any observations of our own, further than by pointing out where it is that we venture to dissent from the learned prelate's reasons. We conceive that such declarations as those respecting the hiding of the girdle at the Euphrates are clearly to be taken as expressive of a significative action in vision; and as such forms of speech were in constant use, his lordship's argument will suffer no injury by the admission.

CHAPTER VII.

State of the Jews after their Captivity-Rebellion of Johanan-Its Consequences-Sketch of Profane History-Fortunes of Daniel and his Friends-Cyrus gives Permission that Jerusalem shall be rebuilt Objections stated and answered.

A. M. 4825.-B. c. 586.

As soon as Nebuchadnezzar withdrew with his army, great multitudes of people who had sought temporary concealment among the fastnesses and woods came forth, and put themselves under the guidance of Gedaliah, whom he had nominated as governor of Judea. Among these were Johanan and Jonathan, the sons of Reziah, and Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah; the latter a man of some pretensions and great ambition, who immediately began to form plans for the assumption of supreme power, to which, being of the blood-royal, he considered himself entitled. With this view he entered into a secret treaty with Baalis, King of the Ammonites; but in spite of his utmost care, intelligence of the movement reached Johanan, who hastened to put the governor on his guard. Gedaliah, however, being a man of singularly honourable mind, would not give credence to the report; and, to prove that he entertained no suspicion of Ishmael, invited him, among other distinguished guests, to an entertainment. The traitor hesitated not to avail himself of the opportunity thus furnished. He introduced armed retainers into Gedaliah's house, and VOL. II.-K

murdering him at his own table, hoisted the standard of revolt.

For a short time fortune appeared to favour him; he put to death many influential persons whom he suspected to be hostile to his designs and succeeded in surprising; but in the end, feeling himself insecure at Mizpah, the place where Gedaliah had established his court, he retired with his adherents on the road to Ammon, carrying with him Jeremiah the prophet, and Zedekiah, and the late king's daughters. It was his design to retire into the territories of his ally, King Baalis, but understanding that Johanan with a considerable force was in close pursuit he deserted his followers, and accompanied by eight attendants effected his escape. So far matters went on prosperously; but now Johanan, though conscious of his own innocence, began to be apprehensive of the consequences, as soon as the murder of Gedaliah should be communicated to the King of Babylon. He accordingly drew his forces to a head at Chimham, a place not far from Bethlehem, and consequently on the road to Egypt, with the design, in case Nebuchadnezzar should exhibit a disposition to charge them with the crimes which Ishmael had committed, of retiring beyond the Arabian Gulf, and seeking the protection of Pharaoh. It happened that Johanan's corps had recovered the prisoners whom Ishmael was transporting into Ammon, and Jeremiah, as a necessary consequence, was now in the camp. Him the chiefs consulted as to the propriety of the proposed flight, and on his assuring them that much evil would follow in the event of their carrying it into effect, they, with great apparent readiness, consented to abandon the scheme; but a rumour of Nebuchadnezzar's approach no sooner reached them, than their faith in the Divine protection evaporated, and they retired into Egypt, compelling the reluctant prophet to follow them. Here they soon fell into idolatry, in spite of the earnest remonstrances of Jeremiah, who, the more to alarm them, foretold that within eighteen years Nebuchadnezzar would overrun the country in which they had vainly expected to find shelter; and at the close of the appointed period they discovered, to their sorrow, that the prophet had not forewarned them of events undetermined by destiny.

From this date the history both of Jeremiah and Ezekiel

is a blank. The former is supposed, indeed, to have spent the remainder of his days in Egypt, where he recorded many prophecies, some of them denunciatory of judgments to the heathen nations, some declaratory of Judah's restoration, and some indicative of the great deliverance which should in due time be wrought by the Messiah. In like manner Ezekiel continued to the last to exercise his divine right, and to perform the duties of a counsellor and adviser to his countrymen; but where or by what means these holy men closed their mortal pilgrimage, we possess no correct grounds for determining.

In the mean while many great and important transactions were passing in other parts of the world, as well as among the Jewish exiles who had been removed to Babylon. We stated some time ago, that in the number of the children of the nobility transported to the Chaldean capital on the occasion of the first capture of Jerusalem, under King Jehoiakim, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were found. Placed with their companions in captivity under the care of Ashpenaz, chief of the eunuchs, they received the most liberal education which it was in the power of their masters to bestow; and in due time they were found to excel all their competitors both in knowledge and personal comeliness. But many years elapsed ere they were enabled to give proofs of their wisdom, or turn the accomplishments which they had acquired to the benefit of their nation; inasmuch as the monarch whom they were appointed to serve found no leisure to inquire into their proficiency.

