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V. 32. Antiochus Epiphanes took the Women Captive: Celo Syria is the Well without Water, in which the Captives were. This is the First Horn who fcattered the Jews, and Prolemaus Lagus the First Prince that took them Captive after Zachary's Days.

V. 53. Antiochus drove them into fecret Places wherefoever they could fly; and the Inhabitants of Jerufa! lem fled, 1 Maccab. ch. 3. v. 21. The Jews fought in defence of their Laws and Covenant; and there is faid, By the Blood of thy Covenant thou haft fent forth them that are bound. (The Merchants, v. 41. came to the Syrians Camp to buy Slaves.). Or this may relate to Judas Maccabeus, who delivered his Countreymen out of Galaad, and brought them with him into Judea from the Caftles and Cities in which they were befieged; or to Ptolemæus Lagus, who carried away many Captives into Egypt: Bu: Ptolemy Philadelphus released them. Ptolemy placed many of the Jews in the Towns of Cyrene and Libya. Darius Ocbus led many Jews into Egypt with him, and fent many Captives into Hyrcania; because they were engaged in the Phenician War against him; but this was before Alexander's Days, and this Captivity is after.

V. 12. Turn ye to the fortified Places, you Prifoners of Hope, (or of the Synagogues, that ftay in them) and for one Day of your Banishment I will return you double (Rewards.)

Fudah I have bent as a Bow, for my felf, and filled the Bow of Ephraim: I will raife up thy Sons, O Sion, against thy Sons, O Greece; and I will handle thee as the Sword of a Warrior, and the Lord fhall be upon them, and his Arrows fhall go forth as Lightening, and the Lord Omnipotent shall found with the Trumpet, and go forth with the Tempeft of bis Anger; the Lord Almighty' fhall protect them, and they fhall confume them, and they shall subdue them with SlingStones, and fhall drink them up as Wine, and fill their Veffels as at the Altar; and the Lord God fhall fave them in that Day, as the Flock of his People: therefore holy Stones are rolled on the Land that is for the Repair of the City and Temple; then his Goodness and Beauty will be; there will be Corn for the young Men, and pleafant Wine for the Virgins;

gins. Thefe will be great Bleffings from God. (This is a Prophecy of the Maccabees, who, by God's Affiftance, would conquer the Syrian Princes, and repair the Temple polluted by Antiochus; and then there would be Plenty of Bread and Wine.)

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Ch. 10. The former and latter Rain, and the Herbs in the Fields Therefore their Idols have spoken Vanity, and the Diviners have feen a Lye, and told false Dreams; they comfort in vain; they were troubled, because there was no Shepherd; they were dried up as a Flock.

The Jews are advised to ask Fruitful Seafons from God, and not depend on Idols, which were fet up by the Syrian Princes: For which reason, their High-Prieft Onias was taken away at Antioch.

V. 3. My Fury was ftirred up against the Shepherds, and I will punish the Goats, or vifit the Lambs, and the Flock, the House of Judah, and order them in Battel, as his comely Horfe. (The Shepherds here, are those wicked Men, who bought the High-Prieft's Office, Simon, Fafon and Menelaus, from the Syrian Princes.

V. 4, From God will be the Governour, from him he that fets in order the Battel, and from him fhall come the Bow in his Anger, and from him fhall come every one that expels (the Enemy) by his Power.

God fets up an Overfeer, or Governour, to order the Battel, to give Arms, and to expel the Syrian Commanders by the Maccabees, who were of the House of Judah.

V. 5. And they fhall be as Warriors, treading down their Enemies as Dirt in the Street; and they fhall fight, for the Lord is with them; and the Riders on their Enemies Horfes fhall be confounded and be vanquished.

V. 6. I will ftrengthen the House of Judah, and save the House of Jofeph, and bring them again to inhabit Jerufalem, and they fhall be in the fame Condition as if I had not caft them out; because I am the Lord your God.

V.7. And they of Ephraim fhall be as mighty Men, and their Heart shall rejoice as in Wine, their Heare fhall rejoice in the Lord.

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V. 8. I will hifs for them, or give a Sign to them, and gather them, and they fhall increase; I will fow them among the People, and they that are afar off fhall remember me, and return from the Land of Egypt and Affyria, into the Land of Gilead and Lebanus, and Place fhall not be found for them.

V. 11. And they fhall come thro' the narrow, (or empty) Sea, the Bofphorus, and the Pride of Affyria fhall be brought down, and the Scepter of Egypt depart away. (This was done by the Roman Commanders, who conquer'd both Ægypt and Babylon, and all the Grecian Kingdoms in Afia.

