THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS VOLUME IV BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS

B >> BY LOUIS GINZBERG >> THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS VOLUME IV BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS

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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)

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."

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