The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 449

w.ndry, young and old, lad and maiden, not even sparing such 68 had taken refuge in the temple (ver. 17). 'l'he ml\88acre was wholesale, truculent, and pitiless, eclipsed in horror only by that which took place when Jerusalem was captured by Titus (Josephus, 'Wars,' vi. 9. 4). 2. Ruthless sacrikge. They completely despoiled the temple of its sacred vessels, great and small, as well as pillaged the royal palaces, carrying off their treasures (ver. 18). Among the art.icles removed from the temple were the brazen and golden utensils of service, the two pillars, the brazen sea, and the vases which Solomon had made (2 Kings xxv. 13-17; Jer. lii. 17-23). 3. Wholesale ~tructio11. "They burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces" (ver. 19); which was pure vandalism. This appears to have been done not on the night of the city's capture (tenth day of tenth month), but seven months after, on the tenth day of the fifth month, i.e. in February, B.c. 587 (Jer. lii. 12), and to have been carried out by one of Nebuchadnezzar's generals, Nebuzar-adan, captain of the king's guards, or" chief of the executioners" (cf. Gen. xxxix. l), despatched from Riblah for the purpose. What happened in the interval is narrated in 2 Kings (xxv. 4-7) and Jeremiah (Iii. 7-11), viz. the capture, near Jericho, of Zedekiah with his court and bis forces, who had escaped when the city was taken, and their journey north to Riblab, the bead-quarters of Nebuchadnezzar, where, after judgment held (2 Kings xxv. 6), Zedekiab's sons and the princes of Judah were slain, and Zedekiah himself blinded according to an inhuman practice of the time (see' Records,' etc., iii. 50, 1. 117, "Of many soldiers I destroyed the eyes;" and comp. Herod., vii. 18), and cast into bonds preparatory to being deported to Babylon. In Babylon he was cast into prison until the day of his death (Jer. Iii 11); according to tradition, his work in prison was that of grinding in a mill like an ordinary slave (Ewald, • History of Israel,' iv. 273, note 5). 4. Pituess expatriation. Those that had escaped the sword were driven off, like gangs of slaves, to become exiles in a strange land, and servants to the kings of Babylon, "until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths," viz. for three score and ten years (vers. 20, 21). Such transplantations of conquered populations were common in the ancient Orient. " Sargon transported the Samaritans to Gozan and Media; Sennacherib carried off two hundred thousand Jews from Judrea; Esarhaddon placed Elamites, Susianians, and Babylonians in Samaria. Darius Hystaspis brought the nation of the Preonians from Europe into Asia Minor, removed the Barcieans to Bactria, and the Eretrians to Ardericca near Susa" (Rawlinson, 'Egypt and Babylon,' pp. 45, 46). LESSONS. L The incorrigible character of some sinners. 2. The offensiveness in God's sight of pride and hardness of he.art. 3. The heinousness of oath-breaking and of unjustifiable rebellion. 4. The hopelessness of reformation in a city or a land when all classes are in love with wicked ways. 5. The infinite compassion of God towards the worst of men. 6. The certainty that mercy despised will turn into wrath displayed. 7. The pitiless character of Heaven's judgments upon them for whom there is no remedy. 8. The indiEerence God shows towards the external symbols of religion when the inner spirit is wanting. 9. The impossibility of God's Word failing.-W. Vers. 22, 23.-0yroB of Persi,a,; or, the return of tke ezilea. I. THE GREAT DELIVERER. (Ver. 22.) 1. Foretold in Scripture. (1) That his name should be Cyrus. (2) That he should come from the East. (3) That he should be a mighty conqueror, subduing nations and dethroning kings. (4) That he should overthrow Babylon, aud become the sovereign of the empire of that name. (5) That he should liberate the c~pt~ve Jews in that city and empire. (6) That he should issue orders or grant perm1as1on for the rebuildiag of both the city and the temple of Jerusalem. (7) That in doing all this he should act (whether consciously or unconsciously is not stated) under the immediate guidance and direct superintendence of Jehovah (111&. xii. 2; xliv. 28; xiv. 1-5; xlvi 11; xlviii. 14, 15). 2. Raised up in history. (1) He was called Cyrus, in Hebrew Oore.sk (ver. 22; Ezra i. 1), in the inscriptions K'wr'us 11:nd Ku-ra-'!" (Schrader, 'Die Keilinschriften,' p. 372). (2) He came from the East, being named In sacred history (ver. 22; Ezra L 1; iv. 3; Dan. vi. 28), as well as in profane (Herod., ix. 122; Xen., • Cyr.,' viiL ii. 7), King of Persia, though the monuments now show that he was originally King of Elam, on the east of Persia (Sayce, 'Fresh Light,' etc., pp. 168, etc.). (3) First he conquered Astyages the Median, who bad marched against him in the M. nxvr. 1-28.J THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 453