This reorganization effected by David, we are told, was adojited by his son Solomon when the Temple was completed (2 Chron. viii, 14, etc.). The revolt of the ten tribes, and the policy pursued by Jeroboam, led to a great change in the position of the Levites. They were the witnesses of an appointed order and of a central wor- ship. Jeroboam wished to make the priests the creatures and instruments of the king, and to establish a provin- cial and divided worship. The natural result was that they left the cities assigned to them in the territory of Israel and gathered round the metropolis of Judah (2 Chron. xi, 13, 14). Their influence over the peo]ilc at large was thus diminished, and the design of the Mosaic polity so far frustrated; but their power as a religious order was probably increased by this concentration with- in narrower limits. In the kingdom of Judah they were from this time forward a powerful body, politically as well as ecclesiastically. They brought with them the prophetic element of influence, in the wider as well as in the higher meaning of the word. We accordingly lind them ]irominent in the war of Abijah against Jero- boam (2 Chron. xiii, 10-12). They are, as before no- ticed, sent out by Jehoshaphat to instruct and judge the people (2 Chron. xix, 8-10). Prophets of their or- der encourage the king in his war against IMoab and Ammon, and go before his army with their loud halle- lujahs (2 Chron. xx, 21), and join aftenvards in the tri- umph of his return. The apostasy that inllowed on the marriage of Jehoram and Athaliah exposed them for a time to the dominance of a hostile system ; but the serv- ices of the Temple appear to have gone on, and the Le- vites were again conspicuous in the counter-revolution effected by Jehoiada (2 Chron. xxiii), and in restoring the Temple to its former stateliness under Jehoash (2 Chron. xxiv, 5). They shared in the disasters of the reign of Amaziah (2 Chron. xxv, 24) and in the pros- perity of Uzziahj and were ready, we may believe, to support the priests, who, as representing their order, op- posed the sacrilegious usuqjatiou of the latter king (2 Chron. xxvi, 17). The closing of the Temple under Ahaz involved the cessation at once of their work and
LEYITE
399
LEVITE
of their privileges (2 Chron. xxviii, 24), Under Heze- kiah they again became prominent, as consecrating themselves to the special work of cleansing and repair- ing the Temple (2 Chron. xxix, 12-15) ; and the hymns of David and of Asaph were again renewed. In this instance it was thought worthy of special record that those who were simply Levites were more " upright in heart" and zealous than the priests themselves (2 Chron. xxix, 34) ; and thus, in that great Passover, they took the place of the unwilling or unprepared members of the priesthood. Their old privileges were restored, they were put forward as" teachers (2 Chron. xxx, 22), and the payment of tithes, which had probably been discon- tinued under Ahaz, was renewed (2 Chron. xxxi, 4). The genealogies of the tribe were revised (ver. 17), and the old classification kept its ground. The reign of jManasseh was for them, during the greater part of it, a period of depression. That of Josiah witnessed a fresh revival and reorganization (2 Chron. xxxiv, 8-13). In tli8 great Passover of his eighteenth year they took their place as teachers of the people, as well as leaders of their worship (2 Chron. xxxv, 3, 15). Then came tlie Egyptian and Chaldasan invasions, and the rule of cowardly and apostate kings. The sacred tribe likewise sliowed itself unfaithful. The repeated protests of the priest Ezekiel intlicate that they had shared in the idol- atry of the people. The prominence into which they had been brought in the reigns of the two reforming kings had apparently tempted them to think that they might encroach permanently on the special functions of the priesthood, and the sin of Korah was renewed (Ezek. xliv. 10-14; xlviii, 11). They had, as the penalty of their sin, to witness the destruction of the Temple and to taste the bitterness of exile.
Ill, After the Captivity. — The position taken by the Levites in the first movements of the return from liab- ylon indicates that they had cherished the traditions and maintained the practices of their tribe. They, we may believe, were those who were specially called on to sing to their conquerors one of the songs of Zion (De Wette on Psa. cxxxvii). It is noticeable, however, that in the first body of returning exiles they were present in a disproportionately small number (Ezra ii, 3G-42). Those who did come took their old parts at the founda- tion anil dedication of the second Temple (Ezra iii, 10; vi, 18). In the next movement under Ezra their re- luctance (whatever may have been its origm) was even more strongly marked. None of them presented them- selves at the first great gathering (Ezra viii, 15). The special efforts of Ezra did not succeed in bringing to- gether more than 38, and their place had to be filled by 220 of the Nethinim (ib. 20). There is a Jewish tra- dition (Surenhusius, Mishna, Sota, ix, lOj to the effect that, as a punishment for this backwardness, Ezra de- prived them of their tithes, and transferred the right to the priests. Those who returned with him resumed their functions at the Feast of Tabernacles as teachers and interpreters (Neh. viii, 7), and those who were most active in tliat work were foremost also in chanting the hymn-like prayer which ajjpears in Neh. ix as the last great effort of Jewish psalmody. They were recognised in the great national covenant, and the offerings and tithes which were their due were once more solemnly secured to them (Neh. x, 37-39). They took their old places in the Temple and in tlie villages near Jerusalem (Neh. xii, 20), and are present in full array at the great feast of the Dedication of the Wall. The" two prophets who were active at the time of the return, Haggai and Zecliariah, if they did not belong to the tribe, helped it forward in the work of restoration. Tlie strongest measures were adopted by Neheraiah, as before by Ezra, to guard the purity of their blood from the contamina- tion of mixed marriages (Ezra x, 23), and thev were made the special guardians of the holiness of the Sab- bath (Neh. xiii, 22). The last propliet of the O. T. sees, as part of liis vision of the latter davs, the time when the Lord " shall purify the sons of Levi" (MaL iii, 3).