A. M. 3417. A. C. 587; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M 4825. A. C. 586. JER. xL 7-xlv. DANIEL, AND EZRA i-v. Persia," says he, "there are some very monstrous for | figure and size. A winged lion with a crown on his head; a winged lion flying on the back of a bull; the body of a horse with wings on his back; and a man's head covered with a high bonnet crowned, &c. In images and hieroglyphics," continues he, "here one may see the wars of princes and countries, and their successes expressed. The beasts represent the people or land in war; their running at each other, their engagement; and the crown on the head of one of them, or his taking the other by the hair of the head, and stabbing him, points out his victory." 1 Now, since this method of describing things by images was so customary in the age and place where Daniel was captive, it is reasonable to suppose, that he conformed himself to it, and that the fictitious animals which he makes mention of, were no improper emblems of the several empires whereof he writes. The ram, for instance, was the royal ensign of the Persians, as Ammianus Marcellinus observes; the goat, since their king Carinus, was the arms of Macedon; and therefore, how aptly does Daniel see a goat with a notable horn (for a horn is always an emblem of power and dominion), to which he gives wings, because of the quickness of his success, to run against a ram with unequal horns, and cast him to the ground,' when he foretells what the Mede and Persian empire should do, and suffer from the Macedonian Greeks? Upon the breaking of the great horn,' on Alexander's dying in the height of his triumphs and prosperity, how properly do four others come up towards the four winds of heaven,' to denote the division of his empire among four kings, whereof Ptolemy had Egypt, and the adjoining countries to the south; Antigonus had Asia to the north; Seleucus had 36 46 1 B. 19. And rams' heads with horns, the one higher, and the other lower, are still to be seen among the ruins of Persepolis, as Sir John Chardin takes notice in his travels. 2 Deut. xxxiii. 17; Psal. lxxxix. 17. Dan. viii. 7. ♦ Dan. viii. 8. vited their mistresses likewise to accompany them; among whom was one Thais, a famous Athenian courtezan, who was then mistress to Ptolemy, afterwards king of Egypt. This woman, in the heat of her carousals, proposed to Alexander the burning down of the city and palace of Persepolis, in revenge to the Persians; especially for their burning of Athens under Xerxes; and, as the whole company was drunk, the proposal was received with a general applause, so that every man took a torch, and (with Alexander at the head of them) setting fire to the city and palace, in a short time, burnt them both to the ground. Thus, at the motion of a drunken strumpet, was destroyed, by this drunken king, one of the finest palaces in the world; for that this at Persepolis was such, the ruins of it sufficiently show, which are still remaining at a place near Shiras, named Chebelminar, which, in the Persian language, signifies forty pillars; and is so called, because such a number of pillars, as well as other stately ruins of this palace, are there still remaining even to this day.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 330. a Dr Prideaux is of opinion, that this partition of Alexander's empire, to which the prophecy has relation, did not happen till after the battle at Ipsus, where Antigonus was slain, and whereupon the four surviving princes divided the conqueror's dominions into four distinct kingdoms, whereof Ptolemy had Egypt, Lybia, Arabia, Colo-Syria, and Palestine; Cassander, Macedonia and Greece; Lysimachus, Thrace, Bithynia, and some other provinces beyond the Hellespont and the Bosphorus; and Seleucus all the rest; Prideaux's Connection, anno 301. But others have made the division of his empire ensuant immediately upon his death.-Calmet's Commentary on Dan. vii. Syria to the east; and Antipater Greece and Macedonia to the west. 5 A little horn coming out of one of these, and waxing exceeding great towards the south, and east, and pleasant land, nay, waxing so great as to cast down some of the host of heaven, and of the stars to the ground, and so trample upon them, may seem a wild extravagant rant: but when it is considered, that all this is meant of Antiochus, who was afterwards called by his flatterers Epiphanes, though himself a vile person, and usurper of the kingdom; that it is to represent him, as soon as he got possession of the Syrian kingdom, taking advantage of the youth of Ptolemy Philometer, and invading Egypt to the south, Armenia and Persia to the east; and Judea, which is here styled 'the pleasant land,' and frequently described as a land flowing with milk and honey, that it is to represent him persecuting the Jewish church and nation, here styled 'the host of heaven;' murdering the principal men of both, here called the stars;' deposing their high priest, whose title is the prince of the host;' profaning their temple, polluting their altar, abolishing their law, and establishing idolatry by a solemn edict, as whoever has read of the mad and impious actions of Antiochus must know: when this is considered, I say, a small allowance for the oriental manner of pompous writing will reduce these images to a tolerable size. The plain truth is, princes and states were in old times painted by their symbols, which are therefore called their yvwgiouara, and, in after ages, came to be distinguished by writers under the name of such symbols, as well as by their proper appellations; and therefore the lion with eagle's wings,' signifying the strength of the Assyrian empire, and the celerity of its conquests; the beast with three ribs in his mouth,' intimating the reduction which Cyrus made of Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt, to the Persian monarchy; the leopard with four wings and heads;' denoting Alexander and his four successors; and the other beast with iron feet and ten horns,' representing the Roman empire, and the ten Daniel viii. 9, &c. 62 Maccab. v. 24, &c. Many of the heathen writers give us this account of him, namely, that he would frequently get out of the palace, and ramble about the streets of Antioch with two or three persons only accompanying him; that, in his rambles, he would drink with strangers and foreigners, and even with the meanest and vilest of them; that, when he heard of any young company met together to make merry, he would intrude himself among them, and revel away the time with them in cups, and songs, and other frolics, without any regard to common decency, or his own royal character; that, in these frolics, he would often go out in the streets, and there scatter his money by handfu's, for the rabble to scramble for; that, at other times, he would go about with a crown of roses upon his head, and, in a Roman gown, would walk the streets alone, carrying a parcel of stones in his lap, to throw at those that should follow after; that he was much addicted to drunkenness and lasciviousness; was frequently found in the company of pathics, and common prostitutes, of whom he would gratify his lust publicly, and in the sight of the people; and that, having for his catamites two vile persons, called Timarchus and Heraclides, who were brothers, he made the former of them governor of Babylon, and the other his trea surer in that province. The short is, his freaks, follies, and vices were so many, that men were in a doubt whether he were a madman or a fool, though the former of these was generasy thought his truest character; and, therefore, instead of Epiphanes the Illustrious, they commonly called him Epimanes, the Madman.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 175. A. M. 3417. A. C. 587; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4825. A. C. 586. JER. xl. 7-xlv. DANIEL, AND EZRA I—v. kingdoms, a or principalities, into which it was divided, | holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an was a language as well known to skilful readers at that time, as are the arms, the colours, and the field of escutcheons, in these latter days, to heralds. come. Porphyry, no doubt, was well acquainted with this hieroglyphic way of writing, because all the objection which he makes to these prophecies of Daniel, concerning the four empires, is, that they were too plain and | perspicuous, and more like historical narratives of facts already done, than prophetical predictions of things to But however this enemy of Christianity might urge the plainness of the prophet's predictions, in order to invalidate the authority of his book, it must not be denied, but that God, in his great wisdom, has so ordered the matter, for the exercise of our faith and industry, and so framed the prophetic style, that there should be still some shade and remains of obscurity, abiding upon the face of almost every prophecy, even after the time of its completion; and, therefore, instead of being surprised at the great variety of computations, which chronologers, and other learned men have put upon the ''seventy weeks' mentioned in Daniel, we may much rather wonder, how, at this distance of time, they have been able to come to any tolerable exactness. The words of the prophecy are these: seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy ' Dan. ix. 24. a Bishop Lloyd hath given us the following list of the ten kingdoms which arose out of the dissolution of the Roman empire, and the time of their rise. 1. Hunns erected their kingdom in that part of Pannonia and Dacia, which from them was called Hungary, about A. D. 336. 2. Ostrogoths settled them selves in the countries that reach from Rhetia to Mæsia, even as far as Thrace, about 377, and afterwards came into Italy under Alaricus in 410. 3. Wisigoths settled in the south parts of France, and in Catalonia, about 378. 4. Franks seized upon part of Germany and Gaul, A. D. 420. 5. Vandals settled in Spain, and afterwards set up their kingdom in Africa, A. D. 407. 6. Suevians and Alans seized the western parts of Spain, A. D. 407, and invaded Italy 457. 7. Burgundians came out of Germany into that part of Gaul, called from them Burgundy, 407. 8. Rugians, and Thuringians settled in Italy under Odoacer, about 476. 9. Saxons made themselves masters of Great Britain, about the same time, 476. And 10. Longobards settled first in Germany, A. D. 383, and afterwards succeeded the Heruli and Thuringi in Hungary.