A Good Start, but What about the Finish?

Transcription

1 A Good Start, but What about the Finish? A look in the books of history of those given the opportunity of governing the Israelite 12 Tribal Nation will reveal terrifying truths that one can t help but to wonder how could our ancestors treat Yah our power in the way that they did; direct apostasy and rebellion. Let us look back in the biblical record of our past and see what went wrong. We do not want any repeats that lead to the children of Israel being rejected again, or shall we say, maybe you being left out from Yah s presence! Ever since Yah heard and granted the Children of Israel s request to have a man over them at Ramah, there has been an up and down relationship in the quality of leadership performed by the role of men as King. This study will snatch the covers off of the accomplishment s and the crimes committed by the Kings of Israel and Judah. We may find to our surprise that things haven t changed much since the days of our fathers; total rebellion! So we see, that early on the Children of Israel got tired of Yah being their King, and was somewhat afraid of the presence of Yah when He came, please read; Deuteronomy 5: All of you approached me with your tribal leaders and elders when you heard the voice from the darkness and while the mountain was blazing with fire. 24 You said, 'Look, Yah our God has shown us His glory and greatness, and we have heard His voice from the fire. Today we have seen that Yah speaks with a person, yet he still lives. 25 But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us and we will die if we hear the voice of Yah our God any longer. 26 For who out of all mankind has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the fire, as we have, and lived? 27 Go near and listen to everything Yah our God says. Then you can tell us everything Yah our God tells you; we will listen and obey. (A) ' Cross references: A. Deuteronomy 5:27 : Ex 20:18-21; 1

2 Exodusdus 20:19 19 "You speak to us, and we will listen," they said to Moses, "but don't let Yah speak to us, or we will die." (A) Cross references: A. Exodusdus 20:19 : Dt 5:25;, 27 Now that we are able to see hindsight 20/20, and if we think about the actions of our ancestors, it seems that we had a habit that when we knew that Yah or His representative was present and watching, we stayed somewhat compliant with Yah s commandments. Once the physical presence of Yah or His representative was out of sight, many times the Children of Israel did evil. A good example is when Moses went to get the Ten Commandments; Exodusdus 32:7 And Yah said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for your people, which you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: So no wonder our people would rather have a King and not Yah; they knew it was certain death to be in Yah s presence acting a fool and sinning, so now all of a sudden we have a request for a King; 1 Samuel 8 Israel Requests a King 1 As Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons to be judges over Israel. 2 Joel and Abijah, his oldest sons, held court in Beersheba. 3 But they were not like their father, for they were greedy for money. They accepted bribes and perverted justice. 4 Finally, all the elders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel. 5 Look, they told him, you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have. 6 Samuel was displeased with their request and went to Yah for guidance. 7 Do everything they say to you, Yah replied, for it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don t want me to be their king any longer. 8 Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. 2

3 9 Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them. Samuel Warns against a Kingdom 10 So Samuel passed on Yah s warning to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 This is how a king will reign over you, Samuel said. The king will draft your sons and assign them to his chariots and his charioteers, making them run before his chariots. 12 Some will be generals and captains in his army, [a] some will be forced to plow in his fields and harvest his crops, and some will make his weapons and chariot equipment. 13 The king will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him. 14 He will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his own officials. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and your grape harvest and distribute it among his officers and attendants. 16 He will take your male and female slaves and demand the finest of your cattle [b] and donkeys for his own use. 17 He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you will be his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will beg for relief from this king you are demanding, but then Yah will not help you. 19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel s warning. Even so, we still want a king, they said. 20 We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle. 21 So Samuel repeated to Yah what the people had said, 22 and Yah replied, Do as they say, and give them a king. Then Samuel agreed and sent the people home. If we are to question our ancestor s behavior, then we must see what they did and how it leads to our nation being punished by Yah. Why did the establishment of a king for Israel and Judah end up hurting us? Also of great importance is the example of leadership that these Kings of Judah and Israel exercised. Did these earthly leaders cause the Nation to sin, or do righteousness? A Warning from Moses: Deuteronomy 31:29 For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of Yah, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands. 3

4 Deuteronomy 4:25 (New Living Translation) 25 In the future, when you have children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time, do not corrupt yourselves by making idols of any kind. This is evil in the sight of Yah your God and will arouse his anger. 26 Today I call on heaven and earth as witnesses against you. If you break my covenant, you will quickly disappear from the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy. You will live there only a short time; then you will be utterly destroyed. 27 For Yah will scatter you among the nations, where only a few of you will survive. 28 There, in a foreign land, you will worship idols made from wood and stone gods that neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 But from there you will search again for Yah your God. And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him. We see that Yah s promise spoken about; quoting from above, You will live there only a short time came to pass. It is explained and now understood that we were going into a very brutal slavery were our kings did many things evil in the sight of Yah of Hosts. Our kings at times paid tribute or a tax to people of nations that conquered us, and many times took on their customs and gods against the Savior of Israel; Yah of Hosts. We find that the following book helps the reader to keep in mind just what our forefathers lived through and set up for us ongoing conditions to live in, please read; 1 Maccabees 1Mac.1 [1] After Alexander son of Philip, the Macedonian, who came from the land of Kittim, had defeated Darius, king of the Persians and the Medes, he succeeded him as king. (He had previously become king of Greece.) [2] He fought many battles, conquered strongholds, and put to death the kings of the earth. [3] He advanced to the ends of the earth, and plundered many nations. When the earth became quiet before him, he was exalted, and his heart was lifted up. [4] He gathered a very strong army and ruled over countries, nations, and princes, and they became tributary to him. [5] After this he fell sick and perceived that he was dying. [6] So he summoned his most honored officers, who had been brought up with him from youth, and divided his kingdom among them while he was still alive. 4

5 [7] And after Alexander had reigned twelve years, he died. [8] Then his officers began to rule, each in his own place. [9] They all put on crowns after his death, and so did their sons after them for many years; and they caused many evils on the earth. [10] From them came forth a sinful root, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of Antiochus the king; he had been a hostage in Rome. He began to reign in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of the kingdom of the Greeks. [11] In those days lawless men came forth from Israel, and misled many, saying, "Let us go and make a covenant with the Gentiles round about us, for since we separated from them many evils have come upon us." [12] This proposal pleased them, [13] and some of the people eagerly went to the king. He authorized them to observe the ordinances of the Gentiles. [14] So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, according to Gentile custom, [15] and removed the marks of circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant. They joined with the Gentiles and sold themselves to do evil. [16] When Antiochus saw that his kingdom was established, he determined to become king of the land of Egypt, that he might reign over both kingdoms. [17] So he invaded Egypt with a strong force, with chariots and elephants and cavalry and with a large fleet. [18] He engaged Ptolemy king of Egypt in battle, and Ptolemy turned and fled before him, and many were wounded and fell. [19] And they captured the fortified cities in the land of Egypt, and he plundered the land of Egypt. [20] After subduing Egypt, Antiochus returned in the one hundred and forty-third year. He went up against Israel and came to Jerusalem with a strong force. 5

6 [21] He arrogantly entered the sanctuary and took the golden altar, the lampstand for the light, and all its utensils. [22] He took also the table for the bread of the Presence, the cups for drink offerings, the bowls, the golden censers, the curtain, the crowns, and the gold decoration on the front of the temple; he stripped it all off. [23] He took the silver and the gold, and the costly vessels; he took also the hidden treasures which he found. [24] Taking them all, he departed to his own land. He committed deeds of murder, and spoke with great arrogance. [25] Israel mourned deeply in every community, [26] rulers and elders groaned, maidens and young men became faint, the beauty of women faded. [27] Every bridegroom took up the lament; she who sat in the bridal chamber was mourning. [28] Even the land shook for its inhabitants, and all the house of Jacob was clothed with shame. [29] Two years later the king sent to the cities of Judah a chief collector of tribute, and he came to Jerusalem with a large force. [30] Deceitfully he spoke peaceable words to them, and they believed him; but he suddenly fell upon the city, dealt it a severe blow, and destroyed many people of Israel. [31] He plundered the city, burned it with fire, and tore down its houses and its surrounding walls. [32] And they took captive the women and children, and seized the cattle. [33] Then they fortified the city of David with a great strong wall and strong towers, and it became their citadel. [34] And they stationed there a sinful people, lawless men. These strengthened their position; [35] they stored up arms and food, and collecting the spoils of Jerusalem they stored them there, and became a great snare. [36] It became an ambush against the sanctuary, an evil adversary of Israel continually. [37] On every side of the sanctuary they shed innocent blood; they even defiled the sanctuary. [38] Because of them the residents of Jerusalem fled; she became a dwelling of strangers; she became strange to her offspring, and her children forsook her. [39] Her sanctuary became desolate as a desert; her feasts were turned into mourning, her sabbaths into a reproach, her honor into contempt. 6

7 [40] Her dishonor now grew as great as her glory; her exaltation was turned into mourning. [41] Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, [42] and that each should give up his customs. [43] All the Gentiles accepted the command of the king. Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath. [44] And the king sent letters by messengers to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah; he directed them to follow customs strange to the land, [45] to forbid burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, to profane sabbaths and feasts, [46] to defile the sanctuary and the priests, [47] to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols, to sacrifice swine and unclean animals, [48] and to leave their sons uncircumcised. They were to make themselves abominable by everything unclean and profane, [49] so that they should forget the law and change all the ordinances. [50] "And whoever does not obey the command of the king shall die." [51] In such words he wrote to his whole kingdom. And he appointed inspectors over all the people and commanded the cities of Judah to offer sacrifice, city by city. [52] Many of the people, every one who forsook the law, joined them, and they did evil in the land; [53] they drove Israel into hiding in every place of refuge they had. [54] Now on the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred and forty-fifth year, they erected a desolating sacrilege upon the altar of burnt offering. They also built altars in the surrounding cities of Judah, [55] and burned incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets. [56] The books of the law which they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire. [57] Where the book of the covenant was found in the possession of any one, or if any one adhered to the law, the decree of the king condemned him to death. [58] They kept using violence against Israel, against those found month after month in the cities. [59] And on the twenty-fifth day of the month they offered sacrifice on the altar which was upon the altar of burnt offering. [60] According to the decree, they put to death the women who had their children circumcised, 7

8 [61] and their families and those who circumcised them; and they hung the infants from their mothers' necks. [62] But many in Israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food. [63] They chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die. [64] And very great wrath came upon Israel. Now we will look at Leadership worth mentioning, but read closely because many a time the sons of these great men did evil in Yah s sight after their father died; 2 Kings 20 Examining Leadership that Walked in Righteousness before Yah Hezekiah s Life Extended 1 In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, Thus says Yah: Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live. 2 Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to Yah, saying, 3 Remember now, O Yah, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of Yah came to him, saying, 5 Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, Thus says Yah, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of Yah. 6 And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David. 7 Then Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. So they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. 8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What is the sign that Yah will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of Yah the third day? 9 Then Isaiah said, This is the sign to you from Yah, that Yah will do the thing which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees? 8

9 (The shadow is the way they kept time with a sundial or clock) 10 And Hezekiah answered, It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees. 11 So Isaiah the prophet cried out to Yah, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz. The Babylonian Envoys 12 At that time Berodach-Baladan [a] the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. 13 And Hezekiah was attentive to them, and showed them all the house of his treasures the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all [b] his armory all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. 14 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, What did these men say, and from where did they come to you? So Hezekiah said, They came from a far country, from Babylon. 15 And he said, What have they seen in your house? So Hezekiah answered, They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them. 16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of Yah: 17 Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says Yah. 18 And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. 19 So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, The word of Yah which you have spoken is good! For he said, Will there not be peace and truth at least in my days? Death of Hezekiah 20 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah all his might, and how he made a pool and a tunnel and brought water into the city are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 21 So Hezekiah rested with his fathers. Then Manasseh his son reigned in his place. Footnotes: a. 2 Kings 20:12 Spelled Merodach-Baladan in Isaiah 39:1 9

10 b. 2 Kings 20:13 Following many Hebrew manuscripts, Syriac, and Targum; Masoretic Text omits all. (Added) 1 Kings 13 The Message of the Man of Yah 1 And behold, a man of Yah went from Judah to Bethel by the word of Yah, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. 2 Then he cried out against the altar by the word of Yah, and said, O altar, altar! Thus says Yah: Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men s bones shall be burned on you. 3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which Yah has spoken: Surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out. 4 So it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, Arrest him! Then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered, so that he could not pull it back to himself. 5 The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of Yah had given by the word of Yah. 6 Then the king answered and said to the man of Yah, Please entreat the favor of Yah your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me. So the man of Yah entreated Yah, and the king s hand was restored to him, and became as before. 7 Then the king said to the man of Yah, Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward. 8 But the man of Yah said to the king, If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. 9 For so it was commanded me by the word of Yah, saying, You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came. 10 So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel. Death of the Man of Yah 11 Now an old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of Yah had done that day in Bethel; they also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king. 12 And their father said to them, Which way did he go? For his sons had seen [a] which way the man of God went who came from Judah. 13 Then he said to his sons, Saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on 10

11 it, 14 and went after the man of Yah, and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, Are you the man of Yah who came from Judah? And he said, I am. 15 Then he said to him, Come home with me and eat bread. 16 And he said, I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. 17 For I have been told by the word of Yah, You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came. 18 He said to him, I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of Yah, saying, Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water. (He was lying to him.) 19 So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water. 20 Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of Yah came to the prophet who had brought him back; 21 and he cried out to the man of Yah who came from Judah, saying, Thus says Yah: Because you have disobeyed the word of Yah, and have not kept the commandment which Yah your God commanded you, 22 but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which Yah said to you, Eat no bread and drink no water, your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers. 23 So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. 24 When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse. 25 And there, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing by the corpse. Then they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. 26 Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, It is the man of Yah who was disobedient to the word of Yah. Therefore Yah has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of Yah which He spoke to him. 27 And he spoke to his sons, saying, Saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled it. 28 Then he went and found his corpse thrown on the road, and the donkey and the lion standing by the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse nor torn the donkey. 29 And the prophet took up the corpse of the man of Yah, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. So the old prophet came to the city to mourn, and to bury him. 30 Then he laid the corpse in his own tomb; and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother! 31 So it was, after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the tomb where the man of Yah is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the saying which he cried out by the word of Yah against the altar in Bethel, and against all the shrines [b] on the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, will 11

12 surely come to pass. 33 After this event Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again he made priests from every class of people for the high places; whoever wished, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. 34 And this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as to exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth. Footnotes: a. 1 Kings 13:12 Septuagint, Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate read showed him. b. 1 Kings 13:32 Literally houses (Added ) Now we can see just who it was that the prophet had spoken about in prophesy concerning someone coming that would be 100% for Yah of Hosts in taking action to cure the idolatry and sins of our nation. The question now forms in our minds as to what is the significance in the future, and how does it relate to you and me right now? 2 Chronicles 34 Josiah Rules in Judah Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirtyone years. 2 He did what was pleasing in Yah s sight and followed the example of his ancestor David. He did not turn away from doing what was right. 3 During the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, Josiah began to seek the God of his ancestor David. Then in the twelfth year he began to purify Judah and Jerusalem, destroying all the pagan shrines, the Asherah poles, and the carved idols and cast images. 4 He ordered that the altars of Baal be demolished and that the incense altars which stood above them be broken down. He also made sure that the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images were smashed and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5 He burned the bones of the pagan priests on their own altars, and so he purified Judah and Jerusalem. (Why was the bones burned, what did it symbolize? Could it be rectifying the past?) ADDED 6 He did the same thing in the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, even as far as Naphtali, and in the regions [a] all around them. 7 He destroyed the pagan altars and the Asherah poles, and he crushed the idols into dust. He cut down all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Finally, he returned to Jerusalem. 8 In the eighteenth year of his reign, after he had purified the land and the Temple, Josiah appointed Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of 12

