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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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."

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