History of the Jews, Vol. 1 (of 6)

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Graetz Heinrich. History of the Jews, Vol. 1 (of 6)

PREFACE

CHAPTER I. THE EARLIEST PERIOD

CHAPTER II. OCCUPATION OF THE LAND OF CANAAN

CHAPTER III. NEIGHBOURING NATIONS

CHAPTER IV. THE JUDGES

CHAPTER V. ELI AND SAMUEL

CHAPTER VI. THE APOGEE

CHAPTER VII. DAVID AND ISHBOSHETH

CHAPTER VIII. DAVID

CHAPTER IX. SOLOMON

CHAPTER X. SECESSION OF THE TRIBES

CHAPTER XI. THE HOUSE OF DAVID AND THE JEHUIDES

CHAPTER XII. END OF THE HOUSE OF JEHU AND THE TIME OF UZZIAH

CHAPTER XIII. THE DOWNFALL OF THE KINGDOM OF THE TEN TRIBES; THE HOUSE OF DAVID, AND THE INTERVENTION OF THE ASSYRIANS

CHAPTER XIV. THE END OF THE KINGDOM OF THE TEN TRIBES, AND THE HOUSE OF DAVID

CHAPTER XV. THE LAST KINGS OF JUDAH

CHAPTER XVI. END OF THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH

CHAPTER XVII. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE DESTRUCTION

CHAPTER XVIII. THE BABYLONIAN EXILE

CHAPTER XIX. THE RETURN FROM BABYLON, THE NEW COMMUNITY IN JUDÆA, EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

CHAPTER XX. THE SOPHERIC AGE

CHAPTER XXI. SIMON THE JUST AND HIS DESCENDANTS

CHAPTER XXII. THE TYRANNICAL CONVERSION TO HELLENISM AND THE ELEVATION OF THE MACCABEES

CHAPTER XXIII. VICTORIES AND DEATH OF JUDAS MACCABÆUS; JONATHAN THE HASMONÆAN

CHAPTER XXIV. THE JUDÆANS IN ALEXANDRIA AND THE GOVERNMENT OF SIMON

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It was on a spring day that some pastoral tribes passed across the Jordan into a strip of land which can only be regarded as an extended coast-line of the Mediterranean. This was the land of Canaan, subsequently called Palestine. The crossing of the Jordan and the entry into this territory were destined to become of the utmost importance to mankind. The land of which the shepherd tribes possessed themselves became the arena of great events, so enduring and important in their results, that the country in which they took place became known as the Holy Land. Distant nations had no conception that the entry of the Hebrew or Israelite tribes into the land of Canaan would have such momentous consequences. Even the inhabitants of Palestine were far from recognising in this invasion an occurrence fraught with vital significance to themselves.

At the time when the Hebrews occupied this territory it was inhabited by tribes and peoples dissimilar in descent and pursuits. The primary place was held by the aborigines, the Anakim and Rephaim, a powerful race of giants. Tradition represents them as the descendants of that unruly and overbearing race which, in primæval times, attempted to storm the heavens. For this rebellious attempt they had been doomed to ignominious destruction.

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Whilst the Egyptians were burying the dead which the plague had suddenly stricken down, the Israelites, the fourth generation of the first immigrants, left Egypt, after a sojourn of several centuries. They journeyed towards the desert which divides Egypt from Canaan, on the same way by which the last patriarch had entered the Nile country. But Moses would not permit them to go by this short route, because he feared that the inhabitants of Canaan, on the coast of the Mediterranean, would oppose their entry with an armed force; he also apprehended that the tribes, whom their long bondage had made timorous, would take to flight on the first approach of danger.

Their first destination was Mount Sinai, where they were to receive those laws and precepts for the practice of which they had been set free. Pharaoh had, however, determined to recapture the slaves who had been snatched from his grasp, when, in a moment of weakness, he had allowed them to depart. When the Israelites saw the Egyptians approaching from afar, they gave way to despair, for they found themselves cut off from every means of escape. Before them was the sea, and behind them the enemy, who would soon overtake them, and undoubtedly reduce them again to bondage. Crying and lamenting, some of them asked Moses, "Are there no graves in Egypt that thou hast brought us out to die in the desert?" However, a means of escape unexpectedly presented itself, and could only be regarded by them as a miracle. A hurricane from the north-east had driven the water of the sea southwards during the night, so that the bed had for the greater part become dry. Their leader quickly seized on this means of escape, and urged the frightened people to hurry towards the opposite shore. His prophetic spirit showed him that they would never again see the Egyptians. They rapidly traversed the short distance across the dry bed of the sea, the deeper parts of the water, agitated by a storm, forming two walls on the right and the left. During this time, the Egyptians were in hot pursuit after the Israelites, in the hope of leading them back to slavery. At daybreak, they reached the west coast of the sea, and, perceiving the Israelites on the other side, they were hastening after them along the dry pathway, when the tempest suddenly ceased. The mountain-like waves, which had risen like walls on both sides, now poured down upon the dry land, and buried men, horses, and chariots in the watery deep. The sea washed some corpses to the coast where the Israelites were resting in safety. They here beheld a marvellous deliverance. The most callous became deeply impressed with this sight, and looked with confidence to the future. On that day they put their firm trust in God and in Moses, His messenger. With a loud voice they sang praises for their wonderful deliverance. In chorus they sang —

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