and eunuchs, he placed under the guard of his people, in order that his crime might not become known. Ishmael and his ten followers then carried off into captivity the inhabitants of Mizpah, for the most part women and children, among them the daughters of King Zedekiah, as also the venerable prophet Jeremiah and his disciple Baruch, taking them across the Jordan to the Ammonites.
However, secretly though he had performed his evil deeds, they could not long remain unknown. Johanan and the other chiefs had received information of what had happened, and were not a little indignant at being deprived of their protector, and cast back into the uncertainties of an adventurous existence. They hurriedly armed themselves to punish the crime as it deserved. The murderers were met at their first halting-place, at the lake of Gibeon, by Johanan and the others, who prepared to do battle with them. At sight of the pursuers the prisoners hurried to join them. It appears that a fray ensued, in which two of Ishmael's followers were killed. He, however, escaped, with eight men, crossed the Jordan, and returned to the land of Ammon. His nefarious design, nevertheless, had succeeded; with the death of Gedaliah the Jewish commonwealth was broken up.
The survivors were at a loss how to act. They feared to remain in their country, as it was easy to foresee that Nebuchadnezzar would not leave the death of the Chaldæans unavenged, even if he overlooked the murder of Gedaliah, and would punish them as accessories. Even had this fear been groundless, how could they remain in the country without a leader to control the unruly elements? Their first thought was to emigrate to Egypt. The chiefs, with Johanan at their head, therefore directed their steps southwards. As they gradually became calmer, the question arose whether it might not be more advisable to remain in the land of their fathers than to travel, on a venture, into a foreign country. It appears that the idea first suggested itself to Baruch, and that it was received with favour by some of the chiefs, whilst others were opposed to it. Owing to this difference of opinion concerning the plan on which the weal and woe of so many depended, the leaders determined to leave the decision to Jeremiah. He was to pray to God, and entreat Him for a prophetic direction as to the course they should adopt, calling on God to witness that they would abide by his word.
Ten days Jeremiah wrestled in prayer that his spirit might be illumined by the true prophetic light. During this time the feelings of the leaders had changed, and they had all determined on emigration. When Jeremiah called together the chiefs and all the people, and informed them that the prophetic spirit had revealed to him that they should remain in the land without fear, he saw from their looks that they rejected this decision. He therefore added the threat that, if they insisted on emigration, the sword which they feared would the more surely reach them; that none of them would ever again behold his fatherland, and that they would all perish through manifold plagues, in Egypt. Hardly had Jeremiah ended his address, when Jezaniah and Johanan called to him, "Thou proclaimest lies in the name of God; not He has inspired thee with these words, but thy disciple Baruch." Without further consideration the leaders proceeded on the way towards Egypt, and the entire multitude had perforce to follow them.
Jeremiah and Baruch also had to join the rest, for they could do nothing in their deserted country. Thus they wandered as far as the Egyptian town of Taphnai (Tachpanches). They were kindly received by King Hophra, who was sufficiently grateful to show hospitality towards those whom his persuasions had brought to their present misery. There they met with older Judæan emigrants. Thus, more than a thousand years after the Exodus, the sons of Jacob returned to Egypt, but under what changed circumstances! At that time they had been powerful shepherd tribes, narrow in their views it is true, but unsullied and strong, with hearts swelling with hope. Their descendants, on the contrary, with sore hearts and disturbed minds, were too much estranged from their principles to find solace and tranquillity in their God and their nationality, yet not sufficiently changed to merge themselves into the other races and disappear amongst them. Like all unwilling emigrants, they were buoyed up by false hopes, and watched every political movement which might bring them an opportunity to return to their country, there to live in their former independence.
