Jewish Refugees in Egypt. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. the Jews were to be found in three great centres—Egypt, Babylonia, and Palestine. Egypt, because of its friendly attitude toward the Jews and its nearness to southern Palestine, was the refuge to which most of the Jewish fugitives fled. Inasmuch as the approach of the Chaldean armies was from the north, the main highway running south from Hebron through the solitary desert was the most natural line of escape. The result was that a very large proportion of the Jewish race were to be found from this time on in the land of the Nile. Even before the final destruction of Jerusalem, both Jeremiah and Ezekiel addressed the Jewish refugees in Egypt. They were found in four important towns. The two nearest to Palestine were Migdol and Tahpanhes. Migdol means tower or fortress, and the reference is evidently to one of the frontier towns that guarded the eastern boundary of Egypt. It was probably the Migdolos mentioned in the Itinerarium Antonini, and was situated midway between Pelusium on the Mediterranean coast and Sele, a little west of the Crocodile Lake, the present Lake Timsah. This would identify it with the ruins known as the Tell es-Semut, twelve miles southwest of Pelusium, beside the ancient caravan route that ran from Palestine to Egypt.

Situation of Tahpanhes. Tahpanhes, the biblical name of the GrÆco-Egyptian city, Daphne, is represented by the modern Tell Defenneh. It lay on the right bank of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile and close to the caravan route from Palestine. On the north was the marshy Lake Menzaleh. It was, however, close to the fertile lands of the Nile Delta and from the days of Psamtik I an important military and commercial town. Here were settled Greek and Phoenician colonists, and here the Jews who fled with Jeremiah after the murder of Gedaliah found refuge. Here and at Migdol the refugees were in closest touch with their kinsmen who had remained behind in Palestine and were in a position to return thither whenever conditions were favorable. They were also in the midst of a cosmopolitan life that offered them ample opportunity to engage in trade, which must have been the chief occupation of these semi-desert towns.

Memphis. A third home of Jewish colonists in Egypt was Noph, which was the biblical designation of the sacred city of Memphis. This great city lay ten miles south of Cairo, at the southern end of the Nile Delta. It was a large metropolitan city, with an exceedingly diverse population. Herodotus found in the vicinity of the Egyptian temple of Ptah a Tyrian colony with a temple dedicated to the "foreign Aphrodite." Here were probably settled the Jews who had decided to make permanent homes in Egypt, and who may have reared here a temple to Jehovah.

The Colony at Elephantine. The fourth centre of colonization was at Syene in the land of Pathros, the biblical equivalent of upper Egypt. Syene is apparently represented by the modern Egyptian city of Assuan, just below the first cataract of the Nile. In Ezekiel 29:10 Migdol and Syene mark respectively the northern and southern boundaries of Egypt. Recent excavations on the northern end of the island of Elephantine,⁽¹¹¹⁾ which lies in the Nile opposite Assuan, have revealed the presence of a large Jewish colony at this point, which flourished during the earlier part of the Persian period and was probably established soon after the fall of Jerusalem. The island is one of the garden spots of the Nile valley. The ruins of the ancient city cover a low-lying hill on the southern end, which is here fully three-quarters of a mile across from east to west. On the east across the river are the heights of Assuan. The view to the south is toward the rocky cataract of the Nile. On the west, across the river, extends the brown, rocky desert.

Results of the Excavations. The importance of the ancient town lay in its position at the head of uninterrupted navigation. From here the caravans set out for Nubia and the upper Nile and for the oases in the east. The town was built of Nile mud bricks, with little houses and narrow streets, and was evidently once the home of a large and dense population. On the western side have been discovered contracts written on papyri in Aramaic, which indicate that here was a large Jewish colony living on a practical equality with the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Babylonians, and Persians, who constituted the population of this ancient metropolis. Familiar Jewish names appear in these contracts, which record the sale of land and houses. An Aramaic letter bearing the date 408 B.C. has also been discovered directed to Bagohi, the Persian governor of Palestine. From these contracts and this letter it appears that during the earlier part of the Persian period there was within the city of Elephantine a Jewish temple of Jahu (Jehovah), surrounded by strong walls and protecting gates. At this Jewish sanctuary regular offerings were presented to Jehovah and the religious customs of the homeland were thus preserved in the very heart of the old heathen city.

