dred impieties, in Israel as well as Judah, which in the earlier history are detailed at length,* is described in full that memorable passover at Jerusalem of which we have already read that "there was not holden such a passover, from the days of the Judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah"; on which occasion it is said that the ceremonies were arranged in strict conformity to the Law, and to the written directions of David and Solomon, and that, for offerings, the king gave a largess to the people of thirty thousand lambs and kids, and three thousand bullocks, while nine persons, "rulers of the house of God," and "chiefs of the Levites," gave seventy-six hundred lambs and kids, and eight hundred oxen.† Lastly, we are told much more largely than in the Book of Kings the circumstances of the death of Josiah from a wound received in battle with the king of Egypt at Megiddo, to the effect that before the engagement Pharaoh-Necho endeavoured by an embassy to dissuade the Jewish king from the Assyrian alliance; that Josiah took the field in a disguise; that, (differently from the other history, which represents him as dying at Megiddo,) on receiving a severe wound with an arrow, he was removed by his servants from his war-chariot into another, and conveyed to Jerusalem, where he died; and that “all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah, and Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all the singing-men and the singing-women spake of Josiah in their lamenta

* 2 Chron. xxxiv. 33; comp. 2 Kings xxiii. 4–20, 24 – 27.

† xxxv. 1-19; comp. 2 Kings xxiii. 21–23. "Put the holy ark in the house," &c. (3); it had been put in at the consecration of the temple (comp. v. 7); how it had come out again, we have not been told. "There was no passover like to that kept in Israel," &c. (18); it excelled even that celebrated under similar circumstances by Hezekiah (comp. xxx. 26).

tions to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel."*

The rest of the history, down to the burning of Jerusalem and the deportation of the people, is told in one half the space occupied by it in the earlier narrative. In respect to the reign of Jehoahaz, Josiah's son, the record is substantially the same, though less minute.† In the short notice of the reign of Jehoiakim it is related that "against him came up Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon; Nebuchadnezzar also carried off the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon"; instead of what we have before read, that a rebellion of Jehoiakim against Nebuchadnezzar, after being his tributary three years, was followed by an invasion of bands of the Chaldees, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, whom the Lord "sent against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord"; and that Jehoiakim, when he died, "slept with his fathers."‡

* 2 Chron. xxxv. 20-27; comp. 2 Kings xxiii. 29, 30.—"Disguised himself that he might fight with him" (22); some of the ancient versions read "prepared to fight with him"; perhaps their copies had an instead of vann. -"He died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers" (24); "his servants . . . buried him in his own sepulchre" (2 Kings xxiii. 30). — “Behold, they are written in the Lamentations" (25); whatever book may have been meant, that which has come down to us under the name of the "Lamentations of Jeremiah " contains nothing of the kind." His deeds, first and last, behold, they "are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah "(27); "are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?" (2 Kings xxiii. 28).

† xxxvi. 1-4; comp. 2 Kings xxiii. 30–34, which adds the particulars of the name of the king's mother, of his having done "evil in the sight of the Lord," of Pharaoh-Necho's having "put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath," and of his death in Egypt.

xxxvi. 4-8; comp. 2 Kings xxiii. 34 - xxiv. 6, which in addition records Jehoiakim's manner of raising the tribute-money for Pharaoh, and the name of his mother. "The rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are

In the place of the circumstantial account in the Book of Kings, of the siege and capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in the time of Jehoiachin, and the carrying away of that prince with his people and his treasures to Babylon, the history before us simply relates, that, "when the year was expired, King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the Lord." *

The reign of Zedekiah, and the final destruction of the city, which took place in his time, are also more briefly treated in the Book of Chronicles, one half of the space devoted to that period being occupied with a reflection on the cause of its calamities, while the other history, without any such comment, records them with some particularity.† The conclusions of the books are also different. That of Chronicles passes on to refer in a few words to the proclamation of Cyrus, fifty-two years later. That of Kings has a brief record

66

written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah " (8); are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?" (2 Kings xxiv. 5.)

* 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9, 10; comp. 2 Kings xxiv. 8 – 16. "Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem "(9); "Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months; and his mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem " (2 Kings xxiv. 8).

† xxxvi. 10-19; comp. 2 Kings xxiv. 17 - xxv. 21.

.....

