A. M. 3394. A. C. 610; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4314. A. C. 597. 1 KINGS viii. TO THE END OF 2 CHRON. The author of the book of Judith a relates, that Nebu- | defeated, and slew him, but made himself master of sevechodonosor, king of Assyria, in the twelfth year of his ral of his cities, and among others, of Ecbatan, the reign, fought a great battle in the plains of Ragau, c with royal seat of the Median empire, which he miserably Arphaxad & king of Media, wherein he not only utterly defaced: and afterwards returned in great triumph to Nineveh that, some time after inquiring of his officers, nobles, and counsellors, what tributary countries had not gone with them to the war, for he had summoned them all to attend him, and finding that none of the western provinces had paid that regard to his commands, he made a decree that Holofernes, the chief captain of his army, should not fail the next year to chastise their disobed ience: that, pursuant to this decree, this general took the field with a vast army; 8 and having wasted and destroyed several other nations, at length came unto Judea, where he laid siege to Bethuliah, a strong town in the him, gives a summary account of it, even as he does of other sacred books, from his example we may be permitted to justify the short abridgment which we have made of it in our History of the Holy Bible.-Calmet's Dictionary under the word Judith. a Who this author was, it nowhere appears. St Jerome seems to think that Judith wrote it herself, but produces no good authority for his opinion. Others will have it, that the high priest Joakim, mentioned in this book, was the author of it; but this is equally a bare conjecture; nor is there much more certainty in those, who, supposing the history to have happened in the time of Cambyses, ascribe it to Joshua, the son of Josedek, who was high priest at that time. But whoever the author was, he seems to be posterior to the facts which he relates, because he speaks of the festival instituted in memory of Judith's victory, as still continued in his time, (Judith xvi. 20.) The book was originally written in the Cha'dee language, which is not now extant; but from thence, at the desire of Paula and Eustochium, St Jerome formed the translation, which we now have in the vulgar Latin edition of the Bible, not rendering it word for word, as himself tells us in his preface to the history, but repairing the corruptions of the various readings, and giving us, according to the best of his judgment, the true and entire sense of the original. Besides this translation of St Jerome's, there are two others, one in Greek, and the other in Syriac. That which is in Greek is attributed to Theodotion, who lived in the time of Commodus, who was made emperor of Rome in the year of Christ 180. But the version was much ancienter; for Clemens Romanus, as we said, in his epistle to the Corinthians, which was wrote near 126 years before, has a quotation from it. The Syriac translation was made from the Greek, and so was also the English, which we, at present, have among the apocryphal writings in our Bible. And of all these three versions, it may be observed, that there are several particulars in them which are not in Jerome's, and which seem to be those various readings which he professes to have cut off, as vicious corruptions of the text; so that, in this Jespect, St Jerome's translation ought to have the preference, whenever there is any remarkable difference between them. Prideaux's Connection, anno 655, and Calmet's Dissertation on the Book of Judith. This Nabuchodonosor is the same prince whom Herodotus calls Saosduchinus, who, after the death of Esarhaddon, (the same who took the advantage of Masessimordacus's dying without issue, and united the kingdom of Babylon to that of Assyria,) succeeded to his acquisitions; and the reason why the author of this book of Judith, who apparently wrote either in Babylon, or some other part of Chaldea, calls him Nabuchodonosor, is, because this was the common name, as Pharaoh was in Egypt, of the kings of that country.-Calmet's Commentary on Judith, and Prideaux's Connection. e The plains of Ragau are very probably those which lie about Rages, a town of Media, standing upon the mountains of Ecbatan, and distant about a small day's-journey from that city. Calmet's Dictionary. d Both our learned Prideaux and primate Usher are of opinion, that this Arphaxad was the person whom profane historians call Dejoces, the first king of the Medes, and founder of Ecbatan; but the account which the book of Judith gives of Arphaxad, and of the circumstances of his death, seems to be more applicable to what Herodotus relates of Phraortes, his son and successor. For, as Arphaxad had many nations under his dominion, and fell in battle against the king of Assyria, (Judith i. 6, 15.) so Herodotus (b. i.) tells us of Phraortes, "That, having subdued the Persians, and made them part of his empire, he soon overcame the rest of the people of the Upper Asia, that is, all that lay north of Mount Taurus, to the river Halys, passing from nation to nation, and always attended with victory; until coming with an army against the Assyrians, with an intent to besiege Nineveh their capital, he was vanquished and slain in the two and twentieth year of his reign. Dejoces, indeed, is said by Herodotus to have been the first founder of Ecbatan; but as the undertaking was very great, it is not improbable, that he left enough to his successor Phraortes to complete; so that all the works which the author of Judith ascribes to Arphaxad (chap. i.) h might be his."