" of Nebuchadonosor, king of Babylon, and under the "shadow of Balthasar his son, and we shall serve them "many days, and find favor1 in their sight." Such is the picture handed down or imagined from the earlier Assyrian captivity of Tobit and his Tobit. family - himself the purveyor of Shalmaneser, living at ease with his wife and son with their camels and their dog, its first apparition as a domestic friend in sacred history—the hospitable communications with his friends at Ecbatana - with his countrymen throughout 2 Assyria. 4 Family. Such at Babylon or in its neighborhood were the homes of the nobles of Israel, who became The Royal possessed of property, with slaves, camels, horses, asses, even with the luxury of hired musicians. The political and social frame-work of their former existence struck root in the new soil. Even the shadow of royalty lingered. It appears, indeed, that Zedekiah the King, as well as his predecessor Jehoiachin and the High Priest, Josedek, whose father had perished at Riblah, were at first rigorously confined, and Zedekiah remained in prison blind and loaded with brazen fetters till his death, which occurred soon after his arrival. But he was then 5 buried in royal state by Nebuchadnezzar with the funeral fires and spices, and with the funeral lamentations-even to the very words, "Ah! Lord," which were used at the interments of the Kings of Judah; and Josedek, the High Priest, was then set at liberty. A singular fate awaited the last lineal heir of the house of David, Jehoiachin or Jeconiah. He, after 1 Baruch i. 11. 2 Tobit i. 13; ix. 2; x. 4. Isa. lviii. 3-6; Ezra ii. 68, 69. 4 Ezek. viii. 1; xiv. 1; xx. 1. x. 8, 7. seven and thirty years of imprisonment was released by the generosity of Evil-merodach, the son Jehoiachin. of Nebuchadnezzar, who according to another legend, in disgrace himself, had encountered Jehoiachin in the same prison, and who disapproved his father's harshness. The beard of the captive king,2 which contrary to the Jewish practice had been allowed to grow through all those mournful years, was shaved; his dress was changed; a throne was given him above the thrones of the other subject or captive kings; he ate in the royal presence, and was maintained at the public cost till the day of his death. In the later traditions of his countrymen this story of the comparative ease of the last representative of David was yet further enlarged with the tale how he sat with his fellowexiles on the banks of the Euphrates and listened to Baruch, who himself had meanwhile been transported hither from Egypt or how that he married a beautiful countrywoman of the name of Susanna," or "the "lily" the daughter of one bearing the honored name of Hilkiah- that he lived in affluence, holding a little court of his own, with judges from the elders as in the ancient times, to which his countrymen resorted; with one of the Babylonian "parks" or "paradises" adjoining to his house; surrounded by walls and gates; and adorned with fountains, ilexes, and lentisks. And al though from some of the accounts it might seem as if he had been literally the only heir of David's lineage, yet it would seem from others that there was a princely personage born or adopted into his house, Salathiel, whose son had become so Babylonian as to have borne a Chaldæan name for both his titles - Zerubbabel and Sheshbazzar.1 Such, also, was the Benjamite family which traced its descent from an exile who had accompanied Jehoiachin, and of which the two most illustrious members both bore foreign names, Mordecai and Esther.2 4 The Four Such, also, was the tale which narrates how, in the Court of Babylon, there were four children of surpassing beauty, placed, according to Children. the cruel custom of the East, in the harem under the charge of the Master of the Eunuchs - who filled high places amongst the priestly or the learned class, and exchanged their Hebrew names for Chaldæan appellations, one becoming Belteshazzar (Bilat-sarra-utsur, may Beltis," the female Bel, "defend the king!") another "the Servant of Nebo" (Abed-nego); the two others Shadrach and Meshach, of which the meaning has not been ascertained. They were allowed to take part in the Government of Chaldæa, and were to all actual appearance officers of the great Imperial Court. Their very dress is described as Assyrian or Babylonian, not Palestinian - turbans, trowsers, and mantles.5 66 There is no improbability in the favor shown to these from the Greek play on the words (see note after Lecture XLII.). But the remains of "la chaste Susanne 'de Babylon are still shown in he Cathedral of Toulouse. 1 See Lecture XLII. See Lecture XLV. 3 Josephus, Ant., x. 10, 1. 4 See a full discussion of these names in the Speaker's Commentary on Daniel, p. 243–246. Dan. iii. 21; Here d. i. 195, with Rawlinsen's notes. Jewish foreigners, first, or, at any rate, first since Joseph, of that long succession of Israelites who, Daniel. by the singular gifts of their race, have at various intervals, from that time down to the present day, mounted to the highest places of Oriental or European States. But, towering high above the rest, the Jewish patriots of nearly four centuries later looked back to one venerable figure, whose life was supposed to cover the whole period of the exile, and to fill its whole horizon. His career is wrapt in mystery and contradiction -not a prophet, yet something greater - historical, yet unquestionably enveloped in a cloud of legend. Whilst the Chaldæan names of the three younger youths have almost superseded their Hebrew designations, the Hebrew name of the elder Daniel, "the "Divine Judge "- has stood its ground against the high-sounding title of Belteshazzar. It may seem to have corresponded with those gifts which have made his name famous, whether in the earlier or in the later version of his story. That which Ezekiel had heard was as of one from 2 whose transcendent wisdom no secret could be hid-who was on a level with the great oracles of antiquity. That which first brings him. into notice in the opening pages of the Greek and Latin Book of Daniel is the wisdom with which, by his judgment of the profligate elders, he "was had in great reputation among the people." He is, to all outward appearance, an Eastern sage rather than a Hebrew prophet. Well did the traditions of his country 1 According to the Jewish tradition he was born at Upper Bethhoron; a spare, dry, tall figure, with a beautiful expression. (Fabricius, 1124.) Ezek. xiv. 14; xxviii. 3. 8 It is the story of Susannal.. doubtless, which gives occasion tɩ the exclamation in the Merchant of Venice which has made his name proverbial in English: "A Danie come to judgment." men represent him as the architect of Ecbatana or even of Susa, as buried in state-not, like the other saints of the Captivity, in a solitary sepulchre, but in the stately tower which he himself had built, in the tombs of the kings of Persia.1 Well did the mediæval legends make him the arch-wizard and interpreter of dreams.2 Rightly did the Carthusian artist at Dijon represent him amongst his exquisite figures of the Prophets in the garb, posture, and physiognomy of an Oriental Magnate. Well did Bishop Ken, when he wished to portray an ideal courtier before the Stuart Kings, take "the man greatly beloved: "Not of the sacerdotal, "but royal line; not only a courtier, but a favorite; "not only a courtier and a favorite, but a minister;" -"one that kept his station in the greatest of revolu"tions," "reconciling policy and religion, business and "devotion, magnanimity and humility, authority and affability, conversation and retirement, interest and integrity, Heaven and the Court, the favor of God "and the favor of the king." 66 66 III. Such was the general condition of the Israelite exiles. We proceed to give some of its general recults. 1. The first characteristic of the time is one which seems inconsistent with the quiet settlement just describe.. It is the poignant grief as of personal calamity that broods over its literature. The Hebrew word for "the Captivity," unlike the Greek word, expresses a bitter sense of bereave- Their ment; "Guloth" -"stripped bare." 1 Josephus, Ant., x. 11, 7. Fabricius, Codex Pseudep.,1134 1136. 994 They Desolation. 8 Ken, Prose Works, 144, 169, 171 The same word as in Golar Gaulanitis. |