"Nebuchadnezzar

made Zedekiah, his brother, king" (10); "the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, his father's brother, king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah" (2 Kings xxiv. 17).—“Zedekiah ..... reigned eleven years in Jerusalem" (11); "he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah " (2 Kings xxiv. 18). -" He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord" (12); "he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done" (2 Kings xxiv. 19). "The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending" (15); comp. Jer. xxv. 3, 4.

of some later transactions in Judea, terminating in an emigration to Egypt, and of the treatment experienced by King Jehoiachin in his captivity at Babylon.*

The New Testament does not quote from the Books of Chronicles. In one of the discourses of our Saviour, there is a sort of allusion, not to the books, but to a fact therein recorded. ‡

* 2 Chron. xxxvi. 20-23; comp. 2 Kings xxv. 22-30.—“To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years" (21); from this, it would seem, we are to infer that, in the opinion of the writer, the institution of the Sabbatical year (comp. Vol. I. pp. 301 et seq.) had been more or less neglected for four hundred and ninety years, a term which would run about twenty years further back than the date of David's accession to the throne.

† Comp. Matt. xxiii. 35.

2 Chron. xxiv. 20-22. I say, "a sort of allusion," because part of the statement here made does not accord with the language reported by Matthew.

LECTURE LVI.

EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.

-

PECULIAR STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK OF EZRA.-PROCLAMATION OF CrRUS.- PREPARATIONS FOR A RETURN OF THE EXILES TO JUdea. MIGRATION OF A PARTY WITH ZERUBBABEL. ·CELEBRATION OF THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES AT Jerusalem. - FOUNDATION OF THE NEW TEMPLE.INTERRUPTIONS OF THE WORK. SINGULAR INSERTION OF MATTER IN THE CHALDEE LANGUAGE. LETTER OF THE SAMARITANS TO THE KING OF PERSIA, AND HIS ACTION THEREUPON. RENEWAL OF THE WORK UPON THE TEMPLE, WITH THE APPROBATION OF DARIUS. ITS COMPLETION AND DEDICATION. CELEBRATION OF THE PASSOVER. -CHASM OF THIRTY-SEVEN OR FIFTY-EIGHT YEARS IN THE HISTORY. -MISSION OF EZRA THE SCRIBE TO JUDEA WITH ATTENDANTS. - HIS AUTHORITY AND INSTRUCTIONS EXPRESSED IN THE CHALDEE TONGUE.INSPECTION AND FAST AT THE RIVER AHAVA. PROCEEDINGS ON HIS ARRIVAL AT JERUSALEM. - REPUDIATION BY THE PEOPLE OF THEIR FOREIGN WIVES. AUTHORSHIP OF THE BOOK. THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH INTRODUCED BY A REFERENCE TO NEHEMIAH AS ITS AUTHOR. - INTELLIGENCE OF THE STATE OF THINGS AT JERUSALEM RECEIVED BY NEHEMIAH AT SHUSHAN. HIS PETITION TO ARTAXERXES, AND CONSEQUENT VISIT TO JERUSALEM. INSPECTION OF

THE PLACE. REPAIR OF THE WALLS AND GATES. - CONSPIRACY OF SANBALLAT AND HIS ASSOCIATES, AND PREPARATIONS TO DEFEAT IT. EXTORTIONS OF THE RULERS, AND DISINTERESTEDNESS OF NEHEMIAH. - HIS DISCOMFITURE OF THE PLOTS OF SANBALLAT AND GESHEM. POLICE ARRANGEMENTS. - GENEALOGICAL REGISTER. CELEBRATION OF THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. - DIVORCE OF ALIEN WIVES. COVENANT OF FUTURE OBEDIENCE. - LIST OF PRINCIPAL CITIZENS OF JERUSALEM. PLACES OF SETTLEMENT OF THE PRIESTS AND OTHERS. COMPANIONS OF ZERUBBABEL. SUCCESSION OF HIGH-PRIESTS.-CATALOGUE OF LEVITES, MUSICIANS, AND PORTERS. CELEBRATION OF THE COMPLETION OF THE CITY WALL. NEHEMIAH'S VISIT TO PERSIA, AND RETURN TO JERUSALEM. FURTHER REFORMS. CONCLUSION OF THE BOOK. CONSIDERATIONS TO ITS AUTHORSHIP AND CHARACTER.

THE Book of Ezra is, in respect to materials, still more heterogeneous, and in construction still more