Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/80

44 General History oj Europe kingdom of Israel, and Samaria, its capital, was captured by them in 722 B.C. Many of the unhappy northern Hebrews were carried away as captives, and Israel was destroyed after haying existed as a separate kingdom for a little over two centuries. The national hopes of the Hebrews were now centered in the helpless little kingdom of Judah (see map, p. 42), which still struggled on for over a century and a quarter. More helpless than Belgium in 1914, Judah was now entangled in a great world conflict, in which Assyria was the most dangerous power. Thus far the Hebrews had been accustomed to think of their God as dwelling and ruling in Palestine only. Did he have power also over the vast world arena where all the great nations were fight- ing? But even if he did, was not Assur, the great god of vic- torious Assyria, stronger than Yahveh, the God of the Hebrews? A wonderful deliverance of Jerusalem from the cruel Assyrian army of Sennacherib (701 B.C.) enabled the great prophet Isaiah to proclaim to the Hebrews that Yahveh, their God, controlled the great world arena, where He, and not Assur, was the triumphant champion. 64. Destruction of the Southern Kingdom by Chaldea (586 B.C.). A century later Jerusalem rejoiced over the fall of Assyria and the destruction of Nineveh (47). But it had only exchanged one foreign lord for another, for Chaldea followed Assyria in control of Palestine (48). Then their unwillingness to submit brought upon the men of Judah the same fate which their kindred of Israel had suffered. In 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldean king of Babylonia, destroyed Jerusalem and carried away the people to exile in Babylonia. 65. Restoration of the Exiled Hebrews by the Persian Kings. When the victorious Cyrus entered Babylon ( 54) the Hebrew exiles there greeted him as their deliverer. His triumph gave the Hebrews a Persian ruler. With great humanity the Persian kings allowed the exiles to return to their native land. Some had prospered in Babylonia and did not care to return. But at different times enough of them went back to Jerusalem to re- build the city on a very modest scale and to restore the temple.