author wanted to pass for Jeremiah, whose style therefore he studied, and copied with considerable success. An hypothesis than which nothing can be more preposterous. In an age of leisurely school-learning, when Alexandrine professors studied style, and culled phrases, and published forgeries of Euripides and Plato, one can imagine the son of Sirach, for example, thus copying from Solomon's Proverbs: but one must be blind to the plainest literary distinctions of persons and times, to represent a Jew in the time of Cyrus deliberately sitting down to indite a pseudepigraphum of Jeremiah.

The concluding chapter, lii., gives a summary account of the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, in the same terms. as 2 Kings xxv., but with some additional particulars, v. 28 ff. The deportation of 3,023 persons in the 7th of Nebuchadnezzar, seems at variance with 2 Kings xxiv. 11-16, in both particulars. The captivity of Jeconiah befel in the 8th of Nebuchadnezzar and took off 10,000 persons, at least, from Jerusalem. "He carried away all Jerusalem and all the princes and all the mighty men of valour, even 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths." As however these latter are not included in the 10,000, the sum was 11,000, see v. 16; and since the fighting men were 7,000, the two statements are reconciled thus:

7,000 "men of might,” 2 Kings xxiv. 16.

3,023 [principal men of Jerusalem] Jer. lii. 28.

10,023 "princes and mighty men, 10,000," 2 Kings xxv. 14.

1,000 "smiths and craftsmen," 16.

As to the other statement, which places this deportation in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, it is probable that the author of this passage (certainly not Jeremiah) followed a different reckoning of the years of this king. This is the more likely, as the second deportation, which Jeremiah places in the 19th year, is here referred to the 18th. There is no way of reconciling these two statements with the other dates, but by supposing that the author dated the reign of Nebuchadnezzar from B. c. 605, a year earlier than the epoch of Daniel and the Canon. This is not surprising, when it is considered that the author of this passage wrote perhaps at Babylon, but certainly after Nebuchadnezzar's death. The date

of the third and final deportation, 23rd Nebuchadnezzar, must therefore lie in 583 B. c. Josephus seems only to give his own inference from this very passage when he says, Ant. x. 9.7, that "in the 5th year after the destruction of Jerusalem, which is the 23rd of Nebuchadnezzar, the king invaded Colesyria, subjugated Moab and Ammon, then turned his arms against Egypt, slew its king and led the Jews captive thence to Babylon." There is no proof that Nebuchadnezzar was in Egypt so early as 583, and it is certain that Apries, the Pharaoh whom Nebuchadnezzar conquered and put to death, reigned till near 570 B. C. This deportation, then, affected such of the Jews as remained in Judah or the neighbouring countries. And it is certain that the Chaldean armies were in Syria at the time mentioned: Infra p. 189 f.

CHRONOLOGY OF EZEKIEL.

$183. THE prophecies of Ezekiel follow each other, with one or two exceptions, in the order of time.

But they

have also a systematical arrangement, according to subjects, and this is the source of the deviations from the chronological order.

The entire collection naturally falls into three parts:

I.

Chap. i-xxiv: containing the Prophecies delivered before the destruction of the Temple :

II. Chap. xxv-xxxii: containing Prophecies against heathen nations:

III. Chap. xxxiii.-end: Prophecies of mercy, restoration and final salvation.

The FIRST PART is composed of three Divisions, each of which seems to fall into three Sections.

Division I. Chap. i-xi.

Sect. i. i. 1; iii. 21. The Prophet's first vision, and inauguration and mission to his prophetical office. Sect. ii. Chap. iii. 22-vii. The second appearance of the vision-the judgment is denounced (a) on Jerusalem : the Prophet symbolically enacts the siege: the 390 + 40

years of provocation; iii. 22-v. (b) on the mountains of Canaan, the scenes of idolatry; vi. (c) on the whole land; vii.

Sect. iii. Chap. viii-xi. The third vision: the Prophet is carried in the Spirit to Jerusalem, where he beholds (a) Jerusalem's abominations; viii. (b) the destroying angels, and the renewed vision of the cherubim ix (c) provocations of the chief men of Jerusalem, against whom he prophesies, ending with a promise of mercy to the dispersed of Judah. x. 18-xi.

x. 17.

The time noted in i. 1, 2. 5th year, 4th month, 5th day, is B. C. 594. 10th June; therefore at iii. 16, is 17 June. At viii. 1. the 6th year, 6th month, 5th day, is B.C. 593. 27th August. The interval between the two last is 436 days; whence it seems that the time occupied in Sect. ii. was really 430 days, and that there was an interval of 6 days between Sect. i. and ii., or ii. and iii.

Division II. Chap. xii-xx.

Sect. i. xii. 1-20. Symbolical Prophecies against the vain hopes of the exiles in three symbolical actions.