-Calmet's Commentary and Dictionary; and Pri deaux's Connection, anno 635. e This city, Herodotus says expressly, was built by Dejoces, the first king of the Medes; but that author is wrong in ascrib ing the honour of the whole work to him, which his son Phraortes, at least finished and beautified to such a degree, that, though the Scripture is silent, profane authors have given us a very advantageous account of it. The city, according to them, was situate on a spacious eminence, and into it Dejoces had brought together the whole nations of the Medes, who never be fore had lived in any thing but caves and huts, dispersed up and down in the country, which great concourse of people made it very large and populous. It was encompassed with seven walls, at equal distances from each other. The first was the lowest and equal in circumference with those of Athens, that is, according to Thucydides, (b. ii.) 178 furlongs. The rest rose gradually, and overlooked each other, about the eighth of a battlement. The battlements were of different colours. The first was white, the second black, the third red, the fourth blue, the fifth of a deep red, the sixth of a silver, and the seventh of a gold colour; and for this reason, as Bochart has observed, this city was usually called by the ancients Agbata, which, in the Arabic language, signifies, a thing of different and distinct colours. The royal palace and treasury stood within the seventh wall; and the palace alone, according to Polybius, (b. x.) was seven furlongs round, and built with all the cost and skill that a stately edifice did require; for some of its beams are said to have been of silver, and the rest of cedar, which were strengthened with plates of gold.—Calmet's Comment. and Dictionary under the word; and Wells' Geography of the Old Testament, vol. 3. [This city stil exists under the name of Hamadan, and is situated in lat. 34° 53′ N., long. 40 E. The tombs of Esther and Mordecai are said to be still preserved in it, and are protected by a colony of Jews, who have been resident there from time immemorial, and at present amount to about 600 families. The whole population of Hamadan is estimated at 40,000.]—ED. f Some annotators are of opinion, that the word Holofernes is of Persian extract, in the same manner as Tisaphernes, Intaphernes, &c. But others imagine that this general was a native either of Pontus or Cappadocia. Polybius makes mention of one of that name, who, having conquered Cappadocia, soon lost it again, because he was for changing the ancient customs of the country, and introducing drunkenness, together with feasts and songs to Bacchus; whereupon Casaubou conjectures, that this was the same Holofernes that commanded Nabuchodonosor's forces, as it must be owned, that his riot and debauchery, as well as the rapidity of his conquests, makes him not unlike him.—See Polyph. apud Athen. b. x. c. 11.; and Casaub, in Athen. g The author of Judith's history has thus described it:-'Ho lofernes mustered the chosen men for the battle, as his lord commanded him, unto an hundred and twenty thousand, and twelve thousand archers on horseback. A great multitude of sundry countries went with them like locusts, and like the sand of the earth: for the multitude was without number' (Judith ii. 15, 20) h Our modern travellers to the Holy Land do almost unani mously agree, that Bethulia is situate in the tribe of Zebulon, about a league from Tiberias towards the west, where they pretend that some marks of Holofernes's camp are still to be seen; but some great men are apt to suspect the report of these travel A. M. 3394. A. C. 610; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4814. A. C. 597. I KINGS viii. TO THE END OF 2 CHRON. any molestation, tribe of Simeon, and by cutting off its waters, reduced as she had brought with her; and, without. it to such extremity, that, through the people's impor- to have leave to go out of the camp at night, or before it tunity, Ozias the governor had promised to surrender was day, in order d to perform her devotions; which the place unless it was relieved in five days: that accordingly was readily granted her: that having lived Judith, a widow lady of an ample fortune, but a of great in this manner for three days, on the fourth, Holofernes virtue and piety withal, sent for the governor and prin- invited her to a splendid entertainment, where she cipal men of the city, to let them know that God, by appeared in her choicest ornaments of dress; and the her hand, would find out an expedient to deliver them; general, in hopes of enjoying the beautiful stranger that but in what manner this was to be effected, she desired night, gave a loose to mirth, and drank more plentifully them not to inquire: that, having addressed herself to than ever he was known to do that, in the evening, all God by prayer for success, and being not insensible of the company being dismissed, except Judith, who was her own beauty, for she was extremely handsome as well left alone with the general intoxicated with liquor, and as virtuous, she adorned herself in all her rich attire, now fallen fast asleep upon the bed, she thought this a and attended only with one maid, left Bethulia, and proper opportunity to put her design in execution; and went directly to the Assyrian camp: that, being stopped therefore, approaching the place where he lay, and taking by the outguard, and carried before the general, he down his scimitar, which hung by him, she first prayed received her