thou
exceedest in wisdom and goodness the fame which I heard, blessed be thy God!”
(46)

The last three riddles which the Queen of Sheba put to Solomon were the
following:

20. “What is this? A wooden well with iron buckets, which draw stones and pour
out water.” The king replied: “A rouge-tube.”

21. “What is this? It comes as dust from the earth, its food is dust, it is
poured out like water, and lights the house.” “Naphtha.”

22. “What is this? It walks ahead of all; it cries out loud and bitterly; its
head is like the reed; it is the glory of the noble, the disgrace of the poor;
the glory of the dead, the disgrace of the living; the delight of birds, the
distress of fishes.” He answered: “Flax.” (47)

SOLOMON MASTER OF THE DEMONS

Never has there lived a man privileged, like Solomon, to make the demons
amenable to his will. God endowed him with the ability to turn the vicious
power of demons into a power working to the advantage of men. He invented
formulas of incantation by which diseases were alleviated, and others by which
demons were exorcised so that they were banished forever. (48) As his personal
attendants he had spirits and demons whom he could send hither and thither on
the instant. He could grow tropical plants in Palestine, because his
ministering spirits secured water for him from India. (49)

As the spirits were subservient to him, so also the animals. He had an eagle
upon whose back he was transported to the desert and back again in one day, to
build there the city called Tadmor in the Bible (50) This city must not be
confounded with the later Syrian city of Palmyra, also called Tadmor. It was
situated near the “mountains of darkness,” (51) the trysting-place of the
spirits and demons. Thither the eagle would carry Solomon in the twinkling of
an eye, and Solomon would drop a paper inscribed with a verse among the
spirits, to ward off evil from himself. Then the eagle would reconnoitre the
mountains of darkness, until he had spied out the spot in which the fallen
angels ‘Azza and ‘Azzael (52) lie chained with iron fetters a spot which no
one, not even a bird, may visit. When the eagle found the place, he would take
Solomon under his left wing, and fly to the two angels. Through the power of
the ring having the Holy Name graven upon it, which Solomon put into the
eagle’s mouth, ‘Azza and ‘Azzael were forced to reveal the heavenly mysteries
to the king. (53)

The demons were of greatest service to Solomon during the erection of the
Temple. It came about in this wise: When Solomon began the building of the
Temple, it once happened that a malicious spirit snatched away the money and
the food of one of the king’s favorite pages. This occurred several times, and
Solomon was not able to lay hold on the malefactor. The king besought God
fervently to deliver the wicked spirit into his hands. His prayer was granted.
The archangel Michael appeared to him, and gave him a small ring having a seal
consisting of an engraved stone, and he said to him: “Take, O Solomon, king,
son of David, the gift which the Lord God, the highest Zebaot, hath sent unto
thee. With it thou shalt lock up all the demons of the earth, male and female;
and with their help thou shalt build up Jerusalem. But thou must wear this seal
of God; and this engraving of the seal of the ring sent thee is a Pentalpha.”
(54) Armed with it, Solomon called up all the demons before him, and he asked
of each in turn his or her name, as well as the name of the star or
constellation or zodiacal sign and of the particular angel to the influence of
which each is subject. One after another the spirits were vanquished, and
compelled by Solomon to aid in the construction of the Temple.

Ornias, the vampire spirit who had maltreated Solomon’s servant, was the first
demon to appear, and he was set to the task of cutting stones near the Temple.
And Solomon bade Ornias come, and he gave him the seal, saying: “Away with
thee, and bring me hither the prince of all the demons.” Ornias took the
finger-ring, and went to Beelzeboul, who has kingship over the demons. He said
to him: “Hither! Solomon calls thee.” But Beelzeboul, having heard, said to
him: “Tell me, who is this Solomon of whom thou speakest to me?” Then Ornias
threw the ring at the chest of Beelzeboul, saying: “Solomon the king calls
thee.” But Beelzeboul cried aloud with a mighty voice, and shot out a great,
burning flame of fire; and he arose and followed Ornias, and came to Solomon.
Brought before the king, he promised him to gather all the unclean spirits unto
him. Beelzeboul proceeded to do so, beginning with Onoskelis, that had a very
pretty shape and the skin of a fair-hued woman, and he was followed by
Asmodeus; both giving an account of themselves.

Beelzeboul reappeared on the scene, and in his conversation with Solomon
declared that he alone survived of the angels who had come down from heaven. He
reigned over all who are in Tartarus, and had a child in the Red Sea, which on
occasion comes up to Beelzeboul and reveals to him what he has done. Next the
demon of the Ashes, Tephros, appeared, and after him a group of seven female
spirits, who declared themselves to be of the thirty-six elements of the
darkness. Solomon bade them dig the foundation of the temple, for the length of
it was two hundred and fifty cubits. And he ordered them to be industrious, and
with one united murmur of protest they began to perform the tasks enjoined.

Solomon bade another demon come before him. And there was brought to him a
demon having all the limbs of a man, but without a head. The demon said to
Solomon: “I am called Envy, for I delight to devour heads, being desirous to
secure for myself a head; but I do not eat enough, and I am anxious to have
such a head as thou hast.” A hound-like spirit, whose name was Rabdos,
followed, and he revealed to Solomon a green stone, useful for the adornment of
the Temple. A number of other male and female demons appeared, among them the
thirty-six world-rulers of the darkness, whom Solomon commanded to fetch water
to the Temple. Some of these demons he condemned to do the heavy work on the
construction of the Temple, others he shut up in prison, and others, again, he
ordered to wrestle with fire in the making of gold and silver, sitting down by
lead and spoon, and to make ready places for the other demons, in which they
should be confined.

After Solomon with the help of the demons had completed the Temple, the rulers,
among them the Queen of Sheba, who was a sorceress, came from far and near to
admire the magnificence and art of the building, and no less the wisdom of its
builder. (55)

One day an old man appeared before Solomon to complain of his son, whom he
accused of having been so impious as to raise his hand against his father and
give him a blow. The young man denied the charge, but his father insisted that
his life be held forfeit. Suddenly Solomon heard loud laughter. It was the
demon Ornias, who was guilty of the disrespectful behavior. Rebuked by Solomon,
the demon said: “I pray thee, O king, it was not because of thee I laughed, but
because of this ill-starred old man and the wretched youth, his son. For after
three days his son will die untimely, and, lo, the old man desires to make away
with him foully.” Solomon delayed his verdict for several days, and when after
five days he summoned the old father to his presence, it appeared that Ornias
had spoken the truth.

After some time, Solomon received a letter from Adares, the king of Arabia. He
begged the Jewish king to deliver his land from an evil spirit, who was doing
great mischief, and who could not be caught and made harmless, because he
appeared in the form of wind. Solomon gave his magic ring and a leather bottle
to one of his slaves, and sent him into Arabia. The messenger succeeded in
confining the spirit in the bottle. A few days later, when Solomon entered the
Temple, he was not a little astonished to see a bottle walk toward him, and bow
down reverently before him; it was the bottle in which the spirit was shut up.
This same spirit once did Solomon a great service. Assisted by demons, he
raised a gigantic stone out of the Red Sea. Neither human beings nor demons
could move it, but he carried it to the Temple, where it was used as a
cornerstone.

Through his own fault Solomon forfeited the power to perform miraculous deed,
which the Divine spirit had conferred upon him. He fell in love with the
Jebusite woman Sonmanites. The priests of Moloch and Raphan, the false gods she
worshiped, advised her to reject his suit, unless he paid homage to these gods.
At first Solomon was firm, but, when the woman bade him take five locusts and
crush them in his hands in the name of Moloch, he obeyed her. At once he was
bereft of the Divine spirit, of his strength and his wisdom, and he sank so low
that to please his beloved he built temples to Baal and Raphan. (56)

THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE

Among the great achievements of Solomon first place must be assigned to the
superb Temple built by him. He was long in doubt as to where he was to build
it. A heavenly voice directed him to go to Mount Zion at night, to a field
owned by two brothers jointly. One of the brothers was a bachelor and poor, the
other was blessed both with wealth and a large family of children. It was
harvesting time. Under cover of night, the poor brother kept adding to the
other’s heap of grain, for, although he was poor, he thought his brother needed
more on account of his large family. The rich brother, in the same clandestine
way, added to the poor brother’s store, thinking that though he had a family to
support, the other was without means. This field, Solomon concluded, which had
called forth so remarkable a manifestation of brotherly love, was the best site
for the Temple, and he bought it. (57)

Every detail of the equipment and ornamentation of the Temple testifies to
Solomon’s rare wisdom. Next to the required furniture, he planted golden trees,
which bore fruit all the time the building stood. When the enemy entered the
Temple, the fruit dropped from the trees, but they will put forth blossoms
again when it is rebuilt in the days of the Messiah. (58)

Solomon was so assiduous that the erection of the Temple took but seven years,
about half the time for the erection of the king’s palace, in spite of the
greater magnificence of the sanctuary. In this respect, he was the superior of
his father David, who first built a house for himself, and then gave thought to
a house for God to dwell in. Indeed, it was Solomon’s meritorious work in
connection with the Temple that saved him from being reckoned by the sages as
one of the impious kings, among whom his later actions might properly have put
him. (59)

According to the measure of the zeal displayed by Solomon were the help and
favor shown him by God. During the seven years it took to build the Temple, not
a single workman died who was employed about it, nor even did a single one fall
sick. And as the workmen were sound and robust from first to last, so the
perfection of their tools remained unimpaired until the building stood
complete. Thus the work suffered no sort of interruption. After the dedication
of the Temple, however, the workmen died off, lest they build similar
structures for the heathen and their gods. Their wages they were to receive
from God in the world to come, (60) and the master workman, Hiram, (61) was
rewarded by being permitted to reach Paradise alive. (62)

The Temple was finished in the month of Bul, now called Marheshwan, but the
edifice stood closed for nearly a whole year, because it was the will of God
that the dedication take place in the month of Abraham’s birth. Meantime the
enemies of Solomon rejoiced maliciously. “Was it not the son of Bath-sheba,”
they said, “who built the Temple? How, then, could God permit His Shekinah to
rest upon it?” When the consecration of the house took place, and “the fire
came down from heaven,” they recognized their mistake. (63)

The importance of the Temple appeared at once, for the torrential rains which
annually since the deluge had fallen for forty days beginning with the month of
Marheshwan, for the first time failed to come, and thenceforward appeared no
more. (64)

The joy of the people over the sanctuary was so great that they held the
consecration ceremonies on the Day of Atonement. It contributed not a little to
their ease of mind that a heavenly voice was heard to proclaim: “You all shall
have a share in the world to come.”

The great house of prayer reflected honor not only on Solomon and the people,
but also on King David. The following incident proves it: When the Ark was
about to be brought into the Holy of Holies, the door of the sacred chamber
locked itself, and it was impossible to open it. Solomon prayed fervently to
God, but his entreaties had no effect until he pronounced the words: “Remember
the good deeds of David thy servant.” The Holy of Holies then opened of itself,
and the enemies of David had to admit that God had wholly forgiven his sin.
(65)

In the execution of the Temple work a wish cherished by David was fulfilled. He
was averse to having the gold which he had taken as booty from the heathen
places of worship during his campaigns used for the sanctuary at Jerusalem,
because he feared that the heathen would boast, at the destruction of the
Temple, that their gods were courageous, and were taking revenge by wrecking
the house of the Israelitish God. Fortunately Solomon was so rich that there
was no need to resort to the gold inherited from his father, and so David’s
wish was fulfilled. (66)

THE THRONE OF SOLOMON

Next to the Temple in its magnificence, it is the throne of Solomon that
perpetuates the name and fame of the wise king. None before him and none after
him could produce a like work of art, and when the kings, his vassals, saw the
magnificence of the throne they fell down and praised God. The throne was
covered with fine gold from Ophir, studded with beryls, inlaid with marble, and
jewelled with emeralds, and rubies, and pearls, and all manner of gems. On each
of its six steps there were two golden lions and two golden eagles, a lion and
an eagle to the left, and a lion and an eagle to the right, the pairs standing
face to face, so that the right paw of the lion was opposite to the left wing
of the eagle, and his left paw opposite to the right wing of the eagle. The
royal seat was at the top, which was round.

On the first step leading to the seat crouched an ox, and opposite to him a
lion; on the second, a wolf and a lamb; on the third, a leopard and a goat;
(67) on the fourth perched an eagle and a peacock; on the fifth a falcon (68)
and a cock; and on the sixth a hawk and a sparrow; all made of gold. At the
very top rested a dove, her claws set upon a hawk, to betoken that the time
would come when all peoples and nations shall be delivered into the hands of
Israel. Over the seat hung a golden candlestick, with golden lamps,
pomegranates, snuff dishes, censers, chains, and lilies. Seven branches
extended from each side. On the arms to the right were the images of the seven
patriarchs of the world, Adam, Noah, Shem, Job, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and
on the arms to the left, the images of the seven pious men of the world,
Kohath, Amram, Moses, Aaron, Eldad, Medad, and the prophet Hur. Attached to the
top of the candlestick was a golden bowl filled with the purest olive oil, to
be used for the candlestick in the Temple, and below, a golden basin, also
filled with the purest olive oil, for the candlestick over the throne. The
basin bore the image of the high priest Eli; those of his sons Hophni and
Phinehas were on the two faucets protruding from the basin, and those of Nadab
and Abihu on the tubes connection the faucets with the basin.

On the upper part of the throne stood seventy golden chairs for the members of
the Sanhedrin, and two more for the high priest and his vicar. When the high
priest came to do homage to the king, the members of the Sanhedrin also
appeared, to judge the people, and they took their seats to the right and to
the left of the king. At the approach of the witnesses, the machinery of the
throne rumbled the wheels turned, the ox lowed, the lion roared, the wolf
howled, the lamb bleated, the leopard growled, the goat cried, the falcon
screamed, the peacock gobbled, the cock crowed, the hawk screeched, the sparrow
chirped all to terrify the witnesses and keep them from giving false
testimony.

When Solomon set foot upon the first step to ascend to his seat, its machinery
was put into motion. The golden ox arose and led him to the second step, and
there passed him over to the care of the beasts guarding it, and so he was
conducted from step to step up to the sixth, where the eagles received him and
placed him upon his seat. As soon as he was seated, a great eagle set the royal
crown upon his head. Thereupon a huge snake rolled itself up against the
machinery, forcing the lions and eagles upward until they encircled the head of
the king. A golden dove flew down from a pillar, took the sacred scroll out of
a casket, and gave it to the king, so that he might obey the injunction of the
Scriptures, to have the law with him and read therein all the days of his life.
Above the throne twenty-four vines interlaced, forming a shady arbor over the
head of the king, and sweet aromatic perfumes exhaled from two golden lions,
while Solomon made the ascent to his seat upon the throne. (69)

It was the task of seven heralds to keep Solomon reminded of his duties as king
and judge. The first one of the heralds approached him when he set foot on the
first step of the throne, and began to recite the law for kings, “He shall not
multiply wives to himself.” At the second step, the second herald reminded him,
“He shall not multiply horses to himself”; at the third, the next one of the
heralds said, “Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.”
At the fourth step, he was told by the fourth herald, “Thou shalt not wrest
judgment”; at the fifth step, by the fifth herald, “Thou shalt not respect
persons,” and at the sixth, by the sixth herald, “Neither shalt thou take a
gift.” Finally, when he was about to seat himself upon the throne, the seventh
herald cried out: “Know before whom thou standest.” (70)

The throne did not remain long in the possession of the Israelites. During the
life of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, it was carried to Egypt. Shishak, the
father-in-law of Solomon, appropriated it as indemnity for claims which he
urged against the Jewish state in behalf of his widowed daughter. When
Sennacherib conquered Egypt, he carried the throne away with him, but, on his
homeward march, during the overthrow of his army before the gates of Jerusalem,
he had to part with it to Hezekiah. Now it remained in Palestine until the time
of Jehoash, when it was once more carried to Egypt by Pharaoh Necho. His
possession of the throne brought him little joy. Unacquainted with its
wonderful mechanism, he was injured in the side by one of the lions the first
time he attempted to mount it, and forever after he limped, wherefore he was
given the surname Necho, the hobbler. (71) Nebuchadnezzar was the next
possessor of the throne. It fell to his lot at the conquest of Egypt, but when
he attempted to use it in Babylonia, he fared no better than his predecessor in
Egypt. The lion standing near the throne gave him so severe a blow that he
never again dared ascend it. Through Darius the throne reached Elam, but,
knowing what its other owners had suffered, he did not venture to seat himself
on it, and his example was imitated by Ahasuerus. The latter tried to have his
artificers fashion him a like artistic work, but, of course, they failed. (72)
The Median rulers parted with the throne to the Greek monarchs, and finally it
was carried to Rome. (73)

THE HIPPODROME

The throne was not the only remarkable sight at the court of the magnificent
king. Solomon attracted visitors to his capital by means of games and shows. In
every month of the year the official who was in charge for the month, was
expected to arrange for a horse race, and once a year (74) a race took place in
which the competitors were ten thousand youths, mainly of the tribes of Gad and
Naphtali, who lived at the court of the king year in, year out, and were
maintained by him. For the scholars, their disciples, the priests, and the
Levites, the races were held on the last of the month; on the first day of the
month the residents of Jerusalem were the spectators, and, on the second day,
strangers. The hippodrome occupied an area of three parasangs square, with an
inner square measuring one parasang on each side, around which the races were
run. Within were two grilles ornamented with all sorts of animals. Out of the
jaws of four gilded lions, attached to pillars by twos, perfumes and spices
flowed for the people. The spectators were divided into four parties
distinguished by the color of their garb: the king and his attendants, the
scholars and their disciples, and the priests and Levites were attired in light
blue garments; all the rest from Jerusalem wore white; the sight-seers from the
surrounding towns and villages wore red, and green marked the heathen hailing
from afar, who came laden with tribute and presents. The four colors
corresponded to the four seasons. In the autumn the sky is brilliantly blue; in
winter the white snow falls; the color of spring is green like the ocean,
because it is the season favorable to voyages, and red is the color of summer,
when the fruits grow red and ripe. (75)

As the public spectacles were executed with pomp and splendor, so the king’s
table was royally sumptuous. Regardless of season and climate, it was always
laden with the delicacies of all parts of the globe. Game and poultry, even of
such varieties as were unknown in Palestine, were not lacking, and daily there
came a gorgeous bird from Barbary and settled down before the king’s seat at
the table. The Scriptures tell us of great quantities of food required by
Solomon’s household, and yet it was not all that was needed. What the Bible
mentions, covers only the accessories, such as spices and the minor
ingredients. The real needs were far greater, as may be judged from the custom
that all of Solomon’s thousand wives arranged a banquet daily, each in the hope
of having the king dine with her. (76)

LESSONS IN HUMILITY

Great and powerful as Solomon was, and wise and just, still occasions were not
lacking to bring home to him the truth that the wisest and mightiest of mortals
may not indulge in pride and arrogance.

Solomon had a precious piece of tapestry, sixty miles square, on which he flew
through the air so swiftly that he could eat breakfast in Damascus and supper
in Media. To carry out his orders he had at his beck and call Asaph ben
Berechiah (77) among men, Ramirat among demons, the lion among beasts, and the
eagle among birds. Once it happened that pride possessed Solomon while he was
sailing through the air on his carpet, and he said: “There is none like unto me
in the world, upon whom God has bestowed sagacity, wisdom, intelligence, and
knowledge, besides making me the ruler of the world.” The same instant the air
stirred, and forty thousand men dropped from the magic carpet. The king ordered
the wind to cease from blowing, with the word: “Return!” Whereupon the wind:
“If thou wilt return to God, and subdue thy pride, I, too, will return.” The
king realized his transgression.

On one occasion he strayed into the valley of the ants in the course of his
wanderings. He heard one ant order all the others to withdraw, to avoid being
crushed by the armies of Solomon. The king halted and summoned the ant that had
spoken. She told him that she was the queen of the ants, and she gave her
reasons for the order of withdrawal. Solomon wanted to put a question to the
ant queen, but she refused to answer unless the king took her up and placed her
on his hand. He acquiesced, and then he put his question: “Is there any one
greater than I am in all the world?” “Yes,” said the ant.

Solomon: “Who?”

Ant: “I am.”

Solomon: “How is that possible?”

Ant: “Were I not greater than thou, God would not have led thee hither to put
me on thy hand.”

Exasperated, Solomon threw her to the ground, and said: “Thou knowest who I am?
I am Solomon, the son of David.”

Not at all intimidated, the ant reminded the king of his earthly origin, and
admonished him to humility, and the king went off abashed.

Next he came to a magnificent building, into which he sought to enter in vain;
he could find no door leading into it. After long search the demons came upon
an eagle seven hundred years old, and he, unable to give them any information,
sent him to his nine hundred years old brother, whose eyrie was higher than his
own, and who would probably be in a position to advise them. But he in turn
directed them to go to his still older brother. His age counted thirteen
hundred years, and he had more knowledge than himself. This oldest one of the
eagles reported that he remembered having heard his father say there was a door
on the west side, but it was covered up by the dust of the ages that had passed
since it was last used. So it turned out to be. They found an old iron door
with the inscription: “We, the dwellers in this palace, for many years lived in
comfort and luxury; then, forced by hunger, we ground pearls into flour instead
of wheat but to no avail, and so, when we were about to die, we bequeathed
this palace to the eagles.” A second statement contained a detailed description
of the wonderful palace, and mentioned where the keys for the different
chambers were to be found. Following the directions on the door, Solomon
inspected the remarkable building, whose apartments were made of pearls and
precious stones. Inscribed on the doors he found the following three wise
proverbs, dealing with the vanity of all earthly things, and admonishing men to
be humble:

1. O son of man, let not time deceive thee; thou must wither away, and leave
thy place, to rest in the bosom of the earth.

2. Haste thee not, move slowly, for the world is taken from one and bestowed
upon another.

3. Furnish thyself with food for the journey, prepare thy meal while daylight
lasts, for thou wilt not remain on earth forever, and thou knowest not the day
of thy death. (78)

In one of the chambers, Solomon saw a number of statues, among them one that
looked as though alive. When he approached it, it called out in a loud voice:
“Hither, ye satans, Solomon has come to undo you.” Suddenly there arose great
noise and tumult among the statues. Solomon pronounced the Name, and quiet was
restored. The statues were overthrown, and the sons of the satans ran into the
sea and were drowned. From the throat of the lifelike statue he drew a silver
plate inscribed with characters which he could not decipher, but a youth from
the desert told the king: “These letters are Greek, and the words mean: ‘I,
Shadad ben Ad, ruled over a thousand thousand provinces, rode on a thousand
thousand horses, had a thousand thousand kings under me, and slew a thousand
thousand heroes, and when the Angel of Death approached me, I was powerless.'”
(79)

ASMODEUS

When Solomon in his wealth and prosperity grew unmindful of his God, and,
contrary to the injunctions laid down for kings in the Torah, multiplied wives
unto himself, and craved the possession of many horses and much gold, the Book
of Deuteronomy stepped before God and said: “Lo, O Lord of the world, Solomon
is seeking to remove a Yod from out of me, (80) for Thou didst write: ‘The king
shall not multiply horses unto himself, nor shall he multiply wives to himself,
neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold’; but Solomon has
acquired many horses, many wives, and much silver and gold.” Hereupon God said:
“As thou livest, Solomon and a hundred of his kind shall be annihilated ere a
single one of thy letters shall be obliterated.” (81)

The charge made against Solomon was soon followed by consequences. He had to
pay heavily for his sins. It came about in this way: While Solomon was occupied
with the Temple, he had great difficulty in devising ways of fitting the stone
from the quarry into the building, for the Torah explicitly prohibits the use
of iron tools in erecting an altar. The scholars told him that Moses had used
the shamir, (82) the stone that splits rocks, to engrave the names of the
tribes on the precious stones of the ephod worn by the high priest. Solomon’s
demons could give him no information as to where the shamir could be found.
They surmised, however, that Asmodeus, (83) king of demons, was in possession
of the secret, and they told Solomon the name of the mountain on which Asmodeus
dwelt, and described also his manner of life. On this mountain there was a well
from which Asmodeus obtained his drinking water. He closed it up daily with a
large rock, and sealed it before going to heaven, whither he went every day, to
take part in the discussions in the heavenly academy. Thence he would descend
again to earth in order to be present, though invisible, (84) at the debates in
the earthly houses of learning. Then, after investigating the seal on the well
to ascertain if it had been tampered with, he drank of the water.

Solomon sent his chief man, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, to capture Asmodeus.
For this purpose he provided him with a chain, the ring on which the Name of
God was engraved, a bundle of wool, and a skin of wine. Benaiah drew the water
from the well through a hole bored from below, and, after having stopped up the
hole with the wool, he filled the well with wine from above. When Asmodeus
descended from heaven, to his astonishment he found wine instead of water in
the well, although everything seemed untouched. At first he would not drink of
it, and cited the Bible verses that inveigh against wine, to inspire himself
with moral courage. At length Asmodeus succumbed to his consuming thirst, and
drank till his senses were overpowered, and he fell into a deep sleep. Benaiah,
watching him from a tree, then came, and drew the chain about Asmodeus’ neck.
The demon, on awakening, tried to free himself, but Benaiah called to him: “The
Name of thy Lord is upon thee.” Though Asmodeus now permitted himself to be led
off unresistingly, he acted most peculiarly on the way to Solomon. He brushed
against a palm-tree and uprooted it; he knocked against a house and overturned
it; and when, at the request of a poor woman, he was turned aside from her hut,
he broke a bone. He asked with grim humor: “Is it not written, ‘A soft tongue
breaketh the bone?'” A blind man going astray he set in the right path, and to
a drunkard he did a similar kindness. He wept when a wedding party passed them,
and laughed at a man who asked his shoemaker to make him shoes to last for
seven years, and at a magician who was publicly showing his skill.

Having finally arrived at the end of the journey, Asmodeus, after several days
of waiting, was led before Solomon, who questioned him about his strange
conduct on the journey. Asmodeus answered that he judged persons and things
according to their real character, and not according to their appearance in the
eyes of human beings. He cried when he saw the wedding company, because he knew
the bridegroom had not a month to live, and he laughed at him who wanted shoes
to last seven years, because the man would not own them for seven days, also at
the magician who pretended to disclose secrets, because he did not know that a
buried treasure lay under his very feet; the blind man whom he set in the right
path was one of the “perfect pious,” and he wanted to be kind to him; on the
other hand, the drunkard to whom he did a similar kindness was known in heaven
as a very wicked man, but he happened to have done a good deed once, and he was
rewarded accordingly.

Asmodeus told Solomon that the shamir was given by God to the Angel of the Sea,
and that Angel entrusted none with the shamir except the moor-hen, (85) which
had taken an oath to watch the shamir carefully. The moor-hen takes the shamir
with her to mountains which are not inhabited by men, splits them by means of
the shamir, and injects seeds, which grow and cover the naked rocks, and then
they can be inhabited. Solomon sent one of his servants to seek the nest of the
bird and lay a piece of glass over it. When the moor-hen came and could not
reach her young, she flew away and fetched the shamir and placed it on the
glass. Then the man shouted, and so terrified the bird that she dropped the
shamir and flew away. By this means the man obtained possession of the coveted
shamir, and bore it to Solomon. But the moor-hen was so distressed at having
broken her oath to the Angel of the Sea that she committed suicide.

Although Asmodeus was captured only for the purpose of getting the shamir,
Solomon nevertheless kept him after the completion of the Temple. One day the
king told Asmodeus that he did not understand wherein the greatness of the
demons lay, if their king could be kept in bonds by a mortal. Asmodeus replied,
that if Solomon would remove his chains and lend him the magic ring, he would
prove his own greatness. Solomon agreed. The demon stood before him with one
wing touching heaven and the other reaching to the earth. Snatching up Solomon,
who had parted with his protecting ring, he flung him four hundred parasangs
away from Jerusalem, and then palmed himself off as the king.

SOLOMON AS BEGGAR

Banished from his home, deprived of his realm, Solomon wandered about in
far-off lands, among strangers, begging his daily bread. Nor did his
humiliation end there; people thought him a lunatic, because he never tired of
assuring them that he was Solomon, Judah’s great and mighty king. Naturally
that seemed a preposterous claim to the people. (86) The lowest depth of
despair he reached, however, when he met some one who recognized him. The
recollections and associations that stirred within him then made his present
misery almost unendurable.

It happened (87) that once on his peregrinations he met an old acquaintance, a
rich and well-considered man, who gave a sumptuous banquet in honor of Solomon.
At the meal his host spoke to Solomon constantly of the magnificence and
splendor he had once seen with his own eyes at the court of the king. These
reminiscences moved the king to tears, and he wept so bitterly that, when he
rose from the banquet, he was satiated, not with the rich food, but with salt
tears. The following day it again happened that Solomon met an acquaintance of
former days, this time a poor man, who nevertheless entreated Solomon to do him
the honor and break bread under his roof. All that the poor man could offer his
distinguished guest was a meagre dish of greens. But he tried in every way to
assuage the grief that oppressed Solomon. He said: “O my lord and king, God
hath sworn unto David He would never let the royal dignity depart from his
house, but it is the way of God to reprove those He loves if they sin. Rest
assured, He will restore thee in good time to thy kingdom.” These words of his
poor host were more grateful to Solomon’s bruised heart than the banquet the
rich man had prepared for him. It was to the contrast between the consolations
of the two men that he applied the verse in Proverbs: “Better is a dinner of
herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.”

For three long years Solomon journeyed about, begging his way from city to
city, and from country to country, atoning for the three (88) sins of his life
by which he had set aside the commandment laid upon kings in Deuteronomy not
to multiply horses, and wives, and silver and gold. At the end of that time,
God took mercy upon him for the sake of his father David, and for the sake of
the pious princess Naamah, the daughter of the Ammonite king, destined by God
to be the ancestress of the Messiah. The time was approaching when she was to
become the wife of Solomon (89) and reign as queen in Jerusalem. God therefore
led the royal wanderer to the capital city of Ammon. (90) Solomon took service
as an underling with the cook in the royal household, and he proved himself so
proficient in the culinary art that the king of Ammon raised him to the post of
chief cook. Thus he came under the notice of the king’s daughter Naamah, who
fell in love with her father’s cook. In vain her parents endeavored to persuade
her to choose a husband befitting her rank. Not even the king’s threat to have
her and her beloved executed availed to turn her thoughts away from Solomon.
The Ammonite king had the lovers taken to a barren desert, in the hope that
they would die of starvation there. Solomon and his wife wandered through the
desert until they came to a city situated by the sea-shore. They purchased a
fish to stave off death. When Naamah prepared the fish, she found in its belly
the magic ring belonging to her husband, which he had given to Asmodeus, and
which, thrown into the sea by the demon, had been swallowed by a fish. Solomon
recognized his ring, put it on his finger, and in the twinkling of an eye he
transported himself to Jerusalem. Asmodeus, who had been posing as King Solomon
during the three years, he drove out, and himself ascended the throne again.

Later on he cited the king of Ammon before his tribunal, and called him to
account for the disappearance of the cook and the cook’s wife, accusing him of
having killed them. The king of Ammon protested that he had not killed, but
only banished them. Then Solomon had the queen appear, and to his great
astonishment and still greater joy the king of Ammon recognized his daughter.
(91)

Solomon succeeded in regaining his throne only after undergoing many hardships.
The people of Jerusalem considered him a lunatic, because he said that he was
Solomon. After some time, the members of the Sanhedrin noticed his peculiar
behavior, and they investigated the matter. They found that a long time had
passed since Benaiah, the confidant of the king, had been permitted to enter
the presence of the usurper. Furthermore the wives of Solomon and his mother
Bath-sheba informed them that the behavior of the king had completely changed
it was not befitting royalty and in no respect like Solomon’s former manner. It
was also very strange that the king never by any chance allowed his foot to be
seen, for fear, of course, of betraying his demon origin. (92) The Sanhedrin,
therefore, gave the king’s magic ring to the wandering beggar who called
himself King Solomon, and had him appear before the pretender on the throne. As
soon as Asmodeus caught sight of the true king protected by his magic ring, he
flew away precipitately.

Solomon did not escape unscathed. The sight of Asmodeus in all his forbidding
ugliness had so terrified him that henceforth he surrounded his couch at night
with all the valiant heroes among the people. (93)

THE COURT OF SOLOMON

As David had been surrounded by great scholars and heroes of repute, so the
court of Solomon was the gathering-place of the great of his people. The most
important of them all doubtless was Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, who had no
peer for learning and piety either in the time of the first or the second
Temple. (94) In his capacity as the chancellor of Solomon, he was the object of
the king’s special favor. He was frequently invited to be the companion of the
king in his games of chess. The wise king naturally was always the winner. One
day Solomon left the chess-board for a moment, Benaiah used his absence to
remove one of the king’s chess-men, and the king lost the game. Solomon gave
much thought to the occurrence. He came to the conclusion that his chancellor
had dealt dishonestly with him, and he was determined to give him a lesson.

Some days later Solomon noticed two suspicious characters hanging about the
palace. Acting at once upon an idea that occurred to him, he put on the clothes
of one of his servants and joined the two suspects. The three of them, he
proposed, should make the attempt to rob the royal palace, and he drew forth a
key which would facilitate their entrance. While the thieves were occupied in
gathering booty, the king roused his servants, and the malefactors were taken
into custody. Next morning Solomon appeared before the Sanhedrin, which was
presided over by Benaiah (95) at the time, and he desired to know from the
court what punishment was meted out to a thief. Benaiah, seeing no delinquents
before him, and unwilling to believe that the king would concern himself about
the apprehension of thieves, was convinced that Solomon was bent on punishing
him for his dishonest play. He fell at the feet of the king, confessed his
guilt, and begged his pardon. Solomon was pleased to have his supposition
confirmed, and also to have Benaiah acknowledge his wrong-doing. he assured him
he harbored no evil designs against him, and that when he asked this question
of the Sanhedrin, he had had real thieves in mind, who had broken into the
palace during the night. (96)

Another interesting incident happened, in which Benaiah played a part. The king
of Persia was very ill, and his physician told him he could be cured by nothing
but the milk of a lioness. The king accordingly sent a deputation bearing rich
presents to Solomon, the only being in the world who might in his wisdom
discover means to obtain lion’s milk. Solomon charged Benaiah to fulfil the
Persian king’s wish. Benaiah took a number of kids, and repaired to a lion’s
den. Daily he threw a kid to the lioness, and after some time the beasts became
familiar with him, and finally he could approach the lioness close enough to
draw milk from her udders.

