other, that is, in the 20th chapter of Exodus, where, a after the tenth commandment, they have fubjoined, by way of an additional precept thereto, words taken out of the 11th and 27th chapters of Deuteronomy, to command the erecting of the altar in Mount Gerizim inftead of Mount Ebal, and the offering of facrifices to God in that place. And in that they have thus voluntarily made a corrupt alteration in one place, and a corrupt addition in another, merely out of defign to ferve an ill caufe, this gives the lefs authority to their copy in all other places, where, either by alterations or additions, it differs from that of the Jews.

Thefe two mountains, called Gerizim and Ebal, are in the tribe of Ephraim, near Samaria; and in the valley between them lieth Shechem, now called Naplous, which hath been the head feat of the Samaritan fect ever fince Alexander expelled them out of Samaria for the death of Andromachus. This place the Jews in our Saviour's time, by way of reproach, called Sichar; and therefore we have it fo named in St John's gospel. Itfignifieth the drunken city; and the prophet Ifaiah having called the Ephraimites (whofe dwelling was in thofe parts) Sicorim, i. e. drunkards, they have this text on their fide for the juftifying of that name. Near this place was the field which Jacob bought of the children of Hamor, and gave unto Jofeph his fon a little before his death. Therein Jofeph's bones were buried when brought up out of the land of Egypt; and within the fame plot of ground was the well, called Jacob's well, f at which our Saviour fat down, when he difcourfed with the woman of Samaria. But, after all the conteft that is made be

tween

The words added by the Samaritans after the tenth commandment, in the 20th chapter of Exodus, are as followeth.-" And it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath brought thee into the land of the Canaanites, whether thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt set up great stones, and plafter them with plafter, and thou shalt write upon these stones all the words of this law. And it thall be, when ye are gone over Jordan, that ye fhall fet up thefe ftones, which I command you this day, in Mount Gerizim, and thou shalt build there an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of ftones. Thou fhalt not lift up any iron tool upon them. Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of whole ftones. And thou shalt there offer burnt-offerings thereon to the Lord thy God, and thou fhalt offer peace offerings, and fhalt eat there, and rejoice before the Lord thy God. This mountain is on the other file Jordan, by the way where the fun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, who dwell in the champaign over again ft Gilgal, befides the plains of Morch, which are over against Shechem.

b John iv. 5.

Ifaiah xxviii. r.

d Gen. xxiii. 19. xlviii. 22. Jofua xxiv. 33.

Joshua xxiv. 32.

f john iv. 6.

tween the Samaritans and the Jews about these two mountains, a Jerome is pofitive, that neither of them were the Gerizim and Ebal of the holy fcriptures, but that the two mountains fo called in them, and on which the bleflings and the curfings were proclaimed by the children of Ifrael, on their firft paffing over Jordan into the land of Canaan, were two fmall mountains or hills lying near Jericho, at a great distance from Shechem. And Epiphanius was of the fame opinion with Jerome in this matter: and they having been both upon the place, may well be thought the best able to pass a true judgement about it. Their arguments for it are, 1ft, That the fcriptures place these two mountains over against that part of the river Jordan where the children of Ifrael paffed into the land of Canaan, and near Gilgal; but Shechem is at a great distance. from both and, 2dly, That the mountains near Shechem, called Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, are at too great a distance from each other for the people from either of them to hear either the bleffings or the curfings which were pronounced from the other; but that it would be quite otherwise as to the hills near Jericho, which they conceive to be the hills by the names of Gerizim and Ebal meant in fcripture., But that hill from which Jotham the fon of Gideon made his fpeech to the Shechemites, being called Gerizim, and that certainly lying just over them (for otherwise they could not have heard him from thence), this clearly makes against this opinion, and evidently proves the Mount Gerizim of the holy fcriptures to be that very Mount Gerizim on which the temple of the Samaritans was built.

с

b

The Jews accufe the Samaritans of two pieces of idolatry, which they fay were committed by them in this place. The first, that they there worshipped the image of a dove; and the other, that they paid divine adoration to certain teraphim, or idol gods, there hid under that mountain. For the first charge they took the handle from the idolatry of the Affyrians: for that people having worshipped one of their deities (Semiramis, d faith Diodorus Siculus) under the image of a dove, they reproached the Samaritans as worshippers of the like image, becaufe defcended from them; and perchance they were fo while they worshipped their other gods with the God of Ifrael, but M 4

never

a Vide Scaligeri Animadverfiones in Eufebii Chron. fub Numero 1681. b Judges ix. 7.

