Agur, the fon of Jakeh, delivered to his pupils, Ithiel and Ucal, chap. xxx. And the xxxift chapter contains the precepts which his mother, poffibly a Jewish woman married to fome neighbouring prince, delivered to Lemuel, her fon; being paffionately folicitous to guard him against vice, to establish him in the principles of juftice, and to have him married to a wife of the best qualities. These two chapters are a kind of appendix to the Book of Proverbs. Note-It is uncertain who Agur and the mother of Lemuel were.

ECCLESIASTES.

THIS Book was written by the Preacher, the fon of David, king of Ferufalem, chap. i. 1; that is to fay, by Solomon, (probably in the latter part of his life) as appears from chap. i. 16. ii. 4, &c. The fubject of it is, an inquiry into the chief good or happiness of man, in this world. And,

1. He confutes the falle opinion of those that place happiness in human wisdom, or philofophy; in the pleasures, amufements, or fplendor of life; in honour, magiftracy, and dominion; in riches or wealth. This, in the fix firft chapters. II. He teaches, that true felicity is to be found only in a serious regard to God and religion, in the fix laft chapters. In both parts he intermixes feveral incidental reflections, which are of use to make us wife and pious. The whole is adapted to draw us from the inordinate pursuit of earthly things, and from a wrong to a lawful ufe of them, without any offence to God, or damage to ourselves, till we arrive at a never-dying felicity.

The SONG of SOLOMON.

THE Song of Songs, or the moft excellent Song, was compofed by Solomon; and is a noble epithalamium, or marriage fong, of the pastoral kind, embellished with the most grand and beautiful images. In the let→ ter it is allowed to be a celebration of the marriage of Solomon to PhaTash's daughter; but the Jewish rabbies, and many of the Chriftian fathers, have understood it as a spiritual allegory, reprefenting the love of God, or, as Chriftians fay, of Chrift, to his church; which, in other parts of Scripture, is reprefented as his fpoufe, Pfalm xlv. 10, &c. Hearken, O Daughter, and confider, &c. Ver. 13. The king's daughter is all glorious within, &c. Which Pfalm David is fuppofed to have made upon the fame occafion, namely, at Solomon's marriage; wherein, as the bridegroom is juftly fuppofed to be Chrift, ver. 38. fo his bride may well be fuppofed to be the church. John Baptift compares Chrift to a bridegroom, John iii. 28, 29; and fo doth our Lord himself, Mat. ix. 15. xxv. 1. and the kingdom of heaven he compares to a fumptuous marriage feaft, Mat. xxii. 2. So alfo Rev. xix. 7. xxi. 2. the marriage of the Lamb to his bride, or wife, clothed in fine linen, (which doubtless reprefents the Chriftian church in a state of of. And St. Paul, in ftrong terms, fuch as Adam ufc

is fpoken

mar

CH. XXXIV. ried to Eve, reprefents Chrift as a husband to the church. Ephef. v. 25, &c. And fo alfo, 2 Cor. xi. 2. I have efpoufed you to one husband, that I may prefent you as a chafte virgin to Chrift. And frequently in the Prophets God is fet forth as the hufband or bridegroom to the church. Ifai. liv. 5. lxi. 10. Ixii. 4, 5. Jer. iii. 20. xxxi. 32. Hof. ii. 2, 7, 16, 19. Hence, apoftacy from God is very commonly reprefented as whoredom and adultery, both in the Old and New Teftament.

All this is very juft, and supplieth very inftructive and comfortable meditation. And it is certainly the best use we can make of this elegant Song to apply it thus to fpiritual purposes. But the ideas, which the Scripture gives us of God's or Chrift's relation to the church, as a hufband, are too general, to ferve as a key to the great variety of particulars in this poem; which therefore, as it is never quoted in any other part of the Scripture, can be reduced to no certain rule of interpretation, but must be left to every person's fancy or imagination. Bp. PATRICK has done, perhaps, as much as can be done upon the fpiritualizing scheme.

Within this Period were also written the Prophecies of Joel, Amos, Hafea, Jonah, Ifaiah, Micah, Nahum, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Obadiab. Thefe before the Captivity. During the 70 years Captivity, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Efther. After the Captivity, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, I. and II. Chronicles. Thefe complete the Canon of the Old Teftament. And whereas it is of great ufe to the right understanding of the Prophets, to know the reigns and times in which they prophefied, and the particular occafions upon which any of them delivered their prophecies, I fhall now attempt to digest and range them in chronological order, as follows.

