Tribe some according as their number was greater or lesser and chose such Cities as they in their Wisdom thought most convenient for the Levites and the people And then dividing the Cities they had chosen into four parts one for the Priests a second for the Levites of the Family of Cohath a third for the Gershonites a fourth for the Merarites it was decided by lot in which of these the Priests should be placed and in which the three Families of the Levites The Priests who were of the Family of Cohah by the special Providence of God were seated partly in the Tribe of Judah and partly in the two neighbouring Tribes of Simeon and Benjamin that so they might be near the Temple Thirteen Cities fell to their lot and herein respect was had to future times when the Posterity of Aaron should be encreased for all present there were but a few Priests not enough to inhabit the half part of one City The Levites that were of the Family of Cohath had by lot their Cities in the Tribe of Ephraim and Dan and the half-Tribe of Manasseh viz. ten Cities * Others no doubt besides the Levites did inhabit these Cities and dwell with them The Gershonites had by lot their Cities in the Tribe of Issachar Asher and Naphtali and out of the half-Tribe of Manasseh beyond Jordan viz. thirteen Cities The Merarites had by lot their Cities in the Tribe of Reuben Gad and Zebulun viz. twelve Cities These Cities with their Suburbs the Children of Israel gave unto the Sons of Levi as God had commanded In all 48 Cities The particular Cities that fell to each division are set down Josh Ch. 21. from vers 9. to 43. Of these six were appointed for Cities of Refuge and Sanctuaries for such as had killed a man unwittingly and not of malice prepense The Cities of Refuge on this side Jordan were Kadesh in Galilee in Mount Naphtali Sechem in Mount Ephraim and Hebron in Mount Judah On the other side Jordan Bezer in the Tribe of Reuben Ramoth-Gilead in the Tribe of Gad and Golan in Bashan in the Tribe of Manasseh see Numb 35. Deut. 19.2 c. Joshua Ch. 20. whole Chapter Joshua 21. from 1. to 43. SECT CXVIII THus God gave unto the Children of Israel all the Land which he had promised to their Fathers to give them For though there remained some part of the Land out of which the Canaanites were not yet expelled yet he had given it them all and by lot had divided it among them which was a kind of actual instating them in it 2. He had put them into the possession of the greatest part of it neither had he promised them otherwise that they should possess it than by degrees see Exod. 23.29 He had actually given them the whole Land and they possessed it and dwelt therein that is in as much of it as they had subdued and was needful for their present use and by degrees they came to possess the rest and they might have enjoyed it sooner than they did had it not been for their sins And the Lord now gave them rest round about and there stood not a man of all their Enemies before them that is they were Victorious in all their Wars and none of their Enemies whom they encountred whilst Joshua was their General were able to stand before them Not any good thing that God had promised them and which he knew to be good for them failed of coming to pass Josh 21. from 43. to the end SECT CXIX THe Land being thus conquered and the Children of Israel setled in a peaceful possession of it Joshua now calls the Companies of the Reubenites Gadites and half-Tribe of Manasseh who came over Jordan to help their Brethren in this Atchievement and had left their Wives and Children so long and had stuck to their Brethren till they had seen them peaceably setled in their Inheritances and commended them for their great faithfulness and obeying of the Lord therein He therefore now permits them to return to their own possessions but first gravely and religiously exhorts them to love the Lord their God and to walk in his Ways and Commandments and to cleave to Him and to serve Him with all their Hearts and Souls and that they be very careful and watchful over themselves that they be not drawn away from doing what he had enjoyned them Then He tells them They had got very much Spoil in the War and would return to their Tents laden with Riches with Silver and Gold and Brass with Iron and very much Rayment and with much Cattel Therefore when they came home they should divide the Spoil they had gotten with their Brethren that is that they that had been engaged in the War should have one half and the rest of their Brethren that stayed behind should have the other as Moses had before ordered it in that War when they went out against the Midianites Numb 31.27 and 't is probable Joshua followed the example of Moses in this direction Then earnestly praying to the Lord to bless them he kindly dismist them They having taken their leave of Joshua and their Brethren began their March home-ward and when they came to the Fords of Jordan they thought fit before they passed the River to build a great Altar there after the pattern of that in the Tabernacle not with any intent to offer Sacrifices thereon but only that it might be in future times a Memorial that those Tribes that dwelt without Jordan were of the stock of Israel as well as those that dwelt within and had a right to come to the Tabernacle and to offer their Sacrifices on Gods Altar there as well as they and that in succeeding Generations it might be known that that Altar was built by the Tribes without Jordan when they returned that way home from helping their Brethren against the Canaanites at the first conquering of the Land The Children of Israel within Jordan hearing of this Altar which their Brethren had built on the banks of Jordan and supposing they had done it with a purpose to offer Sacrifices thereon which would have been a manifest Rebellion against Gods Law whereby all the Tribes of Israel were enjoyned to bring all their Sacrifices to that one Altar that was in the Tabernacle Deut. 12.5 6. And considering that God had enjoyned them that in case any of their Brethren of any City in Israel should fall off from the true Worship of God to the Worship of false gods and consequently to any Idolatrous Worship whatsoever they should then gather themselves together and utterly destroy the Inhabitants of that City Deut. 13.13 c. In pursuance of this Command the Israelites within Jordan unanimously gather themselves together at Shiloh with an intent if they found the matter as they supposed to make War immediately against those Tribes that had built this Altar But they thought it requisite first to send Messengers to enquire concerning what
