=Jerusalem.=—­Compared with Babylon or Thebes, Jerusalem was a poor capital.  The Hebrews were not builders; their religion prevented them from raising temples; the houses of individuals were shaped like cubes of rock which may be seen today on the sides of Lebanon in the midst of vines and fig-trees.  But Jerusalem was the holy city of the Hebrews.  The king had his palace there—­the palace of Solomon, who astonished the Hebrews with his throne of ivory; Jehovah had his temple there, the first Hebrew temple.

=The Tabernacle.=—­The emblem of the covenant between God and Israel was a great chest of cedar-wood furnished with rings of gold, which contained the tables of the Law.  This was borne before the people on high feast-days; it was the Ark of the Covenant.  To preserve this ark and necessary objects of worship, Moses is said to have made the Tabernacle—­a pavilion of wood covered with skins and hangings.  It was a portable temple which the Hebrews carried with them until they could erect a true temple in the promised land.

=The Temple.=—­The Temple of Jerusalem, built at last under Solomon, was divided into three parts: 

  1.—­To the rear, the Holy of Holies, in which rested the ark of
  the covenant; the high-priest only had the right to enter here,
  and that but once a year.

2.—­In the middle, the Holy Place, in which were kept the altar of incense, the candle-stick with the seven arms, the table of shew-bread; the priests entered to burn incense and to present the offerings.

  3.—­At the front, the Court open to the people, where the victims
  were sacrificed on the great altar.

The Temple of Jerusalem was from the first the centre of the nation; from all Palestine the people came to be present at the ceremonies.  The high-priest who directed the worship was a person sometimes of greater power than the king.

THE PROPHETS

=Disasters of Israel.=—­Solomon was the last king who enjoyed great power.  After him ten tribes separated themselves and constituted the kingdom of Israel, whose inhabitants worshipped the golden calves and the gods of the Phoenicians.  Two tribes only remained faithful to Jehovah and to the king at Jerusalem; these formed the kingdom of Judah (977).[42] The two kingdoms exhausted their energies in making war on each other.  Then came the armies of the Eastern conquerors; Israel was destroyed by Sargon, king of Assyria (722); Judah, by Nabuchodonosor (Nebuchadrezzar), king of Chaldea (586).

=Sentiments of the Israelites.=—­Faithful Israelites regarded these woes as a chastisement:  God was punishing his people for their disobedience; as before, he delivered them from their conquerors.  “The children of Israel had sinned against Jehovah, their God, they had built them high places in every city, they imitated the nations around them, although the Lord had forbidden them to do like them; they made them idols of brass; they bowed themselves before all the host of heaven [the stars], they worshipped Baal.  It is for this that Jehovah rejected all the race of Israel, he afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of those that plundered them.”