CHA P. XXXIV.

PROPHETS before the CAPTIVITY.

BOUT twenty-fix years after the death of Elifba, the Prophet, A (2 Kings xiii. 20.) Jonah the son of Amittai, the Prophet, which was of Gath-heper, was fent by God with a meffage of encouragement and fuccefs to Jeroboam II. king of Ifrael. 2 Kings xiv. 25. This might happen when Jonah was about 28 years of age.

JOEL i. ii. iii.

JOEL at Jerufalem (Joel ii. 1, 15, 17.) might prophesy before Amos at Samaria, Amosi. I. iv. 1. For Ames, chap. iv. 7, 9. may refer to the

devaftation

devaftation by palmer-worms, &c. and drought, which Joel predicted, chap. i. 6,7, 19, 20. However, as the fenfe of this prophefy, in no part, that I know of, depends upon the time when it was delivered, there can be no harm in fuppofing that fuel prophefied about this time.

AMOS i.ix.

SOME time after Joel, Amos might begin to prophefy in the kingdom of Ifrael. Certainly de did prophefy in thofe days of Uzziah or Azariah king of Judah, and of Jeroboam II. king of Ifael, in which they were cotemporaries, chap. i. 1. How long he continued, is not intimated. He had no regular education in the schools of the Prophets, (which fuppofeth that other Prophets had) but was originally a herdfman, and a gatherer of fycamore fruit, or wild figs, chap. vii. 14. He had an exprefs commiffion from God to prophefy unto his people Ifrael, ver. 15. This book may confift of several diftinct difcourfes; but, as they are without date, we cannot affign the particular times when they were delivered.

HOSEA i. ii. iii.

HOSEA is juftly fuppofed to be cotemporary with Amos. He prophefied against the ten tribes, or the kingdom of Ifrael, beginning in the reign of Jeroboam II. and prophefying in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. He predicted the Captivity of the ten tribes; and as that Captivity happened in the fixth year of Hezekiah, probably he lived to fee it accomplished by Shalmanefer king of Affyria; which was done about 64 years after the commencement of his prophetic

office.

This Prophet is commanded to take unto him a wife of whored ms, and children of whoredoms, chap. i. 2. This might all be tranfacted in a vifion, in the council of God. See the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters of Ezekiel. Or it might be a parable, to be spoken as fuch to the children of Ifrael. See Ezek. xxiv. 3, &c. Here that is ordered to be done as a fact, which was only to be spoken as a parable. But if the Prophet did really marry a lewd woman, who had children, not by him, but by fome other man, this was no fin in him, who did it by Divine Command, in order to explain to the Ifraelites their wickedness, and the punishment of it. The adulterous wife reprefented the Ifraelites, who by their idolatries had gone a whoring from God, their own Hufband. The children which this woman bare, are the ruinous effects of the idolatry of the children of Ifrael. The first baftard was called Jezreel; and denoted the vengeance which God would take upon the house of Jehu, for the blood which he fhed in Jezreel, chap. i. 4. The fecond was called Lo-rubamah, ver. 6. to denote that God would no longer spare the houfe of Ifrael, but take them quite away out of their land. The name of the third was Lo-ammi, ver. 9. which fignified that the relation between God and the Ifraelites was diffolved.

3

HOSEA iv.

HOSEA iv.

THE interregnum in Ifrael, preceding the reign of Zechariah, was doubtless a time of very great diforder and violence, and of much bloody ftrife for the crown. Probably, Zechariah gained it by cutting off competitors. Shallum flew him, Menahem flew Shallum, and all within the fpace of seven months. To this fad ftate of things Hofea may well be fuppofed to refer, chap. iv. 2. By fwearing and lying, and killing and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth [reacheth unto] blood. Here, therefore, we may place the fourth chapter of Hofeq.

JONAH i, ii, iii, iv.

