now taken from it, and the imperial feat removed from thence to Shufhan or Sufa (for this seems to have been done in the first year of Cyrus's reign over the whole empire), and Babylon thenceforth, inftead of having a king, had only a deputy refiding there, who governed it as a province of the Perfian empire. And at the fame time that the city was thus brought under, the country was defolated and deftroyed by the inundation that was caufed, by turning of the river on the taking of the city, which hath been already spoken of, and thereon it became a poffeffion for the bittern, and pools of water, as the prophet Ifaiah foretold, chap. xiv. 23. "And the fea came up upon Babylon, and the was covered with the multitude of the waves thereof," according as Jeremiah prophefied hereof, chap. li. 42. And, in the fecond part of their punishment, on Darius's taking the place, all that calamity and devaflation was brought upon it, which hath been already spoken of; and from that it did never any more recover itself, but languifhed a while, and at length ended, according to the words of Jeremiah, in a perpetual defolation. In the 6th year of Darius according to the Jewish account, and on the 3d day of the 12th month, called the month of Adar (which answered to part of the third, and part of the fourth month of the Babylonish year, and confequently was in the 7th year of Darius, according to the Babylonish account), the building of the temple at Jerufalem was finished, and the dedication of it was celebrated by the priefts and Levites, and all the reft of the congregation of Ifrael, with great joy and folemnity. And, among other facrifices then offered, there was a fin-offering for all Ifrael of twelve he-goats, according to the number of the tribes of Ifrael; which is a farther addition of proof to what hath been above faid, that, on the return of Judah and Benjamin from the Babylonish captivity, fome alfo of each of the other tribes of Ifrael returned with them out of Affyria, Babylon, and Media, whither they had been before carried, and, joining with them in the rebuilding of the temple (to which they had originally an equal right), partaked also in the folemnity of this dedication; otherwife there is no reason why any fuch offering fhould have been then made in their behalf. But the most of them that returned being of the tribe of Judah, that fwallowed up the names of all the reft; for from this time the whole people of Ifrael, of what tribe foever they were, began to be called Jews; and by that name they have all of them been ever fince known all the world over. a Darius 7. This work was 20 years in finishing: for fo many years were clapfed Ezra vi. 15-18. N 3 Jofeph. Antiq. lib. 11. c, 5. Eufeb. Demonft. Evang. lib. 8. elapfed, from the 2d of Cyrus, when it was first begun, to the 7th of Darius, when it was fully finished. During the latter part of the reign of Cyrus, and through the whole reign of Cambyfes, it met with fuch difcouragements, through the fraudulent devices of the Samaritans, that it went but flowly on for all that time and, during the ufurpation of the Magians, and for almost two years after, it was wholly fuppreffed, that is, till towards the latter end of the 2d year of the reign of Darius. But then it being again resumed, on the preaching of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, and afterwards encouraged and helped forward by the decree of Darius, it was thenceforth. carried on with that vigour, especially through the exhortations and prophecies of the two prophets I have mentioned, that, in the beginning of the 7th year of Darius, it was fully finished, and dedicated anew to the fervice of God, in the manner as hath been faid. In this dedication, the 146th, the 147th, and the 148th pfalms fecin to have been fung: for, in the Septuagint verfions, they are ftyled the Pfalms of Haggai and Zechariah, as if they had been composed by them for this occafion; and this, no doubt, was from fome ancient tradition: but, in the original Hebrew, these pfalms have no fuch title prefixed to them, neither have they any other to contradict it. The decree whereby this temple was finished having been granted by Darius at his palace in Shufhan (or Sufa, as the Greeks call the place), in remembrance hereof, the eastern gate, in the outer wall of the temple, was from this time called the gate of Shushan, and a picture and draught of that city was pourtrayed in fculpture over it, and there continued till the laft deftruction of that temple by the Romans. In the next month after the dedication, which was the month Nifan, the firft of the Jewifh year, the temple being now made fit for all parts of the divine service, the pallover was observed in it on the 14th day of that month, according to the law of God, and folemnifed by all the children of Ifrael that were then returned from the captivity, with great joy and gladness of heart, because, faith the book of Ezra, "The Lord hath made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Affyria unto them, to ftrengthen their hands in the work of the houfe of God, the God of Ifrael:" from whence Archbishop Uther infers, that Babylon muft neceflarily have been reduced by Darius before this * In the first of Efdras, v. 73. it is faid, that the time of the flor which was put to the building was two years. b See Lightfoot of the Temple, C. 3, Ezra vi. 19.