The Causes of the Destruction of the First Temple - Part 3
By Rav
Translated by
The destruction of the
I. THE EXILE OF YEHOYAKHIN, THE DAYS OF TZIDKIYAHU AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE
As we saw in the previous shiur, during the time of
Yehoyakim was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in
At that time the servants of Nevukhadnetzar King of Babylonia came up against
And he carried away all
And the King of Babylonia made Matanya his father's brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Tzidkiyahu. (II Melakhim 24:8-17)
The treasures of the house of God, and the treasures of the king's house, and the vessels of the house of God, and all the princes, and all the mighty warriors, and all the craftsmen and the smiths go into exile together with Yehoyakhin. The
Tzidkiyahu was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in
And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nevukhadnetzar King of Babylonia came, he, and all his host, against
And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. And a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which is by the king's garden. (Now the Chaldeans were against the city round about:) and they went in the direction of the Arava. And the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of
And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of King Nevukhadnetzar King of Babylonia, Nevuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the King of Babylonia, came to
Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the King of Babylonia, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nevuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away into exile. But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and fieldworkers.
And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of the Lord, did the Chaldeans break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to
And the captain of the guard took Seraya the chief priest, and Tzefanyahu a priest of the second order, and the three keepers of the door. And out of the city he took an officer that was set over the men of war, and five men of them that were in the king's presence, who were found in the city, and the scribe, of the commander of the host, who kept the muster of the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city. And Nevuzaradan captain of the guard took these, and brought them to the King of Babylonia in Rivla. And the King of Babylonia smote them, and slew them at Rivla in the
In this description as well Scripture emphasizes the destruction of Shlomo's grand project, even though the name of Shlomo is not mentioned: the detailed description of the
In Divrei Ha-yamim, the description of the destruction is much more concise, but it clearly emphasizes the spiritual significance of the sins of the last generations of the
Tzidkiyahu was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for eleven years in
Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much according to all the abominations of the nations, and polluted the house of the Lord which He had hallowed in
And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, from morning till night; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord mounted against His people, till there was no remedy.
So He brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion either upon young men, or virgins, old men, or feeble; He gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the kings, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylonia. And they burnt the house of God, and broke down the wall of
THE SIN OF THE REBELLION AGAINST
One of the most important prophets during this period was Yechezkel, who lived in Babylonia among those who had been exiled in the days of Yehoyakhin, and prophesied from there about the sins of
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Say now to the rebellious house, Know you not what these things mean? Tell them, Behold, the King of Babylonia is come to
As I live, says the Lord God, surely in the place where the king dwells that made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the midst of Babylonia he shall die. Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company help him in the war, by casting up mounds, and building siege works, to cut off many persons. Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant; for, surely, having given his hand, and having done all these things, he shall not escape.
Therefore thus says the Lord God: As I live, surely My oath that he has despised, and My covenant that he has broken, even that will I recompense upon his own head. And I will spread My net upon him, and he shall be taken in My snare, and I will bring him to
ILLICIT SEXUAL RELATIONS AND BLOODSHED
Allusions to illicit sexual relations and acts of bloodshed are scattered in various places in the book of Yechezkel (see, for example, 33:26). We will not discuss them all here. At the end of this section of the shiur, we will cite Yechezkel's prophecy in chapter 22, which lists many sins of Yehuda, while placing special emphasis on the crime of bloodshed. It would also appear that it is not by chance that two of Yechezkel's harshest prophecies – in chap. 16 and in chap. 23 (which not for naught adjoins the prophecy of the destruction that was delivered on the day that the siege of the city was established [chap. 24]) – the prophet chooses to criticize the treachery of the king and the nation against God, and their zealous pursuit of foreign cultures and their abominations, using the most blatant imagery of prostitution.