JONAH, I fuppofe, about the second year of Menahem, king of Ifrael, and about the 70th year of his age, was fent to cry against Nineveh, about 700 miles from Gath-heper, then a great, wealthy, populous and haughty city, the chief feat of the Affyrian empire, aud the mistress of the world; which had long been remarkable for luxury and jollity to a proverb, No No sons, better than merry Nineveh. By Zephaniah it is called, the rejoicing, or joyous, city, chap. ii. 15. To be fent with a meffage of divine wrath to fuch a place as this, could not but feem a frightful and dangerous errand to Jonah. He faw how much the Ifraelites, God's own people, hated and perfecuted the Prophets, who reproved and threatened them. What then could he expect from that great and wicked city, Nineveh, the head-quarters of pride and fin? Further, he knew the Prophets very much hazarded their reputation in the world, when employed in denouncing judgments; because God, being gracious, was flow in executing them. On this account, the Prophets at Bethel and Jerufalem were vilely abufed and decried by infolent and rude infidels, who durft even profefs to defire, or long for, the day of the Lord, (Amos v. 18.) in a confident perfuafion that it would never come; and dared to challenge God to haften his work. Ifai. v. 19. See alfo Jer. xvii. 15. Ezekiel xii. 22. And if this should be Jonah's cafe at Nineveh, what could he expect but to be torn in pieces for an impoftor? How muft he, and the religion he profefled, be expofed to public contempt and fcorn! This was what he particularly dreaded, chap. iv. 2. He was therefore refolved to flee from the prefence of [from before] Jehovah; that is, I fuppofe, to run away from the Council of God in the land of Ifrael, to fome remote country beyond fea, where, he thought, it was never held. But he was ftopped by a miracle, and at length obliged to deliver the doleful meffage, Yet forty days and impenitent Nineveh fhall be overthrown. Convinced of his miraculous miffion, § the king proclaimed a

faft,

Note-Tarfish may fignify any remote country beyond fea, as the Indies now with us. See Root 1827. in the Eng. Heb. Concordance. Luke xi. 30.

faft, and enjoined all the ufual forms of repentance; And God repented of the evil which he had faid he would do unto them.

It is very probable, that the idolatrous priefts, and the aftrologers, foothfayers, and magicians, who must be numerous at Nineveh, as well as at Babylon, (Ifai. xlvii. 13. Dan. ii. 2.) would zealously endeavour to divert the king, when the fift fright was over, from attending to a meffage from Jehovah, as foon as ever they poffibly could, before the forty days were expired. They would naturally reprefent Jonah to the king and all the people, as an impoftor; and bear them in hand that the prediction was falfe, and would not be fulfilled. This must give the Prophet, who was zealous for the glory of the God of Ifrael, very great uneafinefs; infomuch that he wished for death, chap. iv. 2, 3; as Elijah, in a cafe fomewhat fimilar, had done before him, 1 Kings xix. 4.

The queftion of Jehovah, Jon. iv. 4. which we render, Doft thou well to be angry? fhould have been rendered, Art thou very much grieved? And fo ver. 9. See Heb. Eng. Concordance. R. 748, 637.

Pul, the king of Affyria, who came against the land of Ifrael in the reign of Menahem, 2 Kings xv. 19. is fuppofed by Archbishop USHER to be the king of Nineveh, to whom Jonah was fent. As it appears from the hiftory, that Pul had no defign to make conqueft of the land of Ifrael, I can affign no reason why he fhould reach his arm over the kingdom of Syria, which lay to the extent of about three hundred miles, between his dominions, and the land of Canaan, to strike at Ifrael, but that he did it in revenge for the fuppofed infult which Jonah had offered to him and his people.

ISAIAH vi. ii. iii. iv. v.

ISAIAH, the brighteft luminary of the Jewish church, juftly called the evangelical Prophet, he fpeaks fo much and fo clearly of Christ, began to prophefy in the year king Uzziah died, chap. vi. 1. and prophefied in Judah in the fucceffive reigns of Jotham, Abaz, and Hezekiah. He was certainly alive and prophefied when Merodachbaladen fent his embafly to Hezekiah, who had been fick, in the 14th year of Hezekiah, and before Chrift 714. Thus we certainly know that he prophefied 46 years. There is an ancient and probable tradition among the Jews, that he fuffered martyrdom under Manaffeh, in the first year of his reign, before Chrift 698, by being cruelly lawn afunder; to which the Apostle, Heb. xi. 37. is generally thought to have respect. And then he muft have continued 61 years. See PIERCE upon Heb. xi. 37.

The first chapter, by reafon of the grand exordium, might be judged proper to fland at the front of the book; but it gives fuch an account of the diftreffed, defolate condition of the land of Judah, as agrees much better with the wicked and afflicted reign of the apoftate Ahaz, than with the flourishing circumftances of the country in the reigns of Uzziah, and of his fon and fucceffor Jotham, who were both, in the main, good princes. Compare Ifai. i. 7, 8, 9. with 2 Chron. xxvi. 1—16. and the whole 27th chapter. But the fecond, third, fourth, and fifth chapters of this prophecy, do defcribe, and exactly correfpond to, a state

of