master: "Jehovah declares, Do not be afraid of the words that you have heard and with which the servants of the king of Assyria have insulted me. I will put a spirit in him, so that he will hear a rumor that will make him return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall there by the sword.'

That very night the angel of Jehovah went and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men rose the next morning they discovered all the dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria returned home and lived at Nineveh. While he was worshipping in the temple of Nisroch his god, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. They escaped into the land of Ararat, and his son Esarhaddon became king in his place.

123. THE HEATHEN REACTION UNDER MANASSEH

When Hezekiah died, Manasseh his twelve-year-old son succeeded him, and he ruled fifty-five years in Jerusalem; but he did that which displeased Jehovah, adopting the abominable practices of the nations whom Jehovah drove out before the Israelites. For he built again on the heights the shrines which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an image of the Canaanite goddess of fortune, as Ahab the ruler of Israel had done, and worshipped the sun and moon and planets, as did the Babylonians, and served them. He built altars in the temple of Jehovah, of which Jehovah said, 'With Jerusalem will I let my name be associated.' He also built altars for all the Babylonian star gods in the two courts of the temple of Jehovah. And he made his son pass through the fire and practised augury and witchcraft

and appointed mediums and diviners; he did much evil in the sight of Jehovah which aroused anger.

Therefore Jehovah said through his servants the prophets, 'Because Manasseh the ruler of Judah has done these abominable acts and has behaved more wickedly than all the Amorites who preceded him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols, Jehovah the God of Israel will bring such evil on Jerusalem and Judah, that the ears of whoever hears of it shall tingle. And I will stretch the measuring line over Jerusalem, as I did over Samaria, and the plummet to reveal its guilt, as I did over the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem clean of all inhabitants as one wipes a dish, wiping and turning it upside down.'

Manasseh also shed the blood of many innocent men, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other with deeds of bloodshed. When he died, he was buried in the garden of his palace in the garden of Uzza, and his son Amnon succeeded him.

Amnon ruled two years in Jerusalem and, like Manasseh his father, did not do what was right in the sight of Jehovah. Then the servants of Amnon conspired against him and put him to death in his palace. But the people of the land killed all who had conspired against him, and they elected his son Josiah ruler in his place.

THE LAST THREE DECADES OF JUDAH'S HISTORY

124. THE DISCOVERY AND PROMULGATION OF THE LAWS IN DEUTERONOMY

Josiah was eight years old when he began to rule, and he ruled thirty-one years in Jerusalem. In the eighteenth year of his rule he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and grandson of Meshullam the scribe, to the temple of Jehovah with the command, 'Go up to Hilkiah the chief priest and see that, when he has taken the money that is brought into the temple of Jehovah and that which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people, they deliver it into the hands of the workmen who have the supervision of the temple of Jehovah. Then let them give it to the carpenters, the builders, and the masons who are in the temple of Jehovah, to repair the breaches in it and to buy timber and hewn stone to restore it.' But no reckoning was required of them for the money that was delivered into their hands, for they dealt honestly.

Then Hilkiah the chief priest said to Shaphan the scribe, 'I have found the book of the law in the temple of Jehovah.' And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. Then Shaphan went to Josiah and told him, 'Your servants have taken the money that was found in the temple and have turned it over to the workmen who have the oversight of the temple of Jehovah.' Shaphan the scribe also said to Josiah, 'Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.' And Shaphan read it before him.

When Josiah had heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. Then he gave this command

to Hilkiah the priest, to Ahikam the son of Shaphan, to Achbor the son of Micaiah, to Shaphan the scribe, and to Asaiah his servant, Go, inquire of Jehovah for me and for the people and for all Judah about the words of this book that has been found; for Jehovah must be exceedingly angry with us, because our fathers have not heeded the words of this book nor put in practice all that is there prescribed for us.'

So Hilkiah the priest and Ahikam and Achbor went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the keeper of the royal wardrobe, who lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter, and talked with her. She said to them, 'This is the message of Jehovah, the God of Israel: "Tell the man who sent you to me, Jehovah declares, I am now about to bring calamity upon this place and upon its inhabitants, even all the threats contained in the book which the ruler of Judah has read." But you shall say to him who sent you to inquire of Jehovah, "Jehovah the God of Israel declares, As regards the words which you have heardbecause your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before Jehovah and have wept before me, I also have heard you, Jehovah declares.". So they brought back word to Josiah.

Then at his command they assembled all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And Josiah went up to the temple of Jehovah, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the prophets and all the people, including the children; and he read to them all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the temple of Jehovah. And Josiah stood by the pillar and made a solemn promise before Jehovah to obey all the commands and carry out the regulations contained in this book. And all the people ratified the agreement.

125. JOSIAH'S DRASTIC REFORMATION

Then Josiah commanded Hilkiah the chief priest and the second priest and the door-keepers to bring out from the temple of Jehovah all the utensils that were made for Baal and for the Canaanite goddess of fortune, and for the Babylonian star gods; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the lime-kilns by the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. He also deposed the idolatrous priests, whom the rulers of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifice at the shrines on the heights in the towns of Judah and in the places about Jerusalem; those also who offered sacrifices to Baal, to the sun, the moon, and the planets, and all the starry host. He brought the image of the Canaanite goddess of fortune from the temple of Jehovah to the Brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, and there burned it, beat it to dust, and cast its dust upon the graves of the common people.

He also broke down the houses of the temple prostitutes who were in the temple of Jehovah, where the women wove tunics for the Canaanite goddess of fortune. And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah and from Geba to Beersheba and defiled the shrines on the heights, where the priests had offered sacrifices; and he broke down the heathen shrines which were on the left at the entrance of the city gate and stood before the gate of Joshua the governor of the city. He also defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech. He removed the horses at the entrance of the temple of Jehovah, which the rulers of Judah had dedicated to the sun, and burned the chariots of the sun. Josiah broke down and crushed in pieces the altars that were