gain. Furthermore, he removed the altar and the font, and left but a house where once had stood a Temple.[1] Later, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, completed the despoiling of the Temple, and carried away its few remaining treasures. He then destroyed the building itself by fire.[2]
Thus, about six hundred years before the earthly advent of our Lord, Israel was left without a Temple. The people had divided; there were two kingdoms—Israel and Judah—each at enmity with the other; they had become idolatrous and altogether wicked; the Lord had rejected them and their sanctuary. The Kingdom of Israel, comprising approximately ten of the twelve tribes, had been made subject to Assyria about 721 B. C., and a century later the Kingdom of Judah was subdued by the Babylonians. For seventy years the people of Judah—thereafter known as Jews—remained in captivity, even as had been predicted.[3] Then, under the friendly rule of Cyrus[4] and Darius[5] they were permitted to return to Jerusalem, and once more to rear a Temple in accordance with their faith. In remembrance of the director of the work, the restored Temple is known in history as the Temple of Zerubbabel. The foundations were laid with solemn ceremony; and on that occasion living veterans who remembered the earlier Temple, wept with joy.[6] In spite of legal technicalities[7] and other obstructions, the work
- ↑ II Kings 16:7-9, 17 and 18; see also II Chron. 28:24,25.
- ↑ II Chron. 36:18, 19; see also II Kings 24:13; 25:9.
- ↑ Jeremiah 25:11,12; 29:10.
- ↑ Ezra, chaps. 1 and 2.
- ↑ Ezra, chap. 6.
- ↑ Ezra 3:12,13.
- ↑ Ezra 4:4–24.
