duce them to a calamitous condition again. Hereupon he rent his garment immediately, out of his grief, and pulled the hair of his head and beard; and cast himself upon the ground: because this crime had reached the principal men among the people, and considering that if he should enjoin them to cast out their wives, and the children they had by them, he should not be hearkened to, he continued lying upon the ground. However all the better sort came running to him; who also themselves wept, and partook of the grief he was under for what had been done. So Esdras rose up from the ground, and stretched out his hand towards heaven, and said, that he was ashamed to look towards it, because of the sins which the people had committed: while they had cast out of their memories what their fathers had undergone on account of their wickedness. And he besought God, who had saved a seed and a remnant out of the calamity and captivity they had been in, and had restored them again to Jerusalem, and to their own land, and had obliged the kings of Persia to have compassion on them, that he would also forgive them the sins they had now committed: which, though they deserved death, yet was it agreeable to the mercy of God to remit the punishments due to them.

After Esdras had said this, he left off praying; and when all those who came to him with their wives and children were under lamentation, one whose name was Jechonias, a principal man in Jerusalem, came to him and said, that they had sinned in marrying strange wives; and he persuaded him to adjure them all, to cast those wives out, and the children born of them, and that those should be punished who would not obey the law. So Esdras hearkened to this advice, and made the heads of the priests, and of the Levites, and of the Israelites, swear that they would put away those wives and children according to the advice of Jechonias. And when he had received their oaths, he went in haste out of the temple, into the chamber of Johanan, the son of Eliasib: and as he had hitherto stated nothing at all, for grief; so he abode there that day. And when proclamation was made, that all those of the captivity should gather themselves together to Jerusalem, and that those that did not meet there in two or three days, should be banished from the multitude, and that their substance should be appropriated to the uses of the temple according to the sentence of the elders,

those that were of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin came together in three days; viz. on the twentieth day of the ninth month: which, according to the Hebrews, is called Tebeth,* and according to the Macedonians, Apelleus. Now as they were sitting in the upper room of the temple where the elders also were present, but were uneasy because of the cold; Esdras stood up, and told them, they had sinned, in marrying wives that were not of their own nation. But that now they would do a thing both pleasing to God and advantageous to themselves, if they would put those wives away. Accordingly they all cried out that they would do so: that however the multitude was great, and the season of the year was winter, and this work would require more than one or two days. "Let their rulers therefore," said they, "and those that have married strange wives come hither at a proper time while the elders of every place, that are in common to estimate the number of those that have thus married, are to be there also.† Accordingly this was resolved on. And they began the inquiry after those that had married strange wives, on the first day of the tenth month; and continued the inquiry till the first day of the next month; and found a great many of the posterity of Jeshua the high-priest, and of the priests and Levites, and Israelites, who had a‡ greater regard to the observance of the law, than to their natural affection: and immediately cast out their wives, and the children which were born of them. And in order to appease God, they offered sacrifices and slew rams, as oblations to him. But it does not seem necessary to set down the names of these men. So when Esdras had reformed this sin, about the marriages of

* Casleu.

Ezra x. 13, 14.

This procedure of Ezra, and of the best part of the Jewish nation, after the return from the Babylonish Captivity, of reducing the Jewish marriages, one for all, to the strictness of the law of Moses; without any regard to the greatness of those who had broken it; and without regard to that natural affection or compas. sion for their heathen wives, and their children by them, which made it so hard for Ezra to correct them; deserves greatly to be observed among Christians. The contrary conduct having ever been the bane of true religion, both among Jews and Christians while political views, human passions, or prudential motives, are suffered to take place, instead of the divine laws; and the blessing of God is forfeited, and the church suffered to continue corrupt, from one generation to another.

the aforementioned persons, he reduced that practice to purity; so that it continued in that state for the time to come.

Now when they kept the feast of tabernacles in the seventh month, and almost all the people were come together to it, they went up to the open part of the temple, to the gate that looked eastward, and desired of Esdras that the laws of Moses might be read to them. Accordingly he stood in the midst of the multitude, and read them from the morning to noon. Now by hearing the laws read to them, they were instructed to be righteous men for the present and for the future. But as for their past offences, they were displeased at themselves, and proceeded to shed tears on their account; as considering with themselves, that if they had kept the law, they had endured none of those miseries which they had experienced. But when Esdras saw them in this disposition, he bade them go home, and not weep; for that it was a festival, and that they ought not to weep thereon; for that it was not lawful so to do.† He exhorted them rather to proceed immediately to feasting, and to do what was agreeable to a day of joy, but let their repentance and sorrow for their former sins be a security, and a guard to them, that they fall no more into the like offences. So upon Esdras's exhortation, they began to feast; and when they had so done for eight days in the tabernacles, they departed to their own homes: singing hymns to God, and returning thanks to Esdras, for his reformation of what corruptions had been introduced into their settlement. So it came to pass, that after he had obtained this reputation among the people, he died an old man; and was buried in a magnificent manner at Jerusalem. About the same time it happened also, that Joacim, the high-priest died; and his son Eliasib succeeded to the high-priesthood.

