From that time Idumea decayed, and
now has become an utter wilderness, the carved faces of the rocks still
witnessing to the truth of prophecy, as they stand forth, lonely and
deserted in their grandeur, though glowing freshly with the rosy
marblings of the rocks of Seir.
LESSON XIX.
THE ROMAN POWER.
And He shall put a yoke of iron on thy neck until He have destroyed
thee.--_Deut. xxviii._48.
Aristobulus, the son of Hyrcanus, was called King, as well as High
Priest of the Jews; but the mixture of worldly policy with the sacred
office did not suit well, and the Asmonean Kings were not like their
fathers, the Maccabees. Still their courage and steadiness made the Jews
much respected; and the Greeks and Romans around them began to read
their books, and there were some few who perceived that the religion,
there taught, was purer than idolatry, and wiser than the beat
philosophy. The kings were assisted in government by what was called the
Sanhedrim, a council of a hundred and twenty of the Scribes and of the
chief priests, namely, the heads of the courses of priests. This council
met daily in a hall near the great gate of the Temple, and heard cases
brought before them for judgment, after the example of the seventy
elders appointed by Moses.
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