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Ant. Chris.

or 597.

A. M. 9304, Tusalem; where public thanks were given, and burnt sacrifices offered to God, for this &c. or 4814. signal victory; and Judith's oblation *, upon this occasion, was the plunder of Holofer610, &c. nes's tent, with all his rich equipage which the soldiers had presented her with: And, lastly, that after these public rejoicings †, she went back to Bethulia again, where she lived in great splendour and renown, and after a good old age died, and was buried with her husband Manasseh, much beloved, and much lamented by the people. But to look back to the affairs of Judea.

In the seventh year of his reign, Zedekiah, being grown impatient of the Babylonish -yoke, had sent his ambassadors, and made a confederacy with Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt; which, when Nebuchadnezzar understood, he drew together a great army out of all the nations that were under his dominion, and in a short time marched towards Judea, to punish him for his perfidy and rebellion. His victorious army soon over-ran the country; and having taken most of the cities, in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, the tenth month of the year, and the tenth day of the month, it came before Jerusalem and blocked it close up on every side; so that, in a short time, the famine began to prevail and in memory of this, the Jews have ever since observed the tenth day of Tebeth (the month when this happened) as a day of solemn fasting and humiliation even to

this time.

On that very day of the month, when the siege of Jerusalem began, Ezekiel, then a captive in Chaldea, bad it revealed to him by the type of a boiling pot, what a dismal destruction should be brought upon that city; and, in the beginning of the next year, Jeremiah was ordered to declare to the king, that the Babylonians, who were then besieging the town, would certainly take it, and burn it with fire; make him prisoner, and carry him to Babylon, where he should die: which provoked Zedekiah to such a degree, that he ordered him to be clapped up close in prison.

As Nebuchadnezzar's army was approaching Jerusalem, Zedekiah and his people, in dread of what might follow, made a shew of returning unto the Lord their God. They entered into a solemn covenant thenceforward to serve him only, and to obey his laws; and, in pursuance of that, agreed to proclaim a manumission, or liberty to all Hebrew servants of either sex, according to what the law to enjoined; but upon the

Nothing is more common, both in sacred and
profane history, than to meet with several kinds of
spoils taken in wars dedicated to God, in acknow-
ledgment of his goodness, and in memory of the vic
tory, which, by his blessing and assistance, was then
obtained. Calmet's Commentary.

The joy which the people of Jerusalem express-
ed
upon Judith's entry
is thus related:-" Then all
the women of Israel ran together to see her, and
blessed her, and made a dance among them for her;
and she took branches in her hand, and gave also to
the women that were with her, and they put a gar-
land of olive upon her and on her maid that was with
her, and she went before all the people in the dance,
leading the women, and all the men of Israel followed
with garlands, and with songs in their mouths." Ju-
dith xv. 12, 13.

+ The words of the law are these:-"If thy bro-
ther, an Hebrew man or an Hebrew woman, be sold
unto thee, and serve thee six years, then in the se-
venth year thou shalt let him go free from thee; and
when thou sendest him out free from thee thou shalt
not let him go away empty; thou shalt furnish him
liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and
out of thy wine-press; of that wherewith the Lord hath
blessed thee thou shalt give unto him: And thou shalt

remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.—It shall not seem hard unto thee when thou sendest him away free from thee; for he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee, in serving thee six years, and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest," Deut. xv. 12, &c. Now, for the better understanding of this, we must observe, that there were two periods of time wherein this release of Jewishr bond-slaves was enjoyed, the year of jubilee, which was every fiftieth, and the Sabbatical year, which was every seventh year. The Sabbatical year is what is here intended: It now happened in the eighth year of Zedekiah's reign; but (as Prideaux in his preface remarks) had not been observed for above 360 years before; for which reason the Jews, being now in a state of compunction, were for restoring it to its primitive institution; but upon the removal of their fears, by the withdrawing of Nebuchadnezzar's forces, they repented of their good intentions, and recalled their servants to their slavery again. Why the observation of such a year in seven was enjoined the reasons are pretty obvious: For, besides the commemoration of the Israelites release from the Egyptian bondage which the text specifies, the general release of ser vants, and the restoration of lands and tenements to

viii. to the end

coming of Hophra king of Egypt to the relief of Jerusalem, and Nebuchadnezzar's From 1 Kings raising the siege to meet him, and give him battle, the Jews were generally of opinion, of 2 Chron. that the Chaldeans were gone for good and all, and thereupon repented of their cove-. nant of reformation, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, to return to their servitude: which base and inhuman prevarication so provoked God, that he ordered his prophet to proclaim liberty to the sword, and to the famine, and to the pestilence, to execute his wrath upon them, and their king, and their princes, and all Judah and Jerusalem, to their utter destruction.