comes now to set out their portion which they should have as a reward of their Service And first He tells Aaron that for the sake of his Office to which he was anointed and because He and his Sons were separated from worldly Imployments to attend upon holy things therefore they should have a part in every Meat-Offering Sin-Offering Trespass-Offering and in the Court * See Levit. 6.16.26 Lev. 7.6 Ezek. 42 13 14. of the Tabernacle or Tents round about it called here the most holy place comparatively in respect to the Camp of Israel and the great Court for the people which was without the Priests Court they might eat of them 2ly They should have the Heave-Offerings and Wave-Offerings that is the right Shoulder and wave-breast of the Peace-Offerings with all other Gifts that were heaved and waved no part thereof being burnt upon the Altar And of these the Priests Daughters might eat whilst they remained in their Fathers house but being married to strangers they might not eat of the holy things see Levit. 22.12 13. Neither might any unclean person eat thereof 3ly They should have the first-fruits Some of the first-fruits of the Land were brought to the Lord at their three great Feasts as a sheaf of their Barley at the Feast of the Passover Levit. 23.10 And two loaves of their new-Wheat at the Feast of Pentecost vers 17. And the first of their Wine and Oil at the Feast of Tabernacles But these were brought in the name of all the Inhabitants of the Land in general Besides these particular men were of their own Corn and Fruits to bring the first-fruits unto the Lord as is enjoyned Exod. 22.29 23.19 concerning which there is no other direction given but that they should be of the first and of the best the quantity being left to the liberty and discretion of the Owner to bring according as he had found the blessing of God upon his Grounds 4ly They should have all things devoted that is all votive and freewill-Offerings see Levit. 27.28 except such things as were devoted as a Sacrifice unto God 5ly The first-born of men and beasts The first-born * The first-born of men before they were redeemed were to be presented before the Lord in the Temple Exod. 13.12 Levit. 2.22 And that could not be done before the Mother was purified which required forty days time Levit. 12.4 The first-born of the Tribe of Levi were free from this Redemption of men they were to permit to be redeem'd at a month old (d) V. 16. Secundum aestimationem seu ordinationem tuam Refero ad illud post mensem q. d. Constitues diem quando velles eum redimi Hic dies Communi usu erat 40 a partu ut eadem opera mater purificaretur filius redimeretur Bonfrerius for five Shekels see Levit. 27.6 and the firstlings of unclean Beasts they were to permit to be redeemed after eight days at a lower price but the firstlings of Cows Sheep and Goats were not to be redeemed they must be sacrific'd and their blood sprinkled and their fat burnt on the Altar that they may be a sweet savour to the Lord but their flesh should go to the Priests God tells them He had allotted them these things for their Maintenance (e) The Hebrew Doctors write of 24 Gifts which God bestowed on the Priests with the order and use of them See Ainsworth pag. 113. for ever that is whilst this Dispensation lasted by a perpetual and unchangeable Covenant called a Covenant of Salt because firm and incorruptible Salt having a vertue to preserve any thing from corruption God further tells Aaron That when the Land shall be divided by Lot there shall be no lot for the Levites They should have no Inheritance in it He himself would be their part and portion Indeed they had Cities (f) Concerning the 35 Cities and Suburbs of the Levites and 13 Cities and Suburbs of the Priests See Richardson pag. 32. and Suburbs but they were given them by the other Tribes The Lord further tells Aaron That He had given the Levites all the Tenths or Tythes of the Children of Israel (g) V. 24. Which they offered as an Heave-offering that is an Oblation to the Lord and a sign of their homage and subjection and thankfulness to him for his blessings as a reward of their Service Levit. 27.30 And straitly charges that no Israelite that is not of that Tribe presume to come nigh to the Tabernacle to do any part of the Service belonging to the Levites lest they die for it And He tells him That the Levites should bear the punishment of their own Iniquity if they should transgress yea and of the peoples too if by their not watching over the holy things they suffered the people to transgress about them He further injoyns that the Levites shall offer as an Oblation to the Lord and pay a tenth of all the Tythes they receive unto the Priests and this the Lord would accept at their hands no less than if having Lands as others had they should pay Tythe of the increase of them as the rest of the people did to them and hereby they should testifie their homage and thankfulness to God And they were to offer and separate out of the Tythes paid to them for the hallowed part to be paid to the Priests that which was of all the best And the Priests might eat of these Tythes indifferently in any place And He further declares That if the Levites do heave or separate a tenth part of the best of their Tythes for the Priests use they shall not expose themselves to punishment which they would else do if they neglected it In conclusion here is added a general warning that both Priests and Levites should take heed of polluting or profaning the holy things or suffering them to be profaned by others which might be done many ways that so they might prevent wrath from falling on themselves and others Ch. 18. whole Chapter SECT LXVI THe Lord having appointed the Priests and Levites to do the Service of the Tabernacle and to watch over the people that they might not trangress about any of the holy things He here appoints a water of separation to be made that so if any of the people had contracted any legal uncleanness by the sprinkling of this water upon them they might be cleansed and so might come freely again to the Service of God in the Tabernacle without fear of those Plagues which otherwise their pollutions might bring upon them For the making of this water a red Heifer was to be provided and that by the common charge of all the Children of Israel because it was to be for the common good of them all and for the cleansing of any one among them that was by any accident legally unclean It must be an Heifer without spot and upon which never came yoke For they used in those times to
the days of Manasses and Josiah for he forewarns the Jews of their approaching destruction by the Chaldeans 9. Zephany in the days of Josiah 10. Jeremy began to Prophesie in the 13th year of Josiah and continued Prophesying till the final captivity of Judah and two years after in Egypt The Lamentations seem to be written by him upon Judahs Captivity 11. Ezekiel began to Prophesie in Babylon in the fifth year of Jehoiakin's captivity and continued Prophecying about two and twenty years 12. Obadiah seems to have been Contemporary with Jeremy and Ezekiel for he Prophesies against the Idumeans in almost the same words and phrases that they did Compare his Prophesie with Jer. 49. and Ezek. 25. 13. Daniel in the first year of Belshazzar had the Vision of the four Beasts and in his third year the Vision of the Ram and He-goat And in the first year of Darius the Angel Gabriel informed him concerning the Seventy Weeks These three last Prophesied after the return from Captivity viz. Haggai Zachary Malachi Thus having given a short account of this my undertaking and humbly desiring that God may have glory and my Reader much benefit and advantage thereby I shall conclude this Preface with that short but fervent prayer which that excellent person Nehemiah put up for himself when he concluded his Book and therewith the History of the Old Testament Remember me O my God for Good May 5. 