585.

Immediately on the capture of Jerusalem, NebuB. C. chadnezzar directed his columns against the other nations of Asia Minor, which one by one he invaded and totally subdued. The Ammonites, the Moabites, the Edomites, and the Arabians, the Philistines, the Sidonians, and the Abyssinians, all felt the weight of his prowess, and all received the punishment which God's prophets had denounced against them.* He moved next towards ancient Tyre and closely besieged it; after a protracted defence

* The Ammonites, Amos i.; Ezekiel xxv. The Moabites, Ezekiel xxv.; Jeremiah xxv. and xlviii. The Edomites, Amos i.; Obadiah x.; Jeremiah xlix. The Arabians, Jeremiah xxv. Sidonians, Jeremiah xxv.; Ezekiel xxviii. Philistines, Jeremiah xxv.; Ezekiel xxv. Ethiopians, or Abyssinians, Isaiah xviii.; Ezekiel xxx,

of thirteen years Tyre also fell, as Ezekiel had foretold (xxvi. 1-11), but the inhabitants having removed their effects to the island, the conquerors reaped little benefit of

570.

plunder. To make amends for this disappointment B. C. he pushed upon Egypt, which he entirely overran, enriching his followers with the spoil of this fertile empire; and he reduced it to so low an ebb, that for forty years after it lay almost desolate. Nor was he unmindful of the insult which had been put upon him by the murder of his deputy Gedaliah; he detached Nebuzar-adan, one of his generals, into Palestine, who traversed it from extremity to extremity, completing the desolation which his master had begun, and carrying 745 persons of the chiefs of the remnant, to join their brothers in captivity at Babylon.

569.

Having thus vindicated the honour of his crown, B. C. and established an ascendency over an empire more extensive than ever before obeyed the dictates of one man, Nebuchadnezzar returned to his capital, which he carefully adorned with the most curious works of art, and enriched with plunder. He was thus employed when on a certain night an extraordinary dream came upon him; and anxious as to its import, he summoned to his presence all the magi or wise men that they might interpret it. Whether he had really forgotten the tenor of the vision, or only kept it back in order to try the pretensions of his magi, may be questioned; but as he refused to inform them of the nature of the images presented to his sleeping imagination, they one and all declared their inability to satisfy him. The king was exceedingly enraged, and issued a peremptory order that unless his dream was explained within a certain time, all the magi should be put to death; and the philosophers withdrew with the melancholy prospect before them that their doom was fixed.

Among others who at this time took rank in the list of magi were Daniel and his three friends, upon whom not less than upon the rest sentence of death was passed. In this emergency they prayed earnestly to God, who was pleased to exhibit to Daniel the same mystery which he had shown to Nebuchadnezzar, as well as to inspire him with wisdom to unravel it. Daniel accordingly proceeded on the following day to the palace, and having obtained an

audience of the sovereign, declared himself ready to satisfy his wishes. "Thou, O king," said he, as soon as Nebuchadnezzar consented to hear him, "sawest, and behold a great image whose brightness was excellent stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms were of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer thrashing-floors, and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them; and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth."

Such was precisely the vision which had passed before the eyes of the king, whose astonishment at the accuracy with which Daniel described it knew no bounds; but when the seer went on to explain to him what the dream denoted he fell upon his face and would have worshipped him as a god. From that time, however, Daniel stood high in the royal favour. The king loaded him with presents, set him at the head of all the magi, nominating him to the govern ment of the province of Babylon, and at his recommendation set his three friends each at the head of a valuable department.

569.

Nebuchadnezzar's reverence for the God of Israel

B. C. was not, however, of long continuance; for we find him soon after this setting up a colossal statue of his father, to which he required all his subjects to pay divine honours. To the edict which commanded an act of such gross apostacy Daniel's friends refused to pay obedience, and they were in consequence cast into the middle of a furnace rendered more than ordinarily hot; but Jehovah, in whom they trusted, forsook them not, for he sent his angel to attend them in the midst of the flames, and to hinder "so much as a hair of their heads from being singed." They were instantly entreated by the astonished monarch to come forth. Additional honours were heaped upon them, and a decree passed that the God of Israel should be devoutly worshipped by every tribe, nation, and