phecy of Daniel, ch. ix. (See Prophecy, 7th Period, U.)

About this time happened, at Babylon, the conspiracy of Bigthan and Teresh, against Ahasuerus, which was B. C. discovered by means of Mordecai. () Esther ii. ()

21-23.

457

Ezra being arrived at Jerusalem, in four months from the time he sat out, delivered up to the temple the treasures with which he had been entrusted, and entered upon his office of governor. He separated the Jews from their strange wives, and in all respects, faithfully and vigorously fulfilled his commission. Ezra viii, ix.

In the 5th year of Ezra's administration died Jehoiakim, and was succeeded in the high priesthood () by his son, Eliashib. (9)* The same year, Haman 453 formed at Babylon the plan for the destruction of the

Jews, which by the exertions of Mordecai, the influence of Esther with the king, and the humble reliance of the whole nation of the Jews upon Divine assistance and protection, terminated in the ruin of himself and family, in commemoration of which the feast of Purim was instituted. Esther iii-x.

During the whole administration of Ezra, he zealously applied himself to the restoration of the Jewish laws. He also collected and arranged the scriptures, restoring or supplying what had been lost, destroyed, or omitted, and changing the names of places become obsolete, in order to render the Scriptures as plain and intelligible as possible to the people.+

In the fourteenth year of Ezra's government, Nehemiah arrived in Judea, (') with a new commis- (') sion, which superseded that of Ezra in civil affairs, 445 but did not abate his zeal to promote the glory of God, and the welfare of his people. The commission of

* This date is adopted from Prideaux. Blair gives B. C. 444. + See Prideaux, Con. vol. ii. p. 394-432.

Ꮓ

Nehemiah authorised him to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, and to place the city in that state of defence, in which it had been previous to its destruction by the Babylonians; with grants of timber and other materials necessary for the work. This great undertaking was accomplished, notwithstanding the opposition of the Samaritans, Moabites, Ammonites, &c. in 52 days, when Nehemiah having redressed some grievances of the people, arising from usury, (Neh. v. 1-13; compare Exod. xxii. 25; Lev. xxv. 36, 37; Deut. xxiii. 19.) committed the care of the city to Hanani and Hananiah, and returned into Persia, and the following year came back again with a new commission, emB. C. powering him to execute a thorough reform in all (2) the affairs both of church and state. (2) Nehem. i444 viii. With this view, having assembled the people

at Jerusalem, Ezra read and expounded to them the law of Moses, by which, making them sensible of their many transgressions, he induced them to make a solemn confession of their sins before God, and finally, to enter into a covenant, obliging themselves, 1st, not to intermarry with the Gentiles; 2d, to observe the Sabbaths and sabbatical years, (the violation of which, in former times, had subjected them to so much chastisement, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21.); 3d, to furnish their annual contribution for the service of the temple; 4th, to pay the tythes, &c. to the priests and Levites. From this time also, synagogues were erected in every city for purposes of public worship, which, till that time had been confined to Jerusalem: which restriction, (remarks Dean Prideaux) had been one grand cause of idolatry before the captivity, as its removal was that of the freedom from it afterwards. For an interesting account of the synagogue service, see Prideaux's Connection, vol. i. p. 443 to 465.

(3) The prophet Malachi began his ministry about this 436 time. (3)

After an administration of twelve years, Nehemiah

returned to Persia; (4) and the wise and pious regu- B. C. lations he had instituted gradually falling into disuse, (^) at his return to Jerusalem, after an absence of eight 432 years, (5) (Prideaux allows only five, too short a (5) time for the infringements mentioned) most of them 424 had been violated; for even Eliashib, the high priest, had formed an alliance with Tobiah the Ammonite, (a great opposer of Ezra and Nehemiah) and had given him a lodging in the temple; the temple service was neglected, and its revenues withheld; the Sabbaths profaned, and unlawful marriages common amongst the people. All these abuses Nehemiah vigorously opposed; he forced all who had taken strange wives either to divorce them, or quit the country.