13 Jerusalem, and Joah son of Joahaz, the royal historian, to repair the Temple of Yah his God. 9 They gave Hilkiah the high priest the money that had been collected by the Levites who served as gatekeepers at the Temple of Yah. The gifts were brought by people from Manasseh, Ephraim, and from all the remnant of Israel, as well as from all Judah, Benjamin, and the people of Jerusalem. 10 He entrusted the money to the men assigned to supervise the restoration of Yah s Temple. Then they paid the workers who did the repairs and renovation of the Temple. 11 They hired carpenters and builders, who purchased finished stone for the walls and timber for the rafters and beams. They restored what earlier kings of Judah had allowed to fall into ruin. 12 The workers served faithfully under the leadership of Jahath and Obadiah, Levites of the Merarite clan, and Zechariah and Meshullam, Levites of the Kohathite clan. Other Levites, all of whom were skilled musicians, 13 were put in charge of the laborers of the various trades. Still others assisted as secretaries, officials, and gatekeepers. Hilkiah Discovers Yah s Law 14 While they were bringing out the money collected at Yah s Temple, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of Yah that was written by Moses. 15 Hilkiah said to Shaphan the court secretary, I have found the Book of the Law in Yah s Temple! Then Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan. 16 Shaphan took the scroll to the king and reported, Your officials are doing everything they were assigned to do. 17 The money that was collected at the Temple of Yah has been turned over to the supervisors and workmen. 18 Shaphan also told the king, Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll. So Shaphan read it to the king. 19 When the king heard what was written in the Law, he tore his clothes in despair. 20 Then he gave these orders to Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, [b] Shaphan the court secretary, and Asaiah the king s personal adviser: 21 Go to the Temple and speak to Yah for me and for all the remnant of Israel and Judah. Inquire about the words written in the scroll that has been found. For Yah s great anger has been poured out on us because our ancestors have not obeyed the word of Yah. We have not been doing everything this scroll says we must do. 22 So Hilkiah and the other men went to the New Quarter [c] of Jerusalem to consult with the prophet Huldah. She was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, [d] the keeper of the Temple wardrobe. 13

14 23 She said to them, Yah, the God of Israel, has spoken! Go back and tell the man who sent you, 24 This is what Yah says: I am going to bring disaster on this city [e] and its people. All the curses written in the scroll that was read to the king of Judah will come true. 25 For my people have abandoned me and offered sacrifices to pagan gods, and I am very angry with them for everything they have done. My anger will be poured out on this place, and it will not be quenched. 26 But go to the king of Judah who sent you to seek Yah and tell him: This is what Yah, the God of Israel, says concerning the message you have just heard: 27 You were sorry and humbled yourself before Yah when you heard his words against this city and its people. You humbled yourself and tore your clothing in despair and wept before me in repentance. And I have indeed heard you, says Yah. 28 So I will not send the promised disaster until after you have died and been buried in peace. You yourself will not see the disaster I am going to bring on this city and its people. So they took her message back to the king. Josiah s Religious Reforms 29 Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30 And the king went up to the Temple of Yah with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, along with the priests and the Levites all the people from the greatest to the least. There the king read to them the entire Book of the Covenant that had been found in Yah s Temple. 31 The king took his place of authority beside the pillar and renewed the covenant in Yah s presence. He pledged to obey Yah by keeping all his commands, laws, and decrees with all his heart and soul. He promised to obey all the terms of the covenant that were written in the scroll. 32 And he required everyone in Jerusalem and the people of Benjamin to make a similar pledge. The people of Jerusalem did so, renewing their covenant with Yah, the God of their ancestors. 33 So Josiah removed all detestable idols from the entire land of Israel and required everyone to worship Yah their God. And throughout the rest of his lifetime, they did not turn away from Yah, the God of their ancestors. Footnotes: a. 2 Chronicles 34:6 As in Syriac version. Hebrew reads in their temples, or in their ruins. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain. b. 2 Chronicles 34:20 As in parallel text at 2 Kgs 22:12; Hebrew reads Abdon son of Micah. c. 2 Chronicles 34:22 Or the Second Quarter, a newer section of Jerusalem. Hebrew reads the Mishneh. 14

15 d. 2 Chronicles 34:22 As in parallel text at 2 Kings 22:14; Hebrew reads son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah. e. 2 Chronicles 34:24 Hebrew this place; also in 34:27, Kings 22 Josiah Rules in Judah Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah from Bozkath. 2 He did what was pleasing in Yah s sight and followed the example of his ancestor David. He did not turn away from doing what was right. 3 In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and grandson of Meshullam, the court secretary, to the Temple of Yah. He told him, 4 Go to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money the gatekeepers have collected from the people at Yah s Temple. 5 Entrust this money to the men assigned to supervise the Temple s restoration. Then they can use it to pay workers to repair the Temple of Yah. 6 They will need to hire carpenters, builders, and masons. Also have them buy the timber and the finished stone needed to repair the Temple. 7 But don t require the construction supervisors to keep account of the money they receive, for they are honest and trustworthy men. Hilkiah Discovers Yah s Law 8 Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the court secretary, I have found the Book of the Law in Yah s Temple! Then Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan, and he read it. 9 Shaphan went to the king and reported, Your officials have turned over the money collected at the Temple of Yah to the workers and supervisors at the Temple. 10 Shaphan also told the king, Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll. So Shaphan read it to the king. 11 When the king heard what was written in the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes in despair. 12 Then he gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the court secretary, and Asaiah the king s personal adviser: 13 Go to the Temple and speak to Yah for me and for the people and for all Judah. Inquire about the words written in this scroll that has been found. For Yah s great anger is burning against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words in this scroll. We have not been doing everything it says we must do. 15

16 14 So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the New Quarter [a] of Jerusalem to consult with the prophet Huldah. She was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, the keeper of the Temple wardrobe. 15 She said to them, Yah, the God of Israel, has spoken! Go back and tell the man who sent you, 16 This is what Yah says: I am going to bring disaster on this city [b] and its people. All the words written in the scroll that the king of Judah has read will come true. 17 For my people have abandoned me and offered sacrifices to pagan gods, and I am very angry with them for everything they have done. My anger will burn against this place, and it will not be quenched. 18 But go to the king of Judah who sent you to seek Yah and tell him: This is what Yah, the God of Israel, says concerning the message you have just heard: 19 You were sorry and humbled yourself before Yah when you heard what I said against this city and its people that this land would be cursed and become desolate. You tore your clothing in despair and wept before me in repentance. And I have indeed heard you, says Yah. 20 So I will not send the promised disaster until after you have died and been buried in peace. You will not see the disaster I am going to bring on this city. So they took her message back to the king. Footnotes: a. 2 Kings 22:14 Or the Second Quarter, a newer section of Jerusalem. Hebrew reads the Mishneh. b. 2 Kings 22:16 Hebrew this place; also in 22:19, Kings 23 Josiah Restores True Worship 1 Now the king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. 2 The king went up to the house of Yah with all the men of Judah, and with him all the inhabitants of Jerusalem the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of Yah. 3 Then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before Yah, to follow Yah and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people took a stand for the covenant. 4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, 16

17 the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers,, for, [a] and ; [b] and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 5 Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to and in the places all around Jerusalem, and,, to, to, and. 6 And he brought out the wooden image [c] from the house of Yah, to the Brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it at the Brook Kidron and ground it to ashes, and threw its ashes on the graves of the common people. 7 Then he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons [d] that were in the house of Yah, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image. Another version of 2 Kings 20:7 (New Living translation) *** 2 Kings 23:7 He also tore down the living quarters of the male and female shrine prostitutes that were inside the Temple of Yah, where the women wove coverings for the Asherah pole. ***** 2 Kings 23 verse 8 resumed. 8 And he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; also he broke down the high places at the gates which were at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were to the left of the city gate. 9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of Yah in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brethren. 10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son [e] of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech. 11 Then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of Yah, by the chamber of Nathan-Melech, the officer who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 12 The altars that were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of Yah, the king broke down and pulverized there, and threw their dust into the Brook Kidron. 17

18 13 Then the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the people of Ammon. 14 And he broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images, and filled their places with the bones of men. 15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and crushed it to powder, and burned the wooden image. 16 As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mountain. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar, and defiled it according to the word of Yah which the man of Yah proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. 17 Then he said, What gravestone is this that I see? So the men of the city told him, It is the tomb of the man of Yah who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel. 18 And he said, Let him alone; let no one move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. 19 Now Josiah also took away all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke Yah [f] to anger; and he did to them according to all the deeds he had done in Bethel. 20 He executed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned men s bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem. 21 Then the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the Passover to Yah your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant. 22 Such a Passover surely had never been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was held before Yah in Jerusalem. 24 Moreover Josiah, the, all, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of Yah. 25 Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to Yah with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him. 18

19 Impending Judgment on Judah 26 Nevertheless Yah did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with which His anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. 27 And Yah said, I will also remove Judah from My sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there. [g] Josiah Dies in Battle 28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 29 In his days Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went to the aid of the king of Assyria, to the River Euphrates; and King Josiah went against him. And Pharaoh Necho killed him at Megiddo when he confronted him. 30 Then his servants moved his body in a chariot from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in his father s place. The Reign and Captivity of Jehoahaz 31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did evil in the sight of Yah, according to all that his fathers had done. 33 Now Pharaoh Necho put him in prison at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 Then Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Pharaoh took Jehoahaz and went to Egypt, and he [h] died there. What was the worship of the Sun, and was Israel and Judah guilty of worshipping these Idols? The following is inserted to help reveal to you how YOU may have been or are currently in the pagan worship of the SUN GOD; 19

20 PAGAN SUN WORSHIP AND CATHOLICISM THE PAGAN SUN WHEEL, THE OBELISK AND BAAL Above is a Roman coin from the 3rd century A.D. (Probus, A.D ) which on the reverse depicts the pagan sun god driving a chariot drawn by four horses (Sol in Quadriga). The inscription reads SOLI INVICTO - The Invincible Sun.] At right is a similar mosaic found in the Vatican grottoes under St. Peter's Basilica, on the vaulted ceiling of the tomb of the Julii (also known as "Mausoleum M"). It depicts Christ as the sun-god Helios / Sol riding in his chariot, and is dated to the 3rd century A.D. The two left horses were destroyed when the hole was made to enter the tomb. Other mosaics in this Christian tomb depicted Jonah and the whale, the good shepherd carrying a lamb, and fishermen. This blending of paganism with Christianity is syncretism, and apostasy. At left is a pagan sun wheel in the temple at Kararak India, which is associated with occultism and astrology. It resembles a chariot wheel doesn't it? Note the following verse- From the book 2 Ki 23:11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of Yah, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 20

21 "The New Illustrated Great Controversy" Copyright LLT Productions Used by Permission When Israel apostatized, they made chariots dedicated to the sun god, who it was thought, traveled across the sky in a great chariot. Hence the origin of the sun wheel. The Symbols of Baal, Ishtar and Shamash Below is an artifact unearthed in the holy of holies of the pagan temple in the Canaanite city of Hatzor / Hazor, in northern Israel. It is described as follows: "Of special interest is a square basalt altar for burning incense. On one of its sides, a circle with a cross in the center the divine symbol of the Canaanite storm god is carved in low relief." "... a basalt offering table, pillar-shaped, with a carved symbol of the storm god Baal on its side. That symbol was a circle with a cross in the center" Sources: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hatzor: "The Head of all those Kingdoms" University of Illinois, Religious Studies, Hazor... The Akkadian Ishtar is also, to a greater extent, an astral deity, associated with the planet Venus: with Shamash, sun god, and Sin, moon god, she forms a secondary astral triad. In this manifestation her symbol is a star with 6, 8, or 16 rays within a circle.... Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Online, article on Ishtar. The Star of Ishtar Because some astronomical objects move through the sky in repeated and known intervals of time, the behavior of the celestial gods associated with them can be symbolized numerically. Ishtar, as the planet Venus, perhaps was handled this way in the eight-pointed star that usually stands for her on Babylonian boundary stones. References to Venus as early as 3000 BC are known from evidence at Uruk, an important early Sumerian city in southern Iraq. One clay tablet found at the site says "star Inanna," and another contains symbols for the words "star, setting sun, Inanna." Inanna is Venus, known later as Ishtar, and the Uruk tablets specify her celestial identity with the symbol for "star": an eight-pointed star. 21

22 Source: The Star of Ishtar, Iraq Resource Information Site. So can the star within a circle, or sun wheel, be found in the Vatican in Rome? Indeed it can! Here is a photo of the papal palace with the pope at the window of his apartment. Note the many eight-pointed stars of Ishtar in the decorative work above the windows. Some are within a darker circle. Detail from a photo by Adam J. Polczyk-Przybyla DHD Photo Gallery Here you see a view of the piazza or plaza at the Vatican, also known as St. Peter's square. The papal palace is on the right edge of the photo. The large eight-rayed sun wheel design, symbolic of Ishtar, is immediately noticeable. Look closely in the center of the wheel. What you see there is an obelisk, a genuine Egyptian obelisk shipped from Heliopolis to Rome by the Roman emperor Caligula. The obelisk is, of course, a phallic symbol,* but it also was used in sun worship. Click on the image to view a larger version of the same image. * It is claimed that the word 'obelisk' literally means 'Baal's shaft' or 'Baal's organ of reproduction'. Source: Masonic and Occult Symbols Illustrated, by Dr. Cathy Burns, pg

23 Here is an old photo of the center of St. Peter's square, and note that around the obelisk, at the center of the huge eight-point sun wheel, is a smaller four-pointed sun wheel, the same symbol as found on the altar stone in the temple of Baal in Hatzor! Here you see the reverse side of a coin celebrating the pontificate of John Paul II, and on it is the obelisk and sun wheel of St. Peter's piazza, and a very distinct sunburst emanating from the Basilica itself. The correlation of the symbology is striking. Pope John Paul II, at World Youth Day 2000, was wearing a crimson and gold stole, which bears the symbols of Baal / Shamash within an eight-pointed star of Ishtar. An enlargement is shown below. Pope Pius XII wearing the same stole. 23

24 Symbol of Baal found in Hazor, Israel Source: University of Illinois, Religious Studies, Hazor Detail of the symbol on the papal stole. Symbol of the pagan sun-god Shamash Detail from the Stela of Shamshi-Adad V The British Museum The Obelisk The Egyptian obelisk that stands in the square of St. John Lateran (shown at left) is the largest in existence. Originally carved during the reign of Pharaoh Thutmoses III, it stood in the Temple of Amon in Thebes (Karnak), but was removed to Rome by emperor Constantius (A.D ), and placed in the Circus Maximus. In 1587 Pope Sixtus V unearthed the fallen, broken and long forgotten obelisk and had it repaired and placed in the Piazza S. Giovanni in Laterano. Interestingly enough, it is possible that Moses saw this very obelisk when he was in Egypt. Now this obelisk, meant to honor the sun god, stands beside what Catholics call the supreme "Mother of all Churches", the official cathedra of the bishop of Rome, the Pope, which brings to mind Revelation 17: 5 and the apostate Mother Church, Mystery Babylon, the mother of harlots, who stands accused of fornication, a mixing of the sacred with the profane, truth with error. Mysteries of the Nile (NOVA) Egypt - Amazing Discoveries OBELISK. Of the several functions of the PILLAR among early peoples, the Egyptian obelisk was worshipped as the dwelling place of the sun-god. 24

