Ignorance, (for till now the law of God had never been read since their return from Babylon,) expressed much trouble of heart, being much grieved for their sins, and exceedingly terrified with the fear of God's wrath for the punishment of them. Nehemiah and Ezra, finding them so well disposed, applied themselves to make the best improvement they could of it for the honour of God, and the interests of religion; and therefore, proclaimed a fast to be held the day but one after the festival was ended, to which having called all the people while the sense of these things was fresh in their minds, excited them to make a solemn confession of their sins before God, and also to enter into a solemn vow and covenant with God to avoid them for the future. The observances which they chiefly obliged themselves to in this covenant were-Firstly, Not to make intermarriages with the Gentiles, either by giving their daughters to them, or by taking any of their daughters to themselves. Secondly, To observe the sabbaths, and sabbatical years. Thirdly, To pay their annual tribute to the temple for the repairing of it, and finding all the necessaries for the carrying on of the public service in it. And, Fourthly, To pay the tithes and first-fruits to the priests and Levites. And these particulars being thus named in this covenant, shows us that they were the laws of God which they had been neglectful of since their return from the captivity. It being their ignorance which had led them into these transgressions, and this ignorance having been occasioned by their not having heard the law of God read to them; to prevent this for the future, they had from this time the most learned of the Levites and scribes that were skilled in the law, to read it to them in every city; which, no doubt, was at first done by gathering the people together in the most wide street, where all might the better hear it; but the inconvenience of this being soon felt, especially in the winter and stormy seasons of the year, they erected houses or tabernacles to meet in, and these were the original synagogues among them. That they had no synagogues before the Babylonish captivity is plain, not only from the silence of the Scriptures of the Old Testament; but also from several passages in them, which evidently prove that there were none in those days: for it is a common saying among the Jews, that where there is no book kept of the law, there can be no synagogue; for the chief service of the synagogue being the reading of the law to the people; where there was no law, there certainly could be no synagogue. Many texts of Scripture tell us that the book of the law was very rare through all Judah before the Babylonish captivity. When Jehoshaphat sent teachers through all Judah, to instruct the people in the law of God, they carried the law with them; which they need not have done if there had been copies of the law in those cities where they went, which there would have been, had there been synagogues in them; it being the same absurdity to suppose a synagogue without a book of the law, as to suppose a parish church without a copy of the Bible in it: and, therefore, as this proves the want of the law through all Judah, so it does the want of synagogues in them also. And when Hilkiah found the law in the temple, neither he nor King Josiah would have been surprised at it, had books of the law been common in those times. Their behaviour on that occasion sufficiently proves that they had never seen it before, which could not have been the case had there been any copies of it to be found among the people; and if there were no copies of the law at that time among them, there could then be most certainly no synagogues for them to resort to for the hearing of it read. From hence it plainly follows, that there could be no synagogues among the Jews till after the Babylonish captivity; and it is most probable that Ezra's reading to them the law, and the necessity which they perceived there was of having it oftener read to them, was the occasion of their erecting them, after the captivity, in the manner I have related; and most learned men are of this opinion, and some of the Jews themselves say as much. "Nehemiah, after having held the government of Judah twelve years, returned to the Persian court, either recalled thither by the king, or else going thither to solicit a new commission after the expiration of the former, [32 Artax. B. C. 433.] During all the time that he had been in the government, he managed it with great justice; and supported the dignity of his office, through these whole twelve years, with a very expensive and hospitable magnificence; for there sat at his table every day a hundred and fifty of the Jews and rulers, besides strangers who came to Jerusalem from among the heathen nations round about them; for when occasion brought them thither, if they were of any quality, they were always invited to the governor's house, and there hospitably and splendidly entertained; so that there were provided for Nehemiah's table every day, one ox, sir choice sheep, and fowls, and kine, with all other things in proportion, which must have been a great expense: yet all this he bore, through the whole twelve years, out of his own private purse, without burdening the province at all for it, or taking any part of that allowance which before was raised by other governors to support them in their station; which argues his great generosity, as well as his great love and tenderness to the people of his nation, in thus easing them of this burden; and also his vast wealth, in being able to do so. The office which he had been in at court, gave him the opportunity of amassing great riches; and he thought he could not better expend them than in the service of his country, and by doing all he could to promote its true interest in church and state; and God prospered him in the work, according to the great zeal with which he laboured in it. “Nehemiah, on his return to the Persian court, in the thirty-seventh year of Artaxerxes, [B. C. 428.] having tarried there about five years in the execution, as it may be supposed, of his former office, at length obtained permission from the king to be sent back to Jerusalem with a new commission. The generality of chronologers, as well as commentators on this part of Scripture, make his going back there to have been much sooner: but considering the many and great corruptions, which, he tells us in the thirteenth chapter, the Jews had run into during his absence, it cannot be conceived how, in less than five years time, they could have grown to such a height among them. He had been twelve years in reforming what was amiss among them, and Ezra had been thirteen years doing the same before him; and they had brought their reformation to such a state of stability, that a little time would not have been sufficient to have unhinged it. It is, indeed, expressed in our English version, that Nehemiah came back from the Persian court to Jerusalem, after certain days; but the Hebrew word op yamim, which is there rendered days, signifies also years; and is in a great many places of the Hebrew Scriptures so used. About this time lived Malachi the prophet; the greatest of the corruptions he charged the Jews with are the same as those they had run into in the time of Nehemiah's absence; and therefore it is most probable that in this time his prophecies were delivered. It is certain the temple was all finished, and every thing restored in it, before this time: for there are passages in his prophecies which clearly suppose it; for he does not charge the Jews with not restoring the temple, but of their neglect of what pertained to the true worship of God in it. But at what time after the restoration of the temple it was that he wrote his prophecies, is nowhere stated; and, therefore, we have only conjecture about it, and I know of no conjecture that can place it with more probability than in the time I have mentioned.

