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take balm for her pain, if fo be she may be healed. It is fomewhat remarkable, that one of Isaiah's prophecies concerning Babylon is intitled (XXI. 1.) the burden of the defert of the fea, or rather of the plain of the fea, for Babylon was feated in a plain, and furrounded by water. The propriety of the expreffion consists in this, not only that any large collection of waters in the oriental stile is called a fea, but also that the places about Babylon, as (9) Abydenus informs us out of Megafthenes, are faid from the beginning to have been overwhelmed with waters, and to have been called the fea,

Cyrus, who was the conqueror of Babylon, and transferred the empire from the Babylonians to the Medes and Perfians, was particularly foretold by name (If. XLIV. 28. XLV. 1.) above an hundred years before he was born. He is honored with the appellation of the Lord's anointed, and the Lord is faid to have holden his right hand, and to have girded him: (If. XLV. 1, 5.) and he was raised up to be an inftrument of providence for great purposes, and was certainly a perfon of very extraordinary endowments,

A. Ferunt, inquit, loca hæc omnia jam inde ab initio aquis obruta fuiffe, marifque

nomine appellata. Eufeb. Præp. Evang. Lib. 9. Cap. 41. P-457Edit. Vigeri.

(1)-omnem

ments, tho' we should allow that Xenophon had a little exceeded the truth, and had drawn his portrait beyond the reality. It was promised that he should be a great conqueror, should fubdue nations before him, (If. XLV. 1.) and I will loofe the loins of kings to open before him the two-leaved gates, and the gates fhall not be shut: and he fubdued several kings, and took several cities, particularly Sardes and Baylon, and extended his (1) conquefts over all Afia from the river Indus to the Egean fea. It was promised that he should find great spoil and treasure among the conquered nations; (If. XLV. 3.) I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of fecret places: and the riches which Cyrus found in his conquests amounted to a prodigious value in (2) Pliny's account; nor can we wonder at it, for those parts of Asia at that time abounded in wealth and luxury; Babylon had been heaping up treasures for many years; and the riches of Cræfus king of Lydia, whom Cyrus conquered and took prifoner, are in a manner become proverbial.

The time too of the reduction of Babylon was marked out by the prophet Jeremiah,

(1)

(XXV.

-omnem Afiam ab In- Marfhami Chron. Sæc. XVIII.

dia ufque ad Egeum mare. P. 587.

(2) Plin.

(XXV. 11, 12.) These nations (that is the Jews and the neighbouring nations) shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years; And it shall come to pass when Seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, faith the Lord. This prophecy was delivered, as it appears from the first verse of the. chapter, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the fon of fofiab king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon: and from that time there were (3) 70 years to the taking of Babylon and the reftoration of the Jews. Nebuchadnezzar had transplanted the Jews to Babylon to people and strengthen the place, and their removal from thence must have weakened it very much; and after that it was diftreffed more and more, till at laft it was brought to nought.

Several circumftances likewife of the fiege and taking of Babylon were prefignified by the prophets. It was foretold, that God would ftir up the Medes and Perfians against it; Go up O Elam, that is Perfia, (If. XXI. 2.) befiegė O Media; and (Jer. LI. 11.) the Lord bath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes,

(2) Plin. Lib. 33. Cap. 15. Edit. Harduin.

for

(3) See Prideaux and other chronologers.

(4) Elam

for his device is against Babylon to deftroy it : And accordingly it was befieged by the united forces of the Medes and Perfians under the command of Cyrus, the Perfian, the nephew and fon-in-law of the king of the Medes. The Medes are chiefly spoken of, as they were at that time the fuperior people. The Medes is too a general name for both nations, and fo it is ufed and applied by feveral Greek hiftorians. as well as by the facred writers. Elam (4) was an old name for Perfia, for the name of Perfia doth not appear to have been known in Ifaiah's time; Ezekiel is the first who mentions it. And (5) Bochart afferts, that the Perfians were first so named from their becoming horfemen in the time of Cyrus, the fame word fignifying both a Perfian and a horfeman. Or if by Elam we understand the province strictly fo called, it is no lefs true that this alfo, tho' fubject to Babylon, rofe up against it, and upon the

(5) At Perfis ipfis nomen fuit ab equitatu, qua maxime valebant, equitare a teneris edocti.-Quâ tamen difciplinâ primus illos imbuit Cyrus.-Itaque ex tam repentina mutatione factum, ut hæc regio Paras, et incola NDD Perfæ dicerentur, id eft, equites. Arabice enim

(4) Elam eft Perfis, et cum Media fæpius conjungitur. Perfarum nomen, ante captivitatem Babylonicam, obfcurum fuit. Ezechiel primus, inter bellicofas gentes, illos recenfet, (27; 10. & 38: 5.) quum nondum innotuerant res Cyri. A Cyro demum natione Perfâ, et victoriis inclyto, Perfarum glo- Pharas eft équus, et DOND ria increbuit. Marfhami Chron. Pharis eques (ut Hebraicé w Sæc. XVIII. p. 564.

Paras)

the following occafion. Abradates (6) was viceroy or governor of Sufa or Shufhan, and Shufhan was the capital of the province of Elam. (Dan. VIII. 2.) His wife Panthea, a lady of exquifite beauty, happened to be taken prifoner by the Perfians. Cyrus treated her with fuch generofity, and preferved her with fuch ftrict honor fafe and inviolate for her husband, as won the heart of the prince, fo that he and his forces revolted to Cyrus, and fought in his army against the Babylonians.

It was foretold, that various nations should unite against Babylon; (If. XIII. 4.) The noife of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noife of the kingdoms of nations gathered together; the Lord of hosts muflereth the boft of the battle: and particularly it was foretold, that the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Afbchenaz, that is the (7) Armenians, Phrygians, and other nations fhould compofe part

Paras) Porro vox eadem Pharis etiam Perfam fignificat. Inde eft, quod neque Mofes, nec libri Regum, nec Efaias aut Jeremias, Perfarum meminerunt, neque quifquam eorum, qui vixerunt ante Cyrum. At in Daniele et Ezechiele Cyro coxvis, et in libris Paralipomenon, et Efdræ, et Nehemia, et Efther, &c, qui poft Cyrum fcripti

of

his

funt,Perfarum eft frequens mentio. Antea verifimile eft Hebræa nominan Chut et by Elam magnam Perfidis partem inclufiffe. Bocharti Phaleg. Lib. 4. Cap. 10. Col. 224.

(6) Xenoph. Cyropæd. Lib. 4, 5, 6, 7.

(7) Vide Bocharti Phaleg. Lib. 1. Cap. 3. Col. 16. & Col. zo. Lib. 3. Cap. 9. Col. 174. (3)

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