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. who can humble the proud, and chastise the wicked, as | quium, and without any consciousness of what he was he pleases. about. But then it may be asked, wherein would his punishment and humiliation consist, if the man was insensible; if he knew nothing of the matter; nay, if he took pleasure, as most madmen do, in the disorder of the imagination? The most general therefore, and most probable opinion is, that Nebuchadnezzar, by the judgment of God, was punished with madness, which so disordered his imagination, that he fancied himself a beast, and was prompted to act like one. There is a distemper, not a very common one indeed, but what has befallen several, which naturalists and physicians call lycanthropy," when by the power of a depraved imagination, and a distempered brain, a man really thinks that he is a wolf, an ox, a dog, or the like, and accordingly in his inclinations, motions, and behaviour, cannot forbear imitating the particular creature which he fancies himself to be. In this manner Nebuchadnezzar, imagining that he was become an ox, walked upon all four, fed upon grass, went naked, lowed with his voice, and butted, as he thought, with his horns; and, in short, did all the actions, as far as he was able, that a real ox is known to do. 1 Hereupon his subjects, perceiving this change in him, took him and bound him, as madmen are wont to be treated, but, at last, he escaping out of their hands, fled to the fields, where he herded with the cattle, exposed to the dew of heaven, and the inclemencies of the weather; where his neglected body became horrid and dreadful to behold; where his hair, and his nails, in process of time, grew in the hideous manner that the prophet had described them; and, where his heart, that is, his apprehension, appetite, and inclinations, by the continuance of his distemper, became quite brutal, and of the same cast with the beasts that graze. The masters of the medics, who have treated of this kind of madness, have made it their observation, that the persons infected with it are generally so excessively strong, that no bands or chains can hold them. They can live a long while without eating or drinking, and endure wet and cold without any great inconvenience to themselves; and therefore Nebuchadnezzar, though bred up in the pleasures and delicacies of the court, might, by the strength of his distemper, be enabled to do what otherwise he would not; to live in the fields for seven years together, naked, and exposed to the injuries of the weather, without any thing to nourish him, except either the grass on the ground, or the wild fruits on the hedges; but then, whether he retained the use of his reason whilst he continued in this disastrous state, is a question that is not so easily determined. To be miserable, and not to know it, by some may be thought the very height of misery; but the person in Horace, who frequented the empty theatre every day, and delighted himself with the reveries of his own fancy, with plays and shows which nobody saw but himself, was not so well pleased with his friends when they had recovered him to his senses :-" Friends, you have of a surety killed, not cured me, since my delight is thus vanished, and the agreeable aberration of my mind expelled by medicine." 3 To answer the ends of Providence, therefore, in afflicting in this manner this haughty and assuming prince, which was to mortify his pride, and bring him to a state of humiliation and acknowledgment of God's superior hand, we may suppose, that at certain intervals at least, he had a sense and perception of his misery; that he saw the condition to which he was degraded; but being carried away with his brutal appetite, found it not in his power to extricate himself. St Paul, in his description of a man given up to his lusts, whereof Nebuchadnezzar, in his present condition, is no improper emblem, has these remarkable words. 4' I know that in me,' that is; in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not; for the good that I would, I do not, but the evil that I would not, that I do. For though I delight in the law of God after the inner man, yet I see another law in my members, warring against the law in my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, that is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death!' And, in like manner, if we suppose this king of Babylon, in such a perpetual struggle and conflict with himself; seeing his error but not able to avoid it; sensible of his disgrace, but not capable to redress it; committing the things which his soul abhorred; and detesting himself for what he found himself necessitated to do, till God should think fit to restore his understanding, by allaying the ferment of his blood and humours, correcting his appetite, and ranging his ideas into their proper order: if we suppose this, I say, we have before us the image of a creature completely miserable; reasons for his humiliation, during his affliction, innumerable; a fountain 4 Rom. vii. 18, &c. Hor. Ep. b. ii. The Scripture, indeed, at first sight, seems to intimate, that he had no sense of his misery, nor made any reflection upon himself, or upon what he was doing, until God was pleased to remove his afflicting hand: for these are b What Nebuchadnezzar says of himself, with regard to this his own words. At the end of my days, I Nebuchad- duty, is very remarkable, I blessed the Most High, and praisnezzr lift up mine eyes unto heaven, and my under-ed and honoured him, that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an standing returned unto me;' which seem to imply, that all along before this, his reason was in a kind of deli 1 Dan. iv. 33. 