should require. And when he had added this promise, that he himself, with his servants, would assist them, he dissolved the assembly. So the Jews prepared for the work.

This is the name they are called by from the day that they came up from Babylon; which is taken from the tribe of Judah, which came first to these palaces, and thence both they and the country gained that appellation.

ny

Now when the Ammonites, and Moabites, and Samaritans, and all that inhabited Colesyria heard that the building went on apace, they took it heinously: and proceeded to lay snares for them, and to hinder their intentions. They also slew maof the Jews; and sought how they might destroy Nehemiah himself, by hiring some of the foreigners to kill him. They also put the Jews in fear, and disturbed them, and spread abroad rumours, as if many nations were ready to make an expedition against them: by which means they were harrassed, and had almost left off the building. But none of these things could deter Nehemiah from being diligent about the work. He only set a number of men about him, as a guard to his body: and so unweariedly persevered therein, and was insensible of any trouble, out of his desire to perfect this work. And thus did he attentively and with great precaution take care of his own safety: not that he feared death; but out of this persuasion, that if he were dead, the walls for his citizens would never be raised. He also gave orders that the builders should keep their ranks, and have their armour on while they were building. Accordingly the mason had his sword on,* as well as he that brought the materials for building. He also appointed that their shields should lie very near them; and he placed trumpets at every five hundred feet, and charged them, that if their enemies appeared, they should give notice of it to the people, that they might fight in their armour, and their enemies might not fall upon them naked. He also went about the compass of the city by night, being never discouraged, neither about the work itself, nor about his own diet and sleep: for he made no use of those things for his pleasure, but out of

*Nehemiah iv. 18.

necessity. And this trouble he underwent for* two years and four months: for in so long a time was the wall built: in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Xerxes,† in the ninth month. Now when the walls were finished, Nehemiah and the multitude offered sacrifices to God for building of them; and they continued in feasting eight days. However, when the nations which dwelt in Syria heard that the building of the wall was finished, they had indignation at it. But when Nehemiah saw that the city was thin of people, he exhorted the priests and the Levites, that they would leave the country, and remove themselves to the city, and there continue; and he built them houses at his own expense: and he commanded that part of the people which were employed in cultivating the land, to bring the tithes of their fruits to Jerusalem; that the priests and Levites having whereof they might live perpetually, might not leave the divine worship. Accordingly they hearkened to the constitutions of Nehemiah: by which means the city of Jerusalem came to be fuller of people than it was before. So when Nehemiah had done many other excellent things, and things worthy of commendation, in a glorious manner, he came to a great age, and then died. He was a man of a good and righteous disposition, and very ambitious to make his own people happy. And he left the walls of Jerusalem as an eternal monument for himself. Now this was done in the days of Xerxes.

* It may not be improper to remark here, with what an unusual accuracy Josephus determines these years of Xerxes, in which the walls of Jerusalem were built; viz. that Nehemiah came with his commission in the 25th of Xerxes; that the walls were two years and four months in building; and that they were finished on the 28th of Xerxes. It may also be remarked farther, that Josephus hardly ever mentions more than one infallible astronomical character, I mean an eclipse of the moon: and this a little before the death of Herod the Great, XVII. 6. Now on these two chronological characters, in great measure depend some of the most important points belonging to Christianity; viz. The explication of Daniel's seventy weeks, the duration of our Saviour's ministry, and the time of his death, in correspondence to those seventy weeks. Though Josephus's own chronology was so different from ours, as exhibited in Ptolemy's Canon, that it was impossible he should have regard to any such correspondence.

† An. 459.

CHAP. VI.

CONCERNING ESTHER, MORDECAI, AND HAMAN; AND THE IMMINENT DANGER TO WHICH THE WHOLE NATION OF THE JEWS WAS EXPOSED IN THE reign of ARTAXERXES.

AFTER the death of Xerxes,* the kingdom came to be transferred to his son Cyrus, whom the Greeks call Artaxerxes.† When this man had obtained the government over the Persians, the whole nation of the Jews, with their wives and children,

*About an. 457.

+ This prince, to distinguish him from others of that name, was called Manpoxeip, or Longimanus, upon the supposed length of his hands, with which it is said that he could have touched his knees, even when he stood upright; but this notwith standing, it is reported of him, that he was both the handsomest person of the age in which he lived, and a prince likewise of a very mild and generous disposition. Prideaux's Connection, anno 465. B.

Since some sceptical persons are willing to discard this book of Esther, as no true history and even our learned and judicious Dr. Wall, in his late posthumous critical notes upon all the other Hebrew books of the Old Testament, gives us none upon the Canticles, or upon Esther; and seems thereby to give up this book, as well as the Canticles, as indefensible: I shall venture to say, that almost all the objections against this book of Esther are obviated at once, if, as we ought certainly to do, and as Dean Prideaux has justly done, we place this history under Artaxerxes Longimanus: as do both the Septuagint interpreters, and Josephus. I mean in this case we also take our true copies from the Septuagint, and from Josephus ; rather than from our Masorete Hebrew. I shall here add farther, on its behalf, the words of the learned Dr. Lee in his posthumous Dissertation on the second book of Esdras, page 25, that "The truth of this history is demonstrated by the feast of Purim, kept from that time to this very day. See 2 Maccabees xv. 36. And this surprising Providential revolution in favour of a captive people, thereby constantly commemorated, standeth even upon a firmer basis than that there ever was such a man as Alexander the Great in the world: of whose reign there is no such abiding monument at this day to be found any where. Nor will they, I dare who quarrel at this, or any other of the sacred historians, find it a very easy matter to reconcile the different accounts which are given by historians of the affairs of this king or to confirm any one fact of his whatever with the same evidence which is here given for the principal fact in this sacred book: or even so much as to prove the existence of such a person, of whom so great things are related, but upon granting this book of Esther, or sixth of Esdras: (as it is placed in some of the most ancient copies of the Vulgate :) to be a most true and certain history."