On the way back to the Persian king the physician who had recommended the milk
cure dreamed a dream. All the organs of his body, his hands, feet, eyes, mouth,
and tongue, were quarrelling with one another, each claiming the greatest share
of credit in procuring the remedy for the Persian monarch. When the tongue set
forth its own contribution to the cause of the king’s service, the other organs
rejected its claim as totally unfounded. The physician did not forget the
dream, and when he appeared before the king, he spoke: “Here is the dog’s milk
which we went to fetch for you.” The king, enraged, ordered the physician to be
hanged, because he had brought the milk of a bitch instead of the milk of a
lion’s dam. During the preliminaries to the execution, all the limbs and organs
of the physician began to tremble, whereupon the tongue said: “Did I not tell
you that you all are of no good? If you will acknowledge my superiority, I
shall even now save you from death.” They all made the admission it demanded,
and the physician requested the executioner to take him to the king. Once in
the presence of his master, he begged him as a special favor to drink of the
milk he had brought. The king granted his wish, recovered from his sickness,
and dismissed the physician in peace. So it came about that all the organs of
the body acknowledge the supremacy of the tongue. (97)

Besides Benaiah, Solomon’s two scribes, Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of
Shisha, deserve mention. They both met their death in a most peculiar way.
Solomon once upon a time noticed a care-worn expression on the countenance of
the Angel of Death. When he asked the reason, he received the answer, that he
had been charged with the task of bringing the two scribes to the next world.
Solomon was desirous of stealing a march upon the Angel of Death, as well as
keeping his secretaries alive. He ordered the demons to carry Elihoreph and
Ahijah to Luz, the only spot on earth in which the Angel of Death has no power.
(98) In a jiffy, the demons had done his bidding, but the two secretaries
expired at the very moment of reaching the gates of Luz. Next day, the Angel of
Death appeared before Solomon in very good humor, and said to him: “Thou didst
transport those two men to the very spot in which I wanted them.” The fate
destined for them was to die at the gates of Luz, and the Angel of Death had
been at a loss how to get them there. (99)

A most interesting incident in Solomon’s own family circle is connected with
one of his daughters. She was of extraordinary beauty, and in the stars he read
that she was to marry an extremely poor youth. To prevent the undesirable
union, Solomon had a high tower erected in the sea, and to this he sent his
daughter. Seventy eunuchs were to guard her, and a huge quantity of food was
stored in the tower for her use.

The poor youth whom fate had appointed to be her husband was travelling one
cold night. He did not know where to rest his head, when he espied the rent
carcass of an ox lying in the field. In this he lay down to keep warm. When he
was ensconced in it, there came a large bird, which took the carcass, bore it,
together with the youth stretched out in it, to the roof of the tower in which
the princess lived, and, settling down there, began to devour the flesh of the
ox. In the morning, the princess, according to her wont, ascended to the roof
to look out upon the sea, and she caught sight of the youth. She asked him who
he was, and who had brought him thither? He told her that he was a Jew from
Accho, and had been carried to the tower by a bird. She showed him to a
chamber, where he could wash and anoint himself, and array himself in a fresh
garb. Then it appeared that he possessed unusual beauty. Besides, he was a
scholar of great attainments and of acute mind. So it came about that the
princess fell in love with him. She asked him whether he would have her to
wife, and he assented gladly. He opened one of his veins, and wrote the
marriage contract with his own blood. Then he pronounced the formula of
betrothal, taking God and the two archangels Michael and Gabriel as witnesses,
and she became his wife, legally married to him.

After some time the eunuchs noticed that she was pregnant. Their questions
elicited the suspected truth from the princess, and they sent for Solomon. His
daughter admitted her marriage, and the king, though he recognized in her
husband the poor man predicted in the constellations, yet he thanked God for
his son-in-law, distinguished no less for learning than for his handsome
person. (100)

VI.
JUDAH AND ISRAEL

THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM

The division of the kingdom into Judah and Israel, which took place soon after
the death of Solomon, had cast its shadow before. When Solomon, on the day
after his marriage with the Egyptian princess, disturbed the regular course of
the Temple service by sleeping late with his head on the pillow under which lay
the key of the Temple, Jeroboam with eighty thousand Ephraimites approached the
king and publicly called him to account for is negligence. God administered a
reproof to Jeroboam; “Why dost thou reproach a prince of Israel? As thou
livest, thou shalt have a taste of his rulership, and thou wilt see thou are
not equal to its responsibilities.” (1)

On another occasion a clash occurred between Jeroboam and Solomon. The latter
ordered his men to close the openings David had made in the city wall to
facilitate the approach of the pilgrims to Jerusalem. This forced them all the
walk through the gates and pay toll. The tax thus collected Solomon gave to his
wife, the daughter of Pharaoh, as pin-money. Indignant at this, Jeroboam
questioned the king about it in public. In other ways, too, he failed to pay
Solomon the respect due to royal position, as his father before him, Sheba the
son of Bichri, had rebelled against David, misled by signs and tokens which he
had falsely interpreted as pointing to his own elevation to royal dignity, when
in reality they concerned themselves with his son. (2)

It was when Jeroboam was preparing to depart from Jerusalem forever, in order
to escape the dangers to which Solomon’s displeasure exposed him, (3) that
Ahijah of Shilo met him with the Divine tidings of his elevation to the
kingship. The prophet Ahijah, of the tribe of Levi, was venerable, not only by
reason of his hoary age, his birth occurred at least sixty years before the
exodus from Egypt, (4) but because his piety was so profound that a saint of
the exalted standing of Simon ben Yohai associated Ahijah with himself. Simon
once exclaimed: “My merits and Ahijah together suffice to atone for the
iniquity of all sinners from the time of Abraham until the advent of the
Messiah.” (5)

JEROBOAM

Jeroboam was the true disciple (6) of this great prophet, His doctrine was as
pure as the new garment Ahijah wore when he met Jeroboam near Jerusalem, and
his learning exceeded that of all the scholars of his time except his own
teacher Ahijah alone. The prophet was in the habit of discussing secret love
with Jeroboam and subjects in the Torah whose existence was wholly unknown to
others. (7)

Had Jeroboam proved himself worthy of his high position, the length of his
reign would have equalled David’s. (8) It was his pride that led him into
destruction. He set up the golden calves as objects to be worshipped by the
people, in order to wean them from their habit of going on pilgrimages to
Jerusalem. He knew that in the Temple only members of the royal house of David
were privileged to sit down. No exception would be made in favor of Jeroboam,
and so he would have to stand while Rehoboam would be seated. Rather than
appear in public as the subordinate of the Judean king, he introduced the
worship of idols, which secured him full royal prerogatives.

In the execution of his plan he proceeded with great cunning, and his
reputation as a profound scholar and pious saint stood him in good stead. This
was his method: He seated an impious man next to a pious man, and then said to
each couple: “Will you put your signature to anything I intend to do?” The two
would give an affirmative answer. “Do you want me as king?” he would then ask,
only to receive and affirmative answer again. “And you will do whatever I
order?” he continued. “Yes,” was the reply. “I am to infer, then, that you will
even pay worship to idols if I command it?” said Jeroboam. “God forbid !” the
pious member of the couple would exclaim, whereupon his impious companion, who
was in league with the king, would turn upon him: “Canst thou really suppose
for an instant that a man like Jeroboam would serve idols? He only wishes to
put our loyalty to the test.” Through such machinations he succeeded in
obtaining the signatures of the most pious, even the signature of the prophet
Ahijah. Now Jeroboam had the people is his power. He could exact the vilest
deeds from them. (9)

So entrenched, Jeroboam brought about the division between Judah and Israel, a
consummation which his father, Sheba the son of Bichri, had not been able to
compass under David, because God desired to have the Temple erected before the
split occurred. (10) Not yet satisfied, Jeroboam sought to involve the Ten
Tribes in a war against Judah and Jerusalem. But the people of the northern
kingdom refused to enter into hostilities with their brethren, and with the
ruler of their brethren, a descendant of David. Jeroboam appealed to the elders
of the Israelites, and they referred him to the Danites, the most efficient of
their warriors; but they swore by the head of Dan, the ancestor of their tribe,
that they would never consent to shed blood of their brethren. They were even
on the point of rising against Jeroboam, and the clash between them and the
followers of Jeroboam was prevented only because God prompted the Danites to
leave Palestine.

Their first plan was to journey to Egypt and take possession of the land. They
gave it up when their princes reminded them of the Biblical prohibition (11)
against dwelling in Egypt. Likewise they were restrained from attacking the
Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites, for the Torah commands considerate treatment
of them. Finally they decided to go to Egypt, but not to stay there, only to
pass through to Ethiopia. The Egyptians were in great terror of the Danites,
and their hardiest warriors occupied the roads travelled by them. Arrived in
Ethiopia, the Danites slew a part of the population, and exacted tribute from
the rest. (12)

The departure of the Danites relieved Judah from the apprehended invasion by
Jeroboam, but danger arose from another quarter. Shishak, (13) the ruler of
Egypt, who was the father-in-law of Solomon, came to Jerusalem and demanded his
daughter’s jointure. He carried off the throne of Solomon, (14) and also the
treasure which the Israelites had taken from the Egyptians at the time of the
exodus. So the Egyptian money returned to its source. (15)

THE TWO ABIJAHS

Jeroboam did not entirely forego his plan of a campaign against Judah, but it
was not executed until Abijah had succeeded his father Rehoboam on the throne
of Jerusalem. The Judean king was victorious. However, he could not long enjoy
the fruits of his victory. Shortly after occurred his death, brought on by his
own crimes. In his war against Jeroboam he had indulged in excessive cruelty;
he ordered the corpses of the enemy to be mutilated, and permitted them to be
buried only after putrefaction had set in. Such savagery was all the more
execrable as it prevented many widows from entering into a second marriage.
Mutilating the corpses had made identification impossible, and so it was left
doubtful whether their husbands were among the dead.

Moreover, Abijah used most disrespectful language about the prophet Abijah the
Shilonite; he called him a “son of Belial” in his address to the people on
Mount Zemaraim. That in itself merited severe punishment. Finally, his zeal for
true worship of God, which Abijah had urged as the reason of the war between
himself and Jeroboam, cooled quickly. When he obtained possession of Beth-el,
he failed to do away with the golden calves. (16)

In this respect his namesake, the Israelitish king Abijah, the son of Jeroboam,
was by far his superior. By removing the guards stationed at the frontier, he
bade defiance to the command of his father, who had decreed the death penalty
for pilgrimages to Jerusalem. More than this, he himself ventured to go up to
Jerusalem in fulfilment of his religious duty. (17)

ASA

Asa, the son of Abijah of Judah, was a worthier and a more pious ruler than his
father had been. He did away with the gross worship of Priapus, (18) to which
his mother was devoted. To reward him for his piety, God gave him the victory
over Zerah, the king of the Ethiopians. As a result of this victory he came
again into possession of the throne of Solomon and of the treasures Shishak had
taken from his grandfather, which Zerah in turn had wrested form Shishak. (19)
Asa himself did not long keep them. Baasha, the king of Israel, together with
Ben-hadad, the Aramean king, attacked Asa, who tried to propitiate Ben-hadad by
giving him his lately re-acquired treasures. (20) The prophet justly rebuked
him for trusting in princes rather than in God, and that in spite of the fact
that Divine help had been visible in his conflicts with the Ethiopians and the
Lubim; for there had been no need for him to engage in battle with them; in
response to his mere prayer God had slain the enemy. (21) In general, Asa
showed little confidence in God; he rather trusted his own skill. Accordingly,
he made even the scholars of his realm enlist in the army sent out against
Baasha. He was punished by being afflicted with gout, he of all men, who was
distinguished on account of the strength residing in his feet. (22)
Furthermore, the division between Judah and Israel was made permanent, though
God had at first intended to limit the exclusion of David’s house from Israel
to only thirty-six years. Had Asa shown himself deserving, he would have been
accorded dominion over the whole of Israel. (23) In point of fact, Asa, through
his connection by marriage with the house of Omri, contributed to the stability
of the Israelitish dynasty, for as a result of the support given by the
southern ruler Omri succeeded in putting his rival Tibni out of the way. Then
it was that God resolved that the descendants of Asa should perish
simultaneously with the descendants of Omri. This doom was accomplished when
Jehu killed the king of Judah on account of his friendship and kinship with
Joram the king of Samaria. (24)

JEHOSHAPHAT AND AHAB

The successors of Omri and Asa, each in his way, were worthy of their fathers.
Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, was very wealthy. The treasures which his father
had sent to the Aramean ruler reverted to him in consequence of his victory
over the Ammonites, themselves the conquerors of the Arameans, whom they had
despoiled of their possessions. (25) His power was exceedingly great; each
division of his army counted no less than one hundred and sixty thousand
warriors. (26) Yet rich and powerful as he was, he was so modest that he
refused to don his royal apparel when he went to the house of the prophet
Elisha to consult him; he appeared before him in the attire of one of the
people. (27) Unlike his father, who had little consideration for scholars,
Jehoshaphat was particularly gracious toward them. When a scholar appeared
before him, he arose, hastened to meet him, and kissing and embracing him,
greeted him with “Rabbi, Rabbi!” (28)

Jehoshaphat concerned himself greatly about the purity and sanctification of
the Temple. He was the author of the ordinance forbidding any one to ascend the
Temple mount whose term of uncleanness had not expired, even though he had
taken the ritual bath. (29) His implicit trust in God made him a complete
contrast to his skeptical father. He turned to God and implored His help when
to human reason help seemed an utter impossibility. In the war with the
Arameans, an enemy held his sword at Jehoshaphat’s very throat, ready to deal
the fatal blow, but the king entreated help of God, and it was granted. (30)

In power and wealth, Ahab, king of Samaria, outstripped his friend Jehoshaphat,
for Ahab is one of that small number of kings who have ruled over the whole
world. (31) No less than two hundred and fifty-two kingdoms acknowledged his
dominion. (32) As for his wealth, it was so abundant that each of his hundred
and forty children possessed several ivory palaces, summer and winter
residences. (33) But what gives Ahab his prominence among the Jewish kings is
neither his power nor his wealth, but his sinful conduct. For him the gravest
transgressions committed by Jeroboam were slight peccadilloes. At his order the
gates of Samaria bore the inscription: “Ahab denies the God of Israel.” He was
so devoted to idolatry, to which he was led astray by his wife Jezebel, that
the fields of Palestine were full of idols. But he was not wholly wicked, he
possessed some good qualities. He was liberal toward scholars, and he showed
great reverence for the Torah, which he studied zealously. When Ben-hadad
exacted all he possessed his wealth, his wives, his children he acceded to
his demands regarding everything except the Torah; that he refused peremptorily
to surrender. (34) In the war that followed between himself and the Syrians, he
was so indignant at the presumptuousness of the Aramean upstart that he himself
saddled his warhorse for the battle. His zeal was rewarded by God; he gained a
brilliant victory in a battle in which no less than a hundred thousand of the
Syrians were slain, as the prophet Micaiah had foretold to him. (35) The same
seer (36) admonished him not to deal gently with Ben-hadad. God’s word to him
had been: “Know that I had to set many a pitfall and trap to deliver him into
thy hand. If thou lettest him escape, thy life will be forfeit for his.” (37)

Nevertheless the disastrous end of Ahab is not to be ascribed to his disregard
of the prophet’s warning for he finally liberated Ben-hahad, but chiefly to
the murder of his kinsman Naboth, whose execution on the charge of treason he
had ordered, so that he might put himself in possession of Naboth’s wealth.
(38) His victim was a pious man, and in the habit of going on pilgrimages to
Jerusalem on the festivals. As he was a great singer, his presence in the Holy
City attracted many other pilgrims thither. Once Naboth failed to go on his
customary pilgrimage. Then it was that his false conviction took place a very
severe punishment for the transgression, but not wholly unjustifiable. (39)
Under Jehoshaphat’s influence and counsel, Ahab did penance for his crime, and
the punishment God meted out to him was thereby mitigated to the extent that
his dynasty was not cut off from the throne at this death. (40) In the heavenly
court of justice, (41) at Ahab’s trial, the accusing witnesses and his
defenders exactly balanced each other in number and statements, until the
spirit of Naboth appeared and turned the scale against Ahab. The spirit of
Naboth it had been, too, that had let astray the prophets of Ahab, making them
all use the very same words in prophesying a victory at Ramothgilead. This
literal unanimity aroused Jehoshaphat’s suspicion, and caused him to ask for “a
prophet of the Lord,” for the rule is: “The same thought is revealed to many
prophets, but no two prophets express it in the same words.” (42) Jehoshaphat’s
mistrust was justified by the issue of war. Ahab was slain in a miraculous way
by Naaman, at the time only a common soldier of the rank and file. God
permitted Naaman’s missile to penetrate Ahab’s armor, though the latter was
harder than the former. (43)

The mourning for Ahab was so great that the memory of it reached posterity.
(44) The funeral procession was unusually impressive; no less than thirty-six
thousand warriors, their shoulders bared, marched before his bier. (45) Ahab is
one of the few in Israel who have no portion in the world to come. (46) He
dwells in the fifth division of the nether world, which is under the
supervision of the angel Oniel. However, he is exempt from the tortures
inflicted upon his heathen associates. (47)

JEZEBEL

Wicked as Ahab was, his wife Jezebel was incomparably worse. Indeed, she is in
great part the cause of his suffering, and Ahab realized it. Once Rabbi Levi
expounded the Scriptural verse in which the iniquity of Ahab and the influence
of his wife over him are discussed, dwelling upon the first half for two
months. Ahab visited him in a dream, and reproached him with expatiating on the
first half of the verse to the exclusion of the latter half. Thereupon the
Rabbi took the second half of the verse as the text of his lectures for the
next two months, demonstrating all the time that Jezebel was the instigator of
Ahab’s sins. (48) Her misdeed are told in the Scriptures. To those there
recounted must be added her practice of attaching unchaste images to Ahab’s
chariot for the purpose of stimulating his carnal desires. Therefore those
parts of his chariot were spattered with his blood when he fell at the hand of
the enemy. (49) She had her husband weighed every day, and the increase of his
weight in gold she sacrificed to the idol. (50) Jezebel was not only the
daughter and the wife of a king, she was also co-regent with her husband, the
only reigning queen in Jewish history except Athaliah. (51)

Hardened sinner though Jezebel was, even she had good qualities. One of them
was her capacity for sympathy with others in joy and sorrow. Whenever a funeral
cortege passed the royal palace, Jezebel would descend and join the ranks of
the mourners, and, also, when a marriage procession went by, she took part in
the merry-making in honor of the bridal couple. By way of reward the limbs and
organs with which she had executed these good deeds were left intact by the
horses that trampled her to death in the portion of Jezreel. (52)

JORAM OF ISRAEL

Of Joram, the son of Ahab, it can only be said that he had his father’s faults
without his father’s virtues. Ahab was liberal, Joram miserly, nay, he even
indulged in usurious practices. From Obadiah, the pious protector of the
prophets in hiding, he exacted a high rate of interest on the money needed for
their support. As a consequence, at his death he fell pierced between his arms,
the arrow going out at his heart, for he had stretched out his arms to receive
usury, and had hardened his heart against compassion. (53) In his reign only
one event deserves mention, his campaign against Moab, undertaken in alliance
with the kings of Judah and Edom, and ending with a splendid victory won by the
allied kings. Joram and his people, it need hardly be said, failed to derive
the proper lesson from the war. Their disobedience to God’s commands went on as
before. The king of Moab, on the other hand, in his way sought to come nearer
to God. He assembled his astrologers and inquired of them, why it was that the
Moabites, successful in their warlike enterprises against other nations, could
not measure up to the standard of the Israelites. They explained that God was
gracious to Israel, because his ancestor Abraham had been ready to sacrifice
Isaac at His bidding. Then the Moabite king reasoned, that if God set so high a
value upon mere good intention, how much greater would be the reward for its
actual execution, and he, who ordinarily was a sun worshipper, proceeded to
sacrifice his son, the successor to the throne, to the God of Israel. God said:
“The heathen do not know Me, and their wrong-doing arises from ignorance; but
you, Israelites, know Me, and yet you act rebelliously toward Me.” (54)

As a result of the seven years’ famine, conditions in Samaria were frightful
during the great part of Joram’s reign. In the first year everything stored in
the houses was eaten up. In the second, the people supported themselves with
what they could scrape together in the fields. The flesh of the clean animals
sufficed for the third year; in the fourth the sufferers resorted to the
unclean animals; in the fifth, the reptiles and insects; and in the sixth the
monstrous thing happened that women crazed by hunger consumed their own
children as food. But the acme of distress was reached in the seventh year,
when men sought to gnaw the flesh from their own bones. (55) To these
occurrences the prophecies of Joel apply, for he lived in the awful days of the
famine in Joram’s reign.

Luckily, God revealed to Joel at the same time how Israel would be rescued from
the famine. The winter following the seven years of dearth brought no relief,
for the rain held back until the first day of the month of Nisan. When it began
to fall, the prophet said to the people, “Go forth and sow seed!” But they
remonstrated with him, “Shall one who hath saved a measure of wheat or two
measures of barely not use his store for food and live, rather than for seed
and die?” But the prophet urged them, “Nay, go forth and sow seed.” And a
miracle happened. In the ant hills and mouse holes, they found enough grain for
seed, and they cast it upon the ground on the second, the third, and the fourth
day of Nisan. On the fifth day of the month rain fell again. Eleven days later
the grain was ripe, and the offering of the ‘Omer could be brought at the
appointed time, on the sixteenth of the month. Of this the Psalmist was
thinking when he said, “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” (56)

VII.
ELIJAH

ELIJAH BEFORE HIS TRANSLATION

The Biblical account of the prophet Elijah, (1) of his life and work during the
reigns of Ahab and his son Joram, gives but a faint idea of a personage whose
history begins with Israel’s sojourn in Egypt, and will end only when Israel,
under the leadership of the Messiah, shall have taken up his abode again in
Palestine.

The Scripture tells us only the name of Elijah’s home, (2) but it must be added
that he was a priest, identical with Phinehas, (3) the priest zealous for the
honor of God, who distinguished himself on the journey through the desert, and
played a prominent role again in the time of the Judges. (4)

Elijah’s first appearance in the period of the Kings was his meeting with Ahab
in the house of Hiel, the Beth-elite, the commander-in-chief of the Israelitish
army, whom he was visiting to condole with him for the loss of his sons. God
Himself had charged the prophet to offer sympathy to Hiel, whose position
demanded that honor be paid him. Elijah at first refused to seek out the sinner
who had violated the Divine injunction against rebuilding Jericho, for he said
that the blasphemous talk of such evil-doers always called forth his rage.
Thereupon God promised Elijah that fulfilment should attend whatever
imprecation might in his wrath escape him against the godless for their unholy
speech. As the prophet entered the general’s house, he heard Hiel utter these
words: “Blessed be the Lord God of the pious, who grants fulfilment to the
words of the pious.” Hiel thus acknowledged that he had been justly afflicted
with Joshua’s curse against him who should rebuild Jericho.

Ahab mockingly asked him: “Was not Moses greater than Joshua, and did he not
say that God would let no rain descend upon the earth, if Israel served and
worshipped idols? There is not an idol known to which I do not pay homage, yet
we enjoy all that is goodly and desirable. Dost thou believe that if the words
of Moses remain unfulfilled, the words of Joshua will come true?” Elijah
rejoined: “Be it as thou sayest: ‘As the Lord, the God of Israel liveth, before
whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my
word.'” In pursuance of His promise, God could not but execute the words of
Elijah, and neither dew nor rain watered the land. (5)

A famine ensued, and Ahab sought to wreak his vengeance upon the prophet. To
escape the king’s persecutions, Elijah hid himself. He was sustained with food
brought from the larder of the pious king Jehoshaphat by ravens, (6) which at
the same time would not approach near to the house of the iniquitous Ahab. (7)

God, who has compassion even upon the impious, tried to induce the prophet to
release Him from His promise. To influence him He made the brook run dry (8)
whence Elijah drew water for his thirst. As this failed to soften the
inflexible prophet, God resorted to the expedient of causing him pain through
the death of the son of the widow with whom Elijah was abiding, and by whom he
had been received with great honor. When her son, who was later to be known as
the prophet Jonah, (9) died, she thought God had formerly been gracious to her
on account of her great worthiness as compared with the merits of her neighbors
and of the inhabitants of the city, and now He had abandoned her, because her
virtues had become as naught in the presence of the great prophet. (10) In his
distress Elijah supplicated God to revive the child. (11) Now God had the
prophet in His power. He could give heed unto Elijah’s prayer only provided the
prophet released Him from the promise about a drought, for resuscitation from
death is brought about by means of dew, and this remedy was precluded so long
as Elijah kept God to His word withholding dew and rain from the earth. (12)
Elijah saw there was nothing for it but to yield. However, he first betook
himself to Ahab with the purpose of overcoming the obduracy of the people, upon
whom the famine had made no impression. Manifest wonders displayed before their
eyes were to teach them wisdom. The combat between God and Baal took place on
Carmel. The mount that had esteemed itself the proper place for the greatest
event in Israelitish history, the revelation of the law, was compensated, by
the many miracles now performed upon it, for its disappointment at Sinai’s
having been preferred to it. (13)

The first wonder occurred in connection with the choice of the bullocks.
According to Elijah’s arrangement with Ahab, one was to be sacrificed to God,
and then one to Baal. A pair to twins, raised together, were brought before the
contestants, and it was decided by lot which belonged to God and which to Baal.
Elijah had no difficulty with his offering; quickly he led it to his altar. But
all the priests of Baal, eight hundred and fifty in number, could not make
their victim stir a foot. When Elijah began to speak persuasively to the
bullock of Baal, urging it to follow the idolatrous priests, it opened its
mouth and said: “We two, yonder bullock and myself, came forth from the same
womb, we took our food from the same manger, and now he has been destined for
God, as an instrument for the glorification of the Divine Name, while I am to
be used for Baal, as an instrument to enrage my Creator.” Elijah urged: “Do
thou but follow the priests of Baal that they may have no excuse, and then thou
wilt have a share in that glorification of God for which my bullock will be
used.” The bullock: “So dost thou advise, but I swear I will not move from the
spot, unless thou with thine own hands wilt deliver me up.” Elijah thereupon
led the bullock to the priests of Baal. (14)

In spite of this miracle, the priests sought to deceive the people. They
undermined the altar, and Hiel hid himself under it with the purpose of
igniting a fire at the mention of the word Baal. But God sent a serpent to kill
him. (15) In vain the false priests cried and called, Baal! Baal! the
expected flame did not shoot up. To add to the confusion of the idolaters, God
had imposed silence upon the whole world. The powers of the upper and of the
nether regions were dumb, the universe seemed deserted and desolate, as if
without a living creature. If a single sound had made itself heard, the priests
would have said, “It is the voice of Baal.” (16)

That all preparations might be completed in one day, the erection of the
altar, the digging of the trench, and whatever else was necessary, Elijah
commanded the sun to stand still. “For Joshua,” he said, “thou didst stand
still that Israel might conquer his enemies; now stand thou still, neither for
my sake, nor for the sake of Israel, but that the Name of God may be exalted.”
And the sun obeyed his words. (17)

Toward evening Elijah summoned his disciple Elisha, and bade him pour water
over his hands. A miracle happened. Water flowed out from Elijah’s fingers
until the whole trench was filled. (18) Then the prophet prayed to God to let
fire descend, but in such wise that the people would know it to be a wonder
from heaven, and not think it a magician’s trick. (19) He spoke: “Lord of the
world, Thou wilt send me as a messenger ‘at the end of time,’ but if my words
do not meet with fulfilment now, the Jews cannot be expected to believe me in
the latter days.” (20) His pleading was heard on high, and fire fell from
heaven upon the altar, a fire that not only consumed what it touched, but also
licked up the water. (21) Nor was that all; his prayer for rain was also
granted. Scarcely had these words dropped from his lips, “Though we have no
other merits, yet remember the sign of the covenant which the Israelites bear
upon their bodies,” when the rain fell to earth. (22)

In spite of all these miracles, the people persisted in their idolatrous ways
and thoughts. Even the seven thousand who had not bowed down unto Baal were
unworthy sons of Israel, for they paid homage to the golden calves of Jeroboam.
(23)

The misdeeds of the people had swelled to such number that they could no longer
reckon upon “the merits of the fathers” to intercede for them; they had
overdrawn their account. (24) When they sank to the point of degradation at
which they gave up the sign of the covenant, Elijah could control his wrath no
longer, and he accused Israel before God. (25) In the cleft of the rock in
which God had once aforetimes appeared to Moses, and revealed Himself as
compassionate and long-suffering, He now met with Elijah, (26) and conveyed to
him, by various signs, that it had been better to defend Israel than accuse
him. But Elijah in his zeal for God was inexorable. Then God commanded him to
appoint Elisha as his successor, for He said: “I cannot do as thou wouldst have
me.” (27) Furthermore God charged him: “Instead of accusing My children,
journey to Damascus, where the Gentiles have an idol for each day of the year.
Though Israel hath thrown down My altars and slain My prophets, what concern is
it of thine?” (28)

The four phenomena that God sent before His appearance wind, (29) earthquake,
fire, and a still small voice were to instruct Elijah about the destiny of
man. God told Elijah that these four represent the worlds through which man
must pass: the first stands for this world, fleeting as the wind; the
earthquake is the day of death, which makes the human body to tremble and
quake; fire is the tribunal in Gehenna, and the still small voice is the Last
Judgment, when there will be none but God alone. (30)

About three years (31) later, Elijah was taken up into heaven, (32) but not
without first undergoing a struggle with the Angel of Death. He refused to let
Elijah enter heaven at his translation, on the ground that he exercised
jurisdiction over all mankind, Elijah not excepted. God maintained that at the
creation of heaven and earth He had explicitly ordered the Angel of Death to
grant entrance to the living prophet, but the Angel of Death insisted that by
Elijah’s translation God had given just cause for complaint to all other men,
who could not escape the doom of death. Thereupon God: “Elijah is not like
other men. He is able to banish thee from the world, only thou dost not
recognize his strength.” With the consent of God, a combat took place between
Elijah and the Angel of Death. The prophet was victorious, and, if God had not
restrained him, he would have annihilated his opponent. Holding his defeated
enemy under his feet, Elijah ascended heavenward. (33)

In heaven he goes on living for all time. (34) There he sits recording the
deeds of men (35) and the chronicles of the world. (36) He has another office
besides. He is the Psychopomp, whose duty is to stand at the cross-ways in
Paradise and guide the pious to their appointed places; (37) who brings the
souls of sinners up from Gehenna at the approach of the Sabbath, and leads them
back again to their merited punishment when the day of rest is about to depart;
and who conducts these same souls, after they have atoned for their sins, to
the place of everlasting bliss. (38)

Elijah’s miraculous deeds will be better understood if we remember that he had
been an angel from the very first, even before the end of his earthly career.
When God was about to create man, Elijah said to Him: “Master of the world! If
it be pleasing in Thine eyes, I will descend to earth, and make myself
serviceable to the sons of men.” Then God changed his angel name, and later,
under Ahab, He permitted him to abide among men on earth, that he might convert
the world to the belief that “the Lord is God.” His mission fulfilled, God took
him again into heaven, and said to him: “Be thou the guardian spirit of My
children forever, and spread the belief in Me abroad in the whole world.” (39)

His angel name is Sandalphon, (40) one of the greatest and mightiest of the
fiery angel host. As such it is his duty to wreathe garlands for God out of the
prayers sent aloft by Israel. (41) Besides, he must offer up sacrifices in the
invisible sanctuary, for the Temple was destroyed only apparently; in reality,
it went on existing, hidden from the sight of ordinary mortals. (42)

AFTER HIS TRANSLATION

Elijah’s removal from earth, so far being an interruption to his relations with
men, rather marks the beginning of his real activity as a helper in time of
need, as a teacher and as a guide. At first his intervention in sublunar
affairs was not frequent. Seven years after his translation, (43) he wrote a
letter to the wicked king Jehoram, who reigned over Judah. The next occasion on
which he took part in an earthly occurrence was at the time of Ahasuerus, when
he did the Jews a good turn by assuming the guise of the courtier Harbonah,
(44) in a favorable moment inciting the king against Haman. (45)

It was reserved for later days, however, for Talmudic times, the golden age of
the great scholars, the Tannaim and the Amoraim, to enjoy Elijah’s special
vigilance as protector of the innocent, as a friend in need, who hovers over
the just and the pious, ever present to guard them against evil or snatch them
out of danger. With four strokes of his wings Elijah can traverse the world.
(46) Hence no spot on earth is too far removed for his help. As an angel (47)
he enjoys the power of assuming the most various appearances to accomplish his
purposes. Sometimes he looks like an ordinary man, sometimes he takes the
appearance of an Arab, sometimes of a horseman, now he is a Roman
court-official, now he is a harlot.