"Many things having gone wrong among the Jews, during the absence of Nehemiah, as soon as he was again settled in the government, he applied himself, with his accustomed zeal, to correct them. That which he first took notice of was, a great profanation which had been introduced into the temple for the sake of Tobiah the Ammonite. This man, though he had made two alliances with the Jews, for Johanan his son had married the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berachia, who was one of the chief managers in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, under the direction of the governor, who himself had married the daughter of Shecaniah the son of Arah, another great man among the Jews; yet, being an Ammonite, he bore a national hatred to all who were of the race of Israel; and, therefore, envying their prosperity, did the utmost that he could to obstruct Nehemiah in all that he did for the good of that people; and confederated with Sanballat, their greatest enemy, to carry on this purpose. However, by reason of the alliances I have mentioned, he had many correspondents among the Jews, who were favourers of him, and acted insidiously with Nehemiah on this account: but he, being aware of their devices, withstood and baffled them all, so long as he continued in Jerusalem. But when he went from thence to the Persian court, Eliashib the high priest was prevailed upon, being one in the confederacy and alliance with Tobiah, to allow and provide for him lodging within the temple itself; in order for which he removed the meal-offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the corn, the new wine, and the oil, which had been commanded to be given to the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the offering of the priests out of the chambers where they used to be laid; and out of them to make one large apartment for the reception of this heathen stranger. It is doubted by some whether this Eliashib were Eliashib the high priest, or only another priest of that name; for he is named in the text, where this is related of him, by the title only of priest, and is there said to have the oversight of the chambers in the house of God; from whence it is argued, that he was only chamberlain of the temple, and not the high priest, who was above such an office. But the oversight of the chambers of the house of God, may import the whole government of the temple, which belonged to the high priest

only and it is not easily to be conceived how any one less than the absolute governor of the whole temple could make such an innovation in it. Besides, Eliashib the high priest, has no character in Scripture with which such a procedure can be said to be inconsistent. By what is said in the Book of Ezra, chap. x. 18. it appears the pontifical family was in his fime grown very corrupt; and there is no act of his mentioned, either in Ezra or Nehemiah, except only his assisting in the repairing of the wall of Jerusalem. Had he done any thing else worthy of memory in the reforming of what was amiss, either in church or state, in the times of Ezra or Nehemiah, it may be presumed mention would have been made of it in the books written by them. The silence of him in both these books, as to any good act done by him, is a sufficient proof that there was none to be recorded; for the high priest being the head of the Jewish church, had he borne any part with these two good men, when they laboured so much to reform that church, it is utterly impossible that it should have been passed over in their writings, where they give an account of what was done in that reformation. What Jeshua his grandfather did in concurrence with Zerubbabel the governor, and Haggai and Zechariah the prophets, in the resettling of the church and state of the Jews after their return from the Babylonish captivity, is all recorded in Scripture; and had Eliashib done any such thing in concurrence with Ezra and Nehemiah, we may be certain it would have been recorded also.

