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Class-Book of Old Testament History

<hr class="sect_35" /> <h3> CHAPTER <abbr>IV.</abbr> TIMES OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. CLOSE OF THE CANON. Ezra <abbr title="chapters 7 through 10">vii.–x.</abbr>   <abbr title="Nehemiah">Neh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapters 1 through 13">i.–xiii.</abbr>   B.C. 457<abbr title="through">–</abbr>415.</h3> IN the year B.C. 464 Artaxerxes Longimanus succeeded to the Persian throne. His reign was favourable to the Jews, and was signalised, B.C. 458, by a fresh migration to Jerusalem headed by Ezra, a descendant of Hilkiah the high-priest in the time of Josiah. A royal ordinance empowered him not only to receive contributions from his own nation scattered throughout Babylonia for the adornment of the Temple at Jerusalem, but also to establish magistrates and judges throughout all Judea, and to claim assistance from the various pashas of the provinces through which he would pass (<abbr title="Ezra">Ezr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 7">vii.</abbr> 11<abbr title="through">–</abbr>26). Thus aided and encouraged, Ezra persuaded about 6,000 of his countrymen to take part in this second migration, amongst whom were many of the priesthood, both of the higher and lower orders. After a fast of three days at the river Ahava467, to supplicate the Divine blessing on the enterprise, the expedition set out, and, though not escorted by a royal guard, reached Jerusalem in safety (Ezra <abbr title="chapter 8">viii.</abbr> 32). Ezra was well received by the Jewish governors, but was pained to find much to blame in the conduct of his countrymen. Forgetful of the commands of the Law, they had in many instances intermarried with the surrounding heathen tribes. He therefore devoted himself with all zeal to the correction of these abuses; proclaimed a fast by way of atonement for past transgressions, and succeeded in inducing many to put away their strange wives. At the same time he commenced a more complete reorganization of the people according to the Mosaic Law and the institutes of David, and, it is not improbable, a revision and rearrangement of the sacred Books (Ezra <abbr title="chapter 1">x.</abbr> 1<abbr title="through">–</abbr>17). But though the Persian monarchs had not been unwilling to render aid in the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, their policy had hitherto forbidden the re-erection of the city itself, which still lay exposed and defenceless, its walls broken down and its gates burned with fire (<abbr title="Nehemiah">Neh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 1">i.</abbr> 3), the Temple, and a few private dwellings, being the sole result of 80 years of effort. In the <abbr title="twentieth">20th</abbr> year, however, of Artaxerxes, or B.C. 444, there arrived at Shusan a deputation from Jerusalem, with a sad account of the condition of the city, which they laid before Nehemiah, a Jew, probably of the tribe of Judah, who held a high position amongst the royal cup-bearers. Nehemiah instantly conceived the patriotic design of quitting the comforts of his present position, and aiding his countrymen in their difficulties. With fasting and prayer he sought the blessing of the Most High on his design, and shortly afterwards, in reply to the enquiries of the king why his countenance was so sad, poured forth the deep desire of his heart, and begged that he might be allowed to go to Judea, and rebuild the city of his fathers. Artaxerxes consented468, on condition that he returned within a certain period; and having appointed him Tirshatha or governor of Judea, gave him letters to the pashas of the provinces through which he would pass, as also to Asaph the keeper of the royal forests, directing him to supply timber and other necessaries for the work (<abbr title="Nehemiah">Neh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 2">ii.</abbr> 1<abbr title="through">–</abbr>8). Thus empowered and guarded by a troop of cavalry, Nehemiah set out on his journey. On his arrival at Jerusalem he for three days kept silence as to his intentions, but after a midnight survey of the ruined condition of the city, openly proclaimed the purport of his visit, and the royal commission under which he was acting. He advised the instant rebuilding of the city walls, till which was done the colony could not but be a reproach to the surrounding tribes, with their city almost deserted, and the Temple itself falling into decay (<abbr title="Nehemiah">Neh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 2">ii.</abbr> 12<abbr title="through">–</abbr>20). His project was received with acclamation, and a resolution was formed to press on with the work without delay. But the coming of the new governor had reached the ears of the Samaritans, and Sanballat the Horonite469, Tobiah an Ammonite, and Geshem an Arabian, employed every artifice to defeat his designs. Nehemiah, however, was not to be daunted. His object was to finish the walls in the shortest possible time, and he therefore directed that while one half of the people wrought at the work, the other should stand by armed and ready to defend them, and that the workmen should hold in the one hand a weapon, and in the other their tools. Thus by dint of incredible exertions, within the brief space of 52 days Jerusalem was again girded and enclosed, the walls were rebuilt, the ancient towers set up, and the gateways were ready for the doors to be swung upon them (<abbr title="Nehemiah">Neh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 4">iv.