-22. Ezra vi. 22. Annales Veteris Teftamenti, fub A. M. 3489. this time; for otherwife, he thinks, he could not have been here styled king of Affyria, Babylon being then the metropolis of that kingdom. And if we will add one flage more to the two above mentioned, of the captivity and restoration of Judah, and place the full completion of the captivity in the 23d of Nebuchadnezzar according to the Jewish account (which was the 21st according to the Babylonih), a when Nebuzaradan carried away the last remainder of the land; and the full completion. of the restoration at the finishing of the temple, and the reftoration of the divine worship therein; this flage will have the like distance of 70 years for the dedication of this temple, and the folemnifing of the firft paffover in it, being in the 7th year of Darius, it will fall in the 70th year from the faid 23d of Nebuchadnezzar, according to Ptolemy's canon. So that taking it which way you will, and at what ftage you please, the prophecy of Jeremiah will be fully and exactly accomplished concerning this matter. And, here ending the rebuilding of the fecond temple, I fhall herewith end this book. a Jeremiah lii. 30. b b That is, reckoning the 23d year of Nebuchadnezzar, according to the Jewith account, to be the 21ft according to the Babylonith account, which Ptolemy went by. The Declension of the Kingdoms of ISRAEL and JUDah, THE An. 514. Darius 8. BOOK IV. HE Samaritans, ftill carrying on their former fpite and rancour against the Jews, gave them new trouble on this occafion. The tribute of Samaria had been affigned firft a by Cyrus, and afterwards by Darius, for the reparation of the temple at Jerufalem, and the furnishing of the Jews with facrifices, that obations and prayers might there daily be offered up for the king, and the royal family, and for the welfare and profperity of the Perfian empire. This was a matter of great regret and heart-burning to the Samaritans, and was in truth the fource and the true original reafon of all the oppofitions which they made against them: for they thought it an indignity upon them to be forced to pay their tribute to the Jews; and therefore they did, did, by bribes and other underhand dealings, prevail with the minifters, and other officers, to whofe charge this matter be longed, during the latter part of the reign of Cyrus, and all the time of Cambyfes, to put a stop to this affignment, and did all elfe that they could wholly to quash it. But the grant being again renewed by Darius, and the execution of it fo ftrictly enjoined in the manner as hath been before related, the tribute was thenceforth annually paid, to the end for which it was asfigned, without any more gainsaying, till this year. But now, on pretence that the temple was finished (though the out-buildings ftill remained unrepaired, and were not finished till many years after), they refused to let the Jews any longer have the tribute; alledging, that it being affigned them for the repairing of their temple, now the temple was repaired, the end of that af fignment was ceased, and that consequently the payment of the faid tribute was to cease with it, and for this reafon would pay it no longer to them. Whereon the Jews, to right themselves in this matter, fent Zerubbabel the governor, with Mordecai and Ananias, two other principal men among them, with a complaint to Darius of the wrong that was done them, in the detaining of his royal bounty from them, contrary to the purport of the edict which he had in that behalf made. The king, on the hearing of the complaint, and the informing of himself about it, iffued out his royal order to his officers at Samaria, strictly requiring and commanding them to take effectual care, that the Samaritans obferve his edict, in paying their tribute to the temple of Jerufalem, as formerly, and no more, on any pretence whatsoever, give the Jews any cause for the future to complain of their failure herein. And after this we hear no more of any oppofition or contest concerning this matter, till the time of Sanballat; which was many years after. d From the time of the reduction of Babylon, Darius had fet himself to make great preparations for a war against the Scythians, that inhabited those countries which lie between the Da nube and the Tanais: his pretence for it was to be revenged on them for their having invaded Afia, and held it in fubjection to them 28 years, as hath been afore related. This was in the time of Cyaxares, the first of that name, king of Media, about 120 years before. But for want of a better colour for that which his ambition and thirst for conqueft only led him to, this was given out for the reafon of the war. In order whereto, having drawn Jofeph. Antiq. lib. 11. c. 4. d Herodotus, lib. 4. Juftin, lib. 2. c. 5. Cornelius Nepos in Miltiade. |