with all the civility and respect that her to God to strengthen her in the enterprise, and then, at appearance seemed to demand; and, having understood two strokes, severed his head from his body, which she that the design of her leaving her countrymen was, both gave to her maid, who, by her order was waiting at her to escape the destruction which she foresaw was coming tent door, to put it in the bag wherein her provisions upon them, and to inform him in what situation their were brought: that, having thus accomplished their deaffairs were, and how he might become master of the sign, they passed through the camp unobserved, and place without the loss of one man, he not only promised made the best of their way to Bethulia, where Judith, her his protection, but appointed her and her maid an acquainting the governor and elders of the city with apartment proper for them; for he was already enamour- what she had done, and in testimony thereof, producing ed with her wit and beauty: that, having thus far suc- the head of Holofernes, advised them to hang it out upon the walls as soon as the morning appeared, and ceeded very prosperously, she requested of him, that, as she was a strict observer of the religion of her country, then every one to arm, and sally out of the gates as if she might be permitted to eat separately such provisions they meant to attack the enemy, but, in reality, only to give them an alarm, that thereupon they might have recourse to their general, as she supposed they would, and so come to know what fate had befallen him: that, upon the Bethulians appearing in arms, the outguards gave notice to their officers, and the officers sent to their general; but when they understood that their general was dead, his head gone, and nothing left behind but a senseless trunk wallowing in blood, such a general consternation overspread the camp, that, instead of preparing themselves to fight, the Assyrians threw away their and fled while the Bethulians, and other neighbouring people, to whom Ozias had sent intelligence of this their disaster, attacked them in small parties, from several quarters ; and having slain a considerable number of them, greatly enriched themselves with their spoils : с lers, who are too much accustomed to take up with the traditions of the country, though there is not always the greatest certainty in them. This, however, is incontestible, that both Judith and her husband were of the tribe of Simeon, (Judith viii. 1, and ix. 2,) and for what purpose they should remove to so great a distance from their own inheritance, and settle in a different tribe, we cannot see. Since, therefore, the Scripture takes notice of a place in the tribes of Simeon named Bethuel, (Joshua xix. 4,) a place dependant on Gaza of the Philistines, and famous for its temples, which were very remarkable, both for their antiquity and fine structure, from whence not unlikely it had its name of Bethel, or the house of the Lord, there is much more reason to conclude, that this was the place; since the other, which travellers talk of in the tribe of Zebulun, must be of too modern a date to be the city intended here, because we find neither Joshua, nor Josephus, nor Eusebius, nor St Jerome making any mention of it.—Calmet's Dissertation and Commentary on the Book of Judith. a The character which the historian gives her with respect to this is,―That there was none who gave her an ill word, for she feared the Lord greatly,' (Judith viii. 8,) which is certainly an high commendation, considering how tender and delicate a thing the reputation of a young and beautiful widow is. The word, in ancient translations, is Abra, which signifies a companion, or maid of honour, such as ladies of the first condition had, rather than a servant; for the same word in the Septuagint is applied to the women that attended both Pharaoh's daughter, (Exod. xi. 5,) and Queen Esther, (chap, iv. 4.) c There was no law of God that prohibited the Jews from eating several things that the Gentiles made use of. Bread, wine, and fruits were allowed them with other people; but, either some tradition then prevailing among the Jews, or some religious vow that Judith might have bound herself under, the fear of giving scandal to her countrymen when she returned, or the prayers and pagan invocations which were made over the meat that was served up to Holofernes; some of these reasons, I say, very likely hindered her from accepting the offer which the general made, of provisions from his table, and inclined her to desire to eat alone; a restraint which we find Daniel putting himself under in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, (chap. i. 8.) and Tobit, in that of Salmaneser, (chap. i. 10, &c.) where he says of himself, that when all my brethren, and those that were of my kindred did eat of arms, the bread of the Gentiles, I kept myself from eating, because I e Namely, to go along with her out of the camp to prayers, as she had done the nights before; for it does not appear, from the whole history, that Judith had communicated her design to her woman, but rather that she took upon herself the risk of the whole affair, which could not be conducted with too much secrecy and prudence.-Ca.met's Commentary. f So great was the number of these, that the text tells us, the Bethulians were thirty days in gathering them, (ch. xv. 11. For considering the largeness of the camp of the Assyrians, and the several detachments they might have, some on the moun a A. M. 3394. A. C. 610; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4814. A. C. 597. 