2 2 Ibid. iv. 34. a Such was the distemper of Lycaon king of Arcadia, which Ovid has described, as if he had been turned into a wolf. In terror he flies to the silent wilderness, and there endeavouring to talk articulately, he can only howl-his mouth spontaneously acquires a rabid longing for food, and his wonted fury is directed against the cattle, his delight is now in bloodshed-his garments are changed to hair, his arms to legs-he becomes a wolf, though still in shape retaining the marks of his former nature. Ovid. Met. b. i. everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to gefor he doth according to his will, in the armies of heaven, and neration. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What dost thou? I therefore now praise, and extol, and honour the king of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride, he is able to abase,' (Dan. iv. 34, &c.) Which is enough, one would imagine, to make us think charitably of the conversion and final end of this prince; and with St Austin, to conclude, that whatever happened to him, by way of punishment, was designed by providence for his soul's health. By the hidden providence and mercy of God such a plan was adopted for the king's salvation."-Epist. 3. A. M. 3417. A. C. 587; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4882. A. C. 529. EZRA iv. 7-END, EST. NEH. PART OF HAG. ZECH. MAL. b to supply his gratitude upon the removal of it, inex- | be his brother Smerdis, and whom the history of Ezra e haustible; and, from his example, this lecture of admoni- calls Artaxerxes. To him the Samaritans, in like manner, tion to all succeeding generations: Thus saith the addressed themselves, and in a memorial, represented, Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom; neither "That d the Jews were rebuilding their city and temple let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the at Jerusalem, which might be a matter of pernicious rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth, consequence to his empire; that these Jews had always glory in this, that he understandeth, and knoweth me, been a rebellious people, as he would find, if he conthat I am the Lord, who exerciseth loving-kindness, sulted the records of his ancestors; that therefore there judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these was reason to suspect, that in case they were permitted things I delight, saith the Lord.' to go on, when once they had finished the work, they would withdraw their obedience, or refuse to pay tri bute; and that by their example, very probably, all SECT. II. CHAP. I. From the Death of Cyrus to that of THE HISTORY. 6 The manner in which this Magian came to usurp the Persian throne is thus related by most historians:- Cambyses had a brother, the only son of Cyrus besides himself, and born of the same mother. His name, according to Xenophon, was Tanaoxares, but Herodotus calls him Smerdis, and Justin, Mergis. He accompanied him in his wars for some time; but upon a pique of jealousy, the king sent him back into Persia, and there caused him to be murdered privately. The king, when he went upon the Egyptian expedition, had left the supreme government of his affairs in the hands of Patizithes, one of the chief of the Magians (for the king was addicted to that sect of religion), who had a brother that did very much resemble Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, and was, for that reason perhaps, called by the same name. Patizithes, hearing of the young prince's death, and supposing that this, and some other extravagances of Cambyses, had made him odious to his subjects, placed this brother the son of Cyrus, and so sent heralds through the empire to of his on the throne, pretending that he was the true Smerdis, CYRUS died, when he was seventy years old, after he had reigned, from his first being made commander of the Persian and Median armies, thirty years; from his taking of Babylon, nine years; and from his becoming sole monarch of the east, seven years; and was succeeded by his son Cambyses, whom the Scripture calls Ahasuerus. As soon as he was well settled in the throne, the Samaritans, instead of applying themselves 'secretly to the ministers and officers of his court, pre-proclaim him king. It was the custom of the eastern princes in sented their petition to him openly, desiring that the rebuilding of Jerusalem might be stopped; and though they did not prevail with him to revoke his father's decree, yet by the several discouragements