-Lowth's Commentary ou Dan, vii. 24. 6 This Porphyry was a learned heathen, born at Tyre, in the year of Christ about 230, and there called Malchus; but upon his going among the Greeks, he changed it to Porphyry, which is much of the same signification; for Malchus in the Phoenician language, which was then spoken at Tyre, signifies a king, as rogpúgies, in the Greek denotes one that wore purple, which none but kings, and royal persons were then permitted to do. He was a bitter enemy to the Christian religion; and therefore wrote a large volume against it, containing fifteen books, whereof the twelfth was wholly levelled against the prophecies of Daniel; but because the predictions of this prophet, concerning the several empires, were acknowledged, on all hands, to have been fulfilled, he did not go about to disprove it; on the contrary, he endeavoured to maintain, by the testimony of the best Greek historians then extant, that they were fulfilled so exactly, and so minutely, that it was impossible for them to be the predictions of the Daniel who belonged to the Babylonish captivity, and must therefore be the spurious composition of some later author. But this argument St Jerome, in his comment upon Daniel, fully turns upon him. It is much to be lamented, however, that not only this whole work of Porphyry is lost, but that also the books of Eusebius Apollinarius, and Methodius, which were wrote in answer to this heathen adversary, (to the great damage both of divine and human knowledge,) have all undergone the same fate.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 164. end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in an everlasting righteousness, and to anoint the Most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore, and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the prince c shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks, and the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times; and after threescore and two weeks, shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city, and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood; and at the end of the war, desolations are determined; and he shall confirm the covenant with many, for a week; and, in the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease; and for the overspreading of abominations, shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.' he Now, to set these words in a right light, we must consider, 1st, That the main design and intendment of them is, to foretel the coming of the Messiah, his abolishing the Jewish, and setting up a new and more perfect religion; which is so manifest to every common reader, that later Jews (to avoid the force of this one prophecy) have even adventured to exclude the whole book of Daniel from the number of inspired writers, and to pronounce a curse upon any that shall pretend to compute the time of the Messiah's coming. 2dly. It is agreed by most interpreters, that the seventy weeks here spoken of (according to the prophetic style) are to be taken for weeks of years, every one of which contained seven years, and so the seventy weeks will amount to 490 years, at the expiration of which term, the matters contained in this prophecy were to have their accomplishment. But then the question is, at what point of time these seventy weeks, or what is all one, the 490 years, either began or expired? For if we can but find out one of these periods, there will be less difficulty in stating the other. Now, 3dly, It seems pretty plain, that the several events specified in the beginning of this prophecy, viz. to finish or restrain transgressions; 2. To make an end of sin; 3. To make expiation, or reconciliation for iniquity; 4. To bring in everlasting righteousness; 5. To seal up,' or complete, and fulfil vision and prophecy;' and 6. To anoint,' or consecrate the Most Holy,' were all accomplished in the great work of our salvation, by the death and passion, and by the doctrine and resurrection, of our Saviour Christ. For being born without original, and having lived without actual sin, he truly was the most holy of all that ever bore our nature, and being thereby fully fitted for this great work, he was anointed with the Holy Ghost, and with power,' to be our priest, our prophet, and our king. As our priest, he offered himself a sacrifice upon the cross, and thereby made atonement for our sins, which is making an end of them,' by taking away their guilt; and in so doing, working reconciliation for us with God. c The colon, which, in our English Bibles, is placed after seven weeks,' in the middle of this sentence, should be placed after two weeks,' at the end of it, which wrong punctuation may possibly lead some people into an error in their computa tion. A. M. 3417. A. C. 587; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4825. A. C. 586. JER. xl. 7-xlv. DANIEL, AND EZRA i-v. manner, necessary in prophecies, and that nothing is more common in Scripture, than by Jerusalem, in particular, to mean the whole political and ecclesiastical state of the Jews. As our prophet, he gave us his gospel, a