1 KINGS viii. TO THE END OF 2 CHRON. that a deputation of the elders from Jerusalem with their | follow, made a show of returning unto the Lord their chief priests accompanying them, came to Bethulia to God. They entered into a solemn covenant thenceforcompliment Judith upon this her great achievement, with ward to serve him only, and to obey his laws; and in whom she repaired to the temple at Jerusalem; where pursuance of that, agreed to proclaim a manumission, or public thanks were given, and burnt sacrifices offered to liberty to all Hebrew servants of either sex, according God, for this signal victory, and Judith's oblation, to what the law enjoined; but upon the coming of upon this occasion was the plunder of Holofernes's tent, Hophra king of Egypt, to the relief of Jerusalem, and with all his rich equipage, which the soldiers had pre- Nebuchadnezzar's raising the siege to meet him, and sented her with; and, lastly, that after these public re- give him battle, the Jews were generally of opinion, joicings, she went back to Bethulia again, where she that the Chaldeans were gone for good and all, and lived in great splendour and renown, and, after a good thereupon repented of their covenant of reformation, old age, died, and was buried with her husband Manas- and caused every man his servant, and every man his seh, much beloved, and much lamented by the people. hand-maid, to return to their servitude. Which base But to look back to the affairs of Judea. and impious 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 b 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 | all Judah and Jerusalem, to their utter destruction. 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 overran 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. As Nebuchadnezzar's army was approaching Jerusalem, Zedekiah, and his people, in dread of what might Jeremiah, indeed, in all the answers which he returned 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 On that very day of the month when the siege of Jeru- c The words of the law are these:-" If thy brother, an salem began, Ezekiel, then a captive in Chaldea, had it Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and revealed to him by the type of a boiling pot, what a dis-him go free from thee; and when thou sendest him out free serve thee six years, then, in the seventh year, thou shalt let mal destruction should be brought upon that city; and, from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty; thou shalt in the beginning of the next year, Jeremiah was ordered furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and to declare to the king, that the Babylonians who were out of thy wine-press: of that wherewith the Lord hath blessed then besieging the town, would certainly take it, and thee thou shalt give unto him: and thou shalt remember, that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy burn it with fire, make him prisoner, and carry him to God redeemed thee.-It shall not seem hard unto thee, when Babylon, where he should die: which provoked Zede- thou sendest him away from thee; for he hath been worth a kiah to such a degree that he ordered him to be clapped 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. up close in prison. 12, &c.) Now, for the better understanding of this, we must observe that there were two periods of time, wherein this release of Jewish bond-slaves was enjoined, the year of jubilee, which was every fiftieth year, 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 withdraw ing of Nebuchadnezzar's forces, they repented of their good in tentions, and recalled their servants to their slavery again. Why the observation of such a year in seven was enjoined, the reasona are pretty obvious: for besides the commemoration of the Isra a Nothing is more common, both in sacred and profane his-ites' release from the Egyptian bondage, which the text specifies, tory, than to meet with several kinds of spoils taken in war, dedicated to God, in acknowledgment of his goodness, and in memory of the victory, which, by his blessing and assistance, was then obtained.-Calmet's Commentary. tains, and others on the plains; the many valuable things which might be hid, or thrown aside in their flight; and the much time it would cost the Bethulians to search diligently, and to collect them all, and to provide carriages to bring them home to the city, there to be distributed equally among the people, and, according to the prescription of the law, (Num. xxxi. 27.) considering all this, I say, thirty days may not be thought an unreasonable space: though it must be owned, that the Syriac version reads it only three.-Calmet's Commentary. The joy which the people of Jerusalem expressed 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 put a garland 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.Judith xv. 12, 13. the general release of servants, and the restoration of lands and tenements to 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 as it was someth like this that Lycurgus established among the Lacedemonians, in his instituting an equality among persons, banishing slavery, and preventing, as far as he could, any one's becoming too powerful, or too rich.-Bedford's Scripture Chronology, b. iv. c. 4. and Colmet's Dictionary, under the word Salbath, A. M. 3394. A. C. 610; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4814. A. C. 597. 