which he put upon it, he, in a great measure, defeated its main design: so that the work went on very heavily in his reign. But his reign was not long it was but seven years and five months, before he came to an untimely end, and was succeeded, for a short time, by the Magian, a who pretended to : a The word Magian or Mige-gush, in the old Persian language, signifies a person that had his ears cut off, and was a name of contempt given to the whole sect, upon account of a certain impostor among them, who had the misfortune to lose his ears, and yet had the confidence to usurp the crown of Cyrus; but before this incident they went under another name, and were held in great reputation among the Persians. They were indeed their chief professors of philosophy, and in matters of religion, made these the great articles of their faith:-"That there were two principles or gods, the one the cause of all the good, and the other the cause of all the evil in the world; but in this they were divided; that some of them held both these principles to have been from all eternity, whereas others maintained, that the good principle only was eternal, and the evil one created, in the like manner as we believe, that the devil is a creature, who is fallen from his original purity and perfection. These two principles, they believed, were in continual opposition to each other, which was to continue till the end of the world; but then the good principle having overcome the evil, they should each of them have a distinct world to himself; the good reigning over all good beings and the evil over all the wicked. They imagined farther, that darkness was the truest symbol of the evil, as light was of the good god; and therefore they always worshipped him before fire, as being the cause of light, and before the sun more especially, because they accounted it the most perfect light. They paid divine honours, in short, to light, to the sun, to the fire in their temples, and to fire in their houses; but they always hated darkness, because they thought it a representation of the evil god, whom they ever had in the utmost detestation." Such were the Magi among the ancient Persians, and such are the Guebres, or worshippers of fire, among the present Persians and Indians. -Prideaux's Connection, and Calmet's Dic. under the word. those days to live retired in their palaces, and there transact all their affairs by the intercourse of their eunuchs, without admitting any else, unless those of the highest confidence, to have access to them. This conduct the pretended Smerdis exactly observed; but Otanes, a Persian nobleman, having a daughter, whose name was Phedyma, who had been one of Cambyses' wives, and was now kept by Smerdis in the same quality, and being desirous to know whether he was the real son of Cyrus or no, sent her instructions, that the first night she lay with him, she should feel whether he had any ears (because Cyrus, for some crime or other, had cut off this Magian's ears), and she acquainted her father that he had none, he immediately took six others of the Persian quality with him, among whom Darius was one, and, entering the palace, slew both the usurper and his brother who had been the contriver of the whole plot.—Prideaux's Connection, anno 522. c That Cambyses was the Ahasuerus, as we said before, and the false Smerdis the Artaxerxes who obstructed the work of the temple, is plain from hence,-That they are said in Scripture (Ezra iv. 5, &c.) to be the kings of Persia that reigned between the time of Cyrus and the time of that Darius by whose decree the temple was finished; but as that Darius was Darius the son of Hystaspes, between whom and Cyrus there reigned none in Persia but Cambyses and Smerdis, it must follow from hence, that none but Cambyses and Smerdis could be the Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes who are said in Ezra to have put a stop to this work. -Prideaux's Connection, anno 522. d After the return from the captivity, the people in general came to be called Jews, because, though there were many Israelites among them, yet they chiefly consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin; and though the edict of Cyrus gave all permission to return when they pleased, yet the sacred writers take notice only of those who returned in a body.—Patrick's Commentary on Ezra. e For this there are three expressions in the text, toll, tribute, and custom. By the first of these Grotius understands that which every head paid to the king, which we call poll-money: by the second, the excise (as we now speak) that was upon commodities and merchandise; and by the last the land-tax. But Witsius, (in his Miscell. part. 2,) is of opinion, that the first werd rather signifies that part which every man paid out of his estate, according as it was valued; the second, that which was paid for every head; and the third, that which was paid upon the highways, by every traveller that went about the country with any kind of merchandise.