25 Source: Illustrated Dictionary of Symbols in Eastern and Western Art by James Hall, published by HarperCollins, 1994, page 75. The pagan association of the obelisk was something well understood by the church. The Jesuit scholar, Athanasius Kircher in his book Obeliscus Pamphilius, published in 1650, gives an account of the ancient views of the obelisk as the digitus solis, or "finger of the sun". Pope Sixtus V ( ) had the Egyptian obelisks erected all over Rome, as Counter-Reformation monuments. The word matstsebah in Hebrew means standing images or obelisk and it can be found in many places of the Bible. Here is Strong's definition of the Hebrew word matstsebah- H4676. matstsebah, mats-tsay-baw'; fem. (causat.) part. of H5324; something stationed, i.e. a column or (memorial stone); by anal. an idol:--garrison, (standing) image, pillar. In the following verses matstsebah has been translated as image(s)- Exodus 23:24 Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. Exodus 34:13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: Lev 26:1 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am Yah your God. Deuteronomy 7:5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. Deuteronomy 12:3 And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. 1 Ki 14:23 For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. 2 Ki 3:2 And he wrought evil in the sight of Yah; but not like his father, and like his mother: for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made. 2 Ki 10:26 And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them. 2 Ki 10:27 And they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day. 25

26 2 Chr 14:3 For he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves: 2 Chr 31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities. Jer 43:13 He shall break also the images of Bethshemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire. Micah 5:13 Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands. Another Hebrew word is also used for "sun images" or obelisks, the word chamman. Again, here is the Strong's definition- H2553. chamman, kham-mawn'; from H2535; a sun-pillar:--idol, image. Chamman is also translated as simply image(s) in the King James: Isaiah 17:8 And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images. Isaiah 27:9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up. 2 Chronicles 34:4 And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. Here is a close-up of the obelisk in front of St. Peter's. Have you ever given any thought to the origin of the church steeple? Could it be a modern representation of the pagan obelisk? Indeed! From the book "The New Illustrated Great Controversy" Copyright LLT Productions 26

27 Used by Permission So in St. Peter's square, the symbol of Baal is within the symbol of Ishtar, and at the center is an Egyptian obelisk, all representing pagan sun worship. Pope Celebrates Palm Sunday at Pagan Sun Pillar Images 2000 by CTV Above are pictures of John Paul II, dressed in scarlet, celebrating Palm Sunday in St. Peter's square on April 16th, 2000, with a "grove" of potted palms and hundred-year-old olive trees placed around the standing solar pillar (matstsebah) or obelisk, in the center of the Vatican's large pagan solar wheel symbolizing Baal and Ishtar. 27

28 Deuteronomy 16:21 Thou shalt not plant thee a grove (asherah) of any trees near unto the altar of Yah thy God, which thou shalt make thee. Deuteronomy 16:22 Neither shalt thou set thee up any image (matstsebah / pillar); which Yah thy God hateth. Now below are two photos of a statue in St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. SCALA Florence It is supposedly a statue of Peter enthroned. Notice the sun wheel above his head? This statue is thought by some to actually be a pagan statue of Jupiter, removed from the Pantheon in Rome (a pagan temple), moved into St. Peter's and renamed Peter. The extended right foot has been nearly worn away from the many pilgrims who kiss it in homage. Note also that the pattern on the wall behind the statue utilizes the symbol of Baal / Shamash! According to the Catholic Encyclopedia online article Portraits of the Apostles: The famous bronze statue of St. Peter in the basilica of this Apostle in Rome is by some regarded as a work of the fifth or sixth century, by others as pertaining to the thirteenth. The latter date is adopted by Kraus and Kaufmann among others; Lowrie, however, maintains that "no statue of the Renaissance can be compared with this for genuine understanding of the classic dress", and, therefore, this writer holds for the more ancient date. The marble statue of St. Peter taken from the old basilica, now in the crypt of the Vatican, was originally, in all probability, an ancient consular statue which was transformed into a representation of the Prince of Apostles. 28

29 Picture of Christ, - notice the Sun Dial in the background of his head and also the position of his hands Here you see a photo looking up into the dome of St. Peter's. Notice the very obvious 16 ray sun wheel. Indeed the light from the sun streams into the center hub of the dome making a genuine sun-lit sunburst image at the center of the wheel. As you can see from the Bible verses quoted above, these symbols were associated with sun worship, which is strongly condemned in scripture. So why are they so prevalent in the Roman Catholic Church, if they are associated with paganism and apostasy? From the book Art Treasures of the Vatican 1974 by Smeets Offset B.V. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Ezekiel 8:16 And he brought me into the inner court of Yah s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of Yah, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of Yah, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. 29

30 Ezekiel 8:17 Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? You can recognize Sun worship in its many names; Sunday school, Sunday Worship, Easter Sunrise Service (At cemeteries), and also in the Book of Ezekiel were women and men are Weeping for Tammuz Ezekiel 8 Idolatry in the Temple 1 Then on September 17, [a] during the sixth year of King Jehoiachin s captivity, while the leaders of Judah were in my home, the Sovereign Yah took hold of me. 2 I saw a figure that appeared to be a man. From what appeared to be his waist down, he looked like a burning flame. From the waist up he looked like gleaming amber. [b] 3 He reached out what seemed to be a hand and took me by the hair. Then the Spirit lifted me up into the sky and transported me to Jerusalem in a vision from Yah. I was taken to the north gate of the inner courtyard of the Temple, where there is a large idol that has made Yah very jealous. 4 Suddenly, the glory of the God of Israel was there, just as I had seen it before in the valley. 5 Then Yah said to me, Son of man, look toward the north. So I looked, and there to the north, beside the entrance to the gate near the altar, stood the idol that had made Yah so jealous. 6 Son of man, he said, do you see what they are doing? Do you see the detestable sins the people of Israel are committing to drive me from my Temple? But come, and you will see even more detestable sins than these! 7 Then he brought me to the door of the Temple courtyard, where I could see a hole in the wall. 8 He said to me, Now, son of man, dig into the wall. So I dug into the wall and found a hidden doorway. 9 Go in, he said, and see the wicked and detestable sins they are committing in there! 10 So I went in and saw the walls engraved with all kinds of crawling animals and detestable creatures. I also saw the various idols [c] worshiped by the people of Israel. 11 Seventy leaders of Israel were standing there with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan in the center. Each of them held an incense burner, from which a cloud of incense rose above their heads. 12 Then Yah said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the leaders of Israel are doing with their idols in dark rooms? They are saying, Yah doesn t see us; he has deserted our land! 13 Then Yah added, Come, and I will show you even more detestable sins than these! 30

31 14 He brought me to the north gate of Yah s Temple, and some women were sitting there, weeping for the god Tammuz. 15 Have you seen this? he asked. But I will show you even more detestable sins than these! 16 Then he brought me into the inner courtyard of Yah s Temple. At the entrance to the sanctuary, between the entry room and the bronze altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs to the sanctuary of Yah. They were facing east, bowing low to the ground, worshiping the sun! (This is Easter Sunrise Service) 17 Have you seen this, son of man? he asked. Is it nothing to the people of Judah that they commit these detestable sins, leading the whole nation into violence, thumbing their noses at me, and provoking my anger? 18 Therefore, I will respond in fury. I will neither pity nor spare them. And though they cry for mercy, I will not listen. Footnotes: a. Ezekiel 8:1 Hebrew on the fifth day of the sixth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This event occurred on September 17, 592 b.c.; also see note on 1:1. b. Ezekiel 8:2 Or like burnished metal. c. Ezekiel 8:10 The Hebrew term (literally round things) probably alludes to dung. If you notice on page 20 above you will see that the Pope s stole has the symbols of the Sun god worship, and that his clothing is the color red. There are scriptures that talk about this type of worship under the name of Bozrah. What does Weeping for Tammuz mean? While the actual sins enumerated by God in the Bible are considered passé, there are new sins being chiseled into the tablets of our modern legal code by the zealots of a neo-pagan religion that is overshadowing America s Judeo-Christian heritage and culture. Just as Ezekiel witnessed so many centuries ago, Americans today worship the creation rather than the Creator. They demand sacrifices at the altar of global warming. They lose their inhibitions and frolic in the groves. They look to the sun and the moon and stars for meaning and signs. As in the days of Ezekiel, they are weeping for Tammuz. What does that mean? Who was Tammuz? And why do I say Americans are weeping for him? Does the name Nimrod mean anything to you? 31

32 When I was a kid, it was a common name of derision. That guy s a Nimrod. I don t know exactly what that was supposed to mean. I know it wasn t anything good. But I can tell you there are a lot of Nimrods around today. Nimrod was one of Noah s great-grandsons. He was in rebellion against the God of the universe. It didn t take long after the worldwide flood for rebellion to begin again. Nimrod was the arch-rebel and a very important biblical figure for us to understand today. Even his name means to rebel. We first learn about him in Genesis 10:8. Nimrod was the leader of the rebellion that prompted the building of the Tower of Babel. Standing hundreds of feet high, the tower was built so that Nimrod and his priest could worship the sun, the moon and the stars. What happens when you worship the sun, the moon and the stars instead of the One True God of the Universe? You open yourself up to the deception of the power of the air Satan and his demons. I think that s exactly what happened to Nimrod. In effect, Nimrod and his wife, Semiramis, followed the same path as Adam and Eve believing Lucifer that they could become gods or like gods themselves, that the One True God that Nimrod s greatgrandfather Noah worshipped was withholding the key to truth from them. Before too long, Nimrod and Semiramis were requiring their subjects to worship them. And what we have with Nimrod and Semiramis is the beginning of all the false pagan religion systems that have followed and that are still with us today. Yah saw how successful the Nimrod perversion had become, so it was at that time, we read in Genesis 11, He confused the one common language of the human race. The word Babel actually means confusion. We know more about Nimrod and Semiramis than the Bible alone reveals. Babylonian history shows us this couple gave themselves other god names some of which will be very familiar to you. Nimrod became known as Kronos, Bel and Baal. Nimrod died at the age of 40 from a hunting accident. He was gored to death by a wild boar. That seems odd to me for a god, but not to the Babylonians. After Nimrod s death, Semiramis elevated the worship of her husband as the sun god, asserting that he had ascended into heaven and would supernaturally impregnate her. 32

33 Naturally, as you might imagine, she gave birth to a son, whom she named Tammuz. He became known as the son of the sun god and the reincarnation of his father. After Nimrod s death, his subjects wept bitterly for him and soon began to worship his son Tammuz. A new tradition began in which each year all the people would weep for 40 days (Lent) for Nimrod one day for each year of his life. Later, when Tammuz became the focus of worship, followers began weeping for him. That s what Ezekiel was talking about. In Israel, at the time of Ezekiel, many were weeping for Tammuz. Yah does not countenance (show His presence) when His people embrace the ways of pagans and sun worshippers and idolaters. I have news for you: There are lots of Americans practicing similar forms of pagan rituals today. They are still weeping for Tammuz. Make no mistake about it; neo-paganism is the official religion of the USA in It is the one taught in every public school in American today when they teach evolution. It is the one preached in most of the news media when you hear about man-made catastrophic global warming. It is the one you watch on television and in movies that instructs you to lose your inhibitions and do your own thing. Christianity is not the dominant religion of our time. Islam is not the dominant religion of our time. Humanism is the dominant religion of our time. And humanism is a form of paganism. It is the mancentered religion. It is the religion of nature worship. It is the religion that denies an all-powerful, allmighty, all-knowing God. It is a descendant of the first false religion founded by those who built the Tower of Babel. There s nothing new under the sun. And there s nothing new about people who worship the sun and the moon and the stars. Lots of people are still weeping for Tammuz. The Two Babylon s by Reverend Hislop illustrates that the Papal System adopted the Nimrod system of pagan worship that was strongly pushed into worship by his wife, now replicated as the Queen of Heaven; 33

34 CHAPTER V Myths of Tammuz and Ishtar Forms of Tammuz--The Weeping Ceremony--Tammuz the Patriarch and the Dying God--Common Origin of Tammuz and other Deities from an Archaic God--The Mediterranean Racial Myth--Animal Forms of Gods of Fertility--Two Legends of the Death of Tammuz--Attis, Adonis, and Diarmid Slain by a Boar--Laments for Tammuz--His Soul in Underworld and the Deep- -Myth of the Child God of Ocean--Sargon Myth Version--The Germanic Scyld of the Sheaf--Tammuz Links with Frey, Heimdal, Agni, &c.--assyrian Legend of "Descent of Ishtar"--Sumerian Version--The Sister Belit-sheri and the Mother Ishtar- -The Egyptian Isis and Nepthys--Goddesses as Mothers, Sisters, and Wives--Great Mothers of Babylonia--Immortal Goddesses and Dying Gods--The Various Indras--Celtic Goddess with Seven Periods of Youth--Lovers of Germanic and Classic Goddesses--The Lovers of Ishtar--Racial Significance of Goddess Cult--The Great Fathers and their Worshippers-- Process of Racial and Religious Fusion--Ishtar and Tiamat--Mother Worship in Palestine--Women among Goddess Worshippers. AMONG the gods of Babylonia none achieved wider and more enduring fame than Tammuz, who was loved by Ishtar, the amorous Queen of Heaven--the beautiful youth who died and was mourned for and came to life again. He does not figure by his popular name in any of the city pantheons, but from the earliest times of which we have knowledge until the passing of Babylonian civilization, he played a prominent part in the religious life of the people Tammuz, like Osiris of Egypt, was an agricultural deity, and as the Babylonian harvest was the gift of the rivers, (Could this be an imitation of Moses drawn from the river?) it is probable that one of his several forms was Dumu-zi-abzu, "Tammuz of the Abyss". He was also p. 82 [paragraph continues] "the child", (Christ) "the heroic lord", "the sentinel", "the healer", and the patriarch who reigned over the early Babylonians for a considerable period. "Tammuz of the Abyss" was one of the members of the family of Ea, god of the Deep, whose other sons, in addition to Merodach, were Nira, an obscure deity; Ki-gulla, "world destroyer", Burnunta-sa, "broad ear", and Bara and Baragulla, probably "revealers" or "oracles". In addition there was a daughter, Khi-dimme-azaga, "child of the renowned spirit". She may have been identical with Belit-sheri, who is referred to in the Sumerian hymns as the sister of Tammuz. This family group was probably formed by symbolizing the attributes of Ea and his spouse Damkina. Tammuz, in his character as a patriarch, may have been regarded as a hostage from the gods: the human form of Ea, who instructed mankind, like King Osiris, how to grow corn and cultivate fruit trees. As the youth who perished annually, he was the corn spirit. He is referred to in the Bible by his Babylonian name. When Ezekiel detailed the various idolatrous practices of the Israelites, which included the worship of the sun and "every form of creeping things and abominable beasts"--a suggestion of the composite monsters of Babylonia--he was brought "to the door of the gate of Yah's house, which was towards the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz". 1 The weeping ceremony was connected with agricultural rites. Corn deities were weeping deities, they shed fertilizing tears; and the sowers simulated the sorrow of divine mourners 34

35 when they cast seed in the soil "to die", so that it might spring up as corn. This ancient custom, like many others, contributed to the poetic p. 83 imagery of the Bible. "They that sow in tears", David sang, "shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." 1 In Egypt the priestesses who acted the parts of Isis and Nepthys, mourned for the slain corn god Osiris. Gods and men before the face of the gods are weeping for thee at the same time, when they behold me!... All thy sister goddesses are at thy side and behind thy couch, Calling upon thee with weeping--yet thou are prostrate upon thy bed!... Live before us, desiring to behold thee. 2 It was believed to be essential that human beings should share the universal sorrow caused by the death of a god. If they remained unsympathetic, the deities would punish them as enemies. Worshippers of nature gods, therefore, based their ceremonial practices on natural phenomena. "The dread of the worshippers that the neglect of the usual ritual would be followed by disaster, is particularly intelligible", writes Professor Robertson Smith, "if they regarded the necessary operations of agriculture as involving the violent extinction of a particle of divine life." 3 By observing their ritual, the worshippers won the sympathy and co-operation of deities, or exercised a magical control over nature. The Babylonian myth of Tammuz, the dying god, bears a close resemblance to the Greek myth of Adonis. It also links with the myth of Osiris. According to Professor Sayce, Tammuz is identical with "Daonus or Daos, the shepherd of Pantibibla", referred to by Berosus as the ruler of one of the mythical ages of Babylonia. We p. 84 have therefore to deal with Tammuz in his twofold character as a patriarch and a god of fertility. The Adonis version of the myth may be summarized briefly. Ere the god was born, his mother, who was pursued by her angry sire, as the river goddesses of the folk tales are pursued by the well demons, transformed herself into a tree. Adonis sprang from the trunk of this tree, and Aphrodite, having placed the child in a chest, committed him to the care of Persephone, queen of Hades, who resembles the Babylonian Eresh-ki-gal. Persephone desired to retain the young god, and Aphrodite (Ishtar) appealed to Zeus (Anu), who decreed that Adonis should spend part of the year with one goddess and part of the year with the other. It is suggested that the myth of Adonis was derived in post-homeric times by the Greeks indirectly from Babylonia through the Western Semites, the Semitic title "Adon", meaning "lord", having been mistaken for a proper name. This theory, however, cannot be accepted without qualifications. It does not explain the existence of either the Phrygian myth of Attis, which was developed differently from the Tammuz myth, or the Celtic story of "Diarmid and the boar", which belongs to the archæological "Hunting Period". There are traces in Greek mythology of pre-hellenic myths about dying harvest 35

