of 2 Chron. tribes may be found. Of this opinion was likewise that most illustrious of all oriental from 1 Kings scholars Sir William Jones, who informs us, that the Affghans are said, by the best viii, to the end Persian historians, to be descended from the Jews; that they have traditions amongthemselves of such a descent; and that it is asserted, that their families are distinguished by the names of Jewish tribes, although since their conversion to the Islam they studiously conceal their origin. The Jews, however, with whom Dr Buchanan got acquainted in Malabar-black as well as white, still continue a distinct people, reading the Hebrew Scriptures, and practising all the rites of the law of Moses, which can be practised out of Jerusalem. The black Jews, he seems to think, derive their origin from the ten tribes which were carried away by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, as the others derive theirs from the dispersed Jews of Jerusalem. When he enquired concerning the ten tribes, "they said it was commonly believed among them, that the great body of the Israelites are to be found in Chaldea, and in the countries contiguous to it, being the very places whither they were first carried into captivity; that some few families had migrated into regions more remote, as to Cochin, and Rajapoor, in India, and to other places yet farther to the East; but that the bulk of the nation, though now much reduced in number, had not to this day removed two thousand miles from Samaria (a)".] All those glorious prophecies, therefore, which some by mistake have applied to their thin returns under the Jewish governors sent from Babylon, do certainly relate to a much greater event, even their conversion and final restoration under the kingdom of the Messias. The prophet Hosea, speaking of the present state of the Jews, gives us this character whereby to distinguish them: (b) "They shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim." In vain do they boast of that power and authority which they never had but in their own country. The kings and the princes that they talk so much of, are all fictitious and imaginary. From the first time of their transmigration to this very day, they have been a people without any governor, or form of government; and if, in the midst of so many different nations, and under so severe persecutions, they nevertheless have hitherto been preserved, it must be imputed to the secret and wonderful Providence of God, who hath still designs of pity and gracious loving kindness towards them. To this purpose the same prophet assures us, that (c)" the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered; and in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, ye are the sons of the living God: For he shall recover the remnant of his people (says another prophet) (d) that shall be left :-He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth; for (e) behold the days come, saith the Lord, by another of his prophets, that it shall no more be said, the Lord liveth that brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands, whither he hath driven them. And I will bring them again into the land that I gave unto their fathers ;" and when this is done, (f)" I will no more hide my face from them, but (g) will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people. (h) They shall be no more a prey to the heathen: (i) Violence shall be no more heard in their land, wasting, nor destruction within their borders; but they shall call their walls salvation, and their gates praise. (k) Their land shall no more be termed desolate, () but (a) See Buchanan's Christian Researches, &c. and Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. art. 4. (b) Hosea iii. 4. (ƒ) Ezek. xxxix. 29. (k) Ibid. lxii. 4. (c) Ibid. i. 10. (a) Isaiah xi. 11, 12. (h) Ezek. xxxiv. 28. (e) Jer. xvi. 14, 15. Ant. Chris. or 639. A. M. 3246, they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob my servant, even they and their &c. or 4772. childrens children for ever; and my servant David (not the son of Jesse, who was dead 758, &c. long before Ezekiel prophecied, but the Messiah, who was to be of the lineage of David, as Kimchi explains it) shall be their prince for ever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace, which shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will set my sanctuary among them for evermore. My tabernacle shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (a) Now, though it cannot be denied that these, and several other prophecies to the like purpose, do denote a great and glorious restoration to God's people; yet it seems very evident, that scarce any of them can be applied to the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon. Long since that time, and almost seventeen hundred years ago, his covenant of peace has been departed from them; " violence has been in their land," which has been laid desolate; their tabernacle and sanctuary have been consumed; they have been a prey to the heathen; and have long ceased to be God's people, and he to be their God and therefore these prophecies must be understood of some other event, which can only be the general conversion of the Jews to Christianity, and their reestablishment in the Holy Land. For this mystery the apostle has revealed, (b)" that blindness in part hath happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, (c) there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. (d) Then shall the Lord set his hand again, a second time, to recover the remnant of his people, and to assemble the outcasts of Israel, from every kindred, and tongue, and nation, and people, that, at (e) the blowing of the great trumpet, they may come from the land of Assyria and Egypt, and may worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem." When this great event shall happen it is impossible for us to determine; but our