The Story of the Chosen People (Yesterday's Classics) (23 page)

Like the vain man that he was, Haman fancied that the reward could be intended only for himself; so he promptly answered that the man ought to be clad in royal robes, and set upon one of the king's own horses. Then some noble prince ought to lead the horse by the bridle through the principal streets of the city, calling aloud to all the people to bow down before the king's faithful servant.

Delighted with this answer, Ahasuerus told Haman to call Mordecai, and have him richly dressed, and mounted upon the best horse in the royal stables. The king added that Haman, as the greatest person at court, should lead the horse by the bridle and do all that he had said.

Haman's heart was full of rage when he heard this, and he hated Mordecai worse than ever. Still he did not dare to disobey, and had to do all as he had said. But as he bade the people bow down before Mordecai, he kept thinking that his turn would soon come; for the day named for the massacre of the Jews was near at hand.

When evening came, Haman went to the palace to attend the queen's feast, little thinking what awaited him there. The supper passed off well, and when it was nearly ended the king reminded Esther that she had not yet asked him the favor which he had promised to grant. Then Esther fell at the king's feet and told him that a traitor had plotted to bring about her death, and that of all her race. A few astonished questions on the king's part soon brought to light the whole story, and Ahasuerus, seeing Haman's baseness, condemned him to be hung on the gallows which had been built for Mordecai's execution.

As a royal decree could not be set aside in Persia, Ahasuerus now made another, warning all the Jews in his kingdom of their peril, and allowing them to defend themselves. The result of these two conflicting orders was a desperate armed struggle, in which seventy-five thousand Persians lost their lives. It was then that the Jews won the victory which they have celebrated ever since at a feast called Purim.

We know nothing further of the Jews, who were still in captivity, until Ezra got from another Persian monarch a permit to go to Jerusalem, with all the Jews who wished to accompany him thither. This new caravan reached the Holy City in safety, and Ezra is said to have made many reforms in the government of the people.

Some thirteen years later, when he was again in the city, Ezra was joined there by Nehemiah, another noted Jew, who, after visiting the place by night, decided to rebuild the old walls. Encouraged by his words and example, the Jews labored so hard that the work was soon done, in spite of the hindrances raised by their many enemies.

On another visit to Jerusalem, a few years later, Nehemiah purified the temple, made the people remember to keep the Sabbath holy, and began many other reforms. These are all written in the book bearing his name, which also contains many appeals to God to have mercy upon his Chosen People.

The last book in the Old Testament, and the last considered sacred by the Jews, is the book of the prophet Malachi, "the voice of one crying in the wilderness." He preached repentance to the people, told them it was the only right way to get ready for the coming of the long-promised Messiah, and foretold the birth of John the Baptist, four hundred years before he came.

Although the Old Testament ends here and the New Testament begins more than four centuries later, we find in history a record of the principal events which happened to the Jews during those long years when first the Greeks and then the Romans became masters of the Old World.

W
HEN
the Jews came back from captivity, they were under the rule of the high priest Jeshua, and although later on a Persian governor was sent to collect tribute, etc., the government was still a theocracy as of old. Shortly after Nehemiah's death, Judah, or Judea, was placed under the rule of a governor of Syria; but the Jews revolted before long, and then their land was again overrun by armies, and many of them were carried off into captivity.

It was during the time of the high priest Jaddua the Sixth, after the return from captivity under Cyrus the Great, that Alexander, King of Macedon, crossed over into Asia Minor. He defeated the Persians in the battles of Granicus and Issus, and conquered all Asia Minor, Syria, and Phœnicia. Then he marched into Judea, where he wanted to punish the people for supplying his enemies with food and refusing to help him.

Warned in a dream, Jaddua, instead of getting ready to fight, opened wide the city gates, and clothed all the people in white. Then heading a long procession of priests in full dress, he went forth to meet the coming host.

Jaddua met Alexander at the head of his army; and, to the surprise of all present, the proud young conqueror jumped down from his horse and paid respectful homage to the high priest. When asked why he had thus suddenly forgotten his anger against the Jews, Alexander said that before he had set out from home he had been favored by a vision, in which Jaddua had appeared to him, inviting him to cross over into Asia, and foretelling his victory over the Persians.

Hand in hand, Alexander and Jaddua now went up to the temple, where the young conqueror asked the high priest to offer a sacrifice in his name. Alexander examined the temple with wonder, and heard the priests read out of their sacred books. The one he liked best was that of Daniel, where the high priest showed him how his coming had been foretold in Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the statue.

When Alexander the Great died at Babylon, a few years later, the vast empire which he had conquered was divided between his generals. The first ruler of Palestine, however, did not long keep it; for Ptolemy, King of Egypt, another of Alexander's generals, soon took possession of it by force.

As the Jews refused to obey him, Ptolemy marched against them; and, by attacking them only on the Sabbath Day, when they were forbidden by law to fight, he soon became their master. To punish them, he carried off one hundred thousand Jews into Egypt, where they formed the bulk of the population in some of the recently founded cities, among which was Alexandria.

Six years later, another claimant wrested Judea away from Ptolemy, but the Egyptians soon recovered possession of it. When peace was restored, Ptolemy II. asked the high priest to send seventy learned men to Alexandria, to make a Greek translation of the books of the Old Testament. These men performed their task with the utmost care, and produced a beautiful translation. From the number of men who worked at it, this version of the Old Testament is known as the Septuagint.

