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JERUSALEMFrom an old photograph in the possession of the Springfield Public Library, and used by kind permission.
This is a beautiful picture of a portion of that city which was so greatly beloved by the people of Judah.
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"King Demetrius unto Simon the high priest and Friend of kings, and unto the elders and nation of the Jews, greeting:--
"The golden crown, and the palm branch, which ye sent, we have received: and we are ready to make a steadfast peace with you, yea, and to write unto our officers, to grant immunities unto you. And whatsoever things we confirmed unto you, they are confirmed; and the strongholds, which ye have builded, let them be your own. As for any oversights and faults committed unto this day, we forgive them, and the crown tax which ye owed us: and if there were any other toll exacted in Jerusalem, let it be exacted no longer. And if there be any among you meet to be enrolled in our court, let them be enrolled, and let there be peace betwixt us."
In the hundred and seventieth year was the yoke of the heathen taken away from Israel. And the people began to write in their instruments and contracts, "In the first year of Simon the great high priest and captain and leader of the Jews."
XXVI.How the City of Gazara and the Citadel of Jerusalem Fell Into the Hands of Simon.
(Gazara is the city called in the Old Testament Gaza. It has recently been excavated, and many ancient buildings have been dug up. One of them is thought to be the palace which Simon built.)
In those days he encamped against Gazara, and compassed it round about with armies; and he made an engine of siege, and brought it up to the city, and smote a tower, and took it. And they that were in the engine leaped forth into the city; and there was a great uproar in the{472}city: and they of the city rent their clothes, and went up on the walls with their wives and children, and cried with a loud voice, beseeching Simon to give them peace. And they said, "Deal not with us according to our wickednesses, but according to thy mercy."
And Simon was reconciled unto them, and did not fight against them: and he put them out of the city, and cleansed the houses wherein the idols were, and so entered into it with singing and giving praise. And he put all uncleanness out of it, and placed in it such men as would keep the law, and made it stronger than it was before, and built therein a dwelling place for himself.
But they of the citadel in Jerusalem were hindered from going forth, and from going into the country, and from buying and selling; and they hungered exceedingly, and a great number of them perished through famine. And they cried out to Simon, that he should give them peace; and he gave it to them: and he put them out from thence, and he cleansed the citadel from its pollutions. And he entered into it on the three and twentieth day of the second month, in the hundred and seventy and first year, with praise and palm branches, and with harps, and with cymbals, and with viols, and with hymns, and with songs: because a great enemy was destroyed out of Israel.
And he ordained that they should keep that day every year with gladness. And the hill of the temple that was by the citadel he made stronger than before, and there he dwelt, himself and his men. And Simon saw that John his son was a valiant man, and he made him leader of all his forces: and he dwelt in Gazara.
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ASCALON, ON THE SHORE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. From a photograph of the Palestine Exploration Fund, and used by special permission.
Here was once an important city on the low sandy coast without a harbor. It was captured by Jonathan in the Maccabean wars, and was an important city during the time of the Crusades.
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XXVII.How There Was Prosperity in the Land in the Days of Simon.
And the land had rest all the days of Simon: and he sought the good of his nation; and his authority and his glory was well-pleasing to them all his days. And amid all his glory he took Joppa for a haven, and made it a port of entrance for the isles of the sea; and he enlarged the borders of his nation, and got possession of the country; and he gathered together a great number of captives, and got the dominion of Gazara, and Bethsura, and the citadel, and he took away from it its uncleannesses; and there was none that resisted him. And they tilled their land in peace, and the land gave her increase, and the trees of the plains their fruit. The ancient men sat in the streets, they communed all of them together of good things, and the young men put on glorious and warlike apparel. He provided victuals for the cities, and furnished them with all manner of munition, until the name of his glory was named unto the end of the earth. He made peace in the land, and Israel rejoiced with great joy: and they sat each man under his vine and his fig tree, and there was none to make them afraid: and there ceased in the land any that fought against them: and the kings were discomfited in those days. And he strengthened all those of his people that were brought low: the law he searched out, and every lawless and wicked person he took away. He glorified the sanctuary, and the vessels of the temple he multiplied.