-Patrick's Commentary. A. M. 3475. A. C. 529; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4890. A. C. 521. EZRA iv. 7-END, EST. NEH. PART OF HAG. ZECH. MAL. Syria and Palestine would be tempted to revolt; so that, in a short time, his majesty would be excluded from having any benefit from his territories on that side of the river Euphrates." Upon consulting the records which the Samaritans referred the king to, it plainly appeared, that the Jews had defended themselves with great valour, and had been subdued by Nebuchadnezzar, not without much difficulty; whereupon he issued out an edict, wherein he prohibited the Jews to proceed any farther in their building, and ordered his officers in Samaria to put it in execution. They immediately went up to Jerusalem with an armed force, and having pursued the king's orders with the utmost rigour, put a full stop to any farther proceeding in the work, until the second year of a Darius Hystaspes. Darius, upon the death of the pretended Smerdis, was, by a stratagem, chosen king of Persia; and though the edict which prohibited the building of the temple, expired with the usurper, yet had the prophets Zechariah and Haggai much ado to prevail with the people to reassume the work. They were fearful of the interest which the Samaritans were presumed to have at court; and accordingly found, that no sooner had they provided themselves with stone and timber, and other materials, in order to proceed in the building, but these implacable enemies betook themselves to their old practices, and endeavoured to possess Tatnai, whom Darius had made governor over the provinces of Syria and Palestine, with a notion that what the Jews were doing was without authority, and would prove prejudicial to the king. Tatnai, upon this information, came to Jerusalem, and having called the governor and elders of the Jews together, d he understood from them, that they had a parison of those which foretell the coming of the Messias in the plainest terms; the cruel war which Antiochus Epiphanes waged with the Jews, and God's severe judgments against this tyrant; the Jewish war with the Romans, and the siege of Babylon by Darius; the dissolution of the old covenant, and the substitution of a new one under Christ; the glorious state of the Christian church, and the conversion of the Gentiles; the persecutions which the Christians should endure, and the severe punishment of their persecutors, and other such like events, contained in the a There are some who take the Darius here mentioned, not ninth and following chapters of his prophecies. Some critics, to be Darius the Second, who was the son of Hystaspes, but the however, are of opinion, that the style of this prophet is a little Darius who is commonly called Nothus; but then they are interrupted, and without connexion, and that the ixth, xth, and pressed with this difficulty, which may well be called insurxith chapters, which go under his name, were originally written mountable. For, from the first year of Cyrus, who gave orders by Jeremiah; because in Matthew, (ch. xxvii. 9, 10.) under the for the building of the temple, to the sixth year of Darius Nothus, name of Jeremiah, we find Zechariah xi. 12, quoted; and as the in which they supposed that it was finished, there were, at least, aforesaid chapters make but one continued discourse, they conan hundred and thirteen years; according to some, an hundred clude from thence, that all three belonged to Jeremiah. But it and seventeen; and according to others, an hundred and forty- is much more natural to suppose, that the name of Jeremiah, by But now, if all this time, Zerubbabel was in the govern- some unlucky mistake, has slipt into the text of St Matthew, ment of Judea, and Joshua in the high-priesthood, so long an instead of that of Zechariah. Contemporary with him was the proauthority in church or state was never heard of in any age be-phet Haggai, who, in all probability, was born at Babylon, and fore. Nor must it be forgotten, what the prophet Haggai, (chap. ii. | 3,) supposes, namely, That some then alive remembered the glory of the first temple, and compared it with the glory of the second; which upon the supposition that this was in the sixth year of Darius Nothus, will make them at least an hundred and fourscore years old, a thing almost incredible. And therefore the most probable opinion is, that the Darius here meant, was Darius Hystaspes, whose second year was the eighteenth after the first of Cyrus, as Huetius reckons.-Patrick's Commentary. two. The seven princes, who had slain the usurper Smerdis, and his brother, consulting together about the settling of the government, came at length to this resolution, that the monarchy should continue in the same manner that it had been established by Cyrus, and that, to determine which of them should ascend the throne, they should all meet at a certain place the next morning, against the rising of the sun, and that he whose horse first neighed, should be appointed king. For as the sun was the great deity of all the Persians, they seemed by this method, to refer their election to it; but Darius's groom, being informed of this, tied a mare on the night before the election to the place where the next morning, they were to meet, and brought his master's horse to cover her. As soon, therefore, as the princes met together at the time appointed, Darius's horse remembered the place, ran immediately thither, neighing and prancing all along; whereupon the rest dismounting, saluted him as their king, and accordingly placed him on the throne.