Transformation of the Jews into Traders. It is significant that the Jewish colonists in Egypt were settled in four commercial centres. Trade was the chief occupation open to them. Hence the shepherds and farmers of Judah were soon transformed into traders and merchants. Widely scattered as they were, at each important city there were colonies of Jews. In time these were organized into great mercantile companies which, through their agents and branch houses, controlled more and more of the trade of the ancient East. The Jew of to-day is the product of those centuries of commercial training which began with the Babylonian period.Home of the Exiles in Babylonia. In deporting the Jewish captives from Palestine to Babylonia, Nebuchadrezzar evidently followed the longer, more northern route, through Riblah and Hamath, across the Euphrates at Carchemish, and thence southward through Mesopotamia. Instead of scattering the Jewish exiles throughout the empire, he settled them in a colony on the Chebar River, which is evidently identical with the Khabaru Canal. According to recently discovered inscriptions, this canal ran eastward from Babylon to the ancient sanctuary of Nippur. This region was in the northern part of the great alluvial plain between the Tigris and the Euphrates and was intersected in every direction by canals, which were used both for irrigation and commerce. To escape the spring floods the villages were built on low mud mounds, in many cases ruins of earlier cities. The prophet Ezekiel, who was the pastor and spiritual adviser of the exiles in Babylon, lived at a village named after the mound on which it was built, Tell Abib. Two other similar village mounds were called Salt Hill and Forest Hill. Ezekiel describes their new home as "a land of traffic, a city of merchants, a fruitful soil, beside many waters."

Their Life in Babylonia. In certain psalms are found the echo of the homesickness and longing for their native hills which filled the hearts of the Jewish exiles. But the fruitful soil of Babylonia was a partial compensation for what they had lost. The active commercial life of Babylon, as that of Egypt, developed within them the latent Semitic genius for trade. At first they were evidently settled as a community by themselves, a little Judah in the heart of the great empire. Here they lived in accordance with their laws, under the rulership of their elders, building houses, planting gardens, and rearing up families, as Jeremiah advised in the letter which he wrote them (Jer. 29). The result was that the majority of the Jews in the east became so attached to their new homes that few were found later who would undertake the arduous journey of fifteen hundred miles to return to the stony hills of Judah. For a great majority of those who were exiled or who fled from Judah in connection with the first and second captivity there was no return, even though opportunities were repeatedly offered.

Condition of the Jews in Palestine. The third centre of the Jewish race was Judah itself. Even though Jerusalem was destroyed and its population scattered, the majority of the shepherds and peasants of Judah never left their homes. The captives who were deported by the Babylonians appear to have been taken almost entirely from the capital city. Those who remained in Palestine were probably placed under the rule of the governor of the so-called "Province beyond the River." The title evidently originated in Babylon, for it was the designation of the territory which lay west of the Euphrates and included Syria as well as Palestine. Without organization and the protection of a native ruler the fortunes of the Jewish peasants must have been indeed pitiable. The book of Lamentations contains references to the pitiless persecutions and the frequent forays to which they were subject. Whenever the local government was weakened, Judah was the object of attack from every quarter. On the north were the Samaritans, who could never completely forget their hereditary rivalry with the southern tribes. At this time the Samaritan territory apparently extended southward so as to include the cities of Gibeon and Mizpah. On the east the Ammonites had at last succeeded in pushing their boundaries westward to the Jordan, and in occupying the fruitful hills and valleys of southern Gilead. East of the Dead Sea the Moabite territory evidently extended northward to that recently occupied by the Ammonites. In southern Judah the Edomites, pushed northward by the advance of a strong Arab race, known as the Nabateans, had seized not only the South Country but the old capital, Hebron, and the territory to the east and west. On the southwest they occupied the important city of Mareshah and the adjacent Philistine lowlands.⁽¹⁰⁸⁾

Extent of the Jewish Territory. The Jews were therefore almost entirely confined to the Judean highlands. Their outposts on the southwest were Keilah and Bethzur, on the west Zanoah, which guarded the entrance to the Valley of Sorek, and Netophah, the modern Beit Nettif, which guarded the entrance to the Valley of Elah. The northern boundary ran within five or six miles of Jerusalem. To the northeast the Jews appear to have held the city of Jericho and the neighboring Plain of the Jordan. Thus the cultivated Jewish territory was little more than twenty-five miles in length and breadth and included the least desirable land of all Palestine.