law of ' everlasting righteousness,' and the only revelation we are to expect. And as our king, he sent his Holy Spirit into our hearts, to guide and influence us according to this law; whereby he has taken an effectual method to restrain, and extinguish in us, all manner of transgression; and in doing all this, he has sealed up, that is, fulfilled, and thoroughly finished all, that by visions and prophecies had been before revealed concerning him. Since therefore all these events were brought to pass, and accomplished at the time of Christ's death, this must determine us where to fix the end of the weeks wherein these events were to be accomplished. And if the end of these weeks is to be fixed at the death of Christ, then, 4thly, This will determine us where to place the beginning of them, namely, 490 years before, a which is the very year and month, wherein Ezra had his commission from Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia, for his returning to Jerusalem, and there to restore the church and state of the Jews. b The only objection against this computation is,-That the words of the prophecy seem to denote a real building of the city, since it makes mention of its streets and walls; whereas that work was executed upon the decree by Cyrus, several years before Ezra was in commission. But this objection will appear of little force, if once it be considered, that figurative expressions are, in a 'Prideaux's Connection, anno 409. a Most learned men agree, that the death of Christ happened in the year of the Julian period 4746, and in the Jewish month Nisan: and therefore, if we reckon 490 years backward, this will lead us to the month Nisan, and in the year of the Julian period 4256; which, according to Ptolemy's canon, was the seventh year of Artaxerxes' reign, in which the Scripture tells us (Ezra vii. 7), that this commission was granted.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 578. 6 Others are of opinion, that the commission here intended was not that which was given to Ezra, but that which Nehe miah had from Artaxerxes, in the twentieth year of his reign, at which period they place the commencement of these seventy weeks; which, being reduced to 490 lunar years, bring us down to the time when our Saviour Christ was put to death. There are some variations, indeed, concerning the calculation of these Artaxerxes alone, but of the twentieth from the time that his There is another difficulty observable in this prophecy, which deserves our attention, and that is, the division of the seventy weeks into three distinct periods, that is, into seven weeks, sixty-two weeks, and one week, to each of which a different event is assigned. In the seven weeks, or forty-nine years, from the going forth of the commandment, the streets and walls of Jerusalem, that is, the restoration and establishment of the church and state of the Jews, is to be accomplished. In the sixty-two weeks, or 434 years more, the Messiah is to come, and make his appearance in the world; and in one week, or seven years after this, he is to 'confirm a covenant with many, and cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease:' all which were literally fulfilled. For, in the space of forty-nine years, which answers to seven weeks, the reformation and establishment of the Jewish church and state was carried on, and completed, first by Ezra, in virtue of a decree granted in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, and afterwards by Nehemiah, in virtue of another granted him by the same prince, in the twentieth year of his reign. From that time, in the space of 434 years, which answers to sixty-two weeks, our blessed Saviour appeared in the world as the Messiah; and for seven years after that (which answers to the one week in the prophecy), first, by his forerunner John the Baptist, for the space of three years and a half more, he confirmed the covenant of the gospel with as many of the Jews as were converted, and embraced these laws of everlasting righteousness which he published; and at length by the sacrifice of his most precious blood, made all other victims and oblations (which were but types and emblems of his) for ever cease and be abolished. As to the other part of the prophecy, it relates so evidently to the destruction of Jerusalem, that it needs no explanation. Whoever has read Josephus cannot but observe, that, people of the prince that was to come, who, with their by the destruction of the city and sanctuary, by the armies and desolating abominations, should invade Judea as with a flood, and, by a terrible and consuming all the people of the Jews that should dwell therein, can war, bring utter ruin and destruction upon it, and upon be meant nothing but Titus at the head of the Roman army, executing the wrath of God for the murder of his Son, our Saviour, upon that devoted city and people, in such a terrible and tragical manner as their historian has related. Ezekiel, indeed, according to the sentiment of some rabbins, was a prophet of more obscurity than Daniel, and, especially in the description of the chariot, as they call the first chapter, so very intricate and abstruse, that they would not permit it