1683. THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS Chap. I. From the Creation to the Flood Sect. 1. OF the Creation of the World in six days and Gods resting on the seventh and instituting the Sabbath Sect. 2. Gods Covenant with man in the state of Innocence Mans fall The Covenant of Grace Sect. 3. Adam and Eve cast out of the Garden of Eden Sect. 4. Cain and Abel sacrifice Cain kills Abel Cains posterity Lamech brings in Polygamy Sect. 5. Seth born to Adam His race carried on to the Flood Sect. 6. Noah born Enoch's Translation Sect. 7. Giants on the Earth The wickedness of the old World God determines to send the Flood Noah's Character Sect. 8. Noah's three Sons born Japhet Sem and Ham. Noah is commanded to build an Ark. Sect. 9. Noah with his Family enter the Ark. The Flood comes Sect. 10. The Ark rests on Ararat Chap. II. From the Flood to the Promise made to Abram in Ur of the Chaldees Sect. 1. NOah his Family and all living Creatures leave the Ark. Sect. 2. Noah builds an Altar The Rainbow a pledg of Gods Covenant Sect. 3. Noah plants a Vineyard His drunkenness C ham cursed Sect. 4. The Tower of Babel Confusion of Languages Assyrian Monarchy begun A Catalogue of the Kings thereof Sect. 5. The Earth divided among the Sons and Grandchildren of Noah The Original of Nations Sect. 6. Mans life shortened Sem's posterity Sect. 7. Abram and Sarai born Sect. 8. Chedorlaomer subdues the Kings of Pentapolis Sect. 9. Abram called out of Vr of the Chaldees and the great promise that the Messiah should spring from his loyns made to him Chap. III. From the promise made to Abram to the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt Sect. 1. ABram's removal from Vr to Charran from thence to Canaan Two Altars there built by him A promise of that land made to his posterity Sect. 2. Abram goes into Egypt His danger there upon the account of Sarai whom he calls his sister from Pharaoh King of Egypt Sect. 3. Abram Sarai and Lot return into the Southern parts of Canaan Abram and Lot part A new promise of that land made to Abrams posterity Sect. 4. The King of Sodom with the petty Kings of Pentapolis shake off the yoke of Chedorlaomer he comes with an Army to chastise them vanquishes the forces of the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah plunders those Cities and among other Prisoners carries away Lot who dwelt there Abram pursues Chedorlaomer defeats him rescues Lot and the rest of the Prisoners At his return he is met by Melchizedek and blessed by him Sect. 5. A Son promised to Abram he believes and is justified God makes a Covenant with him to give the land of Canaan to his posterity Confirms it by a sign and a vision Sect. 6. Abram takes Hagar Ishmael born Sect. 7. God appears again to Abram renews his Covenant with him changes his name into Abraham Institutes Circumcision Sect. 8. Abraham entertains three Angels Sarai's laughter Abraham intercedes for Sodom Sect. 9. Two Angels conveigh Lot out of Sodom His wife turned into a Pillar of salt Sodom destroyed Lot's Incest from whence issued Moab and Ammon Sect. 10. Abraham sojourns in Gerar is in danger there again upon the account of his wife from Abimelech King of the place He being punished by God restores Sarah to her husband Abraham prays for him whereupon he and his family are cured Abimelech dismisses him with presents Sect. 11. Isaac born Hagar and Ishmael cast out Abraham makes a Covenant with Abimelech Sect. 12. Abraham commanded to offer up Isaac The place called Jehovah-jireh The promise renewed to him Sect. 13. Sarah dies Abraham buys a burying place for her Sect. 14. Eliezer sent into Mesopotamia to provide a wife for Isaac His presents to Rebeckah Isaac's marriage Sect. 15. Abraham marries Keturah by whom he hath six Sons Sect. 16. Esau and Jacob born Sect. 17. Abraham dies Sect. 18. Heber dies Sect. 19. Esau sells his Birth-right Sect. 20. A famine in the land Isaac goes to Gerar. His danger there on the account of Rebeckah whom he also called his sister He and Abimelech make a Covenant Sect. 21. Esau's displeasing marriages Sect. 22. Ishmael's death Sect. 23. Isaac's dimness Jacob gets the blessing Esau's hating of him Jacob's vision and vow Sect. 24. Esau marries Mahalatha the daughter of Ishmael Sect. 25. Jacob meets Rachel Leah given him for a wife instead of Rachel Leah's four Sons Sect. 26. Rachels barrenness Jacob takes Bilhah and Zilpah Joseph born Sect. 27. Jacob's fourteen years service and great increase Sect. 28. Jacob leaves Laban Rachels Teraphim The Covenant between Jacob and Laban at Galeed Sect. 29. Jacob's vision of Angels His prayer and wrestling Sect. 30. He meets Esau They embrace each other Jacob builds an Altar at Sychar Sect. 31. Dinah ravished Simeon and Levi's revenge Sect. 32. Jacob goes to Bethel Deborah Rebeckahs nurse dies Rachel dies Reuben defiles his Fathers bed Sect. 33. Joseph's dream His Brethren sell him Jacob's mourning Sect. 34. Isaac's death Sect. 35. Judah's incest with Thamar Pharez and Zarah born Sect. 36. Joseph sold to Potiphar His Mistress's false accusation His Imprisonment Sect. 37. The chief Butler and Baker imprisoned Joseph interprets their dreams Sect. 38. Pharaoh's dreams Joseph's advancement and marriage The famine begins Sect. 39. Jacob sends his Sons into Egypt Simeon bound Sect. 40. Jacob sends his Sons into Egypt again Simeon released Benjamin's Mess Sect. 41. The Cup in Benjamin's Sack Judah's intercession for him Sect. 42. Joseph discovers himself
set a mark upon him possibly some strange trembling of his head or some frightful ghasty look which would make him a horrible Spectacle of Divine Vengeance to terrifie others from so detestable a Crime And whosoever should slay him thus marked and do unto him as he had done to his Brother more then a single Vengeance should be taken of him Gen. 4.15 (q) Seven-fold that is manifold according to the usual expression of the Scripture See Psal 12.6 79.12 Job 5.19 Prov. 26.25 The Lord having and probably in a visible Apparition thus sentenced Cain as soon as he was got out of the place where God manifested his presence He fled as a banished man from his Native Soil and the Land where his Father dwelt to a Land East of Eden which afterwards from his wandring there was call'd the Land of Nod. Sometime after his Wife bare him a Son whom he named Enoch and in process of time He and his Posterity (r) If Abraham's Posterity in less then 400 years amounted to six hundred thousand persons how many might Cain's Posterity be ere he built this City beginning to build a City in that Country He called it by his Sons Name Unto this Enoch was born Irad unto Irad Mehujael unto Mehujael Methusael and unto Mâ—thusael Lamech This Lamech being a Branch of that wicked root of Cain bringeth into the World the Abomination of Polygamy or having more Wives at once than one For He took to himself Ada and Zillah By the former he had Jabal who first invented at least among Cain's Posterity the use of Tents and taught the right ordering of the Flock and Jubal who invented Musical Instruments such as the Harp and