36 deities, like Hyakinthos and Erigone, for instance, who appear to have been mourned for. There is every possibility, therefore, that the Tammuz ritual may have been attached to a harvest god of the pre-hellenic Greeks, who received at the same time the new name of Adonis. Osiris of Egypt resembles Tammuz, but his Mesopotamian origin has not been proved. It would appear probable that Tammuz, Attis, Osiris, and the deities represented by Adonis and Diarmid were all developed p. 85 from an archaic god of fertility and vegetation, the central figure of a myth which was not only as ancient as the knowledge and practice of agriculture, but had existence even in the "Hunting Period". Traces of the Tammuz-Osiris story in various forms are found all over the area occupied by the Mediterranean or Brown race from Sumeria to the British Isles. Apparently the original myth was connected with tree and water worship and the worship of animals. Adonis sprang from a tree; the body of Osiris was concealed in a tree which grew round the sea-drifted chest in which he was concealed. Diarmid concealed himself in a tree when pursued by Finn. The blood of Tammuz, Osiris, and Adonis reddened the swollen rivers which fertilized the soil. Various animals were associated with the harvest god, who appears to have been manifested from time to time in different forms, for his spirit pervaded all nature. In Egypt the soul of Osiris entered the Apis bull or the ram of Mendes. Tammuz in the hymns is called "the pre-eminent steer of heaven", and a popular sacrifice was "a white kid of the god Tammuz", which, however, might be substituted by a sucking pig. Osiris had also associations with swine, and the Egyptians, according to Herodotus, sacrificed a pig to him annually. When Set at full moon hunted the boar in the Delta marshes, he probably hunted the boar form of Osiris, whose human body had been recovered from the sacred tree by Isis. As the soul of Bata, the hero of the Egyptian folk tale, 1 migrated from the blossom to the bull, and the bull to the tree, so apparently did the soul of Osiris pass from incarnation to incarnation. Set, the demon slayer of the harvest god, had also a boar form; he was the black pig who devoured the waning moon and blinded the Eye of Ra. p. 86 In his character as a long-lived patriarch, Tammuz the King Daonus or Daos of Berosus, reigned in Babylonia for 36,000 years. When he died, he departed to Hades or the Abyss. Osiris, after reigning over the Egyptians, became Judge of the Dead. Tammuz of the Sumerian hymns, however, is the Adonis-like god who lived on earth for a part of the year as the shepherd and agriculturist so dearly beloved by the goddess Ishtar. Then he died so that he might depart to the realm of Eresh-ki-gal (Persephone), queen of Hades. According to one account, his death was caused by the fickle Ishtar. When that goddess wooed Gilgamesh, the Babylonian Hercules, he upbraided her, saying: 36

37 On Tammuz, the spouse of thy youth, Thou didst lay affliction every year. King's Translation. References in the Sumerian hymns suggest that there also existed a form of the legend which gave an account of the slaying of the young god by someone else than Ishtar. The slayer may have been a Set-like demon--perhaps Nin-shach, who appears to have symbolized the destroying influence of the sun. He was a war deity, and his name, Professor Pinches says, "is conjectured to mean 'lord of the wild boar'". There is no direct evidence, however, to connect Tammuz's slayer with the boar which killed Adonis. Ishtar's innocence is emphasized by the fact that she mourned for her youthful lover, crying: Oh hero, my lord, ah me! I will say; Food I eat not... water I drink not... Because of the exalted one of the nether world, him of the radiant face, yea radiant, Of the exalted one of the nether world, him of the dove-like voice, yea dove-like. 1 p. 87 The Phrygian Attis met his death, according to one legend, by self-mutilation under a sacred tree. Another account sets forth, however, that he was slain by a boar. The Greek Adonis was similarly killed by a boar. This animal was a form of Ares (Mars), god of war and tempest, who also loved Aphrodite (Ishtar). The Celtic Diarmid, in his character as a love god, with lunar attributes, was slain by "the green boar", which appears to have been one of the animals of a ferocious Hag, an earth and air "mother" with various names. In one of the many Fingalian stories the animal is... That venomous boar, and he so fierce, That Grey Eyebrows had with her herd of swine. 1 [paragraph continues] Diarmid had eloped with the wife of Finn-mac-Coul (Fingal), who, like Ares, plotted to bring about his rival's death, and accordingly set the young hero to hunt the boar. As a thunder god Finn carried a hammer with which he smote his shield; the blows were heard in Lochlann (Scandinavia). Diarmid, like Tammuz, the "god of the tender voice and shining eyes", had much beauty. When he expired, Finn cried: No maiden will raise her eye Since the mould has gone over thy visage fair... Blue without rashness in thine eye! Passion and beauty behind thy curls!... Oh, yesternight it was green the hillock, Red is it this day with Diarmid's blood. 2 Tammuz died with the dying vegetation, and Diarmid expired when the hills apparently were assuming their purple tints. 3 The month of Tammuz wailings was from p

38 [paragraph continues] 20th June till 20th July, when the heat and dryness brought forth the demons of pestilence. The mourners chanted: He has gone, he has gone to the bosom of the earth, And the dead are numerous in the land... Men are filled with sorrow: they stagger by day in gloom. In the month of thy year which brings not peace hast thou gone. Thou hast gone on a journey that makes an end of thy people. The following extract contains a reference to the slaying of the god: The holy one of Ishtar, in the middle of the year the fields languish... The shepherd, the wise one, the man of sorrows, why have they slain?... In his temple, in his inhabited domain, The child, lord of knowledge, abides no more... In the meadows, verily, verily, the soul of life perishes. There is wailing for Tammuz "at the sacred cedar, where the mother bore thee", a reference which connects the god, like Adonis and Osiris, with tree worship: The wailing is for the herbs: the first lament is, "they are not produced". The wailing is for the grain, ears are not produced. The wailing is for the habitations, for the flocks which bring forth no more. The wailing is for the perishing wedded ones; for the perishing children; the dark-headed people create no more. [paragraph continues] The wailing is also for the shrunken river, the parched meadows, the fishpools, the cane brakes, the forests, the p. 89 plains, the gardens, and the palace, which all suffer because the god of fertility has departed. The mourner cries: How long shall the springing of verdure be restrained? How long shall the putting forth of leaves be held back? Whither went Tammuz? His destination has already been referred to as "the bosom of the earth", and in the Assyrian version of the "Descent of Ishtar" he dwells in "the house of darkness" among the dead, "where dust is their nourishment and their food mud", and "the light is never seen"--the gloomy Babylonian Hades. In one of the Sumerian hymns, however, it is stated that Tammuz "upon the flood was cast out". The reference may be to the submarine "house of Ea", or the Blessed Island to which the Babylonian Noah was carried. In this Hades bloomed the nether "garden of Adonis". The following extract refers to the garden of Damu (Tammuz) 1:-- 38

39 Damu his youth therein slumbers. Among the garden flowers he slumbers; among the garden flowers he is cast away. Among the tamarisks he slumbers, with woe he causes us to be satiated. Although Tammuz of the hymns was slain, he returned again from Hades. Apparently he came back as a child. He is wailed for as "child, Lord Gishzida", as well as "my hero Damu". In his lunar character the Egyptian Osiris appeared each month as "the child surpassingly beautiful"; the Osiris bull was also a child of the moon; "it was begotten", says Plutarch, "by a ray of generative light falling from the moon". When the bull of Attis was sacrificed his worshippers were drenched p. 90 with its blood, and were afterwards ceremonially fed with milk, as they were supposed to have "renewed their youth" and become children. The ancient Greek god Eros (Cupid) was represented as a wanton boy or handsome youth. Another god of fertility, the Irish Angus, who resembles Eros, is called "the ever young"; he slumbers like Tammuz and awakes in the Spring. Apparently it was believed that the child god, Tammuz, returned from the earlier Sumerian Paradise of the Deep, and grew into full manhood in a comparatively brief period, like Vyasa and other super-men of Indian mythology. A couplet from a Tammuz hymn says tersely: In his infancy in a sunken boat he lay. In his manhood in the submerged grain he lay. 1 The "boat" may be the "chest" in which Adonis was concealed by Aphrodite when she confided him to the care of Persephone, queen of Hades, who desired to retain the young god, but was compelled by Zeus to send him back to the goddess of love and vegetation. The fact that Ishtar descended to Hades in quest of Tammuz may perhaps explain the symbolic references in hymns to mother goddesses being in sunken boats also when their powers were in abeyance, as were those of the god for part of each year. It is possible, too, that the boat had a lunar and a solar significance. Khonsu, the Egyptian moon god, for instance, was associated with the Spring sun, being a deity of fertility and therefore a corn spirit; he was a form of Osiris, the Patriarch, who sojourned on earth to teach mankind how to grow corn and cultivate fruit trees. In the Egyptian legend Osiris received the corn seeds from Isis, which suggests that among Great-Mother-worshipping p. 91 peoples, it was believed that agricultural civilization had a female origin. The same myths may have been attached to corn gods and corn goddesses, associated with water, sun, moon, and stars. That there existed in Babylonia at an extremely remote period an agricultural myth regarding a Patriarch of divine origin who was rescued from a boat in his childhood, is suggested by the legend which was attached to the memory, of the usurper King Sargon of Akkad. It runs as follows: "I am Sargon, the mighty King of Akkad. My mother was a vestal (priestess), my father an alien, whose brother inhabited the mountain.... When my mother had conceived me, she bare me in a hidden place. She laid me in a vessel of rushes, stopped the door thereof with pitch, and cast me adrift on the river.... The river floated me to Akki, the water drawer, who, in 39

40 drawing water, drew me forth. Akki, the water drawer, educated me as his son, and made me his gardener. As a gardener, I was beloved by the goddess Ishtar." It is unlikely that this story was invented by Sargon. Like the many variants of it found in other countries, it was probably founded on a form of the Tammuz-Adonis myth. Indeed, a new myth would not have suited Sargon's purpose so well as the adaptation of an old one, which was more likely to make popular appeal when connected with his name. The references to the goddess Ishtar, and Sargon's early life as a gardener, suggest that the king desired to be remembered as an agricultural Patriarch, if not of divine, at any rate of semi-divine origin. What appears to be an early form of the widespread Tammuz myth is the Teutonic legend regarding the mysterious child who came over the sea to inaugurate a new era of civilization and instruct the people how to p. 92 grow corn and become great warriors. The Northern peoples, as archæological evidence suggests, derived their knowledge of agriculture, and therefore their agricultural myths, from the Neolithic representatives of the Mediterranean race with whom they came into contact. There can be no doubt but that the Teutonic legend refers to the introduction of agriculture. The child is called "Scef" or "Sceaf", which signifies "Sheaf", or "Scyld, the son of Sceaf". Scyld is the patriarch of the Scyldings, the Danes, a people of mixed origin. In the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf poem, the reference is to "Scyld", but Ethelweard, William of Malmesbury, and others adhered to "Sceaf" as the name of the Patriarch of the Western Saxons. The legend runs that one day a boat was seen approaching the shore; it was not propelled by oars or sail. In it lay a child fast asleep, his head pillowed upon a sheaf of grain. He was surrounded by armour, treasure, and various implements, including the fire-borer. The child was reared by the people who found him, and he became a great instructor and warrior and ruled over the tribe as king. In Beowulf Scyld is the father of the elder Beowulf, whose grandson Hrothgar built the famous Hall. The poem opens with a reference to the patriarch "Scyld of the Sheaf". When he died, his body, according to the request he had made, was laid in a ship which was set adrift: Upon his breast lay many treasures which were to travel with him into the power of the flood. Certainly they (the mourners) furnished him with no less of gifts, of tribal treasures, than those had done who, in his early days, started him over the sea alone, child as he was. Moreover, they set besides a gold-embroidered standard high above his head, and let the flood bear him--gave him to the sea. Their soul was sad, their spirit sorrowful. Who p. 93 received that load, men, chiefs of council, heroes under heaven, cannot for certain tell. 1 Sceaf or Scyld is identical with Yngve, the patriarch of the Ynglings; with Frey, the harvest and boar god, son of Njord, 2 the sea god; and with Hermod, referred to as follows in the Eddic "Lay of Hyndla": To some grants he wealth, to his children war fame, Word skill to many and wisdom to men, Fair winds to sea-farers, song craft to skalds, And might of manhood to many a warrior. 40

41 Tammuz is similarly "the heroic lord of the land", the "wise one", the "lord of knowledge", and "the sovereign, lord of invocation". Heimdal, watchman of the Teutonic gods, also dwelt for a time among men as "Rig", and had human offspring, his son Thrall being the ancestor of the Thralls, his son Churl of churls, and Jarl of noblemen. Tammuz, like Heimdal, is also a guardian. He watches the flocks and herds, whom he apparently guards against the Gallu demons as Heimdal guards the world and the heavens against attacks by giants and monsters. The flocks of Tammuz, Professor Pinches suggests, "recall the flocks of the Greek sun god Helios. These were the clouds illuminated by the sun, which were likened to sheep--indeed, one of the early Sumerian expressions for 'fleece' was 'sheep of the sky'. The name of Tammuz in Sumerian is Dumu-zi, or in its rare fullest form, Dumu-zida, meaning 'true or faithful son'. There is probably some legend attached to this which is at present unknown." 3 p. 94 So the Sumerian hymn-chanters lamented: Like an herdsman the sentinel place of sheep and cattle he (Tammuz) has forsaken... From his home, from his inhabited domain, the son, he of wisdom, pre-eminent steer of heaven, The hero unto the nether herding place has taken his way. 1 Agni, the Aryo-Indian god, who, as the sky sentinel, has points of resemblance to Heimdal, also links with Tammuz, especially in his Mitra character: Agni has been established among the tribes of men, the son of the waters, Mitra acting in the right way. Rigveda, iii, 5, 3. Agni, who has been looked and longed for in Heaven, who has been looked for on earth--he who has been looked for has entered all herbs. Rigveda, i, Tammuz, like the Egyptian lunar and solar god Khonsu, is "the healer", and Agni "drives away all disease". Tammuz is the god "of sonorous voice"; Agni "roars like a bull"; and Heimdal blows a horn when the giants and demons threaten to attack the citadel of the gods. As the spring sun god, Tammuz is "a youthful warrior", says Jastrow, "triumphing over the storms of winter". 3 The storms, of course, were symbolized as demons. Tammuz, "the heroic lord", was therefore a demon slayer like Heimdal and Agni. Each of these gods appear to have been developed in isolation from an archaic spring god of fertility and corn whose attributes were symbolized. In Teutonic mythology, for instance, Heimdal was the warrior form of the patriarch Scef, while Frey was the deified agriculturist who came over the deep as a child. In Saxo's mythical history of Denmark, p. 95 [paragraph continues] Frey as Frode is taken prisoner by a storm giant, Beli, "the howler", and is loved by his hag sister in the Teutonic Hades, as Tammuz is loved by Eresh-ki-gal, spouse of the storm god Nergal, in the Babylonian Hades. Frode returns to earth, like Tammuz, in due season. 41

