* 2 Kings xxi. 16.  The tradition in regard to the fate of
     Isaiah took its foundation in this text, and it is perhaps
     indirectly referred to in Heb. xi. 37.

For a long time after this no instance can be found of a prophet administering public affairs or directing the actions of the king himself; the priests and reformers, finding no outlet for their energy in this direction, fell back on private preaching and literary propaganda.  And, above all, they applied themselves to the task of rewriting the history of Israel, which, as told by the chroniclers of the previous century, presented the national Deity in too material a light, and one which failed to harmonise with the ideals then obtaining.  So long as there were two separate Hebrew kingdoms, the existence of the two parallel versions of the Elohist and Jahvist gave rise to but little difficulty:  each version had its own supporters and readers, whose consciences were readily satisfied by the interpolation of a few new facts into the text as occasion arose.  But now that Samaria had fallen, and the whole political and religious life of the Hebrew race was centred in Judah alone, the necessity for a double and often contradictory narrative had ceased to exist, and the idea occurred of combining the two in a single work.  This task, which was begun in the reign of Hezekiah and continued under Manasseh, resulted in the production of a literature of which fragments have been incorporated into the historical books of our Bible.*

The reign of Amon witnessed no alteration in the policy initiated by his predecessor Manasseh; but when, after less than two years’ rule, he was suddenly struck down by the knife of an assassin, the party of reform carried the day, and the views of Hezekiah and Isaiah regained their ascendency.  Josiah had been king, in name at any rate, for twelve years,** and was learning to act on his own responsibility, when the Scythian danger appeared on the horizon.

* The scheme of the present work prevents me from doing more than allude in passing to these preliminary stages in the composition of the Priestly Code.  I shall have occasion to return briefly to the subject at the close of Volume IX.

** The date is supplied by the opening passage of the prophecy of Jeremiah, “to whom the word of Jehovah came in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, King of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign” (i. 2).  Volney recognised that chaps, i., iv., v., and vi. of Jeremiah refer to the Scythian invasion, and since his time it has been admitted that, with the exception of certain interpolations in chaps, i. and iii., the whole of the first six chapters date from this period, but that they underwent slight modifications in the recension which was made in the fourth year of Jehoiachin in order to make them applicable to the threatened Chaldaean invasion.  The date is important, since by using it as a basis