to be read by any until they were arrived at the age of thirty. The design of the prophet in that chapter is, to represent the great and glorious appearance of God coming to give him instructions in the management of his prophetic office; and, to this purpose, he makes use of images foreign indeed to our manner of writing, but which are all significant and full of majesty. He seats himself on a radiant throne, supported by cherubim moved by wheels of an uncom mon make, covered with the canopy of heaven, and en A. M. 3417. A. C. 587; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4825. A. C. 586. JER. xl. 7—xlv., DANIEL, AND EZRA i—v. His prophecy 10 concerning Gog and Magog is perhaps deservedly thought one of the most difficult passages that occur in the Old Testament; and accordingly, the conjectures about it have been various. It is generally agreed, however, that the words Gog and Magog are not real but fictitious names; and therefore their wars with the people of God, some have applied to the cruelties of Antiochus Epiphanes against the Jews; others to the persecutions of the Gentiles against the Christians; some to the irruption of the Goths, and other barbarous nations, into the Roman empire; others to the ravages which the Turks made in Asia, and some parts of Europe; and others again, to those, as is prophesied elsewhere, oppressions which, in the latter days, Antichrist shall bring upon the true professors of our most holy religion. circled with the rainbow; and though, in the description | little symbol in this description! And therefore it is of the cherubim and wheels, there may be something doing injustice to the character of the prophet, to find not so agreeable to our way of thinking, yet we are not fault with his images, because they agree not with the to suppose, but that, in the whole, it was adapted to the present mode, or to censure his writings before we age wherein the prophet wrote, and in each part perhaps understand them. did include an excellent moral. Angels, of what rank or denomination soever, are all ministering spirits, and the instruments of God's providence in the government of the world; and therefore are represented here as supporting his throne, and in allusion, ' very likely, to the triumphal chariots of eastern princes, which are drawn by several sorts of beasts, they are said every one to have four faces. Their wings denote their readiness and alacrity; their eyes, their sagacity and vigilance; their hands, their prudence and dexterity; their feet, their steadiness and resolution in performing the divine commands; and the noise of their wings, when they went, expressed the terribleness of the judgments which they were to execute upon Jerusalem and all the Jewish nation. And, in like manner, the make and fashion of the wheels which these cherubim actuate, shows, that all the ways of providence are uniform, and subservient to each "The main current of interpreters will have the Gog other; as their going perpetually forward intimates, in Ezekiel to be Antiochus; but then there are some that providence does nothing in vain, but always ac exceptions to this opinion, that may be gathered from complishes its designs. The largeness of the rings Ezekiel himself. For whereas the Gog in Ezekiel 12 or circumference of the wheels, denotes the vast compass was to fall upon the mountains of Israel;' 13 was to be of providence, which reacheth from one end to another buried in the east of the Mediterranean sea ;' was to mightily. Their being full of eyes implies, that the have an army destroyed, by their turning their swords motions of providence are directed by unerring wis-upon one another;' and 'the Israelites were to gather the dom; and their moving, when the cherubs moved, seems to demonstrate, with what readiness and alacrity all the instruments of providence do concur in carrying on his great designs. Thus, full of instruction is every Lowth's Comment, on Ezek. i. 2 Ezek. i. 6. 'Ibid. ver. 24. 4 Ibid. ver. 16. 5 Ibid. ver. 17. 'Ibid. ver. 18. 8 Ibid. ver. 18. 78 5 76 a 6 7 Wisd. viii. 1. 14 6 spoils, and burn their arms for several years :' whoever looks into the history of Antiochus, will see that he died at a little town called Taba, in the confines of Persia of the wheels and the cherubim being full of eyes, (Ezek. i.) Mr Taylor next endeavours to correct that mistake. It is surprising, he remarks, that when the same Hebrew word y oin, had been rendered colour, in verses 4, 7, 16, 22, 27, it should in verse 18 be rendered eyes. It means the glittering splendid huesthe fugitive reflected tints, those accidental coruscations of colours, such as we see vibrate in some precious stones, which, seen in some lights, show certain colours, but seen in other lights, show other colours. This sense of the word is confirmed by the use of it in Numb. xi. 7: "the manna was like coriander seed, itself; but the eye of it-the reflected glistening tint which vibrated from it-was like to the eye-the glistening tint-of the bdellium." It would not be far from the truth, to say, that these eyes were of the nature of those we call eyes in a peacock's feather: that is, that they were spots peculiarly embellished with colours, or streaks like those of the golden pheasant of China.