42 It is evident that there were various versions of the Tammuz myth in Ancient Babylonia. In one the goddess Ishtar visited Hades to search for the lover of her youth. A part of this form of the legend survives in the famous Assyrian hymn known as "The Descent of Ishtar". It was first translated by the late Mr. George Smith, of the British Museum. A box containing inscribed tablets had been sent from Assyria to London, and Mr. Smith, with characteristic patience and skill, arranged and deciphered them, giving to the world a fragment of ancient literature infused with much sublimity and imaginative power. Ishtar is depicted descending to dismal Hades, where the souls of the dead exist in bird forms: I spread like a bird my hands. I descend, I descend to the house of darkness, the dwelling of the god Irkalla: To the house out of which there is no exit, To the road from which there is no return: To the house from whose entrance the light is taken, The place where dust is their nourishment and their food mud. Its chiefs also are like birds covered with feathers; The light is never seen, in darkness they dwell.... [paragraph continues] When the goddess reaches the gate of Hades she cries to the porter: Keeper of the waters, open thy gate, Open thy gate that I may enter. If thou openest not the gate that I may enter I will strike the door, the bolts I will shatter, p. 96 I will strike the threshold and will pass through the doors; I will raise up the dead to devour the living, Above the living the dead shall exceed in numbers. [paragraph continues] The porter answers that he must first consult the Queen of Hades, here called Allatu, to whom he accordingly announces the arrival of the Queen of Heaven. Allatu's heart is filled with anger, and makes reference to those whom Ishtar caused to perish: Let me weep over the strong who have left their wives, Let me weep over the handmaidens who have lost the embraces of their husbands, Over the only son let me mourn, who ere his days are come is taken away. [paragraph continues] Then she issues abruptly the stern decree: Go, keeper, open the gate to her, Bewitch her according to the ancient rules; that is, "Deal with her as you deal with others who come here". As Ishtar enters through the various gates she is stripped of her ornaments and clothing. At the first gate her crown was taken off, at the second her ear-rings, at the third her necklace of precious stones, at the fourth the ornaments of her breast, at the fifth her gemmed waist-girdle, 1 at the sixth the bracelets of her 42

43 hands and feet, and at the seventh the covering robe of her body. Ishtar asks at each gate why she is thus dealt with, and the porter answers, "Such is the command of Allatu." After descending for a prolonged period the Queen of Heaven at length stands naked before the Queen of Hades. Ishtar is proud and arrogant, and Allatu, desiring to punish her rival whom she cannot humble, Click to enlarge ISHTAR IN HADES From the Painting by E. Wallcousins. p. 97 commands the plague demon, Namtar, to strike her with disease in all parts of her body. The effect of Ishtar's fate was disastrous upon earth: growth and fertility came to an end. Meanwhile Pap-sukal, messenger of the gods, hastened to Shamash, the sun deity, to relate what had occurred. The sun god immediately consulted his lunar father, Sin, and Ea, god of the deep. Ea then created a man lion, named Nadushu-namir, to rescue Ishtar, giving him power to pass through the seven gates of Hades. When this being delivered his message Allatu... struck her breast; she bit her thumb, She turned again: a request she asked not. [paragraph continues] In her anger she cursed the rescuer of the Queen of Heaven. May I imprison thee in the great prison, May the garbage of the foundations of the city be thy food, May the drains of the city be thy drink, May the darkness of the dungeon be thy dwelling, May the stake be thy seat, May hunger and thirst strike thy offspring. She was compelled, however, to obey the high gods, and addressed Namtar, saying: 43

44 Unto Ishtar give the waters of life and bring her before me. [paragraph continues] Thereafter the Queen of Heaven was conducted through the various gates, and at each she received her robe and the ornaments which were taken from her on entering. Namtar says: Since thou hast not paid a ransom for thy deliverance to her (Allatu), so to her again turn back, For Tammuz the husband of thy youth. The glistening waters (of life) pour over him. In splendid clothing dress him, with a ring of crystal adorn him. p. 98 Ishtar mourns for "the wound of Tammuz", smiting her breast, and she did not ask for "the precious eyestones, her amulets", which were apparently to ransom Tammuz. The poem concludes with Ishtar's wail: O my only brother (Tammuz) thou dost not lament for me. In the day that Tammuz adorned me, with a ring of crystal, With a bracelet of emeralds, together with himself, he adorned me, 1 With himself he adorned me; may men mourners and women mourners On a bier place him, and assemble the wake. 2 A Sumerian hymn to Tammuz throws light on this narrative. It sets forth that Ishtar descended to Hades to entreat him to be glad and to resume care of his flocks, but Tammuz refused or was unable to return. His spouse unto her abode he sent back. [paragraph continues] She then instituted the wailing ceremony: The amorous Queen of Heaven sits as one in darkness. 3 Mr. Langdon also translates a hymn (Tammuz III) which appears to contain the narrative on which the Assyrian version was founded. The goddess who descends to Hades, however, is not Ishtar, but the "sister", Belit-sheri. She is accompanied by various demons--the "gallu-demon", the "slayer", &c.--and holds a conversation with Tammuz which, however, is "unintelligible and badly broken". Apparently, however, he promises to return to earth.... I will go up, as for me I will depart with thee I will return, unto my mother let us go back. p. 99 Probably two goddesses originally lamented for Tammuz, as the Egyptian sisters, Isis and Nepthys, lamented for Osiris, their brother. Ishtar is referred to as "my mother". Isis figures alternately in the Egyptian chants as mother, wife, sister, and daughter of Osiris. She cries, "Come thou to thy wife in peace; her heart fluttereth for thy love",... "I am thy wife, made as thou art, the elder sister, soul of her brother".... "Come thou to us as a babe".... "Lo, thou art as the Bull of the two goddesses--come thou, 44

45 child growing in peace, our lord!".. "Lo! the Bull, begotten of the two cows, Isis and Nepthys".... "Come thou to the two widowed goddesses".... "Oh child, lord, first maker of the body".... "Father Osiris." 1 As Ishtar and Belit-sheri weep for Tammuz, so do Isis and Nepthys weep for Osiris. Calling upon thee with weeping--yet thou art prostrate upon thy bed! Gods and men... are weeping for thee at the same time, when they behold me (Isis). Lo! I invoke thee with wailing that reacheth high as heaven. [paragraph continues] Isis is also identified with Hathor (Ishtar) the Cow.... "The cow weepeth for thee with her voice." 2 There is another phase, however, to the character of the mother goddess which explains the references to the desertion and slaying of Tammuz by Ishtar. "She is", says Jastrow, "the goddess of the human instinct, or passion which accompanies human love. Gilgamesh... reproaches her with abandoning the objects of her passion after a brief period of union." At Ishtar's temple "public maidens accepted temporary partners, assigned to them by p. 100 [paragraph continues] Ishtar". 1 The worship of all mother goddesses in ancient times was accompanied by revolting unmoral rites which are referred to in condemnatory terms in various passages in the Old Testament, especially in connection with the worship of Ashtoreth, who was identical with Ishtar and the Egyptian Hathor. Ishtar in the process of time overshadowed all the other female deities of Babylonia, as did Isis in Egypt. Her name, indeed, which is Semitic, became in the plural, Ishtaráte, a designation for goddesses in general. But although she was referred to as the daughter of the sky, Anu, or the daughter of the moon, Sin or Nannar, she still retained traces of her ancient character. Originally she was a great mother goddess, who was worshipped by those who believed that life and the universe had a female origin in contrast to those who believed in the theory of male origin. Ishtar is identical with Nina, the fish goddess, a creature who gave her name to the Sumerian city of Nina and the Assyrian city of Nineveh. Other forms of the Creatrix included Mama, or Mami, or Ama, "mother", Aruru, Bau, Gula, and Zer-panitu m. These were all "Preservers" and healers. At the same time they were "Destroyers", like Nin-sun and the Queen of Hades, Eresh-ki-gal or Allatu. They were accompanied by shadowy male forms ere they became wives of strongly individualized gods, or by child gods, their sons, who might be regarded as "brothers" or "husbands of their mothers", to use the paradoxical Egyptian term. Similarly Great Father deities had vaguely defined wives. The "Semitic" Baal, "Yah", was accompanied by a female reflection of himself-- Beltu, "the lady". Shamash, the sun god, had for wife the shadowy Aa. 45

46 Click to enlarge WINGED HUMAN-HEADED COW (?) From Kouyunjik (Nineveh): now in the British Museum. Photo. Mansell. p. 101 As has been shown, Ishtar is referred to in a Tammuz hymn as the mother of the child god of fertility. In an Egyptian hymn the sky goddess Nut, "the mother" of Osiris, is stated to have "built up life from her own body." 1 Sri or Lakshmi, the Indian goddess, who became the wife of Vishnu, as the mother goddess Saraswati, a tribal deity, became the wife of Brahma, was, according to a Purana commentator, "the mother of the world... eternal and undecaying". 2 The gods, on the other hand, might die annually: the goddesses alone were immortal. Indra was supposed to perish of old age, but his wife, Indrani, remained ever young. There were fourteen Indras in every "day of Brahma", a reference apparently to the ancient conception of Indra among the Great-Motherworshipping sections of the Aryo-Indians. 3 In the Mahàbhàrata the god Shiva, as Mahadeva, commands Indra on "one of the peaks of Himavat", where they met, to lift up a stone and join the Indras who had been before him. "And Indra on removing that stone beheld a cave on the breast of that king of mountains in which were four others resembling himself." Indra exclaimed in his grief, "Shall I be even like these?" These five Indras, like the "Seven Sleepers", awaited the time when they would be called forth. They were ultimately reborn as the five Pandava warriors. 4 The ferocious, black-faced Scottish mother goddess, Cailleach Bheur, who appears to be identical with Mala Lith, "Grey Eyebrows" of Fingalian story, and the English "Black Annis", figures in Irish song and legend as "The Old Woman of Beare". This "old woman" (Cailleach) "had", says Professor Kuno Meyer, "seven p. 102 periods of youth one after another, so that every man who had lived with her came to die of old age, and her grandsons and great-grandsons were tribes and races". When old age at length came upon her she sang her "swan song", from which the following lines are extracted: Ebb tide to me as of the sea! Old age causes me reproach... It is riches 46

47 Ye love, it is not men: In the time when we lived It was men we loved... My arms when they are seen Are bony and thin: Once they would fondle, They would be round glorious kings... I must take my garment even in the sun: The time is at hand that shall renew me. 1 Freyja, the Germanic mother goddess, whose car was drawn by cats, had similarly many lovers. In the Icelandic poem "Lokasenna", Loki taunts her, saying: Silence, Freyja! Full well I know thee, And faultless art thou not found; Of the gods and elves who here are gathered Each one hast thou made thy mate. Idun, the keeper of the apples of immortal youth, which prevent the gods growing old, is similarly addressed: Silence, Idun! I swear, of all women Thou the most wanton art; Who couldst fling those fair-washed arms of thine About thy brother's slayer. p. 103 Frigg, wife of Odin, is satirized as well: Silence, Frigg! Earth's spouse for a husband, And hast ever yearned after men! 1 The goddesses of classic mythology had similar reputations. Aphrodite (Venus) had many divine and mortal lovers. She links closely with Astarte and Ashtoreth (Ishtar), and reference has already been made to her relations with Adonis (Tammuz). These love deities were all as cruel as they were wayward. When Ishtar wooed the Babylonian hero, Gilgamesh, he spurned her advances, as has been indicated, saying: On Tammuz, the spouse of thy youth, Thou didst lay affliction every year. Thou didst love the brilliant Allalu bird But thou didst smite him and break his wing; He stands in the woods and cries "O my wing". [paragraph continues] He likewise charged her with deceiving the lion and the horse, making reference to obscure myths: 47

48 Thou didst also love a shepherd of the flock, Who continually poured out for thee the libation, And daily slaughtered kids for thee; But thou didst smite him and didst change him into a leopard, So that his own sheep boy hunted him, And his own hounds tore him to pieces. 2 These goddesses were ever prone to afflict human beings who might offend them or of whom they wearied. Demeter (Ceres) changed Ascalaphus into an owl and Stellio into a lizard. Rhea (Ops) resembled The tow red Cybele, Mother of a hundred gods, p. 104 the wanton who loved Attis (Adonis). Artemis (Diana) slew her lover Orion, changed Actæon into a stag, which was torn to pieces by his own dogs, and caused numerous deaths by sending a boar to ravage the fields of Œneus, king of Calydon. Human sacrifices were frequently offered to the bloodthirsty "mothers". The most famous victim of Artemis was the daughter of Agamemnon, "divinely tall and most divinely fair". 1 Agamemnon had slain a sacred stag, and the goddess punished him by sending a calm when the war fleet was about to sail for Troy, with the result that his daughter had to be sacrificed. Artemis thus sold breezes like the northern wind hags and witches. It used to be customary to account for the similarities manifested by the various mother goddesses by assuming that there was constant cultural contact between separate nationalities, and, as a result, a not inconsiderable amount of "religious borrowing". Greece was supposed to have received its great goddesses from the western Semites, who had come under the spell of Babylonian religion. Archæological evidence, however, tends to disprove this theory. "The most recent researches into Mesopotamian history", writes Dr. Farnell, "establish with certainty the conclusion that there was no direct political contact possible between the powers in the valley of the Euphrates and the western shores of the Ægean in the second millennium B.C. In fact, between the nascent Hellas and the great world of Mesopotamia there were powerful and possibly independent strata of cultures interposing." 2 The real connection appears to be the racial one. Among the Mediterranean Neolithic tribes of Sumeria, Arabia, and Europe, the goddess cult appears to have p. 105 been influential. Mother worship was the predominant characteristic of their religious systems, so that the Greek goddesses were probably of pre-hellenic origin, the Celtic of Iberian, the Egyptian of proto- Egyptian, and the Babylonian of Sumerian. The northern hillmen, on the other hand, who may be identified with the "Aryans" of the philologists, were father worshippers. The Vedic Aryo-Indians worshipped father gods, 1 as did also the Germanic peoples and certain tribes in the "Hittite confederacy". Earth spirits were males, like the Teutonic elves, the Aryo-Indian Ribhus, and the Burkans, "masters", of the present-day Buriats, a Mongolian people. When the father-worshipping peoples invaded the dominions of the mother-worshipping peoples, they introduced their strongly individualized gods, but 48

49 they did not displace the mother goddesses. "The Aryan Hellenes", says Dr. Farnell, "were able to plant their Zeus and Poseidon on the high hill of Athens, but not to overthrow the supremacy of Athena in the central shrine and in the aboriginal soul of the Athenian people." 2 As in Egypt, the beliefs of the father worshippers, represented by the self-created Ptah, were fused with the beliefs of the mother worshippers, who adored Isis, Mut, Neith, and others. In Babylonia this process of racial and religious fusion was well advanced before the dawn of history. Ea, who had already assumed manifold forms, may have originally been the son or child lover of Damkina, "Lady of the Deep", as was Tammuz of Ishtar. As the fish, Ea was the offspring of the mother river. The mother worshippers recognized male as well as female deities, but regarded the great goddess as the First Cause. Although the primeval spirits were grouped in p. 106 four pairs in Egypt, and apparently in Babylonia also, the female in the first pair was more strongly individualized than the male. The Egyptian Nu is vaguer than his consort Nut, and the Babylonian Apsu than his consort Tiamat. Indeed, in the narrative of the Creation Tablets of Babylon, which will receive full treatment in a later chapter, Tiamat, the great mother, is the controlling spirit. She is more powerful and ferocious than Apsu, and lives longer. After Apsu's death she elevates one of her brood, named Kingu, to be her consort, a fact which suggests that in the Ishtar-Tammuz myth survives the influence of exceedingly ancient modes of thought. Like Tiamat, Ishtar is also a great battle heroine, and in this capacity she was addressed as "the lady of majestic rank exalted over all gods". This was no idle flattery on the part of worshippers, but a memory of her ancient supremacy. Reference has been made to the introduction of Tammuz worship into Jerusalem. Ishtar, (Pronounced as Easter) as Queen of Heaven, was also adored by the backsliding Israelites as a deity of battle and harvest. When Jeremiah censured the people for burning incense and serving gods "whom they knew not", he said, "neither they, ye, nor your fathers", they made answer: "Since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and the famine". The women took a leading part in these practices, but refused to accept all the blame, saying, "When we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make our cakes and pour out drink offerings unto her without our men?" 1 That the husbands, and the children even, assisted at the ceremony is made evident in another reference to goddess worship: Click to enlarge Female figure in adoration before a goddess 49

