on the fast of the eighteenth of Cisleu, and the burning of it according to the account given hereof by Jeremiah, seem immediately to have followed each other. After the burning of this roll, another, by God's especial command, was forthwith written in the same manner, from the mouth of the prophet, by the hand of Baruch, wherein was contained all that was in the former roll; and there were added many other like words, and particularly that prophecy in respect of Jehoiakim and his house, which is, for this impious fact, in the thirtieth and thirty-first verses of the thirtysixth chapter of Jeremiah, denounced against them. In making the roll to be read twice in the temple by Baruch, I confess, I differ from most that have commented upon this place of Scripture. But as the reading of the roll by Baruch is, in the thirty-sixth chapter of Jeremiah, twice related, so it is plain to me, that it was twice done: for in the first relation, $ it is said to be done in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and, in the second, it is said to be done in the fifth; which plainly denotes two different times. And, in the first relation, Jeremiah" is said to be shut up in prison, when the roll was read; but, in the second relation, it plainly appears, he was out of prison, for he was then at full liberty to go out of the way and hide himself. For these reasons I take it for certain, that the roll was twice read: and I have archbishop Usher with me in the same opinion, whose judgment must always be of the greatest weight in such matters. Nebuchadnezzar, after his departure from Jerusalem, employed all this year in carrying on his war against the Egyptians, in which he had that success, that before the ensuing winter, he had driven them out of all Syria and Palestine, and brought in subjection 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-east; so the river of Egypt was the boundary y 2 Kings xxiv, 7. s Jer. xxxvi, 1. t Jer. xxxvi, 9. u Jer. xxxvi, 5. of Palestine towards the south-west. This river of Egypt, which is so often mentioned in Scripture as the boundary of the land of Canaan, or Palestine, towards Egypt, was not the Nile, as many suppose, but a small river, which, running through the desert that lies between these two countries, was anciently reckoned the common boundary of both. And thus far the land reached, which was promised to the seed of Abraham (Gen. xv, 18,) and was afterwards by lot divided among them, (Josh. xv, 4.) Towards the end of the fifth year of Jehoiakim, died Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, and father of Nebuchadnezzar, after he had reigned one and twenty years, which Nebuchadnezzar being informed of, he immediately, with a few only of his followers, hastened through the desert the nearest way to Babylon, leaving the gross of his army, with the prisoners and prey, to be brought after him by his generals. An. 604. On his arrival at the palace, he received the Jehoiak. 6. government from the hands of those who had carefully reserved it for him, and thereon succeeded his father in the whole empire, which contained Chaldea, Assyria, Arabia, Syria, and Palestine, and reigned over it, according to Ptolemy, forty-three years; the first of which begins from the January following, which is the Babylonish account, from which the Jewish account differs 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 Scripture that make mention of him, the other. Jehoiak. 7. In the seventh year of Jehoiakim, which was the second year of Nebuchadnezzar, according to An. 603. the Babylonish account, and the fourth according to the Jewish, Daniel b revealed unto Nebuchadnezzar his dream, and also unfolded to him the interpretation of it, in the manner as we have it at z Canon Ptolemæ. a Berosus apud Joseph. Antiq. lib. 10, c. 11, et contra Apionem lib. 1. b Daniel ii. large related in the second chapter of Daniel; whereon he was advanced to great honour, being made chief of the governours over all the wise men of Babylon, and also chief ruler 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 prosperity, he was not forgetful of his three companions, who had been brought to Babylon with him, Shadrach, Meshach, 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 ince of Babylon. These afterwards made themselves very signally known to the king, and also to the whole empire of Babylon, by their constancy to their religion, in refusing to worship the golden image which Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and by the wonderful deliverance which God wrought for them thereon; which deservedly recommending them to the king's highest regard, they were thereon much higher advanced: the whole history whereof is at full related in the third chapter of Daniel. prov The same year, Jehoiakim, after he had served the king of Babylon, three years, rebelled against him, and, refusing to pay him any more tribute, renewed his