sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu appointed fourscore men without, and said :-"If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape, he that letteth him go, his life shall be for the life of him." And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains:-"Go in, and slay them; let none come forth." And they smote them with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the captains cast them out, and went to the city of the house of Baal. And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them. And they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.

2. The second era is that of the decline and fall of Israel and Judah. The initial approximate date is 750.

This era includes the invasion of the Assyrians, who destroyed the capital city of Samaria, and deported great numbers of people from the northern kingdom, in 721; and the invasion of the Chaldeans, who destroyed the capital city of Jerusalem, and deported the people of the southern kingdom in 586. The principal literary activity of this time was that of the prophets. One group of them wrote in the latter half of the eighth century, 750-700, in the crisis of the Assyrian invasion; another group wrote in the last part of the seventh century, and the first part of the sixth, 625550, in the crisis of the Chaldean conquest, and under the conditions of the exile which followed. Between the Assyrian period and the Chaldean period appeared (621) the exceedingly influential book of Deuteronomy; and the first historical series, Samuel and Kings, was substantially completed.

3. The third era of the history begins with the return from exile. An initial approximate date, for easy memory, is the year 500.

By that time the Jews, released from captivity by the conquest of the Chaldeans by the Persians, had returned, many of them, to their own land, and had rebuilt the temple. (Completed 516.) In this era the historians were active, publishing the second historical series, and preparing the last edition of the Pentateuch. The prophets also were active, though not with the ability of the men of the Assyrian and the Chaldean periods. The most important writing was done by the poets and the wise men.

Outside of the narrowed boundaries of Judah, the year 500 stood in the midst of a golden century. This was the time when the Greeks met the invading Persians at Marathon (490) and Salamis (480) and turned them back in defeat from the shores of Europe. Within the space of a hundred glorious years Æschylus, Sophocles and Euripides were writing plays in Athens, Socrates and Plato were teaching philosophy, and Pericles and Phidias were realizing the best dreams of administrators and artists. About the same time Confucius in China (551-478) and Gotama Buddha in India (568-488) were working out the systems of ethics and of religion which have so profoundly affected the life of the East. To this period probably belongs the book of Job.

VIII

THE PROPHETS: THE ASSYRIAN PERIOD

I

OWARD the end of the long and prosperous

reign of Jeroboam II (c. 750), there appeared in Bethel,—one of the two holy cities of the northern kingdom, a shepherd named Amos. He came from the south, from the "wilderness of Judah" by the Dead Sea, and the looks of the man, in his shepherd's dress, attracted a crowd about him in the street as he began to speak. He showed his knowledge of human nature by first denouncing the enemies of Israel.

Thus saith the Lord: For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron: but I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad. I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the Lord.

Thus saith the Lord: For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they carried away captive the whole people, to deliver them up to Edom: but I will send a fire on the

wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof: and I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon, and I will turn mine hand against Ekron: and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God.

Thus saith the Lord: for three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole people to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant: but I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, which shall devour the palaces thereof.

Then Edom, then Ammon, then Moab, then Judah,— and then, Israel.

Thus saith the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes; that pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek.

Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying:

You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth, seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name: that causeth destruction to flash forth against the strong, so that destruction shall come against the fortress.

They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. For I

know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time. Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meal offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty

stream.

It is a prophecy of the sure ruin of a people who are committing the sins of prosperity. They are oppressing the poor, and perverting justice, and in their religion ritual has taken the place of righteousness.

Presently out came the priest of Bethel, and expelled the prophet from the city.

Then Amaziah the priest of Beth-el sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying:-"Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land." Also Amaziah said unto Amos:-"O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: but prophesy not again any more at Beth-el: for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court." Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah:-"I am no prophet, neither am I a prophet's son; but I am an herdman, and a pincher of sycomore fruit: and the Lord