Manasseh, the next king, reestablished idolatry, and his son Amon, who ruled but two years, followed in his footsteps.  Josiah, who next occupied the throne, was a different kind of a man.  “He did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.”  In his reign, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law in the temple, and delivered it to Shaphan the scribe, who read it, and took it to the king and read it to him.  “And it came to pass when the king heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes,” and commanded that inquiry be made of the Lord concerning the contents of the book.  As a result, the temple was cleansed of the vessels that had been used in Baal worship, the idolatrous priests were put down, the “houses of the sodomites,” that were in the house of Jehovah, were broken down, the high places erected by Solomon were defiled, and a great reformation was worked.

Zedekiah was the last king in the line.  In his day, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, invaded the land, and besieged Jerusalem for sixteen months, reducing the people to such straits that women ate the flesh of their own children.  When the city fell, a portion of the inhabitants were carried to Babylon, and the furnishings of the temple were taken away as plunder.  Zedekiah, with his family, sought to escape, going out over Olivet as David in his distress had done, but he was captured and carried to Riblah, thirty-five miles north of Baalbec, where his sons were slain in his presence.  Then his eyes were put out, and he was carried to Babylon.  In this way were fulfilled the two prophecies, that he should be taken to Babylon, and that he should not see it.

Thus, with Jerusalem a mass of desolate, forsaken ruins, the Babylonian period was ushered in.  Some of the captives rose to positions of trust in the Babylonian government.  Daniel and his three associates are examples.  During this period Ezekiel was a prophet.  No doubt the frame of mind of most of them is well expressed by the Psalmist:  “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea we wept when we remembered Zion.  Upon the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our harps.”

The Medo-Persian period began with the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, who brought the Jews under his rule.  The captives were permitted to return to Palestine, and Zerubbabel soon had the foundations of the temple laid; but here the work came to a standstill, and so remained for seventeen years.  About 520 B.C., when Darius was king of Persia, the work was resumed, and carried on to completion.  For some years the service of God seems to have been conducted in an unbecoming manner.  Nehemiah came upon the stage of action, rebuilt the city walls, required the observance of the Sabbath, and served as governor twelve years without pay.  Ezra brought back a large number of the people, repaired the temple, and worked a great reformation.  Under his influence, those who had married foreign wives put them away, and “some had wives by whom they had children.”  As the Samaritans were not allowed to help build the temple, they erected one of their own on Mt Gerizim.  A few Samaritans still exist in Nablus, and hold services on Gerizim.  “After Nehemiah, the office of civil ruler seems to have become extinct.”