A. M. 3475. A. C. 529; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4947. A. C. 464. EZRA iv. 7-END, EST. NEH. PART OF HAG. ZECH. MAL.

1

the support of themselves and their families; which being | nancing any manner of oppression, that he did not exa manifest breach of the law of God (for that forbids act the daily revenue of forty shekels of silver, and the all the race of Israel to take usury of any of their bre- | constant furniture of his table with provisions; but rethren), Nehemiah, as soon as he was informed thereof, mitted these and all other advantages of his place, that resolved to remove so great an iniquity. And, accord- | might any way be troublesome and chargeable to the ingly, having called a general assembly of the people, wherein he set before them the nature of the offence, how great a breach it was of the divine law, and how heavy an oppression upon their brethren; what handle it might give their enemies to reproach them; and how much it might provoke the wrath of God against them all; he caused it to be enacted, by the general suffrage of the whole assembly, that every one should return to his brother whatever he had exacted of him upon usury; and should likewise release all the lands, houses, and tenements, that he had, at any time, taken of him upon Thus Nehemiah, with great honour and applause, mortgage; which act presently removed all uneasiness, having executed the commission with which he was sent and pacified the minds of the people. « to Jerusalem, at the expiration of the time which was The governor himself indeed was so far from counte- allowed him, he returned to Shushan, according to his

1 Exod. xxii. 25.

a

still more miserable) another dearth was come upon them, which might easily happen, from the multitude of people that were employed in the repair of the walls; from the buildingwork, which hindered them from providing for their families some other way; and from the daily dread they had of their enemies, which might keep them from going abroad to fetch in provision, and the country people from bringing it in.-Patrick's Commentary, and Poole's Annotations.

people. Nay, he not only refused the allowance which was due to him as governor, but, at his own charge, kept open house, entertaining every day at his table a hundred and fifty of the Jews, and their rulers, besides strangers; for which he constantly allowed an ox, six fat sheep, and fowl in proportion, and, on every tenth day, wine of all sorts. Besides this, he gave many rich presents to the temple; and, by his generous example, encouraged others, both princes and people, to do the like.

2

dread in which they hold a nation of stupid and cowardly Mahometans.'-Clarke's Travels, vol. iii. p. 614.—ED.

From this great and daily expense, it seems most probable, either that Nehemiah had large remittances from the Persian court, even besides his own estate, to answer it, or that he did not continue at Jerusalem for the whole twelve years together; or that, if he did, he did not continue this expensive way of

exigencies and distresses of the Jews, which ceased in a good measure after that the walls were built, the act against usury passed, and the people discharged to their ordinary course of maintaining themselves and families.-Poole's Annotations, and Le Clerc's Commentary.

e This Ezra, without all controversy, was the same Ezra who came from Babylon to Jerusalem, in the seventh of Artaxerxes, with a full commission to assist Zerubbabel in the reformation of the whole state of the Jewish church. After the death of Zerubbabel, the whole administration devolved upon him; but as his commission lasted but twelve years, upon its expiration Nehemiah succeeded to the government, and we hear no more of Ezra, until he is here called upon to read and expound the law to the people; whether, as some think, he returned to Babylon, to give the people an account of affairs in the province of Judea, or whether, in this intermediate time, he employed himself, in some retirement, in the great work of preparing a new and current edition of the Holy Scriptures, of which we shall give a full account in our next section.-Patrick's Commentary, and Poole's Annotations.