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XXVIII.How Antiochus, the Brother of King Demetrius, Spurned the Friendship of Simon.
But Antiochus the king encamped against Dor the second day, bringing his forces up to it continually, and making engines of war, and he shut up Tryphon from going in or out. And Simon sent him two thousand chosen men to fight on his side; and silver, and gold, and instruments of war in abundance. And he would not receive them, but set at naught all the covenants which he had made with him before, and was estranged from him. And he sent unto him Athenobius, one of his Friends, to commune with him, saying,--
"Ye hold possession of Joppa and Gazara, and the citadel that is in Jerusalem, cities of my kingdom. The borders thereof ye have wasted, and done great hurt in the land, and got the dominion of many places in my kingdom. Now therefore deliver up the cities which ye have taken, and the tributes of the places whereof ye have gotten dominion without the borders of Judaea: or else give me for them five hundred talents of silver; and for the harm that ye have done, and the tributes of the cities, five hundred talents more: or else we will come and subdue you."
And Athenobius the king's Friend came to Jerusalem; and he saw the glory of Simon, and the cupboard of gold and silver vessels, and his great attendance, and he was amazed; and he reported to him the king's words. And Simon answered, and said unto him,--
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BARLEY HARVEST NEAR BETHLEHEM.
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood and used by special permission.
So Boaz and his harvesters must have looked in the time of Ruth. Bethlehem is one of the most fertile spots in rugged Judaea. Though the wilderness is not far away, here a spot of great fertility gave rise to the name of the "House of Bread."
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"We have neither taken other men's land, nor have we possession of that which appertaineth to others, but of the inheritance of our fathers; howbeit, it was had in possession of our enemies wrongfully for a certain time. But we, having opportunity, hold fast the inheritance of our fathers. As touching Joppa and Gazara, which thou demandest, they did great harm among the people throughout our country, but we will give a hundred talents for them."
And he answered him not a word, but returned in a rage to the king, and reported unto him these words, and the glory of Simon, and all that he had seen: and the king was exceeding wroth. But Tryphon embarked on board a ship, and fled to Orthosia.
XXIX.How the Chief Captain of Antiochus Invaded Israel, and How He Was Defeated by the Sons of Simon in a Great Battle at Modin.
And the king appointed Cendebaeus chief captain of the sea coast, and gave him forces of foot and horse: and he commanded him to encamp before Judaea, and he commanded him to build up Kidron, and to fortify the gates, and that he should fight against the people: but the king pursued Tryphon. And Cendebaeus came to Jamnia, and began to provoke the people, and to invade Judaea, and to take the people captive, and to slay them. And he built Kidron, and set horsemen there, and forces of foot, so that issuing out they might make raids into Judaea, according as the king commanded him.
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And John went up from Gazara, and told Simon his father what Cendebaeus was doing. And Simon called his two eldest sons, Judas and John, and said unto them, "I and my brethren and my father's house have fought the battles of Israel from our youth, even unto this day; and things have prospered in our hands, that we should deliver Israel oftentimes. But now I am old, and ye moreover, by his mercy, are of a sufficient age: be ye instead of me and my brother, and go forth and fight for our nation; but let the help which is from heaven be with you."
And he chose out of the country twenty thousand men of war and horsemen, and they went against Cendebaeus, and slept at Modin. And rising up in the morning, they went into the plain, and, behold, a great host came to meet them, of footmen and horsemen: and there was a brook between them. And he encamped over against them, he and his people: and he saw that the people were afraid to pass over the brook, and he passed over first, and the men saw him and passed over after him. And he divided the people, and set the horsemen in the midst of the footmen: but the enemies' horsemen were exceeding many. And they sounded the trumpets; and Cendebaeus and his army were put to the rout, and there fell of them many wounded to death, but they that were left fled to the stronghold: at that time was Judas John's brother wounded: but John pursued after them, till he came unto Kidron, which Cendebaeus had built; and they fled unto the towers that are in the fields of Azotus; and he burned it with fire; and there fell of them about two thousand men. And he returned into Judaea in peace.
