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situate in the territory that had been apportioned to the tribe of Simeon. There is very great uncertainty concerning the precise time when he lived; some making him contemporary with Jotham, others, with Manasseh, and others, with Josiah. The most probable opinion is that, which places him between the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, about the year 715 before the Christian æra : and, as the design of this prophet is to denounce ruin upon Nineveh and the Assyrians, for their cruel tyranny over the Israelites, and as the captivity of the ten tribes took place in the tenth year of Hoshea king of Israel (2 Kings xvii. 6., &c. compared with 2 Kings xviii. 9-11.), it is most likely that Nahum prophesied against the Assyrians for the comfort of the people of God, towards the close of Hezekiah's reign.

II. The inhabitants of Nineveh, like those of other great cities. abounding in wealth and luxury, having become extremely corrupt in their morals, God commissioned Jonah to preach to them the necessity of repentance, as the only means of averting their imminent destruction. And such was the success of his preaching, that both the king and people repented and turned from their evil ways; and the divine judgment was in consequence delayed for a time. It appears, however, that this repentance was of no long duration; for, the Ninevites relapsing into their former wickedness, the prophet Nahum was commissioned to denounce the final and inevitable ruin of Nineveh and the Assyrian empire by the Chaldeans, and to comfort his countrymen in the certainty of their destruction.

His prophecy is one entire poem, which, opening with a sublime description of the justice and power of God tempered with longsuffering (i. 1-8.), foretels the destruction of Sennacherib's forces, and the subversion of the Assyrian empire (9-12.), together with the deliverance of Hezekiah and the death of Sennacherib. (13-15.) The destruction of Nineveh is then predicted, and described with singular minuteness. (ii. iii.)1

III. In boldness, ardour, and sublimity, Nahum is superior to all the minor prophets. His language is pure; and the exordium of his prophecy, which forms a regular and perfect poem, is not merely magnificent, it is truly majestic. The preparation for the destruction of Nineveh, and the description of its dawnfal and desolation, are expressed in the most vivid colours, and with images that are truly pathetic and sublime.

1 The best commentary, perhaps, on this prophet, is the ninth of Bishop New ton's Dissertations (vol. i. pp. 141-158.); in which he has ably illustrated the predictions of Nahum and other prophets who foretold the destruction of Nineveh.

SECTION VIJI.

ON THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ZEPHANIAH.

I. Author and date.-II. Scope and Analysis of this book.

BEFORE CHRIST, 640-609.

I. THIS prophet, who was "the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah," (i. 1.) is supposed to have been of the tribe of Simeon; but, though he has mentioned his ancestors for no less than four generations, nothing certain can be inferred from thence, as to the family to which he belonged. We learn, however, from his prophecy that he delivered his predictions in the reign of Josiah; consequently he prophesied about the time that Jeremiah entered on his prophetic office, and in method and subject he greatly resembles him.

On this account Zephaniah has been considered as the abbreviator of Jeremiah; but it is evident that he prophesied before. Jeremiah, because the latter (Jer, ii. 5. 20. 22.) seems to speak of those abuses as partially removed, which the former (Zeph. i. 4, 5. 9.) describes as existing in the most flagitious extent. From his account of the disorders prevailing in Judah, it is probable that he discharged the prophetic office before the eighteenth year of Josiah ; that is, before this prince had reformed the abuses and corruptions of his dominions. The style of Zephaniah is poetical, though it is not characterised by any striking or uncommon beauties.

II. In consequence of the idolatry and other iniquities prevailing in the kingdom of Judah, whose inhabitants had disregarded the denunciations and admonitions of former prophets, Zephaniah was commissioned to proclaim the enormity of their wickedness, and to denounce the imminent desolation that awaited them; to excite them to repentance, to foretel the destruction of their enemies, and to comfort the pious Jews with promises of future blessings.

His prophecy, which consists of three chapters, may be divided into four sections, viz.

SECT. 1. A denunciation against Judah for their idolatry. (i.) SECT. 2. Repentance the only means to avert the divine vengeance. (ii. 1-3.)