Talmud in Tractatu Cholin. vide etiam Waltoni Prolegom. xi. ad Biblia Polyglotta Lond. § 7. & Hottingeri Exercitationes Antimorinia nas, § 16. & 17.

* Lib. 2. p. 66. & 76.

never afterwards. And as to the fecond charge, it is true, Ja cob having found out, that Rachel had ftolen her father's teraphim, or idol gods, took them from her, a and buried them under the oak in Shechem, which they fuppofe to have been at the foot of the mountain Gerizim; and, from hence, because the Samaritans worshipped God in that mountain, the Jews fuggeft, that they worshipped there for the fake of these idols, and paid divine adoration unto them. But both these charges were malicious calumnies, falfely imputed to them: for, after the time that Manaffeh brought the law of Mofes among them, and instructed them in it, the Samaritans be came as zealous worshippers of the true God, and as great abhorrers of all manner of idolatry, as the most rigorous of the Jews themselves, and fo continue even to this day.

And with this laft act of Nehemiah's reformation, and the expulfion of those refractory Jews that would not conform to it, not only the first period of Daniel's 70 weeks, but also the holy scriptures of the Old Testament ending, I fhall here also end this book; and proceed to relate what after followed from the beginning of the next.

Gen. xxxy. 2—4.

THE

THE

OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT

CONNECTED,

IN

THE HISTORY

OF

THE JEWS AND NEIGHBOURING NATIONS,

FROM

The Declension of the Kingdoms of ISRAEL and JUDAH,
to the Time of Christ.

THE

BOOK VII.

Anno 408.

HUS far we have had the light of fcripture to follow. Henceforth the books of the Maccabees, Philo Judæus, Jofephus, and the Greek and Dar. Nothus 16. Latin writers, are the only guides which we

can have to lead us through the future series of this hiftory, till we come to the times of the gospel of Jefus Chrift. How long after this Nehemiah lived at Jerufalem is uncertain: it is most likely, that he continued in his government to the time of his death; but when that happened is no where faid; only it may be obferved, that at the time where he ends his book, he could not be much less than 70 years old. After him, there feems not to have been any more governors of Judea; but that this country, being added to the prefecture of Syria, was thenceforth wholly fubjected to the governor of that province, and that under him the high priest had the truft of regulating all affairs therein.

While

a

While Darius was making war against the Egyptians and the Arabians, the Medes revolted from him; but, being vanquished in battle, they were foon forced again to return to their former allegiance, and, for the punishment of their rebellion, fubmit to an heavier yoke of fubjection than they had on them before; as is always the cafe of revolting fubjects when reduced again under the power against which they rebelled.

Anno 407.

Dar. Nothus. 17.

And, the next year after, Darius feems to have had as good fuccefs against the Egyptians: for Amyrtæus being dead (perchance flain in battle), Herodotus tells us, his fon Paufiris fucceeded him in the kingdom, by the favour of the Perfians; which argues that, before they granted him this, they had reduced. Egypt again under them, otherwife Paufiris could not have been made king of it by their favour.

Darius having thus fettled his affairs in Media and Egypt, fent Cyrus his younger fon to be commander in chief of all the provinces of Leffer Afia, giving him authority paramount over all the lieutenants and governors afore placed in them. He was a very young man to be intrusted with fo large an authority for having been born after his father's acceffion to the throne, he could not have been now above 16 years old. But, being the darling and best beloved fon of Paryfatis, who had an abfolute afcendant over the old king her husband, fhe obtained this commiflion for him, with an intention, no doubt, to put him into a capacity of contending for the crown after his father's death; and this ufe he accordingly made of it, to the great damage and disturbance of the whole Perfian empire, as will be hereafter related.

d

On his receiving his commiffion, he had this chiefly given him in charge by his father, that he should help the Lacedemonians against the Athenians, contrary to the wife measures hitherto obferved by Tiffaphernes, and the other governors of the Perfian provinces in thofe parts. For their practice hitherto had been, fometimes by helping one fide, and fometimes by helping the other, fo to balance the matter between both parties, that each being kept up to be a match for the other, both might continue to harass and weaken each other by carrying on the war, and neither be at leifure to difturb the Perfian empire. This order of the king's for a contrary practice foon discovered the weaknefs

a Xenophon Hellenic. lib. 1. Herodot. lib. 9.

b Lib. 3.

Xenoph. Hellen. lib. 1. Plutarchus in Artaxerxe, et Lyfandro. Ctefias. Juftin. lib. 5. c. 5. Diodor. Sic. lib. 13. p. 368.

d Xenoph. ibid. Diodor. Sic. ibid. Thucydides, lib. 2. Justin ibid. Plutarchus in Lysandro.