Jeremiah, indeed, in all the answers which he returned to the king, (who, upon the departure of the Chaldeans sent frequently to consult him) was always positive, that the Egyptians, whom he depended upon, would certainly deceive him; that their army would return without giving him any assistance; and that the Chaldeans would thereupon renew the siege, take the city, and burn it with fire. During their absence, however, he thought it no improper time to endeavour to avoid the approaching siege by retiring to Anathoth, his native place; but as he was passing the gate of the city which led that way, the captain of the guard seized him as a deserter, and brought him before the princes, who, in much rage, fell upon him, and beat him, and then committed him to the common jail, where he continued for many days.

In the mean time the Egyptians, not daring to engage the Chaldean army, retired before them into their own country, leaving Zedekiah and his people, with their unequal strength, to contend with Nebuchadnezzar, who now returned more exasperated than ever to re-invest the city of Jerusalem. Nor had he been long before it, ere the king sent messengers to Jeremiah to enquire of him, then in prison, concerning the fate of the present war: but his constant answer was,-" That God, being highly provoked against him and his people for their manifold iniquities, would fight against the city, and smite it; that both king and people should be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon; that those who continued in the city during the siege should perish by the pestilence, by the famine, and by the sword; but that those who endeavoured to escape, though they fell into the hands of the Chaldeans, would have their lives preserved:" At which several of the princes, and chief commanders, being very much offended, pressed the king against him, as one who, by his speeches, discouraged the soldiers and people, and was enough indeed to occasion a defection.

In this conjuncture of affairs, the king was obliged to deliver him into their hands; and they, with unrelenting cruelty, cast him into a nasty dungeon †, where inevitably he must have perished, had not Ebed-melech †, one of the king's eunuchs, interceded

their first owners, which were then to be transacted, were to hinder the rich from oppressing the needy, and reducing them to perpetual slavery; that debts should not be too much multiplied, nor the poor, consequently, entirely ruined; but that a liberty of people's persons, an equality of their fortunes, and the order and distinction of their tribes and families (as far as it was possible) might be preserved: And it was something like this that Lycurgus established a mong the Lacedemonians, in his instituting an equality among persons, banishing slavery, and preventing (as far as he could) any one's becoming too powerful [But how very inferior the regulations of the Spartan legislator for these purposes, were to those of Moses, the reader will find clearly proved in Dr Graves's Lectures on the Pentateuch.] Bedford's Scripture Chronology, lib. iv. e. 4. and Calmet's Dictionary under the word Sabbath.

or too rich.

+ Some think that, when he was in this dismal place, he made those mournful meditations which are

set down in the third chapter of the Lamentations.
"They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast
a stone upon me.-I called upon thy name, O Lord,
out of the low dungeon, and thou hast heard my
voice, &c." ver. 53. 55. 56. Lowth's Commentary on
Jer. xxxviii.

This charitable intercessor for the prophet in his
distress, is, in the text, said to have been an Ethio-
pian: accordingly Huetius (in his Treatise de Naviga
tione Solomonis, cap. 7.) observes from Josephus,
that Solomon, in his voyage to Tarshish, (1 Kings
x. 22.) amongst other merchandise brought slaves
from Ethiopia, which was likewise the practice of the
Greeks and Romans in after-ages, as he there proves
by several testimonies: And such an one he supposes
this Ebed-melech to have been originally, though af-
terwards he was promoted to be an eunuch, or chief
officer of the king's house. Lowth's Commentary on
Jer. xxxviii.

&c. or 4825.

A. M. 3394, with his master to have him released from thence, and sent back to his former prison; Ant. Chris. for which favour, the prophet assured him from God, that he should not perish at the

610, &c.

or 586.

sacking of the city.