The King of Syria and his successors kept up a long and bloody warfare with the Kings of Egypt, for the possession of Judea; and after many ups and downs Ptolemy IV. entered Jerusalem, and tried to force his way into the temple's inmost sanctuary. Simon, the high priest, courageously forbade this desecration, and thereby so angered Ptolemy that he treated the conquered Jews with the greatest cruelty.

A few years later, the King of Syria was master of the Jews, and had to raise some money; so he sent one of his officers, named Heliodorus, to strip the temple of its gold and silver.

The people were terrified by the danger which threatened them; for they knew that they were not strong enough to defend this treasure. They groaned and prayed aloud, and it is said that when Heliodorus entered the temple, he was met by an angel of the Lord, mounted upon a fiery steed. This rider trampled him under foot, while two other angels, armed with whips, chastised him severely.

Heliodorus did not dare to make any further attempt to take the treasure; but at last it fell into the hands of the enemy.

Some years later, another general also desecrated the temple, by driving a herd of swine into its sacred courts. This was "the abomination of desolation" which the faithful Jews could neither forgive nor forget, and they gladly rallied around a bold leader, Mattathias, determined to make a brave stand for their religion, which the enemy would fain have stamped out for good.

M
ATTATHIAS
had noticed that by strictly keeping the Sabbath, his people had often been defeated; so he now led them into battle even on the holy day, and won so many victories that the Jews soon began to gain hope once more. When his end was drawing near, this brave old man called his five sons to his bedside. He named Simon, the second and wisest, as ruler and adviser, while Judas Maccabæus, the third, was made general of the army.

The Maccabees, as these five brethren and their descendants are generally called, fought so bravely that they little by little defeated all the generals sent against them. They became masters of Jerusalem, repaired the temple, and after purifying it again began to worship God in it.

It was at this time that a small vial of holy oil miraculously supplied enough for all the temple lamps; and ever since then the faithful Jews have commemorated this miracle by the "Feast of Lights."

The Maccabees went on fighting against the Syrians with the utmost bravery. For instance, one of them once slipped under a fighting elephant which he fancied carried the Syrian king, and sacrificed his own life in hopes of killing the enemy of his people.

Judas Maccabæus struggled without a pause for ten years, fighting more battles than we can count, and with only a small force keeping the enemy at bay until the Jews had a chance to rise from the dust. At the end of this time he fell in battle; but when he died it was knowing that he had done his best, and had taught his followers how to fight and be strong.

The Jews were now guided in turn by the other Maccabees, and under one of them they entirely shook off the Syrian dominion, and entered into a league with the Romans. At this time the province of Samaria was laid waste, and a rival temple there was destroyed.

Aristobulus, one of the Maccabees, was the first who bore the royal title since the return from Babylon, but his reign was very short. The next king left two sons, who quarreled over the throne, and one of them asked for the help of the Romans.

Pompey, the great Roman general, came in answer to this appeal, and although he entered Judea as an umpire, he staid there as a master, and forced the Jews to pay tribute to Rome. In the course of this war, the temple hill was besieged and taken by storm. Pompey entered the temple, and in spite of all remonstrances he forced his way into the Holy of Holies, where none but the high priest was allowed to enter, and that only once a year.

Pompey also pulled down the walls of Jerusalem, which had been rebuilt by Nehemiah, but he allowed the Jews to continue their worship as before. Ten years later, Crassus, another Roman, came to Syria. He was very greedy for gold, and he ordered that the temple should be robbed and all its treasures carried off.

When Julius Cæsar became master of Rome, he appointed a governor for Judea; but this ruler was soon succeeded by his son Herod the Great, who took the title of king. To make the Jews friendly to him this Herod married Mariamne, sister of the high priest, and the last member of the royal family; but he finally murdered her and her sons in a fit of jealousy.

About twenty years before our era, Herod, hoping to disarm the wrath of the Jews, who still hated him, began to rebuild the ruined temple, and the main part of this work was finished the very year that Christ was born.

HEROD'S TEMPLE

Y
OU
have seen, all through the course of this history, how anxiously the Chosen People had been watching and praying for the coming of the promised Messiah, the prince and deliverer. When you read and understand the prophecies where his coming is foretold, you will perhaps see why the Jews and Christians have different opinions on this subject.

The Jews were and are a proud and shrewd people, and it was very galling to them to be under the rule of foreigners. As the prophecies had told of a coming prince, and had described his power and glory, the Jews expected—and still expect—a mighty earthly king.

The Christians, in reading the same prophecies, see that the long-promised Messiah was indeed a king, but one whose kingdom was not of the earth, and short-lived, but of heaven, and eternal. These two very different explanations of the sayings of the prophets have been the cause of many disputes.

In the days of Herod, the faithful Jews were very much excited; because, as far as they could make out, it was now about time for the promised Messiah to appear. Now, all of you who have Christian parents are familiar with the story of Jesus Christ,—the Messiah, according to the Christians. You know that his coming had been foretold to his mother, Mary, by an angel, that he was born in Bethlehem, in a manger, and that an angel announced his birth to some poor shepherds, who were the first to worship him.

You have also heard how three wise men came from the East to Jerusalem, following a star, and asking: "Where is he that is born King of the Jews?" This question came to the ears of Herod; and as he was afraid that the prophecies might be true, he ordered the massacre of all the innocent little children in Bethlehem.