Evidence That There Was No General Return of Exiles in 536 B.C. The overthrow of the Chaldean Empire by Cyrus in 538 B.C. gave the Jews of Babylon an opportunity to return, for the Persian king reversed the policy of the Assyrians and the Babylonians and aimed to develop the resources and loyalty of each of the many peoples in his great empire. There is no evidence, however, that more than a handful of the Jews in the east improved this opportunity. Cyrus also adopted the policy of appointing native princes as local governors. A scion of the royal house of David was placed over the little sub-province of Judah. This appointment gave the Jews a local government that undoubtedly attracted to the homeland many refugees from Ammon and Moab and especially from the land of Egypt. But the sermons of the contemporary prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, indicate clearly that those who constituted the rank and file of the Judean community and rebuilt the temple were the people of the land and that a general return of the exiles was an event, still in the future, for which they ardently longed.

The Rebuilding of the Temple. Even during the Babylonian period sacrifices were offered at the great altar of native rock that had stood in front of Solomon's temple. Perhaps even before Cyrus gave full permission to the native peoples to rebuild their cities and temples a few had come back to find homes among the desolate ruins of Jerusalem. It was a small, struggling, and discouraged community to whom Haggai in 520 B.C. addressed his stirring message. His call to rise and rebuild the temple met with an immediate response. He was also seconded by the encouraging words of his contemporary, Zechariah. The rebellions that were then shaking the great Persian Empire to its foundations encouraged the Jews to hope that the opportune moment had arrived to reinstate Zerubbabel. Inspired by these hopes, the temple-building progressed rapidly. The stones for the repair of the walls were apparently found on the temple hill. The timbers for the gates were cut from the hills about Jerusalem, which at this time were, at least in part, covered with trees. By 516 B.C. the work was completed and the Jewish race again had a common religious sanctuary at which to worship.

Discouragement and Hopes of the Jews. The hopes of re-establishing the Hebrew kingdom under a Davidic ruler were, however, completely dashed to the ground. Darius succeeded in putting down the many rebellions and in thoroughly reorganizing the Persian Empire. At this time the descendants of David disappear from Israel's history. For a generation or two the Judean community was overwhelmed with discouragement, for it was the victim of foes from without and of its corrupt and greedy rulers within, who enslaved the people and seized their land. It is not clear what aroused the spirit of the discouraged Judean community. Possibly it was the divinely inspired vision of the great prophet, whose immortal songs are preserved in the fortieth and following chapters of the book of Isaiah. He appears to have been a citizen of Jerusalem, and to the ancient capital city his message is primarily addressed. It was a call, however, to all the scattered remnants of the race to return and do their part in realizing Israel's noble destiny. It was a summons to voluntary, self-sacrificing service. It interprets the discouragements, the calamities, and the ignominies which were then the lot of his race, not as the result of Jehovah's disfavor, but as a supreme opportunity, if nobly improved, to demonstrate to the world the character of the God whom they worshipped and the saving power of the faith which they cherished.

Nehemiah's Response to the Call to Service. Before there could be a general return of the exiles it was necessary that the walls of Jerusalem be rebuilt, and this required resources, influence at the Persian court, and, above all, an energetic, able leader. In sending a deputation to Nehemiah, the royal cupbearer of Artaxerxes, the Palestinian Jews showed great wisdom. At the head of this deputation was Hanani, a kinsman of Nehemiah. The scene of this memorable interview was in the royal palace at Susa, the capital of the Persian Empire. The huge ruins of the ancient city, fully eight miles in circumference, have revealed to the modern excavator its magnificence and beauty. It is possible that the unknown author of the immortal chapters in the latter part of the book of Isaiah was a member of the deputation from Jerusalem. Nehemiah records how profoundly he was moved by the recital of the misfortunes that had overtaken the city of his forefathers. The spirit and message of Isaiah 40-55 pervade the prayer of Nehemiah, recorded in the first chapter of his memoirs. One Jew, at least, was found responsive to the divine call to service. Improving a favorable opportunity, he secured permission to go back and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. A royal escort and letters to the governor of the province beyond the river prepared the way. His journey from Susa lay along the southern side of the Elamite mountains and thence beside the Tigris, through Mesopotamia by one of the great highways which led from northern Syria to Palestine.