As the city began to be pressed more by the siege, the king desired a private conference with Jeremiah, who accordingly was sent for to an apartment of the temple; but the prophet could give no other answer to his questions than what he had done before; only he advised him to surrender to the enemy, as the best expedient to save both himself and the city. The king, though urged by the prophet, could by no means bring himself to think of that. At his breaking off the discourse, however, he obliged him to secrecy, though he did not forget to remand him to prison: And this is the last interview that the prophet had with the king.

In the mean time, the siege began to draw towards a conclusion. The people within the walls, through the scarcity of provisions, were reduced to the last necessity, even (a) to feed on one another; and those without had now finished their works, and provided all things for a general assault; when, in the eleventh year of king Zedekiah, and on the ninth day of the fourth month of that year, the city was taken by storm about midnight, and every place filled with blood and slaughter. Through the favour of the night, Zedekiah and his friends, * endeavoured to make their escape towards the wil derness; but he had not gone far before he was taken and carried to Nebuchadnezzar, who was then at Riblah †, where, after some severe reproaches *2, he first caused his sons, and the princes of Judah taken with him, to be slain before his face, and then commanded his eyes | to be put out, and himself to be bound in fetters of brass, to be

(a) Lament. iv. 4, 5. and Ezek. v. 10.

* It is a bard matter to conceive how the besieged could make their escape, seeing that the Chaldeans had begirt the city round about. Josephus indeed gives us this account:-" That as the city was taken about midnight, the captains, with the rest of the soldiers, went directly into the temple; which king Zedekiah perceiving, he took his wives, children, commanders, and friends, and they slipt all away together, by a narrow passage towards the wilderness " But then what this narrow passage was is still the question. The Jews indeed think, that there was a subterraneous passage from the palace to the plains of Jericho, and that the king, and his courtiers, might endeavour to make their escape that way. Dion, it is true, tells us, lib. Ixvi. that in the last siege of Jerusalem, the Jews had covert ways, which went under the walls of the city, to a considerable distance into the country, out of which they were wont to sally, and fall upon the Romans that were straggling from their camp: But since neither Josephus, nor the sacred historian, takes notice of any such subter. raneous conduit at this siege, we may suppose, that the Chaldeans having made a breach in the wall, the besieged got away privately between the wall and the outworks in a passage which the enemy did not suspect. The words in the second book of Kings are: "They went by the way of the gate, between the two walls, which is by the king's garden,", chap. xxv. 4. which in Jeremiah are thus expressed:-" They went by the way of the king's garden, by the gate between the two walls:" So that as the king's garden faced the country, very likely there was some very private and imperceptible gate, through which they might attempt to escape, and the besiegers perhaps

might not keep so strict a watch at that part of the town (especially in the hurry of storming it), because it led to the plain, and made their escape in a manner impracticable. Jewish Hist. lib. x. c. 11. Patrick's, Le Clerc's, and Culmet's Commentaries.

Riblah was a city of Syria, in the country of Hamah, which country is the nearest to Judea, and which city, according to St Jerom, was the same with what was afterwards called Antioch; and as it was the most pleasant place in all Syria, here Nebuchadnezzar lay, to attend the success of the siege of Jerusalem, to send his army proper supplies, and to intercept any relief that might come to the besieged. Patrick's Commentary..

** Nebuchadnezzar no sooner cast his eye upon him, says Josephus, (Jewish Antiq. lib. x. c. 11.) than he called him all the faithless and perfidious names that he could think of. "Did you not promise me to manage the power and authority that I put you in possession, for my advantage and behoof? And am not I well requited, do you think, for ma king you a king in your brother Jehoiakim's place, by your employing of the credit and interest that I gave you, to the ruin of your patron and benefactor? But that God is great and just, who for the punishment of your treachery and ingratitude, hath now made you my prisoner." But there is a mistake in this speech of Nebuchadnezzar's, viz his making Zedekiah succeed his brother Jehoiakin, whereas he was put in the place of his nephew Jehoiachin; but his nephew's reign was so very short (little more than three months), that this imperious monarch might look upon it as nothing at all.