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 521. e Zechariah was the son of Barachiah, and grandson of Iddo; but the time and place of his birth are unknown. Some will have him to be born at Babylon, during the captivity; but others think that he was born at Jerusalem, before the tribes of Judah and Benjamin were carried away. It is certain, however, that he returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel, and very probable that he began to prophesy in the second year of Darius, the son of Hystaspes. The number, excellency, and preciseness of his prophecies made him be styled "the sun among the lesser prophets," and as he began his predictions about two months after Haggai, with him he encouraged the Jews to go on in the rebuilding of their temple, and gave them assurance of the divine protection. But these prophecies were inconsiderable, in com returned with Zerubbabel to Jerusalem. They both, with united zeal, encouraged the people to go on with the work of the temple, which, by the envy of the Samaritans, who were their enemies, and the ill offices of some at the court of Cyrus and Cambyses, whom they influenced, was discontinued for some time: but upon the accession of Darius to the throne, Haggai, in particular, by reproaching the people with their indolence and insensibility, by telling them that they were careful enough to lodge themselves very commodiously, while the house of the Lord lay buried in its own ruins, and by putting them in mind, that the calamities of drought and famine, wherewith God had afflicted them since their return, were owing to their neglect in repairing the temple, prevailed with them to set about the work in good earnest; so that, by virtue of these reproofs, as well as some encouragements which God occasionally authorized him to give them, they brought the whole to a conclusion in a short time.-Calmet's Dictionary under the words, and Universal History, b. ii. c. 1. d The plea which Josephus makes Zerubbabel the governor, and Joshua the high priest, urge upon this occasion, is to this effect-"That they were the servants of the great God, to whose honour this temple was built, and to his service dedicated by the greatest, the happiest, and the wisest prince that ever sat on that throne; that it stood for many ages, till, by reason of the wickedness of their forefathers, the city, by God's permission, was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Chaldea, the temple pillaged, and laid in ashes, and the people carried away captives into Babylon; that when Cyrus came to be possessed of the throne of Persia and Babylon, he ordered, by his royal proclamation, the rebuilding of the temple, and the restoring of all the sacred vessels that had been taken away by Nebuchadnezzar, which accordingly were transported to Jerusalem, and laid up again in the temple; that by the command of the same king, Abassar was sent to see the work expedited, and accordingly was present at the laying of the foundation; but that, ever since that time, by one artifice or other, their enemies had found means to obstruct and retard it: and that, for the truth of these allegations, they desired that Darius might be wrote to, that, by consulting public records, it might be known, whether or no these facts were according to this their representation."-Jewish Hist. b. xi. c. 4. A. M. 3475. A. C. 529; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4890 A. C. 521. EZRA iv. 7-END, EST. NEH. PART OF HAG. ZECH. MAL. decree from Cyrus, which empowered and authorized them in what they did whereupon the governor wrote to court, acquainting the king with the true state of the case, and desiring that search might be made into the public records, whether the Jews really had any such decree from Cyrus, and upon the whole, that he would be pleased to signify his will, what he would have him to do in this affair. the next month, which was the month Nisan, the first in the Jewish year, the temple was made fit for every part of divine service; and, therefore, on the fourteenth day of that month, the passover was observed in it, according to the law of God, and, by all the Jews that had returned from the captivity, solemnized with great joy and gladness of heart, because the Lord had made them joyful,' (as it is expressed in the book of Ezra,) ‘ and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the house of God, the God of Israel.' Darius, who, the better to fortify his title to the crown, had married two of the daughters of Cyrus, thought himself concerned to do every thing that might tend to the honour of that great prince; and therefore confirmed the decree which he had granted to the Jews, with a fresh one of his own, wherein he gave them an assignment upon his revenues