when the sun was risen, the Lord commanded a hot and burning wind: and the sun beat upon the head of Jonas; and he broiled with the heat: and he desired for his soul that he might die, and said: It is better for me to die than to live. And the Lord said to Jonas : Dost thou think thou hast reason to be angry, for the ivy? And he said: I am angry with reason even unto death. And the Lord said: Thou art grieved for the ivy, for which thou hast not laboured, nor made it to grow, which in one night came up, and in one night perished. And shall not I spare Ninive, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons, that know not how to distinguish between their right hand and their left, and many beasts?

Our Saviour Himself afterwards taught His disciples that this prophet was a figure of Himself. On one occasion, when the Scribes and Pharisees came, in their unbelief, pretending to want only a miraculous proof of His divine mission that they might believe in Him, He said: An evil and adulterous generation seeketh a sign: but there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. The men of Ninive shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they did penance at the preaching of Jonas, and behold a greater than Jonas is here.

CHAP. XXIX. The Reign of Ezechias.

JOAS the king of Juda was succeeded by his son Amasias, a prince who, like many of the Jewish kings, served God with a half heart, destroying the idols, but yet permitting and encouraging many superstitious practices which led to idolatry, such as the burning incense, and offering sacrifices in groves and on hills. As was usual with such unwilling servants of the Most High, his life grew worse as he grew older; and he was de

feated in war by the reigning king of Israel, who attacked Jerusalem itself, and plundered the temple of its sacred vessels. At length, Amasias was slain in a conspiracy of his own subjects. His son Azarias followed him on the throne, and walked in his father's steps. For a while he pleased God by his obedience; but at length he presumed to arrogate to himself the office of the priests, and offered incense, in spite of the resistance of the high-priest. His presumption was instantly punished by Almighty God; the leprosy broke out upon his head as he stood before the altar; he was thrown forth as an outcast, and his son Joatham assumed the royal power. For sixteen years Joatham reigned piously and prosperously, when the kingdom was again plunged into misery through the iniquities of his son and successor Achaz. No sovereign of Juda fell away from the service of God more signally than he. He shut up the temple, destroyed portions of its consecrated furniture, set up idols, and adopted the bloody rites of the Gentiles; until the Lord gave up his kingdom to be harassed and conquered by the Assyrian monarch, who stripped the temple of its treasures, seized a portion of the Jewish territory, and carried away its inhabitants into captivity. Still Achaz was unmoved, and sought the help of his idols, instead of turning to the Almighty God, until death carried him away, when still young in years.

His son Ezechias followed him, and instantly set about a purification of his kingdom from the abominations which overspread it. He destroyed the high places, where the people burnt incense to idols, broke the images in pieces, cut down the groves, and even spared not the brazen serpent which Moses had made in the wilderness, and which was a figure of Jesus Christ upon the cross, because it had become an object of idolatrous worship to the besotted people. Turning thus with all his heart to God, he was confident in the Divine protection, and at once refused to pay the tribute which the Assyrian king had exacted from his father. It was now but six years before the time when the kindred

kingdom of Israel was to be carried into bondage by the Assyrians; and Ezechias found his own people groaning under the tyranny of the same race of idolaters. Nevertheless, he resolved to cast off the yoke of the conquerors, and in the end restored the kingdom of Juda to prosperity.

The prophet Isaias was the counsellor of Ezechias, and under his direction the king defied all the powers of Sennacherib, the Assyrian monarch. The prophet himself has recorded the history of the impiety and defeat of the Assyrian general; and no other passage of Holy Writ more strikingly describes the madness and impotence of man when he sets himself up against the will of the Almighty. Sennacherib sent a large force to attack Jerusalem, under Rabsaces, his general. And Ezechias sent messengers to meet and confer with him; but Rabsaces replied with insults, and a defiance of the power of God. And coming near the wall of the city, he cried out to the multitude of people who were on the wall, and sought to tempt them to disbelieve the power of the Lord to deliver them from his hands. Let not Ezechias, he said, deceive you; for he shall not be able to deliver you. And let not Ezechias make you trust in the Lord, saying: The Lord will surely deliver us; and this city shall not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians. Do not hearken to Ezechias; for thus said the king of the Assyrians: Do with me that which is for your advantage; and come out to me, and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig-tree; and drink ye every one the water of his cistern, till I come and take you away to a land like to your own, a land of corn and of wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Neither let Ezechias trouble you, saying: The Lord will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their land out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians? Where is the God of Emath, and of Arphad? where is the God of Sepharvaim? have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who is there among all the gods of these lands, that hath delivered his country out of my hand, that the Lord may deliver

Jerusalem out of my hand? And they held their peace, and answered him not a word. For the king had commanded, saying: Answer him not. And Eliacim the son of Helcias, that was over the house, and Sobna the scribe, and Joahe the son of Asaph the recorder, went in to Ezechias with their garments rent, and told him the words of Rabsaces.

CHAP. XXX. The Destruction of the Assyrians.

AND when Ezechias was told the words of the Assyrian general, he rent his garments, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went in to the house of the Lord. And he sent Eliacim, who was over the house, and Sobna the scribe, and the ancients of the priests covered with sackcloth, to Isaias the son of Amos the prophet. And they said to him: Thus saith Ezechias: This day is a day of tribulation, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabsaces, whom the king of the Assyrians his master hath sent to blaspheme the living God, and to reproach with words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left. And the servants of Ezechias came to Isaias. And Isaias said to them: Thus shall you say to your master: Thus saith the Lord: Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of the Assyrians have blasphemed Me. Behold, I will send a spirit upon him; and he shall hear a message, and shall return to his own country: and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own country. And Rabsaces returned, and found the king of the Assyrians besieging Lobna, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachis. And he heard say about Tharaca the king of Ethiopia: He is come forth to fight against thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Ezechias, saying: Thus shall you speak to Ezechias the king of Juda, saying: Let not thy God deceive thee, in

whom thou trustest, saying: Jerusalem shall not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians. Behold, thou hast heard all that the kings of the Assyrians have done to all countries which they have destroyed; and canst thou be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozam, and Haram, and Reseph, and the children of Eden, that were in Thalassar? Where is the king of Emath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Ana, and of Ava? And Ezechias took the letter from the hands of the messengers, and read it, and went up to the house of the Lord: and Ezechias spread it before the Lord. And Ezechias prayed to the Lord, saying: O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who sittest upon the cherubim; Thou alone art the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; Thou hast made heaven and earth. Incline, O Lord, Thy ear, and hear: open, O Lord, Thy eyes, and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he hath sent to blaspheme the living God. For of a truth, O Lord, the kings of the Assyrians have laid waste lands, and their countries. And they have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the works of men's hands, of wood and stone: and they broke them in pieces. And now, O Lord our God, save us out of his hand and let all the kingdoms of the earth know, that Thou only art the Lord. And Isaias the son of Amos sent to Ezechias, saying: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: For the prayer thou hast made to Me concerning Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians: This is the word which the Lord hath spoken of him: The virgin the daughter of Sion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn: the daughter of Jerusalem hath wagged the head after thee.. Whom hast thou reproached, and whom hast thou blasphemed, and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thy eyes on high? Against the holy One of Israel. By the hand of thy servants thou hast reproached the Lord; and hast said: With the multitude of my chariots I have gone up to the height of the mountains, to the top of Libanus: and I will cut down its tall cedars, and its