Once upon a time it happened that when Nahum, the great and pious teacher, was
journeying to Rome on a political mission, he was without knowledge robbed of
the gift he bore to the Emperor as an offering from the Jews. When he handed
the casket to the ruler, it was found to contain common earth, which the
thieves had substituted for the jewels they had abstracted. The Emperor thought
the Jews were mocking at him, and their representative, Nahum, was condemned to
suffer death. In his piety the Rabbi did not lose confidence in God; he only
said: “This too is for good.” (48) And so it turned out to be. Suddenly Elijah
appeared, and, assuming the guise of a court-official, he said: “Perhaps the
earth in this casket is like that used by Abraham for purposes of war. A
handful will do the work of swords and bows.” At his instance the virtues of
the earth were tested in the attack upon a city that had long resisted Roman
courage and strength. His supposition was verified. The contents of the casket
proved more efficacious than all the weapons of the army, and the Romans were
victorious. Nahum was dismissed, laden with honors and treasures, and the
thieves, who had betrayed themselves by claiming the precious earth, were
executed, for, naturally enough, Elijah works no wonder for evil-doers. (49)

Another time, for the purpose of rescuing Rabbi Shila, Elijah pretended to be a
Persian. An informer had announced the Rabbi with the Persian Government,
accusing him of administering the law according to the Jewish code. Elijah
appeared as witness for the Rabbi and against the informer, and Shila was
honorably dismissed. (50)

When the Roman bailiffs were pursuing Rabbi Meir, Elijah joined him in the
guise of a harlot. The Roman emissaries desisted from their pursuit, for they
could not believe that Rabbi Meir would choose such a companion. (51)

A contemporary of Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Simon ben Yohai, who spent thirteen years
in a cave to escape the vengeance of the Romans, was informed by Elijah of the
death of the Jew-baiting emperor, so that he could leave his hiding-place. (52)

Equally characteristic is the help Elijah afforded the worthy poor. Frequently
he brought them great wealth. Rabbi Kahana was so needy that he had to support
himself by peddling with household utensils. Once a lady of high standing
endeavored to force him to commit an immoral act, and Kahana, preferring death
to iniquity, threw himself from a loft. Though Elijah was at a distance of four
hundred parasangs, he hastened to the post in time to catch the Rabbi before he
touched the ground. Besides, he gave him means enough to enable him to abandon
an occupation beset with perils. (53)

Rabba bar Abbahu likewise was a victim of poverty. He admitted to Elijah that
on account of his small means he had no time to devote to his studies.
Thereupon Elijah led him into Paradise, bade him remove his mantle, and fill it
with leaves grown in the regions of the blessed. When the Rabbi was about to
quit Paradise, his garment full of leaves, a voice was heard to say: “Who
desires to anticipate his share in the world to come during his earthly days,
as Rabba bar Abbahu is doing?” The Rabbi quickly cast the leaves away;
nevertheless he received twelve thousand denarii for his upper garment, because
it retained the wondrous fragrance of the leaves of Paradise. (54)

Elijah’s help was not confined to poor teachers of the law; all who were in
need, and were worthy of his assistance, had a claim upon him. A poor man, the
father of a family, in his distress once prayed to God: “O Lord of the world,
Thou knowest, there is none to whom I can tell my tale of woe, none who will
have pity upon me. I have neither brother nor kinsman nor friend, and my
starving little ones are crying with hunger. Then do Thou have mercy and be
compassionate, or let death come and put an end to our suffering.” His words
found a hearing with God, for, as he finished, Elijah stood before the poor
man, and sympathetically inquired why he was weeping. When the prophet had
heard the tale of his troubles, he said: “Take me and sell me as a slave; the
proceeds will suffice for thy needs.” At first the poor man refused to accept
the sacrifice, but finally yielded, and Elijah was sold to a prince for eighty
denarii. This sum formed the nucleus of the fortune which the poor man amassed
and enjoyed until the end of his days. The prince who had purchased Elijah
intended to build a palace, and he rejoiced to hear that his new slave was an
architect. He promised Elijah liberty if within six months he completed the
edifice. After nightfall of the same day, Elijah offered a prayer, and
instantaneously the palace stood in its place in complete perfection. Elijah
disappeared. The next morning the prince was not a little astonished to see the
palace finished. But when he sought his slave to reward him, and sought him in
vain, he realized that he had had dealings with an angel. Elijah meantime
repaired to the man who had sold him, and related his story to him, that he
might know he had not cheated the purchaser out of his price; on the contrary,
he had enriched him, since the palace was worth a hundred times more than the
money paid for the pretended slave. (55)

A similar thing happened to a well-to-do man who lost his fortune, and became
so poor that he had to do manual labor in the field of another. Once, when he
was at work, he was accosted by Elijah, who had assumed the appearance of an
Arab: “Thou art destined to enjoy seven good years. When dost thou want them
now, or as the closing years of thy life?” The man replied: “Thou art a wizard;
go in peace, I have nothing for thee.” Three times the same question was put,
three times the same reply was given. Finally the man said: “I shall ask the
advice of my wife.” When Elijah came again, and repeated his question, the man,
following the counsel of his wife, said: “See to it that seven good years come
to us at once.” Elijah replied: “Go home. Before thou crossest thy threshold,
thy good fortune will have filled thy house.” And so it was. His children had
found a treasure in the ground, and, as he was about to enter his house, his
wife met him and reported the lucky find. His wife was an estimable, pious
woman, and she said to her husband: “We shall enjoy seven good years. Let us
use this time to practice as much charity as possible; perhaps God will
lengthen out our period of prosperity.” After the lapse of seven years, during
which man and wife used every opportunity of doing good, Elijah appeared again,
and announced to the man that the time had come to take away what he had given
him. The man responded: “When I accepted thy gift, it was after consultation
with my wife. I should not like to return it without first acquainting her with
what is about to happen.” His wife charged him to say to the old man who had
come to resume possession of his property: “If thou canst find any who will be
more conscientious stewards of the pledges entrusted to us than we have been, I
shall willingly yield them up to thee.” God recognized that these people had
made a proper use of their wealth, and He granted it to them as a perpetual
possession. (56)

If Elijah was not able to lighten the poverty of the pious, he at least sought
to inspire them with hope and confidence. Rabbi Akiba, the great scholar, lived
in dire poverty before he became the famous Rabbi. His rich father-in-law would
have nothing to do with him or his wife, because the daughter had married Akiba
against her father’s will. On a bitter cold winter night, Akiba could offer his
wife, who had been accustomed to the luxuries wealth can buy, nothing but straw
as a bed to sleep upon, and he tried to comfort her with assurances of his love
for the privations she was suffering. At that moment Elijah appeared before
their hut, and cried out in supplicating tones: “O good people, give me, I pray
you, a little bundle of straw. My wife has been delivered of a child, and I am
so poor I haven’t even enough straw to make a bed for her.” Now Abika could
console his wife with the fact that their own misery was not so great as it
might have been, and thus Elijah had attained his end, to sustain the courage
of the pious. (57)

In the form of an Arab, he once appeared before a very poor man, whose piety
equalled his poverty. He gave him two shekels. These two coins brought him such
good fortune that he attained great wealth. But in his zeal to gather worldly
treasures, he had no time for deeds of piety and charity. Elijah again appeared
before him and took away the two shekels. In a short time the man was as poor
as before. A third time Elijah came to him. He was crying bitterly and
complaining of his misfortune, and the prophet said: “I shall make thee rich
once more, if thou wilt promise me under oath thou wilt not let wealth ruin
they character.” He promised, the two shekels were restored to him, he regained
his wealth, and he remained in possession of it for all time, because his piety
was not curtailed by his riches. (58)

Poverty was not the only form of distress Elijah relieved. He exercised the
functions of a physician upon Rabbi Shimi bar Ashi, who had swallowed a noxious
reptile. Elijah appeared to him as an awe-inspiring horseman, and forced him to
apply the preventives against the disease to be expected in these
circumstances.

He also cured Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi of long-continued toothache by laying his
hand on the sufferer, and at the same time he brought about the reconciliation
of Rabbi Judan with Rabbi Hayyah, whose form he had assumed. Rabbi Judah paid
the highest respect to Rabbi Hayyah after he found out that Elijah had
considered him worthy of taking his appearance. (59)

On another occasion, Elijah re-established harmony between a husband and his
wife. The woman had come home very late on Friday evening, having allowed
herself to be detained by the sermon preached by Rabbi Meir. Her autocratic
husband swore she should not enter the house until she had spat in the very
face of the highly-esteemed Rabbi. Meantime Elijah went to Rabbi Meir, and told
him a pious woman had fallen into a sore predicament on his account. To help
the poor woman, the Rabbi restored to a ruse. He announced that he was looking
for one who knew how to cast spells, which was done by spitting into the eye of
the afflicted one. When he caught sight of the woman designated by Elijah, he
asked her to try her power upon him. Thus she was able to comply with her
husband’s requirement without disrespect to the Rabbi; and through the
instrumentality of Elijah conjugal happiness was restored to an innocent wife.
(60)

Elijah’s versatility is shown in the following occurrence. A pious man
bequeathed a spice-garden to his three sons. They took turns in guarding it
against thieves. The first night the oldest son watched the garden. Elijah
appeared to him and asked him: “My son, what wilt thou have knowledge of the
Torah, or great wealth, or a beautiful wife?” He chose wealth, great wealth.
Accordingly Elijah gave him a coin, and he became rich. The second son, to whom
Elijah appeared the second night, chose knowledge of the Torah. Elijah gave him
a book, and “he knew the whole Torah.” The third son, on the third night, when
Elijah put the same choice before him as before his brothers, wished for a
beautiful wife. Elijah invited this third brother to go on a journey with him.
Their first night was passed at the house of a notorious villain, who had a
daughter. During the night Elijah overheard the chickens and the geese say to
one another: “What a terrible sin that young may must have committed, that he
should be destined to marry the daughter of so great a villain!” The two
travellers journeyed on. The second night the experiences of the first were
repeated. The third night they lodged with a man who had a very pretty
daughter. During the night Elijah heard the chickens and the geese say to one
another: “How great must be the virtues of this young man, if he is privileged
to marry so beautiful and pious a wife.” In the morning, when Elijah arose, he
at once became a matchmaker, the young man married the pretty maiden, and
husband and wife journeyed homeward in joy. (61)

If it became necessary, Elijah was ready to do even the services of a sexton.
When Rabbi Akiba died in prison, Elijah betook himself to the dead man’s
faithful disciple, Rabbi Joshua, and the two together went to the prison. There
was none to forbid their entrance; a deep sleep had fallen upon the turnkeys
and the prisoners alike. Elijah and Rabbi Joshua took the corpse with them,
Elijah bearing it upon his shoulder. Rabbi Joshua in astonishment demanded how
he, a priest, dared defile himself upon a corpse. The answer was: “God forbid!
the pious can never cause defilement.” All night the two walked on with their
burden. At break of day they found themselves near Caesarea. A cave opened
before their eyes, and within they saw a bed, a chair, a table, and a lamp.
They deposited the corpse upon the bed, and left the cave, which closed up
behind them. Only the light of the lamp, which had lit itself after they left,
shone through the chinks. Whereupon Elijah said: “Hail, ye just, hail to you
who devote yourselves to the study of the law. Hail to you, ye God-fearing men,
for your places are set aside, and kept, and guarded, in Paradise, for the time
to come. Hail to thee, Rabbi Akiba, that thy lifeless body found lodgment for a
night in a lovely spot.” (62)

CENSOR AND AVENGER

Helpfulness and compassion do not paint the whole of the character of Elijah.
He remained the stern and inexorable censor whom Ahab feared. The old zeal for
the true and the good he never lost, as witness, he once struck a man dead
because he failed to perform his devotions with due reverence. (63)

There were two brothers, one of them rich and miserly, the other poor and
kind-hearted. Elijah, in the garb of an old beggar, approached the rich man,
and asked him for alms. Repulsed by him, he turned to the poor brother, who
received him kindly, and shared his meagre supper with him. On bidding farewell
to him and his equally hospitable wife, Elijah said: “May God reward you! The
first thing you undertake shall be blessed, and shall take no end until you
yourselves cry out Enough!” Presently the poor man began to count the few
pennies he had, to convince himself that they sufficed to purchase bread for
his next meal. But the few became many, and he counted and counted, and still
their number increased. He counted a whole day, and the following night, until
he was exhausted, and had to cry out Enough! And, indeed, it was enough, for he
had become a very wealthy man. His brother was not a little astonished to see
the fortunate change in his kinsman’s circumstances, and when he heard how it
had come about, he determined, if the opportunity should present itself again,
to show his most amiable side to the old beggar with the miraculous power of
blessing. He had not long to wait. A few days later he saw the old man pass by.
He hastened to accost him, and, excusing himself for his unfriendliness at
their former meeting, begged him to come into his house. All that the larder
afforded was put before Elijah, who pretended to eat of the dainties. At his
departure, he pronounced a blessing upon his hosts: “May the first thing you do
have no end, until it is enough.” The mistress of the house thereupon said to
her husband: “That we may count gold upon gold undisturbed, let us first attend
to our most urgent physical needs.” So they did and they had to continue to
do it until life was extinct. (64)

The extreme of his rigor Elijah displayed toward teachers of the law. From them
he demanded more than obedience to the mere letter of a commandment. For
instance, he pronounced severe censure upon Rabbi Ishmael ben Jose because he
was willing to act as bailiff in prosecuting Jewish thieves and criminals. He
advised Rabbi Ishmael to follow the example of his father and leave the
country. (65)

His estrangement from his friend Rabbi Joshua ben Levi is characteristic. One
who was sought by the officers of the law took refuge with Rabbi Joshua. His
pursuers were informed of his place of concealment. Threatening to put all the
inhabitants of the city to the sword if he was not delivered up, they demanded
his surrender. The Rabbi urged the fugitive from justice to resign himself to
his fate. Better for one individual to die, he said, than for a whole community
to be exposed to peril. The fugitive yielded to the Rabbi’s argument, and gave
himself up to the bailiffs. Thereafter Elijah, who had been in the habit of
visiting Rabbi Joshua frequently, stayed away from his house, and he was
induced to come back only by the Rabbi’s long fasts and earnest prayers. In
reply to the Rabbi’s question, why he had shunned him, he said: “Dost thou
suppose I care to have intercourse with informers?” The Rabbi quoted a passage
from the Mishnah to justify his conduct, but Elijah remained unconvinced. “Dost
thou consider this a law for a pious man?” he said. “Other people might have
been right in doing as thou didst; thou shouldst have done otherwise.” (66)

A number of instances are known which show how exalted a standard Elijah set up
for those who would be considered worthy of intercourse with him. Of two pious
brothers, one provided for his servants as for his own table, while the other
permitted his servants to eat abundantly only of the first course; of the other
courses they could have nothing but the remnants. Accordingly, with the second
brother Elijah would have nothing to do, while he often honored the former with
his visits.

A similar attitude Elijah maintained toward another pair of pious brothers. One
of them was in the habit of providing for his servants after his own needs were
satisfied, while the other of them attended to the needs of his servants first.
To the latter it was that Elijah gave the preference. (67)

He dissolved an intimacy of many years’ standing, because his friend built a
vestibule which was so constructed that the supplications of the poor could be
heard but faintly by those within the house. (68)

Rabbi Joshua ben Levi incurred the displeasure of Elijah a second time, because
a man was torn in pieces by a lion in the vicinity of his house. In a measure
Elijah held Rabbi responsible, because he did not pray for the prevention of
such misfortunes. (69)

The story told of Elijah and Rabbi Anan forms the most striking illustration of
the severity of the prophet. Someone brought Rabbi Anan a mess of little fish
as a present, and at the same time asked the Rabbi to act as judge in a lawsuit
he was interested in. Anan refused in these circumstances to accept a gift from
the litigant. To demonstrate his single-mindedness, the applicant urged the
Rabbit to take the fish and assign the case to another judge. Anan acquiesced,
and he requested one of his colleagues to act for him, because he was
incapacitated from serving as a judge. His legal friend drew the inference,
that the litigant introduced to him was a kinsman of Rabbi Anan’s, and
accordingly he showed himself particularly complaisant toward him. As a result,
the other party to the suit was intimidated. He failed to present his side as
convincingly as he might otherwise have done, and so lost the case. Elijah, who
had been the friend of Anan and his teacher as well, thenceforth shunned his
presence, because he considered that the injury done the second party to the
suit was due to Anan’s carelessness. Anan in his distress kept many fasts, and
offered up many prayers, before Elijah would return to him. Even then the Rabbi
could not endure the sight of him; he had to content himself with listening to
Elijah’s words without looking upon his face. (70)

Sometimes Elijah considered it his duty to force people into abandoning a bad
habit. A rich man was once going to a cattle sale, and he carried a snug sum of
money to buy oxen. He was accosted by a stranger none other than Elijah who
inquired the purpose of his journey. “I go to buy cattle,” replied the would-be
purchaser. “Say, it if please God,” urged Elijah. “Fiddlesticks! I shall buy
cattle whether it please God or not! I carry the money with me, and the
business will be dispatched.” “But not with good fortune,” said the stranger,
and went off. Arrived at the market, the cattle-buyer discovered the loss of
his purse, and he had to return home to provide himself with other money. He
again set forth on his journey, but this time he took another road to avoid the
stranger of ill omen. To his amazement he met an old man with whom he had
precisely the same adventure as with the first stranger. Again he had to return
home to fetch money. By this time had learned his lesson. When a third stranger
questioned him about the object of his journey, he answered: “If it please God,
I intend to buy oxen.” The stranger wished him success, and the wish was
fulfilled. To the merchant’s surprise, when a pair of fine cattle were offered
him, and their price exceeded the sum of money he had about his person, he
found the two purses he had lost on his first and second trips. Later he sold
the same pair of oxen to the king for a considerable price, and he became very
wealthy. (71)

As Elijah coerced this merchant into humility toward God, so he carried home a
lesson to the great Tanna Eliezer, the son of Rabbi Simon ben Yohai. This Rabbi
stood in need of correction on account of his overweening conceit. Once, on
returning from the academy, he took a walk on the sea-beach, his bosom swelling
with pride at the thought of his attainments in the Torah. He met a hideously
ugly man, who greeted him with the words: “Peace be with thee, Rabbi.” Eliezer,
instead of courteously acknowledging the greeting, said: “O thou wight, (72)
how ugly thou art! Is it possible that all the residents of thy town are as
ugly as thou?” “I know not,” was the reply, “but it is the Master Artificer who
created me that thou shouldst have said: ‘How ugly is this vessel which Thou
hast fashioned.'” The Rabbi realized the wrong he had committed, and humbly
begged pardon of the ugly man another of the protean forms adopted by Elijah.
The latter continued to refer him to the Master Artificer of the ugly vessel.
The inhabitants of the city, who had hastened to do honor to the great Rabbi,
earnestly urged the offended man to grant pardon, and finally he declared
himself appeased, provided the Rabbi promised never again to commit the same
wrong. (73)

The rigor practiced by Elijah toward his friends caused one of them, the Tanna
Rabbi Jose, to accuse him of being passionate and irascible. As a consequence,
Elijah would have nothing to do with him for a long time. When he reappeared,
and confessed the cause of his withdrawal, Rabbi Jose said he felt justified,
for his charge could not have received a more striking verification. (74)

INTERCOURSE WITH THE SAGES

Elijah’s purely human relations to the world revealed themselves in their
fulness, neither in his deeds of charity, nor in his censorious rigor, but
rather in his gentle and scholarly intercourse with the great in Israel,
especially the learned Rabbis of the Talmudic time. He is at once their
disciple and their teacher. To one he resorts for instruction on difficult
points, to another he himself dispenses instruction. As a matter of course, his
intimate knowledge of the supernatural world makes him appear more frequently
in the role of giver than receiver. Many a bit of secret lore the Jewish
teachers learnt from Elijah, and he it was who, with the swiftness of
lightning, carried the teachings of one Rabbi to another sojourning hundreds of
miles away. (75)

Thus it was Elijah who taught Rabbi Jose the deep meaning hidden in the
Scriptural passage in which woman is designated as the helpmeet of man. By
means of examples he demonstrated to the Rabbi how indispensable woman is to
man. (76)

Rabbi Nehorai profited by his exposition of why God created useless, even
noxious insects. The reason for their existence is that the sight of
superfluous and harmful creatures prevents God from destroying His world at
times when, on account of the wickedness and iniquity prevailing in it, it
repents Him of having created it. If He preserves creatures that at their best
are useless, and at their worst injurious, how much more should He preserve
human beings with all their potentialities for good.

The same Rabbi Nehorai was told by Elijah, that God sends earthquakes and other
destructive phenomena when He sees places of amusement prosperous and
flourishing, while the Temple lies a heap of dust and ashes. (77)

To Rabbi Judah he communicated the following three maxims: Let not anger master
thee, and thou wilt not fall into sin; let not drink master thee, and thou wilt
be spared pain; before thou settest out on a journey, take counsel with thy
Creator. (78)

In case of a difference of opinion among scholars, Elijah was usually
questioned as to how the moot point was interpreted in the heavenly academy.
(79) Once, when the scholars were not unanimous in their views as to Esther’s
intentions when she invited Haman to her banquets with the king, Elijah, asked
by Rabba bar Abbahu to tell him her real purpose, said that each and every one
of the motives attributed to her by various scholars were true, for her
invitations to Haman had many a purpose. (80)

A similar answer he gave the Amora Abiathar, who disputed with his colleagues
as to why the Ephraimite who cause the war against the tribe of Benjamin first
cast off his concubine, and then became reconciled to her. Elijah informed
Rabbi Abiathar that in heaven the cruel conduct of the Ephraimite was explained
in two ways, according to Abiathar’s conception and according to his opponent
Jonathan’s as well. (81)

Regarding the great contest between Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and the whole
body of scholars, in which the majority maintained the validity of its opinion,
though a heavenly voice pronounced Rabbi Eliezer’s correct, Elijah told Rabbi
Nathan, that God in His heaven had cried out: “My children have prevailed over
Me!” (82)

On one occasion Elijah fared badly for having betrayed celestial events to his
scholars. He was a daily attendant at the academy of Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi. One
day, it was the New Moon Day, he was late. The reason for his tardiness, he
said, was that it was his daily duty to awaken the three Patriarchs, (83) wash
their hands for them, so that they might offer up their prayers, and after
their devotions lead them back to their resting-places. On this day their
prayers took very long, because they were increased by the Musaf service on
account of the New Moon celebration, and hence he did not make his appearance
at the academy in good time. Elijah did not end his narrative at this point,
but went on to tell the Rabbi, that this occupation of his was rather tedious,
for the three Patriarchs were not permitted to offer up their payers at the
same time. Abraham prayed first, then came Isaac, and finally Jacob. If they
all were to pray together, the united petitions of three such paragons of piety
would be so efficacious as to force God to fulfil them, and He would be induced
to bring the Messiah before his time. Then Rabbi Judah wanted to know whether
there were any among the pious on earth whose prayer possessed equal efficacy.
Elijah admitted that the same power resided in the prayers of Rabbi Hayyah and
his two sons. Rabbi Judah lost no time in proclaiming a day of prayer and
fasting and summoning Rabbi Hayyah and his sons to officiate as the leaders in
prayer. They began to chant the Eighteen Benedictions. Then they uttered the
word for wind, a storm arose; when they continued and made petition for rain,
the rain descended at once. But as the readers approached the passage relating
to the revival of the dead, great excitement arose in heaven, and when it
became known that Elijah had revealed the secret of the marvellous power
attaching to the prayers of the three men, he was punished with fiery blows. To
thwart Rabbi Judah’s purpose, Elijah assumed the form of a bear, and put the
praying congregation to flight. (84)

Contrariwise, Elijah was also in the habit of reporting earthly events in the
celestial regions. He told Rabba bar Shila that the reason Rabbi Meir was never
quoted in the academy on high was because he had had so wicked a teacher as
Elisha ben Abuyah. Rabba explained Rabbi Meir’s conduct by an apologue. “Rabbi
Meir,” he said, “found a pomegranate; he enjoyed the heart of the fruit, and
cast the skin aside.” Elijah was persuaded of the justness of this defense, and
so were all the celestial powers. Thereupon one of Rabbi Meir’s interpretations
was quoted in the heavenly academy. (85)

Elijah was no less interested in the persons of the learned than in their
teachings, especially when scholars were to be provided with the means of
devoting themselves to their studies. It was he who, when Rabbi Eliezer ben
Hyrcanus, later a great celebrity, resolved to devote himself to the law,
advised him to repair to Jerusalem and sit at the feet of Rabban Johanan ben
Zakkai. (86)

He once met a man who mocked at his exhortations to study, and he said that on
the great day of reckoning he would excuse himself for his neglect of
intellectual pursuits by the fact that he had been granted neither intelligence
nor wisdom. Elijah asked him what his calling was. “I am a fisherman,” was the
reply. “Well, my son,” questioned Elijah, “who taught thee to take flax and
make nets and throw them into the sea to catch fish?” He replied: “For this
heaven gave me intelligence and insight.” Hereupon Elijah: “If thou possessest
intelligence and insight to cast nets and catch fish, why should these
qualities desert thee when thou dealest with the Torah, which, thou knowest, is
very nigh unto man that he may do it?” The fisherman was touched, and he began
to weep. Elijah pacified him by telling him that what he had said applied to
many another beside him. (87)

In another way Elijah conveyed the lesson of the great value residing in
devotion to the study of the Torah. Disguised as a Rabbi, he was approached by
a man who promised to relieve him of all material cares if he would but abide
with him. Refusing to leave Jabneh, the centre of Jewish scholarship, he said
to the tempter: “Wert thou to offer me a thousand million gold denarii, I would
not quit the abode of the law, and dwell in a place in which there is no
Torah.” (88)

By Torah, of course, is meant the law as conceived and interpreted by the sages
and the scholars, for Elijah was particularly solicitous to establish the
authority of the oral law, (89) as he was solicitous to demonstrate the truth
of Scriptural promises that appeared incredible at first sight. For instance,
he once fulfilled Rabbi Joshua ben Levi’s wish to see the precious stones which
would take the place of the sun in illuminating Jerusalem in the Messianic
time. A vessel in mid-ocean was nigh unto shipwreck. Among a large number of
heathen passengers there was a single Jewish youth. To him Elijah appeared and
said, he would rescue the vessel, provided the boy went to Rabbi Joshua ben
Levi, and took him to a certain place far removed from the town and from human
habitation, and showed him the gems. The boy doubted that so great a man would
consent to follow a mere slip of a youth to a remote spot, but, reassured by
Elijah, who told him of Rabbi Joshua’s extraordinary modesty, he undertook the
commission, and the vessel with its human freight was saved. The boy came to
the Rabbi, besought him to go whither he would lead, and Joshua, who was really
possessed of great modesty, followed the boy three miles without even inquiring
the purpose of the expedition. When they finally reached the cave, the boy
said: “See, here are the precious stones!” The Rabbi grasped them, and a flood
of light spread as far as Lydda, the residence of Rabbi Joshua. Startled, he
cast the precious stones away from him, and they disappeared. (90)

This Rabbi was a particular favorite of Elijah, who even secured him an
interview with the Messiah. The Rabbi found the Messiah among the crowd of
afflicted poor gathered near the city gates of Rome, and he greeted him with
the words: “Peace be with thee, my teacher and guide!” Whereunto the Messiah
replied: “Peace be with thee, thou son of Levi!” The Rabbi then asked him when
he would appear, and the Messiah said, “To-day.” Elijah explained to the Rabbi
later that what the Messiah meant by “to-day” was, that he for his part was
ready to bring Israel redemption at any time. If Israel but showed himself
worthy, he would instantly fufil his mission. (91)

Elijah wanted to put Rabbi Joshua into communication with the departed Rabbi
Simon ben Yohai also, but the later did not consider him of sufficient
importance to honor him with his conversation. Rabbi Simon had addressed a
question to him, and Rabbi Joshua in his modesty had made a reply not
calculated to give one a high opinion of him. (92) In reality Rabbi Joshua was
the possessor of such sterling qualities, that when he entered Paradise Elijah
walked before him calling out: “Make room for the son of Levi.” (93)

GOD’S JUSTICE VINDICATED

Among the many and various teachings dispensed by Elijah to his friends, there
are none so important as his theodicy, the teachings vindicating God’s justice
in the administration of earthly affairs. He used many an opportunity to
demonstrate it by precept and example. Once he granted his friend Rabbi Joshua
ben Levi the fulfilment of any wish he might express, and all the Rabbi asked
for was, that he might be permitted to accompany Elijah on his wanderings
through the world. Elijah was prepared to gratify this wish. He only imposed
the condition, that, however odd the Rabbi might think Elijah’s actions, he was
not to ask any explanation of them. If ever he demanded why, they would have to
part company. So Elijah and the Rabbi fared forth together, and they journeyed
on until they reached the house of a poor man, whose only earthly possession
was a cow. The man and his wife were thoroughly good-hearted people, and they
received the two wanderers with a cordial welcome. They invited the strangers
into their house, set before them food and drink of the best they had, and made
up a comfortable couch for them for the night. When Elijah and the Rabbi were
ready to continue their journey on the following day, Elijah prayed that the
cow belonging to his host might die. Before they left the house, the animal had
expired. Rabbi Joshua was so shocked by the misfortune that had befallen the
good people, he almost lost consciousness. He thought: “Is that to be the poor
man’s reward for all his kind services to us?” And he could not refrain from
putting the question to Elijah. But Elijah reminded him of the condition
imposed and accepted at the beginning of their journey, and they travelled on,
the Rabbi’s curiosity unappeased. That night they reached the house of a
wealthy man, who did not pay his guest the courtesy of looking them in the
face. Though they passed the night under his roof, he did not offer them food
or drink. This rich man was desirous of having a wall repaired that had tumbled
down. There was no need for him to take any steps to have it rebuilt, for, when
Elijah left the house, he prayed that the wall might erect itself, and, lo! it
stood upright. Rabbi Joshua was greatly amazed, but true to his promise he
suppressed the question that rose to his lips. So the two travelled on again,
until they reached an ornate synagogue, the seats in which were made of silver
and gold. But the worshippers did not correspond in character to the
magnificence of the building, for when it came to the point of satisfying the
needs of the way-worn pilgrims, one of those present said: “There is not dearth
of water and bread, and the strange travellers can stay in the synagogue,
whither these refreshments can be brought to them.” Early the next morning,
when they were departing, Elijah wished those present in the synagogue in which
they had lodged, that God might raise them all to be “heads.” Rabbi Joshua
again had to exercise great self-restraint, and not put into words the question
that troubled him profoundly. In the next town, they were received with great
affability, and served abundantly with all their tired bodies craved. On these
kind hosts Elijah, on leaving, bestowed the wish that God might give them but a
single head. Now the Rabbi could not hold himself in check any longer, and he
demanded an explanation of Elijah’s freakish actions. Elijah consented to clear
up his conduct for Joshua before they separated from each other. He spoke as
follows: “The poor man’s cow was killed, because I knew that on the same day
the death of his wife had been ordained in heaven, and I prayed to God to
accept the loss of the poor man’s property as a substitute for the poor man’s
wife. As for the rich man, there was a treasure hidden under the dilapidated
wall, and, if he had rebuilt it, he would have found the gold; hence I set up
the wall miraculously in order to deprive the curmudgeon of the valuable find.
I wished that the inhospitable people assembled in the synagogue might have
many heads, for a place of numerous leaders is bound to be ruined by reason of
multiplicity of counsel and disputes. To the inhabitants of our last sojourning
place, on the other hand, I wished a ‘single head,’ for the one to guide a
town, success will attend all its undertakings. Know, then, that if thou seest
an evil-doer prosper, it is not always unto his advantage, and if a righteous
man suffers need and distress, think not God is unjust.” After these words
Elijah and Rabbi Joshua separated from each other, and each went his own way.
(94)

How difficult it is to form a true judgment with nothing but external
appearances as a guide, Elijah proved to Rabbi Baroka. They were once waling in
a crowded street, and the Rabbi requested Elijah to point out any in the throng
destined to occupy places in Paradise. Elijah answered that there was none,
only to contradict himself and point to a passer-by the very next minute. His
appearance was such that in him least of all the Rabbi would have suspected a
pious man. His garb did not even indicate that he was a Jew. Later Rabbi Baroka
discovered by questioning him that he was a prison guard. In the fulfilment of
his duties as such he was particularly careful that the virtue of chastity
should not be violated in the prison, in which both men women were kept in
detention. Also, his position often brought him into relations with the heathen
authorities, and so he was enabled to keep the Jews informed of the disposition
entertained toward them by the powers that be. The Rabbi was thus taught that
no station in life precluded its occupant from doing good and acting nobly.

Another time Elijah designated two men to whom a great future was assigned in
Paradise. Yet these men were nothing more than clowns! They made it their
purpose in life to dispel discontent and sorrow by their jokes and their cheery
humor, and they used the opportunities granted by their profession to adjust
the difficulties and quarrels that disturb the harmony of people living in
close contact with each other. (95)

ELIJAH AND THE ANGEL OF DEATH

Among the many benevolent deeds of Elijah, special mention ought to be made of
his rescue of those doomed by a heavenly decree to fall into the clutches of
the Angel of Death. He brought these rescues about by warning the designated
victims of their impending fate, and urging them to do good deeds, which would
prove protection against death.