business, in the mean time, is to pray, that (f) the salvation of Israel may come out of Zion, that Jacob may rejoice, and Israel may be glad. (a) Whitby's Treatise of the true Millennium. (b) Rom. xi. 25, 26. (c) Isaiah lix. 20. CHAPTER V. FROM THE DEATH OF JOSIAH TO THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY. nt. Chris. or 608. THE HISTORY. of 2 Chron. AFTER the unhappy death of good Josiah, his son Jehoahaz, † (who was called Shal- From 1 Kings or 4803. lum) was anointed king; but, as he was far from following his father's example, he was viii. to the end 510, &c. soon te tumbled down from his throne into a prison, where he ended his days with misery and disgrace in a strange land. For Pharaoh-Necho, upon his return from the expedition against the Babylonians, (wherein he had great success) hearing that Jehoahaz had taken upon him the kingdom of Judah without his consent, sent for him to Riblah in Syria, and on his arrival caused him to be put in chains, and sent prisoner to Egypt, where he died. He had an elder brother whose name was Eliakim; but Necho, when he came to Jesrusalem, changed it into Jehoiakim † ; and having constituted + Jehoahaz was not the eldest son of Josiah, as appears from this,-That he was but three and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned but three months; after which his brother Jehoiakim, when he was made king, was five and twenty years old, 2 Kings xxiii. 31, 32. For this reason it is said that the people anointed him, because, as he did not come to the crown by right of succession, his title might have otherwise been disputed; for in all disputed cases, and where the kingdom came to be contested, anointing was ever thought to give a preference. At this time, however, the Jews might have some reason to prefer the younger brother, because very probably he was of a more martial spirit, and better qualified to defend their liberties against the king of Egypt. His proper name, it is thought, was Shallum; but our learned Usher supposes that the people, looking upon this as ominous, (because Shallum, king of Israel, reigned but one month), changed it to Jehoahaz, which proved not much more fortunate to him, for he reigned but three; Patrick's and Calmet's Com mentaries. + The Scripture nowhere tells us upon what occasion it was that Jehoahaz fell into the king of Egypt's hands, or for what reason it was that he used him so severely; but it is presumable, that to revenge his father's death he might raise an army and engage him in a pitched battle, though he failed in the at tempt. For why should he put him in bands, if he *This the prophet Jeremiah foretold, where he +3 It was an usual thing for conquerors to change the names of the persons they vanquished in war, in testimony of their absolute power over them. Thus we find the king of Babylon changing the name of A. M. 3394, him king, and put the land to an annual tribute of an hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold, he returned with great triumph into his own kingdom. &c. or 4803. Ant. Chris. 610, &c. or 608. Jehoiakim || being thus placed on the throne, went on in his brother's steps to relax all the good order and discipline which his father had instituted, and the people (who never heartily came into that good king's reformation) took this opportunity to follow the bent of their depraved inclinations; whereupon the prophet Jeremiah went first to the king's palace, where he denounced God's judgments against him and his family, and afterwards into the temple, and there spoke to all the people after the same manner. The priests, offended at this freedom, caused him to be seized and brought before the king's council, in hopes of having him put to death; but Ahikam †, who was one of the chief lords thereof, so befriended him, that he got him discharged by the general suffrage, not only of the princes, but also of all the elders of the people that were then present. But (a) Urijah, * another prophet of the Lord, who in like manner had declared against the iniquity of the prince and people, did not so easily escape: For though he fled into Egypt, when he understood that Jehoiakim had a design against his life; yet this did not hinder the tyrant from pursuing him thither, where, having procured him to be seized, he brought him prisoner to Jerusalem, and there had him executed, and Mattaniah into Zedekiah when he constituted him mentaries. As to the time when Jehoiakim came to the throne, the difference is very remarkable: For in 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9. it is said, that he was but eight years old, but in 2 Kings xxiv. 8. that he was eighteen when he began to reign; and yet, considering how common a thing it was for kings to make their sons their associates in the kingdom, thereby to secure the possession of it in their family, and prevent all contention among the other brothers, the difference is easily reconciled, by supposing, that when his father had reigned one year, he took him to reign in conjunction with him when he was no more than eight years old. With his father he reigned ten years; so that when his father died he was eighteen years old, and then he began to reign alone, which was no more than three months. The author of the book of Kings makes mention therefore only of the years when he began to reign alone; but the author of the Chronicles speaks of all the time that he reigned both with his father and alone. This is a fair solution; though I cannot see what injury it can do to the authority of the Sacred Text, if we should acknowledge, that there is an error in the transcriber of the book of Chronicles; because two of the most ancient and venerable versions, the Syriac and Arabic, have rendered it in that place, not eight but eighteen, which they were doubtless induced to do by those ancient Hebrew copies from whence they formed their translation. Patrick's Commentary and Pool's Annotations. This Ahikam was the father of Gedaliah, (2 Kings xxv. 22.) who was afterwards made governor of the land, under the Chaldeans, and the son of Shaphan the scribe, (who was chief minister of state under king Josiah, 2 Kings xxii. 12.) and brother to Gemariab, Jer. xxxvi. 