Josephus takes notice, that the seeming contradiction in the prophesies of Ezekiel and Jeremiah,

sent to Babylon, and put in prison for life, to the full accomplishment of what the from 1 Kings two prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, had foretold concerning him.

viii. to the end . of 2 Thes

As soon as Nebuchadnezzar had advice of the taking of Jerusalem, he sent Nebuzaradan, the captian of his guards, with orders to raze the place, plunder the temple, and carry the people that were left captives to Babylon; which he failed not to execute with the utmost rigour and cruelty. For having taken all the vessels out of the house of the Lord, and gathered together all the riches that he could find, either in the king's palace, or in any great mens houses, he *2 set both the temple and city on fire, and overthrew all the walls, fortresses, and towers thereunto belonging, until he had brought the whole to a perfect desolation: And upon these two sad occasions, viz. the taking of the city, and the destruction of the temple, the prophet Jeremiah composed a mournful poem, which is called his Lamentations †, and the Jews observe two annual fasts, the one on the fourth month, which falls in with our June, and the other in the fifth month, which answers to part of our July, even to this day.

concerning the fate of Zedekiah, made that prince give no heed to what was foretold. Ezekiel's prophecy is delivered in these words:" I will bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans, yet shall he not see it, though he die there," chap. xii. 13. and Jeremiah's in these:-" He shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes," chap. xxxii. 4. both of which were literally accomplished; for Zedekiah was carried to Riblah, where he saw the king of Babylon, and spake to him, and beheld his children executed; but had afterwards his eyes put out, and was then carried to Babylon, where he was incapable of seeing the city, because he had lost his eye sight. Jewish Antiq. lib. 10. c. 11 Calmet's, and Patrick's Commentaries.

* The reflection which Josephus makes upon this occasion is very good and moral :-" This may serve to convince even the ignorant, says he, of the power and wisdom of God, and of the constancy of his counsels, through all the various ways of his operations. It may likewise shew us, that God's foreknowledge of things is certain, and his Providence regular in the ordering of events; besides that, it holds forth a most examplary instance of the danger of our giving way to the motions of sin and infidelity, which deprive us of the means of discerning God's judgments, which are ready to fall upon us." Jewish Antiquities, lib. x.

c. 11.

*The temple was burnt, from the time that it was built, four hundred years, says Sir John Marsham; four hundred and twenty-four years, three months, and eight days, says Primate Usher; four hundred and thirty years, says Abarbinel, and other learned Jews; But Josephus computes the thing still higher; for he tells us, that the temple was burnt four hun dred and seventy years, six months, and ten days, from the building of it; one thousand and sixty years, six months, and ten days, from the Israelites coming out of the land of Egypt; one thousand nine hundred and fifty years, six months, and ten days, from the deluge; and three thousand five hundred and thirty years, six months, and ten days, from the creation of the world. [According to this chronology, as recti

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fied by Dr Hales, the temple was burnt 441 years af
ter its foundation was laid by Solomon; 1062 years
from the coming of the Israelites out of Egypt; 2569
years from the deluge; and 4825 years from the era
of the creation.] Josephus stands amazed, that the
second temple should be burnt by the Romans in the
same month, and on the very same day of the month,
that this was set on fire by the Chaldeans, and, as
some of the Jewish doctors say, when the Levites
were singing the same psalm in both destructions,
viz. xciv. 23. "He shall bring upon them their own
iniquity, and he shall cut them off in their own wick-
edness; yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off."
Patrick's Commentary, and Jewish Antiq. lib. x. c. 11.
The Hebrews call this book Echa, (how) from
the first word in the text, "How does the city sit,
&c." or Kinnoth, which signifies Lamentations, and
the Greeks call it 9gvo, a word of the like import.
In the two first chapters, the author is employed in
describing the calamities of the siege of Jerusalem;
in the third, he deplores the persecutions which him-
self had suffered; in the fourth, he bemoans the fate
of the city and temple, and Zedekiah's sad misfor-
tune; and, in the fifth, he addresses his prayer to
God in behalf of his brethren the Jews, under their
dispersion and captivity. The whole is wrote in a
very lively, tender, and pathetic style; and all the
chapters, except the last, (which seems to have been
of later composition than the rest) are in acrostic
verse, i e. every line or couplet begins in an alphabe-
tical order, with some letter in the Hebrew alphabet.
In the third chapter, each letter is successively thrice
repeated; but in the second, third, and fourth chap.
ters, there is this thing peculiar, viz. that the letter
Pe is set before Ain; whereas, in the first chapter,
as well as in all the acrostic psalms, Ain is continual-
ly first; but the reason of this is hard to tell: For
what some advance, viz. that as the letter Ain signi-
fies Seventy, the transposition seems to denote the
confusion which the prophet was in, when he consi-
dered that this captivity was to last seventy years;
this has too great an air of a fiction in it. Bedford's
Scripture Chronology, lib. vi. c. 3. and Calmet's Dic-
tionary under the word Lamentations.

