SECOND BLOW:
The Chaldaean Invasion And The
Destruction Of Yerusalem (721-587)
One of the most moving pages of the spiritual history of mankind
Of the fine kingdom established in about the year 1000 by David, after the fall of Samaria (721) three centuries later, there remained only the territory of Yahudah (see map). It was in fact a very small country with a population of less than 200,000. Yerusalem was hardly any larger than a country town of some 30,000 inhabitants. This Yahwist enclave, a vassal incorporated by Assyria into its huge empire, seemed indeed very small. The empire stretched from Babylon to Mount Ararat in Armenia; from Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, to the sources of the Tigris and the Euphrates; from Cilicia and Phoenicia as far as Egypt.
Yahudah might chafe under the Assyrian yoke, but for the time being at least, with such derisory forces there could be no thought of her freeing herself from the burden of Assyrian occupation. Yahudah had no alternative but to accept her fate. The tragedy which had recently engulfed the Ten Tribes of Yisrael would serve as a solemn warning for the southern kingdom.
It remained to be seen whether those in power in Yerusalem were clever enough politicians to avoid the same serious mistakes which led Samaria to its fall.
Summary Of The Course Of Events
This chapter is fortunately a little less complicated than the preceding one.
First there was a strenuous attempt at spiritual, moral and national reform under the influence of the new king Hezekiah, encouraged and advised by the prophet YeshaYahu. Hezekiah initiated a foreign policy which appeared to be sound enough, though at certain periods he made unfortunate mistakes.
Next there was a gap of half a century in which two insignificant and worthless kings reigned.
Then, with Josiah, we have the great reforming king who endowed Judaism with its irresistible resolution and ardour.
The third and last stage is marked by a return to the traditional mistakes; once again there was an outburst of that shortsighted nationalism which led to the confrontation of Yahudah and a great Mesopotamian power, but this time it was Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who made sure of victory.
The Babylonians swiftly secured the defeat of Yahudah, the capture of Yerusalem, the sacking of the city, the destruction of the Tabernacle built by Solomon to the glory of YAHWEH, and finally the deportation of the pick of the population of Yahudah to the banks of the Euphrates.
The Yisraelite kingdom of Samaria had disappeared for ever; its deported population amalgamated with the local inhabitants, and the Assyrian government repopulated the northern kingdom with racial groups from remote regions. Thus Yisrael was no more than a name; its set apartness was no more than a memory.
The northern kingdom, the Judaean kingdom of Yerusalem disappears
Now, in 587, one hundred and thirty years after the northern kingdom, the Judaean kingdom of Yerusalem disappeared in its turn, but under very different conditions. During their exile in Babylon a section of the deported population from Yerusalem managed to preserve the memory of their country of origin; they retained their own identity and, more important still, their faith in the one, set apart and invisible YAHWEH. We find them clinging quite astonishingly to the Yahwist set apartness, which was to be purified unexpectedly despite the pagan and dissolute character of the society in which it was plunged. In the Babylonian crucible, where the deported population were to experience the harsh moral trials of exile, far from the land of their fathers, Judaism began to be formed. And thus, after five centuries of continual spiritual wandering, was opened the path which was to lead to the threshold of the revelation of the message of YAHWEH.
With the harsh blow from Babylon and the destruction of Yerusalem -an insignificant episode from the viewpoint of the great empires of the period -we come to one of the most moving pages of the spiritual history of mankind.
The Destruction of the Kingdom by YAHWEH Destruction Sitemap Scripture History Through the Ages