SECT. 3. Prophecies against the Philistines (ii. 4-7.), Moabites and Ammonites (8-11.), Ethiopia (12.), and Nineveh. (1315.) SECT. 4. The captivity of the Jews by the Babylonians foretold (iii. 1-7.), together with their future restoration and the ultimate prosperous state of the church. (8—20.)

CHAPTER VI.

OF THE PROPHETS WHO FLOURISHED NEAR TO AND
DURING THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY.

SECTION I.

ON THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH.

I. Author and date.-II. Occasion of his prophecies — different collections of them.-III. Synopsis of their contents.

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-IV. Pro

phecies concerning the Messiah.-V. Observations on their style.

BEFORE CHRIST, 628-586.

I. THE prophet Jeremiah was of the sacerdotal race, being (as he himself records) one of the priests that dwelt at Anathoth (i. ì.) in the land of Benjamin, a city appropriated out of that tribe to the use of the priests, the sons of Aaron (Josh. xxi. 18.), and situate, as we learn from Jerome, about three Roman miles north of Jerusalem.1 Some critics have conjectured that his father was the same Hilkiah, the high priest, who found the book of the law in the temple, in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah (2 Kings xxii. 8.) but for this opinion there is no better ground than that he bore the same name, which was of frequent occurrence among the Jews: for, if Hilkiah had really been the high priest, he would doubtless have been distinguished by that title, and would not have been placed on a level with priests of an ordinary and inferior class. Jeremiah appears to have been very young when he was called to the exercise of the prophetic office, from which he modestly endeavoured to excuse himself, by pleading his youth and incapacity; but being overruled by the divine authority, he set himself to discharge the duties of his function with unremitting diligence and fidelity during a course of at least forty-two years, reckoned from the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign. In the course of his ministry he met with great difficulties and opposition from his countrymen of all degrees, whose persecution and ill-usage sometimes wrought so far upon his mind, as to draw from him expressions, in the bitterness of his soul, which many have thought difficult to reconcile with his religious principles; but which, when duly weighed, may be found to demand our pity rather than censure. He was, in truth, a man of unblemished piety and conscientious integrity; a warm lover of his country, whose miseries he pathetically deplores; and so affectionately attached to his countrymen, notwithstanding their injurious treatment of him, that he chose rather to abide with them, and undergo all hardships in their company, than separately to enjoy a state of ease and plenty, which the favour of the king of Babylon would have secured to him. At length, after the destruction of Jerusalem, having followed the remnant of the Jews into Egypt, whither they had resolved to retire, though contrary to his advice,

1 Heronymi Comm. in Jer. cc. i. xi. and xxxi. Eusebii. Onomast. voce.

upon the murder of Gedaliah, whom the Chaldeans had left governor in Judæa, he there continued warmly to remonstrate against their idolatrous practices, foretelling the consequences that would inevitably follow. But his freedom and zeal are said to have cost him his life; for there is a tradition, that the Jews at Tahpanhes were so offended at his faithful remonstrances, that they stoned him to death, which account of the manner of his decease, though not absolutely certain, is at least very likely to be true, considering the temper and disposition of the parties concerned. Their wickedness, however, did not long pass without its reward; for, in a few years after, they were miserably destroyed by the Babylonian armies which invaded Egypt, according to the prophet's prediction. (xliv. 27, 28.)1 Some Jewish writers, however, affirm that he returned to Judæa, while others say that he went to Babylon, and died there; and a third class are of opinion that he died in Egypt, far advanced in years, and broken by the calamities which had happened both to himself and his country. This prophet's writings are all in Hebrew, except the eleventh verse of the tenth chapter, which is Chaldee.

II. The idolatrous apostacy and other criminal enormities of the people of Judah, and the severe judgments which God was preparing to inflict upon them, though not without a distant prospect of future restoration and deliverance, form the principal subjects of the prophecies of Jeremiah; except the forty-fifth chapter, which relates personally to Baruch, and the six following chapters which respect the fortunes of some particular heathen nations.

