tivity had made a dispersion of that people over all the East, it carried this name with it among them; and they from hence called this city both by names, Jerusalem Kedushah, and at length, for shortness sake, Kedushah only, and the Syrians (who in their dialect usually turned the Hebrew sh into th) Kedutha. And the Syriac, in the time of Herodotus, being the only language that was then spoken in Palestine (the Hebrew having been no more used there, or any where else, as a vulgar language, after the Babylonish captivity,) he found it, when he travelled through that country, to be called there in the Syriac dialect Kedutha, from whence, by giving it a Greek termination, he made it, in the Greek language, Kiduris, or Cadytis, in his history, which he wrote about the time that Nehemiah ended his twelve years government at Jerusalem. And, for the same reason that it was called Kedushah, or Kedutha, in Syria and Palestine, the Arabs, in their language, called it? Bait Almokdes, i. e. the' Holy Buildings, or the Holy City, and often, with another adjective of the same root, and the same signification, Bait Alkuds, and at length simply Alkuds, i. e. the Holy, by which name onlya it is now called by the Turks, Arabs, and all other nations of the Mahometan religion in those parts. And that it may not look strange to prove an ancient name by the modern name which is now given that place, it is necessary I acquaint the reader, that the Arabs being the ancientest nation in the world (who have never been by any conquest dispossessed, or driven out of their country, but have there always remained in a continued descent from the first planters of it even to this day,) and being also as little given to make changes in their manners and usages, as they are as to their country, they have still retained those names of places which were at first given them, and on their getting the empire of the East, restored them again to many of them, after they had been for several ages extinct, by the intermediate changes that had happened in them. And thus b the z Golii Notæ ad Alfraganum, p. 137. a Sandy's Travels, b. 3, p. 155. Baudrandi Geog. sub voce Hierosolyma. b Bocharti Phaleg. part 1, lib. 4. c. 24. Golii Notæ ad Alfraganum, p. 152, 153, &c. ancient metropolis of Egypt, which, from Mizraim, the son of Ham, the first planter of that country after the flood, was called Mesri, and afterwards for many ages had the name of Memphis, was, on the Arabs making themselves masters of Egypt again, called Mesri, and hath retained that name ever since, though, by the building of Cairo on the other side of the Nile over against it (for Mesri stands on the west side of that river) that ancient and once noble city is now brought in a manner to desolation. And for the same reason the city of Tyrus, which was anciently called Zor or Zur (from whence the whole country of Syria had its name,) hath, since it fell into the hands of the Arabs, on the erecting of the empire in the East, been again called Sor, and is at this day known by no other name in those parts. And by the same means the city of Palmyra hath again recovered the old name of Tadmor, by which it was called in the time of Solomon, and is now known in the East by no other name: and abundance of other like instances might be given in the East to this purpose, and the like may be found nearer home. For it is well known that the Welsh, in their language, do still call all the cities in England by the old British names, by which they were called thirteen hundred years ago, before the Saxons dispossessed them of this country; and should they recover it again, and here get the dominion over it as formerly, no doubt they would again restore to all places here the same British names, by which they still call them. • Jehoiakim, on his taking on him the kingdom, followed the example of his brother in doing that which was evil; for he went on in his steps to relax all the good order and discipline of his father, as the other had done, and the people (who never went heartily into that good king's reformation,) gladly laying hold hereof, did let themselves loose to the full bent of their own depraved An. 609. Jehoiak. 1. c So it is called in the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament, wherever there is mention of this city therein. d Golii Notæ ad Alfraganum, p. 130, 131. Baudrandi Geog. sub voce Tyrus. Thevenot's Travels, b. 2, c. 60, p. 220. e 1 Kings ix, 18 2 Chron. viii, 4. f 2 Kings xxiii, 37. 2 Chron. xxxvi, 5. inclinations, and run into all manner of iniquity; whereon the prophet Jeremiah, being sent of Gods first went into the king's house, and there proclaimed God's judgments against him, and his family, if he went on in his iniquities, and did not amend and repent of them; and after that he went up into the temple, and there spoke to all the people that came up thither to worship after the same manner, declaring unto them, that if they would turn from their evil ways, God would turn from his wrath, and repent of the evil which he purposed to bring upon them; but that, if they would not hearken unto him to walk in the law of God, and keep his commandments, then the wrath of God should be poured out upon them, and both that city and the temple should be brought to utter desolation: which angering the priests that then attended in the temple, they laid hold of him, and brought him before the king's council to have him put to death. But Ahikam, one of the chief lords of the council, so befriended Jeremiah, that he brought