10. Elasah, chap. xxix. 3. and Jaazaniah, Ezek. viii. 11. who were great men in those days, and members likewise of the council with him; where, in conjunction with them, he could not fail of having a powerful interest, which he made use of on this occasion to deliver the prophet from that mischief which was intended against him. Prideaux's Connection, Anno 609. (a) Jer. xxvi. 20, &c. *About this time also were living the prophets Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Nahum, who, being called to the prophetic office in the reign of Josiah, continued (very likely) to this time, because we find them prophesying the same things that Jeremiah did, viz. the destruction and desolation of Judah and Je. rusalem, for the many heinous sins that they were guilty of. As to Habakkuk, neither the time in which he lived, nor the parents from whom he was descended, are any where named in Scripture; but his prophesying the coming of the Chaldeans, in the same manner that Jeremiah did, gives us reason to believe that he lived in the same time. Of Zephaniah, it is directly said, chap. i. that he prophecied in the time of Josiah; and in his pedigree (which is also given us) his father's grandfather is called Hezekiah, whom some take for the king of Judah, and consequently reckon this prophet to have been of royal descent. As to Nahum, lastly, it is certain that he prophecied after the captivity of the ten tribes, and before that of the other two which he foretold, chap. i. Though therefore the Jews do generally place him in Manasseh's reign, yet others chuse to refer him to the latter part of Josiah's, as being nearer to the destruction of Nineveh, and of the Assyrian monarchy, to which se veral prophecies of his do principally relate. Prideaux's Connection, Anno 609, and Howell's History, in the Notes. his dead body contemptuously used; which was no small aggravation to all his other From 1 Kings crimes. He had not been above three years upon the throne, before Nabopollassar, king of Babylon, being now become old and infirm, and perceiving that, upon the late advantage which the king of Egypt had gained against his arms, all Syria and Palestine had revolted from him, took his son Nebuchadnezzar into partnership with him in the empire, and sent him with a strong army into those parts, in order to recover what had been lost. It was in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, when Nebuchadnezzar, having defeated Necho's army on the banks of the Euphrates, marched into Syria and Palestine, in order to recover these provinces, which he soon did; and having besieged Jerusalem, took it, and carried away the king, and part of the vessels of the temple along with him, to Babylon. In a short time, however, he released him and restored him to his crown, on condition that he should become tributary to him, which he continued to be for three years; but in the fourth, he retracted from that subjection, whereupon Nebuchadnezzar came upon him with a fresh invasion. Upon the first invasion, the Rechabites, who, according to the institution of Jonadab the son of Rechab, their founder, had always abstained from wine, and hitherto only lived in tents, apprehending themselves in more danger in the open country, came to Jerusalem for safety. By these people God intended to convince the Jews of their disobedience to him; and therefore he ordered his prophet Jeremiah to bring them to an apartment of the temple, and there offer them wine to drink; which when they refused upon account of its being contrary to their institution, which they never yet had violated, the prophet, (after due commendation of their obedience) turned it upon the Jews, and reproached them, who were God's peculiar people, for being less observant of his laws than the poor Rechabites, who were not of the stock of Israel, had been of the injunctions of their ancestor. Before the next invasion, Jeremiah prophesied that Nebuchadnezzar would again come against Judah and Jerusalem; that he would waste the country, and carry the people captive to Babylon, where they should continue in that condition for the space of seventy years; with many more calamities and woeful desolations that were ready to fall upon them, if they did not repent. But this was so far from making any saving impression upon them, that it only enraged and exasperated them the more against him, insomuch, that, for fear of their malice and wrathful indignation, he was † forced to keep himself concealed. * The prophet's words upon this occasion are these: "Because ye have obeyed the commandments of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according to all that he hath commanded you; thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Jo. nadab, the son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before me for ever," Jer. xxxv. 18, 19. "To stand before a prince, or to see his face," in Scripture phrase, denotes the honour which accrues from being in his service; but the Rechabites were neither priests nor Levites. Hitherto they had lived in the fields, separate from towns and villages, and were averse indeed to any employment either in church or state; but from the time of their captivity (for they were carried along with the two tribes), we find them employed as singers and porters in the service of the temple. To serve in this capacity, there was no necessity for their being of the tribe of Levi; the declaration of the Divine will, by the mouth of the pro phet Jeremiah, was in this case a sufficient vocation. Jeremiah's words upon this occasion are,- I viii. to the end of 2 Chron. |