-Calmet's Dict.-ED. 10 Ezek. xxxviii. and xxxix. 11 Calmet's Dissert. on Gog and Magog. 12 Ezek. xxxix. 4. 13 Ibid. ver. 11. 14 Ibid. xxxviii. 21. 15 Ibid. xxxix. 9, 10. occasion of turning the whole machine. The cherubim having the conducting of this throne, it is obvious to remark how well a Each cherub had four faces: (1.) that of a man: (2.) that of adapted their figure was to their service; their faces looking a lion; (3.) that of an ox; (4.) that of an eagle. These four every way, so that there was no occasion for turning, as a horse faces were probably attached to one head, and seen by the be- must, in obedience to directions, to proceed to the right, or to holder in union, being joined, each by its back part, to the others. the left, instead of going straight forward. As much misappreTheir body, from the neck downwards, was human; the like-hension respecting these appearances, has arisen from the idea ness of a man.' This human part first meeting the spectator's eye, had he seen nothing else, he might from thence have supposed the whole form to be human. Ezekiel describes the cherub as having four wings;-Isaiah describes the seraph as having six wings; say, two on his head, two on his shoulders, two on his flanks. Their arms, rendered in our translation hands, were four, one on each side of the creature. The remainder, or lower part of their figure, was, from the rim of the belly downwards, either (1.) human thighs, legs, and feet, to which were appended, at the posteriors, the body and hind legs of an ox; or rather, (2.) the body and the fore legs of an ox, out of which the human part seemed to rise, so that all below the rim of the belly was ox-like, and all above that division was human. From which formation a spectator paying most attention to their lower parts, might have been inclined to think them oxen; or at least bestial. With regard to their services, or what they appeared to do, Mr Taylor asks, was the vision seen by the prophet Ezekiel, as well as that by the prophet Isaiah, the resemblance of a movable throne or chariot, of prodigious dimensions, on which the sovereign was understood to sit; and to which the wheels were annexed in much the same manner as to the royal travelling, or military thrones of the Persian kings; while the four cherubim occupied the places of four horses to draw this magnificent machine? This he thinks probable, and illustrates the idea at some length. The wheels described in Ezek. i. 15-21. in connexion with the cherubim, Mr Taylor conceives to have been representative of the throne of the Deity: the construction-wheel within wheel-being for the purpose of their rolling every way with perfect readiness, and without any 6 Magog was the son of Japhet, (Gen. x. 2.) from whom the Scythians were generally supposed to be derived; a people well known in the east for their frequent irruptions and devastations therein made, and who, for their rapine and violence, cruelties and barbarities of all kinds, for some time passed into a proverb; and therefore, whether we suppose Cambyses or Antiochus, as we shall see hereafter, to be the Gog in Ezekiel, the prophet's calling him by the name of a wild Scythian' can be no objection, because scarce ever were any two men more cruel, more savage, and brutal in their passions, than they; insomuch, that we may truly say, that, as the Scythians were the terror of all the east, so Cambyses and Antiochus were the horror and abomination of mankind.-Calmet's Commentary on Gog and Magog A. M. 3417. A. C. 587; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4825. A. C. 586. JER. xl. 7—xlv. DANIEL, AND EZRA i-v. and Babylonia; that, upon his death, his army suffered | 3 56 2 We may observe farther, that this event was to happen after the return from the captivity; because the prophet mentions it as a thing future: thou shalt come into a land (speaking of Gog) that is brought back from the sword, and against a people who have lately returned from amidst the nations where they had been dispersed ;' which can be meant of none but the Jews; but that it could not happen after the time of the Maccabees, because the Jewish history is, from thence, so very well known, that a transaction of this nature could not well escape us; and therefore we may conclude that it was between the return from the captivity, and the first appearing of the Maccabees, a very obscure interval as to the Jewish affairs, that what the prophet relates of Gog and his adventures, came to pass; and if so, we can see no prince or potentate to whom the characters which the inspired writers give of him, can so properly belong, as to Cambyses the son of Cyrus. 