in several provinces for whatever money they wanted, to enable them to go on with the work, and to provide them sacrifices for the service of the temple, that the priests, in their daily offices, might put up their prayers for the prosperity of the king and the royal family: and wherein he ordered, that the man should be hanged, and his house pulled down for timber to make him a gallows, who ever should pretend to put any let or obstruction to this his injunc-redress; and returned with the king's order to his tion. Upon the publication of this decree, and the great care that was taken to have it fully put in execution, the work of the temple went on so very successfully, that, in the sixth year of Darius, according to the Jewish account, and on the third day of the twelfth month, (which is called Adar, and answers in part to our February and March,) the whole of it was finished, and its dedication celebrated by the priests and Levites, and all the congregation of Israel, with great joy and solemnity. By 'Prideaux's Connection. a Though the Jews were not allowed to desire the heathen to pray to their deities for their prosperity, because they were forbidden to acknowledge any other God but one: yet the heathen, if they thought fit, might worship their God; nor did the Jews deny them that privilege, or refuse the offerings which they brought for that purpose, until in the time of their wars with the Romans, the faction of the zealots grew to be predominant: for then, as Josephus tells us, (b. ii. c. 7.) "one Eleazar, the son of Ananias the high priest, a desperate daring young man, and a military officer then in command, pressed some of his friends among the priests to receive no offering or sacrifice but from the Jews only; by which means it came to pass, that the very offerings of Cæsar, which were used constantly to be made for the welfare of the Roman people, came to be rejected; and this proved the very ground and foundation of the war with that nation. The high priest, however, and the men of the best quality, declared themselves extremely dissatisfied with the novelty of this prohibition, and with great importunities, desired the continuance of so pious a custom, as offering up prayers for princes and governors." But all is in vain; though this place in Ezra, (chap. vi. 10.) one would think, sets the duty in a clear light.-Le Clerc's Commentary on Ezra. The most obvious sense of the words in the text, (chap. vi. 11.) seems to be this; but Lud. de Dieu, observes, that, in the words which we there render being set up,' there is no proper Construction; and therefore he would rather have them transJated, according to the Septuagint, And standing, let him be beat upon it,' that is, whipped,' as we say, at a post,' for that was a punishment among the Persians and other nations. But if a greater punishment than this should here be intended, then he makes the first words refer to the timber, and the latter to the man, in this manner; and from above, let it fall upon him,' that is, the stake being lifted up, shall be struck into his body, and come out at his fundament, which was a cruel punishment among the Eastern people, and continues still in use to this day. Patrick's Commentary. By the decree of Cyrus, which was thus confirmed by that of Darius, the tribute of Samaria had been assigned for the reparation of the temple; but now, that the body of the temple was finished, (though the outworks remained still untouched,) the Samaritans pretended that the end of this assignment was ceased, and thereupon refused to pay the tribute any longer. But the Jews, upon sending Zerubbabel their governor, with two other principal men, to Shushan, or Susa, which was then the residence of the Persian monarch, in order to complain of this unjust detention of the royal bounty, met with a proper officers of Samaria, requiring them to take an effectual care, that, pursuant to his edict, the Samaritans paid their tribute to the temple, and gave the Jews for the future no cause to complain of their refusal herein: which put a full end to all contest about that matter, and was the last good office we find recorded in Scripture, that Darius did the Jews. For, in the six and thirtieth year of his reign he died, and was succeeded by Xerxes, c Darius is called the king of Assyria,' as now reigning over all the kingdoms which were formerly under the power of the Assyrians; and from hence Archbishop Usher infers, that Babylon, (which, in the beginning of his reign, had revolted,) must necessarily have been reduced by Darius before this time, otherwise he thinks he could not have here been styled, king of Assyria,' whereof Babylon was then the metropolis.