IDOL WORSHIP AND THE REMOVAL OF THE SHEKHINA
Yechezkel also relates at length to the sins of idol worship committed at that time. We shall suffice with two such references. In chapter 6, the prophet describes the destruction of the idols scattered throughout all of
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, set your face towards the mountains of
Chapters 8-11 constitute a single prophecy, in which the prophet is carried in a prophetic vision to
And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Yehuda sat before me, that the name of the Lord God fell there upon me. Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire. From what appeared to be his loins downward, fire; and from his loins upward, as it were the appearance of brightness, something like the color of electrum. And he put out the shape of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and a wind lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looks towards the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain. Then He said to me, Son of man, lift up your eyes now the way towards the north. So I lifted up my eyes the way towards the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry. And he said to me, Son of man, see you what they do? The great abominations that the house of
And He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall. Then said He to me, Son of man, dig now in the wall; and when I had dug in the wall, behold a door. And He said to me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they are doing here. So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping thing, and abominable beast, and all the idols of the house of
Then He said to me, Have you seen this, O son of man? You shall see yet again greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and, behold, at the door of the
As we saw with respect to Menasheh and Yehoyakim, here too the prophet describes many and varied types of idol worship. Here, however, the idolatrous practices are being performed in the
And the glory of the God of Israel has ascended from the keruv, on which it was, to the threshold of the house…
And the keruvim mounted up… Then the glory of the Lord departed from above the threshold of the house, and stood over the keruvim. And the keruvim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight, when they went out, with the wheels beside them; and every one stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord's house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above…
Then did the keruvim lift up their wings, and the wheels along with them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city. (Yechezkel 9:3, 10:15-19, 11:22-23)
THE ABSENCE OF JUSTICE AND OTHER TRANSGRESSIONS BETWEEN MAN AND HIS FELLOW
Oh, that My head were waters, and My eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of My people! Oh, that I were in the wilderness, in a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave My people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. And they bend their tongues, their bow of falsehood. But they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know Me not, says the Lord. Take heed everyone of his neighbor, and trust not in any brother: for every brother acts deceitfully, and every neighbor goes about with slanders. And they deceive everyone his neighbor, and do not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity. Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know Me, says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will smelt them, and try them; for how else shall I do for the daughter of My people? Their tongue is a sharpened arrow; it speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in heart he lies in wait for him. Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord; shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this? (Yirmiyahu 9:1-8)
During the
Even though the above prophecy of Yirmiyahu does not specify that it was delivered during the period of Tzidkiyahu, it seems that the falsehood, deceit, friction, groundless hate, slander and gossip described therein, which are so great that they justify destruction, correspond well with the words of Chazal in tractate Yoma[1] and with the words of Yechezkel. It stands to reason that these sins resulted from the exile of the ruling elite together with Yehoyakhin, on the one hand, and from the weakness of Tzidkiyahu's rule on the other[2] - a situation that made it easy for those with evil in their hearts to carry out their wicked plans.
A good example of the dire social and governmental reality at that time is the phenomenon of the liberation of the Hebrew slaves followed by their renewed subjugation:
That is the word that came to Yirmiyahu from the Lord, after the King Tzidkiyahu had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, proclaim liberty to them; that every man should let his Hebrew manservant, and every man his Hebrew maidservant, go free; that none should enslave any of them, namely a man of Yehuda, being his brother. Now when all the princes, and all the people, who had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should enslave them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go. But afterwards they relapsed, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.
Therefore the word of the Lord came to Yirmiyahu from the Lord, saying: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying, At the end of seven years, shall you release every man his brother being a Hebrew, who has been seen to you; and when he has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you. But your fathers hearkened not to me, neither inclined their ear. And you now turned, and had done right in My sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and you had made a covenant before Me in the house which I called by My name. Nevertheless you relapsed and have profaned My name, and everyone of you has caused his servant, and his handmaid, (whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure,) to return, and has brought them into subjection, to be to you for servants and for handmaids.
Therefore thus says the Lord: Since you have not hearkened to Me, in proclaiming liberty, everyone to his brother, and everyone to his neighbor; behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, says the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. And I will give the men that have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two, and passed between its sections, the princes of Yehuda, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the sections of the calf; I will give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life. And their dead bodies shall be for food to the birds of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth. And Tzidkiyahu King of Yehuda and his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and in the hand of the king of
The words "violence," "robbery" and "oppression" appear in several places in the book of Yechezkel. For example:
Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness. None of them shall remain, nothing of their multitude, nor of their splendor; neither shall there be wailing for them… Make the chain; for he land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence. (Yechezkel 7:11, 23)
The people of the land have used oppression, and committed robbery, and have wronged the poor and needy; indeed, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. (ibid. 22:29)
The same motif appears in the prophecies of Yirmiyahu from that same period:
O House of David, thus says the Lord: Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. (Yirmiyahu 21:12)
So great was the wickedness that in chapter 16 Yechezkel compares
Moreover the word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water with trembling and with anxiety. And say to the people of the land, Thus says the Lord God of the inhabitants of
Even the prophecy in chapter 8, where the prophet envisions the idol worship practiced in the
Then He said to me, Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it not enough for the house of Yehuda that they commit the abominations which they commit here? but they also have filled the land with violence, and have provoked Me even further to anger; and lo, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore I too will deal in fury. My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity. And though they cry in My ears with a loud vice, yet will I not hear them. (ibid. 8:17-18)
And in the continuation of that very same prophecy:
Then He said to me, The iniquity of the House of Israel and Yehuda is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice. For they say, The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord sees not. (ibid. 9:9)
The Radak explains (ad loc.):
Even though they committed other transgressions, the great punishment was for the violence, for civilized society cannot survive violence, and the flood came because of violence.