About this time died Eliashib, the high priest, (6) and was succeeded by his son Jehoiadah. (6)

413

The last act of reformation by Nehemiah, was the expulsion of Manasses, a grandson of Eliashib, who had married a daughter of Sanballat the Horonite, (Nehem. xiii.) and not chusing to give her up, fled to Samaria, and placed himself under the protection of his father-inlaw, (7) who soon after built a temple on Mount Mount() Gerizim, of which he made Manasses high priest; 409 and from this time Samaria became the common asylum of all the refractory Jews, who by a breach of the Mosaic law had rendered themselves obnoxious to its penalties. Those who follow Josephus, suppose two distinct persons of the name of Sanballat, and attribute the building of the temple on Mount Gerizim to the latter of the two, in the time of Alexander the Great of Macedon, making out also Manasses to be the brother of the high priest Jaddua.

With this last act of Nehemiah's reform, terminates the first period of the 70 weeks of years of the prophecy of Daniel, ix. 24., viz. the 7 weeks (or 49 years) in which the streets and wall of Jerusalem had been " built again,

even in troublous times." Prideaux observes that the words" to restore and rebuild Jerusalem" are not to be understood literally, but figuratively, for the restoring of the state of the Jews, as well the political as the ecclesiastical, and the re-settling of both, according to the law of Moses." (See Prophecy, 7th Period, U.)

After Nehemiah, who is supposed to have died soon after the last mentioned act of reform in the Jewish state, the affairs of Judea were under the superintendance of the high priest, subject to the prefects of Syria, to which province it was annexed.

B. C. To Jehoiada succeeded Johanan (or Jonathan) () in the high priesthood, () whose brother, Jeshua, 373 having insinuated himself into the favour of Bago

ses, the Persian governor of Syria, by his means obtained a grant of the priesthood, and attempting to force

his way into the temple, was there sacriligeously (9) murdered by Jonathan. (9) This atrocious act ex366 cited the indignation of Bagoses, who in punishment of it, imposed a heavy tax upon the lambs offered for burnt sacrifices, which continued for seven years.

The Jews having assisted the Phoenicians and Sidonians in their revolt from Artaxerxes Ochus, king of Persia, that monarch, after the subjection of the rebels, marched into Judea, besieged and took Jericho, carried off many of the Jews captive, some of whom he took with him (1) into Egypt, and settled the rest in Hyrcania: (1)

350

Jonathan was succeeded in the high priesthood (2) by his son Jaddua. (2) It was in his pontificate, 341 that Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, dur

ing bis siege of Tyre, sent to require of the Jews a supply of provisions and other requisites for the support of his army, which was refused, upon the score of the allegiance under which Judea lay to Persia, and which would not admit of their succouring a power hostile to that country. This so enraged Alexander, that immediately

after the conquest of Tyre he marched to Jerusalem, B. C.
(3) determined to avenge the affront that had been (3)
put upon him. In this exigence, having been 332
directed by God in a vision, Jaddua, dressed in his
pontifical robes, and attended by the priests in their sa-
cred habits, and the people in white garments, went out to
meet the conqueror. Alexander no sooner saw the pro-
cession, than he prostrated himself before the high priest,
which act of reverence exciting the astonishment of his at-
tendants, he explained it to them by saying, that he paid it
to the God of Jaddua, who had appeared to him in Mace-
donia in a vision, and encouraged him to undertake the
war in which he was now engaged, promising him success.
After this, he embraced the high-priest, entered Jerusalem
with him, and offered sacrifices to God in the temple, where
Jaddua shewed him the prophecies of Daniel, which fore-
told the subversion of the Persian empire by a king of
Greece, (Dan. viii. xi. Prophecy, 7th Period, T, V.) and
confirmed all his hopes upon this subject. All this put-
ting him in good humour with the Jews, he bade them
make what request to him they chose; upon which, they
petitioned for the freedom of their country, laws, and re-
ligion, and exemption from tribute every seventh year,
because in those years they reaped no produce from their
lands; all which he granted them. The Samaritans hear-
ing of these condescensions of Alexander, hoped to derive
similar advantages from him, particularly as they had com-
plied with his requisition at the time the Jews had resisted
it; they therefore went out in procession to meet and invite

*The same spiritual high-priest who revealed to Daniel the vision of the he-goat, and the overthrow of the Persian empire by Alexander the Great, might also have thus induced and encouraged the Macedonian himself to undertake the expedition. And surely, as an instrument of Divine chastisement, he was as worthy of being favoured with Divine communications as Nebuchadnezzar, or Belshazzar. Dr. Hales.