Organ By the latter viz. Zillah He had Tubal-Cain (s) Ex quo Gentibus Dei Vulcani nomen who wrought in Brass and Iron and Naamah who they say (t) Hartman found out the way of ordering Wooll and of Carding and Weaving This Lamech presuming possibly upon the strength of his Family and priding himself in the Arts invented by his Sons especially by Tubal-Cain who was an Artificer in Brass and Iron and possibly made Swords and such Instruments of War He thought himself able to resist and oppose any that should offend Him Therefore in a boasting vanting fashion he speaks thus to his wives who seemed afraid of him lest his fierce and boisterous humour should expose him to danger Fear ye not my Wives concerning me For if any man should attempt to set upon me I would slay that man by my wounding him and though a young man I would dispatch him by my hurting him * Vide Frid. in loc pag. 36. And if Cain a Fratricid shall be avenged seven-fold surely Lamech that kills a man in his own defence shall be avenged seventy times seven-fold Gen. 4. from 1. to 25. SECT V. AFter the death of Abel Adam begat Seth in his own likeness and after his own Image (u) Yet God was still the Father and Creator of the Spirits of all Flesh Heb. 12.9 Numb 16.22 that is such as he himself now was namely sinful and not such as he was created Seth was born in the 130th Year of Adam In the Race of Seth the account of Years is carried on from the Creation to the Flood And among these as it seems principally the true worship of God was maintained which by the Race of Cain was very miserably corrupted To Seth at the age of an 105 Years a Son was born whom he called Enoch that is sorrowful intimating thereby the woful and lamentable condition the World was in at that time by reason of the corruption and wickedness that was found in the Progeny of Cain However Seth and his Off-spring did then more openly and solemnly set up and establish the Worship of God than formerly it had been Whence it came to pass that they that persisted in that way of Worship were known by the Name of the Children of God * Deut. 14.1 and they who forsook God and his sincere Worship were called the Children of Men Gen. 6.2 Gen. 4.25 26. SECT VI. ENoch being ninty years old begat Cainan Cainan when he was 70 begat Mahalaleel Mahalaleel at 65 years old had Jared born to Him Jared at 162 years old had Enoch born to him Enoch at 65 years old had Methusalah born to him Methusalah at 187 had Lamech born to him Now Adam the Father of Mankind died when he had lived nine hundred and thirty years Seth the Son of Adam died when he had lived 912 years Noah the tenth from Adam was born when his Father Lamech had lived 182. And his Father prophesied of him that he would be a man of eminent Piety and such a Son as would much comfort his Parents notwithstanding all the miseries labours troubles and sorrows which Sin had brought upon Mankind and notwithstanding the many Evils they met with in that wicked and uncomfortable time Enos the third from Adam died when he had lived 905 years Mahalaleel the fifth from Adam died when he had lived 895 years Jared the sixth from Adam died when he had lived 962 years As for Enoch the seventh from Adam He was a very holy person one that walked with God and followed not the wickedness of that Age but with great courage set himself against it and being a Prophet as we read Jude v. 14 15. He plainly told them of and set before them the day of Judgment Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodlily committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him I say this holy Person God was pleased to translate immediately into Heaven (x) Per Enochi migrationem beatam patet nimium eos falli qui in hujus mundi caeno spem universam defigunt ut aeternitatis cognitione ex animis omnino deleta And besides this instance before the Law we have a like example of the translation of Elias after the giving of the Law c. 2 Kings 2.11 not suffering him to die as other men ordinarily do when he had lived as many years as there are days in our Year viz. 365. Thus it pleased God to shew to that Age that there was a future Coelestial State of Bliss and Happiness that good men both in Soul and Body shall enjoy hereafter Gen. 5. whole Chapter SECT VII IN the 480th Year of the life of Noah the Lord seeing that the generality of the World had corrupted their ways and that the Professors of his true Worship namely the Posterity of Seth without any regard to their Profession had scandalously and promiscuously (y) Gods Law afterwards forbad such Marriages with such as were out of the Church Deut. 7.3 4. Exod. 34.16 2 Cor. 6.14 married with the Daughters of the profane Race of Cain who
affirmeth to have fixed his Seat at Babel Mizraim He was the Father of those that inhabited Egypt From Mizraim Moses deriveth seven people or Nations Ludim Anamim Lehabim Naphtuhim Pathrusim Casluhim out of whom came Philistim and Captorim Josephus says the Sons of Mizraim possessed all the Country lying between Gaza and Egypt though the Philistim only gave name to it from whom the Greeks called it Palaestina By Ludim Bochartus proveth the Ethiopians to be meant whom he will have a Colony of the Egyptians By Andmim the Nomades of Africk who inhabited about Ammonis Lehabim are thought to be the same with the Lybians bordering upon Egypt from whom this denomination might pass to those that inhabited the greater part of Africk Naphtukim he placeth in Marmaria upon the Mediterranean-Sea Parthrusim he placeth in Thebais a Province of Egypt called Pathros and by many distinguished from Egypt though peopled from it Captorim seem to be Neighbours to Casluhim from both which the Philistins seem to have descended as appeareth from Amos 9.7 Are ye not as Children of the Ethiopians unto me O Children of Israel saith the Lord have not I brought up Israel out of the Land of Egypt and the Philistins from Caphtor and the Assyrians from Kir Phut The third Son of Cham who divided Africk with his Brother Mizraim To Mizraim fell Egypt and so much of Africk as reached to the lake Tritonis which divideth Africk into two equal parts To Phut fell all from the Lake as far as the Atlantick Ocean as may be gathered from Herodotus lib. 4. Cannan The fourth son of Cham. His Posterity were Sidon his First-born and Heth. From him descended the Jebusite the Emorite the Girgasite the Hivite the Archite the Sinite the Arvadite the Zemarite and the Hamathite By Canaan was inhabited the Land which afterward bore his Name and was conquered by the Hebrews His Family was propagated as far as the Sea the Phaenicians being descended of him The Scripture calls Phaenicia the Land of Canaan Sidon was the Father of the Sidonians whose City was more ancient then Tyre and the Mother of it For the Sidonians led a Colony thither and founded Tyre two hundred and forty years before the building of Solomons Temple as Josephus reporteth Antiq. lib. 8. c. 2. The Children of Heth dwelt in the Land of Canaan about Hebron and Barsheba towards the South and from them the Anakims descended The Jebusites held Jerusalem and the Castle or Fort of Zion until Davids time The Amorites passed the Mountains of Judea and passing over Jordan made War with the Moabites And they seized upon Basan Hesbon and all the Country lying between the River Jabbek and Arnon In memory whereof one of their Poets wrote a Poem which Moses hath inserted into his Writings Numb 21.27 Wherefore they that speak in Proverbs say come into Heshbron let the City of Sihon be built and prepared The Girgasites seem to have continued about Gadara over against Galilee beyond Jordan till Christs time Matth. 