</abbr> 13<abbr title="through">–</abbr>23). Unable to impede by open violence the progress of the enterprise, Sanballat and his friends resorted to various stratagems to get Nehemiah out of the city. They began by proposing a conference with the governor in one of the villages of the plain of Ono in Benjamin. Four times was the proposition made, and as often declined. Then resort was had to a still more cunning artifice. Sanballat sent to Nehemiah an apparently friendly letter, announcing the prevalence of a rumour among the heathen nations settled in Samaria that he intended Jerusalem to become the capital of an independent kingdom, and had suborned prophets to prophesy of himself, There is a king in Judah. Such rumours were sure to reach the Persian court, but might be dissipated by a friendly conference. At the same time Noadiah a prophetess and others were bribed to represent to the governor the risk he was running, and to persuade him to take refuge in the fortress of the Temple. But Nehemiah saw through their designs, and refused to give them any pretext for accusing him of conscious guilt (<abbr title="Nehemiah">Neh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 6">vi.</abbr> 1<abbr title="through">–</abbr>14). In addition to these plots the governor had to be on his guard against treachery within the city itself, where many of the Jewish nobles were carrying on a secret correspondence with Tobiah, and even espoused his cause. But in spite of all obstacles the work went on, and the essential part of the governor’s design, the building of the gates, was accomplished. Having thus provided for the external security of the city, Nehemiah applied himself with equal zeal to the correction of internal abuses. One of these was the high rate of usury, which those who had any money at their command, exacted from their poorer brethren. To such an extent was this the case, that some mortgaged their fields, vineyards, and houses; others sold or pledged the freedom of their children; while many borrowed at the most exorbitant rates sufficient to pay the royal taxes (<abbr title="Nehemiah">Neh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 5">v.</abbr> 1<abbr title="through">–</abbr>14). The discovery of this nefarious system roused the governor’s indignation. Himself noble, generous, and highminded, he declined even the usual supplies for his own table which former governors had received; defrayed many expenses out of his own purse; and even entertained the poorer classes of his countrymen at his own table (<abbr title="Nehemiah">Neh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 5">v.</abbr> 14<abbr title="through">–</abbr>19). With righteous sternness, therefore, he rebuked the nobles who connived at this disgraceful traffic, and convoking an assembly demanded that his enslaved country men should be set free, their debts remitted, and the enormous interest foregone. His rebukes had their effect. The assembly unanimously announced their willingness to accede to his demands, and abstain from such conduct in future. Other measures for the internal welfare of the city were then proceeded with. The doors having been set up in the gates, the custody of the city was committed to Hanani, a relative of the governor; a register of the people was taken, the Law was solemnly read in their hearing by Ezra (<abbr title="Nehemiah">Neh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 8">viii.</abbr> 1<abbr title="through">–</abbr>16), and the Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated with due solemnities, from the <abbr title="fifteenth">15th</abbr> to the <abbr title="twenty-second">22nd</abbr> of the month Tisri470. Two days afterwards a Fast was proclaimed, and the people made a formal confession of their national sins, and enumerated the gracious dealings of the Most High with them, from the Call of Abraham to the return from the Captivity (<abbr title="Nehemiah">Neh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 9">ix.</abbr> 6<abbr title="through">–</abbr>37). At the same time they ratified a solemn covenant to serve the Lord with all their heart, and keep the ordinances of the Lord; to avoid intermarriages with heathens; to observe the Sabbaths and other holy days, and neither buy nor sell goods thereon; to keep the seventh or Sabbatical year, and remit all debts during it; to contribute each man one-third of a shekel towards the support of the Temple-service, and to maintain the customary first-fruits and tithes (<abbr title="Nehemiah">Neh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 10">x.</abbr> 29<abbr title="through">–</abbr>39). Having in co-operation with Ezra thus restored the national institutions, Nehemiah returned to the Persian court, B.C. 432. During his absence the old abuses again began to creep in; the people contracted alliances with foreigners, neglected the Sabbath, and forgot the covenant they had so lately sworn to observe. As soon as he was informed of this, Nehemiah sought and obtained permission to revisit once more the scene of his former labours, and as Tirshatha was invested with renewed powers. Returning after an absence of about nine years, he found that Eliashib the high-priest had permitted Tobiah the Ammonite to occupy a large chamber in the Temple, which had before been used as a store for the frankincense, the holy vessels, and the tithes of corn, wine, and oil. Thereupon he insisted on the expulsion of the intruder, and the restoration of the ejected vessels and stores, over which he appointed a Levitical guard (<abbr title="Nehemiah">Neh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 13">xiii.</abbr> 1<abbr title="through">–</abbr>15). He next introduced measures for the prevention of traffic on the Day of Rest, and the celebration of mixed marriages, alike amongst the lower and the higher orders of the people, even deposing from his sacred functions the high-priest Eliashib for permitting his son Joiada to ally himself with a daughter of Sanballat the Horonite (<abbr title="Nehemiah">Neh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 13">xiii.