TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM REBUILT. 389 SIXTH AGE OF THE WORLD. FROM THE END OF THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY, A.m. 3468, to THE BEGINNING OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA, A.M. 4004; COMPRISING THE SPACE OF 536 YEARS. A.M. 3468.] Temple of Jerusalem rebuilt. [A.C. 536. THE wrath of God against the Jewish people being appeased, and the term of their seventy years' captivity being completed, Cyrus, the glorious conqueror of the proud empire of the Chaldeans, and now master of the East, published an edict, by which he granted permission to all the Jewish nation to return to their own country, and to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. At the same time he likewise gave an order that the sacred vessels formerly brought from Jerusalem, by Nabuchodonosor, should be taken out of the royal treasury of Babylon, and given back to be used in the Divine service, for which they were first designed. In consequence of this edict, upwards of 42,000 of the Jews set out for Judea, under the conduct of Zorobabel, the son of Salathiel, and grandson of king Joachin, or Jechonias. On their arrival at Jerusalem, they erected a temporary altar on which the daily sacrifices might be offered, until the Temple, which they were preparing to rebuild, should be finished. Trees of cedar were brought from Libanus by the Tyrians and Sidonians, in accordance with orders which Cyrus had issued; masons and hewers of stone were hired; Levites were appointed to hasten on the work of the Lord; and the foundations of a new Temple were laid with great solemnity and with loud demonstrations of joy. Robed in the rich vestments of their order, the Priests stood with trumpets in their hands, and the Levites with cymbals, ready to sound the praises of Almighty God in hymns of jubilation and thanksgiving, according to the ceremonial which king David had ordered to be observed when he removed the Ark to Mount Sion. While the masons laid the stones of the foundation, the Priests and Levites joined in chorus, which was heightened by the acclamations of crowding spectators. The young people burst out into peals of joy, whilst the fathers and the elders of the nation wept, to see how far the outlines of the new edifice fell short of those of the old. The Samaritans-that is to say, the mixed race who had been brought into the land by the kings of Assyria after the captivity of Israel-being informed that the children of the captivity were building a Temple to the Lord the God of Israel, addressed themselves to Zorobabel and the elders of Juda, begging that they also might be admitted as partners in the work; but their request not being complied with, they did all that they could, both by open force and by secret intrigue at the court of Persia, to interrupt the building, and to prevent its completion. Cyrus was not to be prevailed upon to alter the decree which he had published in favour of the Jewish people. But after his death, his son Cambyses, or perhaps, Smerdis *The order of succession of the kings of Persia, was as follows:-Cyrus (B.C. 559-529); Cambyses, his son (B.c. 529-522); Smerdis, an usurper (B.c. 522-521); Darius Hystaspes (B.C. 521-485); Xerxes, his son (B.c. 485-65); Artaxerxes Longimanus, his son (B.c. 465-25); Darius Nothus, his son (B.c. 425-05); Artaxerxes Mnemon, his son (B.c. 405-361). This second Artaxerxes was the monarch against whom was directed the expedition of the younger Cyrus, his brother (B.c. 401), which has become so famous from the narrative of its historian, Xenophon. TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM REBUILT. 391 an usurper, who succeeded Cambyses, allowed himself to be so far influenced by the repeated slanders of the Samaritans, as to forbid the Jews to proceed any further; a stop was thus put to the building, until the second year of the reign of his successor, Darius Hystaspes. This prince, being convinced of the groundlessness of the charges which had been made against the Jewish people, and being informed of the edict which Cyrus had formerly given in their favour, ordered the building of the Temple to be resumed; he even contributed towards the expense; and in the sixth year of his reign, the Temple was finished, and was dedicated with great solemnity. The Jews in Judea, having thus re-established their position as a nation, continued to strengthen themselves under the protection of the kings of Persia, Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes. In the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes, they were joined by a fresh body of their brethren from Babylon, under the conduct of Esdras, a virtuous and learned priest. Esdras had made the law of God his special study, and sedulously conformed his conduct to the sanctity of its precepts. He went with full powers from Artaxerxes, to visit Judea and Jerusalem, to carry thither the silver and the gold which the king and others had freely offered to the God of Israel, to restore the holy vessels to the service of the Temple, to regulate the sacrifices, and to appoint judges and magistrates, who should punish vice, and establish good order in the state. When Esdras arrived at Jerusalem, he found with great concern, that many of the Jews who