say,

N. B. The oldest and most authentic record we now have of Alexander the Great, is contained in the first seven verses of the first book of Maccabees.

were in danger of perishing: the occasion whereof we shall declare in a little time. For it is proper in the first place to explain somewhat relating to this king, and how he came to marry a Jewish wife; who was also of the royal family, and who is related to have saved our nation. For when Artaxerxes had taken the kingdom, and had set governors over the hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India even unto Ethiopia, in the third year of his reign,* he made a costly feast for his friends,† and for the nations of Persia, and for their governors: such a one as was proper for a king to make, when he had a mind to make a public demonstration of his riches; and this for a hundred and eighty days. After which he made a feast for other nations, and for their ambassadors, at Shushan, for seven days. Now this feast was ordered after the following manner. He caused a tent to be pitched, which was supported by pillars of gold and silver, with curtains of linen and purple spread over them; that it might afford room for many thousands to sit down. The cups which the waiters ministered were of gold, and adorned with precious stones. He also gave order to the servants, that they should not force the guests to drink, by bringing them wine continually, as is the practice of the Persians; but to permit every one to follow his own in

* An. 454.

The occasion of this great festival is, verely likely, intimated to us in the phrase, When the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, chap. i. 2. i. e. enjoying peace and tranquillity through his large dominions; for the history of his accession to the throne is this:-Xerxes his father was privately murdered by Artabanus, captain of his guard. He coming to him, (who was then but the third son,) made him believe, that Darius, his elder brother, had done it, to make his way to the throne, and had a design likewise to cut him off, to secure himself in it. This Ahasuerus believing, went immediately to his brother's apartment, and by the assistance of the wicked Artabanus and his guards, slew him, thinking all the while that he acted but in his own defence. Artabanus's drift was to seize on the throne himself; but for the present he took Ahasuerus, and placed him thereon, with a design to pull him down as soon as matters were ripe for his own ascent; but when Ahasuerus understood this from Magabyzus, who had married one of his sisters, he took care to counterplot Artabanus, and to cut him and his whole party off be. fore his treason was come to maturity; and for this, and some other successes against his brother Hystaspes, which settled him in a peaceable possession of the whole Persian empire, very probably it was, that a festival-season of above a hundred and four score days' continuance was appointed, which, even to this day, according to some travellers, is no uncommon thing in those parts of the world. Prideaux's Connection, anno 465, and Patrick's Commentary on Esther, chap. i. B.

clination. Moreover he sent messengers through the country, and gave order that they should have a remission of their labours, and should keep a festival many days, on account of his kingdom. In like manner did Vashti,* the queen, gather her guests together, and made them a feast in the palace. Now the king was desirous to shew her, who exceeded all other women in beauty, to those that feasted with him; and sent some to command her to come to his feast. But she, out of regard to the laws of the Persians, which forbid the wives to be seen by strangers, did not go to the king. And though he repeatedly sent the eunuchs to her, she did nevertheless refuse to come: till the king was so much irritated, that he broke up the entertainment, and rose up, and called for those seven, who had the interpretation of the laws committed to them, and accused his wife, and said, that he had been affronted by her; because when she was frequently called by him to his feast, she did not obey him. He therefore gave order, that they should inform him what could be done by the law against her. So one of them, whose name was Memucan, said, that this affront was offered not to him alone, but to all the Persians; who were in danger of leading their lives very ill with their wives, if they must be despised by them. For that none of their wives would have any reverence for their husbands, if they had such an example of arrogance in the queen towards him who ruled over all. Accordingly he exhorted him to punish her who had been guilty of so great an affront to him, after a severe manner; and when he had so done, to publish to the nations what had been decreed about the queen. So the resolution was to put Vashti away, and to give her dignity to another woman.†

* It has been a great inquiry among the learned, who this Vashti was. Those. who make the Ahasuerus in Scripture to be Darius the son of Hystaspes, suppose that she was Atossa the daughter of Cyrus, who was first married to Cambyses, her own brother, then to the Magian, who would have passed for Smerdis, and last of all to Darius. Others suppose, that she was Ahasuerus's own sister, because the Persians, in those days, made no scruple in these kind of marriages; though there is much more reason to think, that before her marriage, there had been such a collection of virgins made for the use of the king, as was before Esther's, (this is implied in chap. ii. 19) and that having the good fortune then of obtaining the preference in the king's esteem, she was created queen, but being perhaps a woman of no high descent, her family extraction, for that reason, might be concealed Calmet's Dictionary, under the name. B.

Esther ii. 3, 4.