From the same prophecy we also learn that this conduct stemmed from the feeling (which apparently came in the wake of the exile of Yehoyakhin and the Babylonian penetration into the land) that "The Lord has forsaken the land," and thus all moral and religious obligations have come to an end.
In chapter 22, Yechezkel describes a varied series of sins in all the realms dealt with above and among all strata of society, from its leaders to the people of the land. Besides the fact that he describes the abominations in the last years preceding the destruction – that is, during the days of Tzidkiyahu – this chapter constitutes, in its scope and severity, sort of a summary of the difficult picture that we have outlined in the last two shiurim. We shall therefore cite it in its entirety:
Then the word of the Lord came to Me, saying, Now, you son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then make known to her all her abominations. And you shall say, Thus says the Lord God, A city that sheds blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and makes idols against herself to defile herself. You have become guilty in your blood that you have shed; and are defiled in your idols which you have made; and you have caused your days to draw near, and have come to your years. Therefore have I made you a reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all countries. Those that are near, and those that are far from you, shall mock you, infamous as you are, and full of tumult. Behold, the princes of
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, the House of Israel is to Me become dross; all of them, brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation. There is a conspiracy in her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they take treasure and precious things; they have made her widows many in the midst of her. Her priests have violated My Torah, and have profaned My holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have hidden their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Her princes in the midst of her are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. And her prophets have daubed them with whitewash, seeing false visions, and divining lies to them, saying, Thus says the Lord God, when the Lord has not spoken. The people of the land have used oppression, and committed robbery, and have wronged the poor and needy; indeed, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the breach before Me the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none. Therefore I have poured out My indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath. Their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, says the Lord God. (Yechezkel 22)
II. SUMMARY
In the last three shiurim we have tried to give a brief survey of the main causes of the destruction of the
We saw the fundamental role played by the king, his policies and personal example in the fashioning of the kingdom, as is exemplified by Chizkiyahu and Yoshiyahu in the great effort to restore Yehuda to the path of God despite the many difficulties that stood before them. On the other hand, we saw the king's limitations in the face of the decisive influence of other factors: office holders, courtiers, and above all else, the norms of society. The king did not always succeed in uprooting the prevailing patterns of behavior, and he was not always able to successfully overcome powerful elements in his kingdom. Evidence to this is provided by the days of Menasheh son of Chizkiyahu and the days of Yehoyakim son of Yoshiyahu, on the one hand, and the evil influence of Shevna (in the days of Chizkiyahu) and the officers of Tzidkiyahu, on the other.
The constant problem that forms the backdrop for the monarchy of the House of David relates to the limits of the authority, strength and rule of a king of flesh and blood in relation to the
A straight line connects the wicked kings of the second half of the
The idol worship included a wide variety of forbidden practices, and was at times performed in the
All this notwithstanding, the first explicit prophecy concerning the destruction of the Temple – the prophecy of Mikha – was delivered in the days of Chizkiyahu, during whose period there was no idol worship, no illicit sexual relations, and no bloodshed. The background for this prophecy was the moral corruption that spread through all the ruling institutions. From that time on, the absence of justice and righteousness stands out even in the most evil times (the periods of Menasheh, Yehoyakim and Tzidkiyahu) as a fundamental cause of the destruction (what is more, there is often a connection between idol worship and moral corruption in interpersonal relations). The cessation of justice found expression at every level of the relationships between man and his fellow, from the king and his officers down to the people of the land. This included greed, oppression, violence, theft, falsehood, slander, gossip, groundless hate, and the most extreme expression – the shedding of innocent blood. Justice is the foundation of the God's kingdom in His world, and its absence prevents the continued revelation of His kingdom and the resting of the Shekhina in His Temple.
The prophecies that explicitly speak of the destruction continue in the days of Menasheh and attribute the impending calamity to him; in the days of Menasheh "the soul of the
Yehoyakim repeats the wicked deeds of Menasheh with one fundamental difference: parallel to all the abominations, the
The period ends with the days of Tzidkiyahu, and the practice of all types of abominations that push aside the Shekhina, based on the understanding that "the Lord has forsaken the land": a feeling of despair of God's presence, which allows the king and the kingdom to act as they please in all areas.
The removal of the Shekhina from the city and the
[1] The passage there speaks of the leadership, but without a doubt the conduct of the leaders filtered down to the people and impacted upon them.
[2] Tzidkiyahu's weakness is evident from Yirmiyahu 37-38, where Tzidkiyahu meets with Yirmiyahu in secret and works toward his rescue in roundabout ways, because of his fear of his officers who are hostile to the prophet.
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