1 KINGS viii. TO THE END OF 2 CHRON 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 inquire 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, a where inevitably he must have perished, had not Ebed-Melech, one of the king's eunuchs, interceded with his master to have him released from thence, and sent him back to his former prison; for which favour the prophet assured him from God that he should not perish at the 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 toward a conclusion. The people within the walls, through the scarcity of provisions, were reduced to the last necessity, even to feed on one another; and those without had 1 Lam. iv. 4, 5, and Ezek. v. 10. a 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 Ethiopian; accordingly Huetius (in his Treatise on the voyaging of Solomon, c. 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 afterwards he was promoted to be an eunuch, or chief officer of the king's house.-Lowth's Commentary on Jer. xxxviii. 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 wilderness; but he had not gone far, before he was taken, and carried to Nebuchadnezzar, who was then at Riblah, where, after some severe reproaches, 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 their e f d c It is a hard matter to conceive how the besieged could make about. Josephus indeed gives us this account:-"That as the escape, seeing that the Chaldeans had begirt the city round 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 (b. lxvi.) 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 subterraneous 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 out-works, 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 and the besiegers perhaps might not keep so strict a watch at imperceptible gate, through which they might attempt to escape, 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 History, b. x. c. 11; Patrick's, Le Clerc's, and Calmet's Commentaries. d Riblah was a city of Syria, in the country of Hamath, which country is the nearest to Judea, and which city, according to St Jerome, was the same with that which 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 Jerurelief that might come to the besieged.-Patrick's Commentary. salem, to send his army proper supplies, and to intercept any e Nebuchadnezzar no sooner cast his eye upon him, says Josephus, (Jewish Antiquities, b. x. c. 11.) than he called him all the faithless and perfidious names that he could think of. "Did you possession of for my advantage and behoof? And am not I well not promise to manage the power and authority that I put you in requited, do you think, for making 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, namely, his making Zedekiah succeed his brother Jehoiakim 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. f Josephus takes notice, that the seeming contradiction in the prophecies of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, 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 he shall 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 be hold his eyes,' (chap. xxxii. 4.) both of which were literally A. M. 3394. A. C. 610; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. and himself to be bound in fetters of brass, to be sent to Babylon, and put in prison for life, to the full accomplishment of what the two prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, had foretold concerning him. As soon as Nebuchadnezzar had advice of the taking of Jerusalem, he sent Nebuzaradan, the captain 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 men's houses, he 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, namely, 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 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 eyesight.—Jewish Antiquities b. x. c. 11; Calmet's and Patrick's Commentaries. a 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 show us, that God's foreknowledge of things is certain, and his providence regular in ordering of events; besides that, it holds forth a most exemplary 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, b. x. c. 11. 6 The temple was burned, from the time that it was built, 400 years, says Sir John Marsham; 424 years 3 months and 8 days, says Primate Usher; 430 years, says Abarbinel, and other learned Jews: but Josephus computes the thing still higher; for he tells us, that the temple was burned 470 years 6 months and 10 days, from the building of it; 1060 years 6 months and 10 days from the Israelites' coming out of the land of Egypt; 1950 years 6 months and 10 days, from the deluge; and 3530 years 6 months and 10 days from the creation of the world. Josephus stands amazed, that the second temple should be burned 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, namely, xciv. 23, He shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and he shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off.' -Patrick's Commentary, and Jewish Antiquities, b. x. c. 11. c The Lamentations of Jeremiah, for the title is properly and significantly plural, consist of a number of plaintive effusions, composed upon the plan of the funereal dirges, all upon the same subject, and uttered without connexion as they rose in the mind, in a long course of separate stanzas. These have afterwards been put together, and formed into a collection or correspondent whole. If any reader, however, should expect to find in them an artificial and methodical arrangement of the general subject, a regular disposition of the parts, a perfect connexion and orderly succession in the matter, and, with all this, an uninterrupted series of elegance and correctness, he will really expect what was foreign to the prophet's design. In the character of a mourner, he celebrates in plaintive strains the obsequies of his ruined country: whatever presented itself to his mind in the midst of desolation and misery, whatever struck him as particularly wretched and calamitous, whatever the instant sentiment of sorrow dictated, he pours forth in a kind of spontaneous effusion. He frequently pauses, and as it were ruminates upon the same object; frequently varies and illustrates the same thought with different imagery, and a different choice of language: so that the whole bears rather the appearance of an accumulation of corresponding sentiments, than an accurate and connected series of different ideas arranged 4825. A. C. 586. 