8.28 And when he was come to the other side to the Countrey of the Gergesens The Hivites dwelt in Mount Hermon toward the East of the Land of Canaan from whom descended the Gibeonites living nigh to Jerusalem and the Sichemites dwelling near to Samaria more towards the West The Archites inhabited Area a City in Libanus The Sinites had a City called Sin not far from Area The Arvadites or Aradites possessed the Island Aradus on the Coast of Phaenice at the mouth of the River Eleutherus The Zemarites dwelt as 't is thought about Tinesa a notable City of Coelosyria upon the River Orontes and built Zemarajim in the Tribe of Benjamin The Hemathites were seated about Epiphania a City of Syria This was the Inheritance of the Sons of Canaan whose Border was from Sidon as thou comest to Gerar unto Gaza as thou goest unto Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboim even unto Lasha or Lysa a City of the Arabians in the mid way between the dead and the Red-Sea Thus was the Earth as far as we can understand anciently divided and possessed after the Flood though it hath since in several parts of it changed its Inhabitants Gen. 10. whole Chapter SECT VI. THe years of mans life (i) Mans life was halfed or thereabout at the time of Flood as we may see by comparing Gen. 11.11 with Gen. 5. And again shortned about another half at the building of the Tower of Babel Ch. 10.25 11.29 And well nigh the third time between the Times of Abraham and Moses Ch. 25.7 Psal 90.10 were now cut shorter by one half then they were before as we may see Gen. 11.19 c. We shewed Sect. 4. that Sem begat Arphaxad and Arphaxad Salah and Salah Heber and Heber Peleg and unto Peleg Reu was born when he was 30 years old Gen. 11. 18 19. Serug was born to Reu when he was 32 years old Gen. 11.20 Nahor was born to Serug when he was 30 years old Gen. 11.22 Terah was born to Nahor when he was 29 years old Gen. 11.24 When Terah had lived 70 years there was born unto him Haran his eldest Son For though Abram be set first Gen. 11.26 yet that was not because he was eldest but because he was worthiest * The like we read before of Sem Ch. 5.32 Ch. 10.1 For he came not into the World till 60 years after His Brother Nahor being between him and Haran As for Haran he died at Vr of the Chaldees in his Fathers life time and presence and left three Children to wit one Son named Lot and two Daughters viz. Milchah who was afterwards married to his next Brother and her Uncle Nahor and Sarai after married to his third Brother and her Uncle Abram Gen. 11. from 26. to 30. SECT VII PEleg the sixth from Noah died 209 years after the Birth of Rue Gen. 11.19 Nahor the ninth from Noah died 119 years after the Birth of his Son Terah Gen. 10.25 Noah died when he had lived 950 years in all and 350 of them after the Flood Gen. 9.28 In the two thousand and eighth year of the World was Abram born and in the 130th year of his Father Terah's life For he was 75 years old when Terah his Father died who lived two hundred and five years Gen. 11.32 In the year of the World two thousand and eighteen Sarai who was also called Iscah the Daughter of Haran Abram's eldest Brother was born being ten years younger then Abram see Gen. 17.17 Reu the seventh from Noah died two hundred and seven years after the Birth of Serug Gen. 11.21 Serug the eighth from Noah died two hundred years after the Birth of Nahor Gen. 11.23 SECT VIII NEar about this time Chedorlaomer King of Elam or Elamais a Country in Persia with the assistance of three other petty Kings whereof one is called the King of Nations because as 't is probable his Subjects were of several Nations subdued the
mental reservation at first to accept his kindness and profered to lodge in the Streets all night which possibly they intended to have done to observe the manners and behaviour of that people had he not been so importunate with them to turn in to him Therefore upon his importunity they accepted his courteous offer (b) Thus both Abraham and Lot intertained Angels unawares Heb. 13.2 and did go with him to his house and there he made them the best Intertainment he could and for hast baked unleavened-Bread for them and they did eat See Ch. 18.6 But the appearance of these two Angels now intertained by Lot being as 't is like of young men of rare and extraordinary beauty notice hereof was taken by some of the wicked Inhabitants of that City and the Report thereof soon spread abroad and so they presently flocked together from all quarters of the City to Loâ—s house requiring to have these Guests brought out to them intending abominably to abuse them Lot goes out to them to intreat them and to disswade them from so detestable an attempt but they seeming bent upon it to take them off from so horrid a villany in that great and sudden disturbance of his mind he profers very unwarrantably and sinfully to yield up his two Virgin Daughters (c) Thus Lot to prevent one sin gives way to another Magis filiarum pudicitiae debuit consulere quam indemnitati peregrinorum to their Lusts rather then his Guests should be violated who had taken shelter under his Roof and according to the Laws of Hospitality ought to be kept safe and free from all harm and violence But these wicked Sodomites were so far from being perswaded by what Lot said unto them that instead of desisting they fall upbraiding and twitting him that he that was but a Stranger in their City should take upon him to be a Judge and Censurer of them and their actions And therefore it seems he had not only inwardly grieved and vexed his righteous Soul with their unclean Conversation but as occasion was offered had often reproved them for their wickedness and had done what lay in him to disswade them from their abominable courses But they nothing mov'd either by what He had before or at this present said unto them began to press hard upon Him intending to break open his door Hereupon the Angels pulled Lot into the house to them and shut the door and presently smote that wicked Crue with such a blindness that they could not see the door Then the Angels commanded Lot that whomsoever he had there nearly related to him whether Sons in law or Daughters he should bring them out of that place for God had sent them to destroy it and the other Neighbouring Cities to it for their great and crying abominations Lot accordingly went out to his Sons in law the Husbands as it seems of his other Daughters that were married into the City to perswade them to come away with him but he seemed to them as one that jested or talked idly so supine and secure usually are carnal men when Gods Judgments are ready to fall upon them When the Morning approached the Angels urged Lot and his Wife and two Daughters that were in the house with him to get them