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VIII.

Prophecies of other prophets
concerning the JEWS.

ESIDES the prophecies of Mofes, there are others of other prophets, relative to the present ftate and condition of the Jews. Such are thofe particularly concerning the restoration of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin from captivity, and the diffolution of the ten tribes of Ifrael; and thofe concerning the preservation of the Jews, and the destruction of their enemies; and those concerning the defolation of Judea; and those concerning the infidelity and reprobation of the Jews; and those concerning the calling and obedience of the Gentiles. And it may be proper to say fomething upon each of these topics.

I. It was foretold, that the ten tribes of Ifrael fhould be carried captive by the kings of Affyria, and that the two remaining tribes of Judah and Benjamin should be carried captive by the king of Babylon: but with this difference, that the two tribes fhould be reftored and return

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from their captivity, but the ten tribes should be diffolved and loft in theirs. Nay not only the captivity and restoration of the two tribes were foretold, but the precife time of their captivity and restoration was alfo prefixed and determined by the prophet Jeremiah : (XXV. 11.) This whole land fhall be a defolation, and an astonishment; and thefe nations fall ferve the king of Babylon Seventy years: and again (XXIX. 10.) Thus faith the Lord, that after Seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will vifit you, and perform my good word towards you, in causing you to return to this place. This prophecy was first delivered (Jer. XXV. 1.) in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Jofiah king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Babylon. And this (1) fame year it began to be put in execution; for Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judea, befieged and took Jerufalem, made Jehoiakim his fubject and tributary, transported the finest children of the royal family and of the nobility to Babylon to be bred up there for eunuchs and flaves in his palace, and alfo carried away the veffels of the house of the Lord, and put them in the temple of his God

(1) See Ufher, Prideaux, and the Commentators on 2 Kings

XXIV. 2 Chron. XXXVI. and
Dan, I.
(z) Pri-

God at Babylon. Seventy years from this time. will bring us down to the firft year of Cyrus, (2 Chron. XXXVI. 22. Ezra I. 1.) when he made his proclamation for the restoration of the Jews, and for the rebuilding of the temple at Jerufalem. This computation of the feventy years captivity appears to be the trueft, and most agreeable to fcripture. But if you fix the commencement of these feventy years at the time when Jerufalem was burnt. and destroyed, their (2) conclufion will fall about the time when Darius iffued his decree for. rebuilding the temple, after the work had been stopt and fufpended. Or if you fix their commencement at the time when Nebuzaradan carried away the last remainder of the people, and completed the defolation of the land, their (3) conclufion will fall about the time when the temple was finished and dedicated, and the first paffover was folemnized in it. "So that," as Dean Prideaux fays, taking it which way "you will, and at what ftage you please, the "prophecy of Jeremiah will be fully and ex

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actly accomplished concerning this matter." It may be faid to have been accomplished at

three

(2) Prideaux Connect. Part 1. B. 3. Anno 518. Darius 4.

(3) Prideaux ibid. Anno 515.
(4) Comment.

Darius 7.

1

three different times, and in three different manners, and therefore poffibly all might have been intended, tho' the firft without doubt was the principal fubject of the prophecy.

But the cafe was different with the ten tribes of Ifrael. It is very well known that Ephraim being the chief of the ten tribes is often put for all the ten tribes of Ifrael; and it was predicted by Ifaiah (VII. 8.) Within threefcore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. This prophecy was delivered in the first year of Ahaz king of Judah'; for in the latter end of his father Jotham's reign, (2 Kings XV. 37.) Rezin king of Syria and Pekah king of Ifrael began their expedition against Judah. They went up towards Jerufalem to war against it in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz: and it was to comfort him and the house of David in thefe difficulties and diftreffes, that the prophet Ifaiah was commiffioned to affure him, that the kings of Syria and Ifrael should remain only the heads of their respective cities, they fhould not prevail against Jerufalem, and within fixty and five years Ifrael fhould be fo broken as to be no more a people. The learned (4) Vitringa is of opinion, that the text is corrupted, and that in

(4) Comment. in locum.

ftead

(5) See

the PROPHECIES. stead of fixty ww and five it was originally written fixteen ww and five. Sixteen and five, as he confeffeth, is an odd way of computation for one and twenty; but it defigns perfectly the years of Ahaz and Hezekiah. For Ahaz reigned fixteen years, and Hezekiah five years alone, having reigned one year jointly with his father: and it was in the fixth year of Hezekiah, (2 Kings. XVIII. 10, 11.) that Shalmanefer took Samaria, and carried away Ifrael unto Affyria. Then indeed the kingdom of Ifrael was broken: and the conjecture of Vitringa would appear much more probable, if it could be proved that it had ever been ufual to write the numbers or dates of years partly in words at length, and partly in numeral letters. But without recourse to fuch an expedient the thing may be explicated otherwife. For from the first of Ahaz (5) compute fixty and five years in the reigns of Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Manaffeh, the end of them will fall about the 22d year of Manaffeh, when Efarhaddon king of Affyria made the last deportation of the Ifraelites, and planted other nations in their stead; and in the fame expedition probably took Manaffeh captive, (2 Chron. XXXIII. 11.) and carried him to Babylon. It is faid exprefly that it was Efarhaddon who

(5) See Ufher, Prideaux &c.

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planted

(6) For

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