the words alone to require a greater relative dominion than that which was exercised by the king of Babylon. The history of Daniel begins at the same point of time. "In the third year of Jehoiakim king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hands." This was probably early in spring, B. c. 606, just before the commencement of the Jewish year. It was the merciful provision of God that, in this season of distress, three prophets should be provided for the comfort of the faithful, Jeremiah in Judea, Ezekiel among the dispersed captives, and Daniel at the court of the king of Babylon. The same year a decisive event announced the power of the rising monarchy, in the total defeat of the Egyptians. This was announced by Jeremiah,xlvi. and fulfilled in that very year. The message was sent against the army of Pharaohnecho king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah king of Judah." From that date, even till now, Egypt has been degraded from its ancient glory, and has been, under various dynasties, a subject nation.

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The events of five intervening years are not recorded. But in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, (A. c. 600) there was another stage in the captivity, and three thousand three hundred and twenty Jews were carried away to Babylon. Among these, it is probable, was Ezekiel the prophet, who shortly after began to prophecy by the river Chebar to the other exiles of the Jews.

After the death of Jehoiakim, Jeconiah reigned for three months only, and was then led away to Babylon (A. D. 598) at the close of the Jewish year. The captivity was now still more complete. Meanwhile Nebuchadnezzar continued his conquests, and the warnings of Ezekiel and Jeremiah became still more solemn and earnest. At length the perjury of Zedekiah, denounced by the former propbet, (Ezek. xvii.) sealed the fall of

Jerusalem. In his ninth year, and the tenth month, (Jan. 589) at the close of that sabbatic rest which the Jews had broken, and for which the curse had been denounced, (Jer. xxxiv.) the siege of Jerusalem began. After eighteen months (June, 588) the city was broken up, the temple destroyed, the sons of Zedekiah slain, the eyes of the king put out, and he himself was led a prisoner to Babylon. From this fall of the temple a second date of the captivity begins, to which the prophet Zechariah afterwards makes allusion. Several Jews had been led away captive in the previous year, and four years later, another and vast company of them were removed from the land. (Jer. lii.)

The next conquests of Nebuchadnezzar, according to Josephus, were Coele-Syria, Moab, and Ammon. But the siege of Tyre was the most laborious and the most barren triumph. The same year that the temple fell Ezekiel had given warning to the merchant city, as Isaiah had done a hundred and fifty years earlier. The words of that warning are very impressive, and were, in the first stage of the judgment, speedily fulfilled.

"It came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste: Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God: and it shall become a spoil to the nations. . . . For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much

people. He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee. And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers. By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach. With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets: he shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground."

This siege of Tyre seems to have lasted for about seven, or, according to Dius, even thirteen years. The inhabitants, many of them, escaped in this interval, and transported their riches to the island. Insular Tyre thus arose on the ruins of the old city. To this result of the siege allusion is made in another prophecy, where the next conquest of Nebuchadnezzar is predicted, that of Egypt.

"And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, (April, 572) the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it: Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army. I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord God."

The next two or three years seem to have been occupied with this conquest of Egypt, and according to Megasthenes, of Libya also. After this career of

victory the king returned to Babylon, which he beautified and enlarged. It was now, in the height of his power and magnificence (A. c. 569) that he uttered that exulting boast, "Is not this great Babylon which I have builded, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" Then, while the word was in the king's mouth, the predicted sentence was fulfilled, and the monarch suddenly debased from the height of his greatness, into a maniac, herding with the beasts of the field. After seven years of this signal abasement the lesson of divine holiness and power was complete. (A. c. 562.) “At the end of the days, I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase."

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Such is the magnificent lesson of divine power and greatness which closed the eventful course of this monarch's history, and the brightest period of the first empire of gold. The narrative of scripture is confirmed by the remaining fragments of Berosus and Megasthenes; the former writes as follows:

'Nebuchodonosor, as soon as he received intelligence of his father's death, set in order the affairs of Egypt and the other countries, and committed to some of his faithful officers the captives he had taken from the

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Jews, the Phenicians, and Syrians, and the nations belonging to Egypt, that they might conduct them with the heavy armed forces, together with the rest of his baggage, to Babylonia: in the mean time, with a few attendants, he hastily crossed the desert to Babylon. When he arrived there, he found that his affairs had been faithfully conducted by the Chaldeans, and that the principal person among them had preserved the kingdom for him; and he accordingly obtained possession of all his father's dominions.

'And he distributed the captives in colonies in the most proper places of Babylonia, and adorned the temple of Belus, and the other temples, in a sumptuous and pious manner, out of the spoils which he had taken in this war. He also rebuilt the old city, and added another to it on the outside, and so far completed Babylon, that none who might besiege it afterwards should have it in their power to divert the river, so as to effect their entrance; and for this end he built three walls about the inner city, and three about the other. When he had thus admirably fortified the city, and had magnificently adorned the gates, he added also a new palace to those in which his forefathers dwelt, adjoining them, but exceeding them in height and splendour. Any attempt to describe it would be tedious; yet notwithstanding its prodigious size and magnificence it was finished within fifteen days. In this palace he erected very high walls, supported by stone pillars; and by planting what was called a pensile paradise, and replenishing it with all sorts of trees, he rendered the prospect an exact resemblance of a mountainous country. This he did to gratify his queen, who was brought up in Media, and was fond of a mountainous situation.' (Cory. Frag. p. 40.)

In like manner Polyhistor writes, Then reigned Nabuchodrossorus forty three years; and he came with a mighty army, and led the Jews, and Phenicians, and Syrians into captivity.'

The fragment of Megasthenes seems clearly to be an