Conditions in the Jewish Community. Nehemiah has given a vivid description of conditions as he found them in Judah. The active foes of the community were Sanballat, the Horonite, whose native town was apparently either Upper or Lower Beth-horon, a certain Tobiah, who had intermarried with the high-priestly family of Jerusalem, and Geshem, an Arabian. Sanballat appears to have been at the head of the Samaritans, Tobiah of the Ammonites, and Geshem of certain Arabian tribes, that probably had already gained a foothold in Palestine. The Judean community had been so long preyed upon by its greedy rulers, led by the high priest and his followers, that Nehemiah found it necessary, as a preliminary, to institute certain drastic social reforms. Like an ancient prophet he preached to the rulers and, by his own example and authority, succeeded in influencing them to set free their countrymen whom they had enslaved, to restore to them their ancestral fields and vineyards, and to promise never again to seize them unjustly.

Preparations for Rebuilding the Walls. Nehemiah's chief work, however, was the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. In accordance with the royal grant, he was allowed to cut timber for the gates in the king's park, which was probably the so-called Gardens of Solomon, south of Jerusalem, near Etam. Under Nehemiah's direction the working forces were carefully organized. Work was begun on all parts of the wall at once and different groups of workmen were assigned to definite sections of the wall. While half of the people worked, the other half stood by with their weapons, ready to repulse an attack. Inspired by Nehemiah's energetic personality and by the constant danger of attack, the work progressed so rapidly that at the end of fifty-two days the walls were restored.

Character of the Data. The detailed account of the building of the walls and of their solemn rededication furnishes the clearest picture extant of ancient Jerusalem. This account is supplemented at almost every point by the thorough excavations carried on along the line of the western, southern, and eastern walls, chiefly under the direction of the Palestine Exploration Fund. The reconstruction thus rendered possible is especially valuable, for Nehemiah simply restored the walls of the pre-exilic city. With the exception of the northern wall, which is covered by the buildings of the modern city, the reconstruction is reasonably certain at every point.

The Walls and Towers on the North. The account begins with the rebuilding of the Sheep Gate, which apparently stood immediately north of the temple (see map opposite p. 203) and was the way by which the sacrificial animals were brought to the sanctuary. Immediately to the west of this gate the native rock extends northward almost on a level.⁽⁵⁶⁾ Hence at this point were built two strong guarding towers, standing apparently on the site occupied in Roman times by the famous Tower of Antonia. In the days of the divided Hebrew kingdoms, the upper end of the Tyropoeon Valley, immediately west of the temple area, had been enclosed within the city walls. In Zephaniah 1:11 it was called, because of its peculiar shape, The Mortar. Elsewhere it bears the name of The Second Quarter (II Kings, 22:14, Zeph. 1:10). Through this low depression of the Tyropoeon Valley ran the main street of the city. It passed through the Fish Gate which opens in the north to the great highway leading to Samaria. The Fish Gate was probably so named because in the adjoining market quarter the fishmongers sold their fish, which were doubtless brought in early times, as in the Roman period, from the Sea of Galilee. The exact course of the northern wall from this point is not entirely clear, for the ground over which it runs is nearly level and is to-day covered with buildings. The importance of this wall and the difficulty of completely restoring it is shown by the proportionately large number of workmen detailed by Nehemiah to repair it. It probably ran in a southwesterly direction to the Corner Gate, which was also called the Gate of the Old Wall. From this point it would seem that Nehemiah constructed a straight wall to the Ephraim Gate, which corresponds to the western Jaffa Gate of modern Jerusalem.

On the West. Immediately south of the Ephraim Gate the city was especially liable to assault. Here a broad, or double wall was constructed. The remainder of the western wall⁽⁵⁷⁾ has been traced by excavations. It ran due south along the brow of the western hill to a corner tower which measured forty-five feet each way and rose twenty feet from an outer ledge of rock. At this point the wall turned obliquely to the southeast, running to the Valley Gate, where it turned due east. The ancient Valley Gate was only eight feet ten inches wide on the outside. Its lower sockets are still in position. The wall on the east was nine feet thick. To the west of the Valley Gate was a tower the base of which measured about forty-five feet in each direction. This was probably the Tower of the Furnaces, so named because near by the potters baked their jars (cf. Jer. 18:2-4, 19:1-6).