had first returned, had intermarried with the inhabitants of the country; he dreaded the consequence of those alliances, and, therefore, after he had set forth his commission from the king, and delivered to the ministers of the Temple the sacred vessels which he had brought with him, he convened the people, and represented to them how contrary to the holy Law those profane marriages were, and how necessary it was to break off the unhallowed connections thus formed. The people were convinced by his discourse, and with one accord, solemnly promised to dissolve the marriages they had contracted, and to abstain in future from forming any such alliances with the idolators of the land The connexions formed between the Jews and those pagan women are, according to the holy Fathers, a striking figure of what is done by those Christians who form such connexions in life, as are inconsistent with the sacred promises they made to God at Baptism. And as the offspring of those mixed marriages confounded the Hebrew language with that of Azotus and Moab, by using the words sometimes of one, and sometimes of the other; so some Christians seem willing to unite the spirit of Jesus Christ and of the world together, wishing to obey them both, and to speak the language both of the one and of the other. But as Esdras convinced the Jews, that they could not remain the people of God, at the same time that they sought an alliance with their enemies; so every Christian must acknowledge the force of this truth of the Gospel, that no one can, at the same time, serve two masters; he cannot divide his heart between God and Mammon. God, who created the whole man, is satisfied with nothing less than the service of his entire being. A.M. 3495.] Queen Esther.-Esth. iv. xv. [A.C. 509. Whilst a part of the Jewish people were re-establishing themselves in Judea, the section of the nation which remained behind in the provinces of Babylon ran great risk of being totally destroyed. The mighty Assuerus, as the Persian monarch of the period is called in the Book of Esther,* had a favourite courtier, whose name was Aman. Every mark of honour and of royal favour was bestowed upon this haughty man, to whom all the king's servants about court were commanded to bend the knee. The date here assigned for the events recorded in the Book of Esther, rests on the conjecture that king Assuerus is to be identified with Darius Hystaspes (B.c. 521-485). It is, however, more generally supposed that the monarch thus named in the Book of Esther, was the immediate successor of Darius, usually designated in profane history, by the Greek form of his name, Xerxes (B.c. 485-65). A comparison of the Persian name of this monarch with the Hebrew name Assuerus, plainly shows that the one is the exact equivalent of the other. Moreover, the points of coincidence, both as regards traits of personal character, and some noteworthy events of his reign, are most numerous. (See RAWLINSON, Chapter 6th.) If this view be correct, a somewhat later date should be assigned for the incidents of the history of Esther. From every one, excepting Mardochai the Jew, Aman received the servile homage thus prescribed. Mardochai was one of the captives whom Nabuchodonosor had carried away with king Jechonias to Babylon. This man having distinguished himself by the discovery of a plot which two eunuchs had formed against the king's life, had an apartment assigned to him in the palace, and presents were made to him by the king for the information he had given. Aman being exceedingly angry to see Mardochai refuse him a homage which the other chief servants of the king servilely paid him, resolved that not only Mardochai himself, but the whole nation of the Jews should feel the weight of his resentment. He took an opportunity of representing to the king, that the Jews were an insolent, lawless people, who, by their religious tenets, embroiled the state, and disturbed the peace of his subjects; that it was not safe to let them live, and that for the good of the empire, they ought to be utterly extirpated. The credulous prince implicitly believed what his favourite told him, and gave him full power to act as he pleased in that affair. Aman had thus obtained all that he wanted; he drew up an edict, to which he affixed the king's seal, and which peremptorily commanded, that on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, every Jew throughout the Persian dominions should be massacred, without distinction of age or sex. The publication of this cruel edict threw the Jews into the utmost consternation; they saw no resource but in God, whose mercy they implored by prayer and fasting. Through every town in the different provinces where the order was published, were to be heard the lamentations and cries of the oppressed people loudly bemoaning their unhappy destiny. Almighty God in His goodness had already provided for the safety of His people by the means of Esther, the queen of Assuerus. She was niece to Mardochai, and had succeeded to the place of Queen Vasthi. Vasthi, by an act of disobedience, had incurred the king's displeasure, and was on that account divorced, and deposed from her royal dignity. After her divorce, officers were sent through the different provinces, to seek for beautiful maidens, and bring |