50 Click to enlarge The winged Ishtar above the rising sun god, the river god, and other deities Click to enlarge Gilgamesh in conflict with bulls (see page 176) CYLINDER-SEAL IMPRESSIONS (British Museum) p. 107 [paragraph continues] "The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven". 1 (Hot Crossed Buns served on Easter) Jastrow suggests that the women of Israel wept for Tammuz, offered cakes to the mother goddess, &c., because "in all religious bodies... women represent the conservative element; among them religious customs continue in practice after they have been abandoned by men". 2 The evidence of Jeremiah, however, shows that the men certainly co-operated at the archaic ceremonials. In lighting the fires with the "vital spark", they apparently acted in imitation of the god of fertility. The women, on the other hand, represented the reproductive harvest goddess in providing the food supply. In recognition of her gift, they rewarded the goddess by offering her the cakes prepared from the newly ground wheat and barley--the "first fruits of the harvest". As the corn god came as a child, the children began the ceremony by gathering the wood for the sacred fire. When the women mourned for Tammuz, they did so evidently because the death of the god was lamented by the goddess Ishtar. It would appear, therefore, that the suggestion regarding the "conservative element" should really apply to the immemorial practices of folk religion. These differed from the refined ceremonies of the official cult in Babylonia, where there were suitable temples and organized bands of priests and priestesses. But the official cult received no recognition in Palestine; the cakes intended for a goddess were not offered up in the temple of Abraham's God, but "in the streets of Jerusalem" and those of other cities. 3 p. 108 The obvious deduction seems to be that in ancient times women everywhere played a prominent part in the ceremonial folk worship of the Great Mother goddess, while the men took the lesser part of the god 50

51 whom she had brought into being and afterwards received as "husband of his mother". This may account for the high social status of women among goddess worshippers, like the representatives of the Mediterranean race, whose early religion was not confined to temples, but closely associated with the acts of everyday life. Bozrah 1. Isaiah 34:6 The sword of Yah is filled with blood, It is made overflowing with fatness, With the blood of lambs and goats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams. For Yah has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom. Isaiah 63 Yah in Judgment and Salvation 2. 1 Who is this who comes from Edom, With dyed garments from Bozrah, This One who is glorious in His apparel, Traveling in the greatness of His strength? I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. 2 Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress? 51

52 3 I have trodden the winepress alone, And from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, And trampled them in My fury; Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, And I have stained all My robes. 4 For the day of vengeance is in My heart, And the year of My redeemed has come. 52

53 3. Jeremiah 48:24 On Kerioth and Bozrah, On all the cities of the land of Moab, Far or near. 4. Jeremiah 49:13 For I have sworn by Myself, says Yah, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse. And all its cities shall be perpetual wastes. ) 5. Jeremiah 49:22 Behold, He shall come up and fly like the eagle, And spread His wings over Bozrah; The heart of the mighty men of Edom in that day shall be Like the heart of a woman in birth pangs. 6. Amos 1:12 But I will send a fire upon Teman, Which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah. Teman (Edom) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Teman (Hebrew: תמין ), was the name of an Edomite clan and of its eponym, according to the Bible [1] and an ancient biblical town of Arabia Petraea. The term is also traditionally applied to Yemenite Jews. Job's friend Eliphaz was a Temanite. [2] Start here Jehoiakim Reigns in Judah 35 So Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give money according to the command of Pharaoh; he exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, from every one according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Necho. 36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother s name was Zebudah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. 37 And he did evil in the sight of Yah, according to all that his fathers had done. Footnotes: a. 2 Kings 23:4 A Canaanite goddess 53

54 b. 2 Kings 23:4 The gods of the Assyrians c. 2 Kings 23:6 Hebrew Asherah, a Canaanite goddess d. 2 Kings 23:7 Hebrew qedeshim, that is, those practicing sodomy and prostitution in religious rituals e. 2 Kings 23:10 Kethib reads Sons. f. 2 Kings 23:19 Following Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate; Masoretic Text and Targum omit Yah. g. 2 Kings 23:27 1 Kings 8:29 h. 2 Kings 23:34 That is, Jehoahaz Deuteronomy 23:17 Cult Prostitution Forbidden 17 "No Israelite woman is to be a cult prostitute, and no Israelite man is to be a cult prostitute. 1 Kings 14:24 24 there were even male shrine prostitutes in the land. (A) They imitated all the abominations of the nations Yah had dispossessed before the Israelites. (B) Cross references: A. 1 Kings 14:24 : Dt 23:17; B. 1 Kings 14:24 : Ex 23:24; Dt 18:9; 2Kg 16:3; 17:15; 21:2; 3Jn 11; 1 Kings 15:12 12 He banished the male shrine prostitutes (A) from the land and removed all of the idols that his fathers had made. (B) Cross references: A. 1 Kings 15:12 : Dt 23:17; 1Kg 14:24; B. 1 Kings 15:12 : 1Kg 11:7; 14:23; 2Ch 14:3;, 5; 54

55 2 Chronicles 33 Manasseh Rules in Judah Israelite Leadership that was against Yah of Hosts Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fiftyfive years. 2 He did what was evil in Yah s sight, following the detestable practices of the pagan nations that Yah had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites. 3 He rebuilt the pagan shrines his father, Hezekiah, had broken down. He constructed altars for the images of Baal and set up Asherah poles. He also bowed before all the powers of the heavens and worshiped them. 4 He built pagan altars in the Temple of Yah, the place where Yah had said, My name will remain in Jerusalem forever. 5 He built these altars for all the powers of the heavens in both courtyards of Yah s Temple. 6 Manasseh also sacrificed his own sons in the fire [a] in the valley of Ben-Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and he consulted with mediums and psychics. He did much that was evil in Yah s sight, arousing his anger. 7 Manasseh even took a carved idol he had made and set it up in Yah s Temple, the very place where Yah had told David and his son Solomon: My name will be honored forever in this Temple and in Jerusalem the city I have chosen from among all the tribes of Israel. 8 If the Israelites will be careful to obey my commands all the laws, decrees, and regulations given through Moses I will not send them into exile from this land that I set aside for your ancestors. 9 But Manasseh led the people of Judah and Jerusalem to do even more evil than the pagan nations that Yah had destroyed when the people of Israel entered the land Yah spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they ignored all his warnings. So Yah sent the commanders of the Assyrian armies, and they took Manasseh prisoner. They put a ring through his nose, bound him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon. 12 But while in deep distress, Manasseh sought Yah his God and sincerely humbled himself before the God of his ancestors. 13 And when he prayed, Yah listened to him and was moved by his request. So Yah brought Manasseh back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh finally realized that Yah alone is God! 14 After this Manasseh rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David, from west of the Gihon Spring in the Kidron Valley to the Fish Gate, and continuing around the hill of Ophel. He built the wall very high. And he stationed his military officers in all of the fortified towns of Judah. 15 Manasseh also removed the foreign gods and the idol 55

56 from Yah s Temple. He tore down all the altars he had built on the hill where the Temple stood and all the altars that were in Jerusalem, and he dumped them outside the city. 16 Then he restored the altar of Yah and sacrificed peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings on it. He also encouraged the people of Judah to worship Yah, the God of Israel. 17 However, the people still sacrificed at the pagan shrines, though only to Yah their God. (They worshiped in the church that they converted in their day) 18 The rest of the events of Manasseh s reign, his prayer to God, and the words the seers spoke to him in the name of Yah, the God of Israel, are recorded in The Book of the Kings of Israel. 19 Manasseh s prayer, the account of the way God answered him, and an account of all his sins and unfaithfulness are recorded in The Record of the Seers. [b] It includes a list of the locations where he built pagan shrines and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself and repented. 20 When Manasseh died, he was buried in his palace. Then his son Amon became the next king. Amon Rules in Judah 21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years. 22 He did what was evil in Yah s sight, just as his father, Manasseh, had done. He worshiped and sacrificed to all the idols his father had made. 23 But unlike his father, he did not humble himself before Yah. Instead, Amon sinned even more. 24 Then Amon s own officials conspired against him and assassinated him in his palace. 25 But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah the next king. Footnotes: a. 2 Chronicles 33:6 Or also made his sons pass through the fire. b. 2 Chronicles 33:19 Or The Record of Hozai. What is a familiar spirit? Strong s Concordance of the Bible (178) necromancer Leviticus 19:31 Someone hired to summon or speak to the dead; - this is strictly forbidden by Yah, and carries a death penalty! 56

57 Jeremiah 10 Idolatry Brings Destruction 1 Hear the word that Yah speaks to you, O Israel! 2 This is what Yah says: Do not act like the other nations, who try to read their future in the stars. Do not be afraid of their predictions, even though other nations are terrified by them. 3 Their ways are futile and foolish. They cut down a tree (Christmas tree), and a craftsman carves an idol. 4 They decorate it with gold and silver and then fasten it securely with hammer and nails so it won t fall over. 5 Their gods are like helpless scarecrows in a cucumber field! They cannot speak, and they need to be carried because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of such gods, for they can neither harm you nor do you any good. 6 Yah, there is no one like you! For you are great, and your name is full of power. 7 Who would not fear you, O King of nations? 57

58 That title belongs to you alone! Among all the wise people of the earth and in all the kingdoms of the world, there is no one like you. Deuteronomy 4: Beware of Idolatry 15 Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when Yah spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. 19 And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which Yah your God has given to all the (other) peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. 1 Samuel 28:8 Saul summoned or used a witch Witch (3784) ex Deuteronomy 18:10 Witchcraft cut off Micah 5:12 Micah 5 A Promised Ruler From Bethlehem 1 [a] Marshal your troops now, city of troops, for a siege is laid against us. 58

59 They will strike Israel s ruler on the cheek with a rod. 2 But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans [b] of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. 3 Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. 4 He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of Yah, in the majesty of the name of Yah his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. 5 And he will be our peace when the Assyrians invade our land and march through our fortresses. We will raise against them seven shepherds, even eight commanders, 6 who will rule [c] the land of Assyria with the sword, the land of Nimrod with drawn sword. [d] He will deliver us from the Assyrians when they invade our land and march across our borders. 7 The remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples like dew from Yah, like showers on the grass, which do not wait for anyone or depend on man. 8 The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep, which mauls and mangles as it goes, and no one can rescue. 59

60 9 Your hand will be lifted up in triumph over your enemies, and all your foes will be destroyed. 10 In that day, declares Yah, I will destroy your horses from among you and demolish your chariots. 11 I will destroy the cities of your land and tear down all your strongholds. 12 I will destroy your witchcraft and you will no longer cast spells. 13 I will destroy your idols and your sacred stones from among you; you will no longer bow down to the work of your hands. 14 I will uproot from among you your Asherah poles [e] when I demolish your cities. 15 I will take vengeance in anger and wrath on the nations that have not obeyed me. Footnotes: a. Micah 5:1 In Hebrew texts 5:1 is numbered 4:14, and 5:2-15 is numbered 5:1-14. b. Micah 5:2 Or rulers c. Micah 5:6 Or crush d. Micah 5:6 Or Nimrod in its gates e. Micah 5:14 That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah When righteous leaders die or are absent, Israel sins f. Judges 4:1 And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of Yah, when Ehud was dead. g. Manasseh (Father) Amon (son) h. 2 Chronicles 33:22 But he did that which was evil in the sight of Yah, as did Manasseh his father: for Amon sacrificed unto all the carved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them; i. Judges 13:1 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of Yah; and Yah delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. 60

61 Israel s Sin Causes Yah to give Israel into Enemies Hand Judges 3:12 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of Yah: and Yah strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of Yah. Judges 6:1 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of Yah: and Yah delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.) Numbers 32:13 And Yah's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, that had done evil in the sight of Yah, was consumed. Leviticus 18:21 And you shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt you profane the name of thy God: I am Yah. 2 Kings 23:10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. Human sacrifice was never authorized by the Living Creator (YHWH) Yah of Hosts, and when Moses said to Yah, blot me out of your book of life in place of the children of Israel being killed by Yah, the Almighty said NO! Exodus 32: Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, You have committed a great sin. So now I will go up to Yah; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. 31 Then Moses returned to Yah and said, Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! 32 Yet now, if You will forgive their sin but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written. 61

62 33 And Yah said to Moses, Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. 34 Now therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, My Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin. 35 So Yah plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made. Another good example of how someone CANNOT die for your sins, not even in the story of Jesus Christ, the so called first born of God, please read; Micah 6 Yah Pleads with Israel 1 Hear now what Yah says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, And let the hills hear your voice. 2 Hear, O you mountains, Yah s complaint, And you strong foundations of the earth; For Yah has a complaint against His people, And He will contend with Israel. 3 O My people, what have I done to you? And how have I wearied you? Testify against Me. 4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, I redeemed you from the house of bondage; And I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. 5 O My people, remember now What Balak king of Moab counseled, And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, From Acacia Grove [a] to Gilgal, That you may know the righteousness of Yah. 6 With what shall I come before Yah, And bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, With calves a year old? 7 Will Yah be pleased with thousands of rams, Ten thousand rivers of oil? 62

63 Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does Yah require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? Punishment of Israel s Injustice 9 Yah s voice cries to the city Wisdom shall see Your name: Hear the rod! Who has appointed it? 10 Are there yet the treasures of wickedness In the house of the wicked, And the short measure that is an abomination? 11 Shall I count pure those with the wicked scales, And with the bag of deceitful weights? 12 For her rich men are full of violence, Her inhabitants have spoken lies, And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. 13 Therefore I will also make you sick by striking you, By making you desolate because of your sins. 14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied; Hunger [b] shall be in your midst. You may carry some away, [c] but shall not save them; And what you do rescue I will give over to the sword. 15 You shall sow, but not reap; You shall tread the olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; And make sweet wine, but not drink wine. 16 For the statutes of Omri are kept; All the works of Ahab s house are done; And you walk in their counsels, That I may make you a desolation, And your inhabitants a hissing. Therefore you shall bear the reproach of My people. [d] 63

64 Footnotes: a. Micah 6:5 Hebrew Shittim (compare Numbers 25:1; Joshua 2:1; 3:1) b. Micah 6:14 Or Emptiness or Humiliation c. Micah 6:14 Targum and Vulgate read You shall take hold. d. Micah 6:16 Following Masoretic Text, Targum, and Vulgate; Septuagint reads of nations So as Israel and Judah was hell bent on being something that they were commanded by Yah to not be, they practiced ALL of the pagan observances, even beyond the levels of what the Heathens did, they engaged in all manner of human sacrifice; Jeremiah 32:35 And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. So todays people of the Hebrew Israelite nation fail or don t care that they mix different religions with the Hebrew way of life; something strictly forbidden, and we also fail to properly understand that when you take your child to any church that does not correctly worship YHWH, you are sacrificing them by exposing them to a religion not commanded by Yah the Living Creator, it is the same as sacrificing yourself and them. It is written that when coming into the presence of the Living God to come with song and praise, so if you are doing this, but not for Yah, like it or not, you are sacrificing! Baptismal regeneration, (being baptized) is a ritual that has its roots in idolatry, and is the same as passing your son or daughter through the fire; this applies to you IF you are a Hebrew Israelite. Psalm 100:2 Serve Yah with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. We are going to show with the chart below the Kings of the Kingdom of both Israel and Judah, and the particular kings, and the effects of their ruler-ship good or bad. We should know by now that we have spent very little time in our true homeland, solely for the reason that our sins caused us to be vomited out for hundreds of years. As we approach the running out of time given us to repent and never look back, the question is starring us in the face, will you change permanently and live in the presence of the Almighty, or die because you didn t choose Him while you had the chance? 64