1 KINGS vii. TO THE END OF 2 CHRON observe two annual fasts, the one in 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. lines. in the form of a regular treatise. I would not be understood to insinuate, that the author has paid no regard whatever to order or arrangement; or that transitions truly elegant from one subject, this only I wished to remark, that the nature and design of this image, or character, to another, are not sometimes to be found; poem (being in reality a collection of different sentiments or subjects, each of which assumes the form of a funereal dirge) neither require, nor even admit of a methodical arrangement. The whole poem, however, may be divided into five parts: in the first, second, and fourth, the prophet addresses the people in his own person, or else personifies Jerusalem, and introduces that city as a character: the third part is supposed to be uttered by the chorus of Jews, represented by their leader, after the manner of the Greek tragedies; and in the fifth, the whole nation of the Jews, Almighty God. This last, as well as the others, is divided into on being led into captivity, pour forth their united complaints to twenty-two periods, according to the number of the letters of the alphabet; with this ditlerence, that in the four other parts the initial letters of each period, exactly correspond with the alphabetical order. And from this circumstance we have been enabled to form some little judgment concerning the Hebrew metres. The acrostic or alphabetical poetry of the Hebrews was cer tainly intended to assist the memory, and was confined altoge ther to those compositions which consisted of detached maxims or sentiments without any express order or connexion. The same custom is said to have been prevalent, indeed is said still to prevail in some degree among the Syrians, the Persians, and the Arabs. With how much propriety the prophet has employed this form of composition on the present occasion, is evident from what has been said concerning the nature of this poem. The manner and order of this kind of verse is as follows:-Each of the five parts, or grand divisions, is subdivided into twenty-two periods or stanzas; these periods in the three first parts are all of them triplets, in other words, consist each of three lines only; in each of the two former parts there is one period, consisting of four In the four first parts, the initial letter of each period follows the order of the alphabet; but the third part is so very regu lar, that every line in the same period begins with the same letter, so as necessarily to ascertain the length of every verse or line in that poem; indeed, even in the others, though the lines are net distinctly marked in this manner, it is no difficult matter to ascertain their limits, by resolving the sentences into their constituent members. By this mode of computation it ap pears, that in the fourth part all the periods consist of distichs, as also in the fifth, which is not acrostic: but in this last part I must remark another peculiarity, namely, that the lines are extremely short, whereas in all the rest they are long, The length of these metres is worthy of notice: we find in this poem lines or verses, which are evidently longer, by aimest one half, than those which occur usually and on other occasions, The length of them seems to be, on an average, about twelve syllables; there are a few which do not quite amount to that number, and there are a few which perhaps exceed it by two or three syllables: for, although nothing certain can be determined cocerning the number of syllables, in truth I pay no attention to the fictions of the Mazorites, there is room, nevertheless, for very probable conjecture. We are not to suppose this peculiar form of versification utterly without design or importance; on the con trary, I am persuaded that the prophet adopted this kind of metre as being more ditluse, more copious, more tender, in all respects better adapted to melancholy subjects. I must add, that in al probability the funereal dirges, which were sung by the mourners, were commonly composed in this kind of verse; for whenever, in the prophets, any funereal lamentations occur, or any passages an formed upon that plan, the versification is, if I am not mistake, of this protracted kind. If this then be the case, we have disco vered a true legitimate form of elegy in the poetry of the H brews. It ought, however, to be remarked, that the same kind of metre is sometimes, though rarely, employed upon other occa sions by the sacred poets, as it was indeed by the Greeks and Romans. There are, moreover, some poems manifestly of the elegiac kind, which are composed in the usual metre, and net is unconnected stanzas, according to the form of a funereal dirge. Thus far in general as to the nature and method of the pocil, |