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

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СКАЧАТЬ became tributary to the king of Israel in consequence of these victories. Jeroboam had no longer any rival in his vicinity to contest the supreme power with him. The Phœnicians had become considerably weakened through dissensions between the city of Tyre and the descendants of King Ethbaal. During Jeroboam's government a civil war appears to have broken out in Tyre, in consequence of which the whole of Phœnicia lost the influential position which it had been occupying for a considerable time. The rich booty of war, and, perhaps, the renewed impulse to trade, brought wealth to the entire country of Samaria. Not only the king, but even the nobles and the wealthy classes, lived in luxury surpassing that of Solomon's time. King Jeroboam possessed a winter and a summer palace. Houses of broad-stone, adorned with ivory and furnished with ivory seats, became very common. In contemplating the increase of power in the two kingdoms, one might have been tempted to believe that the times of Solomon were not yet over, and that no change had occurred, except that two kings were ruling instead of one—that no breach had ever taken place, or that the wounds once inflicted had been healed. Jeroboam and Uzziah appear to have lived on terms of perfect peace with one another. Israelites were permitted to make pilgrimages to Beersheba. No doubt some of them also visited the Temple in Jerusalem. But it was only the last glimmer of a politically happy period. The corruption which prosperity helped to develop in the kingdom of Judah, and still more conspicuously in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, soon put an end to these happy days, and hastened the decadence of both states.

In the latter, the bull-worship was not only continued in Bethel and Dan, but even assumed greater proportions, when additional images of the bull were erected in Samaria and in Gilgal. Jeroboam appears to have elevated Bethel to the rank of a capital. Here the chief sanctuary was established. A sort of high priest, named Amaziah, ministered there, and appears to have been very jealous of his office. Unlike the Aaronites in Judah, he enjoyed a rich prebend in the possession of fields around Bethel. Either this perverted form of worship was not yet low enough to satisfy the cravings of its devotees, or the voluptuousness consequent upon the accession of wealth may have demanded new departures; at all events, the hideous worship of Baal and the immoral cult of Astarte were again introduced. It is extraordinary that this idolatry, which had been extirpated with so much energy by Jehu, was again promoted, and received fresh encouragement under his grandson. The idolatry thus newly re-introduced brought in its train every species of wickedness and corruption. In order to gratify the senses, all thoughts were bent on acquiring riches. The wealthy made usury their business, and pursued their debtors with such severity as to make slaves of their impoverished debtors or their children. Usurious trade in corn was especially prevalent. In years of famine the rich opened their granaries, and sold the necessaries of life on credit, not always without employing false weights and measures; and when the poor were unable to return what had been lent to them, they heartlessly took their clothes or even their persons in pledge. When these unfortunates uttered their complaint against such injustice in the national assemblies they found no ear to listen; for the judges were either themselves among the evil-doers, or had been bribed and made deaf to the voice of justice. The treasures thus extorted were wasted by their owners in daily revelry. The contemporary prophet Amos pictures in gloomy colours the debauched life of the rich and noble Israelites residing in the capitals in Jeroboam's time.20 The wives of the nobles followed the bad examples of their husbands, and urged them to be hard-hearted to the poor, demanding of them, "Bring, bring, and let us drink."