65 Israelite Kings Date Chart (Based on the chronology of John Bright) Dennis Bratcher Good kings, in terms of religious leadership or reforms Good political leaders, but faulted for lack of commitment to God Kings that showed mixed traits, with some good actions yet significant failures Especially bad kings, as either political or religious leaders, or both Kings assassinated or deposed Kings with too little information or not evaluated Underlined names are active links to Old Testament History articles. The United Monarchy Dates (BC) Kingdom of the Israelites Saul David Solomon The Divided Kingdoms Dates (BC) Israel (Northern) Judah (Southern) Dates (BC) Jeroboam I Rehoboam Abijah

66 66 Asa Nadab Baasha Elah Jehoshaphat Zimri Tibni Omri Ahab Ahaziah Jehoram Joram (Jehoram) Ahaziah Jehu Athaliah (non-davidic Queen) Jehoahaz Joash Jehoash (Joash) Amaziah Jeroboam II Uzziah (Azariah) Zachariah Jotham (coregent)

67 745 Shallum Menahem Jotham (king) Pekahiah Pekah Hoshea Ahaz Fall of Samaria Hezekiah Manasseh Amon Josiah Jehoahaz 609 Jehoikim (Eliakim) Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) Zedekiah (Mattaniah) Fall of

68 Jerusalem This chart is based on the chronology of John Bright (A History of Israel, 3rd edition, Westminster, 1981). There are other chronologies of the Israelite kings that differ in some details, for example, that of J. Maxwell Miller in Harper's Bible Dictionary. Source: Who was King Josiah? Josiah From Conservapedia Jump to: navigation, search Josiah (Hebrew,י אשׁ יּ הוּ "supported by YHWH", or Greek Ἰωσίας) (649-r BC according to Ussher, [1] or 648-r BC according to Thiele [2] ) was the fifteenth king of the Southern Kingdom of Israel in direct line of descent. Contents [hide] 1 Significance 2 Early Life and Family 3 Near Eastern politics 4 Beginnings of reform 5 Political flux 6 The Finding of the Book of the Law 7 Continued Reforms 8 Military tragedy and succession 9 References Cited 10 See Also Significance Some commentators suggest that Josiah, rather than David, qualifies as the greatest of the kings of ancient Israel. [3] He certainly stands as one of the greatest of Israel's kings and one of that society's two greatest reformers. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] His reign is also significant for the beginning of the assembly of the Old Testament [1][2][15][16] and for being king during a pivotal time in Middle Eastern history. [1][2][9][7] 68

69 Early Life and Family Josiah was probably born in 649 BC, the son of Amon and Amon's wife Jedidah. He was six years old when his grandfather Manasseh died. A mere two years later, he suddenly found himself king when his father was murdered by a palace conspiracy. The outraged people of the Southern Kingdom arrested and killed all the conspirators, and then crowned the eight-year-old Josiah king. [1][2][13][12][11][7][6][17] For the first eight years of his life, he seems to have followed the same idolatrous worship that his father followed. But at the age of sixteen, he had a change of heart: he began to seek after God. [18][13][12][11][7][6] This may suggest that the reformer talked about in scriptures started out as a sinner, who changed his life around in total and complete loyalty to Yah in the mannerism of King David s perfect heart, and also being a descendent of the lineage of King David! The modern day savoir out of the lineage of David will start out a life of sin, and then reform; the reform puts him at risk with the powers of his time, please read; Isaiah 59:15 Yea, truth fails; and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey: and Yah saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. Commentary resumed Also at sixteen, he married a woman named Zebudah and by her had a son named Jehoiakim, called Eliakim when he was born. Two years later (at eighteen), he married another woman, named Hamutal, and by her had a son named Jehoahaz (originally named Shallum). He also had another son by this woman, named Zedekiah (or Mattaniah at his birth), when he, Josiah, was thirty-one years old. [1] Josiah did have one other son, named Johanan. [19] His position in the listing in that verse makes him the firstborn of Josiah's sons. The Bible does not mention him again, however. Possibly he perished by his father's side in the military fiasco involving Pharaoh Necho II (see below). Near Eastern politics The political situation in the ancient Near East at the time was critical to Josiah's activities and the eventual fate of the Southern Kingdom. The Assyrian king Esarhaddon had died long ago, in 668 BC. [20] Conventional Assyriologists [2][7] hold that Assur-bani-pal (or "Saosduchinos"), Esarhaddon's successor, was still on the throne at the time; Ussher [21] states that his successor Ashur-etil-ilani, called "Saraco" or "Saracen" or Kineladanos" by classical sources, had succeeded to the throne a year after Josiah was born. At least one other source says that Assur-bani-pal died at this time, and that near-chaos supervened. [12] Everyone seems to agree, however, that the empire of Assyria was far weaker than it once had been under men like Esarhaddon and his predecessors. Egypt, under Pharaoh Psammtik I, had broken away from 69

70 Assyria, and Babylonia would soon see the rise of a new king (Nabopolassar) who would break it away and supplant Assyria as the dominant power in the region. Beginnings of reform When Josiah was twenty years old (in the twelfth year of his reign), he began in ernest to reform the society of the Southern Kingdom. He started in Jerusalem, systematically destroying all pagan images and altars of Baal, all Asherah poles, and all the high places that his grandfather had built up after Hezekiah had destroyed them. He made the most thorough desecration possible of the pagan icons and their followers: 1. He ground the images (including engraved and cast images) to powder and strewed this powder on the graves of Baal worshippers. [22] 2. He burned the bones of the priests of Baal on the very altars they had used. [23] Nor did he stay within what was, strictly speaking, his home territory of Judah and Benjamin. In what some commentators suggest was part of a bid to regain control of the former territories of the Northern Kingdom, he ventured into the old tribal territories of Ephraim, Manasseh, Simeon, and Naphtali. [24] The Assyrian king (whichever was on the throne at the time) was too weak to interfere. In the thirteenth year of his reign, the prophet Jeremiah began his career, howbeit reluctantly. [25] Baleful as Jeremiah's message was, Josiah never once molested Jeremiah in any way, shape or form. His sons would not be so forbearing. Political flux In the sixteenth year of his reign came an event of which Josiah appears to have taken little notice at the time, though it would be relevant to the manner of his death. In that year, Nabopolassar contracted a military alliance with Astyages of the Medes. Together they attacked Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and reduced it to a ruin. Nabopolassar was now in command, and Ashur-etil-ilani was now dead. His successor (likely Ashur-uballit II) commanded a shadow of what Assyria had recently been. [26] The Finding of the Book of the Law In the eighteenth year of his reign, Josiah ordered the priest Hilkiah to begin yet another renovation of the Temple of Jerusalem. He sent the royal secretary, the royal recorder, and the mayor of Jerusalem to carry this order to Hilkiah and to give Hilkiah the money, which had been collected at the Temple door, for this purpose. [27][28] In the course of clearing out a Temple storeroom, Hilkiah found a scroll. [29][30][11][8] The Bible calls this "the book of the Law as given by Moses." Most scholars theorize that this was the book of Deuteronomy [15][16], but at least some hold that this book contained all five of the "Books of Moses" [2][16]. Still others state that even more books of the Old Testament were included in the find. [9] Malick presents, and effectively refutes, the proposition that Hilkiah's finding was a "late edition" of Deuteronomy, mainly on the ground that Josiah must have had some education in the laws as stated in 70

71 Deuteronomy during the first six years of his reform program. He therefore concludes that it was at least an early edition of Deuteronomy and might indeed have been the entirety of the Torah. [16] Wood [2] theorizes that Solomon left this book in the Temple when he laid its cornerstones, and that this is why it survived the destruction, presumably by Manasseh, of all other copies. Hilkiah gave this scroll to the royal secretary, who read it all the way through. He in turn requested an audience of the king. The scribe began by giving Josiah a progress report on the renovation. He then said, simply, "Hilkiah has given me a book," and proceeded to read it. Josiah seems to have listened, rapt, at the reading. When the reading was concluded, Josiah tore his royal robes. Evidently Josiah had not realized, until then, just how far the people of his kingdom had strayed from God's law. [31][32] Josiah's first order was to inquire of a prophet as to the attitude of God toward his people. His scribe, the priest, and his other advisers found a prophetess named Huldah. She gave a dire warning: that God would indeed bring a dire judgment on the land, on account of the apostasy, the killing of earlier prophets, and all the other many provocations that the people had given God. But because Josiah had expressed such deep sorrow, God granted to him that he would not live to see this calamity. [33][34][8] Continued Reforms Josiah worked harder than ever at his reform program after that. First he called an assembly of the people and read the Book of the Law aloud to all of them. [35][36][10] Then he renewed his religious cleansing campaign. [37] At this time he fulfilled an earlier prophecy delivered to Jeroboam I concerning Jeroboam's golden-calf cult: that the bones of the priests who officiated at that altar would be burned upon it. He also found the bones of the prophet who had uttered that prophecy; those bones he left where they were. [38][7][15] He then reinstituted the Passover, exactly as Hezekiah had done, except that Josiah was able to keep it in the appointed month. [39][40][7] Military tragedy and succession In 610 BC, Pharaoh Necho II marched toward Carchemish in an effort to intervene against the rising empire of Babylonia. [7][2][12][41] Or perhaps he was settling the old score that Egypt had against Assyria. [1][5] His march would carry him across the territory of the Southern Kingdom. [6][13] Josiah, for whatever reason, determined to oppose Necho. Necho sent ambassadors warning him that he was on an errand from God himself and that Josiah had no business interfering. Nevertheless Josiah joined battle with Necho at Megiddo. [42] Josiah was seriously wounded by an arrow early in the battle. [43] Here the Biblical accounts differ. The author of the Kings books suggests that Josiah died instantly and was brought back dead to Jerusalem. [44] The Chronicler, on the other hand, stated in detail that Josiah was wounded, asked his charioteer to evacuate him, and was brought swiftly back to Jerusalem, where he ultimately died of his wounds. [45] Jeremiah composed a special lamentation for him. [46] 71

72 Josiah's son Shallum, or Jehoahaz, succeeded him. References Cited James Ussher, The Annals of the World, Larry Pierce, ed., Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003 (ISBN ), pghh. 720, 728-9, 732, 737-8, , , 746, 750, Leon J. Wood, A Survey of Israel's History, rev. ed. David O'Brien, Grand Rapids, MI: Academie Books, 1986 (ISBN X), pp Anonymous, The Greatest King of Israel, Retrieved April 9, 2007 from Cross Pollen 4. II_Chronicles 34:2 (KJV) Josiah at the WebBible Encyclopedia Wayne Blank, Josiah's Reforms, Church of God Daily Bible Study. Retrieved April 9, Dennis Bratcher, The Rise of Babylon and Exile ( BC), Retrieved April 9, David Holt Boshert, Jr., and David Ettinger, Josiah King of Judah, Christ-Centered Mall. Retrieved April 9, Marvin A. Sweeney, King Josiah of Judah: the Lost Messiah of Israel, Oxford University Press, ISBN Online version retrieved April 9, Jennifer Rosania, Josiah: Founded in Faithfulness, Mighty in Spirit, In-touch Ministries, Retrieved April 9, Emil G. Hirsch and J. F. McLaughlin, Josiah, Jewish Encyclopedia, 202. Retrieved April 9, Anonymous, Josiah, Encyclopedia Britannica, Retrieved April 9, Anonymous, King Josiah - Biography, Kings of Israel. Retrieved April 9, Anonymous, God's Judgment Regarding King Josiah, Kings of Israel. Retrieved April 9, John L. Kachelman, Jr., Josiah: Serving God in Youth, ChristianLibrary.org, Retrieved April 9, David Malick, The Book of Josiah's Reform, Bible.org, Retrieved April 9, II_Kings 22:1 (KJV) 18. II_Chronicles 34:3 (KJV) 19. I_Chronicles 3:15 (KJV) 20. Ussher, op. cit., pgh Ussher, op. cit., pgh II_Chronicles 34:4 (KJV) 23. II_Chronicles 34:5 (KJV) 24. II_Chronicles 34:6 (KJV) 25. Jeremiah 1:1-17 (KJV) 26. Ussher, op. cit., pgh II_Chronicles 34:7-13 (KJV) 28. II_Kings 22:3-7 (KJV) 29. II_Kings 22:8 (KJV) 30. II_Chronicles 34:14-15 (KJV) 31. II_Kings 22:9-11 (KJV) 32. II_Chronicles 34:16-19 (KJV) 33. II_Kings 22:12-20 (KJV) 34. II_Chronicles 34:20-29 (KJV) 35. II_Kings 23:1-3 (KJV) 72

73 The place of death of Josiah is named a Megiddo, what is important about this place? Plain of Esdraelon Megiddo E6 on the Map. (Megiddo). The plain of Esdralon (Greek form of `Jezreel used in Greek writers (Judith 1:8) for general area of Plain of Megiddo), extends across the breadth of the entire country, between Mount Carmel, Mount Gilboa and the hills of lower Galilee. The Kishon River runs through the whole length of the valley to the Mediterranean Sea. The plain of Esdralon, or the Great Valley, was very important for relationship between the coast and the countries to the north and east. Some of the greatest battles in history of the world have been fought here. The Bible records battles such as the battle between Deborah and Jabin, king of Hazor (Judg 4-5); and between Saul and the Philistines (1 Sam 29:1; 31:1 ff); and between Josiah and Pharaoh Necho of Egypt (II Kings 23:29-30). During the Hellenistic period the Ptolemies built large estates on this fertile plain, and from that time forward it remained in the hands of the rulers. The plain of Jezreel was conquered by the Maccabees and later formed a part of Herod's kingdom. 2 Chr. 35:22; Zech. 12:11. See Megiddo and Valley of Jezreel Maps are shown below to help you get a better picture of the area in ancient times. 73

74 74

75 Tel Megiddo From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search 75

76 Biblical Tells Megiddo, Hazor, Beer Sheba * UNESCO World Heritage Site Country Israel Type Cultural Criteria ii, iii, iv, vi Reference 1108 Region ** Asia Inscription history Inscription 2005 (29th Session) 76

77 Ruins atop Tel Megiddo Megiddo (Hebrew: ; Arabic:, Tell al-mutesellim) is a tell in modern Israel near Kibbutz Megiddo, known for its historical, geographical, and theological importance, especially under its Greek name Armageddon. In ancient times Megiddo was an important city-state. Excavations have unearthed 26 layers of ruins, indicating a long period of settlement. Megiddo is strategically located at the head of a pass through the Carmel Ridge overlooking the Jezreel Valley from the west. Contents [hide] 1 Etymology 2 History 3 Archaeology 4 Archaeological features o 4.1 Megiddo Ivories o 4.2 Megiddo stables o 4.3 Megiddo church 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links [edit] Etymology Megiddo is also known as Greek: Μεγιδδώ/Μαγεδδών, Megiddó/Mageddón in the Septuagint; Latin: Mageddo; Assyrian: Magiddu, Magaddu; Magidda and Makida in the Amarna tablets; Egyptian: Maketi, 77

