itants. That Cyrus had seen and read these prophecies, h Josephus tells us; and it is plain from Scripture that he did so; for they are recitedi in his decree in Ezra for the rebuilding of the temple. And who was there that should shew them unto him, but Daniel, who, in the station that he was in, had constant access unto him, and of all men living had it most at heart to see these prophecies fulfilled, in the restoration of Sion? Besides Cyrus, in his late expedition into Syria and Palestine, having seen so large and good a country as that of Judea lie wholly desolate, might justly be moved with a desire of having it again inhabited; for the strength and riches of every empire being chiefly in the number of its subjects, no wise prince would ever desire that any part of his dominions should lie unpeopled. And who could be more proper again to plant the desolated country of Judea than its former inhabitants? They were first carried out of Judea by Nebuchadnezzar to people and strengthen Babylon; and perchance under this government of the Persians, to which the Babylonians were never well affected, the weakening and dispeopling of Babylon might be as strong a reason for their being sent back again into their own country. But whatsoever second causes worked to it, God's over-ruling power, which turneth the hearts of princes which way he pleaseth, brought it to pass, that in the first year of Cyrus' monarchy over the East, he issued out his royal decree for the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, and the return of the Jews again into their own country. And herein the state of Judah and Jerusalem began to be restored; of which an account will be given in the next book.

THE

Old and New Testaments

CONNECTED, &c.

BOOK III.

An. 536.

Cyrus 1.

CYRUS having issued out his decree for the restoring of the Jews unto their own land, and the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, they gathered together out of the several parts of the kingdom of Babylon, to the number of forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty persons, with their servants, which amounted to seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven more.

C

Their chief leaders were bZerubbabel, the son of Salathiel, the son of Jehoiachin, or Jeconias, king of Judah, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, the high priest. Zerubbabel (whose Babylonish name was Sheshbazzar) was maded governour of the land, under the title of Tirshatha, by commission from Cyrus. But Jeshua was high priest by lineal descent from the pontifical family; for he was the son of Jozadak, who was the son of Seraiah, that was high priest when Jerusalem was destroyed, and the temple burned by the Chaldeans. Seraiah,being then taken prisoner by Nebuzaradan, and carried to Nebuchadnezzar to Riblah in Syria,was then put to death by him: but Jozadak his son, being spared as to his life, was only with the rest led captive to Babylon, where he died before the decree of restoration came forth; and therefore the office of high priest was then in Joshua his son, and underh that title he is named, next

a Ezra i; & ii.

e Ezra i, 8, 11.

e 1 Chron. vi, 14, 15. g 1 Chron. vi, 15.

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36

b Ezra ii, 2.

d Ezra v, 14.

f 2 Kings xxv, 18.

h Ezra ii, 2; iii, 2. Hag. i, 12; ii, 2.

Zerubbabel, among the first of those that returned. The rest were Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaia, Mordecai, Bilsham, Mispar, Bigvai, Rheum, and Baanah, who were the prime leaders of the people, and the chief assistants to Zerubbabel, in the resettling of them again in their own land, and are by the Jewish writers reckoned the chief men of the great synagogue; so they call the convention of elders, which, they say, sat at Jerusalem after the return of the Jews, and did there again re-establish all their affairs both as to church and state, of which they speak great things as shall hereaf ter be shewn. But it is to be observed, that the Nehemiah and Mordecai abovementioned, were not the Nehemiah and Mordecai of whom there is so much said in the books of Nehemiah and Esther, but quite different persons who bore the same name.

At the same time that Cyrus issued out his decree for the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, he ordered all the vessels to be restored which had been taken from thence. Nebuchadnezzar, on the burning of the former temple, had brought them to Babylon, and placed them there in the temple of Bel his god. From thence they were, according to Cyrus' order, by Mithredath, the king's treasurer, delivered to Zerubbabel, who carried them back again to Jerusalem. All the vessels of gold and silver that were at this time restored were five thousand four hundred; the remainder was brought back by Ezra, in the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, many years after.

And not only those of Judah and Benjamin, but several also of the other tribes, took the benefit of this decree to return again into their own land: for some of them who were carried away by Tiglath Pileser, Salmanezer, and Esarhaddon, still retained the true worship of God in a strange land, and did not go into the idolatrous usages and impieties of the heathens, among whom they were dispersed, but joined themselves to the Jews, when, by a like captivity, they were brought into the same parts; and some, after all the Assyrian captivities, were still left in the land. For we find some of them still there in the

i Ezra ii, 2. Neh. vii, 7. k Ezra i, 7-11. 1 Tobit i, 11, 12; & xiv, 9.