There was once a pious and rich man with a beautiful and saintly daughter. She
had had the misfortune of losing three husbands in succession, each on the day
after the wedding. These sorrows determined her never again to enter into the
marriage state. A cousin of hers, the nephew of her father, induced by the
poverty of his parents, journeyed from his distant home to apply for help to
his rich uncle. Scarcely had he laid eyes upon his lovely cousin when he fell
victim to her charms. In vain her father sought to dissuade his nephew from
marrying his daughter. But the fate of his predecessors did not affright him,
and the wedding took place. While he was standing under the wedding canopy,
Elijah came to him in the guise of an old man, and said: “My son, I want to
give thee a piece of advice. While thou are seated at the wedding dinner, thou
wilt be approached by a ragged, dirty beggar, with hair like nails. As soon as
thou catchest sight of him, hasten to seat him beside thee, set food and drink
before him, and be ready to grant whatever he may ask of thee. Do as I say, and
thou wilt be protected against harm. Now I shall leave thee and go my way.” At
the wedding feast, a stranger as described by Elijah appeared, and the
bridegroom did according to Elijah’s counsel. After the wedding the stranger
revealed his identity, introducing himself as the messenger of the Lord sent to
take the young husband’s life. The supplications of the bridegroom failed to
move him; he refused to grant a single day’s respite. All he yielded was
permission to the young husband to bid farewell to his newly-wed wife. When the
bride saw that what she had feared was coming to pass, she repaired to the
Angel of Death and argued with him: “The Torah distinctly exempts the newly-wed
from all duties for a whole year. If thou deprivest my husband of life, thou
wilt give the lie to the Torah.” Thereupon God commanded the Angel of Death to
desist, and, when the relatives of the bride came to prepare the grave of the
groom, they found him well and unharmed. (96)

A similar thing befell the son of the great and extremely pious scholar Rabbi
Reuben. To him came the Angel of Death and announced that his only son would
have to die. The pious man was resigned: “We mortals can do nothing to oppose a
Divine decree,” he said, “but I pray there, give him thirty days’ respite, that
I may see him married.” The Angel of Death acquiesced. The Rabbi told no one of
this encounter, waited until the appointed time was drawing to a close, and, on
the very last day, the thirtieth, he arranged his son’s wedding feast. On that
day, the bridegroom-to-be met Elijah, who told him of his approaching death. A
worthy son of his father, he said: “Who may oppose God? And am I better than
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? They, too, had to die.” Elijah told him furthermore,
that the Angel of Death would appear to him in the guise of a ragged, dirty
beggar, and he advised him to receive him in the kindliest possible manner, and
in particular he was to insist upon his taking food and drink from him. All
happened as Elijah had predicted, and his advice, too, proved efficacious, for
the heart of the Angel of Death, who finally revealed his identity with the
beggar, was softened by the entreaties of the father, combined with the tears
of the young wife, who resorted to the argument cited above, of the year of
exemption from duty granted to the newly-married. The Angel of Death, disarmed
by the amiable treatment accorded to him, himself went before the throne of God
and presented the young wife’s petition. The end was God added seventy years to
the life of Rabbi Reuben’s son. (97)

TEACHER OF THE KABBALAH

The frequent meetings between Elijah and the teachers of the law of the
Talmudic time were invested with personal interest only. Upon the development
of the Torah they had no influence whatsoever. His relation to the mystic
science was of quite other character. It is safe to say that what Moses was to
the Torah, Elijah was to the Kabbalah.

His earliest relation to it was established through Rabbi Simon ben Yohai and
his son Rabbi Eliezer. For thirteen years he visited them twice daily in their
subterranean hiding-place, and imparted the secrets of the Torah to them. (98)
A thousand years later, Elijah again gave the impetus to the development of the
Kabbalah, for it was he that revealed mysteries, first to the Nazarite Rabbi
Jacob, then to his disciple of the latter, Abraham ben David. The mysteries in
the books “Peliah” and “Kanah,” the author Elkanah owed wholly to Elijah. He
had appeared to him in the form of a venerable old man, and had imparted to him
the secret lore taught in the heavenly academy. Besides, he led him to a fiery
rock whereon mysterious characters were engraved, which were deciphered by
Elkanah.

After his disciple had thus become thoroughly impregnated with mystical
teachings, Elijah took him to the tomb of the Patriarchs, and thence to the
heavenly academy. But the angels, little pleased by the intrusion of one “born
of woman,” inspired him with such terror that he besought Elijah to carry him
back to earth. His mentor allayed his fears, and long continued to instruct him
in the mystical science, according to the system his disciple has recorded in
his two works. (99)

The Kabbalists in general were possessed of the power to cite Elijah, to
conjure him up by means of certain formulas. (100) One of them, Rabbi Joseph
della Reyna, once called upon Elijah in this way, but it proved his own
undoing. He was a saintly scholar, and he had conceived no less a purpose than
to bring about the redemption of man by the conquest of the angel Samael, the
Prince of Evil. After many prayers and vigils and long indulgence in fasting,
and other ascetic practices, Rabbi Joseph united himself with his five
disciples for the purpose of conjuring up Elijah. When the prophet, obeying the
summons, suddenly stood before him, Rabbi Joseph spoke as follows: “Peace be
with thee, our master! True prophet, bearer of salvation, be not displeased
with me that I have troubled thee to come hither. God knows, I have not done it
for myself, and not for mine own honor. I am zealous for the name and the honor
of God, and I know thy desire is the same as mine, for it is thy vocation to
make the glory of God to prevail on earth. I pray thee, therefore, to grant my
petition, tell me with what means I can conquer Satan.” Elijah at first
endeavored to dissuade the Rabbi from his enterprise. He described the great
power of Satan, ever growing as it feeds upon the sins of mankind. But Rabbi
Joseph could not be made to desist. Elijah then enumerated what measures and
tactics he would have to observe in his combat with the fallen angel. He
enumerated the pious, saintly deeds that would win the interest of the
archangel Sandalphon in his undertaking, and from this angel he would learn the
method of warfare to be pursued. The Rabbi followed out Elijah’s directions
carefully, and succeeded in summoning Sandalphon to his assistance. If he had
continued to obey instructions implicitly, and had carried out all Sandalphon
advised, the Rabbi would have triumphed over Satan and hastened the redemption
of the world. Unfortunately, at one point the Rabbi committed an indiscretion,
and he lost the great advantages he had gained over Satan, who used his
restored power to bring ruin upon him and his disciples. (101)

The radical transformation in the character of Kabbalistic teaching which is
connected with the name of Rabbi Isaac Loria likewise is an evidence of
Elijah’s activity. Elijah sought out this “father of the Kabbalistic
Renaissance,” and revealed the mysteries of the universe to him. Indeed, he had
shown his interest in him long before any one suspected the future greatness of
Rabbi Isaac. Immediately after his birth, Elijah appeared to the father of the
babe, and enjoined him not to have the rite of circumcision performed until he
should be told by Elijah to proceed. The eighth day of the child’s life
arrived, the whole congregation was assembled at the synagogue (102) to witness
the solemn ceremonial, but to the great astonishment of his fellow-townsmen the
father delayed it. The people naturally did not know he was waiting for Elijah
to appear, and he was called upon once and again to have the ceremony take
place. But he did not permit the impatience of the company to turn him from his
purpose. Suddenly, Elijah, unseen, of course, by the others, appeared to him,
and bade him have the ceremony performed. Those present were under the
impression that the father was holding the child on his knees during the
circumcision; in reality, however it was Elijah. After the rite was completed,
Elijah handed the infant back to the father with the words: “Here is thy child.
Take good care of it, for it will spread a brilliant light over the world.”
(103)

It was also Elijah who in a similar way informed Rabbit Eliezer, the father of
Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tob, the father of him whose name is unrivalled in the
annals of the Hasidic Kabbalah that a son would be born to him who should
enlighten the eyes of Israel. This Rabbi Eliezer was justly reputed to be very
hospitable. He was in the habit of stationing guards at the entrances to the
village in which he lived, and they were charged to bring all strangers to his
house. In heaven it was ordained that Rabbi Eliezer’s hospitable instincts
should be put to a test. Elijah was chosen for the experiment. On a Sabbath
afternoon, arrayed in the garb of a beggar, he entered the village with
knapsack and staff. Rabbi Eliezer, taking no notice of the fact that the beggar
was desecrating the Sabbath, received him kindly, attended to his bodily wants,
and the next morning, on parting with him, gave him some money besides. Touched
by his kind-heartedness, Elijah revealed his identity and the purpose of his
disguise, and told him that, as he had borne the trial so well, he would be
rewarded by the birth of a son who should “enlighten the eyes of Israel.” (104)

FORERUNNER OF THE MESSIAH

Many-sided though Elijah’s participation in the course of historical events is,
it cannot be compared with what he is expected to do in the days of the
Messiah. He is charged with the mission of ordering the coming time aright and
restoring the tribes of Jacob. (105) His Messianic activity thus is to be
twofold: he is to be the forerunner of the Messiah, yet in part he will himself
realize the promised scheme of salvation. His first task will be to induce
Israel to repent when the Messiah is about to come, (106) and to establish
peace and harmony in the world. (107) Hence he will have to settle all legal
difficulties, and solve all legal problems, that have accumulated since days
immemorial, (108) and decide vexed questions of ritual concerning which authors
entertain contradictory views. In short, all difference of opinion must be
removed from the path of the Messiah. (109) This office of expounder of the law
Elijah will continue to occupy even after the reign of peace has been
established on earth, and his relation to Moses will be the same Aaron once
held. (110)

Elijah’s preparatory work will be begun three days before the advent of the
Messiah. Then he will appear in Palestine, and will utter a lament over the
devastation of the Holy Land, and his wail will be heard throughout the world.
The last words of his elegy will be: “Now peace will come upon earth!” When the
evil-doers hear this message, they will rejoice. On the second day, he will
appear again and proclaim: “Good will come upon earth!” And on the third his
promise will be heard: “Salvation will come upon earth.” (111) Then Michael
will blow the trumpet, and once more Elijah will make his appearance, this time
to introduce the Messiah. (112) To make sure of the identity of the Messiah,
the Jews will demand that he perform the miracle of resurrection before their
eyes, reviving such of the dead as they had known personally. (113) But the
Messiah will do the following seven wonders: He will bring Moses and the
generation of the desert to life; Korah and his band he will raise from out of
the earth; he will revive the Ephraimitic Messiah, who was slain; he will show
the three holy vessels of the Temple, the Ark, the flask of manna, and the
cruse of sacred oil, all three of which disappeared mysteriously; he will wave
the sceptre given him by God; he will grind the mountains of the Holy Land into
powder like straw, and he will reveal the secret of redemption. Then the Jews
will believe that Elijah is the Elijah promised to them, and the Messiah
introduced by him is the true Messiah. (114)

The Messiah (115) will have Elijah blow the trumpet, and, at the first sound,
the primal light, which shone before the week of Creation, will reappear; at
the second sound the dead will arise, and with the swiftness of wind assemble
around the Messiah from all corners of the earth; at the third sound, the
Shekinah will become visible to all; the mountains will be razed at the fourth
sound, and the Temple will stand in complete perfection as Ezekiel described
it. (116)

During the reign of peace, Elijah will be one of the eight princes forming the
cabinet of the Messiah. (117) Even the coming of the great judgment day will
not end his activity. On that day the children of the wicked who had to die in
infancy on account of the sins of their fathers will be found among the just,
while their fathers will be ranged on the other side. The babes will implore
their fathers to come to them, but God will not permit it. Then Elijah will go
to the little ones, and teach them how to plead in behalf of their fathers.
They will stand before God and say: “Is not the measure of good, the mercy of
God, larger than the measure of chastisements? If, then, we died for the sins
of our fathers, should they not now for our sakes be granted the good, and be
permitted to join us in Paradise?” God will give assent to their pleadings, and
Elijah will have fulfilled the word of the prophet Malachi; he will have
brought back the fathers to the children. (118)

The last act of Elijah’s brilliant career will be the execution of God’s
command to slay Samael, and so banish evil forever. (119)

VIII.
ELISHA AND JONAH

ELISHA THE DISCIPLE OF ELIJAH

The voices of the thousands of prophets of his time were stilled when Elijah
was translated from earth to heaven. With him vanished the prophetical spirit
of those who in former times had in no wise been his inferiors. (1) Elisha was
the only one among them whose prophetical powers were not diminished. On the
contrary, they were strengthened, as a reward for the unhesitating readiness
with which he obeyed Elijah’s summons, and parted with the field he was
ploughing, and with all else he possessed, in favor of the community.
Thenceforward he remained Elijah’s unwearying companion. When the angel
descended from heaven to take Elijah from earth, he found the two so immersed
in a learned discussion that he could not attract their attention, and he had
to return, his errand unfulfilled. (2)

Elijah’s promise to bestow a double portion of his wondrous spirit upon his
disciple was realized instantaneously. During his life Elisha performed sixteen
miracles, and eight was all his master had performed. The first of them, the
crossing of the Jordan, was more remarkable than the corresponding wonder done
by Elijah, for Elisha traversed the river alone, and Elijah had been
accompanied by Elisha. Two saints always have more power than one by himself.
(3)

His second miracle, the “healing” of the waters of Jericho, so that they became
fit to drink, resulted in harm to himself, for the people who had earned their
livelihood by the sale of wholesome water were very much incensed against the
prophet for having spoiled their trade. Elisha, whose prophetic powers enabled
him to read both the past and the future of these tradesmen, knew that they ,
their ancestors, and their posterity had “not even the aroma of good about
them.” Therefore he cursed them. Suddenly a forest sprang up and the bears that
infested it devoured the murmuring traders. The wicked fellows were not
undeserving of the punishment they received, yet Elisha was made to undergo a
very serious sickness, by way of correction for having yielded to passion. (4)
In this he resembled his master Elijah; he allowed wrath and zeal to gain the
mastery over him. God desired that the two great prophets might be purged of
this fault. Accordingly, when Elisha rebuked King Jehoram of Israel, the spirit
of prophecy forsook him, and he had to resort to artificial means to re-awaken
it within himself. (5)

Like his teacher, Elisha was always ready to help the poor and needy, as
witness his sympathy with the widow of one of the sons of the prophets, and the
effective aid he extended to her. Her husband had been none other than Obadiah,
who, though a prophet, had at the same time been one of the highest officials
at the court of the sinful king Ahab. By birth an Edomite, Obadiah had been
inspired by God to utter the prophecy against Edom. In his own person he
embodied the accusation against Esau, who had lived with his pious parents
without following their example, while Obadiah, on the contrary, lived in
constant intercourse with the iniquitous King Ahab and his still more
iniquitous spouse Jezebel without yielding to the baneful influence they
exercised. (6) This same Obadiah not only used his own fortune, but went to the
length of borrowing money on interest from the future king, in order to have
the wherewithal to support the prophets who were in hiding. On his death, the
king sought to hold the children responsible for the debt of the father. In her
despair the pious wife of Obadiah (7) went to the graveyard, and there she
cried out: “O thou God-fearing man!” At once a heavenly voice was heard
questioning her: “There are four God-fearing men, Abraham, Joseph, Job, and
Obadiah. To which of them does thou desire to speak?” “To him of whom it is
said, “He feared the Lord greatly.'”

She was led to the grave of the prophet Obadiah, where she poured out the tale
of her sorrow. Obadiah told her to take the small remnant of oil she still had
to the prophet Elisha and request him to intercede for him with God, “for God,”
he said, “is my debtor, seeing that I provided a hundred prophets, not only
with bread and water, but also with oil to illuminate their hiding-place, for
do not the Scriptures say: ‘He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the
Lord’?” Forthwith the woman carried out his behest. She went to Elisha, and he
helped her by making her little cruse of oil fill vessels upon vessels without
number, and when the vessels gave out, she fetched potsherds, saying, “May the
will that made empty vessels full, make broken vessels perfect.” So it was. The
oil ceased to flow only when the supply of potsherds as well as vessels gave
out. In her piety the woman wanted to pay her tithe-offering, but Elisha was of
the opinion that, as the oil had been bestowed upon her miraculously, she could
keep it wholly and entirely for her own use. Furthermore, Elisha reassured her
as to the power of the royal princes to do her harm: “The God who will close
the jaws of the lions set upon Daniel, and who did close the jaws of the dogs
in Egypt, the same God will blind the eyes of the sons of Ahab, and deafen
their ears, so that they can do thee no harm.” (8) Not only was the poor widow
helped out of her difficulties, her descendants unto all times were provided
for. The oil rose in price, and it yielded so much profit that they never
suffered want. (9)

THE SHUNAMMITE

The great woman of Shunem, the sister of Abishag and wife of the prophet Iddo,
(10) also had cause to be deeply grateful to Elisha. When Elisha came to Shunem
on his journey through the land of Israel, his holiness made a profound
impression upon the Shunammite. Indeed, the prophet’s eye was so awe-inspiring
that now woman could look him in the face and live. (11) Contrary to the habit
of most women, who are intent upon diminishing their expenses and their toil,
the Shunammite took delight in the privilege of welcoming the prophet to her
house as a guest. She observed that not even a fly dared approach close to the
holy man, and a grateful fragrance exhaled from his person. “If he were not so
great a saint,” she said, “and the holiness of the Lord did not invest him,
there were no such pleasant fragrance about him.” That he might be undisturbed,
she assigned the best chambers in the house to the prophet. He on his part,
desiring to show his appreciation of her hospitality, knew no better return for
her kindness than to promise that she should be blessed with a child within a
year. (12) The woman protested: “O, my husband is an old man, nor am I of an
age to bear children; the promise cannot be fulfilled.” Yet it happened as the
prophet had foretold. Before a twelvemonth had passed, she was a mother.

A few years later her child died a sudden death. The mother repaired to the
prophet, and lamented before him: “O that the vessel had remained empty, rather
than it should be filled first, and then be left void.” The prophet admitted
that, though as a rule he was acquainted with all things that were to happen,
God had left him in the dark about the misfortune that had befallen her. With
trust in God, he gave his staff to his disciple Gehazi, and sent him to bring
the boy back to life. But Gehazi was unworthy of his master. His conduct toward
the Shunammite was not becoming a disciple of the prophet, and, above all, he
had no faith in the possibility of accomplishing the mission entrusted to him.
Instead of obeying the behest of Elisha, not to speak a word on his way to the
child of the Shunammite, Gehazi made sport of the task laid upon him. To
whatever man he met he addressed the questions: “Dost thou suppose this staff
can bring the dead back to life?” The result was that he forfeited the power of
executing the errand with which he had been charged. Elisha himself had to
perform the miracle. The prophet uttered the prayer: “O Lord of the world! As
Thou didst wonders through my master Elijah, and didst permit him to bring the
dead to life, so, I pray Thee, do Thou perform a wonder through me, and let me
restore life to this lad.” (13) The prayer was granted, and the child was
revived. The act of the prophet proves the duty of gratitude in return for
hospitality. Elisha did not attempt to resuscitate his own kith and kin who had
been claimed by death; he invoked a miracle for the sake of the woman who had
welcomed him kindly to her house. (14)

GEHAZI

Gehazi, proved untrustworthy by his conduct on this occasion, again aroused the
ire of the prophet when he disregarded the order not to accept money from
Naaman, the Syrian captain. He did not succeed in deceiving the prophet. On his
return from Naaman he found Elisha occupied with the study of the chapter in
the Mishnah Shabbat which deals with the eight reptiles. The prophet Elisha
greeted him with the rebuke: “Thou villain! the time has come for me to be
rewarded for the study of the Mishnah about the eight reptiles. May my reward
be that the disease of Naaman afflict thee and thy descendants for evermore.”
Scarcely had these words escaped his lips, when he saw the leprosy come out on
Gehazi’s face. (15) Gehazi deserved the punishment on account of his base
character. He was sensual and envious, and did not believe in the resurrection
of the dead. His unworthy qualities were displayed in his conduct toward the
Shunammite and toward the disciples of Elisha. When the pretty Shunammite came
to the prophet in her grief over the death of her child, Gehazi took her
passionately in his arms, under the pretext of forcing her away from the
prophet, on whom she had laid hold in her supplications.

As for the other disciples of Elisha, he endeavored to keep them away from the
house of the prophet. He was in the habit of standing without the door. This
induced many to turn away and go home, for they reasoned that, if the house
were not full to overflowing, Gehazi would not be standing outside. Only after
Gehazi’s dismissal did the disciples of Elisha increase marvellously. That
Gehazi had no faith in the resurrection of the dead, is shown by his
incredulity with regard to the child of the Shunammite. (16)

In spite of all these faults, Elisha regretted that he had cast off his
disciple, who was a great scholar in the law, especially as Gehazi abandoned
himself to a sinful life after leaving the prophet. By means of magnetism he
made the golden calves at Beth-el float in the air, and many were brought to
believe in the divinity of these idols. Moreover, he engraved the great and
awful Name of God in their mouth. Thus they were enabled to speak, and they
gave forth the same words God had proclaimed from Sinai: “I am the Lord thy God
Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” Elisha accordingly repaired to
Damascus to lead Gehazi back to the paths of righteousness. But he remained
impenitent, for he said: “From thyself I have learned that there is no return
for him who not only sins himself, but also induces others to sin.” (17) So
Gehazi died without having done aught to atone for his transgressions, which
were so great that he is one of the few Jews who have no share in Paradise.
(18) His children inherited his leprosy. He and his three sons are the four
leprous men who informed the king of Israel of the precipitate flight of the
Syrian host. (19)

Elisha’s excessive severity toward his servant Gehazi and toward the mocking
boys of Jericho did not go unpunished. He had to endure two periods of disease,
and the third sickness that befell him cause his death. He is the first known
to history who survived a sickness. Before him death had been the inevitable
companion of disease. (20)

A great miracle marked the end of a life rich in miraculous deeds: a dead man
revived at the touch of Elisha’s bier, and stood on his feet. It was a worthy
character for whom the wonder was accomplished Shallum the son of Tikvah, the
husband of Huldah the prophetess, a man of noble descent, who had led a life of
lovingkindness. He was in the habit of going daily beyond the city bearing the
pitcher of water, from which he gave every traveller to drink, a good deed that
received a double reward. His wife became a prophetess, and when he died and
his funeral, attended by a large concourse of people, was disturbed by the
invasion of the Arameans, he was given new life by contact with the bones of
Elisha. He lived to have a son, Hanamel by name. (21)

The death of Elisha was a great misfortune for the Israelites. So long as he
was alive, no Aramean troops entered Palestine. The first invasion by them
happened on the day of his burial. (22)

THE FLIGHT OF JONAH

Among the many thousands (23) of disciples whom Elisha gathered about him
during the sixty years (24) and more of his activity, the most prominent was
the prophet Jonah. While the master was still alive, Jonah was charged with the
important mission of anointing Jehu king. (25) The next task laid upon him was
to proclaim their destruction to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (26) The doom
did not come to pass, because they repented of their wrong-doing, and God had
mercy upon them. Among the Israelites Jonah was, therefore, known as “the false
prophet.” When he was sent to Nineveh to prophesy the downfall of the city, he
reflected: “I know to a certainly that the heathen will do penance, the
threatened punishment will not be executed, and among the heathen, too, I shall
gain the reputation of being a false prophet.” (27) To escape this disgrace, he
determined to take up his abode on the sea, where there were none to whom
prophecies never to be fulfilled would have to be delivered.

On his arrival at Joppa, there was no vessel in port. To try him, God cause a
storm to arise, and it carried a vessel back to Joppa, which had made a two
days’ journey away from the harbor. The prophet interpreted this chance to mean
that God approved his plan. He was so rejoiced at the favorable opportunity for
leaving land that he paid the whole amount for the entire cargo in advance, no
less a sum than four thousand gold denarii. After a day’s sailing out from
shore, a terrific storm (28) broke loose. Wonderful to relate, it injured no
vessel but Jonah’s. Thus he was taught the lesson that God is Lord over heaven
and earth and sea, and man can hide himself nowhere from His face.

On the same vessel were representatives of the seventy nations of the earth,
each with his peculiar idols. They all resolved to entreat their gods for
succor, and the god from whom help would come should be recognized and
worshipped at the only one true God. But help came from none. Then it was that
the captain of the vessel approached Jonah where he lay asleep, and said to
him: “We are suspended ‘twixt life and death, and thou liest here asleep. Pray,
tell me, to what nation dost thou belong?” “I am a Hebrew,” replied Jonah. “We
have heard,” said the captain, “that the God of the Hebrews is the most
powerful. Cry to Him for help. Perhaps He will perform such miracles for us as
He did in days of old for the Jews at the Red Sea.”

Jonah confessed to the captain that he was to blame for the whole misfortune,
and he besought him to cast him adrift, and appease the storm. The other
passengers refused to consent to so cruel an act. Though the lot decided
against Jonah, they first tried to save the vessel by throwing the cargo
overboard. Their efforts were in vain. Then they placed Jonah at the side of
the vessel and spoke: “O Lord of the world, reckon this not up against us as
innocent blood, for we know not the case of this man, and he himself bids us
throw him into the sea.” Even then they could not make up their minds to let
him drown. First they immersed him up to his knees in the water of the sea, and
the storm ceased; they drew him back into the vessel, and forthwith the storm
raged in its old fury. Two more trials they made. They lowered him into the
water up to his navel, and raised him out of the depths when the storm was
assuaged. Again, when the storm broke out anew, they lowered him to his neck,
and a second time they took him back into the vessel when the wind subsided.
(29) But finally the renewed rage of the storm convinced them that their danger
was due to Jonah’s transgressions, and they abandoned him to his fate. He was
thrown into the water, and on the instant the sea grew calm. (30)

JONAH IN THE WHALE

At the creation of the world, God made a fish intended to harbor Jonah. He as
so large that the prophet was as comfortable inside of him as in a spacious
synagogue. The eyes of the fish served Jonah as windows, and, besides, there
was a diamond, which shone as brilliantly as the sun at midday, so that Jonah
could see all things in the sea down to its very bottom.

It is a law that when their time has come, all the fish of the sea must betake
themselves to leviathan, and let the monster devour them. The life term of
Jonah’s fish was about to expire, and the fish warned Jonah of what was to
happen. When he, with Jonah in his belly, came to leviathan, the prophet said
to the monster: “For thy sake I came hither. It was meet that I should know
thine abode, for it is my appointed task to capture thee in the life to come
and slaughter thee for the table of the just and pious.” When leviathan
observed the sign of the covenant on Jonah’s body, he fled affrighted, and
Jonah and the fish were saved. To show his gratitude, the fish carried Jonah
whithersoever there was a sight to be seen. He showed him the river from which
the ocean flows, showed him the spot at which the Israelites crossed the Red
Sea, showed him Gehenna and Sheol, and many other mysterious and wonderful
place.

Three days Jonah had spent in the belly of the fish, and he still felt so
comfortable that he did not think of imploring God to change his condition. But
God sent a female fish big with three hundred and sixty-five thousand little
fish to Jonah’s host, to demand the surrender of the prophet, else she would
swallow both him and the guest he harbored. The message was received with
incredulity, and leviathan had to come and corroborate it; he himself had heard
God dispatch the female fish on her errand. So it came about that Jonah was
transferred to another abode. His new quarters, which he had to share with all
the little fish, were far from comfortable, and from the bottom of his heart a
prayer for deliverance arose to God on high. (31) The last words of his long
petition were, “I shall redeem my vow,” (32) whereupon God commanded the fish
to spew Jonah out. At a distance of nine hundred and sixty-five parasangs from
the fish he alighted on dry land. These miracles induced the ship’s crew to
abandon idolatry, and they all became pious proselytes in Jerusalem. (33)

THE REPENTANCE OF NINEVEH

Jonah went straightway to Nineveh, the monster city covering forty square
parasangs and containing a million and half of human beings. He lost no time in
proclaiming their destruction to the inhabitants. The voice of the prophet was
so sonorous that it reached to every corner of the great city, and all who
heard his words resolved to turn aside from their ungodly ways. At the head of
the penitents was King Osnappar of Assyria. (34) He descended from his throne,
removed his crown, strewed ashes on his head instead, took off his purple
garments, and rolled about in the dust of the highways. In all the streets
royal heralds proclaimed the king’s decree bidding the inhabitants fast three
days, wear sackcloth, and supplicate God with tears and prayers to avert the
threatened doom. The people of Nineveh fairly compelled to God’s mercy to
descend upon them. They held their infants heavenward, and amid streaming tears
they cried: “For the sake of these innocent babes, hear our prayers.” The young
of their stalled cattle they separated from the mother beasts, the young were
left within the stable, the old were put without. So parted from one another,
the young and the old began to bellow aloud. Then the Ninevites cried: “If Thou
wilt not have mercy upon us, we will not have mercy upon these beasts.”

The penance of the Ninevites did not stop at fasting and praying. Their deeds
showed that they had determined to lead a better life. If a man had usurped
another’s property, he sought to make amends for his iniquity; some went so far
as to destroy their palaces in order to be able to give back a single brick to
the rightful owner. Of their own accord others appeared before the courts of
justice, and confessed their secret crimes and sins, known to none beside
themselves, and declared themselves ready to submit to well-merited punishment,
though it be death that was decreed against them.

One incident that happened at the time will illustrate the contrition of the
Ninevites. A man found a treasure in the building lot he had acquired from his
neighbor. Both buyer and seller refused to assume possession of the treasure.
The seller insisted that the sale of the lot carried with it the sale of all it
contained. The buyer held that he had bought the ground, not the treasure
hidden therein. Neither rested satisfied until the judge succeeded in finding
out who had hidden the treasure and where were his heirs, and the joy of the
two was great when they could deliver the treasure up to its legitimate owners.
(35)

Seeing that the Ninevites had undergone a real change of heart, God took mercy
upon them, and pardoned them. Thereupon Jonah likewise felt encouraged to plead
for himself with God, that He forgive him for his flight. God spoke to him:
“Thou wast mindful of Mine honor,” the prophet had not wanted to appear a
liar, so that men’s trust in God might not be shaken “and for this reason
thou didst take to sea. Therefore did I deal mercifully with thee, and rescue
thee from the bowels of Sheol.”

His sojourn in the inside of the fish the prophet could not easily dismiss from
his mind, nor did it remain without visible consequences. The intense heat in
the belly of the fish had consumed his garments, and made his hair fall out,
(36) and he was sore plagued by swarms of insects. To afford Jonah protection,
God caused the kikayon to grow up. When he opened his eyes one morning, he saw
a plant with two hundred and seventy-five leaves, each leaf measuring more than
a span, so that it afforded relief from the heat of the sun. But the sun smote
the gourd that it withered, and Jonah was again annoyed by the insects. He
began to weep and wish for death to release him from his troubles. But when God
led him to the plant, and showed him what lesson he might derive from it,
how, though he had not labored for the plant, he had pity on it, he realized
his wrong in desiring God to be relentless toward Nineveh, the great city, with
its many inhabitants, rather than have his reputation as a prophet suffer
taint. He prostrated himself and said: “O God, guide the world according to Thy
goodness.”

God was gracious to the people of Nineveh so long as they continued worthy of
His lovingkindness. But at the end of forty days they departed from the path of
piety, and they became more sinful than ever. Then the punishment threatened by
Jonah overtook them, and they were swallowed up by the earth. (37)

Jonah’s suffering in the watery abyss had been so severe that by way of
compensation of God exempted him from death: living he was permitted to enter
Paradise. (38) Like Jonah, his wife was known far and wide for her piety. She
had gained fame particularly through her pilgrimage to Jerusalem, a duty which,
by reason of her sex, she was not obliged to fulfil. (39) On one of these
pilgrimages it was that the prophetical spirit first descended upon Jonah. (40)

IX.
THE LATER KINGS OF JUDAH

JOASH

When the prophet Jonah, doing the behest of his master Elisha, anointed Jehu
king over Israel, (1) he poured the oil out of a pitcher, not out of a horn, to
indicate that the dynasty of Jehu would not occupy the throne long. (2) At
first Jehu, though a somewhat foolish (3) king, was at least pious, but he
abandoned his God-fearing ways from the moment he saw the document bearing the
signature of the prophet Ahijah of Shilo, which bound the signers to pay
implicit obedience to Jeroboam. The king took this as evidence that the prophet
had approved the worship of the golden calves. So it came to pass that Jehu,
the destroyer of Baal worship, did nothing to oppose the idolatrous service
established by Jeroboam at Beth-el. (4) The successors of Jehu were not better;
on the contrary, they were worse, and therefore in the fifth generation (5) an
end was put to the dynasty of Jehu by the hand of the assassin.