a In the text, Neh. ch. v. 15, it is said, even their servants bare rule over the people.' By these words it is evident that some oppressive practices are referred to. They probably relate to the forcible taking away of provisions from the people by the servants of former governors. In these countries this was no uncommon thing; many instances of it might be easily produced: the one which follows may, however, suffice. After the jealousy of the poor oppressed Greeks, lest they should be pil-house-keeping all the time, but only during the great and present laged, or more heavily loaded with demands by the Turks, had prevented their voluntarily supplying the Baron du Tott for his money, Ali Aga undertook the business, and upon the Moldavian pretending not to understand the Turkish language, he knocked him down with his fist, and kept kicking him while he was rising, which brought him to complain in Turkish of his beating him so, when he knew very well they were poor people, who were often in want of necessaries, and whose princes scarcely left them the air they breathed. "Pshaw! thou art joking, friend," was the reply of Ali Aga, "thou art in want of nothing except of being basted a little oftener. But all in good time. Proceed we to business. I must instantly have two sheep, a dozen of pigeons, fifty pounds of bread, four oques (a Turkish weight of about forty-two ounces) of butter, with salt, pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemons, wine, salad, and good oil of olives, all in great plenty.' ." With tears the Moldavian replied: "I have already told you that we are poor creatures, without so much as bread to eat; where must we get cinnamon?" The whip was taken from under his habit, and the Moldavian beaten till he could bear it no longer, but was forced to fly, finding Ali Aga inexorable, and that these provisions must be produced. A quarter of an hour was not expired, within which time Ali Aga required these things, before they were all brought.-Memoirs, vol. i. part ii. p. 10; and Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, vol. i. p. 231.—It was nearly dark when we reached the town, if a long straggling village may bear this appellation. Ibrahim rode first, and had collected a few peasants around him, who we could just discern by their white habits, assembled near his house. In answer to his inquiries respecting provisions for the party, they replied, in an humble tone, that they had consumed all the food in their houses, and had nothing left to offer. Instantly the noise of Ibrahim's lash about their heads and shoulders made them believe that he was the herald of a party of Turks, and they fled in all directions. This was the only way, he said, to make those misbegotten dogs provide any thing for our supper. It was quite surprising to see how such lusty fellows, any one of whom was more than a match for Ibrahim, suffered themselves to be horse-whipped, and driven from their homes, owing to the

d This pulpit was to raise him up higher than the people, the better to be seen and heard by them; but we are not to think that it was made in the fashion of ours, which will hold no more than one person; for, as we may observe by the very next words, it was made large and long enough to contain fourteen people at once.-Patrick's Commentary.

e The words in the text (Neb. viii. S,) are, so they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.' The Israelites having been lately brought out of the Babylonish captivity, in which they had continued seventy years, according to the prediction of Jeremiah, (xx. 11,) were not only extremely corrupt, but it appears that they had in general lost, the knowledge of the ancient Hebrew to such a degree, that when the book of the law was read, they did not understand it: but a certain Levite stood by, and gave the sense, that is, translated into the Chaldee dialect. This was not only the origin of the Chaldee targums, or translations of the law and the prophets into that tongue; but

A. M. 3475. A. C. 529; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4947. A. C. 464. EZRA iv. 7—END, EST. NEH. PART OF HAG. ZECH, MAL. all listened to with a very devout attention, a and cele- | the high-priest, who, being by marriage allied to Tobiah, brated the ensuing feast of tabernacles with great glad- the Jews' great enemy, had allowed him an apartment in ness of heart; and, on a day appointed for a solemn fast, the temple, in the very place where the offerings, and confessing their own sins, in deprecating the judgments other things appertaining to the priests and Levites, due to the iniquity of their fathers; acknowledging the used to be reposited. So that when Nehemiah returned omnipotence of God in creating and preserving all from the Persian court with a new commission for the things, and enumerating his gracious mercies in their reforming of all abuses, both in church and state, he was sundry deliverances from their enemies and persecutors, not a little surprised to find such a gross profanation of they made a covenant with him, that they would walk in the temple, and that chambers should be provided in the his law, which was given by Moses; and, to oblige house of God for one who was a declared enemy to his themselves to a more strict performance of this covenant, worship. it was ordered to be engrossed, that the prince, priests, and Levites, might set their hands and seals to it; and those who did not set their seals, of what age, sex, or condition soever, did bind themselves with an oath, punctually to observe it.