Meanwhile, Judæa was almost completely depopulated. Nebuchadnezzar was not inclined to treat the occurrences at Mizpah, the murder of Gedaliah and the Chaldæans with him, with indifference. He probably saw that it had been an error to permit a weak Judæan community to exist, dependent solely on one man. He, therefore, once more sent out the leader of his guards, in order to take revenge on the remaining Judæans. Nebuzaradan, as a matter of course, found none of the leaders, nor any man of importance; none but the remaining agriculturists, gardeners, and vine-dressers. These, with their wives and children, being seven hundred and forty-five persons in all, the last remnant of the population of Judæa, were led to Babylonia (582) into captivity. This was the third banishment since Jehoiachin. The innocent, on this occasion also, had to suffer for the guilty. There is no historical record as to what became of Ishmael and his fellow-conspirators. Gedaliah's name, on the other hand, remained in the memory of the survivors, on account of his violent death. The anniversary of his murder was observed in Babylonia as a fast day. Nebuchadnezzar, after Gedaliah's death, determined to leave no Judæan in the country, and Judæa remained depopulated and deserted. A later prophet laments over its utter desertion: "The holy cities have become a waste, Zion a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation" (Isaiah lxiv. 9).
Thus the punishment which the prophets had predicted was fulfilled. The soil of Judah could now rest, and celebrate the Sabbatical years which had been neglected so long. In the south the Idumæans had appropriated some stretches of Judæan territory on their borders (with or without permission from the Babylonian king), and had extended their possessions as far as the slope (Shephela) of the Mediterranean Sea. The exiles therefore felt a bitter hatred against the Idumæans, who, in addition to plundering Jerusalem, and giving up the fugitives, had now seized on the land of their heritage. Two prophets, who had escaped from the massacre and the desolation, and lived amongst the exiles, gave vivid expression to this deplorable feeling—Obadiah and an anonymous prophet. Both prophesied evil against Edom, as a retribution for its conduct towards the kindred nation, the Jews, and towards Jerusalem.
Although the Judæans were everywhere coldly received, and their own country had become, to a certain extent, the property of their enemies, the refugees in Egypt still nursed the hope that they would soon return to their fatherland, and again inhabit it. Warlike happenings strengthened this hope, but the venerable prophet Jeremiah endeavoured to dispel their illusions. His heart prompted him to speak severely to the Egyptian Judæans, because, unchastened by misfortunes, they had once more devoted themselves to the worship of the goddess Neith. Despite their infatuation with strange gods, they yet, in their incomprehensible blindness, clung to the name of Jehovah, and swore by Him. Jeremiah, for the last time before descending to his grave, desired to tell them that, owing to their unconquerable folly, they would never return to their fatherland. He therefore summoned the Judæans of Migdol, Taphnai, Memphis, and Sais (?) to a general meeting at Taphnai. He still possessed sufficient influence to ensure their obeying his summons. He put the case before them in plain language. Their idolatrous practices, however, were so dear to their hearts that they openly boasted of them, and told the prophet that they would not relinquish them. The women were particularly aggressive: "The oath which we have taken, to offer up incense and wine to the queen of heaven, shall be kept, as we and our fathers were formerly accustomed to do in the cities of Judæa and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had bread in plenty, we were happy, and saw no evil. Since we have left off making sacrifices to the queen of heaven we have been in want, and our people have perished by the sword or through hunger." Jeremiah thus answered their blasphemy: "Fulfil your oaths; all the men of Judah will surely die in the land of Egypt; only a few fugitives from the sword shall return from Egypt into the land of Judah. They shall learn whose word shall endure—mine or theirs." As a sign, he predicted that King Hophra, on whom they depended, would fall into the hands of his enemy, as Zedekiah had fallen into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. The announcement that Hophra would meet with a disastrous end was fulfilled. In a warlike expedition against Cyrene, his army was defeated, and his warriors, jealous of the Carians and Ionians, whom he favoured, rebelled against him. An Egyptian of low caste, Amasis (Amosis), placed himself at the head of the rebels, conquered Hophra, dethroned him, and caused him to be strangled (571–70). This new Pharaoh, who was very careful to attract to himself the Egyptians and also to win the Greeks over to his side, took no interest in those Judæans who had settled in Egypt.