It is evident, from various passages of this book, that there were four distinct collections of Jeremiah's prophecies. The first was that mentioned in chapter xxxvi. 2. and made by divine command in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim. In this collection were contained all the predictions which he had delivered and published, to that time, as well against other nations, as against the Jews: the prophecies against the Gentiles are, in our Bibles, placed by themselves at the end of the book, as being in some measure unconnected with those denounced against the Jews; but in the present copies of the Septuagint, they follow immediately after the thirteenth verse of the twenty-fifth chapter. This first collection comprised chapters i.-xx. xxv. xxvi. xxxv. xxxvi. xlv.-li. inclusive.

The second collection is that mentioned in chap. xxx. 2, and contained chapters xxvii.-xxxi. inclusive: it was made in the reign of Zedekiah, and, as may be inferred from xxviii. 1., after the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah.

The third collection was made soon after the destruction of Jerusalem, as is plainly indicated by the prophet himself in the general preface to his book, where he says that the word of Jehovah came to

1 Dr. Blayney's Translation of Jeremiah, pp. 221, 322. 2d edit.

2 Carpzov has written an elaborate disquisition on the variations between the Hebrew and the Septuagint, in the order of Jeremiah's prophecies; and has given a table illustrating those variations. See his Introd. ad Libros Biblicos Vet. Test. pars iii. c. iii. § 4. pp. 144-152.

him "in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign; and came in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, until the completion of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, until the carrying away of Jerusalem into captivity in the fifth month.” (i. 1—3.) Consequently, this third collection included chapters xxi.-xxiv. xxxii.-xxxiv. and xxxvii.-xxxix.

The fourth collection, containing chapters xl.-xliv. inclusive, presents us with an account of Jeremiah himself, and of the other Jews who were left in Judæa by the command of Nebuchadnezzar. The fifty-second chapter was probably added by Ezra1 as a preface to the book of Lamentations. It is chiefly taken out of the latter part of the second book of Kings, with additions, which Ezra might supply out of the inspired records, and forms a very useful appendage to the prophecies of Jeremiah, as it illustrates their fulfilment in the destruction of the kingdom, city, and temple, which are the subject of the Lamentations.

III. From the preceding statements, it is obvious that the prophecies of Jeremiah are not arranged in the chronological order in which they were originally delivered; the cause of their transposition it is now impossible to ascertain. The late Rev. Dr. Blayney, to whom we are indebted for a learned version of, and commentary on, the writings of this prophet, has endeavoured, with great judgment, to restore their proper order by transposing the chapters wherever it appeared to be necessary. According to his arrangement, the predictions of Jeremiah are to be placed in the following order, viz.

1. The prophecies delivered in the reign of Josiah, containing chapters i.-xii. inclusive.

2. The prophecies delivered in the reign of Jehoiakim, comprising chapters xiii.-xx. xxii. xxiii. xxxv. xxxvi. xlv.-xlviii. and xlix. 1-33.

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3. The prophecies delivered in the reign of Zedekiah, including chapters xxi. xxiv. xxvii.-xxxiv. xxxvii.-xxxix. xlix. 34-39. and 1. li.

4. The prophecies delivered under the government of Gedaliah, from the taking of Jerusalem to the retreat of the people into Egypt, and the prophecies of Jeremiah delivered to the Jews in that country: comprehending chapters xl.-xliv. inclusive.

As this arrangement throws much light upon the prophecies of Jeremiah, it has been adopted in the following synopsis, which accordingly consists of four parts.

THE INTRODUCTION to the book contains its title (i. 1-3.), the call of Jeremiah to the prophetical office and the commission given him by God (4-10.); the purport of which is explained by two visions, that of an almond-tree (11.), indicating the nearness, and the vision of a seething-pot, typifying the severity of the divine judgments. The face of the pot being turned from the north de1 Carpzov ascribes it to Baruch or some other inspired man. Introd. pars iii.

p. 152.

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