On the South. From the Valley Gate to the Tyropoeon Valley the wall is built along the rapidly descending slope.⁽⁵⁵⁾ The comparatively few men assigned to this section indicated that it was practically intact. Where it crossed the lower Tyropoeon Valley it was flanked on the outside with six buttresses, resting on a foundation wall about twenty feet thick. The main street, leading down the Tyropoeon Valley, has been traced from the southern end of the city to a point opposite the temple area. It varied from twenty-five to fifty feet in width and was paved and provided with a curb. Where it ascended the hill there were broad, low, rock-cut steps, adapted to use by beasts of burden as well as by foot-passengers. Opposite the southern end of the present temple area the main street branched eastward toward the Ephraim Gate. On the east side of the Pool of Siloam were rock-cut steps, probably the stairs referred to in Nehemiah 3:15 and 12:37, which led up to Ophel. The King's Pool was in the extreme southeastern part of the city, south of the Pool of Siloam, from which it received its waters, but enclosed within the ancient city wall. To the north of this was apparently the King's Garden.

On the East. Along the eastern side of Ophel the wall runs on the brow of the steeply descending hill above the Virgin's Fount in the Kidron Valley. There is no gate in this long section of the wall until the tower is reached which is described in Nehemiah as the "Tower that Stands Out." Just above this was the Water Gate, the most important western exit from the city. From this the road led down into the Kidron Valley and on to the Virgin's Fount, whose waters probably gave the gate its name. This gate and the Horse Gate, a little farther to the north, led into the official part of the city. Here on the upper part of Ophel, to the south of the original temple area, were the palace and armory. At the northeastern corner of the city was the Gate of the Guard, where one of the companies that took part in the dedication of the walls, in the days of Nehemiah, stopped before entering the sanctuary. Here excavations have disclosed massive masonry and the course of the original wall, which at this point turns to the northwest. It follows the slope of the native rock, which descends suddenly on the north to the ravine leading up from the Kidron Valley. Inside the walls, between the Gate of the Guard and the Sheep Gate, were the bazaars where the people could purchase those things which were needful for their offerings.⁽¹¹²⁾

Significance of Nehemiah's Work. In rebuilding the walls, Nehemiah prepared the way for that general return of the Jews, which is implied in the seventh chapter of Nehemiah and confirmed by the later facts of history. The story of Ezra is a late tradition regarding one of these return movements. Nehemiah, in reorganizing the method of distributing the temple dues to the priests and Levites, in discountenancing foreign marriages, in enforcing the Sabbath law, and in providing for the support of the temple, laid the foundations for the institution of the new priestly law and the reorganization of the ceremonial service, which is associated with his name. Nehemiah was thus the restorer of that new Jewish state which rose on the ruins of the old.

Extension of Jewish Territory to the Northwest. Shut in on the south by the Edomites and on the east by the Dead Sea and Jordan valley, the Jewish community naturally expanded toward the northwest. In doing so it followed the great highways, which ran northwestward from Jerusalem out upon the Philistine Plain. By virtue of the new life and strength infused into the Judean community by Nehemiah, it was able to cope with the Samaritan community and to push its boundaries northward. Within two or three centuries the arable Jewish territory was nearly doubled and included such important cities as Ai, Bethel, and Timnath in the north, and Ajalon, the Horons, Modein, as well as Ono and Lod, the later Lydda, far out on the Philistine Plain.Development of Judaism During the Latter Part of the Persian Period. The Babylonian and Persian age as a whole was for the Jews a period of overwhelming calamity and discouragement, and yet during the latter part of this era scattered remnants of the race began again to restore the temple and capital city. During this era the foundations of Judaism were laid along the lines first outlined by Ezekiel. The priests and scribes succeeded to the earlier authority of the kings and prophets. Loyalty to the law and ritual took the place of the ancient loyalty to the king and state. Judaism, helpless and exposed to the attacks of its powerful foes, stood apart from the rest of the world, finding its joy more and more in worship, in trust in Jehovah, and in the noble ideals and hopes that are voiced in the psalms and wisdom writings of this period.