-Patrick's Commentary; and Prideaux's Connection, anno 515. d A copy of the king's order, or the letter which he sent back by the Jewish commissioners to the officers and lieutenants of the province, and the senate of Samaria, Josephus has recorded in these words. "King Darius, to Tangar and Sambaba, masters of our horse e The character which our celebrated connecter of the Old and New Testament has given us of this Darius, is,-That he was a prince of great wisdom, clemency, and justice, and has the honour to be recorded in holy writ, for a favourer of God's people, and a restorer of his temple at Jerusalem, and a promoter of his worship therein. For all this God was pleased to make him his instrument; and, with respect to this, I doubt not, it was, that he blessed him with a numerous issue, a long reign, and great prosperity. For, though he was not so very fortunate in his wars against the Scythians and Greeks, yet every where else he had full success in all his undertakings, and not only restored and fully settled the empire of Cyrus, after it had been much shaked by Cambyses, and the Magian, but also added many large and rich provinces to it, especially those of India, Thrace, Macedon, and the isles of the Iouian sea.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 486. A. M. 3475. A. C. 529; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4926. A. C. 485. EZRA iv. 7-END, EST. NEH. PART OF HAG. ZECH. MAL. the eldest of his sons by Atossa, daughter to Cyrus, what foul disgrace he returned home from the inglorious the great founder of the Persian monarchy. 1 Xerxes, according to Josephus, (for we have but little account of him in the sacred records), confirmed to the Jews all the privileges that his father Darius had granted them, and particularly that which assigned them the tribute of Samaria, for the charge of the sacrifices that were to be offered in the temple of Jerusalem. It is of him that the words of the prophet Daniel are meant: Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia,' which were Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius Hystaspes, and the fourth shall be far richer than they all; and, by his strength through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece;' for the story is well known, with what a prodigious armament, both by sea and land, he set out against the Greeks, but with 2 6 b 0 1 Jewish Antiq. b. xi. c. 5. Where we have a copy of his letter to his governors and lieutenants of Syria, but too long to be inserted here. 2 Dan. xi. 2, 3. a Darius had three sons by his first wife, the daughter of Gobrias, all born before his advancement to the throne, and four others by Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, who were all born after it. Of the former, Artabasanes was the eldest; of the latter, Xerxes: and, as Darius advanced in years, between these two was the competition for the succession. Artabasanes urged, that, as he was the eldest son, according to the custom and usage of all nations, he ought to be preferred before any that was younger. But Xerxes replied to this, that he was the son of Darius by Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, who was the first founder of the Persian empire; for which reason he held it just and reasonable, that the crown of Cyrus should rather come to a descendant of Cyrus, than to one that was not; and to this he added, that though Artabasanes was the eldest son of Darius, yet he was not the eldest son of a king; that he was born when he was only a private person, and could therefore claim no more than to be heir of his private fortunes; but that, as to himself, he was the first born after his father was king, and had therefore the best right to succeed him in the kingdom. Whereupon he was nominated to the succession, but not so much for the strength of his plea, as for the influence which his mother Atossa had over the inclinations of her husband.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 486. b After he had passed over the Hellespont, his land-army, upon the muster, was found to be one million and seven hundred thousand foot, and fourscore thousand horse, besides his chariots and camels, for which, allowing twenty thousand more, the whole will amount to one million and eight hundred thousand men. His fleet consisted of twelve hundred and twenty ships of the line of battle, besides galleys, transports, victuallers, and other sorts of vessels that attended, which were three thousand more; and on board of all these were reckoned to be five hundred and seventeen thousand, six hundred and ten men: so that the whole number of forces by sea and land which Xerxes brought with him out of Asia to invade Greece, amounted to two millions three hundred and seventeen thousand six hundred and ten men. After his passing the Hellespont, the nations on the other side that submitted to him added to his land-army three hundred thousand men more, and two hundred and twenty ships to his fleet, on board of which were twenty-four thousand men; and the servants, eunuchs, women, suttlers, and all such other people as followed the camp, were computed to be no less than as many So that the whole number of the persons of all sorts that followed Xerxes in this expedition were at least five millions. This is Herodotus's account of that armament: and, considering that he is the most ancient author that has written of this war, was himself alive when it happened, and has treated of it with greater appearance of exactness than any other, there is reason to believe, that his computation is the truest.