The kings of Judah differed in no essential particular from their colleagues in
the north. Ahaziah, whom Jehu killed, was a shameless sinner; he had the Name
of God expurged from every passage in which it occurred in the Holy Scriptures,
and the names of idols inserted in its place. (6)

Upon the death of Ahaziah followed the reign of terror under the queen
Athaliah, when God exacted payment from the house of David for his trespass in
connection with the extermination of the priest at Nob. As Abiathar had been
the only male descendant of Abimelech to survive the persecution of Saul, so
the sole representative of the house of David to remain after the sword of
Athaliah had raged (7) was Joash, the child kept in hiding, in the Holy of
Holies in the Temple, by the high priest Jehoiada and his wife Jehosheba. (8)
Later Jehoiada vindicated the right of Joash upon the throne, and installed him
as king of Judah. The very crown worn by the rulers of the house of David
testified to the legitimacy of the young prince, for it possessed the
peculiarity of fitting none but the rightful successors to David. (9)

At the instigation of Jehoiada, King Joash undertook the restoration of the
Temple. The work was completed so expeditiously that one living at the time the
Temple was erected by Solomon was permitted to see the new structure shortly
before his death. (10) This good fortune befell Jehoiada (11) himself, the son
of Benaiah, commander-in-chief of the army under Solomon. So long as Joash
continued under the tutelage of Jehoiada, he was a pious king. When Jehoiada
departed this life, the courtiers came to Joash and flattered him: “If thou
wert not a god, thou hadst not been able to abide for six years in the Holy of
Holies, a spot which even the high priest is permitted to enter but once a
year.” The king lent ear to their blandishments, and permitted the people to
pay him Divine homage. (12) But when the folly of the king went to the extreme
of prompting him to set up an idol in the Temple, Zechariah, the son of
Jehoiada, placed himself at the entrance, and barring the way said: “Thou shalt
not do it so long as I live.” (13) High priest, prophet, and judge though
Zechariah was, and son-in-law of Joash to boot, the king still did not shrink
from having him killed for his presumptuous words, not was he deterred by the
fact that it happened on a Day of Atonement which fell on the Sabbath. (14) The
innocent blood crimsoning the hall of the priests did not remain unavenged. For
two hundred and fifty-two years it did not leave off seething and pulsating,
until, finally, Nebuzaradan, captain of Nebuchadnezzar’s guard, ordered a great
carnage among the Judeans, to avenge the death of Zechariah. (15)

Joash himself, the murderer of Zechariah, met with an evil end. He fell into
the hands of the Syrians, and they abused him in their barbarous, immoral way.
Before he could recover from the suffering inflicted upon him, his servants
slew him. (16)

Amaziah, the son and successor of Joash, in many respects resembled his father.
At the beginning of his reign he was God-fearing, but when, through the aid of
God, he had gained a brilliant victory over the Edomites, he knew no better way
of manifesting his gratitude than to establish in Jerusalem the cult of the
idol worshipped by his conquered enemies. To compass his chastisement, God
inspired Amaziah with the idea of provoking a war with Joash, the ruler of the
northern kingdom. Amaziah demanded that Joash should either recognize the
suzerainty of the southern realm voluntarily, or let the fate of battle decide
the question. (17) At first Joash sought to turn Amaziah aside from his purpose
by a parable reminding him of the fate of Shechem, which the sons of Jacob had
visited upon him for having done violence to their sister Dinah. (18) Amaziah
refused to be warned. He persisted in his challenge, and a war ensued. The
fortune of battle decided against Amaziah. He suffered defeat, and later he was
tortured to death by his own subjects. (19)

THREE GREAT PROPHETS

The reign of Uzziah, who for a little while occupied the throne during his
father Amaziah’s lifetime, is notable particularly because it marks the
beginning of the activity of three of the prophets, Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah.
The oldest of the three was Hosea, (20) the son of the prophet and prince
Beeri, the Beeri who later was carried away captive by Tiglath-pileser, the
king of Assyria. (21) Of Beeri’s prophecies we have but two verses, preserved
for us by Isaiah. (22)

The peculiar marriage contracted by Hosea at the command of God Himself was not
without a good reason. When God spoke to the prophet about the sins of Israel,
expecting him to defend or excuse his people, Hosea said severely: “O Lord of
the world! Thine is the universe. In place of Israel choose another as Thy
peculiar people from among the nations of the earth.” To make the true relation
between God and Israel known to the prophet, he was commanded to take to wife a
woman with a dubious past. After she had borne him several children, God
suddenly put the question to him: “Why followest thou not the example of thy
teacher Moses, who denied himself the joys of family life after his call to
prophecy?” Hosea replied: “I can neither send my wife away nor divorce her, for
she has borne me children.” “If, now,” said God to him, “thou who hast a wife
of whose honesty thou art so uncertain that thou canst not even be sure that
her children are thine, and yet thou canst not separate from her, how, then can
I separate Myself from Israel, from My children, the children of My elect,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!” Hosea entreated God to pardon him. But God said:
“Better were it that thou shouldst pray for the welfare of Israel, for thou art
the cause that I issued three fateful decrees against them.” Hosea prayed as he
was bidden, and his prayer averted the impending threefold doom. (23)

Hosea died at Babylon at a time in which a journey thence to Palestine was
beset with many perils. Desirous of having his earthly remains rest in sacred
ground, he requested before his death that his bier be loaded upon a camel, and
the animal permitted to make its way as it would. Wherever it stopped, there
his body was to be buried. As he commanded, so it was done. Without a single
mishap the camel arrived at Safed. In the Jewish cemetery of the town it stood
still, and there Hosea was buried in the presence of a large concourse. (24)

The prophetical activity of Amos commenced after Hosea’s had closed, and before
Isaiah’s began. Though he had an impediment in his speech, (25) he obeyed the
call of God, and betook himself to Beth-el to proclaim to the sinful
inhabitants thereof the Divine message with which he had been charged. The
denunciation of the priest Amaziah, of Beth-el, who informed against the
prophet before King Jeroboam of Israel, did him no harm, for the king, idolater
though he was, entertained profound respect for Amos. He said to himself: “God
forbid I should think the prophet guilty of cherishing traitorous plans, and if
he were, it would surely be at the bidding of God.” (26) For this pious
disposition Jeroboam was rewarded; never had the northern kingdom attained to
such power as under him. (27)

However, the fearlessness of Amos finally caused his death. King Uzziah
inflicted a mortal blow upon his forehead with a red-hot iron. (28)

Two years after Amos ceased to prophesy, Isaiah was favored with his first
Divine communication. It was the day on which King Uzziah, blinded by success
and prosperity, arrogated to himself the privileges of the priesthood. He tried
to offer sacrifices upon the altar, and when the high priest Azariah (29)
ventured to restrain him, he threatened to slay him and any priest sympathizing
with him unless they kept silent. Suddenly the earth quaked so violently that a
great breach was torn in the Temple, through which a brilliant ray of sunlight
pierced, falling upon the forehead of the king and causing leprosy to break
forth upon him. Nor was that all the damage done by the earthquake. On the west
side of Jerusalem, half of the mountain was split off and hurled to the east,
into a road, at a distance of four stadia. (30) And not heaven and earth alone
were outraged by Uzziah’s atrocity and sought to annihilate him; even the
angels of fire, the seraphim, were on the point of descending and consuming
him, when a voice from on high proclaimed, that the punishment appointed for
Uzziah was unlike that meted out to Korah and his company despite the
similarity of their crimes. (31)

When Isaiah beheld the august throne of God on this memorable day, (32) he was
sorely affrighted, for he reproached himself with not having tried to turn the
king away from his impious desire. (33) Enthralled he hearkened to the hymns of
praise sung by the angels, and lost in admiration he failed to join his voice
with theirs. “Woe is me,” he cried out, “that I was silent! Woe is me that I
did not join the chorus of the angels praising God! Had I done it, I, too, like
the angels, would have become immortal, seeing I was permitted to look upon
sights to behold which had brought death to other men.” (34) Then he began to
excuse himself: “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of people
of unclean lips.” At once resounded the voice of God in rebuke: “Of thyself
thou art the master, and of thyself thou mayest say what thou choosest, but who
gave thee the right to calumniate My children of Israel and call them ‘a people
of unclean lips’?” And Isaiah heard God bid one of the seraphim touch his lips
with a live coal as a punishment for having slandered Israel. Though the coal
was so hot that the seraph needed tongs to hold the tongs with which he had
taken the coal from the altar, the prophet yet escaped unscathed, but he
learned the lesson, that it was his duty to defend Israel, not traduce him.
Thenceforth the championship of his people was the mainspring of the prophet’s
activity, and he was rewarded by having more revelations concerning Israel and
the other nations vouchsafed him than any other prophet before or after him.
Moreover God designated Isaiah to be “the prophet of consolation.” Thus it
happened that the very Isaiah whose early prophecies foretold the exile and the
destruction of the Temple, (35) later described and proclaimed, in plainer
terms than any other prophet, (36) the brilliant destiny in store for Israel.

THE TWO KINGDOMS CHASTISED

Afflicted with leprosy, Uzziah was unfit to reign as king, and Jotham
administered the affairs of Judah for twenty-five years before the death of his
father. (37) Jotham possessed so much piety that his virtues added to those of
two other very pious men suffice to atone for all the sins of the whole of
mankind committed from the hour of creation until the end of all time. (38)

Ahaz, the son of Jotham; was very unlike him. “From first to last he was a
sinner.” (39) He abolished the true worship of God, forbade the study of the
Torah, set up an idol in the upper room of the Temple, and disregarded the
Jewish laws of marriage. (40) His transgressions are the less pardonable,
because he sinned against God knowing His grandeur and power, as appears from
his reply to the prophet. Isaiah said to him: “Ask a sign of God, as, for
instance, that the dead should arise, Korah come up from Sheol, or Elijah
descend from heaven.” The king’s answer was: “I know thou hast the power to do
any of these, but I do not wish the Name of God to be glorified through me.”
(41)

The only good quality possessed by Ahaz was respect for Isaiah. (42) To avoid
his reproaches, Ahaz would disguise himself when he went abroad, so that the
prophet might not recognize him. (43) Only to this circumstance, joined to the
fact he was the father of a pious son and the son of an equally pious father,
is it to be ascribed that, in spite of his wickedness, Ahaz is not one of those
who have forfeited their portion in the world to come. But he did not escape
punishment; on the contrary, his chastisement was severe, not only as king but
also as man. In the ill-starred war against Pekah, the king of the northern
kingdom, he lost his first-born son, a great hero. (44)

Pekah, however, was not permitted to enjoy the fruits of his victory, for the
king of Assyria invaded his empire, captured the golden calf at Dan, and led
the tribes on the east side of Jordan away into exile. The dismemberment of the
Israelitish kingdom went on apace for some years. Then the Assyrians, in the
reign of Hoshea, carried off the second golden calf together with the tribes of
Asher, Issachar, Zebulon, and Naphtali, leaving but one-eighth of the
Israelites in their own land. The larger portion of the exiles was taken to
Damascus. After that Israel’s doom overtook it with giant strides, and the last
ruler of Israel actually hastened the end of his kingdom by a pious deed. After
the golden calves were removed by the Assyrians, Hoshea, the king of the north,
abolished the institution of stationing the guards on the frontier between
Judah and Israel to prevent pilgrimages to Jerusalem. But the people made no
use of the liberty granted them. They persisted in their idolatrous cult, and
this quickened their punishment. So long as their kings had put obstacles in
their path, they could excuse themselves before God for not worshipping Him in
the true way. The action taken by their king Hoshea left them no defense. When
the Assyrians made their third incursion into Israel, the kingdom of the north
was destroyed forever, and the people, one and all, were carried away into
exile. (45)

The heathen nations settled in Samaria by the Assyrians instead of the deported
Ten Tribes were forced by God to accept the true religion of the Jews.
Nevertheless they continued to worship their olden idols: the Babylonians paid
devotion to a hen, the people of Cuthah to a cock, those of Hamath to a ram,
the dog and the ass were the gods of the Avvites, and the mule and the horse
the gods of the Sepharvites. (46)

HEZEKIAH

While the northern kingdom was rapidly descending into the pit of destruction,
a mighty upward impulse was given to Judah, both spiritually and materially, by
its king Hezekiah. In his infancy the king had been destined as a sacrifice to
Moloch. His mother had saved him from death only by rubbing him with the blood
of a salamander, which made him fire-proof. (47) In every respect he was the
opposite of his father. As the latter is counted among the worst of sinners, so
Hezekiah is counted among the most pious of Israel. His first act as king is
evidence that he held the honor of God to be his chief concern, important
beyond all else. He refused to accord his father regal obsequies; his remains
were buried as though he had been poor and of plebeian rank. Impious as he was,
Ahaz deserved nothing more dignified. (48) God had Himself made it known to
Hezekiah, by a sign, that his father was to have no consideration paid him. On
the day of the dead king’s funeral daylight lasted but two hours, and his body
had to be interred when the earth was enveloped in darkness. (49)

Throughout his reign, Hezekiah devoted himself mainly to the task of dispelling
the ignorance of the Torah which his father had caused. While Ahaz had
forbidden the study of the law, Hezekiah’s orders read: “Who does not occupy
himself with the Torah, renders himself subject to the death penalty.” The
academies closed under Ahaz were kept open day and night under Hezekiah. The
king himself supplied the oil needed for illuminating purposes. Gradually,
under this system, a generation grew up so well trained that one could search
the land from Dan even to Beer-sheba and not find a single ignoramus. The very
women and the children, both boys and girls, knew the laws of “clean and
unclean.” (50) By way of rewarding his piety, God granted Hezekiah a brilliant
victory over Sennacherib.

This Assyrian king, who had conquered the whole world, (51) equipped an army
against Hezekiah like unto which there is none, unless it be the army of the
four kings whom Abraham routed, or the army to be raised by God and Magog in
the Messianic time. Sennacherib’s army consisted of more than two millions and
a half of horsemen, among them forty-five thousand princes sitting in chariots
and surrounded by their paramours, by eighty thousand armor-clad soldiers, and
sixty thousand swordsmen. The camp extended over a space of four hundred
parasangs, and the saddle-beasts standing neck to neck formed a line forty
parasangs long. The host was divided into four divisions. After the first of
them had passed the Jordan, it was well nigh dry, for the soldiers had all
slaked their thirst with water of the river. The second division found nothing
to quench their thirst except the water gathered under the hoofs of the horses.
The third division was forced to dig wells, and when the fourth division
crossed the Jordan, they kicked up great clouds of dust. (52)

With this vast army Sennacherib hastened onward, in accordance with the
disclosures of the astrologers, who warned him that he would fail in his object
of capturing Jerusalem, if he arrived there later than the day set by them. His
journey having lasted but one day instead of ten, as he had expected, he rested
at Nob. A raised platform was there erected for Sennacherib, whence he could
view Jerusalem. On first beholding the Judean capital, the Assyrian king
exclaimed: “What! Is this Jerusalem, the city for whose sake I gathered
together my whole army, for whose sake I first conquered all other lands? Is it
not smaller and weaker than all the cities of the nations I subdued with my
strong hand?” He stretched himself and shook his head, and waved his hand
contemptuously toward the Temple mount and the sanctuary crowning it. When his
warriors urged him to make his attack upon Jerusalem, he bade them take their
ease for one night, and be prepared to storm the city the next day. It seemed
no great undertaking. Each warrior would but have to pick up as much mortar
from the wall as is needed to seal a letter and the whole city would disappear.
But Sennacherib made the mistake of not proceeding directly to the attack upon
the city. If he had made the assault at once, it would have been successful,
for the sin of Saul against the priest at Nob had not yet been wholly expiated;
on that very day it was fully atoned for. (53) In the following night, which
was the Passover night, when Hezekiah and the people began to sing the Hallel
Psalms, (54) the giant host was annihilated. The archangel Gabriel (55) sent by
God to ripen the fruits of the field, was charged to address himself to the
task of making away with the Assyrians, and he fulfilled his mission so well
that of all the millions of the army, Sennacherib alone was saved with his two
sons, his son-in-law (56) Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuzaradan. (57) The death of
the Assyrians happened when the angel permitted them to hear the “song of the
celestials.” (58) Their souls were burnt, though their garments remained
intact. (59) Such an end was too good for Sennacherib. To him a disgraceful
death was apportioned. On his flight away from Jerusalem, he met a Divine
apparition in the guise of an old man. He questioned Sennacherib as to what he
would say to the kings allied with him, in reply to their inquiry about the
fate of their sons at Jerusalem. Sennacherib confessed his dread of a meeting
with those kings. The old man advised him to have his hair cut off, which would
change his appearance beyond recognition. Sennacherib assented, and his advisor
sent him to a house in the vicinity to fetch a pair of shears. Here he found
some people angels in disguise busying themselves with a hand-mill. They
promised to give him the shears, provided he ground a measure of grain for
them. So it grew late and dark by the time Sennacherib returned to the old man,
and he had to procure a light before his hair could be cut. As he fanned the
fire into a flame, a spark flew into his beard and singed it, and he had to
sacrifice his beard as well as his hair. On his return to Assyria, Sennacherib
found a plank, which he worshipped as an idol, because it was part of the ark
which had saved Noah from the deluge. He vowed that he would sacrifice his sons
to this idol if he prospered in his next ventures. But his sons heard his vows,
and they killed their father, (60) and fled to Kardu where they released the
Jewish captives confined there in great numbers. With these they marched to
Jerusalem, and became proselytes there. The famous scholars Shemaiah and
Abtalion were the descendants of these two sons of Sennacherib. (61)

MIRACLES WROUGHT FOR HEZEKIAH

The destruction of the Assyrian host delivered Hezekiah from an inner as well
as an outer enemy, for he had opponents in Jerusalem, among them the high
priest Shebnah. (62) Shebnah had a more numerous following in the city than the
king himself, (63) and they and their leader had favored peace with
Sennacherib. Supported by Joah, another influential personage, Shebnah had
fastened a letter to a dart, and shot the dart into the Assyrian camp. The
contents of the letter were: “We and the whole people of Israel wish to
conclude peace with thee, but Hezekiah and Isaiah will not permit it.” (64)
Shebnah’s influence was so powerful that Hezekiah began to show signs of
yielding. Had it not been for the prophet Isaiah, the king would have submitted
to Sennacherib’s demands.

Shebnah’s treachery and his other sins did not go unpunished. When he and his
band of adherents left Jerusalem to join the Assyrians, the angel Gabriel
closed the gate as soon as Shebnah had passed beyond it, and so he was
separated from his followers. To the inquiry of Sennacherib about the many
sympathizers he had written of, he could give no reply but that they had
changed their mind. The Assyrian king thought Shebnah had made sport of him.
He, therefore, ordered his attendants to bore a hole through his heels, tie him
to the tail of a horse by them, and spur the horse on to run until Shebnah was
dragged to death. (65)

The unexpected victory won by Hezekiah over the Assyrians, to whom the kingdom
of Samaria had fallen a prey but a short time before, showed how wrong they had
been who had mocked at Hezekiah for his frugal ways. A king whose meal
consisted of a handful of vegetables could hardly be called a dignified ruler,
they had said. These critics would gladly have seen his kingdom pass into the
hands of Pekah, the king of Samaria, whose dessert, to speak of nothing else,
consisted of forty seim of young pigeons. (66)

In view of all the wonders God had done for him, it was unpardonable that
Hezekiah did not feel himself prompted at least to sing a song of praise to
God. Indeed, when the prophet Isaiah urged him to it, he refused, saying that
the study of the Torah, to which he devoted himself with assiduous zeal, was a
substitute for direct expressions of gratitude. Besides, he thought God’s
miracles would become known to the world without action on his part, (67) in
such ways as these: After the destruction of the Assyrian army, when the Jews
searched the abandoned camps, they found Pharaoh the king of Egypt and the
Ethiopian king Tirhakah. These kings had hastened to the aid of Hezekiah, and
the Assyrians had taken them captive and clapped them in irons, in which they
were languishing when the Jews came upon them. Liberated by Hezekiah, the two
rulers returned to their respective realms, spreading the report of the
greatness of God everywhere. And again, all the vassal troops in Sennacherib’s
army, set free by Hezekiah, accepted the Jewish faith, and on their way home
they proclaimed the kingdom of God in Egypt and in many other lands. (68)

By failing in gratitude Hezekiah lost a great opportunity. The Divine plan had
been to make Hezekiah the Messiah, and Sennacherib was to be God and Magog.
Justice opposed this plan, addressing God thus: “O Lord of the world! David,
king of Israel, who sang so many songs and hymns of praise to Thee, him Thou
didst not make the Messiah, and now Thou wouldst confer the distinction upon
Hezekiah, who has no word of praise for Thee in spite of the manifold wonders
Thou hast wrought for him?” Then the earth appeared before God, and said: “Lord
of the world! I will song Thee a song in place of this righteous man; make him
to be the Messiah,” and the earth forthwith intoned a song of praise. Likewise
spake the Prince of the World: (69) “Lord of the world! Do the will of this
righteous man.” But a voice from heaven announced: “This is my secret, this is
my secret.” And again, when the prophet exclaimed sorrowfully, “Woe is me! How
long, O Lord, how long!” the voice replied: “The time of the Messiah will
arrive when the ‘treacherous dealers and the treacherous dealers’ shall have
come.” (70)

The sin committed by Hezekiah asleep, he had to atone for awake. If he refused
to devote a song of praise to God for his escape from the Assyrian peril, he
could not refrain from doing it after his recovery from the dangerous sickness
that befell him. (71) This sickness was a punishment for another sin beside
ingratitude. He had “peeled off” the gold from the Temple, and sent it to the
king of the Assyrians; therefore the disease that afflicted him caused his skin
to “peel off.” (72) Moreover, this malady of Hezekiah’s was brought upon him by
God, to afford an opportunity for the king and the prophet Isaiah to come close
to each other. The two had had a dispute on a point of etiquette. (73) The king
adduced as a precedent the action of Elijah, who “went to show himself unto
Ahab,” and demanded that Isaiah, too, should appear before him. The prophet, on
the other hand, modelled his conduct after Elisha’s, who permitted the kings of
Israel, and Judah, and Edom, to come to him. But God settled the dispute by
afflicting Hezekiah with sickness, and then He bade Isaiah go to the king and
pay the visit due to the sick. The prophet did the bidding of God. When he
appeared in the presence of the ailing king, he said: “Set thine house in
order, for thou wilt die in this world and not live in the next” a fate which
Hezekiah incurred because he had failed to take unto himself a wife and bring
forth posterity. The king’s defense, that he had preferred a celibate’s life
because he had seen in the holy spirit that he was destined to have impious
children, the prophet did not consider valid. He rebutted it with the words:
“Why does thou concern thyself with the secrets of the All-Merciful? Thou hast
but to do thy duty. God will do whatsoever it pleases Him.” Thereupon Hezekiah
asked the daughter of the prophet in marriage, saying: “Perchance my merits
joined to thine will cause my children to be virtuous.” But Isaiah rejected the
proposal of marriage, because he knew that the decree of God ordaining the
king’s death was unalterable. Whereupon the king: “Thou son of thus has it been
transmitted to me from the house of my ancestor: (74) Even if a sharp sword
rests at the very throat of a man, he may yet not refrain from uttering a
prayer for mercy.” (75)

And the king was right. Though death had been decreed against him, his prayer
averted it. In his prayer he supplicated God to keep him alive for the sake of
the merits of his ancestors, who had built the Temple and brought many
proselytes into the Jewish fold, and for the sake of his own merits, for, he
said, “I searched out all the two hundred and forty-eight members of my body
which Thou didst give me, and I found none which I had used in a manner
contrary to Thy will.” (76)

His prayer was heard. God added fifteen years to his life, but He made him
understand very clearly, that he owed the mercy solely to the merits of David,
not at all to his own, as Hezekiah fondly believed. (77) Before Isaiah left the
court of the palace, God instructed him to return to the king, and announce his
recovery to him. Isaiah feared lest Hezekiah should place little trust in his
words, as he had but a short while before predicted his swiftly approaching
end. But God reassured the prophet. In his modesty and piety, the king would
harbor no doubt derogatory to the prophet’s trustworthiness. (78) The remedy
employed by Isaiah, a cake of figs applied to the boil, increased the wonder of
Hezekiah’s recovery, for it was apt to aggravate the malady rather than
alleviate it. (79)

A number of miracles besides were connected with the recovery of Hezekiah. In
itself it was remarkable, as being the first case of a recovery on record.
Previously illness had been inevitably followed by death. Before he had fallen
sick, Hezekiah himself had implored God to change this order of nature. He held
that sickness followed by restoration to health would induce men to do penance.
God had replied: “Thou art right, and the new order shall be begun with thee.”
(80) Furthermore, the day of Hezekiah’s recovery was marked by the great
miracle that the sun shone ten hours longer than its wonted time. The remotest
lands were amazed thereat, and Baladan, the ruler of Babylon, was prompted by
it to send an embassy to Hezekiah, which was to carry his felicitations to the
Jewish king upon his recovery. Baladan, it should be said by the way, was not
the real king of Babylon. The throne was occupied by his father, whose face had
changed into that of a dog. Therefore the son had to administer the affairs of
state, and he was known by his father’s name as well as his own. (81) This
Baladan was in the habit of dining at noon, and then he took a nap until three
o’clock of the afternoon. On the day of Hezekiah’s recovery, when he awoke from
his sleep, and saw the sun overhead, he was on the point of having his guards
executed, because he thought they had permitted him to sleep a whole afternoon
and the night following it. He desisted only when he was informed of Hezekiah’s
miraculous recovery, and realised that the God of Hezekiah was greater than his
own god, the sun. (82) He at once set about sending greetings to the Jewish
king. His letter read as follows: “Peace be with Hezekiah, peace with his great
God, and peace with Jerusalem.” After the letter was dispatched, it occurred to
Baladan that it had not been composed properly. Mention of Hezekiah had been
made before mention of God. He had the messengers called back, and ordered
another letter to be written, in which the oversight was made good. As a reward
for his punctiliousness, three of his descendants, Nebuchadnezzar,
Evil-merodach, and Belshazzar, were appointed by God to be world monarchs. God
said: “Thou didst arise from thy throne, and didst take three steps to do Me
honor, by having thy letter re-written, therefore will I grant thee three
descendants who shall be known from one end of the world to the other.” (83)

The embassy sent by the Babylonian monarch was an act of homage to God for his
miracle-working power. Hezekiah, however, took it to be an act of homage toward
himself, and it had the effect of making him arrogant. Not only did he eat and
drink with the heathen who made up the embassy, but also, in his haughtiness of
mind, he displayed before them all the treasures which he had captured from
Sennacherib, and many other curiosities besides, among them magnetic iron, a
peculiar sort of ivory, and honey as solid as stone.

What was worse, he had his wife partake of the meal in honor of the embassy,
and, most heinous crime of all, (84) he opened the holy Ark, and pointing to
the tables of law within it, said to the heathen: “With the help of these we
undertake wars and win victories.” (85) God sent Isaiah to reproach Hezekiah
for these acts. The king, instead of confessing his wrong at once, answered the
prophet haughtily. (86) Then Isaiah announced to him that the treasures taken
from Sennacherib (87) would revert to Babylon some time in the future, and his
descendants, Daniel and the three companions of Daniel, would serve the
Babylonia ruler as eunuchs. (88)

Despite his pride in this case, Hezekiah was one of the most pious kings of
Judah. Especially he is deserving of praise for his efforts to have Hebrew
literature put into writing, for it was Hezekiah who had copies made of the
books of Isaiah, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Proverbs. (89) On the other
hand, he had concealed the books containing medical remedies. (90)

Great was the mourning over him at his death. No less than thirty-six thousand
men with bared shoulders marched before his bier, and, rarer distinction still,
a scroll of the law was laid upon his bier, for it was said: “He who rests in
this bier, has fulfilled all ordained in this book.” (91) He was buried next to
David and Solomon. (92)

MANASSEH

Hezekiah had finally yielded to the admonitions of Isaiah, and had taken a wife
unto himself, (93) the daughter of the prophet. But he entered upon marriage
with a heavy heart. His prophetic spirit foretold to him that the impiousness
of the sons he would beget would make their death to be preferable to their
life. These fears were confirmed all too soon. His two sons, Rabshakeh and
Manasseh, showed their complete unlikeness to their parents in early childhood.
Once, when Hezekiah was carrying his two little ones on his shoulders to the
Bet ha-Midrash, he overheard their conversation. The one said: “Our father’s
bald head might do for frying fish.” The other rejoined: “It would do well for
offering sacrifices to idols.” Enraged by these words, Hezekiah let his sons
slip from his shoulders. Rabshakeh was killed by the fall, but Manasseh escaped
unhurt. (94) Better had it been if Manasseh had shared his brother’s untimely
fate. He was spared for naught but murder, idolatry, and other abominable
atrocities. (95)

After Hezekiah had departed this life, Manasseh ceased to serve the God of his
father. He did whatever his evil imagination prompted. The altar was destroyed,
and in the inner space of the Temple he set up an idol (96) with four faces,
copied from the four figures on the throne of God. It was so placed that from
whatever direction one entered the Temple, a face of the idol confronted him.
(97)

As Manasseh was sacrilegious toward God, he was malevolent toward his fellows.
He had fashioned an image so large that it required a thousand men to carry it.
Daily a new force was employed on this task, because Manasseh had each set of
porters killed off at the end of the day’s work. All his acts were calculated
to cast contempt upon Judaism and its tenets. It did not satisfy his evil
desire to obliterate the name of God from the Holy Scriptures; (98) he went so
far as to deliver public lectures whose burden was to ridicule the Torah. (99)
Isaiah and the other prophets, Micah, Joel, and Habakkuk, (100) left Jerusalem
and repaired to a mountain in the desert, that they might be spared the sight
of the abominations practiced by the king. Their abiding-place was disclosed to
the king. A Samaritan, a descendant of the false prophet Zedekiah, had taken
refuge in Jerusalem after the destruction of the Temple. But he did not remain
there long; charges were made against him before the pious king Hezekiah, and
he withdrew to Bethlehem, where he gathered hangers-on about him. This
Samaritan it was who traced the prophets to their retreat, and lodged
accusations against them before Manasseh. (101) The impious king sat in
judgment on Isaiah, and condemned him to death. The indictment against him was
that his prophecies contained teachings in contradiction with the law of Moses.
God said unto Moses: “Thou canst not see My face; for man shall not see Me and
live”; while Isaiah said: “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and
lifted up.” Again, Isaiah compared the princes of Israel and the people with
the impious inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, and he prophesied the downfall
of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple. (102) The prophet offered no
explanation. He was convinced of the uselessness of defending himself, and he
preferred Manasseh should act from ignorance rather than from wickedness.
However, he fled for safety. When he heard the royal bailiffs in pursuit of
him, he pronounced the Name of God, and a cedar-tree swallowed him up. The king
ordered the tree to be sawn in pieces. When the saw was applied to the portion
of the bark under which the mouth of Isaiah lay concealed, he died. His mouth
was the only vulnerable part of his body, because at the time when he was
called to his prophetical mission, (103) it had made use of the contemptuous
words “a people of unclean lips,” regarding Israel. Isaiah died at the age of
one hundred and twenty years, (104) by the hands of his own grandchild. (105)

God is long-suffering, but in the end Manasseh received the deserved punishment
for his sins and crimes. In the twenty-second year of his rulership, the
Assyrians came and carried him off to Babylon in fetters, him together with the
old Danite idol, Micah’s image. (106) In Babylonia, the king was put into an
oven which was heated from below. Finding himself in this extremity, Manasseh
began to call upon god after god to help him out of his straits. As this proved
inefficacious, he resorted to other means. “I remember,” he said, “my father
taught me the verse: ‘When thou art in tribulation, if in the latter days thou
shalt return to the Lord thy God, and hearken unto His voice, He will not fail
thee.’ Now I cry to God. If He inclines His ear unto me, well and good; if not,
then all kinds of god are alike.” The angels stopped up the windows of heaven,
that the prayer of Manasseh might not ascend to God, and they said: “Lord of
the world! Art Thou willing to give gracious hearing to one who has paid
worship to idols, and set up an idol in the Temple?” “If I did not accept the
penance of this man,” replied God, “I should be closing the door in the face of
all repentant sinners.” God made a small opening under the Throne of His Glory,
and received the prayer of Manasseh through it. Suddenly a wind arose, and
carried Manasseh back to Jerusalem. (107) His return to God not only helped him
in his distress, but also brought him pardon for all his sins, so that not even
his share in the future world was withdrawn from him. (108)

The people of this time were attracted to idolatry with so irresistible a force
that the vast learning of Manasseh, who knew fifty-two different
interpretations of the Book of Leviticus, (109) did not give him enough moral
strength to withstand its influence. Rab Ashi, the famous compiler of the
Talmud, once announced a lecture on Manasseh with the words: “To-morrow I shall
speak about our colleague Manasseh.” At night the king appeared to Ashi in a
dreams, and put a ritual question to him, which the Rabbi could not answer.
Manasseh told him the solution, and Ashi, in amazement at the king’s
scholarship, asked why one so erudite had served idols. Manasseh’s reply was:
“Hadst thou lived at my time, thou wouldst have caught hold of the hem of my
garment and run after me.” (110)

Amon, the son of Manasseh, surpassed his father in wickedness. He was in the
habit of saying: “My father was a sinner from early childhood, and in his old
age he did penance. I shall do the same. First I shall satisfy the desires of
my heart, and afterward I shall return to God.” (111) Indeed, he was guilty of
more grievous sins than his predecessor; he burned the Torah; under him the
place of the altar was covered with spiderwebs; and, as though of purpose to
set at naught the Jewish religion, he committed the worst sort of incest, a
degree more heinous than his father’s crime of a similar nature. (112) Thus he
executed the first half of his maxim literally. For repentance, however, he was
given no time; death cut him off in the fulness of his sinful ways.

JOSIAH AND HIS SUCCESSORS

That the full measure of punishment was not meted out to Amon his evil deeds
were such that he should have forfeited his share in the world to come was
due to the circumstance that he had a pious and righteous son. (113) Josiah
offers a shining model of true, sincere repentance. (114) Though at first he
followed in the footsteps of his father Amon, he soon gave up the ways of
wickedness, and became one of the most pious kings of Israel, whose chief
undertaking was the effort to bring the whole people back to the true faith. It
dates from the time when a copy of the Torah was found in the Temple, a copy
that had escaped the holocaust kindled by his father and predecessor Amon for
the purpose of exterminating the Holy Scriptures. (115) When he opened the
Scriptures, the first verse to strike his eye was the one in Deuteronomy: “The
Lord shall bring thee and thy king into exile, unto a nation which thou hast
not known.” Josiah feared this doom of exile was impending, and he sought to
conciliate God through the reform of his people. (116)

His first step was to enlist the intercession of the prophets in his behalf. He
addressed his request, not to Jeremiah, but to the prophetess Huldah, knowing
that women are more easily moved to compassion. As Jeremiah was a kinsman of
the prophetess their common ancestors were Joshua and Rahab the king felt
no apprehension that the prophet take his preference for Huldah amiss. The
proud, dignified answer of the prophetess was, that the misfortune could not be
averted from Israel, but the destruction of the Temple, she continued
consolingly, would not happen until after the death of Josiah. (117) In view of
the imminent destruction of the Temple, Josiah hid the holy Ark and all its
appurtenances, in order to guard them against desecration at the hands of the
enemy. (118)

The efforts of the king in behalf of God and His law found no echo with the
great majority of the people. Though the king was successful in preventing the
worship of idols in public, his subjects knew how to deceive him. Josiah sent
out his pious sympathizers to inspect the houses of the people, and he was
satisfied with their report, that they had found no idols, not suspecting that
the recreant people has fastened half an image on each wing of the doors, so
that the inmates faced their household idols as they closed the door upon
Josiah’s inspectors.

This godless generation contemporaneous with Josiah was to blame for his death.
When King Pharaoh, in his campaign against the Assyrians, wanted to travel
through Palestine, Jeremiah advised the king not to deny the Egyptians the
passage through his land. He cited a prophecy by his teacher Isaiah, who had
foreseen the war between Assyria and Egypt. But Josiah retorted: “Moses, thy
teacher’s teacher, spake: ‘I will give peace in the land, and no sword shall go
through your land,’ not even the sword that is not raised against Israel with
hostile intent.” The king, innocent of the deception practiced by the people,
knew not that they were idol worshippers, to whom the promises of the Torah
have no application. In the engagement that ensued between the Jews and the
Egyptians, no less than three hundred darts struck the king. In his death agony
he uttered no word of complaint; he only said: “The Lord is righteous, for I
have rebelled against His commandment,” thus admitting his guilt in not having
heeded the advice of the prophet. (119)

So ended the days of this just king after a brilliant career, the only king
since Solomon to rule over both Judah and Israel, for Jeremiah had brought back
to Palestine the ten exiled tribes of the north, and made them subject to
Josiah. (120) The mourning for him was profound. (121) Even Jeremiah
perpetuated his memory in his Lamentations. (122)

Pharaoh of Egypt was not permitted to enjoy the results of his victory to the
full, for it was soon after this that, in attempting to ascend the wondrous
throne of Solomon, he was stuck down by the lions and rendered lame by the
blow. (123)

The people put Jehoahaz on the throne of Judah to succeed Josiah, though his
brother Jehoiakim was the older by two years. To silence the legitimate claims
of Jehoiakim, the new king underwent the ceremony of anointing. (124) But his
reign was very brief. At the end of three months Pharaoh carried him off into
exile in Egypt, and Jehoiakim ruled in his stead.