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XXX.How Simon and His Sons Were Betrayed and Murdered While Sitting at a Banquet.
And Ptolemy the son of Abubus had been appointed captain for the plain of Jericho, and he had much silver and gold; for he was the high priest's son in law. And his heart was lifted up, and he was minded to make himself master of the country, and he took counsel deceitfully against Simon and his sons, to make away with them.
Now Simon was visiting the cities that were in the country, and taking care for the good ordering of them; and he went down to Jericho, himself and Mattathias and Judas his sons, in the hundred and seventy and seventh year, in the eleventh month: and the son of Abubus received them deceitfully into the little stronghold that is called Dok, which he had built, and made them a great banquet, and hid men there. And when Simon and his sons had drunk freely, Ptolemy and his men rose up, and took their arms, and came in upon Simon into the banqueting place, and slew him, and his two sons, and certain of his servants. And he committed a great iniquity, and recompensed evil for good. And Ptolemy wrote these things, and sent to the king, that he should send him forces to aid him, and should deliver him their country and the cities. And he sent others to Gazara to make away with John: and unto the captains of thousands he sent letters to come unto him, that he might give them silver and gold and gifts. And others he sent to take possession of Jerusalem, and the mount of the temple.
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And one ran before to Gazara, and told John that his father and brethren were perished, "and he hath sent to slay thee also." And when he heard, he was sore amazed; and he laid hands on the men that came to destroy him, and slew them; for he perceived that they were seeking to destroy him.
(This ends the story of a brave and successful attempt to win liberty for a downtrodden nation. "More than thirty years had passed since Mattathias openly resisted the religious persecution of his nation. In the faithful and skillful hands of his sons the crusade inaugurated by him had been singularly successful. One by one they had fallen in the sacred cause which he had committed to them. But they had not shed their blood in vain. The valor of the Maccabees had rehabilitated the Jewish nation. Not only was the old spirit of independence thoroughly aroused, but there was also developed a new consciousness of the worth of their revealed religion. As the most thrilling epoch in Jewish history, and that which shaped the last phase of Jewish belief prior to the advent of our Lord, the age of the Maccabees has a peculiar interest for the student of history."--W. Fairweather in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible.
The dynasty of the Maccabees continued until the time of our Lord, but the noble blood of the heroes degenerated until the brilliant but cruel and evil-minded Herod the Great, by the murder of his own sons, ended the famous line of the Maccabees.)
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JERUSALEM: LOOKING ALONG THE NORTHERN WALL.
The large building on the right is the new hospice for Russian pilgrims. Modern Jerusalem is growing rapidly in this direction to north and west on the high land. The road seen is a new one winding around the city and over the Mount of Olives to Jericho.
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NOTES
TALES OF THE FAR-OFF DAYS.
Shinar. A part of the great plain of Babylon (the Babel of the story). On this plain great towers of bricks, once temples of the gods, are found. This story seems to be told about one of these great towers.
RUTH.
Moablies across the Dead Sea from Judah. One can see its hills from the heights about Bethlehem, and to this day grain is brought across from its fields and sold in Jerusalem.
Kinsman. In the East the duty of caring for the family was very sacredly held. If a person was injured, he must be avenged by his kinsman. If he became poor, his kinsman must aid him. If he was obliged to sell land, his kinsman should buy it if he could, so that it need not go out of the family. According to one set of Hebrew laws, should a married man die without children, it was the duty of a kinsman to marry his widow, as Boaz did Ruth.
DEBORAH.
All the story of Deborah falls in the northern part of Israel. Zebulon and Naphtali were in the Northern hills, which in the New Testament time were called Galilee, where Jesus lived. The river Kishon flowed through a plain just to the south of the hills, in the{488}territory of Asher. Dan and Asher also lay in the Northern hills, and Issachar south of Naphtali and Zebulon. Gilead and Machir were across the Jordan from Issachar. The people in the south of Palestine were not concerned in this war. It brought out the heroism of a few of the people of Israel, but the rest were either too cowardly or too far away to take part in it.
Shamgar. One of the judges preceding Deborah.
ESTHER.