—Prideaux's Connection, anno 480. more. e For having lost most of the forces which he left behind him at the battle of Plata, and a great many of his ships at the fight in the straits of Salamis, and being frightened with an apprehension, lest the conqueror should sail to the Hellespont, and there obstruct his return, he fled thither with all the haste and expedition, when, falling into contempt with his own subjects, not a long while after, he was murdered by the captain of his guard, and succeeded by his son d Artaxerxes Longimanus, whom the Scripture calls Ahasuerus, and was the same who had the beautiful Hebrew Esther for his queen. Upon some occasion or other, Ahasuerus appointed a precipitation that he could; but, at his coming thither, finding the bridge of boats which he had left there broken by storms, he, who had passed over that sea but a few months before with such pomp and pride, was forced to repass in a poor fisher-boat, a piece of history this which Juvenal has not badly represented in these words: "But how did he return after his flight from Salamis? he that used to lash the north, west, and east winds with stripesbarbarian that he was! they never endured such treatment in the Eolian prison. But how did he return? forsooth in a single bark, over blood-coloured waves, and the vessel retarded by the closely-huddled dead bodies.”—Sat. 10. d This prince, to distinguish him from others of that name, was called Mangoxg, or Longimanus, upon the supposed length of his hands, with which it is said that he could have touched his knees, even when he stood upright; but this notwithstanding, it is reported of him, that he was both the handsomest person of the age in which he lived, and a prince likewise of a very mild and generous disposition.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 465. e Our learned Usher is of opinion, that Darius Hystaspes was the king Ahasuerus who married Esther, namely, that Atossa was the Vashti, and Artystona the Esther of the Holy Scriptures. But Herodotus positively tells us, that Artystona was the daughter of Cyrus, and therefore could not be Esther; and that Atossa had four sons by Darius, besides daughters, all born to him after he was king; and therefore she could not be that queen Vashti who was divorced from the king her husband in the third year of his reign, (Esther i. 3); nor he that Ahasuerus that divorced her. Joseph Scaliger is likewise of opinion, that Xerxes was the Ahasuerus, and Hamestris his queen the Esther of the Holy Scriptures. But whatever seeming similitude there may be in the names (and this is the whole foundation of his conjecture), it is plain from Herodotus, that Xerxes had a son by Hamestris, who was marriageable in the seventh year of his reign; and therefore it is impossible that he should be Esther's, because Esther was not married to Ahasuerus until the seventh year of his reign, (Esther ii. 16); and, considering that the choice of virgins was made for him in the fourth of his reign, and a whole year employed in their purifications, the soonest that she could have a son by him, must be in the sixth; and therefore we may conclude (with Josephus, the Septuagint, and the Apocryphal additions to the book of Esther), that the Ahasuerus in Scripture was Artaxerxes Longimanus, and Esther an Hebrew virgin, as she is all along represented.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 465. f The occasion of this great festival is, very likely, intimated to us in the phrase, When the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom,' (chap. i. 2,) that is, enjoying peace and tranquillity through his large dominions; for the history of his accession to the throne is this:-Xerxes, his father, was privately murdered by Artabanus, captain of his guard. He coming to him (who was then but the third son), made him believe that Darius, his eldest brother, had done it, to make his way to the throne, and had a design likewise to cut him off, to secure himself in it. This Ahasuerus believing, went immediately to his brother's apartment, and, by the assistance of the wicked Artabanus and his guards, slew him, thinking all the while that he acted but in his own defence. Artabanus's drift was to seize onthe throne himself; but for the present, he took Ahasuerus, and placed him thereon, with a design to pull him down as soon as matters were ripe for his own ascent but when Ahasuerus understood this from Magabyzus, who had married one of his sisters, he took care to counterplot Artabanus, and to cut him and his whole party off before his treason was come to maturity; and for this, and some other successes against his brother Hystaspes, which settled him in a peaceable possession of the whole Persian empire, very probably it was, that a festival season of above an hundred and fourscore days' continuance was appointed, which even to this day, according to some travellers, is no uncommon thing in those parts of the world.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 465; and Patrick's Commentary on Esther, chap. i. : |