Jehoiakim was another of the sinful monarchs of the Jews, uncharitable toward
men and disobedient to God and the laws of God. His garments were of two kinds
of stuff mingled together, his body was tattooed with the names of idols, and
in order that he might appear as a non-Jew, he performed the operation of an
epipost upon himself. Various forms of incest were committed by him, and,
besides, he was in the habit of putting men to death that he might violate
their wives, and confiscate their possessions. (125) Blasphemous as he was, he
spoke: “My predecessors did not know how to provoke the wrath of God. As for
me, I say frankly, we have no need whatsoever of Him; the very light He gives
us we can dispense with, for the gold of Parvaim can well replace it.” (126)

Seeing such abominations, God desired to resolve the world into its original
chaos. If He desisted from His purpose, it was only because the people led a
God-fearing life during the time of Jehoiakim. (127) After he had reigned
eleven years, Nebuchadnezzar put an end to his dominion. Advancing with his
army, the Babylonian king halted at Daphne, a suburb of Antioch. Here he was
met by the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem, who desired to know whether he was coming
with the purpose of destroying the Temple. Nebuchadnezzar assured them, that
all he wanted was the surrender of Jehoiakim, who had rebelled against his
authority. Returned to Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin informed Jehoiakim of
Nebuchadnezzar’s intention. The king asked the elders, whether it was ethical
to purchase their lives by sacrificing his. For answer they referred him to the
story of the way Joab dealt with the city of Abel of Beth-maacah, which had
saved itself by surrendering the rebel Sheba, the son of Bichri. The king’s
objections did not deter the Sanhedrin from following the example of Joab
acting under the direction of David. They made Jehoiakim glide down from the
city walls of Jerusalem by a chain. Below, the Babylonians stood ready to
receive him. Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiakim in fetters to all the cities of
Judah, then he slew him, and, his rage still unabated, threw his corpse to the
dogs after having stuck it into the carcass of an ass. (128) The dogs left
nothing of Jehoiakim’s body over except his skull, on which were written the
words: “This and something besides.” Many centuries later it was found by a
Rabbi near the gates of Jerusalem. He tried in vain to give it burial; the
earth refused to retain it, and the Rabbi concluded therefrom that it belonged
to the corpse of Jehoiakim. He wrapped the skull in a cloth, and laid it in a
closet. One day the wife of the Rabbi discovered it there, and she burnt it,
thinking the skull belonged to a former wife of her husband, so dear to him
even after her death that he could not separate himself from this relic. (129)

When Nebuchadnezzar returned to Babylonia from his Palestinian expedition, the
people received him with great pomp and solemnity. He announced to them that in
place of Jehoiakim, whom he had slain, he had installed Mattaniah, the rebel’s
son, called Jehoiachin, as king over Judah, and the people uttered the warning:
“One cannot educate a well-behaved puppy whose dam was ill-conditioned; let
alone an ill-conditioned puppy whose dam was ill-conditioned.”

Nebuchadnezzar returned to Daphne, and informed the Sanhedrin, who hastened
from Jerusalem to meet him, that he desired the surrender of Jehoiachin. If
they refused to satisfy his demand, he would destroy the Temple. When the
Jewish king was told the threat of his Babylonian adversary, he mounted upon
the roof of the Temple, and, holding all the keys of its chambers in his hand,
he spoke thus to God: “Until now Thou didst consider us worthy of confidence,
and Thou didst entrust Thy keys to us. Since Thou no longer dost esteem us
trustworthy, here, take back Thy keys.” He was held to his word: a hand was
stretched forth from heaven, and it received the keys. (130)

Jehoiachin, good and pious, did not desire the city of Jerusalem to be exposed
to peril for his sake. So he delivered himself to the Babylonian leaders, after
they swore that neither city nor people should suffer harm. But the Babylonians
did not keep their oath. A short while thereafter they carried into exile, not
only the king, but also his mother, and ten thousand (131) of the Jewish
nobility and of the great scholars. (132) This was the second attempt made by
Nebuchadnezzar to deport the Jews. On taking the former king Jehoiakim captive,
he had exiled three hundred of the noblest of the people, among them the
prophet Ezekiel. (133)

The king Jehoiachin was incarcerated for life, a solitary prisoner, separated
from his wife and his family. The Sanhedrin, who were among those deported with
the king, feared that the house of David die out. They therefore besought
Nebuchadnezzar not to separate Jehoiachin from his wife. They succeeded in
enlisting the sympathy of the queen’s hairdresser, and through her of the queen
herself, Semiramis, the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, who in turn prevailed upon the
king to accord mild treatment to the unfortunate prince exiled from Judea.
Suffering had completely changed the once sinful king, so that, in spite of his
great joy over his reunion with his wife, he still paid regard to the
prescriptions of the Jewish law regulating conjugal life. He was prepared to
deny himself every indulgence, when the purchase price was an infringement of
the word of God. Such steadfastness pleaded with God to pardon the king for his
sins, and the heavenly Sanhedrin absolved God from His oath, to crush
Jehoiachin and deprive his house of sovereignty. (134) By way of reward for his
continence he was blessed with distinguished posterity. Not only was
Zerubbabel, the first governor of Palestine after the destruction of the
Temple, a grandson of Jehoiachin’s, (135) but also the Messiah himself will be
a descendant of his. (136)

X.
THE EXILE

ZEDEKIAH

The execution of one king and the deportation of another were but preludes to
the great national catastrophe in the time of Zedekiah, the destruction of the
Temple and the exile of the whole people. After Nebuchadnezzar had led
Jehoiachin and a portion of the people into banishment, his commiseration was
aroused for the Jews, and he inquired, whether any other sons of Josiah were
still living. Only Mattaniah was left. (1) He was re-named Zedekiah, in the
hope that he would be the father of pious sons. In reality the name became the
omen of the disasters to happen in the time of this king.

Nebuchadnezzar, who invested Zedekiah with the royal office, demanded that he
swear fealty to him. Zedekiah was about to swear by his own soul, but the
Babylonian king, not satisfied, brought a scroll of the law, and made his
Jewish vassal take the oath upon that. (2) Nevertheless he did not keep faith
with Nebuchadnezzar for long. Nor was this his only treachery toward his
suzerain. He had once surprised Nebuchadnezzar in the act of cutting a piece
from a living hare and eating it, as is the habit of barbarians. Nebuchadnezzar
was painfully embarrassed, and he begged the Jewish king to promise under oath
not to mention what he had seen. Though Nebuchadnezzar treated him with great
friendliness, even making him sovereign lord over five vassal kings, he did not
justify the trust reposed in him. To flatter Zedekiah, the five kings once
said: “If all were as it should be, thou wouldst occupy the throne of
Nebuchadnezzar.” Zedekiah could not refrain from exclaiming: “O yes,
Nebuchadnezzar, whom I once saw eating a live hare!”

The five kings at once repaired to Nebuchadnezzar, and reported what Zedekiah
had said. Thereupon the king of Babylonia marched to Daphne, near Antioch, with
the purpose of chastising Zedekiah. At Daphne he found the Sanhedrin of
Jerusalem, who had hastened thither to receive him. Nebuchadnezzar met the
Sanhedrin courteously, ordered his attendants to bring state chairs for all the
members, and requested them to read the Torah to him and explain it. When they
reached the passage in the Book of Numbers dealing with the remission of vows,
the king put the question: “If a man desires to be released from a vow, what
steps must he take?” The Sanhedrin replied: “He must repair to a scholar, and
he will absolve him from his vow.” Whereupon Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed: “I
verily believe it was you who released Zedekiah from the vow he took concerning
me.” And he ordered the members of the Sanhedrin to leave their state chairs
and sit on the ground. (3) They were forced to admit, that they had not acted
in accordance with the law, for Zedekiah’s vow affected another beside himself,
and without the acquiescence of the other party, namely, Nebuchadnezzar, the
Sanhedrin had no authority to annul the vow. (4)

Zedekiah was duly punished for the grievous crime of perjury. When Jerusalem
was captured, he tried to escape through a cave extending from his house to
Jericho. God sent a deer into the camp of the Chaldeans, and in their pursuit
of this game, the Babylonian soldiers reached the farther opening of the cave
at the very moment when Zedekiah was leaving it. (5) The Jewish king together
with his ten sons was brought before Nebuchadnezzar, who addressed Zedekiah
thus: “Were I to judge thee according to the law of thy God, thou wouldst
deserve the death penalty, for thou didst swear a false oath by the Name of
God; no less wouldst thou deserve death, if I were to judge thee according to
the law of the state, for thou didst fail in thy sworn duty to thy overlord.”

Zedekiah requested the grace that his execution take place before his
children’s, and he be spared the sight of their blood. His children, on the
other hand, besought Nebuchadnezzar to slay them before he slew their father,
that they might be spared the disgrace of seeing their father executed. In his
heartlessness Nebuchadnezzar had resolved worse things than Zedekiah
anticipated. In the sight of their father, the children of Zedekiah were
killed, and then Zedekiah himself was deprived of sight; his eyes were blinded.
(6) He had been endowed with eyes of superhuman strength, they were the eyes
of Adam, and the iron lances forced into them were powerless to destroy his
sight. Vision left him only because of the tears he shed over the fate of his
children. (7) Now he realized how true Jeremiah had spoken when he had
prophesied his exile to Babylonia. Though he should live there until his death,
he would never behold the land with his eyes. On account of its seeming
contradictoriness, Zedekiah had thought the prophecy untrue. For this reason he
had not heeded Jeremiah’s advice to make peace with Nebuchadnezzar. Now it had
all been verified; he was carried to Babylonia a captive, yet, blind as he was,
he did not see the land of his exile. (8)

JEREMIAH

Though Zedekiah besmirched his career by perjury, he was nevertheless so good
and just a king that for his sake God relinquished his purpose of returning the
world to its original chaos, as a punishment for the evil-doing of a wicked
generation. (9) In this depraved time, it was first and foremost Jeremiah to
whom was delegated the task of proclaiming the word of God. He was a descendant
of Joshua and Rahab, and his father was the prophet (10) Hilkiah. He was born
while his father was fleeing (11) from the persecution of Jezebel, the
murderess of prophets. At his very birth he showed signs that he was destined
to play a great part. He was born circumcised, (12) and scarcely had he left
his mother’s womb when he broke into wailing, and his voice was the voice, not
of a babe, but of a youth. He cried: “My bowels, my bowels tremble, the walls
of my heart they are disquieted, my limbs quake, destruction upon destruction I
bring upon earth.” In this strain he continued to moan and groan, complaining
of the faithlessness of his mother, and when she expressed her amazement at the
unseemly speech of her new-born son, Jeremiah said: “Not thee do I mean, my
mother, not to thee doth my prophecy refer; I speak of Zion, and against
Jerusalem are my words directed. She adorns her daughters, arrays them in
purple, and puts golden crowns upon their heads. Robbers will come and strip
them of their ornaments.”

As a lad he received the call to be a prophet. But he refused to obey, saying:
“O Lord, I cannot go as a prophet to Israel, for when lived there a prophet
whom Israel did not desire to kill? Moses and Aaron they sought to stone with
stones; Elijah the Tishbite they mocked at because his hair was grown long; and
they called after Elisha, ‘Go up, thou bald head’ no, I cannot go to Israel,
for I am still naught but a lad.” God replied: “I love youth, for it is
innocent. When I carried Israel out of Egypt, I called him a lad, and when I
think of Israel lovingly, I speak of him as a lad. Say not, therefore, thou art
only a lad, but thou shalt go on whatsoever errand I shall send thee. Now,
then,” God, continued, “take the ‘cup of wrath,’ and let the nations drink of
it.” Jeremiah put the question which land was to drink first from the “cup of
wrath,” and the answer of God was: “First Jerusalem is to drink, the head of
all earthly nations, and then the cities of Judah.” When the prophet heard
this, he began to curse the day of his birth. “I am like the high priest,” he
said, “who has to administer the ‘water of bitterness’ to a woman who is held
under the suspicion of adultery, and when he approaches the woman with the cup,
lo, he beholds his own mother. And I, O Mother Zion, thought, when I was called
to prophesy, that I was appointed to proclaim prosperity and salvation to thee,
but now I see that my message forebodes thee evil.”

Jeremiah’s first appearance in public was during the reign of Josiah, when he
announced to the people in the streets: “If ye will give up your wicked doings,
God will raise you above all nations; if not, He will deliver His house into
the hands of the enemies, and they will deal with it as seemeth best to them.”

The prophets contemporary with Jeremiah in his early years were Zechariah and
Huldah. The province of the latter was among women, while Zechariah was active
in the synagogue. (13) Later, under Jehoiakim, Jeremiah was supported by the
prophets of his relative Uriah of Kiriathjearim, a friend of the prophet
Isaiah. (14) But Uriah was put to death by the ungodly king, the same who had
the first chapter of Lamentations burnt after obliterating the Name of God
wherever it occurs in the whole book. But Jeremiah added four chapters. (15)

The prophet fell upon evil times under Zedekiah. He had both the people and the
court against him. Nor was that surprising in a day when not even the high
priests in the Temple bore the sign of the covenant upon their bodies. (16)
Jeremiah had called forth general hostility by condemning the alliance with
Egypt against Babylonia, and favoring peace with Nebuchadnezzar; and this
though to all appearances the help of the Egyptians would prove of good effect
for the Jews. The hosts of Pharaoh Necho had actually set forth from Egypt to
join the Jews against Babylon. But when they were on the high seas, God
commanded the waters to cover themselves with corpses. Astonished, the
Egyptians asked each other, whence the dead bodies. Presently the answer
occurred to them: they were the bodies of their ancestors drowned in the Red
Sea on account of the Jews, who had shaken off Egyptian rule. “What,” said the
Egyptians thereupon, “shall we bring help to those who drowned our fathers?” So
they returned to their own country, justifying the warning of Jeremiah, that no
dependence could be put upon Egyptian promises. (17)

A little while after this occurrence, when Jeremiah wanted to leave Jerusalem
to go to Anathoth and partake of his priestly portion there, the watchman at
the gate accused him of desiring to desert to the enemy. He was delivered to
his adversaries at court, and they confined him in prison. The watchman knew
full well that it was a trumped up charge he was bringing against Jeremiah, and
the intention attributed to him was as far as possible from the mind of the
prophet, but he took this opportunity to vent an old family grudge. For this
gateman was a grandson of the false prophet Hananiah, the enemy of Jeremiah,
the one who had prophesied complete victory over Nebuchadnezzar within two
years. It were proper to say, he calculated the victory rather than prophesied
it. He reasoned: “If unto Elam, which is a mere ally of the Babylonians against
the Jews, destruction has been appointed by God through Jeremiah, so much the
more will the extreme penalty fall upon the Babylonians themselves, who have
inflicted vast evil upon the Jews.” (18) Jeremiah’s prophecy had been the
reverse: so far from holding forth any hope that a victory would be won over
Nebuchadnezzar, the Jewish state, he said, would suffer annihilation. Hananiah
demanded a sign betokening the truth of Jeremiah’s prophecy. But Jeremiah
contended there could be no sign for such a prophecy as his, since the Divine
determination to do evil can be annulled. On the other hand, it was the duty of
Hananiah to give a sign, for he was prophesying pleasant things, and the Divine
resolution for good is executed without. (19) Finally, Jeremiah advanced the
clinching argument: “I, a priest, may be well content with the prophecy; it is
to my interest that the Temple should continue to stand. As for thee, thou art
a Gibeonite, thou wilt have to do a slave’s service in it so long as there is a
Temple. But instead of troubling thy mind with the future in store for others,
thou shouldst rather have thought of thine own future, for this very year thou
wilt die.” Hananiah, in very truth, died on the last day of the year set as his
term of life, but before his death he ordered that it should be kept secret for
two days, so to give the lie to Jeremiah’s prophecy. With his last words,
addressed to his son Shelemiah, he charged him to seek every possible way of
taking revenge upon Jeremiah, to whose curse his death was to be ascribed.
Shelemiah had no opportunity of fulfilling his father’s last behest, but it did
not pass from his mind, and when he, in turn, lay upon his death-bed, he
impressed the duty of revenge upon his son Jeriah. It was the grandson of
Hananiah who, when he saw Jeremiah leaving the city, hastened to take the
opportunity of accusing the prophet of treason. His purpose prospered. The
aristocratic enemies of Jeremiah, enraged against him, welcomed the chance to
put him behind prison bars, and gave him in charge of a jailer, Jonathan, who
had been a friend of the false prophet Hananiah. Jonathan pleased himself by
mocking at his prisoner: “See,” he would say, “see what honor thy friend does
thee, to put thee in so fine a prison as this; verily, it is a royal palace.”

Despite his suffering, Jeremiah did not hold back the truth. When the king
inquired of him, whether he had a revelation from God, he replied: “Yes, the
king of Babylonia will carry thee off into exile.” To avoid irritating the
king, he went into no further detail. He only prayed the king to liberate him
from prison, saying: “Even wicked men like Hananiah and his descendants at
least cast about for a pretext when they desire to take revenge, and their
example ought not to be lost upon thee who art called Zedekiah, ‘just man.'”
The king granted his petition, but Jeremiah did not enjoy liberty for long.
Hardly out of prison, he again advised the people to surrender, and the
nobility seized him and cast him into a lime pit filled with water, where they
hoped he would drown. But a miracle happened. The water sank to the bottom, and
the mud rose to the surface, and supported the prophet above the water. Help
came to him from Ebed-melech, a “white raven,” the only pious man at court.
Ebed-melech hastened to the king and spoke: “Know, if Jeremiah perishes in the
lime pit, Jerusalem will surely be captured.” With the permission of the king,
Ebed-melech went to the pit, and cried out aloud several times, “O my lord
Jeremiah,” but no answer came. Jeremiah feared the words were spoken by his
former jailer Jonathan, who had not given up his practice of mocking at the
prophet. He would come to the edge of the pit and call down jeeringly: “Do not
rest thy head on the mud, and take a little sleep, Jeremiah.” To such sneers
Jeremiah made no reply, and hence it was that Ebed-melech was left unanswered.
Thinking the prophet dead, he began to lament and tear his clothes. Then
Jeremiah, realizing that it was a friend, and not Jonathan, asked: “Who is it
that is calling my name and weeps therewith?” and he received the assurance
that Ebed-melech had come to rescue him from his perilous position. (20)

NEBUCHADNEZZAR

The suffering to which Jeremiah was exposed was finally ended by the capture of
Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. This Babylonian king was a son of King Solomon and
the Queen of Sheba. (21) His first contact with the Jews happened in the time
of his father-in-law Sennacherib, whom he accompanied on his campaign against
Hezekiah. The destruction of the Assyrian army before the walls of Jerusalem,
the great catastrophe from which only Nebuchadnezzar and four others escaped
with their life, inspired him with fear of God. (22) Later, in his capacity as
secretary to the Babylonian king Merodach-baladan, it was he who called his
master’s notice to the mention of the Jewish king’s name before the Name of
God. “Thou callest Him ‘the great God,’ yet thou dost name Him after the king,”
he said. Nebuchadnezzar himself hastened after the messenger to bring back the
letter and have it changed. He had advanced scarce three steps when he was
restrained by the angel Gabriel, for even the few paces he had walked for the
glory of God earned him his great power over Israel. A further step would have
extended his ability to inflict harm immeasurably. (23)

For eighteen years daily a heavenly voice resounded in the palace of
Nebuchadnezzar, saying: “O thou wicked slave, go and destroy the house of thy
Lord, for His children hearken not unto Him.” But Nebuchadnezzar was beset with
fears lest God prepare a fate for him similar to that of his ancestor
Sennacherib. He practiced belomancy and consulted other auguries, to assure
himself that he was against Jerusalem would result favorably. When he shook up
the arrows, and questioned whether he was to go to Rome or Alexandria, not one
arrow sprang up, but when he questioned about Jerusalem, one sprang up. He
sowed seeds and set out planets; for Rome or Alexandria nothing came up; for
Jerusalem everything sprouted and grew. He lighted candles and lanterns; for
Rome or Alexandria they refused to burn, for Jerusalem they shed their light.
He floated vessels on the Euphrates; for Rome or Alexandria they did not move,
for Jerusalem they swam. (24)

Still the fears of Nebuchadnezzar were not allayed. His determination to attack
the Holy City ripened only after God Himself had shown him how He had bound the
hands of the archangel Michael, the patron of the Jews, behind his back, in
order to render him powerless to bring to his wards. So the campaign against
Jerusalem was undertaken. (25)

THE CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM

If the Babylonians thought that the conquest of Jerusalem was an easy task,
they were greatly mistaken. For three years God endured the inhabitants with
strength to withstand the onslaughts of the enemy, in the hope that the Jews
would amend their evil ways and abandon their godless conduct, so that the
threatened punishment might be annulled.

Among the many heroes in the beleaguered city that was bidding defiance to the
Babylonians, one by the name of Akiba was particularly distinguished. The
stones were hurled at the walls of the city from the catapults wielded by the
enemy without, he was wont to catch on his feet, and throw them back upon the
besiegers. Once it happened that a stone was so cast as to drop, not upon the
wall, but in front of it. In his swift race toward it, Akiba was precipitated
into the space between the inner and the outer wall. He quickly reassured his
friends in the city, that his fall had in no wise harmed him. He was only a
little shaken up and weak; as soon as he had his accustomed daily meal, a
roasted ox, he would be able to scale the wall and resume the struggle with the
Babylonians. But human strength and artifice avail naught against God. A gust
of wind arose, and Akiba was thrown from the wall, and he died. Thereupon the
Chaldeans made a breach in the wall, and penetrated into the city. (26)

Equally fruitless were the endeavors of Hanamel, the uncle of Jeremiah, to save
the city. He conjured the angels up, armed them, and had them occupy the walls.
The Chaldeans retreated in terror at the sight of the heavenly host. But God
changed the names of the angels, and brought them back to heaven. Hanamel’s
exorcisms availed naught. When he called the Angel of the Water, for instance,
the response would come from the Angel of Fire, who bore the former name of his
companion. Then Hanamel resorted to the extreme measure of summoning the Prince
of the World, who raised Jerusalem high up in the air. But God thrust the city
down again, and the enemy entered unhindered. (27)

Nevertheless, the capture of the city could not have been accomplished if
Jeremiah had been present. His deeds were as a firm pillar for the city, and
his prayers as a stony wall. Therefore God sent the prophet (28) on an errand
out of the city. He was made to go to his native place, Anathoth, to take
possession of a field, his by right of inheritance. Jeremiah rejoiced; he took
this as a sign that God would be gracious to Judah, else He would not have
commanded him to take possession of a piece of land. Scarcely had the prophet
left Jerusalem when an angel descended upon the wall of the city and caused a
breach to appear, at the same time crying out: “Let the enemy come and enter
the house, for the Master of the house is no longer therein. The enemy has
leave to despoil it and destroy it. Go ye into the vineyard and snap the vines
asunder, for the Watchman hath gone away and abandoned it. But let no man boast
and say, he and his have vanquished the city. Nay, a conquered city have ye
conquered, a dead people have ye killed.”

The enemy rushed in and ascended the Temple mount, and on the spot whereon King
Solomon had been in the habit of sitting when he took counsel with the elders,
the Chaldeans plotted how to reduce the Temple to ashes. During their sinister
deliberations, they beheld four angels, each with a flaming torch in his hand,
descending and setting fire to the four corners of the Temple. The high priest,
seeing the flames shoot up, cast the keys of the Temple heavenward, saying:
“Here are the keys of Thy house; it seems I am an untrustworthy custodian,”
and, as he turned, he was seized by the enemy and slaughtered in the very place
on which he had been wont to offer the daily sacrifice. With him perished his
daughter, her blood mingling with her father’s. The priests and the Levites
threw themselves into the flames with their harps and trumpets, and, to escape
the violence feared from the licentious Chaldeans, (29) the virgins who wove
the curtains for the sanctuary followed their example. Still more horrible was
the carnage caused among the people by Nebuzaradan, spurred on as he was by the
sight of the blood of the murdered prophet Zechariah seething on the floor of
the Temple. At first the Jews sought to conceal the true story connected with
the blood. At length they had to confess, that it was the blood of a prophet
who had prophesied the destruction of the Temple, and for his candor had been
slain by the people. Nebuzaradan, to appease the prophet, ordered the scholars
of the kingdom to be executed first on the bloody spot, then the school
children, and at last the young priests, more than a million souls in all. But
the blood of the prophet went on seething and reeking, until Nebuzaradan
exclaimed: “Zechariah, Zechariah, the good in Israel I have slaughtered. Dost
thou desire the destruction of the whole people?” Then the blood ceased to
seethe.

Nebuzaradan was startled by the thought, if the Jews, who had a single life
upon their conscience, were made to atone so cruelly, what would be his own
fate! He left Nebuchadnezzar and became a proselyte. (30)

THE GREAT LAMENT

On his return from Anathoth, Jeremiah saw, at a distance, smoke curling upward
from the Temple mount, and his spirit was joyful. He thought the Jews had
repented of their sins, and were bringing incense offerings. Once within the
city walls, he knew the truth, that the Temple had fallen a prey to the
incendiary. Overwhelmed by grief, he cried out: “O Lord, Thou didst entice me,
and I permitted myself to be enticed; Thou didst send me forth out of Thy house
that Thou mightest destroy it.” (31)

God Himself was deeply moved by the destruction of the Temple, which He had
abandoned that the enemy might enter and destroy it. Accompanied by the angels,
He visited the ruins, and gave vent to His sorrow: “Woe is Me on account of My
house. Where are My children, where My priests, where My beloved? But what
could I do for you? Did I not warn you? Yet you would not mend your ways.”
“To-day,” God said to Jeremiah, “I am like a man who has an only son. He
prepares the marriage canopy for him, and his only beloved dies under it. Thou
doest seem to feel but little sympathy with Me and with My children. Go, summon
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses from their graces. They know how to mourn.”
“Lord of the world,” replied Jeremiah, “I know not where Moses is buried.”
“Stand on the banks of the Jordan,” said God, “and cry: ‘Thou son of Amram, son
of Amram, arise, see how wolves have devoured thy sheep.'”

Jeremiah repaired to the Double Cave, and spake to the Patriarchs: “Arise, ye
are summoned to appear before God.” When they asked him the reason of the
summons, he feigned ignorance, for he feared to tell them the true reason; they
might have cast reproaches upon him that so great a disaster had overtaken
Israel in his time. Then Jeremiah journeyed on to the banks of the Jordan, and
there he called as he had been bidden: “Thou son of Amram, son of Amram, arise,
thou are cited to appear before God.” “What has happened this day, that God
calls me unto Him?” asked Moses. “I know not,” replied Jeremiah again. Moses
thereupon went to the angels, and from them he learned that the Temple had been
destroyed, and Israel banished from his land. Weeping and mourning, Moses
joined the Patriarchs, and together, rending their garments and wringing their
hands, they betook themselves to the ruins of the Temple. Here their wailing
was augmented by the loud lamentations of the angels: (32) “How desolate are
the highways to Jerusalem, the highways destined for travel without end! How
deserted are the streets that once were thronged at the seasons of the
pilgrimages! O Lord of the world, with Abraham the father of Thy people, who
taught the world to know Thee as the ruler of the universe, Thou didst make a
covenant, that through him and his descendants the earth should be filled with
people, and now Thou hast dissolved Thy covenant with him. O Lord of the world!
Thou hast scorned Zion and Jerusalem, once Thy chosen habitation. Thou hast
dealt more harshly with Israel than with the generation of Enosh, the first
idolaters.”

God thereupon said to the angels: “Why do ye array yourselves against Me with
your complaints?” “Lord do the world,” they replied, “on account of Abraham,
Thy beloved, who has come into Thy house wailing and weeping, yet Thou payest
no heed unto him.” Thereupon God: “Since My beloved ended his earthly career,
he has not been in My house. ‘What hath My beloved to do in My house’?” (33)

Now Abraham entered into the conversation: “Why, O Lord of the world, hast Thou
exiled my children, delivered them into the hands of the nations, who torture
them with all tortures, and who have rendered desolate the sanctuary, where I
was ready to bring Thee my son Isaac as a sacrifice?” “Thy children have
sinned,” said God, “they have transgressed the whole Torah, they have offended
against every letter of it.” Abraham: “Who is there that will testify against
Israel, that he has transgressed the Torah?” God: “Let the Torah herself appear
and testify.” The Torah came, and Abraham addressed her: “O my daughter, dost
thou indeed come to testify against Israel, to say that he violated thy
commandments? Dost thou feel no shame? Remember the day on which God offered
thee to all the peoples, all the nations of the earth, and they all rejected
thee with disdain. (34) Then my children came to Sinai, they accepted thee, and
they honored thee. And now, on the day of their distress, thou standest up
against them?” Hearing this, the Torah stepped aside, and did not testify. “Let
the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet in which Torah is written come
and testify against Israel,” said God. They appeared without delay, and Alef,
the first letter, was about to testify against Israel, when Abraham interrupted
it with the words: “Thou chief of all letters, thou comest to testify against
Israel in the time of his distress? Be mindful of the day on which God revealed
Himself on Mount Sinai, beginning His words with thee: ‘Anoki the Lord thy
God.’ No people, no nation accepted thee, only my children, and now thou comest
to testify against them!” Alef stepped aside and was silent. The same happened
with the second letter Bet, (35) and with the third, Gimel, and with all the
rest all of them retired abashed, and opened not their mouth. Now Abraham
turned to God and said: “O Lord of the world! When I was a hundred years old,
Thou didst give me a son, and when he was in the flower of his age,
thirty-seven years old, Thou didst command me to sacrifice him to Thee, and I,
like a monster, without compassion, I bound him upon the altar with mine own
hands. Let that plead with Thee, and have Thou pity on my children.”

Then Isaac raised his voice and spake: “O Lord of the world, when my father
told me, ‘God will provide Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son,’ I
did not resist Thy word. Willingly I let myself be tied to the altar, my throat
was raised to meet the knife. Let that plead with Thee, and have Thou pity on
my children.”

Then Jacob raised his voice and spake: “O Lord of the world, for twenty years I
dwelt in the house of Laban, and when I left it, I met with Esau, who sought to
murder my children, and I risked my life for theirs. And now they are delivered
into the hands of their enemies, like sheep led to the shambles, after I
coddled them like fledglings breaking forth from their shells, after I suffered
anguish for their sake all the days of my life. Let that plead with Thee, and
have Thou pity on my children.”

And at last Moses raised his voice and spake: “O Lord of the world, was I not a
faithful shepherd unto Israel for forty long years? Like a steed I ran ahead of
him in the desert, and when the time came for him to enter the Promised Land,
Thou didst command: ‘Here in the desert shall thy bones drop!’ And now that the
children of Israel are exiled, Thou hast sent for me to mourn and lament over
them. That is what the people mean when they say: The good fortune of the
master is none for the slave, but the master’s woe is his woe.” And turning to
Jeremiah, he continued: “Walk before me, I will lead them back; let us see who
will venture to raise a hand against them.” Jeremiah replied: “The roads cannot
be passed, they are blocked with corpses.” But Moses was not to be deterred,
and the two, Moses following Jeremiah, reached the rivers of Babylon. When the
Jews saw Moses, they said: “The son of Amram has ascended from his grave to
redeem us from our enemies.” (36) At that moment a heavenly voice was heard to
cry out: “It is decreed!” And Moses said: “O my children, I cannot redeem you,
the decree is unalterable may God redeem you speedily,” and he departed from
them.

The children of Israel raised their voices in sore lamentations, and the sound
of their grief pierced to the very heavens. Meantime Moses returned to the
Fathers, and reported to them to what dire suffering the exiled Jews were
exposed, and they all broke out into woe-begone plaints. (37) In his bitter
grief, Moses exclaimed: “Be cursed, O sun, why was not thy light extinguished
in the hour in which the enemy invaded the sanctuary?” The sun replied: “O
faithful shepherd, I sware by the life, I could not grow dark. The heavenly
powers would not permit it. Sixty fiery scourges they dealt me, and they said,
‘Go and let thy light shine forth,'” (38) Another last complaint Moses uttered:
“O Lord of the world, Thou hast written it in Thy Torah: ‘And whether it be cow
or ewe, ye shall not kill it and her young both in one day.’ How many mothers
have they slaughtered with their children and Thou art silent!”

