who occupied the territory between the Zagros Mountains and the Caspian Sea, and the Chaldeans, whose chief city was Babylon. Nineveh fell never to rise again, and for hundreds of years no one knew where it had stood. Even the Assyrian tongue passed away, and soon Aramæan became the language of the land. If we had been living at the time when the proud empire was at her height, perhaps we should have little thought that the obscure, struggling Hebrew nation would, twenty-five hundred years later, have a place of honor in history second to no nation, while Assyria would have passed into oblivion. What caused the difference? The prophecy of Nahum.-This remarkable little book is a song of triumph over the approaching fall of Nineveh. It is a poem of great power and rare poetic beauty. It is filled with vivid pictures of the warfare of that day: "Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and rapine; the prey departeth not. The noise of the whip, and the noise of the rattling wheels, and prancing horses, and bounding chariots, the horseman mounting, and the flashing sword, and the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a great heap of corpses.". "Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; thy nobles are at rest; thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and there is none to gather them. There is no assuaging of thy hurt; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the report of thee clap their hands over thee; for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?" The prophecy of Zephaniah.-About the year 626 hordes of Scythians, a wandering race of Indo-European stock who lived near the Danube River, poured through Asia Minor on their way to Egypt. They were the forerunners of the barbarians who overthrew the Roman empire, and wherever they went they left devastation in their wake. The cities along the coast, especially in Philistia, suffered unspeakably from their ravages. Jerusalem had every reason to expect the same fate, and the prophet Zephaniah took the opportunity to warn the people of the approaching calamity as Jehovah's judgment upon a sinful nation. The Scythians passed on without visiting Jerusalem, but the fear inspired by them doubtless had something to do with creating in the Hebrews a proper spirit for the acceptance of the reforms soon to be made by Josiah. BIBLICAL SOURCES: Manasseh's reign, 2 Kings 21. The destruction of Nineveh, The book of Nahum. QUESTIONS 1. Describe the reactionary work of Manasseh. 2 Why were Hezekiah's reforms not permanent? 3. Give some of the reasons why the masses of the people were not in sympathy with these reforms. 4. Why was Assyrian worship popular? 5. How do you account for the fact that the Hebrew religion persisted against such odds? 6. When was the Assyrian empire at the height of its power? 7. Name several of its most important rulers. 8. What is the subject of the prophecy of Nahum? 9. What occasioned Zephaniah's prophecy? LESSON XXXVIII THE REFORMS UNDER JOSIAH MANASSEH'S Successor was his son, Amon, who followed in the evil ways of his father, but whose reign, fortunately, lasted only two years. He was assassinated in his own palace by his servants; "And the people of the land made his son, Josiah, king in his place." Josiah was only eight years old when he came to the throne. His reign of thirty-one years was one of the most important and progressive periods in the history of Judah, for in it occurred the so-called "Deuteronomic Reform," which was the most successful attempt yet made to drive the old heathenism out of the land and to purify and strengthen the worship of Jehovah. This reform was brought about through the agency of Josiah, who was the best of all the kings of Judah. It seems strange that Josiah should have been so utterly different from his father and his grandfather. This is partly accounted for by the fact that in some way-just how we do not know he came under the control of sympathizers with the prophetic party. It has been conjectured that Zephaniah the prophet was his teacher, for he is thought to have been of royal blood, a descendant of Hezekiah. It is possible that Hilkiah, later high priest, had much to do with Josiah's training. At the time Josiah was growing up Jeremiah was preaching and the doctrines of the prophetic school were coming into greater and greater prominence. At any rate, by the time Josiah was old enough to make decisions for himself he was fully in sympathy with the prophetic party. Finding the book of the law. In the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign (B. C. 621) he ordered extensive repairs on the temple. While these were in progress a remarkable thing happened. A book now believed by scholars to have been the larger part of Deuteronomy was found in the temple by the high priest, Hilkiah. He handed it to Shaphan, the scribe, who read it and carried it to the king. The reading of the book to Josiah made a great impression upon him, and he “rent his clothes" in consternation. The reason for his alarm is plainly found in the book of Deuteronomy (28. 15-68), for terrible curses are pronounced upon those who do not keep the law as laid down in that book. At the same time all possible blessings are promised to those who keep it (28. 1-14). Josiah knew that the law of the book had not been kept, and he feared that Jehovah in his anger would bring the same fate upon Judah that had befallen Israel. The reading of the book to the people. At once he dispatched messengers to Huldah the prophetess to learn whether Jehovah's judgment might be averted. Her answer was that because of the devout spirit manifested by Josiah the doom would be deferred. In his eager desire that he and his people should fulfill all the commands of the law, Josiah called the elders of the people together and read them the book. One of the most impressive pictures in the Bible is that of the good young king, standing by the pillar in the temple, reading the law to his people, and pledging himself "with all his heart and all his soul" to obey it. "And all the people stood to the covenant," thus bind ing themselves to obey it. Thus the Hebrews adopted their most important code of written law and their first authoritative book. Josiah then threw himself with all the ardor of his nature into bringing about obedience to every detail of the law throughout his kingdom. The chief reason we believe the newly found book to have been Deuteronomy is that the reforms inaugurated, which are fully described in Second Kings, are exactly those that would have had to be initiated in order to meet the demands of Deuteronomy. Incidentally, we learn from the account of these reforms the appalling moral and religious condition of the country. Reforms to meet the demands of the new book. 1. Worship was centralized at Jerusalem. It was made illegal to offer sacrifices anywhere but at the temple. What was the reason for this remarkable innovation? It was simply this: All efforts to control the worship at the local shrines had failed. These "high places" had been seats of Canaanite worship before they were taken possession of by the Israelites, and thus drunkenness and immorality were introduced into Jehovah worship. If all worship could be centralized at Jerusalem, it could be controlled. The religion of Jehovah itself was at stake, and the steps actually taken seemed the only way to save it. All the priests of the local shrines were deposed and provision was made for them in connection with the temple service. "Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of Jehovah in Jerusalem, but they did eat unleavened bread among their brethren." 2. All the "high places" were abolished. The heathen altars, asherim, pillars, images, and all symbols of |