Now there was one of those Jews that had been carried captive, who was cup-bearer to king Xerxes. His name was Nehemiah. As this man was walking before Susa, the metropolis of

*This Jewish feast of Tabernacles was imitated in several heathen solemnities: as Spanheim here observes, and proves. He also farther observes presently, what great regard many heathens had to the monuments of their forefathers, as Nehemiah had here.

This rule of Ezra's, not to fast on a festival day, is quoted in the Apostolical Constitutions, as obtaining among Christians also, V. 20.

+ An. 462.

the Persians, he heard some strangers that were entering the city, after a long journey, speaking to one another in the Hebrew tongue. So he went to them and asked them, whence they came? and when their answer was that they came from Judea, he began to inquire of them again, in what state the multitude was? and in what condition Jerusalem was? They replied, that they were in a bad state;* for that their walls were thrown down to the ground: and that the neighbouring nations did a great deal of mischief to the Jews; while in the day time they over-ran the country, and pillaged it, and in the night did them mischief; insomuch that not a few were led away captive out of the country, and out of Jerusalem itself; and that the roads were, in the day time, found full of dead men. Hereupon Nehemiah shed tears, out of commiseration of the calamities of his countrymen and looking up to heaven, he said, "How long, O Lord, wilt thou overlook our nation, while it suffers so great miseries; and while we are made the prey and the spoil of all men?" And while he stayed at the gate, and lamented thus, one told him that the king was going to sit down to supper. So he made haste, and went as he was, without washing himself, to minister to the king in his office of cup-bearer. But as the king was very pleasant after supper, and more cheerful than usual, be cast his eyes on Nehemiah, and seeing him look sad, he asked him why he was sad? Whereupon he prayed to God to give him favour, and afford him the power of persuading by his words, and said:"How can I, O king, appear otherwise than thus, and not be in trouble, while I hear that the walls of Jerusalem: the city where the sepulchres of my fathers are, thrown down to the ground, and that its gates are consumed by fire? But do thou grant me the favour to go and build its wall, and to finish the buildings of the temple."+ Accordingly the king gave him a signal, that he freely granted him what he asked; and told him, that he should carry an epistle to the governors, that they might pay him due honour, and afford him whatever

* This miserable condition of the Jews, and the capital, must have been after the death of Ezra, their former governor, and before Nehemiah came with his commission to build the walls of Jerusalem. Nor is that at all disagreeable to these histories in Josephus; since Ezra came on the seventh, and Nehemiah not till the twenty-fifth of Xerxes; at the interval of eighteen years.

+ Nehemiah ii. 1—5,

assistance he wanted, and as he pleased. "Leave off thy sorrow then," said the king, "and be cheerful in the performance of thy office bereafter." So Nehemiah worshipped God, and gave the king thanks for his promise; and cleared up his sad and cloudy countenance, by the pleasure he had from the king's promises. Accordingly the king called for him the next day, and gave him an epistle to be carried to Adeus the governor of Syria, and Phoenicia, and Samaria; wherein he sent to him to pay due honour to Nehemiah, and to supply him with what he wanted for his building.

xes.

"Ye

Now when he was come to Babylon, and had taken with him many of his countrymen, who voluntarily followed him, he came to Jerusalem in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of XerAnd when he had shewn the epistle to God, he gave them to Adeus, and to the other governors. He also called together all the people to Jerusalem, and stood in the midst of the temple, and made the following speech to them. know, O Jews, that God hath kept our fathers, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in mind continually; and for the sake of their righteousness hath not left off the care of you. Indeed he hath assisted me in granting this authority of the king to raise up our wall, and finish what is wanting of the temple. I desire you therefore, who well know the ill will the neighbouring nations bear to us, and that when they once are made sensible that we are in earnest about building, they will come upon us, and contrive many ways of obstructing our works, that you will, in the first place, put your trust in God, as in himthat will assist us against their batred; and to intermit building neither night nor day; but to use all diligence, and to hasten on the work, now we have this especial opportunity for it." When he had said this, he gave order that the rulers should measure the wall, and part the work of it among the people, according to their villages and cities; as every one's ability

* This shewing king Xerxes's epistles to God, or laying them open before God in the temple, is very like the laying open the epistles of Sennacherib, before him also by Hezekiah, 2 Kings xix. 14. Isaiah xxxvii. 14, although this last was for a memorial, to put him in mind of the enemies, in order to move the divine compassion; and the present, as a token of gratitude, for mercies already received: as Havercamp well observes on this place.