Then, with the suddenness of a flash, Rachel, our mother, stood before the Holy
One, blessed be He: “Lord of the world,” she said, “Thou knowest how
overwhelming was Jacob’s love for me, and when I observed that my father
thought to put Leah in my place, I gave Jacob secret signs, that the plan of my
father might be set at naught. But then I repented me of what I had done, and
to spare my sister mortification, I disclosed the signs to her. More than this,
I myself was in the bridal chamber, and when Jacob spake with Leah, I made
reply, lest her voice betray her. I, a woman, a creature of flesh and blood, of
dust and ashes, was not jealous of my rival. Thou, O God, everlasting King,
Thou eternal and merciful Father, why wast Thou jealous of the idols, empty
vanities? Why hast Thou driven out my children, slain them with swords, left
them at the mercy of their enemies?” Then the compassion of the Supreme God was
awakened, and He said: “For thy sake, O Rachel, I will lead the children of
Israel back to their land.” (39)

JEREMIAH’S JOURNEY TO BABYLON

When Nebuchadnezzar dispatched his general Nebuzaradan to the capture of
Jerusalem, he gave him three instructions regarding the mild treatment of
Jeremiah: “Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him
even as he shall say unto thee.” At the same time he enjoined him to use
pitiless cruelty toward the rest of the people. But the prophet desired to
share the fate of his suffering brethren, and when he saw a company of youths
in the pillory, he put his own head into it. Nebuzaradan would always withdraw
him again. Thereafter if Jeremiah saw a company of old men clapped in chains,
he would join them and share their ignominy, until Nebuzaradan released him.
Finally, Nebuzaradan said to Jeremiah: “Lo, thou art one of three things;
either thou are a prophesier of false things, or thou art a despiser of
suffering, or thou art a shedder of blood. A prophesier of false things for
since many a year hast thou been prophesying the downfall of this city, and
now, when thy prophecy has come true, thou sorrowest and mournest. Or a
despiser of suffering for I seek to do thee naught harmful, and thou thyself
pursuest what is harmful to thee, as thou to say, ‘I am indifferent to pain.’
Or a shedder of blood for the king has charged me to have a care of thee, and
let no harm come upon thee, but as thou insistest upon seeking evil for
thyself, it must be that the king may hear of thy misfortune, and put me to
death.” (40)

At first Jeremiah refused Nebuzaradan’s offer to let him remain in Palestine.
He joined the march of the captives going to Babylon, along the highways
streaming with blood and strewn with corpses. When they arrived at the borders
of the Holy Land, they all, prophet and people, broke out into loud wails, and
Jeremiah said: “Yes, brethren and countrymen, all this hath befallen you,
because ye did not hearken unto the words of my prophecy.” (41) Jeremiah
journeyed with them until they came to the banks of the Euphrates. Then God
spoke to the prophet: “Jeremiah, if thou remainest here, I shall go with them,
and if thou goest with them, I shall remain here.” Jeremiah replied: “Lord of
the world, if I go with them, what doth it avail them? Only if their King,
their Creator accompanies them, will it bestead them.” (42)

When the captives saw Jeremiah make preparations to return to Palestine, they
began to weep and cry: “O Father Jeremiah, wilt thou, too, abandon us?” “I call
heaven and earth to witness,” said the prophet, “had you wept but once in Zion,
ye had not been driven out.” (43)

Beset with terrors was the return journey for the prophet. Corpses lay
everywhere, and Jeremiah gathered up all the fingers that lay about; he
strained them to his heart, fondled them, kissed them, and wrapped them in his
mantle, saying sadly: “Did I not tell you, my children, did I not say to you,
‘Give glory to the Lord your God, before He cause darkness, and before your
feet stumble upon the dark mountains’?” (44)

Dejected, oppressed by his grief, Jeremiah saw the fulfilment of his prophecy
against the coquettish maidens of Jerusalem, who had pursued but the pleasures
and enjoyments of the world. How often had the prophet admonished them to do
penance and lead a God-fearing life! In vain; whenever he threatened them with
the destruction of Jerusalem, they said: “Why should we concern ourselves about
it?” “A prince will take me unto wife,” said one, the other, “A prefect will
marry me.” And at first it seemed the expectations of Jerusalem’s fair
daughters would be realized, for the most aristocratic of the victorious
Chaldeans were charmed by the beauty of the women of Jerusalem, and offered
them their hand and their rank. But God sent disfiguring and repulsive diseases
upon the women, and the Babylonians cast them off, threw them violently out of
their chariots, and ruthlessly drove them over the prostrate bodies. (45)

TRANSPORTATION OF THE CAPTIVES

Nebuchadnezzar’s orders were to hurry the captives along the road to Babylon
without stop or stay. He feared the Jews might else find opportunity to
supplicate the mercy of God, and He, compassionate as He is, would release them
instantly they did penance. (46) Accordingly, there was no pause in the forward
march, until the Euphrates was reached. There they were within the borders of
the empire of Nebuchadnezzar, and he thought he had nothing more to fear.

Many of the Jews died as soon as they drank of the Euphrates. In their native
land they had been accustomed to the water drawn from springs and wells.
Mourning over their dead and over the others that had fallen by the way, they
sat on the banks of the river, while Nebuchadnezzar and his princes on their
vessels celebrated their victory amid song and music. The king noticed that the
princes of Judah, though they were in chains, bore no load upon their
shoulders, and he called to his servants: “Have you no load for these?” They
took the parchment scrolls of the law, tore them in pieces, made sacks of them,
and filled them with sand; these they loaded upon the backs of the Jewish
princes. At sight of this disgrace, all Israel broke out into loud weeping. The
voice of their sorrow pierced the very heavens, and God determined to turn the
world once more into chaos, for He told Himself, that after all the world was
created but for the sake of Israel. The angels hastened thither, and they spake
before God: “O Lord of the world, the universe is Thine. Is it not enough that
Thou hast dismembered Thy earthly house, the Temple? Wilt Thou destroy Thy
heavenly house, too?” God restraining them said: “Do ye think I am a creature
of flesh and blood, and stand in need of consolation? Do I not know beginning
and end of all things? Go rather and remove their burdens from the princes of
Judah.” Aided by God the angels descended, and they carried the loads put upon
the Jewish captives until they reached Babylon.

On their way, they passed the city of Bari. (47) The inhabitants thereof were
not a little astonished at the cruelty of Nebuchadnezzar, who made the captives
march naked. The people of Bari stripped their slaves of their clothes, and
presented the slaves to Nebuchadnezzar. When the king expressed his
astonishment thereat, they said: “We thought thou wert particularly pleased
with naked men.” The king at once ordered the Jews to be arrayed in their
garments. The reward accorded the Bariites was that God endowed them forever
with beauty and irresistible grace. (48)

The compassionate Bariites did not find many imitators. The very opposite
quality was displayed by the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and Arabs. Despite
their close kinship with Israel, their conduct toward the Jews was dictated by
cruelty. The two first-mentioned, the Ammonites and the Moabites, when they
heard the prophet foretell the destruction of Jerusalem, hastened without a
moment’s delay to report it to Nebuchadnezzar, and urge him to attack
Jerusalem. The scruples of the Babylonian king, who feared God, and all the
reasons he advanced against a combat with Israel, they refuted, and finally
they induced him to act as they wished. (49) At the capture of the city, while
all the strange nations were seeking booty, the Ammonites and the Moabites
threw themselves into the Temple to seize the scroll of the law, because it
contained the clause against their entering into the “assembly of the Lord even
to the tenth generation.” (50) To disgrace the faith of Israel, they plucked
the Cherubim from the Holy of Holies and dragged them through the streets of
Jerusalem, crying aloud at the same time: “Behold these sacred things that
belong to the Israelites, who say ever they have no idols.”

The Edomites were still more hostile (51) in the hour of Israel’s need. They
went to Jerusalem with Nebuchadnezzar, but they kept themselves at a distance
from the city, there to await the outcome of the battle between the Jews and
the Babylonians. If the Jews had been victorious, they would have pretended
they had come to bring them aid. When Nebuchadnezzar’s victory became known,
they showed their true feelings. Those who escaped the sword of the
Babylonians, were hewn down by the hand of the Edomites. (52)

But in fiendish cunning these nations were surpassed by the Ishmaelites. Eighty
thousand young priests, each with a golden shield upon his breast, succeeded in
making their way through the ranks of Nebuchadnezzar and in reaching the
Ishmaelites. They asked for water to drink. The reply of the Ishmaelites was:
“First eat, and then you may drink,” at the same time handing them salt food.
Their thirst was increased, and the Ishmaelites gave them leather bags filled
with nothing but air instead of water. When they raised them to their mouths,
the air entered their bodies, and they fell dead.

Other Arabic tribes showed their hostility openly; as the Palmyrenes, who put
eighty thousand archers at the disposal of Nebuchadnezzar in his war against
Israel. (53)

THE SONS OF MOSES

If Nebuchadnezzar thought, that once he had the Jews in the regions of the
Euphrates they were in his power forever, he was greatly mistaken. It was on
the very banks of the great river that he suffered the loss of a number of his
captives. When the first stop was made by the Euphrates, the Jews could no
longer contain their grief, and they broke out into tears and bitter
lamentations. Nebuchadnezzar bade them be silent, and as though to render
obedience to his orders the harder, he called upon the Levites, the minstrels
of the Temple to sing the songs of Zion for the entertainment of his guests at
the banquet he had arranged. The Levites consulted with one another. “Not
enough that the Temple lies in ashes because of our sins, should we add to our
transgressions by coaxing music from the strings of our holy harps in honor of
these ‘dwarfs’?” (54) they said, and they determined to offer resistance. The
murderous Babylonians mowed them down in heaps, yet they met death with high
courage, for it saved their sacred instruments from the desecration of being
used before idols and for the sake of idolaters.

The Levites who survived the carnage the Sons of Moses they were bit their
own fingers off, and when they were asked to play, they showed their tyrants
mutilated hands, with which it was impossible to manipulate their harps. (55)
At the fall of night a cloud descended and enveloped the Sons of Moses and all
who belonged to them. They were hidden from their enemies, while their own way
was illuminated by a pillar of fire. The cloud and the pillar vanished at break
of day, and before the Sons of Moses lay a tract of land bordered by the sea on
three sides. For their complete protection God made the river Sambation to flow
on the fourth side. This river is full of sand and stones, and on the six
working days of the week, they tumble over each other with such vehemence that
the crash and the roar are heard far and wide. But on the Sabbath (56) the
tumultuous river subsides into quiet. As a guard against trespassers on that
day, a column of cloud stretches along the whole length of the river, and none
can approach the Sambation within three miles. Hedged in as they are, the Sons
of Moses yet communicate with their brethren of the tribes of Naphtali, Gad,
and Asher, who dwell near the banks of the Sambation. Carrier pigeons bear
letters hither and thither.

In the land of the Sons of Moses there are none but clean animals, and in every
respect the inhabitants lead a holy and pure life, worthy of their ancestor
Moses. They never use an oath, and, if perchance an oath escapes the lips of
one of them, he is at once reminded of the Divine punishment connected with his
act his children will die at a tender age.

The Sons of Moses live peaceably and enjoy prosperity as equals through their
common Jewish faith. They have need of neither prince nor judge, for they know
not strife and litigation. Each works for the welfare of the community, and
each takes from the common store only what will satisfy his needs. Their houses
are built of equal height, that no one may deem himself above his neighbor, and
that that the fresh air may not be hindered from playing freely about all
alike. Even at night their doors stand wide open, for they have naught to fear
from thieves, nor are wild animals known in their land. They all attain a good
old age. The son never dies before the father. When a death occurs, there is
rejoicing, because the departed is known to have entered into life everlasting
in loyalty to his faith. The birth of a child, on the other hand, calls forth
mourning, for who can tell whether the being ushered into the world will be
pious and faithful? The dead are buried near the doors of their own houses, in
order that their survivors, in all their comings and goings, may be reminded of
their own end. Disease is unknown among them, for they never sin, and sickness
is sent only to purify from sins. (57)

EBED-MELECH

The Sons of Moses were not the only ones to escape from under the heavy hand of
Nebuchadnezzar. Still more miraculous was the deliverance of the pious
Ethiopian Ebed-melech from the hands of the Babylonians. He was saved as a
reward for rescuing Jeremiah when the prophet’s life was jeopardized. On the
day before the destruction of the Temple, shortly before the enemy forced his
way into the city, the Ethiopian was sent, by the prophet Jeremiah acting under
Divine instruction, to a certain place in front of the gates of the city, to
dole out refreshments to the poor from a little basket of figs he was to carry
with him. Ebed-melech reached the spot, but the heat was so intense that he
fell asleep under a tree, and there he slept for sixty-six years. When he woke
up, the figs were still fresh and juicy, but all the surroundings had so
changed, he could not make out where he was. His confusion increased when he
entered the city to seek Jeremiah, and found nothing as it had been. He
accosted an old man, and asked him the name of the place. When he was told it
was Jerusalem, Ebed-melech cried out in amazement: “Where is Jeremiah, where is
Baruch, and where are all the people?” The old man was not a little astonished
at these questions. How was it possible that one who had known Jeremiah and
Jerusalem should be ignorant of the events that had passed sixty years before?
In brief words he told Ebed-melech of the destruction of the Temple and of the
captivity of the people, but what he said found no credence with his auditor.
Finally Ebed-melech realized that God had performed a great miracle for him, so
that he had been spared the sight of Israel’s misfortune.

While he was pouring out his heart in gratitude to God, an eagle descended and
led him to Baruch, who lived not far from the city. Thereupon Baruch received
the command from God to write to Jeremiah that the people should remove the
strangers from the midst of them, and then God would lead them back to
Jerusalem. The letter written by Baruch and some of the figs that had retained
their freshness for sixty-six years were carried to Babylonia by an eagle, who
had told Baruch that he had been sent to serve him as a messenger. The eagle
set out on his journey. His first halting-place was a dreary waste spot to
which he knew Jeremiah and the people would come it was the burial-place of
the Jews which Nebuchadnezzar had given the prophet at his solicitation. When
the eagle saw Jeremiah and the people approach with a funeral train, he cried
out: “I have a message for thee, Jeremiah. Let all the people draw nigh to
receive the good tidings.” As a sign that his mission was true, the eagle
touched the corpse, and it came to life. Amidst tears all the people cried unto
Jeremiah: “Save us! What must we do to return to our land?”

The eagle brought Jeremiah’s answer to Baruch, and after the prophet had sent
the Babylonian women away, he returned to Jerusalem with the people. Those who
would not submit to the orders of Jeremiah relative to the heathen women, were
not permitted by the prophet to enter the holy city, and as they likewise were
not permitted to return to Babylonia, they founded the city of Samaria near
Jerusalem. (58)

THE TEMPLE VESSELS

The task laid upon Jeremiah had been twofold. Besides giving him charge over
the people in the land of their exile, God had entrusted to him the care of the
sanctuary and all it contained. (59) The holy Ark, the altar of incense, and
the holy tent were carried by an angel to the mount whence Moses before his
death had viewed the land divinely assigned to Israel. There Jeremiah found a
spacious place, in which he concealed these sacred utensils. Some of his
companions had gone with him to note the way to the cave, but yet they could
not find it. (60) When Jeremiah heard of their purpose, he censured them, for
it was the wish of God that the place of hiding should remain a secret until
the redemption, and then God Himself will make the hidden things visible. (61)

Even the Temple vessels not concealed by Jeremiah were prevented from falling
into the hands of the enemy; the gates of the Temple sank into the earth, (62)
and other parts and utensils were hidden in a tower at Bagdad by the Levite
Shimur (63) and his friends. Among these utensils was the seven-branched
candlestick of pure gold, every branch set with twenty-six pearls, and beside
the pearls two hundred stones of inestimable worth. Furthermore, the tower at
Bagdad was the hiding-place for seventy-seven golden tables, and for the gold
with which the walls of the Temple had been clothed within and without. The
tables had been taken from Paradise by Solomon, and in brilliance they outshone
the sun and the moon, while the gold from the walls excelled in amount and
worth all the gold that had existed from the creation of the world until the
destruction of the Temple. The jewels, pearls, gold, and silver, and precious
gems, which David and Solomon had intended for the Temple were discovered by
the scribe Hilkiah, and he delivered them to the angel Shamshiel, who in turn
deposited the treasure in Borsippa. The sacred musical instruments were taken
charge of and hidden by Baruch and Zedekiah until the advent of the Messiah,
who will reveal all treasures. In his time a stream will break forth from under
the place of the Holy of Holies, and flow through the lands to the Euphrates,
and, as it flows, it will uncover all the treasures buried in the earth. (64)

BARUCH

At the time of the destruction of the Temple, one of the prominent figures was
Baruch, the faithful attendant (65) of Jeremiah. God commanded him to leave the
city one day before the enemy was to enter it, in order that his presence might
not render it impregnable. On the following day, he and all other pious men
having abandoned Jerusalem, he saw from a distance how the angels descended,
set fire to the city walls, and concealed the sacred vessels of the Temple. At
first his mourning over the misfortunes of Jerusalem and the people knew no
bounds. But he was in a measure consoled at the end of a seven days’ fast, when
God made known to him that the day of reckoning would come for the heathen,
too. Other Divine visions were vouchsafed him. The whole future of mankind was
unrolled before his eyes, especially the history of Israel, and he learned that
the coming of the Messiah would put an end to all sorrow and misery, and usher
in the reign of peace and joy among men. As for him, he would be removed from
the earth, he was told, but not through death, and only in order to be kept
safe against the coming of the end of all time. (66)

Thus consoled, Baruch addressed an admonition to the people left in Palestine,
and wrote two letters of the same tenor to the exiles, one to the nine tribes
and a half, the other to the two tribes and a half. The letter to the nine
tribes and a half of the captivity was carried to them by an eagle. (67)

Five years after the great catastrophe, he composed a book in Babylon, (68)
which contained penitential prayers and hymns of consolation, exhorting Israel
and urging the people to return to God and His law. This book Baruch read to
King Jeconiah and the whole people on a day of prayer and penitence. On the
same occasion a collection was taken up among the people, and the funds thus
secured, together with the silver Temple vessels made by order of Zedekiah
after Jeconiah had been carried away captive, were sent to Jerusalem, with the
request that the high priest Joakim and the people should apply the money to
the sacrificial service and to prayers for the life of King Nebuchadnezzar and
his son Belshazzar. Thus they might ensure peace and happiness under Babylonian
rule. Above all, they were to supplicate God to turn away His wrath from His
people.

Baruch sent his book also to the residents of Jerusalem, and they read it in
the Temple on distinguished days, and recited the prayers it contains. (69)

Baruch is one of the few mortals who have been privileged to visit Paradise and
know its secrets. An angel of the Lord appeared to him while he was lamenting
over the destruction of Jerusalem and took him to the seven heavens, to the
place of judgment where the doom of the godless is pronounced, and to the
abodes of the blessed. (70)

He was still among the living at the time in which Cyrus permitted the Jews to
return to Palestine, but on account of his advanced age he could not avail
himself of the permission. So long as he was alive, his disciple Ezra remained
with him in Babylonia, for “the study of the law is more important than the
building of the Temple.” It was only after the death of Baruch that he decided
to gather together the exiles who desired to return to the Holy Land and
rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. (71)

THE TOMBS OF BARUCH AND EZEKIEL

The piety of Baruch and the great favor he enjoyed with God were made known to
later generations many years after his death, through the marvellous
occurrences connected with his tomb. Once a Babylonian prince commanded a Jew,
Rabbi Solomon by name, to show him the grave of Ezekiel, concerning which he
had heard many remarkable tales. The Jew advised the prince first to enter the
tomb of Baruch, which adjoined that of Ezekiel. Having succeeded in this, he
might attempt the same with the tomb of Ezekiel, the teacher of Baruch. (72) In
the presence of his grandees and his people the prince tried to open the grave
of Baruch, but his efforts were fruitless. Whosoever touched it, was at once
stricken dead. An old Arab advised the prince to call upon the Jews to gain
entrance for him, seeing that Baruch had been a Jew, and his books were still
being studied by Jews. The Jews prepared themselves by fasts, prayers,
penitence, and almsgiving, and they succeeded in opening the grave without a
mishap. Baruch was found lying on marble bier, and the appearance of the corpse
was as though he had only then passed away. (73) The prince ordered the bier to
be brought to the city, and the body to be entombed there. He thought it was
not seemly that Ezekiel and Baruch should rest in the same grave. But the
bearers found it impossible to remove the bier more than two thousands ells
from the original grave; not even with the help of numerous draught-animals
could it be urged a single step further. Following the advice of Rabbi Solomon,
the prince resolved to enter the bier on the spot they had reached and also to
erect an academy there. These miraculous happenings induced the prince to go to
Mecca. There he became convinced of the falseness of Mohammedanism, of which he
had hitherto been an adherent, and he converted to Judaism, he and his whole
court.

Near the grave of Baruch there grows a species of grass whose leaves are
covered with gold dust. As the sheen of the gold is not readily noticeable by
day, the people seek out the place at night, mark the very spot on which the
grass grows, and return by day and gather it. (74)

Not less famous is the tomb of Ezekiel, at a distance of two thousand ells from
Baruch’s. It is overarched by a beautiful mausoleum erected by King Jeconiah
after Evil-merodach had released him from captivity. The mausoleum existed down
to the middle ages, and it bore on its walls the names of the thirty-five
thousand Jews who assisted Jeconiah in erecting the monument. It was the scene
of many miracles. When great crowds of people journeyed thither to pay
reverence to the memory of the prophet, the little low gate in the wall
surrounding the grave enlarged in width and height to admit all who desired to
enter. Once a prince vowed to give a colt to the grave of the prophet, if but
his mare which had been sterile would bear one. When his wish was fulfilled,
however, he did not keep his promise. But the filly ran a distance equal to a
four days’ journey to the tomb, and his owner could not recover it until he
deposited his value in silver upon the grace. When people went on long
journeys, they were in the habit of carrying their treasures to the grave of
the prophet, and beseeching him to let none but the rightful heirs remove them
thence. The prophet always granted their petition. Once when an attempt was
made to take some books from the grave of Ezekiel, the ravager suddenly became
sick and blind. For a time a pillar of fire, visible at a great distance, rose
above the grave of the prophet, but it disappeared in consequence of the
unseemly conduct of the pilgrims who resorted thither.

Not far from the grave of Ezekiel was the grave of Barozak, who once appeared
to a rich Jew in a dream. He spoke: “I am Barozak, one of the princes who were
led into captivity with Jeremiah. I am one of the just. If thou wilt erect a
handsome mausoleum for me, thou wilt be blessed with progeny.” The Jew did as
he had been bidden, and he who had been childless, shortly after became a
father. (75)

DANIEL

The most distinguished member of the Babylonian Diaspora was Daniel. Though not
a prophet, (76) he was surpassed by none in wisdom, piety, and good deeds. His
firm adherence to Judaism he displayed from his early youth, when, a page at
the royal court, he refused to partake of the bread, wine, and oil of the
heathen, even though the enjoyment of them was not prohibited by the law. (77)
In general, his prominent position at the court was maintained at the cost of
many a hardship, for he and his companions, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,
were envied their distinctions by numerous enemies, who sought to compass their
ruin.

Once they were accused before King Nebuchadnezzar of leading an unchaste life.
The king resolved to order their execution. But Daniel and his friends
mutilated certain parts of their bodies, and so demonstrated how unfounded were
the charges against them. (78)

As a youth Daniel gave evidence of his wisdom, when he convicted two old
sinners of having testified falsely against Susanna, as beautiful as she was
good. Misled by the perjured witnesses, the court had condemned Susanna to
death. Then Daniel, impelled by a higher power, appeared among the people,
proclaimed that wrong had been done, and demanded that the case be re-opened.
And so it was. Daniel himself cross-questioned the witnesses one after the
other. The same questions were addressed to both, and as the replies did not
agree with each other, the false witnesses stood condemned, and they were made
to suffer the penalty they would have had the court inflict upon their victim.
(79)

Daniel’s high position in the state dates from the time when he interpreted
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The king said to the astrologers and magicians: “I know
my dream, but I do not want to tell you what it was, else you will invent
anything at all, and pretend it is the interpretation of the dream. But if you
tell me the dream, then I shall have confidence in your interpretation of it.”

After much talk between Nebuchadnezzar and his wise men, they confessed that
the king’s wish might have been fulfilled, if but the Temple had still existed.
The high priest at Jerusalem might have revealed the secret by consulting the
Urim and Thummim. At this point the king became wrathful against his wise men,
who had advised him to destroy the Temple, though they must have known how
useful it might become to the king and the state. He ordered them all to
execution. Their life was saved by Daniel, who recited the king’s dream, and
gave its interpretation. (80) The king was so filled with admiration of
Daniel’s wisdom that he paid him Divine honors. Daniel, however, refused such
extravagant treatment he did not desire to be the object of idolatrous
veneration. (81) He left Nebuchadnezzar in order to escape the marks of honor
thrust upon him, and repaired to Tiberias, where he build a canal. Besides, he
was charged by the king with commissions, to bring fodder for cattle to
Babylonia and also swine from Alexandria. (82)

THE THREE MEN IN THE FURNACE

During Daniel’s absence Nebuchadnezzar set up an idol, and its worship was
exacted from all his subject under penalty of death by fire. The image could
not stand on account of the disproportion between its height and its thickness.
The whole of the gold and silver captured by the Babylonians in Jerusalem was
needed to give it steadiness. (83)

All the nations owning the rule of Nebuchadnezzar, including even Israel,
obeyed the royal command to worship the image. Only the three pious companions
of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, resisted the order. In vain
Nebuchadnezzar urged upon them, as an argument in favor if idolatry, that the
Jews had been so devoted to heathen practices before the destruction of
Jerusalem that they had gone to Babylonia for the purpose of imitating the
idols there and bringing the copies they made to Jerusalem. The three saints
would not hearken to these seductions of the king, nor when he referred them to
such authorities as Moses and Jeremiah, in order to prove to them that they
were under obligation to do the royal bidding. They said to him: “Thou art our
king in all that concerns service, taxes, poll-money, and tribute, but with
respect to thy present command thou art only Nebuchadnezzar. Therein thou and
the dog are alike unto us. Bark like a dog, inflate thyself like a
water-bottle, and chirp like a cricket.” (84)

Now Nebuchadnezzar’s wrath transcended all bound, and he ordered the three to
be cast into a red hot furnace, so hot that the flames of its fire darted to
the height of forty-nine ells beyond the oven, and consumed the heathen
standing about it. No less than four nations were thus exterminated. (85) While
the three saints were being thrust into the furnace, they addressed a fervent
prayer to God, supplicating His grace toward them, and entreating Him to put
their adversaries to shame. The angels desired to descend and rescue the three
men in the furnace. But God forbade it: “Did the three men act thus for your
sakes? Nay, they did it for Me; and I will save them with Mine own hands.” (86)
God also rejected the good offices of Yurkami, the angel of hail who offered to
extinguish the fire in the furnace. The angel Gabriel justly pointed out that
such a miracle would not be sufficiently striking to arrest attention. His own
proposition was accepted. He, the angel of fire, was deputed to snatch the
three men from the red hot furnace. He executed his mission by cooling off the
fire inside of the oven, while on the outside the heat continued to increase to
such a degree that the heathen standing around the furnace were consumed. (87)
The three youths thereupon raised their voices together in a hymn of praise to
God, thanking Him for His miraculous help. (88) The Chaldeans observed the
three men pacing up and down quietly in the furnace, followed by a fourth the
angel Gabriel as by an attendant. Nebuchadnezzar, who hastened thither to see
the wonder, was stunned with fright, for he recognized Gabriel to be the angel
who in the guise of a column of fire had blasted the army of Sennacherib. (89)
Six other miracles happened, all of them driving terror to the heart of the
king: the fiery furnace which had been sunk in the ground raised itself into
the air; it was broken; the bottom dropped out; the image erected by
Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate; four nations were wasted by fire; and Ezekiel
revived the dead in the valley of Dura.

Of the last, Nebuchadnezzar was apprised in a peculiar way. He had a drinking
vessel made of the bones of a slain Jew. When he was about to use it, life
began to stir in the bones, and a blow was planted in the king’s face, while a
voice announced: “A friend of this man is at this moment reviving the dead!”
Nebuchadnezzar now offered praise to God for the miracles performed, and if an
angel had not quickly struck him a blow on his mouth, and forced him into
silence, his psalms of praise would have excelled the Psalter of David.

The deliverance of the three pious young men was a brilliant vindication of
their ways, but at the same time it caused great mortification to the masses of
the Jewish people, who had complied with the order of Nebuchadnezzar to worship
his idol. (90) Accordingly, when the three men left the furnace which they
did not do until Nebuchadnezzar invited them to leave (91) the heathen struck
all the Jews they met in the face, deriding them at the same time: “You who
have so marvellous a God pay homage to an idol!” The three men thereupon left
Babylonia and went to Palestine, where they joined their friend, the high
priest Joshua. (92)

Their readiness to sacrifice their lives for the honor of God had been all the
more admirable as they had been advised by the prophet Ezekiel that no miracle
would be done for their sakes. When the king’s command to bow down before the
idol was published, and the three men were appointed to act as the
representatives of the people, Hananiah and his companions resorted to Daniel
for his advice. He referred them to the prophet Ezekiel, who counselled flight,
citing his teacher Isaiah as his authority. The three men rejected his advice,
and declared themselves ready to suffer the death of martyrs. Ezekiel bade them
tarry until he inquired of God, whether a miracle would be done for them. The
words of God were: “I shall not manifest Myself as their savior. They caused My
house to be destroyed, My palace to be burnt, My children to be dispersed among
the heathen, and now they appeal for My help. As I live, I will not be found of
them.”

Instead of discouraging the three men, this answer but infused new spirit and
resolution in them, and they declared with more decided emphasis than before,
that they were ready to meet death. God consoled the weeping prophet by
revealing to him, that He would save the three saintly heroes. He had sought to
restrain them from martyrdom only to let their piety and steadfastness appear
the brighter.

On account of their piety it became customary to swear by the Name of Him who
supports the world on three pillars, the pillars being the saints Hananiah,
Mishael, and Azariah. Their deliverance from death by fire worked a great
effect upon the disposition of the heathen. They were convinced of the
uselessness of their idols, and with their own hands they destroyed them. (93)

EZEKIEL REVIVES THE DEAD

Among the dead whom Ezekiel restored to life (94) at the same time when the
three men were redeemed from the fiery furnace were different classes of
persons. Some were the Ephraimites that had perished in the attempt to escape
from Egypt before Moses led the whole nation out of the land of bondage. Some
were the godless among the Jews that had polluted the Temple at Jerusalem with
heathen rites, and those still more godless who in life had not believed in the
resurrection of the dead. Others of those revived by Ezekiel were the youths
among the Jews carried away captive to Babylonia by Nebuchadnezzar whose beauty
was so radiant that it darkened the very splendor of the sun. The Babylonian
women were seized with a great passion for them, and at the solicitation of
their husbands, Nebuchadnezzar ordered a bloody massacre of the handsome
youths. But the Babylonian women were not yet cured of their unlawful passion;
the beauty of the young Hebrews haunted them until their corpses lay crushed
before them, their graceful bodies mutilated. These were the youths recalled to
life by the prophet Ezekiel. Lastly, he revived some that had perished only a
short time before. When Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were saved from death,
Nebuchadnezzar thus addressed the other Jews, those who had yielded obedience
to his command concerning the worship of the idol: “You know that your God can
help and save, nevertheless you paid worship to an idol which is incapable of
doing anything. This proves that, as you have destroyed your own land by your
wicked deeds, so you are now trying to destroy my land with your iniquity.”
Forthwith he commanded that they all be executed, sixty thousand in number.
Twenty years passed, and Ezekiel was vouchsafed the vision in which God bade
him repair to the Valley of Dura, where Nebuchadnezzar had set up his idol, and
had massacred the host of the Jews. Here God showed him the dry bones of the
slain with the question: “Can I revive these bones?” Ezekiel’s answer was
evasive, and as a punishment for his little faith, he had to end his days in
Babylon, and was not granted even burial in the soil of Palestine. God then
dropped the dew of heaven upon the dry bones, and “sinews were upon them, and
flesh came up, and skin covered them above.” At the same time God sent forth
winds to the four corners of the earth, which unlocked the treasure houses of
souls, and brought its own soul to each body. All came to life except one man,
who, as God explained to the prophet, was excluded from the resurrection
because he was a usurer.

In spite of the marvellous miracle performed from them, the men thus restored
to life wept, because they feared they would have no share at the end of time
in the resurrection of the whole of Israel. But the prophet assured them, in
the name of God, that their portion in all that had been promised Israel should
in no wise be diminished. (95)

NEBUCHADNEZZAR A BEAST

Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of the whole world, (96) to whom even the wild
animals paid obedience, his pet was a lion with a snake coiled about its
neck, (97) did not escape punishment for his sins. He was chastised as none
before him. He whom fear of God had at first held back from a war against
Jerusalem, and who had to be dragged forcibly, as he sat on his horse, to the
Holy of Holies (98) by the archangel Michael, he later became so arrogant that
he thought himself a god, (99) and cherished the plan of enveloping himself in
a cloud, so that he might live apart from men. (100) A heavenly voice
resounded: “O thou wicked man, son of a wicked man, and descendant of Nimrod
the wicked, who incited the world to rebel against God! Behold, the days of the
years of a man are threescore years and ten, or perhaps by reason of strength
fourscore years. It takes five hundred years to traverse the distance of the
earth from the first heaven, and as long a time to penetrate from the bottom to
the top of the first heaven, and not less are the distances from one of the
seven heavens to the next. How, then, canst thou speak of ascending like unto
the Most High ‘above the heights of the clouds’?” (101) For this transgression
of deeming himself more than a man, he was punished by being made to live for
some time as a beast among beasts, treated by them as though he were one of
them. (102) For forty days (103) he led this life. As far down as his navel he
had the appearance of an ox, and the lower part of his body resembled that of a
lion. Like an ox he ate grass, and like a lion he attacked a curious crowd, but
Daniel spent his time in prayer, entreating that the seven years of this
brutish life allotted to Nebuchadnezzar might be reduced to seven months. His
prayer was granted. At the end of forty days reason returned to the king, the
next forty days he passed in weeping bitterly over his sins, and in the
interval that remained to complete the seven months he again lived the life of
a beast. (104)

HIRAM

Hiram, the king of Tyre, was a contemporary of Nebuchadnezzar, and in many
respects resembled him. He, too, esteemed himself a god, and sought to make men
believe in his divinity by the artificial heavens he fashioned for himself. In
the sea he erected four iron pillars, on which he build up seven heavens, each
five hundred ells larger than the one below. The first was a plate of glass of
five hundred square ells, and the second a plate of iron of a thousand square
ells. The third, of lead, and separated from the second by canals, contained
huge round boulders, which produced the sound of thunder on the iron. The
fourth heaven was of brass, the fifth of copper, the sixth of silver, and the
seventh of gold, all separated from each other by canals. In the seventh,
thirty-five hundred ells in extent, he had diamonds and pearls, which he
manipulated so as to produce the effect of flashes and sheets of lightening,
while the stones below imitated the growling of the thunder.