Ch. 9. v. 14. Says, his Arrow fhall go forth like Light ning. (This relates to the Battel that Judas fought with Timotheus, in which there appear'd Five Men upon Horfes; they cover'd Maccabæus, and they fhot Darts and Lightening againft his Enemies; fo that they were confounded with Blindness.) Ch. 10. describes God's Affiftance of the Magcabees in the Conqueft of the Syrians and Ægyptians, and that thofe Kingdoms fhould be deftroy'd, and the fcatter'd Jews return. By Ephraim, the Samaritans are defcrib'd; because they poffeffed the Countrey of Ephraim. And Judas led his Army from Samaria againft Azotus, and conquei'd Apollonius in Samaria.

Demetrius and Alexander, Kings of Syria, reftor'd many Jews to their Liberty, and the Hoftages in the Fortrels of Ferufalem.

CHAP.

CHAP. XI.

The Coming of Pompey into Syria, the Corruption of the Priests, the True Shepherd Chrift Fefus, the Destruction of Jerufalem, and Captivity of the People by the Romans, and the Falfe Meffiab.

V.i. Pen, Libanus, thy Gates, and and let the Fire eat up thy Cedars. Howl, Pine-Tree, because the Cedar is fallen, becaufe all the mighty Men are spoiled: How!, ye Oaks of Bafan, because the thick Wood is cut down, (or the Foreft of the Vintage,) the Voice of the mourning Shepherds, becaufe their Glory is fpoiled, a Voice of the roaring Lions; for the Pride of Jordan is spoi⚫led.

By Libanus, Ferufalem is meant, which was built of the Cedars, and it was now to be burnt. Jerufalem is called Libanus by Ifaiah, Ch.9. v. 17. And the Cedars represent the Honourable Men; the Pine, the Citizens, who will lament for the Fall of their Princes; the Oaks are the Men of War, and the thick Wood, the common People.

The Magnificence, or Glory of the Shepherds, is the Tem ple, and its Service, for which they mourn.

The Inundation of Fordan drives away the roaring Lions, who lodged near it: And the Inundation intimates the Invafion by the Romans, who will conquer the Inhabitants. Pompey came into Syria, and march'd to Damafcus against the 4rabians, and there he heard the Caufe of Hircanus and Ariftobulus, and feized Ariftobulus, and forced him to furrender

his Caftles, and at laft followed him to Jerufalem, and pitched his firft Camp at Jericho. He was received by Hircanus's Party into the City, and befieged Ariftobulus's Party in the Temple. Twelve thoufand of the People were flain at the Taking of the Temple; and Pompey enter'd the Holy of Holies; then he made Hircanus High Prieft, but would not fuffer him to wear a Diadem; and carried Ariftobulus Cap; tive to Rome.

V. 4. Thus faith the Lord, Feed the Sheep of the Slaughter, whofe Poffeffors flay them, and hold themselves not guilty And they that fell them, fay, Bleffed be the Lord, for I am rich; and their own Shepherds pity them not: For I will no more pity the Inhabitants of the Land; but will deliver the Men every one into their Neighbour's Hand, and into the Hand of his King; and they fhall Imite the Land, and cut off their Hand: I will not deliver them. And I will feed the Sheep of the Slaughter, unto the poor Canaanite. And I took to me two Rods, or Staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other Bands, or a Line ; and I I fed the Flock.

V. 8. And I will take away Three Shepherds in one Month: I will cut them off; my Soul loathed them, and they abhorred me. And I faid, I will not feed you; that that dieth, let it die, (and that was by the Plague, or Fa mine, in the Siege of Jerufalem.) and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off, (by the Enemy in the taking of the City,) and let the reft eat every one the Flesh of another; (that is, kill one another.) This is a Defcription of the Detruction of Ferufalem by Titus. The Three Shepherds are the Three Factions in the Siege, John, Simon and Eleazar; they were the Heads of them. There died by Famine and Peftilence great Numbers in the Siege; by Fire and Sword, Ten Thousand; Two Thousand kill'd themselves; Seven Thousand nine hundred were taken Captives; Seven Thoufand were fent to Egypt. Titius fold thofe of Sixteen Years old, Thirty for a Penny. The Number of them that died in the Siege, Jofephus makes One hundred and ten Thou fand. These are the Sheep of the Slaughter.