"Putting all this together, it appears most likely that it was Eliashib the high priest who was the author of this great profanation of the house of God. What was done, however, the text tells us, Nehemiah immediately withstood, as soon as he returned to Jerusalem; for, overruling what the high priest had ordered to be done by the authority which he had as governor, he commanded all the household stuff of Tobiah to be cast out, and the chambers to be cleansed and restored to their former use.

"The reading of the law to the people having been settled by Nehemiah, so as to be constantly carried on at certain stated times ever since it was begun under his government by Ezra, (probably on every sabbath day,) when in the course of their lessons they came to chap. xxiii. of Deuteronomy, where it is commanded that a Moabite or an Ammonite should not come into the congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth generation for ever; Nehemiah taking advantage of it, separated all the mixed multitude from the rest of the people, that thereby it might be known with whom a true Israelite might lawfully marry; for neither this law, nor any other of the like nature, is to be understood as excluding any of whatever nation from entering into the congregation as a proselyte, and becoming a member of their church. Neither did the Jews so interpret it, for they freely received into their religion all who would embrace it; and on their conversion admitted them to all its rites and privileges; and treated them in all respects as true Israelites, excepting only in the case of marriage; and therefore this phrase in the text, of not entering into the congregation even to the tenth generation, must be understood to imply no more than a prohibition not to be married with them till then; and thus all the Jewish doctors expound it.

"Among other corruptions that grew up during the absence of Nehemiah, one especially to be noticed was, the neglect of not carrying on the daily service of the house of God in the manner it ought: for the tithes which were to maintain the ministers of the temple in their office and stations, either being embezzled by the high priest, or other rulers under him, or else subtracted by the laity, and not paid at all; for want of them the Levites and singers were driven from the temple, every one to his own house, there to seek for a subsistence some other way. This abuse the governor, whose piety led him always to attend to the public worship, could not be long without taking notice of, and when he had thoroughly informed himself of the cause, he soon provided very effectually for its remedy; for he again made those dues to be brought into the temple treasuries, and forced every man faithfully and fully to pay them: thus, a maintenance being again provided for those who attended the service of the house of God, all was there again restored to its pristine order. And he also took care that the sabbath should be duly observed; and made many good orders for the preventing of the profanation of it; and caused them all to be put into effectual execution. But though all these things are mentioned in one chapter, they were not all done at one time; but this good man brought them about as opportunities best served for the success of effecting them. In this same year, [B. C. 425,] in which Nehemiah went again to his government of Judea, from the Persian court, i. e. in the fourth year of the eighty-seventh Olympiad, Plato, the famous Athenian philosopher, was born; who came the nearest to the truth in divine matters of any of the heathens; for having, in his travels to the East, (whither he went for his improvement in knowledge,) conversed with the Jews, and got some insight into the writings of Moses, and their other sacred books, he learned many things from them which the other philosophers could not attain unto: and therefore he is said by Numenius to be none other than Moses speaking Greek; and many of the ancient fathers speak of him to the same purpose."

With this Book the general historical books of the Old Testament end; and the succeeding accounts of the Jewish people must be sought partly in the Apocryphal books, and in Josephus; but nowhere with so much perspicuity as in the remaining volumes of the industrious and judicious author of the connected history of the Old and New Testaments, from which the reader has already had such copious extracts.

994

THE

BOOK OF NEHEMIA H.

Chronological Notes relative to this Book.

Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Ussher, whose system of chronology is the most generally received, 3558.-Year before the birth of Christ, 442.-Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 446.-Year of the Julian period, 4268.-Year since the Flood of Noah, according to the English Bible, 1902.-Year of the Cali Yuga, or Indian era of the Deluge, 2656.-Year from the vocation of Abram, 1476.-Year from the destruction of Troy, 739. This we collect from three passages in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, (who flourished in the Augustin age,) which state that an interval of four hundred and thirty-two years elapsed from the destruction of Troy to the building of Rome.Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple, 565.-Year since the division of Solomon's monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 529.-Year of the era of Iphitus, king of Elis, who re-established the Olympic games, three hundred and thirty-eight years after their institution by Hercules, or about eight hundred and eighty-four years before the commencement of the Christian era, 439. This epoch is famous in chronological history, as every thing previous to it seems involved in fabulous obscurity.-Year since Corcbus won the prize at Olympia, a town of Elis in Peloponnesus, (being the twenty-eighth Olympiad after their re-establishment by Iphitus,) 331.-Third year of the eighty-third Olympiad. The epoch of the Olympiads commenced, according to the accurate and learned computations of some of the moderns, exactly seven hundred and seventy-six years before the Christian era, in the year of the Julian period, 3938, and twenty-three years before the building of Rome. N. B. The Olympic games were celebrated at the time of the full moon, which immediately followed the day of the summer solstice; therefore the Olympiads were not of equal length, because the time of the full moon differs about eleven days every year; and for that reason the Olympiads sometimes began the next day after the solstice, and at other times four weeks after.Year of the Varronian, or generally received era of the building of Rome, 308. This computation was used by the Romans in the celebration of their secular games.-Year from the building of Rome, according to Cato and the Fasti Consulares, 307. Dionysius, of Halicarnassus, follows this account in his Roman Antiquities.-Year from the building of Rome, according to Polybius the historian, (a native of Megalopolis in Peloponnesus, and son of Lycortas,) 306.-Year from the building of Rome, according to Fabius Pictor, (the first Roman who wrote a history of his own country, from the age of Romulus to the year of Rome 536,) 302.-Year of the era of Nabonassar, a king of Babylon, after the division of the Assyrian monarchy, 302.-Year since the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, 276.-Year from the destruction of Solomon's temple by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, 143.-Year since the publication of the famous edict of Cyrus, king of Persia, empowering the Jews to rebuild their temple, 90. The commencement of this epoch was synchronical with the termination of the seventy years, during which the Jews were under the dominion of the Babylonians.-Year since the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome, which put an end to the regal government of the Romans, 63. The consular government immediately followed the expulsion of the Tarquins.-Year before the celebrated Peloponnesian war, 16. This war began on the 7th of May, four hundred and thirty-one years before the Christian era; and continued twenty-seven years between the Athenians and the inhabitants of Peloponnesus, with their allies.-Year before the commencement of the era of the Seleucidæ, 134. This era was named after Seleucus, one of the captains of Alexander the Great, surnamed Nicator, or the Conqueror. The year in which he conquered Babylon, (viz. 312, B. C.) is called the year of this era.-Year before the formation of the famous Achæan league, 165.-Year before the commencement of the first Punic war, 182. The Arundelian marbles are said to have been composed in the first year of this war.-Year before the fall of the Macedonian empire, 278.-Year before the extinction of the reign of the Seleucidæ in Syria, on the conquest of that country by Pompey, 381.-Year before the commencement of the era of the Roman emperors, 415. The year in which the famous battle of Actium was fought is the first year of this era.-Year of Archidamus, king of Lacedæmon, and of the family of the Proclidæ, or Eurypontida, 24.-Year of Plistoanax, king of Lacedæmon, and of the family of the Euristhenidæ, or Agidæ, 21. This king was general of the Lacedæmonian armies in the Peloponnesian war. N. B. The kings of the Lacedæmonians, of the families of the Proclidæ and the Euristhenida, sat on the throne together for several hundred years; viz. from 1102 B. C. to about 200 B. C.-Year of Perdiccas II. the eleventh king of Macedon, 9.-Year of Artaxerxes, surnamed Machrochir, (Maxpoxeip,) or Longimanus, because his arms were so long that, when standing erect, his hands reached down to his knees, 20. Roman consuls, T. Quintius Capitolinus the fourth time, and Agrippa Furius. During this consulship the qui and Volsci came near to the gates of Rome, and were defeated.

Eminent men who were living in the lifetime of Nehemiah; upon the supposition that his birth happened about 500 B. C. and his death about 420 B. C.