As Hiram was thus floating above the earth, in his vain imagination deeming
himself superior to the rest of men, he suddenly perceived the prophet Ezekiel
next to himself. He had been waved thither by a wind. Frightened and amazed,
Hiram asked the prophet how he had risen to his heights. The answer was: “God
brought me here, and He bade me ask thee why thou art so proud, thou born of
woman?” The king of Tyre replied defiantly: “I am not one born of woman; I live
forever, and as God resides on the sea, so my abode is on the sea, and as He
inhabits seven heavens, so do I. See how many kings I have survived! Twenty-one
of the House of David, and as many of the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes, and no
less than fifty prophets and ten high priests have I buried.” Thereupon God
said: “I will destroy My house, that henceforth Hiram may have no reason for
self-glorification, because all his pride comes only from the circumstance that
he furnished the cedar-trees for the building of the Temple.” The end of this
proud king was that he was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, deprived of this
throne, and made to suffer a cruel death. Though the Babylonian king was the
step-son of Hiram, he had no mercy with him. Daily he cut off a bit of the
flesh of his body, and forced the Tyrian king to eat it, until the finally
perished. Hiram’s palace was swallowed by the earth, and in the bowels of the
earth it will remain until it shall emerge in the future world as the
habitation of the pious. (105)

THE FALSE PROPHETS

Not only among the heathen, but also among the Jews there were very sinful
people in those days. The most notorious Jewish sinners were the two false
prophets Ahab and Zedekiah. Ahab came to the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar and
said: “Yield thyself to Zedekiah,” telling her this in the form of a Divine
message. The same was done by Zedekiah, who only varied the message by
substituting the name of Ahab. The princess could not accept such messages as
Divine, and she told her father what had occurred. (106) Though Nebuchadnezzar
was so addicted to immoral practices that he was in the habit of making his
captive kings drunk, and then satisfying his unnatural lusts upon them, and a
miracle had to interpose to shield the pious of Judah against this disgrace,
(107) yet he well knew that the God of the Jews hates immorality. He therefore
questioned Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah about it, and they emphatically
denied the possibility that such a message could have come from God. The
prophets of lies refused to recall their statements, and Nebuchadnezzar decided
to subject them to the same fiery test as he had decreed for the three pious
companions of Daniel. To be fair toward them, the king permitted them to choose
a third fellow-sufferer, some pious man to share their lot. Seeing no escape,
Ahab and Zedekiah asked for Joshua, later the high priest, as their companion
in the furnace, in the hope that his distinguished merits would suffice to save
all three of them. They were mistaken. Joshua emerged unhurt, only his garments
were seared, but the false prophets were consumed. Joshua explained the
singeing of his garments by the fact that he was directly exposed to the full
fury of the flames. But the truth was that he had to expiate the sins of his
sons, who had contracted marriages unworthy of their dignity and descent.
Therefore their father escaped death only after the fire had burnt his
garments. (108)

DANIEL’S PIETY

No greater contrast to Hiram and the false prophets Ahab and Zedekiah can be
imagined than is presented by the character of the pious Daniel. When
Nebuchadnezzar offered him Divine honors, (109) he refused what Hiram sought to
obtain by every means in his power. The Babylonian king felt so ardent an
admiration for Daniel that he sent him from the country when the time arrived
to worship the idol he had erected in Dura, for he knew very well that Daniel
would prefer death in the flames to disregard of the commands of God, and he
could not well have cast the man into the fire to whom he had paid Divine
homage. Moreover, it was the wish of God that Daniel should not pass through
the fiery ordeal at the same time as his three friends, in order that their
deliverance might not be ascribed to him. (110)

In spite of all this, Nebuchadnezzar endeavored to persuade Daniel by gentle
means to worship an idol. He had the golden diadem of the high priest inserted
in the mouth of an idol, and by reason of the wondrous power that resides in
the Holy Name inscribed on the diadem, the idol gained the ability to speak,
and it said the words: “I am thy God.” Thus were many seduced to worship the
image. But Daniel could not be misled so easily. He secured permission from the
king to kiss the idol. Laying his mouth upon the idol’s, he adjured the diadem
in the following words: “I am but flesh and blood, yet at the same time a
messenger of God. I therefore admonish thee, take heed that the Name of the
Holy One, blessed be He, may not be desecrated, and I order thee to follow me.”
So it happened. When the heathen came with music and song to give honor to the
idol, it emitted no sound, but a storm broke loose and overturned it. (111)

On still another occasion Nebuchadnezzar tried to persuade Daniel to worship an
idol, this time a dragon that devoured all who approached it, and therefore was
adored as a god by the Babylonians. Daniel had straw mixed with nails fed to
him, and the dragon ate and perished almost immediately. (112)

All this did not prevent Daniel from keeping the welfare of the king in mind
continually. Hence it was that when Nebuchadnezzar was engaged in setting his
house in order, he desired to mention ‘Daniel in his will as one of his heirs.
But the Jew refused with the words: “Far be it from me to leave the inheritance
of my fathers for that of the uncircumcised.” (113)

Nebuchadnezzar died after having reigned forty years, as long as King David.
(114) The death of the tyrant brought hope and joy to many a heart, for his
severity had been such that during his lifetime none dared laugh, and when he
descended to Sheol, its inhabitants trembled, fearing he had come to reign over
them, too. However, a heavenly voice called to him: “Go down, and be thou laid
down with the uncircumcised.” (115)

The interment of this great king was anything but what one might have expected,
and for this reason: During the seven years spent by Nebuchadnezzar among the
beast, his son Evil-merodach ruled in his stead. Nebuchadnezzar reappeared
after his period of penance, and incarcerated his son for life. When the death
of Nebuchadnezzar actually did occur, Evil-merodach refused to accept the
homage the nobles brought him as the new king, because he feared that his
father was not dead, but had only disappeared as once before, and would return
again. To convince him of the groundlessness of his apprehension, the corpse of
Nebuchadnezzar, badly mutilated by his enemies, was dragged through the
streets. (116)

Shortly afterward occurred the death of Zedekiah, the dethroned king of Judah.
His burial took place amid great demonstrations of sympathy and mourning. The
elegy over him ran thus: “Alas that King Zedekiah had to die, he who quaffed
the lees which all the generations before him accumulated.” (117)

Zedekiah reached a good old age, (118) for though it was in his reign that the
destruction of Jerusalem took place, yet it was the guilt of the nation, not of
the king, that had brought about the catastrophe. (119)

XI.
THE RETURN OF THE CAPTIVITY

BELSHAZZAR’S FEAST

When God resolved to take revenge upon Babylon for all the sufferings it had
inflicted on Israel, He chose Darius and Cyrus as the agents of vengeance.
Cyrus, the king of Persia, and his father-in-law Darius, the king of Media,
together went up against Belshazzar, the ruler of the Chaldeans. The war lasted
a considerable time, and fortune favored first one side, then the other, until
finally the Chaldeans won a decisive victory. To celebrate the event,
Belshazzar arranged a great banquet, which was served from the vessels taken
out of the Temple at Jerusalem by his father. While the king and his guests
were feasting, the angel sent by God put the “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin” on
the wall, Aramaic words in Hebrew characters, (1) written with red ink. The
angel was seen by none but the king. His grandees and the princes of the realm
who were present at the orgy perceived nothing. The king himself did not see
the form of the angel, only his awesome fingers as they traced the words were
visible to him.

The interpretation given to the enigmatical words by Daniel put an end to the
merry-making of the feasters. They scattered in dread and fear, leaving none
behind except the king and his attendants. In the same night the king was
murdered by an old servant, who knew Daniel from the time of Nebuchadnezzar,
and doubted not that his sinister prophecy would be fulfilled. With the head of
King Belshazzar he betook himself to Darius and Cyrus, and told them how his
master had desecrated the sacred vessels, told them of the wonderful writing on
the wall, and of the way it had been interpreted by Daniel. The two kings were
moved by his recital to vow solemnly that they would permit the Jews to return
to Palestine, and would grant them the use of the Temple vessels.

They resumed the war against Babylonia with more energy, and God vouchsafed
them victory. They conquered the whole of Belshazzar’s realm, and took
possession of the city of Babylon, whose inhabitants, young and old, were made
to suffer death. The subjugated lands were divided between Cyrus and Darius,
the latter receiving Babylon and Media, the former Chaldea, Persia, and
Assyria. (2)

But this is not the whole story of the fall of Babylon. The wicked king
Belshazzar arranged the banquet at which the holy vessels were desecrated in
the fifth year of his reign, because he thought it wholly certain then that all
danger was past of the realization of Jeremiah’s prophecy, foretelling the
return of the Jews to Palestine at the end of seventy years of Babylonian rule
over them. Nebuchadnezzar had governed twenty-five years, and Evil-merodach
twenty-three, leaving five years in the reign of Belshazzar for the fulfilment
of the appointed time. (3) Not enough that the king scoffed at God by using the
Temple vessels, he needs must have the pastry for the banquet, which was given
on the second day of the Passover festival, made of wheaten flour finer than
that used on this day for the `Omer in the Temple.

Punishment followed hard upon the heels of the atrocity. Cyrus and Darius
served as door-keepers of the royal palace on the evening of the banquet. They
had received orders from Belshazzar to admit none, though he should say he was
the king himself. Belshazzar was forced to leave his apartments for a short
time, and he went out unnoticed by the two door-keepers. On his return, when he
asked to be admitted, they felled him dead, even while he was asseverating that
he was the king. (4)

DANIEL UNDER THE PERSIAN KINGS

Daniel left Belshazzar and fled to Shushtar, where he was kindly received by
Cyrus, who promised him to have the Temple vessels taken back to Jerusalem,
provided Daniel would pray to God to grant him success in his war with the king
of Mosul. God gave Daniel’s prayer a favorable hearing, and Cyrus was true to
his promise.

Daniel now received the Divine charge to urge Cyrus to rebuild the Temple. To
this end he was to introduce Ezra and Zerubbabel to the king. Ezra then went
from place to place and called upon the people to return to Palestine. Sad to
say, only a tribe and a half obeyed his summons. Indeed, the majority of the
people were so wroth against Ezra that they sought to slay him. He escaped the
peril to his life only by a Divine miracle. (5)

Daniel, too, was exposed to much suffering at this time. King Cyrus cast him
into a den of lions, because he refused to bow down before the idol of the
king. For seven days Daniel lay among the wild beasts, and not a hair of his
head was touched. When the king at the end of the week found Daniel alive, he
could not but acknowledge the sovereign grandeur of God. Cyrus released Daniel,
and instead had his calumniators thrown to the lions. In an instant they were
rent in pieces. (6)

In general Cyrus fell far short of coming up to the expectations set in him for
piety and justice. Though he granted permission to the Jews to rebuild the
Temple, they were to use no material but wood, so that it might easily be
destroyed if the Jews should take it into their head to rebel against him. Even
in point of morals, the Persian king was not above reproach. (7)

Another time Cyrus pressingly urged Daniel to pay homage to the idol Bel. As
proof of the divinity of the idol the king advanced the fact that it ate the
dishes set before it, a report spread by the priests of Bel, who entered the
Temple of the idol at night, through subterranean passages, themselves ate up
the dishes, and then attributed their disappearance to the appetite of the god.
But Daniel was too shrewd to be misled by a fabricated story. He had the ashes
strewn upon the floor of the Temple, and the foot-prints visible the next
morning convinced the king of the deceit practiced by the priests. (8)

Pleasant relations did not continue to subsist forever between Cyrus and
Darius. A war broke out between them, in which Cyrus lost life and lands.
Fearing Darius, Daniel fled to Persia. But an angel of God appeared to him with
the message: “Fear not the king, not unto him will I surrender thee.” Shortly
afterward he received a letter from Darius reading as follows: “Come to me,
Daniel! Fear naught, I shall be even kinder to thee than Cyrus was.”
Accordingly Daniel returned to Shushtar, and was received with great
consideration by Darius.

One day the king chanced to remember the sacred garments brought by
Nebuchadnezzar out of the Temple at Jerusalem to Babylon. They had vanished,
and no trace of them could be discovered. The king suspected Daniel of having
had something to do with their disappearance. It booted little that he
protested his innocence, he was cast into prison. God sent an angel who was to
blind Darius, telling him at the same time that he was deprived of the light of
his eyes because he was keeping the pious Daniel in durance, and sight would be
restored to him only if Daniel interceded for him. The king at once released
Daniel, and the two together journeyed to Jerusalem to pray on the holy place
for the restoration of the king. An angel appeared to Daniel, and announced to
him that his prayer had been heard. The king had but to wash his eyes, and
vision would return to them. So it happened. Darius gave thanks to God, and in
his gratitude assigned the tithe of his grain to the priests and the Levites.
Besides, he testified his appreciation to Daniel by loading him down with
gifts, and both returned to Shushtar. The recovery of the king convinced many
of his subjects of the omnipotence of God, and they converted to Judaism. (9)

Following the advice of Daniel, Darius (10) appointed a triumvirate to take
charge of the administration of his realm, and Daniel was made the chief of the
council of three. His high dignity he was second to none but the king himself
exposed him to envy and hostility on all sides. His enemies plotted his ruin.
With cunning they induced the king to sign an order attaching the penalty of
death to prayers addressed to any god or any man other than Darius. (11) Though
the order did not require Daniel to commit a sin, he preferred to give his life
for the honor of the one God rather than omit his devotions to Him. When his
jealous enemies surprised him during his prayers, he did not interrupt himself.
He was dragged before the king, who refused to give credence to the charge
against Daniel. Meanwhile the hour for the afternoon prayer arrived, and in the
presence of the king and his princes Daniel began to perform his devotions.
This naturally rendered unavailing all efforts made by the king to save his
friend from death. Daniel was cast into a pit full of lions. The entrance to
the pit was closed up with a rock, which had all of its own accord rolled from
Palestine to protect him against any harm contemplated by his enemies. (12) The
ferocious beasts welcomed the pious Daniel like dogs fawning upon their master
on his return home, licking his hands and wagging their tails.

While this was passing in Babylon, an angel appeared to the prophet Habakkuk in
Judea. He ordered the prophet to bring Daniel the food he was about to carry to
his laborers in the field. Astonished, Habakkuk asked the angel how he could
carry it to so great a distance, whereupon he was seized by his hair, and in a
moment set down before Daniel. They dined together, and then the angel
transported Habakkuk back to his place in Palestine. Early in the morning
Darius (13) went to the pit of the lions to discover the fate of Daniel. The
king called his name, but he received no answer, because Daniel was reciting
the Shema at that moment, (14) after having spent the night in giving praise
and adoration to God. (15) Seeing that he was still alive, the king summoned
the enemies of Daniel to the pit. It was their opinion that the lions had not
been hungry, and therefore Daniel was still unhurt. The king commanded them to
put the beasts to the test with their own persons. The result was that the
hundred and twenty-two enemies of Daniel, together with their wives and
children numbering two hundred and forty-four persons, were torn in shreds by
fourteen hundred and sixty-four lions. (16)

The miraculous escape of Daniel brought him more distinguished consideration
and greater honors than before. The king published the wonders done by God in
all parts of his land, and called upon the people to betake themselves to
Jerusalem and help in the erection of the Temple.

Daniel entreated the king to relieve him of the duties of his position, for the
performance of which he no longer felt himself fit, on account of his advanced
age. The king consented on condition that Daniel designate a successor worthy
of him. His choice fell upon Zerubbabel. Loaded with rich presents and amid
public demonstrations designed to honor him, Daniel retired from public life.
He settled in the city of Shushan, where he abode until his end. (17) Though he
was no prophet, God vouchsafed to him a knowledge of the “end of time” not
granted his friends, the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, (18) but even
he, in the fulness of his years, lost all memory of the revelation with which
he had been favored. (19)

THE GRAVE OF DANIEL

Daniel was buried in Shushan, on account of which a sore quarrel was enkindled
among the inhabitants of the city. Shushan is divided in two parts by a river.
The side containing the grave of Daniel was occupied by the wealthy
inhabitants, and the poor citizens lived on the other side of the river. The
latter maintained that they, too, would be rich if the grave of Daniel were in
their quarter. The frequent disputes and conflicts were finally adjusted by a
compromise; one year the bier of Daniel reposed on one side of the river, the
next year on the other. When the Persian king Sanjar came to Shushan, he put a
stop to the practice of dragging the bier hither and thither. He resorted to
another device for guarding the peace of the city. He had the bier suspended
from chains precisely in the middle of the bridge spanning the river. In the
same spot he erected a house of prayer for all confessions, and out of respect
to Daniel he prohibited fishing in the river for a distance of a mile on either
side of the memorial building. (20) The sacredness of the spot appeared when
the godless tried to pass by. They were drowned, while the pious remained
unscathed. Furthermore, the fish that swam near it had heads glittering like
gold. (21)

Beside the house of Daniel lay a stone, under which he had concealed the holy
Temple vessels. Once an attempt was made to roll the stone from its place, but
whoever ventured to touch it, fell dead. The same fate overtook all who later
tried to make excavations near the spot; a storm broke out and mowed them down.
(22)

ZERUBBABEL

The successor to Daniel in the service of the king, Zerubbabel, enjoyed equally
as much royal consideration and affection. He occupied a higher position than
all the other servants and officials, and he and two others constituted the
body-guard of the king. (23) Once when the king lay wrapped in deep slumber,
his guards resolved to write down what each of them considered the mightiest
thing in the world, and he who wrote the sagest saying should be given rich
presents and rewards by the king. What they wrote they laid under the pillow on
which the head of the king rested, that he might not delay to make a decision
after he awoke. The first one wrote: “Wine is the mightiest thing there is”;
the second wrote: “The king is the mightiest on earth,” and the third,
Zerubbabel, wrote: “Women are the mightiest in the world, but truth prevails
over all else.” When the king awoke, and he perused the document, he summoned
the grandees of his realm and the three youths as well. Each of the three was
called upon to justify his saying. In eloquent words the first described the
potency of wine. When it takes possession of the senses of a man, he forgets
grief and sorrow. Still more beautiful and convincing were the words of the
second speaker, when his turn came to establish the truth of his saying, that
the king was the mightiest on earth. Finally Zerubbabel depicted in glowing
words the power of woman, who rules even over kings. “But,” he continued,
“truth is supreme over all; the whole earth asks for truth, the heavens sing
the praises of truth, all creation quakes and trembles before truth, naught of
wrong can be found in truth. Unto truth belongeth the might, the dominion, the
power, and the glory of all times. Blessed be the God of truth.” When
Zerubbabel ceased from speaking, the assembly broke out into the words: “Great
is truth, it is mightier than all else!” The king was so charmed with the
wisdom of Zerubbabel that he said to him: “Ask for aught thou wishest, it shall
be granted thee.” Zerubbabel required nothing for himself, he only sought
permission of the king to restore Jerusalem, rebuild the sanctuary, and return
the holy Temple vessels to the place whence they had been carried off. Not only
did Darius grant what Zerubbabel wished for, not only did he give him letters
of safe-conduct, but he also conferred numerous privileges upon the Jews who
accompanied Zerubbabel to Palestine, and he sent abundant presents to the
Temple and its officers. (24)

As unto his predecessor Daniel, so unto Zerubbabel, God vouchsafed a knowledge
of the secrets of the future. Especially the archangel Metatron dealt kindly
with him. Besides revealing to him the time at which the Messiah would appear,
he brought about an interview between the Messiah and Zerubbabel. (25)

In reality, Zerubbabel was none other than Nehemiah, who was given this second
name because he was born in Babylon. (26) Richly endowed as Zerubbabel-Nehemiah
was with admirable qualities, he yet did not lack faults. He was excessively
self-complacent, and he did not hesitate to fasten a stigma publicly upon his
predecessors in the office of governor in the land of Judah, among whom was so
excellent a man as Daniel. To punish him for these transgressions, the Book of
Ezra does not bear the name of its real author Nehemiah. (27)

When Darius felt his end approach, (28) he appointed his son-in-law Cyrus, (29)
who had hitherto reigned only over Persia, to be the ruler over his kingdom as
well. His wish was honored by the princes of Media and Persia. After Darius had
departed this life, Cyrus was proclaimed king.

In the very first year of his reign, Cyrus summoned the most distinguished of
the Jews to appear before him, and he gave them permission to return to
Palestine and rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem. More than this, he pledged
himself to contribute to the Temple service in proportion to his means, and pay
honor to the God who had invested him with strength to subdue the Chaldeans.
These actions of Cyrus partly flowed from his own pious inclinations, and
partly were due to his desire to accomplish the dying behests of Darius, who
had admonished him to give the Jews the opportunity of rebuilding the Temple.

When the first sacrifice was to be brought by the company of Jews who returned
to Jerusalem under the leadership of Ezra, and set about restoring the Temple,
they missed the celestial fire which had dropped from heaven on the altar in
the time of Moses, and had not been extinguished so long as the Temple stood.
They turned in supplication to God to be instructed by Him. The celestial fire
had been hidden by Jeremiah at the time of the destruction of the Holy City,
and the law did not permit them to bring “strange fire” upon the altar of God.
An old man suddenly remembered the spot in which Jeremiah had buried the holy
fire, and he led the elders thither. They rolled away the stone covering the
spot, and from under it appeared a spring flowing not with water, but with a
sort of oil. Ezra ordered this fluid to be sprinkled upon the altar, and
forthwith an all-consuming flame shot up. The priests themselves scattered in
fright. But after the Temple and its vessels were purified by the flame, it
confined itself to the altar never more to leave it, for the priest guarded it
so that it might not be extinguished. (30)

Among the band of returned exiles were the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and
Malachi. Each one of them had a place of the greatest importance to fill in the
rebuilding of the Temple. By the first the people were shown the plan of the
altar, which was larger than the one that had stood in Solomon’s Temple. The
second informed them of the exact location of the altar, and the third taught
them that the sacrifices might be brought on the holy place even before the
completion of the Temple. On the authority of one of the prophets, the Jews, on
their return from Babylonia, gave up their original Hebrew characters, and
re-wrote the Torah in the “Assyrian” characters still in use at this day. (31)

While the Temple work was in progress, the builders found the skull of Araunah,
the owner of the Temple site in the time of David. The priests, unlearned as
they were, could not decide to what extent the corpse lying there had defiled
the holy place. It was for this that Haggai poured out his reproaches upon
them. (32)

EZRA

The complete resettlement of Palestine took place under the direction of Ezra,
or, as the Scriptures sometimes call him, Malachi. (33) He had not been present
at the earlier attempts (34) to restore the sanctuary, because he could not
leave his old teacher Baruch, who was too advanced in years to venture upon the
difficult journey to the Holy Land. (35)

In spite of Ezra’s persuasive efforts, it was but a comparatively small portion
of the people that joined the procession winding its way westward to Palestine.
For this reason the prophetical spirit did not show itself during the existence
of the Second Temple. Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi were the last
representatives of prophecy. (36) Nothing was more surprising than the apathy
of the Levites. They manifested no desire to return to Palestine. Their
punishment was the loss of the tithes, which were later given to the priest,
though the Levites had the first claim upon them. (37)

In restoring the Jewish state in Palestine, Ezra cherished two hopes, to
preserve the purity of the Jewish race, and to spread the study of the Torah
until it should become the common property of the people at large. To help on
his first purpose, he inveighed against marriages between the Jews and the
nations round about. (38) He himself had carefully worked out his own pedigree
before he consented to leave Babylonia, (39) and in order to perpetuate the
purity of the families and groups remaining in the East, he took all the
“unfit” (40) with him to Palestine.

In the realization of his second hope, the spread of the Torah, Ezra was so
zealous and efficient that it was justly said of him: “If Moses had not
anticipated him, Ezra would have received the Torah.” (41) In a sense he was,
indeed, a second Moses. The Torah had fallen into neglect and oblivion in his
day, and he restored and re-established it in the minds of his people. (42) It
is due to him chiefly that it was divided up into portions, to be read
annually, Sabbath after Sabbath, in the synagogues, (43) and he it was,
likewise, who originated the idea of re-writing the Pentateuch in “Assyrian”
characters. (44) To further his purpose still more, he ordered additional
schools for children to be established everywhere, though the old ones sufficed
to satisfy the demand. He thought the rivalry between the old and the new
institutions would redound to the benefit of the pupils. (45)

Ezra is the originator of institutions known as “the ten regulations of Ezra.”
They are the following: 1. Readings from the Torah on Sabbath afternoons. 2.
Readings from the Torah on Mondays and Thursdays. 3. Sessions of the court on
Mondays and Thursdays. 4. To do laundry work on Thursdays, not Fridays. 5. To
eat garlic on Friday on account of its salutary action. (46) 6. To bake bread
early in the morning that it may be ready for the poor whenever they ask for
some. 7. Women are to cover the lower parts of their bodies with a garment
called Sinar. (47) 8. Before taking a ritual bath, the hair is to be combed. 9.
The ritual bath prescribed for the unclean is to cover the case of one who
desires to offer prayer or study the law. (48) 10. Permission to peddlers to
sell cosmetics to women in the towns. (49)

Ezra was not only a great teacher of his people and their wise leader, he was
also their advocate with the celestials, to whom his relation was of a
peculiarly intimate character. Once he addressed a prayer to God, in which he
complained of the misfortune of Israel and the prosperity of the heathen
nations. Thereupon the angel Uriel appeared to him, and instructed him how that
evil has its appointed time in which to run its course, as the dead have their
appointed time to sojourn in the nether world. Ezra could not rest satisfied
with this explanation, and in response to his further question, seven prophetic
visions were vouchsafed him, and interpreted by the angel for him. They
typified the whole course of history up to his day, and disclosed the future to
his eyes. In the seventh vision he heard a voice from a thorn-bush, like Moses
aforetimes, and it admonished him to guard in his heart the secrets revealed to
him. The same voice had given Moses a similar injunction: “These words shalt
thou publish, those shalt thou keep secret.” Then his early translation from
earth was announced to him. He besought God to let the holy spirit descend upon
him before he died, so that he might record all that had happened since the
creation of the world as it was set down in the Torah, and guide men upon the
path that leads to God.

Hereupon God bade him take the five experienced scribes, Sarga, Dabria,
Seleucia, Ethan, and Aziel, with him into retirement, and dictate to them for
forty days. After one day spent with these writers in isolation, remote from
the city and from men, a voice admonished him: “Ezra, open thy mouth, and drink
whereof I give thee to drink.” He opened his mouth, and a chalice was handed to
him, filled to the brim with a liquid that flowed like water, but in color
resembled fire. His mouth opened to drink, and for forty days it was not
closed. During all that time, the five scribes put down, “in signs they did not
understand,” they were the newly adopted Hebrew characters, all that Ezra
dictated to them, and it made ninety-four books. At the end of the forty days’
period, God spoke to Ezra thus: “The twenty-four books of the Holy Scriptures
thou shalt publish, for the worthy and the unworthy alike to read; but the last
seventy books thou shalt withhold from the populace, for the perusal of the
wise of thy people.” On account of his literary activity, he is called “the
Scribe of the science of the Supreme Being unto all eternity.” (50)

Having finished his task, Ezra was removed from this mundane world, and he
entered the life everlasting. But his death did not occur in the Holy Land. It
overtook him at Khuzistan, in Persia, on his journey to King Artachshashta.
(51)

At Raccia, in Mesopotamia, there stood, as late as the twelfth century, the
synagogue founded by Ezra when he was journeying from Babylonia to Palestine.
(52)

At his grave, over which columns of fire are often seen to hover at night, (53)
a miracle once happened. A shepherd fell asleep by the side of it. Ezra
appeared to him and bade him tell the Jews that they were to transport his bier
to another spot. If the master of the new place refused assent, he was to be
warned to yield permission, else all the inhabitants of his place would perish.
At first the master refused to allow the necessary excavations to be made. Only
after a large number of the non-Jewish inhabitants of the place had been
stricken down suddenly, he consented to have the corpse transported thither. As
soon as the grave was opened, the plague ceased.

Shortly before the death of Ezra, the city of Babylon was totally destroyed by
the Persians. There remained but a portion of the wall which was impregnable by
human strength. (54) All the prophecies hurled against the city by the prophets
were accomplished. To this day there is a spot on its site which no animal can
pass unless some of the earth of the place is strewn upon it. (55)

THE MEN OF THE GREAT ASSEMBLY

At the same time with Ezra, or, to speak more accurately, under his direction,
the Great Assembly carried on its beneficent activities, which laid the
foundations of Rabbinical Judaism, and constituted the binding link between the
Jewish Prophet and the Jewish Sage. (56) The great men who belonged to this
august assembly once succeeded, through the efficacy of their prayers, in
laying hands upon the seducers unto sin, and confining them, to prevent them
from doing more mischief. Thus they banished from the world “the desire unto
idolatry.” They tried to do the same to “the desire unto lustfulness.” This
evil adversary warned them against making away with him, for the world would
cease to exist without him. For three days they kept him a prisoner, but then
they had to dismiss him and let him go free. They found that not even an egg
was to be had, for sexual appetite had vanished from the world. However, he did
not escape altogether unscathed. They plastered up his eyes, and from that time
on he gave up inflaming the passions of men against their blood relations. (57)

Among the decrees and ordinances of the Great Assembly, the most prominent is
the fixation of the prayer of the Eighteen Benedictions. The several
benedictions composing this prayer date back to remote ancient times. The
Patriarchs were their authors, and the work of the Great Assembly was to put
them together in the order in which we now have them. We know how each of the
benedictions originated: 1. When Abraham was saved from the furnace angels
spoke: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the Shield of Abraham,” which is the essence
of the first of the Eighteen. 2. When Isaac lay stunned by fright on Mount
Moriah, God sent His dew to revive him, whereupon the angels spoke: “Blessed
art Thou, O Lord, who quickenest the dead.” 3. When Jacob arrived at the gates
of heaven and proclaimed the holiness of God, the angels spoke: “Blessed art
Thou, O Lord, Thou holy God.” 4. When Pharaoh was about to make Joseph the
ruler over Egypt, and it appeared that he was unacquainted with the seventy
tongues which an Egyptian sovereign must know, the angel Gabriel came and
taught him those languages, whereupon the angels spoke: “Blessed art Thou, O
Lord, who graciously bestowest knowledge.” 5. When Reuben committed the
trespass against his father, sentence of death was pronounced upon him in the
heavens. But when he repented, he was permitted to continue to live, and the
angels spoke: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who hast delight in repentance.” 6.
When Judah had committed a trespass against Tamar, and confessing his guilt
obtained forgiveness, the angels spoke: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who
pardonest greatly.” 7. When Israel was sore oppressed by Mizraim, and God
proclaimed his redemption, the angels spoke: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who
redeemest Israel.” 8. When the angel Raphael came to Abraham to soothe the pain
of his circumcision, the angels spoke: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who healest
the sick.” 9. When Israel’s sowing in the land of the Philistines bore an
abundant harvest, the angels spoke: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who blessest the
years.” 10. When Jacob was reunited with Joseph and Simon in Egypt, the angels
spoke: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who gatherest the dispersed of Thy people
Israel.” 11. When the Torah was revealed and God communicated the code of laws
to Moses, the angels spoke: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who lovest righteousness
and justice.” 12. When the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea, the angels
spoke: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who shatterest the enemy and humiliatest the
presumptuous.” 13. When Joseph laid his hands on the eyes of his father Jacob,
the angels spoke: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who are the stay and the support
of the pious.” 14. When Solomon built the Temple, the angels spoke: “Blessed
art Thou, O Lord, who buildest Jerusalem.” 15. When the children of Israel
singing hymns of praise unto God passed through the Red Sea, the angels spoke:
“Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who causest the hour of salvation to sprout forth.”
16. When God lent a gracious ear to the prayer of the suffering Israelites in
Egypt, the angels spoke: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who hearest our prayer.”
17. When the Shekinah descended between the Cherubim in the Tabernacle, the
angels spoke: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who wilt restore Thy Divine Presence
to Jerusalem.” 18. When Solomon dedicated his Temple, the angels spoke:
“Blessed art Thou, O Lord, whose Name is worthy of praise.” 19. When Israel
entered the Holy Land, the angels spoke: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who
establishest peace.” (58)

XII.
ESTHER

THE FEAST FOR THE GRANDEES

The Book of Esther is the last of the Scriptural writings. The subsequent
history of Israel and all his suffering we know only through oral tradition.
For this reason the heroine of the last canonical book was named Esther, that
is, Venus, the morning-star, which sheds its light after all the other stars
have ceased to shine, and while the sun still delays to rise. Thus the deeds of
Queen Esther cast a ray of light forward into Israel’s history at its darkest.
(1)

The Jews at the time of Ahaseurus were like the dove about to enter her nest
wherein a snake lies coiled. Yet she cannot withdraw, because a falcon bides
without to swoop down upon her. In Shushan the Jews were in the clutches of
Haman, and in other lands they were at the mercy of many murderous enemies to
their race, ready to do the bidding of Haman to destroy and to slay them, and
cause them to perish. (2)

But the rescue of the Jews from the hand of their adversaries is only a part of
this wonderful chapter in the history of Israel. No less important is the
exalted station to which they rose in the realm of Ahasuerus after the fall of
Haman, especially the power and dignity to which Esther herself attained. On
this account the magnificent feast prepared by Ahasuerus for his subjects
belongs to the history of Esther.

The splendor of his feast is the gauge whereby to measure the wealth and power
she later enjoyed. (3)

Ahasuerus was not the king of Persia by right of birth. He owed his position to
his vast wealth, with which he purchased dominion over the whole world. (4)

He had various reasons for giving a gorgeous feast. The third year of his reign
was the seventieth since the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s rule, and Ahasuerus
thought it quite certain that the time had passed for the fulfilment of the
prophecy of Jeremiah foretelling the return of Israel to the Holy Land. The
Temple was still in ruins, and Ahasuerus was convinced that the Jewish kingdom
would never again be restored. Needless to say, it was not Jeremiah who erred.
Not with the accession of King Nebuchadnezzar had the prophet’s term of years
begun, but with the destruction of Jerusalem. Reckoned in this way, the seventy
years of desolation were at an end exactly at the time when Darius, the son of
Ahasuerus, permitted the rebuilding of the Temple. (5)