Ahasuerus, the king who is called Xerxes in Greek, and who invaded Greece. The heroic little nation of the Greeks conquered his great army, and he went back to his huge empire of Persia with no gain or glory. He was luxurious and selfish. The picture of him in this story is like that given everywhere else. He was only great because he ruled a great kingdom, and he was not noble in any way.
Shushan, the capital of ancient Persia, then the center of the power and commerce of the world, as the capital of the greatest nation always was. During the Bible times the great empires were Babylon, Assyria, then Babylon again, Persia, Greece, Rome. During much of the time the second great power of the world was Egypt.
Tebeth, a month corresponding to parts of December and January. The Jewish year began in the early spring, and Tebeth was the tenth month.
Purim, a feast kept before the New Testament time. Later, when the Jews were hated and shamefully abused by Christians, Purim was a favorite feast, because it gave great opportunity for the Jews to express their contempt for their oppressors. It was always a noisy and joyful feast. The book of Esther was read in the synagogues, and whenever the name of Haman was pronounced in the reading, the boys rapped on the floors and benches, making a great noise. It came, as the story of Esther tells, in the middle of Adar, which is in February and March.
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JUDITH.
Apocrypha. The name given to a collection of books of various kinds, long used as a part of the Old Testament, and still so regarded by the Catholic church. They were not held to be sacred by the Jews, but were by the early church. They contain histories, tales, books of wisdom and good advice. Some of the histories, like that of the Maccabees in this volume, are excellent and keep close to truth, but some of the tales, while stories of great interest, do not pretend to be exact statements of fact. Such is this story of Judith. All of them, however, are written to show some character of heroism or goodness. This story of Judith is a stirring tale of bravery. Bravery is something that men and women, boys and girls, all need to learn.
Holofernes, called a general of Nebuchadnezzar in the story. A king named Orophernes was the friend of a later king who was an enemy of the Jews. This may be the origin of the name.
Asher, a tribe of Israel living in Northern Palestine.
Dotaea, the Dothan of the Old Testament.
Geba, a common name of towns in Palestine. It means "hill." This Geba was about three miles north of Samaria.
Scythopolis. The Bethshan of the Old Testament, about three miles from the river Jordan.
Bethulia. A town near Dothan, the site not known. It may be that, in an original form of the story, some other place was named, possibly Samaria or Jerusalem.
Children of Esau. Edomites, who were long at sharp enmity with the Jews.
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STORIES OF ELIJAH AND ELISHA.
Cherith, thought by some to be the Wady Kelt, one of the deep narrow valleys between Jerusalem and the Jordan, where the land is uninhabited, all a mass of rock and steep mountain and desert.
Zarephath, a village on a promontory by the shore, about eight miles south of Zidon.
Zidon. One of the great cities of commerce in the ancient world. It traded with Egypt, Greece, Carthage, and even distant Spain. It is still a town of some importance, with ruins of the ancient walls and towers about the harbor.
Baal and Asherah. Symbols of the Canaanite and Phoenician gods. The people had worshiped the Canaanite gods, or Baals, ever since they came to Palestine, and the prophets had tried to get them to worship only Jehovah, but without entire success. In the time of Elijah the wicked Jezebel was queen. She had come from Phoenicia, the land of Tyre and Zidon, and did all she could to increase the Baal worship. How Elijah fought against it is told in one of these stories.
Jezreel. A beautiful town northeast of Samaria, for a time a royal residence.
Samaria. The capital of Northern Israel during the latter part of its history. It was situated on a hill at the head of a beautiful valley, and was an important town for a long time.
Gilgal. The name of several places in Palestine. This Gilgal seems to have been not far from Bethel.
Shunem. A village not far from Jezreel, near Mount Tabor.
Mount Carmel. The only mountain that runs out to the Mediterranean in the land of Israel. From its top one can look in all directions over the land and the sea, for it stands with the sea on the west and a great plain on all other sides.
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BETHLEHEM.
This picture shows the outer walls of the famous Church of the Nativity.
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Syriawas for a time a kingdom stronger than Israel. Its capital was at the famous old city of Damascus.