Sect. ii. xii. 21; xiv. 11. Concerning Prophets the certain accomplishment of God's word-judgment on false prophets and on all who seek the word of the Lord in insincerity. The incident xiv. 1, is repeated at xx. 1, ff. (with a note of time.)

Sect. iii. xiv. 12-xix. Jerusalem's provocations, especially her treacherous breach of covenant with the king of Babylon.

Chap. xx. the Prophet relates more fully the incident, briefly touched upon in chap. xiv. 1-11, which gave occasion to this set of prophecies: and recapitulates the history of Israel's provocations.

The time noted xx. 1, the 7th year, 5th month, 10th day, is B. C. 592. 23rd July.

Division III. Chap. xxi-xxiv.

Sect. i. xxi. The sword of the Lord.
Sect. ii. xxii. xxiii. The bloody City.

as Samaria.

Jerusalem shall be

Sect. iii. xxiv. 1-14. The siege is begun :--the boiling caldron. 15-27. Death of the Prophet's wife: his speechless mourning, the type of the mourning for the city.

The time of xxiv. 1., the first day of the siege, is 25 Dec. B.C. 590. At the end of chap. xxiv. it is evidently intimated that the Prophet is thenceforth silent for a season-namely until the time noted at xxxiii. 21. Here then ends the first part of this book.

The SECOND PART, chap. XXV-xxxii. consists of prophecies against heathen nations, delivered at sundry times. Here, as in Jeremiah, seven nations are the subject of the predictions.

5. Tyre. xxvi. 1—xxviii. 19. This prophecy is dated, “In the 11th year, on the first day of the

month is lost.

6. Sidon. xxxviii. 20-26.

7. Egypt. xxix—xxxii.

- month:" the numeral of the

In xxix. 1. we have the date, 10th year, 10th month, 11th day = B.C. 589. 14th December. It is prophesied that Egypt shall be desolate 40 years, v. 1-16.-At a later time, v. 17-end was inserted: it is dated 27th year, 1st month, 1st day, i. e. 572. B. c. 6th April. Nebuchadnezzar shall have Egypt as his hire for his service against Tyre.— At xxx. 20. the date is 11th year, 1st month, 7th day, = 9 April 588.-At xxxi. 1, the same year, 3rd month, 1st day. xxxii. 1, 12th year, 12th month, 1st day. i.e. 10 Feb. (or 12 Mar.) 586. The dirge which follows is dated the 15th of the same month: 24 Feb. (or 26 Mar.).

The siege of Tyre mentioned in xxix. 18, as then ended, (572 B.C. 6th April) can be no other than that which is recorded in the Tyrian annals quoted by Josephus, between which and the statement of Ezekiel the coincidence is complete. The siege lasted 13 years, Menander ap. Jos. c. Apion. i. 21. Philostratus ap. Ant. x. 11. 1. That it began according to the Tyrian annals in 585 and consequently ended 572 B. c. is evident from the subsequent enumeration:

To

As Josephus makes the sum 54 years, 3 months, it would seem that the one year of Balatorus is included in the preceding term of six years. The Tyrian annals add, that in the 14th year of Hirom Κῦρος ὁ Πέρσης τὸ κράτος παρέXaßev-this synchronism points to the year 538 B.C. Hence the siege began 47 years before 538, i. e. in 585 B. c. therefore ended 572 B.C., the very year of Ezekiel's prophecy. So far, nothing can be more complete than the coincidence. this we may add, that whereas according to the prophecy of both Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Pharaoh-Hophra was to be slain by Nebuchadnezzar, so Herodotus and Manetho agree in assigning the end of the reign of Apries to the year 570 B.C.— But then Josephus, or Menander, seems to place the beginning of the siege in the seventh of Nebuchadnezzar: éßdóμw μὲν γὰρ περὶ τῆς Ναβουχοδονοσόρου βασιλείας ἤρξατο πολιορκεῖν Τύρον. But the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar begins at latest 598 B.C. Now the meaning cannot be, that Nebuchadnezzar began a siege in his 7th year = 598 (at the time of Jeconiah's captivity) which lasted 13 years, to B. c. 585, for the "seventh year" is plainly expressed as the terminus a quo of the term of 54 years, in which the 14th of Hirom coincides with the 1st year of Cyrus. Hence we must suppose either that the Baoiλeia of Nebuchadnezzar in respect of Tyre is here made to begin at 592 B.C., which is not probable-or, that Josephus meant to assign to Ithobal a reign of 19 years, in the seventh of which Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Babylon. And indeed, the strange construction έβδ. περὶ τῆς Ναβ Baoteías seems to imply some corruption of the text. Or, lastly, it may be, that Josephus confused two terms of 13