Ant. Chris.

or 586.

A. M. 3394, Having thus destroyed the city and temple, Nebuzaradan made all the people that &c. or 4825. he found in the place captives. Some of the chief of these, such as Seraiah the high 610, &c. priest, Zephaniah † the second priest, and about seventy others, he carried to Riblah, where Nebuchadnezzar +2 caused them all to be put to death. The poorer and labouring part of the people, such as could till the ground, and dress the vineyards, he left behind him, and made Gedaliah +3 their governor; but as for all the rest, he carried them directly away to Babylon; only Jeremiah, (of whom Nebuchadnezzar had given him charge to take particular care) he not only took out of prison when he first came to Jerusalem, but, as the rest were upon their departure, gave him his option, whether he would go with him to Babylon, where he should be maintained very plentifully at the king's charge, or else remain in the country; and when the prophet had chose the latter, he dismissed him honourably, with an handsome present, and with letters of recommendation to the governor Gedaliah, wherein he gave him a strict charge to take particular care of him.

THE OBJECTION.

BUT how careful soever the Babylonians might be of the prophet Jeremiah, because they might suppose that his predictions had done them service; yet certainly they would have entertained no great opinion either of him or them, had they been informed in what a wild and frantic manner, both he and some other prophets were accustomed to deliver them. For, (a) what can we say less of his making (b) bonds and yokes to put upon his own neck, and to send to several kings, neighbouring upon Judea, by the hands of their ambassadors, then residing in Jerusalem, to put them in mind of their future captivity to the king of Babylon? A notable present for any great minister to make to his prince upon his return from abroad! (c) What can we say less of (d) his taking a journey, at two several times, from Jerusalem to the river Euphrates, of about five hundred and fifty miles, merely to hide his girdle in the hole of the rock, that when he fetched it again, he might find it all mouldered and tattered, and upon that presumption, have it to say to his countrymen, that (e) God would in like manner mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem?'

(f) What can we say less of his brother Ezekiel's drawing figures upon a slate, (the common amusement of fools and children) and (g) portraying Jerusalem with a fort and mount, and camp and battering-rams, and an iron pot, to represent its walls; and all this for a sign to the people, that their city, in like manner, should be besieged? What less of

The Jews call their second priest their Sagan, whose business it was to supply the function of the high priest, in case he was sick, or any other incapacity attended him. We find no such particular institution under the law; but Eleazar, the son of Aaron, who is styled "the chief over the chief of the Levites, and who had the oversight of them who kept the charge of the sanctuary," Numb. iii. 32. and whose authority was not much inferior to that of the high priest, may (not improperly) be deemed one of that order. Calmet's Commentary.

+ Because, very probably, he looked upon them as the king's principal counsellers, who advised him to rebel against him. Patrick's Commentary.

+3 Gedaliah, we understand, was the son of Ahi-
kam, Jeremiah's great friend; and it is not unlikely,
that, by the prophet's advice, who exhorted all, both
king and people, to surrender themselves to the As-
syrians, Jer. xxxviii. 5, 17. he made his escape from
the city, and went over to the king of Babylon; and
for this reason was promoted to the government of
Judea. Calmet's and Patrick's Commentaries.
(a) Christianity as old as the Creation, p. 250.
(b) Jer. xxvii. 2, 3.

(c) Christianity, ibid. p. 255.
(d) Jer. xiii. 1.

(e) Ibid. ver. 9.
(f) Christianity, ibid. p. 255.
(g) Ezek. iv. 1.

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