0£ .Assyria, and Atrove to establish their domination in the place of hers, were Babylon and Egypt. Egypt appears to have anticipated her rival. As early as the reign of Psamatik I. she recommenced aggressions upon Asia by persistent attacks upon the strongest of the Philistine cities, the famous Ashdod,1 and about B.O. 610, under Neco, the son and successor of Psamatik, she invaded Syria in force, defeated Josiah at Megiddo,• over· ran Judrea, Phrenicia, and Syria as far as Taurus and the middle Euphrates, and made herself mistress of the entire region between the borders of Egypt and the great city of Carchemish. N eco held possession for some years of this rich and interesting region, recovering thus the bold upon Asia which had been possessed a thousand years earlier by the great monarchs of the eighteenth dynasty-the Thothmeses and .Amenhoteps. Then, however, Babylon bestirred herself. Nabopolassar, the prince who, in conjunction with the Median monarch Cyaxares, had attacked and destroyed Nineveh, became independent King of. Babylon from the moment of Assyria's downfall; but it took him some time to establish his authority over the tract lying between Babylon and Carchemish, though probably he claimed a dominion over all the western provinces of the Assyrian empire from the first. Neco's conquest he viewed as a. rebellion which must _be3"crushed; 8 but it was not till the year B.C. 605, when he was already becoming enfeebled by old age, that he found himself in a position to carry the Babylonian arms into the far West, and attempt the chastise- ment of the "rebel." Even then he bad to give up the notion of pro- ceeding against his enemy in person, and to depute the task of subjugation to bis eldest son, the crown prince, Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar, in B.o. 605, led the Babylonian forces from the capital to Carchemish (now Jerabus), and there engaged the troops of Neco in the great battle' which destroyed Egypt's last hope of maintaining her Asiatic supremacy, and installed Babylon in the position of the dominant power of South-Western Asia. From her defeat at Carchemish Egypt never recovered. She made some feeble efforts under Apries (Pharaoh-Hophra) and Amasis to effect Phrenician and Cyprian conquests ; 6 but the results were trivial, and in a short time she collapsed utterly. Babylon, on the other hand, carried all before her. Nebuchadnezzar conquered Elam, Syria, Phrenicia, J udrea, Edom, .Ammon, Moab, Egypt. In his long reign of forty-three years (B.C. 605-562) he seems not to have met with a reverse. The Babylonian empire under his sway attained to an extraordinary degree of prosperity. Jehoiakim, having" become his servant" in B.c. 605 (eh. xxiv. 1), revolted from him in n.o. 602, and was deposed (2 Chron. xxx-ri. 6) and probably put to death by him (Jer. xxii. 19; xxxvi. 30) in B.C. 598. Jehoiachin, his son, was then set np aR king, but within three months (eh. xxiv. 8) dis- pleaBed his lord paramount, who deprived him of his throne, and carried 1 Herod., ii. 157. 1 Cb. xxiii. 29; comp. Herod., ii. 159. • Berosus, 'Fr.,' 14. 1 See Jar. xlvi. 2-17; and Derosus, !. a. e. 1 Hcrorl., ii. lGI, 182. xvi INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
him captive to !Babylon in B.O. 597 (eh. xxiv. 10-15). Still, Judrea was allowed to maintain its semi-independence. Zedekiah, uncle to Jehoiachin received the crown at the bands of-Nebuchadnezzar (eh. xxiv. 17), and swore fealty to him (2 Cbron. xxxvi. 13) ; but after a short time he too began to contemplate revolt, made an alliance with Egypt (Ezek. xvii. 15), and in B.C. 588 openly declared himself independent of his suzerain (eh. xxiv. 20). Nebuchadnezzar was not slow to accept the challenge. He at once marched against Jerusalem, and laid siege to it. .Apries (Hophra), the Egyptian monarch, made one attempt to come to the assistance of his ally ( J er. xxxvii. 5) ; but the attempt failed, either through the defeat of his army or through his own want of resolution.1 In B.C. 586, after a siege of eighteen months, the end came. .A breach was made in the northern wall of the town, and a lodgment effected within the defences (Jer. xxxix. 2, 3). Zedekiah £ed, but was pursued and made a prisoner, blinded, and carried to Babylon (Jer. xx:rix. 4-7). Jerusalem suxrendered itself; the temple, palace, and chief houses were burnt ( eh. xxv. 9) ; and the bulk of the population, all except the very poor, were carried off into Babylonia as captives. The history of the entire Israelite monarchy thus ends. From the accession of Saul to the destruction of Jerusalem by N ebnchadnezzar was a period of five hundred and seven years, which was divisible into three portions: (1) from the accession of Saul to that of Rehoboam-the period of the undivided monarchy-a space of a hundred and twenty years, from B.c. 1092 to B.C. 972; (2) from the accession of Rehoboam in Judah and of Jeroboam in Israel to the fall of Samaria-the period of the two parallel kingdoms-a space of two hundred and fifty years, from B.c. 972 to n.c. 722; and (3) from the destruction of the Israelite kingdom to the final captivity of Judah, a period of a hundred and thirty-seven years, from B.C. 722 to B.C. 586 inclusive. During the first period Israel's fortunes were connected with those of Egypt; duxing the second, partly with Egypt but mainly with .Assyria; during the third, to some extent with both Egypt and .Assyria, but mainly with Babylon. Most, if not all, of the points of contact between Israel and these nations during the period treated of have been touched on in these pages, and the result would seem to be a remarkable general harmony and agreement between the sacred records and the profane, together with a certain residuum of difficulties, for the most part connected with the chronology. On these it is not improbable that future discoveries may throw further light; though it is, perhaps, too much to expect that all difficulties will be ultimately swept away. It does not seem to be the general way of God's providence to make everything plain to us. "The trying of faith worketh patience," and without it patience would never "have her perfect work," nor would faith itself be deserving of those encomiums and that "good report" which it obtains throughout the Christian Scripture.i. 1 Josephus says that he was defc:i.tcd (' Ant. Jud.,' x. 7. § 3). Joremiah's wards (Jcr. xxxvii. 7) rne1n rathel' to imply a retre"t without a battle. THE SECOND