78 Makitu, and Makedo. The Book of Revelation mentions apocalyptic military amassment at Armageddon, a name derived from the Hebrew "Har Megiddo" meaning "Mount of Megiddo". The word has become a byword for the end of the age. [1] [edit] History Megiddo was a site of great importance in the ancient world. It guarded the western branch of a narrow pass and trade route connecting Egypt and Assyria. Because of its strategic location, Megiddo was the site of several historical battles. The site was inhabited from approximately 7000 BC to 586 BC (the same time as the destruction of the First Israelite Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians, and subsequent fall of Israelite rule and exile). Since this time it has remained uninhabited, preserving ruins pre-dating 586 BC without settlements ever disturbing them. Instead, the town of Lajjun (not to be confused with the el-lajjun archaeological site in Jordan) was built up near to the site, but without inhabiting or disturbing its remains. Megiddo is mentioned in Ancient Egyptian writings because one of Egypt's mighty kings, Thutmose III, waged war upon the city in 1478 BC. The battle is described in detail in the hieroglyphics found on the walls of his temple in Upper Egypt. Mentioned in the Bible as "Derekh HaYam" or "Way of the Sea," it became an important military artery of the Roman Empire and was known as the Via Maris. Circular altar-like shrine Migron 4040 Famous battles include: 78

79 Battle of Megiddo (15th century BC): fought between the armies of the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III and a large Canaanite coalition led by the rulers of Megiddo and Kadesh. Battle of Megiddo (609 BC): fought between Egypt and the Kingdom of Judah, in which King Josiah fell. Battle of Megiddo (1918): fought during World War I between Allied troops, led by General Edmund Allenby, and the defending Ottoman army. Kibbutz Megiddo is nearby less than 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) away to the south. Today, Megiddo Junction is on the main road connecting the center of Israel with lower Galilee and the north. It lies at the northern entrance to Wadi Ara, an important mountain pass connecting the Jezreel Valley with Israel's coastal plain. [2] In 1964, during Pope Paul VI's visit to the Holy Land, Megiddo was the site where he met with Israeli dignitaries, including Israeli President Zalman Shazar and Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. [3] [edit] Archaeology Megiddo has been excavated three times and is currently being excavated yet again. The first excavations were carried out between 1903 and 1905 by Gottlieb Schumacher for the German Society for the Study of Palestine. [4] Techniques used were rudimentary by later standards and Schumacher's field notes and records were destroyed in World War I before being published. After the war, Carl Watzinger published the remaining available data from the dig. [5] City Gate In 1925, digging was resumed by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, financed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., continuing until the outbreak of the Second World War. The work was led initially by Clarence S. Fisher, and later by P. L. O. Guy, Robert Lamon, and Gordon Loud. [6][7][8][9][10] The Oriental Institute intended to completely excavate the whole tel, layer by layer, but unfortunately money ran out before they could do so. Today excavators limit themselves to a square or a trench on the basis that they must leave something for future archaeologists with better techniques and methods. During these excavations it was discovered that there were around 8 levels of habitation, and many of the uncovered remains are preserved at the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem and the Oriental Institute of Chicago. 79

80 Yigael Yadin conducted excavations in 1960, 1966, 1967, and 1971 for the Hebrew University. [11][12] The formal results of those digs have not yet been published, though in 2005 a grant was issued by the Shelby White Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications to produce an expedition final report. Megiddo has most recently (since 1994) been the subject of biannual excavation campaigns conducted by the Megiddo Expedition of Tel Aviv University, currently co-directed by Israel Finkelstein and David Ussishkin, with Eric H. Cline of The George Washington University serving as Associate Director (USA), together with a consortium of international universities. [13][14] One notable feature of the dig is close on-site co-operation between archaeologists and specialist scientists, with detailed chemical analysis being performed at the dig itself using a field infrared spectrometer. [15] In 2010, the Jezreel Valley Regional Project, directed by Matthew J. Adams of Bucknell University in cooperation with the Megiddo Expedition, undertook excavations of the eastern extension of the Early Bronze Age town of Megiddo, at the site known as Tel Megiddo (East). [16] [edit] Archaeological features View of Jezreel Valley and Mount Tabor from Megiddo The visitor to Megiddo enters via the Visitor Centre which has some good displays but falls short of a full explanation of the site, its significance and its remains. The path then leads up through a Solomonic gateway to a viewing area from where one can look down on the great trench dug by the Oriental Institute. The most notable object on view is a solid circular stone structure which has been variously interpreted as an altar or a high place. In either case it dates to the Canaanite period. Further on there is a hole in the ground like an inverted cone with two stairways spiraling down. This is a grain pit from the Israelite period, to store provisions in case of siege. Beyond that are the famous stables, originally thought to date from the time of Solomon but now more securely dated a century and a half later to the time of Ahab. Finally there is the water system, which consists of a square shaft 35 metres (115 ft) deep, the bottom of which opens into a tunnel bored through rock for 100 metres (330 ft) to a pool of water. Visitors leave through the original entrance to the spring, which brings them out at the foot of the tel. 80

81 [edit] Megiddo Ivories The Megiddo Ivories are thin carvings in ivory found at Tel Megiddo in modern-day Israel. The majority were excavated by Gordon Loud and are currently on display at the Oriental Institute of Chicago. Some of the objects are on display at the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem, Israel The objects were found in the stratum VIIA, or Late Bronze Age layer of the site. Other examples are held at various other locations. Interestingly, the ivories are carved from hippopotamus incisors from the Nile. The artistic style of the items is also considered to be influenced by Egyptian conventions and an ivory pen case was found inscribed with the cartouche of Ramses III. [edit] Megiddo stables Megiddo Stables At Megiddo two stable complexes were excavated from Stratum IVA, one in the north and one in the south. The southern complex contained five structures built around a lime paved courtyard. The buildings themselves were divided into three sections. Two long stone paved aisles were built adjacent to a main corridor paved with lime. The buildings were about twenty-one meters long by eleven meters wide. Separating the main corridor from outside aisles was a series of stone pillars. Holes were bored into many of these pillars so that horses could be tied to them. Also, the remains of stone mangers were found in the buildings. These mangers were placed between the pillars to feed the horses. It is suggested that each side could hold fifteen horses, giving each building an overall capacity of thirty horses. The buildings on the northern side of the city were similar in their construction. However, there was no central courtyard. The capacity of the northern buildings was about three hundred horses altogether. Both complexes could hold from horses combined. 81

82 The buildings were found during excavations between 1927 and 1934 at Megiddo. The head excavator originally interpreted the buildings as stables. Since then his conclusions have been challenged by scholars such as James Pritchard, Dr Adrian Curtis of Manchester University Ze'ev Herzog, and Yohanan Aharoni. They suggest that the buildings should be interpreted as either storehouses, marketplaces or barracks. Nevertheless, Yigael Yadin and J. S. Holladay strongly argue against this conclusion. Other Tripartite Buildings have been found at other sites such as Hazor and Beer-Sheba. The evidence at these other sites is not absolutely conclusive. It is also possible, as Amihai Mazar suggests, that similarly shaped buildings in different cities may have been put to different uses. [17] Hill Country or Valley of Megiddo the Host for the War of Armageddon Question: "What is the battle of Armageddon?" Answer: The word Armageddon comes from a Hebrew word Har-Magedone, which means Mount Megiddo and has become synonymous with the future battle in which God will intervene and destroy the armies of the Antichrist as predicted in biblical prophecy (Revelation 16:16; 20:1-3, 7-10). There will be a multitude of people engaged in the battle of Armageddon, as all the nations gather together to fight against the Anointed one from Yah. The exact location of the valley of Armageddon is unclear because there is no mountain called Meggido. However, since Har can also mean hill, the most likely location is the hill country surrounding the plain of Meggido, some sixty miles north of Jerusalem. More than two hundred battles have been fought in that region. The plain of Megiddo and the nearby plain of Esdraelon will be the focal point for the battle of Armadeggon, which will rage the entire length of Israel as far south as the Edomite city of Bozrah (Isaiah 63:1). The valley of Armageddon was famous for two great victories in Israel s history: 1) Barak s victory over the Canaanites (Judges 4:15) and 2) Gideon s victory over the Midianites (Judges 7). Armageddon was also the site for two great tragedies: 1) the death of Saul and his sons (1 Samuel 31:8) and 2) the death of King Josiah (2 Kings 23:29-30; 2 Chronicles 35:22). 82

83 Because of this history, the valley of Armageddon became a symbol of the final conflict between the Hebrew God and the forces of evil. The word Armageddon only occurs in Revelation 16:16; Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. This speaks of the kings who are loyal to the Antichrist gathering together for a final assault on Israel. At Armageddon the cup filled with the wine of the fury of [God s] wrath (Revelation 16:19) will be delivered, and the Antichrist and his followers will be overthrown and defeated. Armageddon has become a general term that refers to the end of the world, not exclusively to the battle that takes place in the plain of Megiddo. So we see that a good part of the pagan-idolatrous worship was fashioned after people who lived and how they were deified, which means they were turned into gods by the surviving relatives and peoples of the land; to include the erecting or building of totem poles, steeples, pillars, statues, and obelisks to represent the person who died; or that thing that was created as a god. This is how people paid tribute to them, against the teaching of the Hebrew Israelite God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is important to note that the belief of reincarnation of people came from those who were afraid of death and the afterlife; And how this fear turned into outright hatred for Yah because HE was the one who guarded the secret of eternal life from mankind, and other beasts in the Garden of Eden! Please read; Genesis 3:22 22And Yah God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: (This is talking about Adam) 23Therefore Yah God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep (block) the way of the tree of life. Choose the right path to Yah your God, and completely drop the teachings of men that is deeply rooted in pagan and idolatry that results in complete death, and those few who remained loyal to Yah went into slavery on account of the majority sinning. So Yah had an interesting plan, 83

84 Jeremiah 24 talks about some people forced to leave our homeland Jerusalem for their own good, but Yah would keep an eye on them, meaning to keep a eye on their linage as they went throughout hundreds of years of slavery/captivity because of their faithfulness to Yah despite that the majority of our people were sinning, so Yah would cause them at the proper time in the future to come back home to Jerusalem, you may have thought that every single sole had sinned in order to be put out the land, but if this were true, then how do you explain this scripture? Ezekiel 48:11 It shall be for the priests who are sanctified of the sons of Zadok, who have kept My charge, who went not astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray. Like them I believe from reading the scriptures below, that there was a few faithful at the time we were sent into captivity, please read; Jeremiah 24 1 Yah showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of Yah, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten they were so bad. 3 Then said Yah unto me, "What seest thou, Jeremiah?" And I said, "Figs: the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten they are so evil." 4 Again the word of Yah came unto me, saying, 5 "Thus saith Yah, the God of Israel: `Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. 6 For I will set Mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. 84

85 7 And I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am Yah; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God; for they shall return unto Me with their whole heart. Another version of verses 5-7 above; Jeremiah 24:5-7 (New Living Translation) 5 This is what Yah, the God of Israel, says: The good figs represent the exiles I sent from Judah to the land of the Babylonians. [a] 6 I will watch over and care for them, and I will bring them back here again. I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not uproot them. 7 I will give them hearts that recognize me as Yah. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me wholeheartedly. Jeremiah 24:5-7 (The Message) 4-6Then Yah told me, "This is the Message from the God of Israel: The exiles from here that I've sent off to the land of the Babylonians are like the good figs, and I'll make sure they get good treatment. I'll keep my eye on them so that their lives are good, and I'll bring them back to this land. I'll build them up, not tear them down; I'll plant them, not uproot them. (This is the Future) 7 "And I'll give them a heart to know me, Yah. They'll be my people and I'll be their God, for they'll have returned to me with all their hearts. Jeremiah 24:5-7 (New International Reader's Version) 5 "I am Yah, the God of Israel. I say, 'I consider the people who were forced to leave Judah to be like those good figs. I sent them away from this place. I forced them to go to Babylonia. 6 My eyes will watch over them. I will be good to them. And I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up. I will not tear them down. I will plant them. I will not pull them up by the roots. 7 " 'I will change their hearts. Then they will know that I am Yah. They will be my people. And I will be their God. They will return to me with all their heart. I believe this is shown to us in scripture between King David and his dear friend Jonathan; ******* Notice that the people are given a heart or mind, meaning knowledge 85

86 to know Yah, what must of happened then in the past; there was A Break of the Knowledge of Yah, caused by hundreds of years of slavery, Remember, Psalms 83 A song. A psalm of Asaph Yah, don't keep silent. Yah, don't keep quiet. Don't be still. See how your enemies are getting ready for action. See how they are rising up against you. They make clever plans against your people. They make evil plans against those you love. "Come," they say. "Let's destroy that whole nation. Then the name of Israel won't be remembered anymore." All of them agree on the evil plans they have made. They join forces against you. ********************************************* Jeremiah 24: verse 8 resumed.. 8 "`And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten they are so evil'" -- surely this says Yah -- "`so will I deem Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt. 9 And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all places whither I shall drive them. 10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.'" I believe when Yah watched over the surviving linage of those good figs, that it is shown to us in scripture citing the story about King David and his dear friend Jonathan; 86

87 1 Samuel 20:17 Jonathan had David take an oath again because he loved him. In fact, Jonathan loved David just as he loved himself. 1 Samuel 20:33 But Saul threw his spear at Jonathan to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father wanted to kill David. 1 Samuel 20:32-34 (in Context) 1 Samuel 20 (Whole Chapter) 1 Samuel 20:34 So Jonathan got up from the table. He was burning with anger. On that second day of the month, he refused to eat. He was very sad that his father was treating David so badly. 1 Samuel 20:42 Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace. In the name of Yah we have taken an oath. We've promised to be friends. We've said, 'Yah is a witness between you and me. He's a witness between your children and my children forever.' " Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town. 2 Samuel 2:1 [ David Is Anointed to Be King Over Judah ] After Saul and Jonathan died, David asked Yah for advice. "Should I go up to one of the towns of Judah?" he asked. Yah said, "Go up." David asked, "Where should I go?" "To Hebron," Yah answered. 2 Samuel 9 (New Living Translation) David s Kindness to Mephibosheth 1 One day David asked, Is anyone in Saul s family still alive anyone to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan s sake? 2 He summoned a man named Ziba, who had been one of Saul s servants. Are you Ziba? the king asked. Yes sir, I am, Ziba replied. 3 The king then asked him, Is anyone still alive from Saul s family? If so, I want to show Yah s kindness to them. Ziba replied, Yes, one of Jonathan s sons is still alive. He is crippled in both feet. 4 Where is he? the king asked. In Lo-debar, Ziba told him, at the home of Makir son of Ammiel. 87

88 5 So David sent for him and brought him from Makir s home. 6 His name was Mephibosheth [a] ; he was Jonathan s son and Saul s grandson. When he came to David, he bowed low to the ground in deep respect. David said, Greetings, Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth replied, I am your servant. 7 Don t be afraid! David said. I intend to show kindness to you because of my promise to your father, Jonathan. I will give you all the property that once belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will eat here with me at the king s table! 8 Mephibosheth bowed respectfully and exclaimed, Who is your servant, that you should show such kindness to a dead dog like me? 9 Then the king summoned Saul s servant Ziba and said, I have given your master s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. 10 You and your sons and servants are to farm the land for him to produce food for your master s household. [b] But Mephibosheth, your master s grandson, will eat here at my table. (Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.) Ziba replied, 11 Yes, my lord the king; I am your servant, and I will do all that you have commanded. And from that time on, Mephibosheth ate regularly at David s table, [c] like one of the king s own sons. 12 Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica. From then on, all the members of Ziba s household were Mephibosheth s servants. 13 And Mephibosheth, who was crippled in both feet, lived in Jerusalem and ate regularly at the king s table. Our key to success is the whole hearted return to Yah our Husband, our maker, and to not ever look back, because time is short and the time given us for reform is nearing a close, time is almost up, choose life and not death! Yah keeps His promises; we all need to do well in the sight of Yah so that we can eat at Yah s table; - or in Yah s presence in this changing of the times and seasons!! 88