8 According to the accounts of all history, he was cruel and barbarous, excessively impious, and insatiably covetous. His indignation against the Jews he expressed by a revocation of a grant which his father gave for the rebuilding of their city and temple. He led a large army into Egypt, composed of all the different nations that Ezekiel mentions, who were overwhelmed (a great many of them at least) by the driven sands of the deserts. In his return from Egypt, he died at Ecbatan in Palestine, at the foot of Mount Carmel, which faces the Mediterranean sea, of a wound which he received by his sword's falling accidentally out of the scabbard; so that a great many lines of the picture which the prophet draws of Gog, meet in Cambyses, though it must be acknowledged that all do not. 9 be owned, indeed, that the writers of the life of Cambyses make mention of no intention in this prince to fall foul upon the Jews, nor do they say any thing of the destruction of his army, ensuant upon his death; but upon the supposition, that the prophecy relates to him, God, who knew the evil disposition of that prince's heart towards the Jews, (which no profane author could penetrate,) has given us this part of his history: "Thus saith the Lord, it shall also come to pass, that at the same time, thou shalt think an evil thought, and shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, to take a spoil, and to take a prey, to turn my hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are now gathered out of the nations.' What became of his army, after he was dead, we cannot tell. Herodotus, who gives us the largest accounts of him, immediately after his decease, passes to the history of the Magian, who usurped his throne; and therefore we may suppose, 12 that as they consisted of so many ferent nations, and followed him only by compulsion, when once their head was gone, they crumbled into parties, quarrelled, and, as 13 the prophet had foretold, turned their arms upon one another; which was no more than what "the Philistines did in the time of Saul, and 15 the Midianites, when Gideon judged Israel. " 11 Ezek. xxxviii. 10, &c. dif 12 Calmet's Dissert. Judg. vii. 22. 14 1 Sam. xiv. 20. 15 a The following is Rosenmuller's account of Gog and Magog. It seems to rest upon a much better foundation than that given above "The word Magog, which in the ethnographic table in Genesis, is the name of Japhet's second son, appears in Ezek. Gog, and who, at the same time, was prince of Meshech and xxxviii. 2, as the name of a country, whose ruler was called Tubal, that is of the Moschi and Tibareni. It is said, that after the people of God should be delivered from all their enemies monarch would collect a numerous and formidable host of the and oppressors, and enjoy a long season of repose, this powerful tribes of the distant north, and overrun the Holy Land, where, however, he would meet a signal overthrow, and be buried in a valley on the east side of the lake of Gennesareth, (chap. xxxix. Magog are not spoken of as lands or their rulers, but as two great 11.) In the Revelation of St John, (chap. xx. 8,) Gog and nations, comprising the heathen at the four ends of the earth, who, after the millennial reign, shall be stirred up by Satan to encamp against the holy city, and shall be destroyed by fire from heaven. Among the Arabs and Persians the nations of Yajooj They are supposed to have descended from Japhet, and to dwell and Majooj correspond to the Gog and Magog of the Hebrews. in the distant north. Alexander the Great is said to have erected a wall, in order to prevent the inroads of these plundering tribes inArabian and Persian geographers of Yajooj and Majooj, we coflto the countries of the south. From the accounts found in clude that they comprehend, under this designation, all the less known barbarous people of the north-east and north-west of Asia; the same who were described among the Greeks and Romans by the name of Scythians, and among the later Europeans by the and Magog of the Hebrews may have had an equally vague ac name of Tatars, (corrupted into Tartars.) Yet though the Gog ceptation, it nevertheless seems to have pointed more precisely to the northern tribes of Caucasus, between the Euxine and Caspian Seas. This idea is countenanced, not only by the fact of the names being connected in Ezekiel with Ararat (Armenia,) Meshech (the Moschi,) and Tubal (the Tibareni;) but also by the circumstance that the famous Caucasian wall, anciently erected by a Persian monarch as a defence against the incursias of the northern barbarians, and which extended from Derbend, on the western shore of the Caspian to near the Black Sea, was 9 Herod, b. iii. called the wall (against) Yajooj and Majooj, that is, Gog and Magog, a name which the remains still bear. In the Apocalypse, 10 What bids fair for this opinion, however, is the order and series of events which Ezekiel seems to have observed in his prophecies; for having first foretold the taking of Jerusalem, the captivity of Babylon, and the desolation of Tyre, Egypt, and some other countries neighbouring upon Judea, he proceeds, in the next place, to the dissolution of the Chaldean monarchy, and the return of the Jews from their captivity: but before they are well settled in their native country, Gog and his numerous army are introduced to trouble their repose, and threaten their ruin; but that God interposes to rid them of this fierce enemy, who is said to have fallen in the mountains of Israel, he, and all his army. It must Ezek. xxxviii. 15. 4 Ibid. ver. 22, &c. 7 Ezra iv. 19, &c. 3 Ibid. ver. 9, &c. 2 Ibid. ver. 2. 10 Calmet's Dissert. on Gog and Magog. |