going lest they should be involv'd in the common Calamity But yet Lot it seems lingred as loth to leave his other Children behind him to be destroyed Thereupon the Angels laid hands on him and his Company and hurried them out of the City the Lord therein shewing himself very merciful unto them Then the Angels charged them to make hast and escape for their lives and not so much as to look behind them nor to stay in all the Plain but to fly to the Mountain nor so much as to mind or regard House Cattel or Riches or what ever they had left behind them Lot tells the Angels that the Mountain was so far off that he feared lest the destruction would overtake them before they could get thither and therefore he earnestly desires that Zoar formerly called Bela might be the place they might be permitted to fly unto which was near at hand and that God would please to spare that place for his sake The Angel undoubtedly by Gods direction grants his request but bids him hast away for he could not do any thing against Sodom till he was got thither for God had decreed in mercy to save him It was break of day when the Angel hasted Lot and his Company away and by that time the Sun was well risen the Lord (d) V. 24. Jehovah from Jehovah that is the Son from the Father who worketh by the Son Joh. 5.17 rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah Admath and Zeboim Deut. 29.23 Hosea 11.8 fire and brimstone from Heaven (e) This is a Type and forerunner of the everlasting punishment of the wicked in that Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone for ever Rev. 21.8 And so the Apostle says Jud. v. 7. That Sodom and Gomorrah suffered the Vengeance of eternal fire viz. that temporal destruction was as a forerunner of those eternal torments in Hell which they now suffer and so may well be a terrifying Example and warning to all that fall into the like sins See Apostol Histor pag. 422. But it seems while Lot and his Company were hastning towards Zoar his Wife either doubting whether any such Judgment would fall upon Sodom as was threatned or lingring in her desires after those Friends and the Wealth and Estate they had left behind them looked back against the express Command of the Angel before given whereupon she was immediately turned into a Pillar or Statue of a rocky mineral Salt which will indure all weathers as a standing Monument of her Infidelity and Disobedience and to season others with more wisdom Abraham getting up early that Morning and looking towards Sodom and the Cities of the Plain whose destruction the Lord had acquainted him with before he saw the smoak from that Country go up as the smoak of a Furnace and God remembred the Intercession of Abraham for Lot neither did he forget the Piety and Righteousness of Lot himself which we find mentioned 2 Pet. 2.7 8. Lot quickly finds that it had been better for him to have followed the advice of the Angel at the first and gone immediately to the Mountain for now he was afraid to stay any longer in Zoar. Possibly the wickedness he saw among them might make him afraid that a like Judgment to that of Sodom would fall upon them or it may be he feared lest the people of that place would fall upon him as the Cause of the overthrow of those Neighbouring Cities seeing he and his Family only had escaped So he and his two Daughters left that Town and betook themselves to the Mountain and dwelt there in a Cave where being in a manner immured up his Daughters began to think that by that solitary life they were
on so sad an occasion The Sons of Jacob when they heard of it were greatly vexed and very wroth that Shechem had committed so great folly and iniquity and thereby offended God and brought such a stain and blot on their Family Notwithstanding Hamor the Father of Shechem who should have express'd his high Displeasure against his Son for so great a Transgression comes to Jacob and his Sons and Communes with them and Requests them That Dinah might be given to his Son to Wife And further desires That they might freely make Marriages interchangeably between them and so grow into a Kindred and Friendship the one with the other He further tells them on these Conditions the Land should be free for them to dwell in and to Trade in and therein to get Possessions Shechem also seconded his Fathers motion and told them If he might find so much favour in their eyes as to obtain their Sister for his Wife he would do any thing they should desire of him Whatever Dowry they required he should give Her or whatever Gift in recompence of the Injury he had done her he was willing to give her provided he might have her Jacob permitting his Sons to give the Answer they having laid their Heads together and being not only averse to the Match but designing Revenge answered cunningly and deceitfully and which was worse they covered their deceit with the colour of Religion They tell Hamor and Shechem That they could not without dishonour to their Religion give their Sister to a Person Vncircumcised But if they would consent that all the Males among them should be Circumcised and so become like unto them then they would make Marriages with them (t) Similis praetextus 2 Sam. 15.7 Judah enim Simeon Canaanitidas postea duxere c. 38. 2. 46. 10. and dwell with them and they would become one People l Thus they would have this holy Sacrament of Circumcision the Seal of Gods Covenant profaned and obtruded upon Vnbelievers and all to accomplish their wicked design of Revenge But if they would not consent to this they would take the Daughter of their Family and depart from them and would have no more to do with them These hard Conditions Hamor and Shechem agree unto and Shechem out of the great love and kindness he had for Dinah immediately applies himself to get his Peoples consent also And being a young Prince greatly esteemed and honoured among them He with his Father came to the Gate of their City where their Civil Affairs were usually transacted and where were their Publick Assemblies and Courts of Justice and there spake to them after this manner These Israelites that are lately come among us are for ought I perceive very peaceable and quiet Men. I see no reason therefore but that they should be permitted to dwell in the Land and to trade with us Nay I think it for our Interest to make a straight League with them and to make Marriages interchangeably with them taking their Daughters to us for Wives and giving our Daughters to them And so by Commerce and Trafficking with them and by making Marriages with them in time their Cattel and Substance will come to be our So that there is a fair Prospect of great profit that will accrue to us by thus associating with them But there is one Difficulty in the Case These men being Jews and so by the Rite of their Religion being all Circumcis'd will by no means associate with us except we Consent to be like them and that all the Males among us will be Circumcised This I confess is something hard for us to submit unto However go alone consider of the matter among your selves and speak your minds freely This Condition undoubtedly could not but seem very hard to the Shechemites but the honour and respect they had for Hamor and Shechem and