Acron, a physician of Agrigentum; flourished 439 B. C.-Eschylus, the tragic poet of Athens; born 525 B. C. died 456 B. C. at the age of 69.-Alcidamas the philosopher; flourished 424 B. C.-Anaxagoras, a Clazomenian philosopher; born B. C. 500. died 428 B. C. at the age of 72.-Aristarchus, the tragic poet of Tegea in Arcadia; flourished about 454 B. C.-Aristides the Athenian; flourished about 480 B. C.-Aristophanes, the comic poet; said to have flourished about 434 B. C.-L. Furius Camillus, a celebrated Roman; born 445 B. C. and died 365 B. C. aged 80, after he had been five times dictator, once censor, three times interrex, twice a military tribune, and obtained four triumphs.-Charandes, who gave laws to the people of Thurium; died 446 B. C.-Charon, a historian of Lampsacus; flourished about 479 B. C.-L. Q. Cincinnatus, a celebrated Roman; flourished about 460 B. C.-Cossus, a Roman who killed Volumnius, king of Veii, and obtained the Spolia Opima, A. U. C. 317, B. C. 437.-Cratinus, the comic writer; born 528 B. C. died 431 B. C. at the age of 97.-Democritus, the philosopher; born 470 B. C. died 361 B. C. at the advanced age of 109.-Empedocles, a philosopher, poet, and historian, of Agrigentum in Sicily; flourished about 444 B. C.-Epicharmus, a poet and Pythagorean philosopher of Sicily, who, according to Aristotle and Pliny, added the two letters x and 0 to the Greek alphabet; flourished about 440 B. C. and died in the 90th year of his age.-Euclemon, the astronomer; flourished about 431 B. C.-Eupolis, a comic poet of Athens; flourished about 435 B. C.-Euripides, the tragic poet, born at Salamis the day on which the army of Xerxes was defeated by the Greeks; torn to pieces by dogs, 407 B. C. in the 73d year of his age.-Georgias, a celebrated sophist and orator; born 508 B. C. died 400 B. C. at the advanced age of 108.-Hellanicus, the Greek historian; born at Mitylene, 496 B. C. died 411 B, C. in the 85th year of his age.-Herodicus, a physician surnamed Gymnastic; flourished 443 B. C.-Herodotus, a celebrated historian of Halicarnassus; born 484 B. C. read his history to the council of Athens, and received public honours in the 39th year of his age, 445 B. C.-Hippocrates, a celebrated physician of Cos; born 460 B. C. died 361 B. C. nearly 100 years of age.-Isocrates, the orator; born 447 B. C. died about 338 B. C. aged 99.-Leocrates, an Athenian general; flourished about 460 B. C.-Lysias, the orator; born 459 B. C. died 378 B. C.-Melissus, the Samian philosopher; flourished about 440 B. C.-Meton, the astrologer and mathematician; flourished about 432 B. C.-Pericles, the celebrated minister of Athens; born 499 B. C. died of the plague about 429 B. C.-Phidias, a celebrated statuary of Athens; died 432 B. C.-Pindar, a celebrated lyric poet of Thebes; born 521 B. C. died 434 B. C. at the age of 86.-Plato, the Greek poet, called the prince of the middle comedy; flourished about 454 B. C.-Protagoras, a Greek philosopher; died at a very advanced age, about 400 B. C.-Socrates, one of the most celebrated philosophers of all antiquity; born 470 B. C. died 400 B. C. aged 70.-Sophocles, a celebrated tragic poet of Athens, educated in the school of Eschylus; born 497 B. C. died 406 B. C. at the age of 91.- Thucydides, a celebrated Greek historian; born at Athens 471 B. C. died 391 B. C. in his 80th year.-Xenophon, the celebrated general, historian, and philosopher; born 449 B. C. died 359 B. C. aged 90.-Zeuxis, a celebrated painter; flourished about 468 B. C.

Account of Nehemiah, 1. His inquiry about the Jews that had returned from the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou com

8 Remember, I beseech thee, the word that THE Words came to the transgress, will scatter you abroad thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, among the nations:

T. Capitolino 4. pass in the month Chisleu, in the et Agrip. Fario. twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,

2 That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

5 And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God that keep- Artaxerxes, observing the sorrow of Nehemiah, inquires into the canse, 1, 2 Nehe eth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:

and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.

2 Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but "sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,

3 And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire.

4 Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.

5 And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it.

6 And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me and I set him a time.

7 Moreover, I said unto the king, If it please 14 Then I went on to the gate of the founthe king, let letters be given me to the govern-tain, and to the king's pool: but there was no ors beyond the river, that they may convey me place for the beast that was under me to pass. over till I come into Judah; 15 Then went I up in the night by the 'brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned.