" ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride "doth. For thy waste and thy defolate places, "and the land of thy deftruction, shall even "now be too narrow by reason of the inhabi"tants, and they that fwallowed thee up fhall "be far away. The children which thou fhalt

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have, after thou haft loft the other, fhall fay "again in thine ears, The place is too ftrait for "me: give place to me that I may dwell," Ifa. xlix. 18.-20. "But ye, O mountains of If"rael, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and "yield your fruit to my people Ifrael; for they "are at hand to come. And I will multiply "men upon you, all the house of Ifrael, even "all of it: and the cities fhall be inhabited, "and the waftes fhall be builded: and I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they "fhall increase and bring fruit: and I will fet"tle you after your old eftates, and will do "better unto you than at your beginnings; " and ye shall know that I am the Lord.-As "the holy flock as the flock, of Jerufalem in "her folemn feafts, fo fhall the wafte cities be "filled with flocks of men; and they fhall know "that I am the Lord," Ezek. xxxvi. 8. 10. 11. 38. "Yet the number of the children of Ifrael "shall be as the fand of the fea, which cannot be "measured nor numbered," Hofea i. 10. 66. I "will furely affemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I

"will furely gather the remnant of Ifrael; I "will put them together as the sheep of Boz"rah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: "they fhall make great noise by reason of the "multitude of men," Micah ii. 12. "Run,

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speak to this young man, faying, Jerufalem "fhall be inhabited as towns without walls for "the multitude of men and cattle therein,"

Zech. ii. 4. "I will bring them again also out "of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Affyria and I will bring them into the land "of Gilead and Lebanon, and place fhall not be "found for them," chap. x. 10.

After the battle of Armageddon, the ten tribes of Ifrael fhall poffefs the land in conjunction with the two tribes. "In those days the "houfe of Judah fhall walk with the house of "Ifrael, and they fhall come together out of "the land of the north, to the land that I have

given for an inheritance unto your fathers;" Jer. iii. 18. "Then fhall the children of Ju"dah and the children of Ifrael be gathered to"gether, and appoint themselves one head, and "they fhall come up out of the land for great

hall be the day of Jezreel;" Hofea i. 11. "The word of the Lord came again unto me, "faying, Moreover, thou fon of man, take thee “one stick, and write upon it, for Judah, and "for the children of Ifrael his companions: then

"take

* take another stick, and write upon it, For Jo"feph, the ftick of Ephraim, and for all the " house of Ifrael his companions: one to another into one stick;

and join them

and they shall become one in thine hand. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee,

faying, Wilt thou not fhew us what thou meanest by thefe ?-Say unto them, Thus "faith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Ifrael from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them " on every side, and bring them into their own éland and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Ifrael; and one king fhall be king to them all and they fhall be no more two nations, neither fhall * they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all;" Ezek. xxxvii. 15.-19. 21, 22.

In order to fulfil this prophecy, it is not ne ceffary to fuppofe; with fome vifionary men, that the ten tribes carried away captive by Sal manefer are ftill preferved a separate people in fome unknown country. There is not much reafon to doubt that all of those carried away by him, are blended with the other nations of the world, and loft as a feparate people. But feveral individuals of the ten tribes deferted the land of Ifrael, when the calves were fet up in Dan and Bethel, and lived with their brethren, voluntary

voluntary exiles in the land of Judah, out of regard to the ordinances of religion', After the great body of the nation of Ifrael was carried away captive, many families remained in the land, others took refuge in the land of Judah, as appears from their attending the paff overs of Hezekiah and Jofiah 2, after the capti vity. The pofterity of these were all along, and still are blended with their brethren, under the common name of Jews. It is an eafy matter for the Almighty to make them a very numerous people, by the time they go down to Armaged don,

The land of their poffeffion fhall be much more extensive than at any former period, including the whole diftrict of the country that lies betwixt the Euphrates and the Mediterranean; fo the prophet Micah fays, chap. vii. 12. "In that day also he (Ifrael) fhall come even to "thee (Jerufalem) from Affyria, (to the forti"fied cities, and from Tyre, fhall he extend), $ to

(1) See 2 Chron. xi. 13.-18. 2 Chron. xxxi. 6, 7. (2) See 2 Chron. xxx, 11. 2 Chron. xxxv. 17.

(3) I fuppofe the fortrefs mentioned to be Tyre, becaufe it was once the moft famous fortrefs in Palestine. Befides, its fituation is the point of land fartheft weft on the coaft of Palestine, to which we are directed to look,

when

"to the river, and from fea to fea, and from

mountain to mountain." The prophet defcribes the extent of their territory, by marking the breadth of their land from west to east, in two different places. At the north end it fhall extend from Tyre to the Euphrates, at the fouth end from the Mediterranean to the Perfian Gulph. The length of the land from north to fouth, fhall be from mount Lebanon, which was at all times the northern boundary, to mount Seir, as in the parallel paffage. "They "in the fouth fhall poffefs the mount of Efau ;" Obad. ver. 19.

"His do

This is confirmed by Zechariah. "minion fhall be from fea to fea, and from, the "river even to the ends of the earth;" Zech. ix. 10. The words have a double meaning; they not only reprefent the Meffiah's kingdom, as extending over all nations, but they likewise defcribe the territory of the people of Ifrael, after their fubmiffion to the Mefliah; while the words are fo happily chofen as to fuit both events. In the latter fense, the description is the fame with that of Micah, their dominion ex

tends

when fet in oppofition to the Euphrates, as the eastern boundary. The fcriptures always mean the Euphrates, when no proper name is added to the river. Befides, the word tranflated fortrefs, with a fmall variation, would give the name of Tyre in the original.