</abbr> 15<abbr title="through">–</abbr>28). Having thus completed his second administration, this truly patriotic and upright governor in all probability returned to Persia about B.C. 413, and there died. With this date closes the History contained in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. While the mass of the Hebrew people was scattered among the nations, carrying with them, wherever they went, their Law and their Institutions, we have seen a remnant, as had indeed been foretold, restored to their own land, their holy Temple rebuilt, their glorious City raised from its ruins. Very different, indeed, was their position now from that which the nation had occupied during the palmy days of Solomon, when their kingdom stretched from “the river of Egypt” to the Euphrates, from the mountains of Lebanon to the Red Sea. Different, too, and far less costly was their Temple in comparison with that which the artisans of Hiram had built for the Son of David, but in its moral and spiritual condition the remnant of the nation far excelled the contemporaries of its greatest king. In the furnace of affliction it had been thoroughly purified from all tendencies to idolatry. The dreary years, when their harps hung upon the willows by the waters of Babylon, had not been without their salutary effect upon the people. There was no division now in the objects of their worship. No high places were to be seen crowned with temples dedicated to Baal or Chemosh; no groves screened with their leafy covert the impure orgies of Ashtaroth; no drums and cymbals drowned with their horrid clang the wail of infants in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, as they were passed through the fire to appease the cruel Moloch. These “oracles” were “dumb.” The Jew was no longer an idolater. The Divine Unity was now the central truth of his creed. The Law once neglected was now read, copied, studied. While Nehemiah had earnestly applied himself to the civil administration, Ezra471, and others after him, with no less zeal devoted their energies to collecting, transcribing, arranging the Sacred Books. These were ultimately classed under three divisions; (i) The Law, containing the five Books of Moses; (ii) The Prophets, which included the historical and prophetical writings; (iii) The Psalms, or Hagiographa (sacred writings), comprising the poetical works. Meanwhile varied as had been the fortunes of the Chosen People, the Assurance of a Saviour, of God’s purpose of love in the promised Seed, had never been forgotten. As first made known to man in Paradise, it did perhaps, as we have seen472, little more than assure him of a future interposition in his behalf, without informing him whether his Redeemer should be one or many, the collective race, or a single deliverer. But once given, the realization of the Promise becomes the goal of Sacred History. Through one of the sons of Noah473, it is limited to a particular race; through the call of Abraham474 to a particular nation; through Judah to a particular tribe. When the people flee away from the terrors of Sinai, Moses predicts the coming of a greater Prophet475, and a mightier Mediator. When the Sceptre rises from Judah476. and David sits upon his throne, he himself speaks of a Greater King477, of One he calls his Lord, who shall sit upon his throne, and of whose kingdom there shall be no end. When the mournful close of Solomon’s reign proves that he could not be the destined king, when his kingdom is rent in twain, and his subjects become a prey to their enemies, and are carried off into far distant lands, even then the very sadness of the Captivity only serves to correct the idea of the Messiah, and the “Son of David” gives place in the writings of Daniel to the “Son of Man478.” Thus each crisis of the nation’s history serves to bring the Promise within narrower limits, and to illustrate it with fresh details. Meanwhile, as time rolls on, and one prophet after another brings out some new particular, foreshadowing the birth-place479, or the offices480, or the works of the Messiah, another Voice begins to be heard in the Temple of Prophecy. It is not jubilant and glad, telling of triumph and of glory, of the subjugation of nations, or the setting up of a kingdom. It is subdued and mournful. It whispers of suffering and rejection, of a triumph indeed, but not the triumph of an earthly conqueror. It speaks of the coming481 of a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; of His being wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities; of His being cut off, but not for Himself482. The earliest prophecy had declared that the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpent’s head, but had whispered that the Serpent would bruise his heel. The latest declared that the Messiah should triumph, but also that He should die. Thus gradually, but harmoniously, was the person and work of man’s Redeemer unfolded. And at length in the fulness of time483 a Babe was born in Bethlehem, and laid in a manger. Seed of the Woman, of the race of Shem, of the descendants of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, of the lineage of David, He lived, He died, He rose again. Prophet like unto, but infinitely greater than Moses, He gave us a law which shall never pass away484; Priest like unto, but not as Aaron compassed about with infirmity, He offered up on the Altar of His Cross a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, atonement, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world; King like unto, but infinitely higher than David, He sitteth at the right hand of God, clad in the glorified nature of the race He came to save, the predicted Redeemer of the Old, the revealed Deliverer of the New Testament, in whom there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither male nor female, neither bond nor free485. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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