at Moph (corr. Moph, Memphis), and in the
country of Pathros."

Even after all these catastrophes Judah's woes were not yet at an end.
In 581, the few remaining Jews in Palestine allied themselves with the
Moabites and made a last wild effort for independence; a final defeat,
followed by a final exile, brought them to irretrievable ruin.* The
earlier captives had entertained no hope of advantage from these
despairing efforts, and Ezekiel from afar condemned them without pity:
"They that inherit those waste places in the land of Israel speak,
saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many;
the land is given us for inheritance.... Ye lift up your eyes unto your
idols and shed blood: and shall ye possess the land? Ye stand upon your
sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour's
wife: and shall ye possess the land?... Thus saith the Lord God: As I
live, surely they that are in the waste places shall fall by the sword,
and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be
devoured, and they that be in the strongholds and in the caves shall die
of the pestilence."**

* Josephus, following Berosus, speaks of a war against the
Moabites and the Ammonites, followed by the conquest of
Egypt in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar. To this
must be added a Jewish revolt if we are to connect with
these events the mention of the third captivity, carried out
in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar by Nebuzaradan.

** Ezek. xxxiii. 23-27.

The first act of the revolution foreseen by the prophets was over; the
day of the Lord, so persistently announced by them, had at length come,
and it had seen not only the sack of Jerusalem, but the destruction of
the earthly kingdom of Judah. Many of the survivors, refusing still to
acknowledge the justice of the chastisement, persisted in throwing the
blame of the disaster on the reformers of the old worship, and saw no
hope of salvation except in their idolatrous practices. "As for the
word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not
hearken unto thee. But we will certainly perform every word that is gone
forth out of our mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to
pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers,
our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of
Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were