But, notwithstanding all this precaution, Nehemiah had not been long gone from Jerusalem, before the people relapsed into their old corruptious; which, in a great measure, was owing to the mismanagement of Eliashib

He therefore resolved to put an end to this; but found himself under a necessity of proceeding with caution in the affair, because e Tobiah had insinuated himself into the good opinion of most of the people, and especially those of note. The first step therefore that he took towards this reformation was to convince them of their error, by causing the book of the law to be read publicly, and in the hearing of all the people; so that when the reader came to that place in Deuteronomy, wherein it is commanded that 'an Ammonite or Moabite should not come into the congregation of God, even

1 Deut. xxiii. 3.

was also, in all probability, the origin of preaching from a text; for it appears that the people were not only ignorant of their ancient language, but also of the rites and ceremonies of their religion, having been so long in Babylon, where they were not temple could make so great an innovation in it. He was assispermitted to observe them. This being the case, not caly thetant, indeed, in the reparation of the walls of the city; but exlanguage must be interpreted, but the meaning of the rites and cepting this one act, where do we read of his doing any thing ceremonies must also be explained; for we find from ver. 13, worthy of memory, towards the reforming of what was amiss &c. of this chapter, that they had even forgotten the feast of in church or state, in the times either of Ezra or Nehemiah? tabernacles, and every thing relating to that ceremony. As we And yet we cannot but presume, that had he joined with them no where find that what is called preaching on or expounding a in so good a work, some mention would have been made of it in text, was even in use before that period, we are probably beholden the books written by them. Since, therefore, instead of this, we to the Babylonish captivity for producing, in the hand of Divine find it recorded in Ezra, (chap. x. 18,) that the pontifical house providence, a custom the most excellent and beneficial ever inwas, in his time, grown very corrupt, and, not improbably, by troduced among men.-Dr A. Clarke.-ED. his connivance, began to marry into heathen families, (Neh. xiii. 28,) it seems most likely that it was Eliashib the high-priest who was the author of this great profanation of the house of God; but as he might die before Nehemiah returned from Babylon, for this reason we hear nothing of the governor's reprehending hom for it.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 428.

a The words in the text are, since the days of Joshua, the son of Nun, unto that day, had not the children of Israel done so, and there was very great gladness,' (Neh. viii. 17.) But it can hardly be thought that this festival had never been observed since Joshua's time; because we read in the foregoing book of Ezra, that it was kept at their return from Babylon; but the meaning is, that the joy since that time had never been so great as it was upon this occasion; for which the Jews themselves assign this reason, namely, that in the days of Joshua they rejoiced, because they had got possession of the land of Canaan, and now they equally rejoiced, because they were restored, and quietly settled in it, after they had been long cast out of it.-Patrick's Commentary.

¿ The observances, which they chiefly obliged themselves to in this covenant, were, 1st, not to make intermarriages with the Gentiles. 2dly, to observe the sabbaths and sabbatical years. 3dly, to pay their annual tribute for the reparation and service of the temple. And, 4thly, to pay their tithes and first-fruits for the maintenance of the priests and Levites: from which particulars, thus named in this covenant, we may learn what were the laws of God, which hitherto they had been most neglective of, since their return from the captivity.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 444.

e It signifies little, indeed, what such untoward people promised; for what regard would they have to their own hand-writing, who regarded not the ten commandments, written on tables of stone by the finger of God? It was very useful, however, that there should be a public instrument to convince them of their impiety, and that they might be publicly confounded when they proved perfidious deserters, by showing them, under their own hands, their engagements to future fidelity.- Patrick's Comment. d Some are apt to imagine, that this Eliashib was no more than a common priest, because he is said to have had the oversight of the chambers of the house of God,' (Neh. xiii. 4,) which was an office too mean, as they think, for the high-priest. But we cannot see why the oversight of the chambers of the house of God' may not import the whole government of the temple, which certainly belonged to the high-priest only; nor can we conceive how any one that was less than absolute governor of the whole

e By his making two alliances with families of great note among the Jews: for Johanan his son had married the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah, (Neh. vi. 18—iii. 4.,) who was one of the chief managers of the building of Jerusalem, under the direction of the governor; and he himself had married the daughter of Shechaniah the son of Arah, another great man among the Jews; by which means he had formed an interest, and was looked upon as a worthy man, though (being an Ammonite) he could not but bear a national hatred to all that were of the race of Israel.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 428.

f They who, by the congregation of God,' in this place, do understand the public assemblies for divine worship,' lie under a great mistake; for no man of any nation was forbidden to come and pray to God in the temple. Men of all nations, indeed, that were willing to become proselytes, were admitted into the Jewish communion; and, if they submitted to be circumcised, were allowed to eat the passover, and to enjoy all the privileges that true Israelites did, except only in the case of marriage; and therefore this phrase of not entering into the congregation of the Lord,' must be understood to mean no more than a prohibition of marriage; for this, according to their rabbins, was the case such prohibitions. None of the house of Israel, of either s were to enter into marriage with any Gentiles, of what nation soever, unless they were first converted to their religion, seù became entire proselytes to it; and even in that case, some were debarred from it for ever; others only in part; and others again only for a limited time. Of the first sort were all of the seve nations of the Canaanites, mentioned in Deut. vii; of the second sort were the Moabites and the Ammonites, whose males were excluded for ever, but not their females; and of the third ser were the Edomites and Egyptians, with whom the Jews might not marry until the third generation; but with all others who were not of these three excepted sorts, they might freely make intermarriages whenever they became thorough proselytes to

A. M. 3475. A. C. 529; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4947. A. C. 464. EZRA iv. 7—END, EST, NEH. PART OF HAG. ZECII. MAL. to the tenth generation for ever:' they being sensible of they could not to the citizens, the next day he threatened their transgression in this respect, separated themselves to take them into custody, if they did not go about their immediately from the mixed multitude, which gave Neh-business; and to this purpose, appointed a guard of emiah an easy opportunity of getting rid of Tobiah, Levites to take up their station at the gate, and to stop who was an Ammonite; and therefore he ordered the all comers in, that might any way profane the sabbath. people, while they were in this good disposition, to cast Another reformation, and the last indeed that we find his furniture out of the sacred chambers, and to have recorded of Nehemiah, was his dissolution of unlawful them cleansed again, and restored to their former use. marriages among the Jews. Their law strictly forbade Among other corruptions that grew up during the them to make intermarriages with any foreign nations, governor's absence, there was one of which, as he was a either by giving their daughters to them for wives, or by constant frequenter of the public worship, he could not taking their daughters to themselves; but, since their but take notice, and that was, the neglect of carrying on return from captivity, people of all conditions had paid the daily service of the house of God, in a proper and so little regard to this command, that even the pontifical decent manner. For the tithes, which were to maintain house, which of all others ought to have set a better the ministers of the temple in their offices and stations, example, was become polluted with such impure mixtures, being either embezzled by the high-priest, or withheld insomuch that Joiada the high priest had a son, who by the laity, for want of them the Levites and singers married the daughter of Sanballat the Horonite, who, were driven from the temple into the country, to find a at that time, very probably was governor of Samaria. subsistence some other way: and therefore, to remedy this abuse, he forthwith ordered the people to bring in their tithes of corn, wine, and oil, into the treasury of the temple; and having appointed proper officers to receive and distribute them, he recalled the absent ministers, and restored everything to its former order.

These mixed marriages, besides many other damages that accrued to the state, would, in a short time, as he observed to them, quite corrupt their native language, d because he perceived, that the children already began to smatter the speech of their foreign parent; and therefore he required them all, under the penalties ƒ

c The reason why he appointed the Levites to this office of thought, that, by virtue of their character, they would meet with more deference and respect than his domestic servants, but that when he and his servants were gone from Jerusalem, he was resolved to have this watch continued, until this evil custom of admitting dealers into the city on the sabbath-day was quite broken. Patrick's Commentary

The neglect of the service of God had introduced a profanation of the sabbath: for, during Nehemiah's ab-keeping the gates on the sabbath-day, was, because he not only sence, the Jews had not only done all manner of servile works on that day, but had permitted strangers, Tyrians, and others, to come and sell their fish, and other commodities, publicly in the streets of Jerusalem. Against these wicked and irregular practices, Nehemiah remonstrated to the chief men of the city with some warmth; and, to let them see that he was resolved to make a thorough reformation in this matter, he gave a strict order, that towards the evening, before their sabbath began, the city gates should be shut, and not opened, until the sabbath was over: and to have this order more

b

duly executed, he appointed some of his own servants for the present to guard the gates, that no burden might pass through on the sabbath day. So that when the merchants and other dealers came, and, finding the gates shut against them, took up their lodgings without the walls in hopes of selling to the country people, though their religion. At present, however, because, through the confusions which have since happened in all nations, it is not to be known who is an Ammonite, who an Edomite, a Moabite, or an Egyptian, they hold this prohibition to have been long out of date, and that now, any gentile, as soon as proselyted to their religion, may immediately be admitted to make intermarriages with them.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 428.

--

a The method of purifying any thing or person that was legally unclean is thus described: For an unclean person, they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin,' (that is, of the heifer that was sacrificed on the great day of expiation), and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel,' which being afterwards strained off and kept for this purpose, a clean person,' that is, the priest (for to him the work of purifying is appropriated, Lev. xiii.) shall sprinkle upon the unclean person; and on the seventh day at even, after having bathed himself, and washed his clothes, he shall be deemed clean; but it is very likely that things inanimate were, immediately upon their being sprinkled with this water of separation, as it is called, (Numb. xix. 9) reputed clean.—Patrick's Commentary.

d What the natural language of the Jews at this time was, whether the Hebrew or Chaldee, is matter of some inquiry among the learned. Those who suppose that it was Hebrew, produce the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, besides the prophecies of Daniel, which, for the most part, were written in Hebrew, and which they suppose the authors of them would not have done, if Hebrew at that time had not been the vulgar language. But to this it is replied, that these Jewish authors might make use of the Hebrew language in which they wrote, not only because the things which they recorded concerned the Jewish nation only, among whom there were learned men enough to explain them; but chiefly because they were minded to conceal what they wrote from the Chaldeans, who at that time were their lords and masters, and, considering all circumstances might not perhaps have been so well pleased with them, had they understood the contents of their writings. Since it appears then, say they, by several words occurring in the books of Maccabees, the New Testament, and Josephus, that the language which the Jews then spoke was Chaldee; that this language they learned in their captivity, and, after their return from it, never assumed their ancient Hebrew tongue, so as to speak it vulgarly, it hence must follow, that what is here called the language of the Jews, and their native tongue, was at that time no other than the Chaldee, for the ancient Hebrew was only preserved among the learned.-Le Clerc's Commentary.

e From Nehemiah xiii. 23, 24, it appears that there were children in the same family by Jewish and Philistine mothers. As the Jewish mother would always speak to her children in Hebrew or Chaldee, so they learned to speak these languages; and as the Ashdod mother would always speak to her children in the Ashdod language, so they learned that tongue. Thus there were in the same family children who could not understand each other; half, or one part, speaking one language and the other part another. Children of different wives did not ordinarily mingle together; and the wives had separate apartments. better explanation than that the same child spoke a jargon half Ashdod and half Hebrew.-Dr A. Clarke.-ED.

This is a

It seems as if matters were come to that pass, that he could not trust the common porters of the gates, and therefore appointed f There are some things in the text, which, as they are made to some of his own domestics (who, he knew, would neither be care-proceed from Nehemiah's own mouth, and appear in our translaLess nor corrupted) to see that the gates were shut, and all traffiction,sound a little oddly: 'I contended with them, and cursed them prohibited. Patrick's 's Commentary. and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair,' c. xiii. 25,

A. M. 3475. A. C. 5 9; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4947. A. C. 464. EZRA iv. 7-END, EST. NEH. PART OF HAG. ZECH. MAL which he inflicted upon some that were obstinate, to put | priests for their iniquity and scandalous lives, and apaway their wives, and to have no more communion of that braiding the people with their neglect of the worship of kind with any foreign nation: in which he proceeded God; with their refusal to pay their tithes and offerwith such impartiality, that when the son of Joiada re-ings; with their divorcing their own wives, and marrying fused to quit his wife, he ordered him immediately to depart the country; a which accordingly he did, and with several others that were in the like circumstances, went and settled under his father-in-law in Samaria.

These were some of the reformations which Nehemiah, as a wise and pious governor, made in the Jewish church and state. But after his death, it was not long before the people relapsed into the same enormities; for which reason we find Malachi, the last prophet under the law; who, not long after Haggai and Zechariah, must have lived in the time of Nehemiah, reproving the

b

But the sense of these words is no more than this:-'I contended with them,' that is, I expostulated the matter with them. 'I cursed them,' that is, excommunicated them, in the doing of which I denounced God's judgments against them, I smote certain of them,' that is ordered the officers to beat some of the most notorious offenders, either with rods or with scourges, according to Deut xxv. 2, And I plucked off their hair,' that is, I commanded them to be shaved, thereby to put them to shame, and make them look like vile slaves: for as the hair was esteemed a great ornament among eastern nations, so baldness was accounted

a great disgrace; and to inflict these several punishments upon them, Nehemiah had a sufficient provocation, because in their marrying with heathen nations, they had acted contrary, not only to the express law of God, but to their own late solemn covenant and promise, Ezra x. 19.-Poole's Annotations. [The author of this note, by the phrase plucking off the hair,' (Neh. xiii. 25) understands shaving the head; but there is no reason for departing from the literal sense of the words in our version, particularly as the words signify to pluck off with violence, as if one were plucking a live bird. The same word is used in the same sense Ezra ix. 3, plucked off the hair of my head, and of my beard.' Also in Isaiah 1. 6, I gave my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. Not only was this mode of punishment practised among the Jews, but it was also common in Persia, and sometimes hot ashes were put upon the skin after the hair was torn of, in order to make the pain the more exquisite.-See Horne's Introduction, Paxton's Illustrations, and Gesen. Heb. Lex.-ED.]

a Josephus relates the matter, as if this expulsion had been effected by the power of the great Sanhedrim; but whether the Sanhedrim was at this time in being or no, as we have no elear footsteps of it until the time of Judas Maccabæus, there was no occasion 'for their interposing, since Nehemiah, no doubt, as governor of the province, had authority enough to banish him out of Judea, as Bertram, (On the Jewish Republic, c. 13.) expounds the phrase, I chased him from me,' (Neh. xiii. 28.)

Whether the word Malachi be the proper name of a man, or only a generical name to denote an angel, a messenger, a prophet, or the like, has been a matter of some inquiry. From the prophet Haggai, (chap. i. 13,) and this other, whom we cite under the name of Malachi, (chap. iii. 1,) it appears, that in these times the name of Malach-Jehovah, or the messenger of the Lord, was often given to prophets; and under this title, the Septuagint have characterized, and the fathers of the Christian church have frequently quoted, this prophetic writer. But the author of the Lives of the Prophets, under the name of Epiphanius Dorotheus, tells us, that this writer was of the tribe of Zebulun, a native of Sapha, and that the name of Malachi was given him, because an angel used visibly to appear to the people after the prophet had spoken to them, to confirm what he had said; though most of the ancient Jews, as well as the Chaldee paraphrast, were of opinion that Malachi was no other than Ezra under a borrowed name. However this be, it is agreed on all hands, that he was the last of the prophets of the synagogue, and lived about 400 years before Christ; of whose coming, and the coming of his forerunner John the Baptist, and of whose religion, and the institution of a catholic and universal church, in the room of the Jewish, he speaks in very full and express terms, (chap. iii. 1.) -Calmet's Dictionary under the word.

strange women; and with their inhumanity and cruel usage of their indigent brethren; the very same enormities which this good governor laboured to reform,

How long after this Nehemiah lived at Jerusalem, is uncertain: it is most likely, however, that, notwithstanding all the revolutions in the Persian court, he continued in his government to the time of his death, but when that happened, it is no where said; only we may observe, that at the time when he ends his book he could not be much less than seventy years old.

CHAP. II.-Objections answered and Difficulties obviated.

THE Jewish law against marrying with heathens runs thus: When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee,-Thou shalt not make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take to thy son. And the reason of the law is assigned in the following verse: For they will turn away thy sons from following me, that they may serve other gods: for did not Solomon 2 king of Israel,' as Nehemiah argues with the people, sin by these things?' And if so great a one as he, who excelled all mankind in wisdom, was not safe from the seducement of these outlandish women, how shall ye be able to preserve yourselves from their entice. ments? And yet, as Moses goes on in his reasoning,' Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God; and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all the people that are upon the face of the earth.'

Here then is an express law, enforced with weighty

3 Deut. vii. 6. e Upon the death of Artaxerxes, (in Scripture called Ahasue rus,) Xerxes, his only son by his queen, for he had several by tas concubines, and among these, the most famous were Sogdiants, Ochus, and Arsites, succeeded in the Persian throne; but, by the treachery of one of his eunuchs, Sogdianus came upon him while he was drunk, and, after he had reigned no more than five and forty days, slew him, and seized on the kingdom. But his unjust possession did not hold long, for his brother Ochus, bing then governor of Hyrcania, raised a considerable army, and, hav ing gained many of the nobility and governors of provinces to his interest, marched against him, and, under a pretence of a treaty, having got him into his power, threw him headlong into ashes, a punishment used among the Persians for very enormous criminals; so that, after he had reigned only six months and fifteen days, he died a very miserable death, and was succeeded by Ochus; who as soon as he was settled in the kingdom, took the name of Darius, and is therefore by historians called Darius Nothus, and after he had slain his brother Arsites, who thought to have sup planted him, as he had done Sogdianus, and Sogdianus, Xerves, and suppressed several other insurrections against him, contioned to sway the Persian sceptre for nineteen years, but whether he of Nehemiah, his governor of Judea, died first, we have no certain account: all that we know is that the last act of the governor's reformation, namely, his dissolution of strange marriages, was in the fifteenth year of this prince's reign, and consequently but four before his death.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 425.

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had the apostle, at that time, been either of Ezra's or Nehemiah's council, he would have given his vote for their dissolution among the Jews.

We own, indeed, that it is a very gracious declaration of God, Behold, all souls are mine, as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine; that soul that sinneth, it shall die;' but then we are to consider, that as

reasons, against these pagan marriages: and therefore, since whatever is done contrary to the law, is ipso facto null and void, these marriages with idolatrous women, which were strictly forbidden by God, were, properly speaking, no marriages at all; and the children which proceeded from them, were in no better condition than those whom we call bastards. 1 No interposition of civil authority was therefore needful to dissolve these mar-life signifies, in general, all that happiness which attends riages. The infidelity of the party espoused was as much an interdiction, as any of the most proximate degree of consanguinity, which, by the laws of all civilized nations, is known to vacate the marriage.

But even suppose that the civil authority thought proper to interpose in this matter, yet, wherein had the Jews any reason to complain, if in just punishment for their wilful breach of a known and positive law, they were excluded from cohabiting with these illegal wives? The Jews, I say, especially, who for every light and trivial cause made no scruple even to give their lawful wives a bill of divorcement, and might therefore, with much less difficulty, be supposed willing to repudiate those whom the laws of their God, for fear of their catching the infection of idolatry, had forbidden them to live with.

St Paul, indeed, is not for turning away an unbelieving wife,' in case she is willing to dwell with her husband; but then he supposes, that this couple were married when they were both heathens, and in a state of infidelity, in which case there was no law, either divine or human, forbidding them to marry, whereas in these Jewish marriages with pagans the prohibition is strict; and therefore, as there was no sin in their coming together at first, and the Christian religion, whether it was the man or the woman that embraced it, made no alteration in the case, his advice is, that they continue to dwell together, even though they be of different persuasions in matters of religion; because, as he farther adds this reason, the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife; and how knowest thou, O man, but that by thy peaceable cohabitation with her, thou mayest convert, and save thy wife?'

Though therefore the apostle is not for encouraging any separation between husband and wife upon account of their difference in religion, when their marriage was previous to either of their conversions to Christianity; yet, if we will make him consistent with himself, we must allow, that he is utterly averse to all mixed marriages with infidels, when in his following epistle he advises all Christians, Not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what communion,' says he, has light with darkness, or what concord has Christ with Belial?' &c. Whereby he gives us to think, that he esteemed all marriage with heathens illegal, and that,

36

1 Patrick's Commentary on Ezra x. 3. 21 Cor. vii. 16. 32 Cor. vi. 14.

God's favour, so death denotes all those punishments which are the effects of divine displeasure; and among these, the miseries of the next world are chiefly intended. These indeed shall be allotted to men, according to their own demerits, without any regard to the faults of their forefathers, which shall neither be laid to their charge nor made an aggravation of their guilt; but as to temporal evils and calamities, it cannot well otherwise be, but that, in the very course of things, children should suffer for the iniquities of their parents.

4

Though therefore it may seem a little hard, that the children should be included in their mother's divorce, yet the laws of most nations have determined this point:-—That children are to follow the condition of their mothers, be it what it will, and, consequently as they are unlawfully born, they must of course be alienated from the family, at the same time that the mother is repudiated, and in virtue of that very law which declares her marriage to be null. So that it was no arbitrary act in Ezra to abdicate the children, as well as the mothers: though," to prevent the danger of their corrupting the other children of the family, if they were allowed to stay, and of insinuating themselves so far into their father's affections, as to prevail with them in time to recall their ejected wives, might be motive enough to a prudent ruler, considering the then situation of affairs, to put the law rigidly in execution. As this however was an act of the government, wherein Ezra, and other good men who feared the Lord, were concerned, we may reasonably presume, that some provision was made for the maintenance, and perhaps the education of these poor children, in the principles of the Jewish religion, at the public charge.

5

How long Nehemiah was in finishing the walls of Jerusalem, interpreters are not agreed; because some of them, supposing the space of two and fifty days, ' mentioned in the Scripture, to be too short for the perfecting of the whole, have begun their computation from the time that Nehemiah returned his answer to Sanballat's first message, and others, from the time that the stonewall was finished, and so allow the whole fifty-two days for the perfecting of the rest. But if we look into the compass of time, from Nehemiah's being at Shushan, to the day of the month when these walls are said to have been finished, we shall find, that no more than fifty-two days could well be allowed for the perfecting of the whole.

It was in the first month, called by the Jews Nisan, that Nehemiah was at Shushan, and obtained of the king a The school of Shammah, who lived a little before our Saviour, leave to go to Jerusalem: and though we have no extaught, that a man could not lawfully be divorced from his wife, press account what time he spent in his journey, and unless he had found her guilty of some action which was really when he came to Jerusalem; yet if we may make a coninfamous, and contrary to the rules of virtue. But the school of Hillel, who was Shammah's disciple, taught, on the contrary, jecture from the time that Ezra expended in the same jourthat the least reasons, such as, if she did not dress his meat well,ney, we can scarce suppose that he arrived at Jerusalem if she was not agreeable to him in person or temper, or if he before the end of the fourth month. Ezra set out on found any other woman that he liked better, were sufficient to authorize a man to put away his wife.-Selden's Uxor. Hebraica, b. iii. c. 18.

Poole's Annotations.

Neh. vi. 15.

6 Neh. ii. 1.