=13. The king of Babylon now left= the completion of the destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of captives to one of his chief army officers, called “the captain of the guard.” This officer sent off all the treasure of the Temple and of the various palaces, and then having burned the Temple and all the chief houses, he broke down the walls and so completely destroyed the city that the ruler, who was left to take charge of the few poor remaining, resided at Mizpah,[93] a village, not certainly but very probably, identified with a place on a high hill five miles west by north from Jerusalem. =14. Judah was now finally= carried away captive, and the seventy years of captivity foretold by the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 24:11; 29:10) are to be reckoned from the first captivity, B. C. 606, when Daniel and others were carried to Babylon in the third year of Jehoiakim, 2 Kings 24:1, 2. These seventy years terminated when Cyrus, in the first year of his reign at Babylon, B. C. 536, made his proclamation permitting the Jews to return to Palestine and rebuild the temple, Ezra 1:11. =15. About 50,000 accepted= the invitation, but a large number preferred to remain, as we shall more fully explain hereafter. CHAPTER IV. ANALYSIS OF THE REIGNS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL. =1. Of the twenty sovereigns of Judah=, Manasseh reigned the longest, namely fifty-five years. He was the fourteenth king and began to reign at twelve years of age, B. C. 698. The shortest reigns in Judah were those of Jehoiachin and Jehoahaz, who reigned only about three months each, near the close of the kingdom, B. C. 600 and B. C. 610. Both of these kings were deposed by foreign kings. =2. Of the nineteen sovereigns of Israel=, the one who continued longest upon the throne was Jeroboam, the second of that name. His reign continued forty-one years, from B. C. 825 to B. C. 784. He was the thirteenth king. The shortest reign was that of Zimri, who committed suicide by burning himself in his palace at Tirzah, with all its riches, B. C. 930, when he found he was about to be taken. He usurped the throne and held it only seven days. He was the fifth king. MORAL CHARACTER OF THE KINGS. =3. Of the twenty sovereigns of Judah=, twelve were continually idolatrous. They seemed to be entirely unmindful of the previous history of the nation and of the claims of Jehovah upon their reverence or gratitude. The Temple service seems to have been continued by the priests at Jerusalem, but, from the warnings of the prophets, it appears that even the priests proved faithless and frequently allowed themselves to be led in accordance with the passions and violence of the kings, so that irreverence and sacrilege were common.