For in death there is no remembrance of thee: In Sheol who shall give thee thanks? I am weary with my groaning; Every night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye wasteth away because of grief; It waxeth old because of all mine adversaries. Jehovah will receive my prayer. All mine enemies shall be put to shame and sore troubled: They shall turn back, they shall be put to shame suddenly. The adversaries who appear within this psalm are foes within the community. More beautiful in its thought is Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom Jehovah imputeth not iniquity. And in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones wasted away Through my groaning all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: My moisture was changed as with the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, And mine iniquity did I not hide: I said, I will confess my transgressions unto Jehovah; And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. For this let every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: Surely when the great waters overflow they shall not reach unto him.1 Such poetic expressions indicate the deep sense of guilt that rested upon the harassed community which rebuilt the temple, but could not defend itself against jealous neighbors. Zechariah's visions, at the time of rebuilding, were in part addressed to the task of convincing the people that Jehovah no longer imputed iniquity. The very beautiful and familiar penitential psalm 51, with its prayer for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem in order that 1 Psalm 321-6 worthy offerings may be made, comes from the time just before or during Nehemiah's work. It begins: Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions; And my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, And done that which is evil in thy sight; That thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, And be clear when thou judgest. CHAPTER XX PROPHECY AND NARRATIVE OF NEHEMIAH'S REFORM (About 450 to 432 B.C.) THE temple was brought to completion in 516 B.C., but the walls of Jerusalem, thrown down in 586, were not then restored. So the ancient stronghold lay open and unprotected, and the Judean community could not maintain itself separate from the mixed surrounding population. On the south the Edomites remained in possession of a part of the old territory of Judea; on the west the inhabitants of the Philistine plain were in close communication with the Judeans; on the north the mixed population, made up chiefly of the remnants of Israel and the various pagan peoples who had been forcibly settled among them two centuries before, were in constant business intercourse and were also sharing the worship of the new temple; even the Arabians on the east were in close touch. All these little peoples taken together made only a part of one of the great satrapies into which Darius divided the vast Persian Empire, and none of them could have a very distinct political or commercial life. Through the inevitable intermingling of the Judean community with these various neighbors, racial identity was rapidly being lost. The exiles in Babylon were under far more favorable conditions for the preservation of racial and religious integrity as well as for economic and social advancement. With the commercial adaptability of their race, they entered into the activity of Babylonia under the liberal conditions afforded by the Persian government. The prophet Malachi, speaking when some seventy discouraging years had passed after the completion of the temple, gives a vivid picture from life of the general pessimism and religious scepticism that had followed upon the disappointment of the high hopes roused by the prophets of the closing years of exile and of the partial restoration. The people looked for the evidence of God's love in material prosperity. This was in accord with the ancient doctrine, so clearly presented in its national aspects in Deuteronomy and so forcibly emphasized in the Deuteronomic editing of the nation's history. Haggai, the practical man whose work was to get the immediate thing done, had pressed this doctrine to the extreme, in rousing the people to build. They had built the temple for God, three score years and ten had gone by, and where was Jehovah's shaking of the nations and filling this house with glory? If the silver and the gold were his to give, why did he not bestow them upon the people who had labored and sacrificed to build his house? With their low standard, it is no wonder that the people said, "Wherein hast thou loved us?" or "It is vain to serve God."1 Malachi could do little to prove that God did love, save to point back to very ancient history,2 and to promise for the future.3 He could, however, on very good ground, show the people that they did not deserve any more prosperity than they were enjoying. Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar. And ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of Jehovah is contemptible. And when ye offer the blind for sacrifice, it is no evil! and when ye offer the lame and sick, it is no evil! Present it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee? or will he accept thy person? saith Jehovah of hosts. Ye say also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith Jehovah of hosts; and ye have brought that which was taken by violence, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye bring the offering: should I accept this at your hand? saith Jehovah. But cursed be the deceiver, who hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a blemished thing; for I am a great King, saith Jehovah of hosts, and my name is terrible among the Gentiles.* But ye say, Wherein have we Ye are cursed with the curse; Bring ye the whole tithe into the Will a man rob God? yet ye rob me. robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. for ye rob me, even this whole nation. store-house, that there may be food in my house.5 They were worshipping after a fashion, but a very poor fashion, and, too, they were intermarrying with the heathen, divorcing their 1 Malachi 12, 3 14. 2 Ibid. 13. 4 Ibid. 1 7-8, 13-14. 3 Ibid. 15. 5 Ibid. 38-103. Jewish wives in order to make favorable alliances.1 Moral vices, such as the ancient prophets had so strenuously condemned, were naturally rife at a time when loyalty to Jehovah went no further than keeping up a wretched, perfunctory ritual. And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner from his right, and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts.2 In a somewhat Socratic method, Malachi thus draws out the shortcomings of the people. He is not, however, able to see the weakness of the conception that material rewards should be proportionate to spiritual virtues, on which the scepticism and lax conduct rest. If Malachi had read the poem of the Suffering Servant, its truth had not reached him. His message is: Bring ye the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be food in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before the time in the field, saith Jehovah of hosts. And all nations shall call you happy; for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith Jehovah of hosts.3 Toward the illumination of this doctrine of rewards, with its partial truth and partial error, Malachi has nothing to offer. From his viewpoint, the only hope is in the coming of a refiner and purifier who shall purge the people as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. The only mitigation of the future judgment is that before the great and terrible day of the Lord come, there shall be one to warn as Elijah warned Ahab, lest Jehovah come and smite the earth with a curse.5 Malachi had learned something of the truth that had been new when the prophets who preceded him first taught it, but his mind was too completely dominated by mechanical, priestly con 1 Malachi 2 11-16. 2 Ibid. 35. 3 Ibid. 3 10-12 5 Ibid. 4 5-6 U |