      The people itself could not, however, be so much influenced by the moral depravity of the nobles as to allow it to obtain full sway. Morality, justice and pure worship of God still had followers, who protested more and more strongly against the vices practised by the great, and who, though in humble positions, knew how to obtain a hearing. Although almost a century had passed since the prophet Elijah, with flowing hair, declaimed against the sins of Ahab and Jezebel, the prophetic societies which he had founded still existed, and acted according to his spirit and with his energy. The young, who are generally readier to receive ideal impressions, felt a disgust at the increasing moral ruin which came on them, and assembled round the prophetic disciples in Bethel, Gilgal and Jericho. The generation which Elisha had reared and taught adopted the external symbols of prophecy, pursuing the same abstentious mode of life, and wearing long-flowing hair; but they did not stop at such outward signs, but raised their voices against the religious errors, against luxury and immorality. Sons became the moral judges of their fathers. Youths gave up drinking wine, whilst the men revelled in the drinking places. The youthful troop of prophets took the place of the warning voice of conscience. In the presence of king and nobles, they preached in the public assemblies against the worship of Baal, against immorality and the heartlessness of the great. Did their numbers shield them from persecution, or were there amongst the ranks of the prophets sons of the great, against whom it was impossible to proceed with severity? Or was King Jeroboam more patient than the accursed Jezebel, who had slaughtered the prophets' disciples by hundreds? Or did he disregard and ignore their words? In any case, it is noteworthy that the zealous youths remained unharmed. The revellers merely compelled them to drink wine and forbade them to preach; they derided the moral reformers who exposed their wrongdoings, but they did not persecute them.

      One of the prophets in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes made use of this freedom of speech; he was the first of a succession of prophets who combined great and poetic thought with evenly flowing rhythm of diction, and made kings and grandees as well as the people wince under their incisive words of truth. It was Amos of Tekoa. Amos did not belong to the prophetic guild, he was no prophetic disciple, and probably neither wore a garment of haircloth, like Elijah, nor let his hair grow long, but was a simple herdsman and planter of sycamores. Whilst tending his herds, the prophetic spirit came mightily upon him, and he could not refrain from appearing in public. "God spake to him, and in him, how should he not prophesy?" The prophetic spirit urged him to repair to Bethel, and there, in the temporary capital of King Jeroboam II., he declaimed against the perversions and vices of the nobles, and opened their eyes to the consequences of their evil deeds. That a countryman, clad in shepherd's garb, dared speak publicly, could not help creating sensation in Bethel. A high degree of culture must have prevailed in those days in Samaria, when a shepherd was able to speak in beautiful, rhythmic utterances, and was understood, or at least expected to be understood, by the people. The speeches of Amos and those of his successors combine the eloquence and comprehensibility of prose with the metre and the rhythm of poetry. Metaphors and imagery lend additional solemnity to their diction. It is therefore difficult to decide whether these utterances should be classed as prose or as poetry. In place of a more suitable description, they may be designated as beautifully formed poetic eloquence. The orations of Amos, however, did not fail to betray his station. He used similes taken from his shepherd life. They showed that, while tending his flocks, he often listened to the roaring of the lion, and studied the stars in his night-watches. But these peculiarities only lent a special charm to his speeches. Amos came to Bethel before the earthquake occurred, and he predicted the event in words of prophetic foresight. The earthquake thereupon followed, with all its accompanying terrors, and carried desolation everywhere. The subsequent plagues of drought, sterility, and locusts afflicted the kingdom of the Ten Tribes equally with the kingdom of Judah. Amos, and with him all right-minded people, expected that these visitations would effect a reform, putting an end to the hideous excesses of the wealthy and their cruel oppression and persecution of the poor. But no improvement took place, and Amos inveighed against the impenitent sinners in the severest terms. He reproved the men who ridiculed his prophetic utterances. He denounced those who, relying on their power or their piety or their nobility of descent, felt themselves unassailable. (Amos v. 4–15, vi. 1–8.)

      Against such daring speeches, directed even against the royal house, the high priest of Bethel, Amaziah, felt it his duty to take measures. Either from indifference or out of respect for the prophet, King Jeroboam seems hitherto to have allowed him unlimited sway; but even now, when Amaziah called his attention to the prophet's dangerous upbraidings, he appears to have remained unmoved. At all events, the prophet was not interfered with, except that the high priest, probably in the king's name, said to him, "Go thou, haste to Judah; eat thy bread and prophesy there, but in Bethel thou mayest not remain, for it is the sanctuary of the king, and the capital of the kingdom." Amos did not permit himself to be interrupted in his preaching СКАЧАТЬ