Abana and Pharparare rivers which flow from the mountains past Damascus, giving it water and fertility in the midst of a plain that is almost a desert. So the people of Damascus are very proud of their rivers.
Rimmon. The god that Naaman's king worshiped, and to whom Naaman had to bow down when he attended the king in the temple.
TALES OF SUCCESS AND FAILURE.JONAH.
Nineveh. The greatest, most hated city in the ancient world. It was the center of more barbaric cruelty in both war and peace than any other place. This story shows that God cares even for the people of a wicked place like Nineveh.
Tarshish. Probably in Spain.
SAMSON.
Timnah. On the south side of the valley of Sorek, in the western part of Palestine, northeast of Jerusalem. The whole story of Samson is laid in this region, between Jerusalem and Joppa.
Philistines. A people which had taken the plains west of the hills of Judaea, and for a long time were the rivals and enemies of Israel.
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Nazirite. A man who had taken a vow not to cut his hair, not to eat grapes or drink wine, and not to touch a dead body. It was one way of expressing devotion to God.
Dagon. The god of the Philistines.
DANIEL.
Pulse. A sort of pea; good, healthy food, but not delicate or luxurious.
Chaldeans. Usually the people of Babylon. In Daniel, however, it means a class of people who practiced sorcery.
Medes. The Persians and Medes were combined into the Persian empire. It was they who took Babylon, and put an end to the Babylonian empire, though the city of Babylon was still for many hundred years a great center of commerce and of learning.
NEHEMIAH.
Shushan. See notes on Esther.
Chislev. A month corresponding to parts of November and December. Nisan corresponds to parts of March and April.
Artaxerxes. King of Persia, the son of the Xerxes of the story of Esther.
Tirshatha. An officer of the empire, appointed for a special service.
Feast of Booths. One of the three great feasts of the Hebrews. It was a joyful feast, a thanksgiving time. During the feast the people lived in booths, from which comes the name.
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THE STORY OF THE DIVIDED KINGDOM.
Ethiopians. Just at this time the people of the distant south ruled Egypt, and they were known as Ethiopians.
Asherim, Asheroth. (See note on Elijah and Elisha.) The name Asheroth is formed as though there were a goddess Asherah.
Ships of Tarshish. That is, ships like those which were built to go to Tarshish in Spain; just as ships built like those that sailed to East India used to be called Indiamen.
Ophir. A place from which gold and other things were brought. Where it was is still unknown.
Valley of Salt. The valley of the Dead Sea. Its southern part is full of places where salt is found.
Assyria. This great empire, with its capital at Nineveh on the Tigris, was for a long time greatly feared by Israel. It kept all the small nations about under tribute, and was very cruel in all its wars, so that when, after several generations, it fell, there was great rejoicing.
Carchemish. A town on the Euphrates, which was often the scene of great battles.
Bethel and Danwere the two extremes of the northern kingdom of Israel. Both had perhaps been sacred places long before.
Tirzah. A town in a beautiful situation, the capital of North Israel from the time of Jeroboam till the time of Omri, who built Samaria.
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TALES OF THE MACCABEES.
Kingdom of the Greeks. Alexander the Great conquered all western Asia as far as the borders of India. After his death the empire was divided among his generals. One of the divisions became the kingdom of Syria, and it was Syria that ruled over Judaea in the time of this heroic story. Because the kingdom began with the Greek rule, and still kept more or less of the Greek customs and religion, it was still called the kingdom of the Greeks.
Modin. A town below the hills of Judaea, to the west, not mentioned in either the Old or the New Testament.
Beth-horon. A valley leading west from the hills of Judaea, somewhat north of Jerusalem. In the early wars of Joshua and the Judges this was also the scene of many battles.
Bethsura. A town in the mountains not far from Hebron. It had long been a fortress of Judaea.
Azotus and Askelon. Towns in the southwest of Judah.
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RUINS OF BETH-EL.
Situated high up on the central range of Palestine, Bethel was from the earliest times a "holy place." It reached the height of its importance under the reign of Jeroboam II., who made it the religious capital of the northern kingdom, and instituted there the worship of the golden calves.
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MEMORY VERSESOne for Each Week of the Year.
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