confederacy with Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, in opposition to him. Whereon Nebuchadnezzar, not being then at leisure, by reason of other engagements, to come himself and chastise him, sent orders to all his lieutenants and governours of provinces in those parts to make war upon him; which brought upon Jehoiakim inroads and invasions from every quarter,d the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Syrians, the Arabians, and all the other nations round him, who had subjected themselves to the Babylonish yoke, infesting him with incursions, and harassing him with depredations on every side and thus they continued to do for three years together, till at length, in the eleventh year of his reign, all parties joined together Jehoiak. 11. against him; they shut him up in Jerusalem, where, in the prosecution of the siege, having taken c 2 Kings xxiv, 1. d 2 Kings xxiv, 2. e 2 Kings xxiv, 10. An. 599. him prisoner in some sally (it may be supposed) which he made upon them, they slew him with the sword, and then cast out his dead body into the high-way, without one of the gates of Jerusalem, allowing it no other burial, fas the prophet Jeremiah had foretold, than that of an ass, that is, to be cast forth into a place of the greatest contempt, there to rot and be consumed to dust in the open air. The year before, & died his confederate, on whom he chiefly depended, Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, after he had reigned sixteen years, and Psammis his son succeeded him in the kingdom. An. 598. Jehoiakim being dead,h Jehoiachin his son (who is also called Jeconiah, and Coniah) reigned in Jehoiachin. his stead, who doing evil in the sight of the Zedekiah 1. Lord, in the same manner as his father had done; this provoked a very bitter declaration of God's wrath against him, by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah, and it was as bitterly executed upon him, For after Jehoiakim's death, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar (that is, his lieutenants and governours of the provinces, that were under his subjection in those parts) still continued to block up Jerusalem; and, after three months, Nebuchadnezzar himself came thither in person with his royal army, and caused the place to be begirt with a close siege on every side; whereon Jehoiachin, finding himself unable to defend it, went out to Nebuchadnezzar with his mother, and his princes and servants, and delivered himself into his hands. But hereby, he obtained no other favour than to save his life, for, being immediately put in chains, he was carried to Babylon, and there continued shut up in prison till the death of Nebuchadnezzar, which was full seven and thirty years. Nebuchadnezzar, having hereon made himself master of Jerusalem, I took thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces the vessels of gold, which Solomon, king of Israel, had made in the temple of f Jer. xxii, 18, 19; & xxxvi, 30. h2 Kings xxiv, 6. 2 Chron. xxxvi, 9. k2 Kings xxiv, 10, 11. g Herod. lib. 2. i Jer. xxii, 24-30. the Lord, and carried them to Babylon; and he also carried thither with him a vast 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 Jerusalem only, besides the smiths, and the carpenters, and other artificers; and, out of the rest of the land, of the mighty men seven thousand, and of the craftsmen and smiths one thousand, besides three thousand twenty and three, which had been carried away the year before out of the open country, before the siege of Jerusalem was begun. With the mighty men of valour he reeruited his army, and the artificers he employed in the carrying on of his building at Babylon; of which we shall speak hereafter. n In this captivity was carried away to Babylon Ezekiel the prophet, the son of Buzi, of the house of Aaron, and therefore the era whereby he reckons throughout all his prophecies is from this captivity. After this great carrying away of the Jews into captivity the poorer sort of the people being still left in the land, Nebuchadnezzar made Mattaniah, the son of Josiah, and uncle of Jehoiachin, king over them, taking of him a solemn oath to be true and faithful unto him; and, to engage him the more to be so, he changed his name from Mattaniah to Zedekiah, which signifieth the justice 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 sworn unto him. Zedekiah, being thus made king, reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; but his ways being evil in the sight of the Lord, as were those of his nephew and brothers that reigned before him, he did thereby so far fill up the measure of the iniquities of his forefathers, that they at length drew down upon Judah and Jerusalem that terrible destruction in which his reign ended. And thus was concluded the second war which Nebuchadnezzar had with the Jews. Three years he m Jer. lii, 28. n Ezek. xl, 1. • 2 Kings xxiv, 17. 2 Chron. xxxvi, 10: |