him off, and got him discharged by the general suffrage, not only of the princes, but also of all the elders of the people that were then present. This Ahikam was the father of Gedaliah, that was afterwards made governour of the land under the Chaldeans, and the son of Shaphan the scribe (who wask chief minister of state under king Josiah) and brother to Gemariah, Elasah, and "Jazaniah, who were great men in those days, and members also of the council with him; and therefore, in conjunction with them, he had a great interest there, which he made use of on this occasion to deliver the prophet from that mischief which was intended against him. But Uriah, another prophet of the Lord, who had this same year prophesied after the same manner, could not so come off. For Jehoiakim was so incensed against him for it, that he sought to put him to death; whereon Uriah fled into Egypt. But this did not se g Jer. xxii. h Jer. xxvi. i 2 Kings xxv, 22. k 2 Kings xxii. 1 Jer. xxxvi, 10. m Jer. xxix. 3. n Ezek. viii, 11. From which place it is inferred, that Jazaniah was then resident of the sanhedrin. Jer. xxvi, 20-23. cure him from his revenge; for he sent into Egypt after him, and, having procured him to be there seized, brought him up from thence, and slew him at Jerusalem; which became a further enhancing of his iniquity, and also of God's wrath against him for it. About the same time also prophesied the prophet Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, who, being called to the prophetic office in the reign of Josiah, continued (as seems most likely) to this time; for they prophesied the same things that Jeremiah did, and upon the same occasion, that is, destruction and desolation upon Judah and Jerusalem, because of the many heinous sins they were then guilty of. Zephaniah doth not name the Chaldeans, who were to be the executioners of this wrath of God upon them, but 9 Habakkuk doth. As to Habakkuk, neither the time in which he lived, nor the parents from whom he was descended, are any where named in Scripture; but he prophesying the coming of the Chaldeans in the same manner as Jeremiah did, this gives reason to conjecture that he lived in the same time. Of Zephaniah it is directly said, ". that he prophesied in the time of Josiah, and in his pedigree (which is also given us) his father's grandfather is called Hezekiah, which, some taking to be king Hezekiah, do therefore reckon this prophet to have been of royal descent. Jehoiak. 3. S In the third year of Jehoiakim, Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, finding that, on Necho's taking An. 607. of Carchemish, all Syria and Palestine had revolted to him, and that he being old and infirm, was unable to march thither himself to reduce them; he took Nebuchadnezzar his son into partnership with him in the empire, and sent him with an army into those parts; and from hence the Jewish computation of the years of Nebuchadnezzar's reign begins, that is, from the end of the third year of Jehoiakim: for it was about the end of that year that this was done; and therefore, according to the Jews, q Hab. i, 5. r Zeph i, 1. p Hab. i, 1-11. Zeph. i, 1-18 u Jer. xxv, 1 Which same fourth year was the twenty-third from the thirteenth of Josiah, when Jeremiah first began to prophecy, ver. 3. the fourth year of Jehoiakim was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar; but, according to the Babylonians, his reign is not reckoned to begin till after his father's death, which happened two years afterwards; and both computations being found in Scripture, it is necessary to say so much here for the reconciling of them. An. 606. Jehoiak. 4. In the fourth year of Jekoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar having beaten the army of Necho, king of Egypt, at the Euphrates, and retaken Carchemish, marched towards Syria and Palestine, to recover those provinces again to the Babylonish empire; on whose approachy the Rachabites, who, according to the institution of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, their father, had always abstained from wine, and hitherto only lived in tents, finding no security from this invasion in the open country, retired for their safety to Jerusalem, where was transacted between them and Jeremiah what we find related in the thirty-fifth chapter of his prophecies. This very same year Jeremiah prophesied of the coming of Nebuchadnezzar against Judah and Jerusalem, that the whole land should be delivered into his hands, and that a captivity of seventy years continuance should after that ensue upon the people of the Jews; and he also delivered several other prophecies of the many calamities and woful desolations, that were then ready to be brought upon them, intending thereby, if possible, to bring them to repentance, that so the wrath of God might be diverted from them. But all this working nothing upon their hardened and obdurate hearts, God commanded him to collect together, and write in a roll, all the words of prophecy which had been spoken by him against Israel, Judah, and the nations, from the thirteenth year of Josiah (when he was first called to the prophetic office) to that time; whereon Jeremiah called to him Baruch, the son of Neriah, a chief disciple of his, who, being a ready scribe, wrote from his mouth all as God had commanded, and then went with the roll, which he had thus written, up into the temple, and there read it, in the hearing of all the people, on the great fast of the y Jer. xxxv, 6-11. x Jer. xlvi, 1. z Jer. xxv. a Jer. xxxvi. |