driven them out of all Syria and Paleftine, and brought in fubjection to him, from the river Euphrates to the river of Egypt, all that formerly belonged to the king of Egypt, i. e. all Syria and Palestine. For, as the river Euphrates was the boundary of Syria towards the north-eaft; fo the river of Egypt was the boundary of Palestine towards the fouth-weft. This river of Egypt, which is fo often mentioned in fcripture as the boundary of the land of Canaan, or Palestine, towards Egypt, was not the Nile, as many fuppofe, but a small river, which, running through the defart that lies between thefe two countries, was anciently reckoned the common boundary of both. And thus far the land reached, which was promised to the feed of Abraham (Gen. xv. 18.), and was afterwards by lot divided among them, Jofhua xv. 4. An. 604. Jehoiak.6. Towards the end of the 5th year of Jehoiakim, died Nabopollafar, king of Babylon, and father of Nebuchadnezzar, after be had reigned one and twenty years, which Nebuchadnezzar being informed of, he immediately, with a few only of his followers, haftened through the defart the nearest way to Babylon, leaving the grofs of his army, with the prifoners and prey, to be brought after him by his generals. On his arrival at the palace, he received the government from the hands of thofe .ho had carefully referved it for him, and thereon fucceeded his father in the whole empire, which contained Chaldea, Affyria, Arabia, Syria, and Palestine, and reigned over it, according to Ptolemy, forty-three years; the firit of which begins from the January following, which is the Babylonish account, from which the Jewish account dif fers two years, as reckoning his reign from the time he was admitted to be partner with his father. From hence we have a double computation of the years of his reign, the Jewish and the Babylonish; Daniel follows the latter, but all other parts of fcripture that make mention of him, the other. Jehoiak. 7 In the feventh year of Jehoiakim, which was the fecond year of Nebuchadnezzar, according to the Babylonish acAn. 603. count, and the fourth according to the Jewish, Daniel 4 revealed unto Nebuchadnezzar his dream, and alfo unfolded to him the interpretation of it, in the manner as we have it at large related in the 2d chapter of Daniel; whereon he was advanced to great honour, being made chief of the governors over all the wife men of Babylon, and alfo chief ruler E 3 a 2 Kings xxiv. 7. Canon Ptolemæi. over Berofus apud Jofeph. Antiq. lib. 1o. c. 11. et contra Apionem, lib. 1. 4 Daniel ii. over the whole province of Babylon, and one of the chief lords of the council, who always continued in the king's court, he being then about the age of twenty-two. And, in his profperity, he was not forgetful of his three companions, who had been brought to Babylon with him, Shadrach, Mefhach, and Abednego, but, having spoken to the king in their behalf, procured, that they were preferred to places of great honour under him in the province of Babylon. Thefe afterwards made themselves very fignally known to the king, and alfo to the whole empire of Babyion, by their conftancy to their religion, in refufing to worship the golde image which Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and by the wonderful deliverance which God wrought for them thereon; which defervedly recommending them to the king's highest regard, they were thereon much higher advanced: the whole hiftory whereof is at full related in, the 3d chapter of Daniel. b The fame year, Jehoiakim, after he had ferved the king of Babylon three years, a rebelled against him, and, refusing to pay him any more tribute, renewed his confederacy with Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, in oppofition to him. Whereon Nebuchadezzar, not being then at leifure, by reafon of other engagements, to come himself and chaftife him, fent orders to all his lieutenants and governors of provinces in thofe parts to make war upon him; which brought upon Jehoiakim inroads and invasions from every quarter, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Syrians, the Arabians, and all the other nations round him, who had fubjected themselves to the Babylonish yoke, infefting him with incurfions, and haraffing him with depredations on every fide: and thus they continued to do for three years together, till at length, in the 11th year of his reign, all parties joined together against him; they fhut him up in jerufalem, where, in the profecution of the fiege, having taken him prifoner in fome fally (it may be fuppofed) which he made upon them, they flew him with the fword, and then call out his dead body into the high-way, without one of the gates of Jerufalem, allowing it no other burial, d as the prophet Jeremiah had foretold, than that of an afs, that is, to be caft forth into a place of the greatest contempt, there to rot and be confumed to duft in the open air. An. 599. The year before, died his confederate, on whom he chiefly depended, Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, after he had reigned 16 years, and Pfammis his fon fucceeded him in the kingdom. Jehoiakim a 2 Kings xxiv. 1. D 2 Kings xxiv. 2. 2 Kings xxv. 10. Jeremiah xxii. 18. 19. & xxxvi.tate. Herodot. lib. 2. An. $98. Jehoiakim being dead, a Jehoiachin his fon (who is also called Jeconiah, and Coniah) reigned in his ftead, who doing evil in the fight of the Lord, in the fame man- Jehoiachin. ner as his Father had done; this provoked a very Zedekiah. bitter declaration of God's wrath against him, by b the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah, and it was as bitterly execu ted upon him. For after Jehoiakim's death, the fervants of Nebuchadnezzar (that is, his lieutenants and governors of the provinces, that were under his fubjection in thof parts) ftill continued to block up Jerufalem; and, after three months, Nebuchadnezzer himfelf came thither in perfon with his royal army, and caufed the place to be begirt with a close fiege on every fide; whereon Jehoiachin, finding himfelf unable to defend it, went out to Nebuchadnezzar with his mother, and his prin- ́ ces and fervants, and delivered himself into his hands. But hereby, he obtained no other favour than to fave his life, for, being immediately put in chains, he was carried to Babylon, and there continued fhut up in prifon till the death of Nebuchadnezzar, which was full feven and thirty years. Nebuchadnezzar, having hereon made himself master of Jerufalem, took thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's houfe, and cut in pieces the veffels of gold, which Solomon, king of Ifrael, had made in the temple of the Lord, and carried them to Babylon; and he also carried thither with him a vaft number of captives, Jehoiachin the king, his mother, and his wives, and his officers, and princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even to the number of ten thousand men, out of Jerufalem only, befides the fmiths, and the carpenters, and other artificers; and, out of the rest of the land, of the mighty men feven thoufand, and of the crafts-men and fmiths one thoufand, befides three thousand twenty and three, which had been carried away the year before out of the open country, before the fiege of Jerufalem was begun. With the mighty men of valour he recruited his army, and the artificers he employed in the carrying on of his building at Babylon; of which we shall speak hereafter. In this captivity was carried away to Babylon Ezekiel the prophet, the fon of Buzi, of the houfe of Aaron, and therefore the ara whereby he reckons throughout all his prophecies is from this captivity. E 4 After After this great carrying away of the Jews into captivity, the poorer fort of the people being ftill left in the land, Nebuchadnezzar made Mattaniah, the fon of Jofiah, and uncle of Jehoiachin, king over them, taking of him a folemn oath to be true and faithful unto him; and, to engage him the more to be so, he charged n's name from Mattaniah to Zedekiah, which fignifieth the juice of the Lord, intending by this name to put him continually in mind of the vengeance which he was to expect from the justice of the Lord his God, if he violated that fidelity, which he had in his name fworn unto him. Zedekiah, being thus made king, reigned eleven years in Jerufalem; but his ways being evil in the fight of the Lord, as were thofe of his nephew and brothers that reigned before him, he did thereby fo far fill up the measure of the iniquities of his forefathers, that they at ength drew down upon Judah and Je rufalem that terrib e destruction in which his reign ended. And thus was concluded the fecond war which Nebuchad nezzar had with the Jews. Three years he managed it by his lieutenants and governors of the neighbouring provinces of his empire. In the fourth year he came himself in perfon, and put an end to it in the captivity of Jehoiachin, and the taking of Jerufalem. What hindered him from coming fooner is not faid; only it appears, that, in the tenth year of Jehoiakim, he was engaged in an arbitration between the Medes and Lydians. The occafion was this. After the Medes had recovered all the upper Afia out of the hand of the Scythians, and again extended their borders to the river Halys, which was the common boundary between them and the Lydians, it was not long before there happened a war between these two nations, which was managed for five years together with various fuccefs. In the fixth year they engaged each other with the utinc ft of their firength, intending to nake that battle decifive of the quarrel, that was between them. But, in the midst of it, while the fortune of the day feemed to hang in an equal balance between them, there happened an eclipfe, which overfpread both armies with darknefs; whereon, being frightened with what had happened, they both defifted from fighting any longer, and agreed to refer the controversy to the arbitration of two neighbouring princes. The Lydians chofe Siennefis, king of Cilicia, and the Medes, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who agreed a peace between them on the terms, that Aftyages, fon to Cyaxares, king of Media, hould take to wife Arienna, the daughter of Halyattis, king of * 2 Kines xxiv. 17. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 10. b Herodotus lib. z. He is, by Herodotus, lib. 1. called Labynetus. the the Lydians; of which marriage, within a year after, was born Cyaxares, who is called Darius the Median in the book of Daniel. This eclipfe was foretold by Thales the Milefian; and it happened on the 20th of September, according to the Julian account, in the 147th year of Nabonaffar, and in the ninth of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, which was the year before Chrift 601. The fame year that Cyaxares was born to Aftyages, he gave his daughter Mandana, whom he had by a former wife, in marriage to Cymbyfes, king of Perfia; of whom the next year after (which was the last year of Jehoiakim) was born Cyrus, the famous founder of the Perfian monarchy, and the restorer of the Jews to their country, their temple, and their former state. Jehoiachin being thus carried into captivity, and Zedekiah fettled in the throne, Jeremiah had, in a vifion, under the type of two baskets of figs, forefhewn unto him the restoration which God would again give to them who were carried into captivity, and the mifery and defolation which fhould befal them, with their king, that were ftill in the land; that the captivity of the former should become a means of prefervation unto them, while the liberty which the others were left in should serve only to lead them to their utter ruin; as accordingly it befel them in the deftruction of Jerufalem, and the utter devaftation of the land, which happened a few years afterwards. The fame year God alfo forefhewed to Jeremiah the confusion which he would bring upon Elam (a kingdom lying upon the river Ulai, eastward beyond the Tigris), and the restoration which he would afterwards give thereto; which accordingly came to pals for it was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, and fubjected to him, in the fame manner as Judah was. But afterwards, joining with Cyrus, it helped to conquer and fubdue the Babylonians, who had before conquered them; and 4 Shuthan, which was the chief city of that province, was thenceforth made the metropolis of the Perfian empire, and had the throne of the kingdom placed in it. с After the departure of Nebuchadnezzar out of Judea and Syria, Zedekiah having fettled himself in the kingdom, the kings of the Ammonites, and of the Moabites, and of the Edomites, and of the Zidonians, and the Tyrians, and of the other neighbouring nations, fent their ambafadors to Jerufalem, to congratulate Zedekiah on his acceffion to the throne, and then propofed to him a league against the king of Babylon, for the shaking b Jeremiah xxiv. Jeremiah xlx 34-39 d Strabo, lib. 15. p. 727. e * Jeremiah xxvii. |