the Prospect of Profit that was before them so prevail'd upon them that they consented to it and accordingly all the Males of their City that us'd to go in and out at the Gates of it were forthwith Circumcised On the third day after this was done when usually Wounds are most sore and painful two of the Sons of Jacob viz. Simeon and Levi to whom Dinah was Sister both by Father and Mother taking their Swords in their hands (m) Simeon about 21 Levi about 20 years of age Hinc palam est â—eam Jacobo Nuptam anno primo quo venerat ad Labanam non septimo Neque enim Simeon si tunc natus esset id atatis esse poterat ut hoc patraret Anonym in loc and being attending as 't is like by some of their Brethren and other Assistants fell boldly and fiercely upon the City and slew all the Males (n) Non omnes Masculi aut Circumcisi aut intersecti erant sed ii tantum qâ—i per portam egrediebantur ac nubiles erant Walther God might justly suffer this for the Shechemites own sins though he took occasion to do it from the sin of their Prince See 2 Sam. 24.1 15 17. Quod unus fecit Civibus in genere imputatur quod hoc flagitium nec impedirent nec punirent sed de eo potius gloriati sunt viz. that were of riper years and lately Circumcised and who by reason of their Soreness were not able to make Resistance and among them Hamor and Shechem and took away their Sister Dinah out of Shechem's House where she had been kept since the day he had seiz'd upon her till now Then they plundered the City and carried away not only their Goods and Houshold-stuff but what was in the Fields their Sheep Oxen and Asses and took also their Wives and little Ones Captive (o) 'T is very like that many of the Captive Women and Children were by Jacob sent back to the City with a proportion of the Spoil for their necessary Maintenance keeping what he thought fit to serve as a Recompence for the wrong done to his deflowred Daughter Jacob understanding this was highly incens'd against his Sons and told them that which they had done did exceedingly trouble him and vex him at the very heart They had render'd him odious and made him even stink among the Inhabitants of the Land And his Family bring but few in comparisom of them they had expos'd him and all that belonged to him to that eminent danger of being fallen upon and destroyed by them And 't is likely he shewed them also the hainousness of their Sin against God and the odiousness of their Treachery (p) For this Fact 't is like he deprived them of their Birthright as he did Reuben for his sin and conferred it on Judah Gen. 49. and Cruelty which he afterwards solemnly Cursed Gen. 49.5 6 7. Cursed be their wrath for it was fierce and their anger for it was cruel c. But they gave him a stubborn and churlish Answer That they were not able to bear that their Sister
Raiment When he came into the Kings Presence Pharaoh told him he had dreamed a Dream which much troubled his spirit and he could meet with no man among all his Magicians and Wise-men that could Interpret it and he had heard of him that he could understand a Dream and interpret it Joseph humbly answered That he durst not assume so much wisdom to himself (s) Non mihi tribuo a Deo expectandum est see Dan. 2.30 but doubted not but God who is the Revealer of Secrets would give to Pharaoh such an Answer as should quiet his troubled mind concerning his Dream Then Pharaoh told him both his Dreams viz. That of the Kine and that of the Ears of Corn. Joseph making as 't is probable a little Pause told him Both his Dreams signifi'd one and the same thing and that God did thereby intend to shew and declare unto him what he was about to do The seven fat Kine and seven good Ears signifi'd seven years of wonderful and incredible plenty and the seven lean Kine and seven lank Ears signifi'd seven years that should succeed them of very sore and extreme Famine in so much that the plenty of the former years should be forgotten and it should consume many both men and beasts in the Land And for that the Dream was doubled it was to assure Pharaoh that the thing was firmly decreed of God (t) Quod firmissimum sit coeleste decretum Vatab. and that he would certainly and shortly bring it to pass Then by the guidance and direction of the Spirit of God he humbly advises Pharaoh to look out a wise and discreet man and to set him over the Land of Egypt and to appoint faithful Officers under him who in the seven years of plenty should take up a fifth part of the Fruits of the Land and of all manner of Provision the Ground afforded which might serve for Food (u) 'T is like that other great Men and private persons in the Land did resolve to be Buyers and Storers in the years of Plenty and all little enough as appeared afterwards which they should lay up in Granaries at the Kings Charge and sell it again afterwards to his Subjects in the time of Dearth at a reasonable price that so the Land perish not throw Famine What Joseph said was highly pleasing and acceptable to Pharaoh and all his Court. And he said to his Servants Where can we find such another man as this is (x) Thus God wrought upon and disposed the Heart of Pharaoh for the executing his own Counsel a man of such Wisdom and Prudence and Sagacity which I perceive God by his Spirit (y) It is the same Spirit that maketh holy that maketh wise hath bestowed on him in an extraordinary manner Then turning to Joseph he said Forasmuch as I see that God hath indowed thee with extraordinary Gifts I know no man so wise and discreet as thou art Therefore thou shalt be over my House yea I set thee over all the Land of Egypt and according to thy word and direction shall all my People be governed only in the Throne I will be greater than thou Then Pharaoh took off his Ring from his Hand and put it upon Joseph's and arrayed him in Silk and fine Linnen and put a Gold Chain about his Neck and appointed him to ride in the second Chariot to His own and they cryed before him Bow the Knee (z) Mira Aulicorum modestia qui Juveni succumbant Inquilino and so he was made Ruler (a) As Dreams before were the occasion of his Bondage so now they are of his Exaltation under Pharaoh over all the Land of Egypt (b) He continued in his Government and Honour 80 years Thus Joseph was made the second Man in the Kingdom as Daniel was the third Man upon something a like occasion Dan. 5.29 Further the King said I am Pharoah and as sure as I am King so sure without thy advise and authority not the least thing shall be done in matter of Government no man shall do any thing or go any whither without thy Order and Pharaoh gave him a new Name and called him Zaphnath paaneah that is a Revealer of Secrets see Dan. 1.7 And he gave him to Wife Asenah the Daughter of Potipherah Priest of On * Called also Aven Ezek. 30.17 and Heliopolis the City of the Sun now probably Damiata and so matched him into an honourable Family As for Joseph's marrying with this Egyptian Woman it must be considered it was an extraordinary Case there being no other in the Land of Egypt to marry with neither could he go elsewhere to seek a Wife without deserting that great Office whereto for the benefit of the Church God had advanc'd him And besides he might possibly by some special instinct or revelation from God be moved to accept Pharaoh's favour therein as the like might be in Hesters marrying with Ahasuerus and possibly by Joseph's wise and pious Instructions his Wife might soon become a Proselyte to her Husbands Religion as his Steward in all likelihood was of whom we read Ch. 43.23 And we see the Children of this marriage were afterwards by Jacob accounted as the Fathers of two Tribes in Israel Ch. 48.16 Joseph being now instaled by Pharaoh in his Government over all the Land of Egypt at the 30th year of his age thirteen years after he was sold by his Brethren Ch. 37.2 He now went forth from the face of Pharaoh and went thorow the Land in pursuance of the Kings Command to appoint Officers every where and to prepare Store-houses to lay up Corn conveniently in And the seven years of plenty beginning the Earth brought forth wonderfully even by handfuls that is they had instead of one grain as it were as many as would fill the hand During these seven years Joseph gathered together very carefully the fifth part of all the Fruits of the Earth and bestowed them in convenient Granaries in the several Cities and Places fit for receipt of them And the quantity of Corn that was gathered was so immense that it was even like the Sand of the Sea not to be counted or numbred Joseph had two Sons by his Lady the Daughter of Potipherah before the years of Famine began the first-born he called Manasseh that is making to forget for says he God hath made me now forget all the Troubles and Hardships I have undergone here in Egypt and all the Injuries I received from my Fathers House which I do not now think of by way of Offence but as a merciful Dispensation to me seeing they have been the means of my Advancement And he called His second Son Ephraim viz. fruitful For says he God hath made me fruitful even in this very Land where I have been before much oppressed (c) That Joseph neither in the 13 years of his Affliction nor in the 8 years of his Exaltation should ever send to his Father may
man see Exod. 33.20 And when he spake to him he did not make known his mind to him in obscure figurativ expressions as he did to some of the Prophets see Ezek. 17.3 but plainly and clearly and seeing he had manifested so great favour to Moses How comes it to pass says the Lord that ye were not afraid to speak against my Servant Moses And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them and the Cloud the sign of his presence removed from the door of the Tabernacle and possibly for some time disappeared God intending thereby to testifie his Indignation against them And immediately Miriam became Leprous and white as Snow * See Deut. 24.9 God was pleased to spare Aaron though Partner with his Sister in this Sin lest in his Dishonour the Priesthood should suffer Aaron intreats Moses to Intercede with the Lord for them that the punishment of this sin wherein they had done foolishly may not be laid upon them He begs that Miriam may not by the continuance of this white Leprosie upon her be as a Child dead in the Womb whose flesh when it comes into the World looks white and putrified as if it were sodden and half consumed And though says He she is for the present alive yet as one dead she is to be excluded from the Communion of the Church see Numb 5.2 and this fretting Plague if it continue upon her will in the end utterly consume and kill her Moses was prevailed with to pray for Her and upon his prayer the Lord was pleased to heal her of her Plague yet gives order that she should be carried out of the Camp for the present For says God if her earthly Father had in great displeasure spit in her face surely she would have been ashamed to shew her self for a time and therefore much more fit is it that in such a Case as this she should be secluded from the Congregation to instruct all the people to take heed of being corrupted with Her example The people upon this Sentence mourned for Her and journied not till she was brought into the Camp again which argued the great honour and respect they had for Her being a Prophetess and the Sister of Moses and Aaron After this the people removed from Hazeroth and pitched in another place in the Wilderness of Paran called Rithmath see Ch. 33.18 Numb 12. whole Chapter SECT LVII THe people being now come near to the Mountain of the Amorites upon the Borders of Canaan Moses encourages them to go up and take possession of the Land which God had promised them Deut. 1.20 21. but they fearing the Event desire that they may first send some Spies to search the Land Moses not knowing their distrustful hearts likes well their motion Deut. 1.23 and seeking Counsel of the Lord about it the Lord was pleased to permit it though in displeasure and accordingly Commands that at the time when Grapes first grew ripe they should send twelve Principal men such as were of authority and esteem among them of every Tribe one of which Caleb was for the Tribe of Judah being then forty years old see Joshua 14.7 and Hoshea (q) Hoshea signifies a Saviour but by adding Jah the Contract of Jehovah which is the proper Name of God Psal 68.4 thereby was signified that He should by the help and assistance of God be a Saviour of the people the Son of Nun whom Moses called Jehoshua or Joshua for the Tribe of Ephraim to discover and spy out the Land These men accordingly went entring into Canaan by the Desart of Zin lying on the South and so went quite thorow it to the very North part thereof even to Rehob 'T is probable they divided themselves else 't is like they would have been suspected neither could they otherwise have viewed the whole Country in so short a time Numb 13. from 1. to 23. SECT LVIII THese Spyes after forty days return from searching the Land and come to the Camp at Kadesh bringing with them one branch of a Vine with one Cluster or Bunch of Grapes upon it which was so big that they carried it between two of them upon a staff with some Pomegranates and Figgs of the Land Ten of these twelve Spies that were sent praised indeed the goodness of the Land but magnified also the strength of the Cities thereof and the Giant-like stature of the Inhabitants thereby disheartning the people from marching any further towards it At Hebron a City in the South-parts of it which was one of the ancientest Cities in the World being more ancient then Zoan the chief City of Egypt which vaunted it self to be of very great Antiquity see Isa 19.11 they tell them they met with Giants the Sons of Anak men of mighty stature in comparison of whom they seemed but like Grashoppers They tell them The Cities of the Canaanites were great and walled up to Heaven Deut. 1.28 They further tell them That the Amalekites dwelt in the South Country the Hittites Jebusites and Amorites in the Mountains nigh unto the Wilderness where the Israelites now lay so that there would be no entring the Land on the South because of those mighty Nations that would be there ready to oppose them And in case they should think to fetch a compass about and to enter in on the East-side there they would be kept out by the River Jordan which ran along on that side and the dead-Sea and by the Canaanites who dwelt by the Sea and by the Coast of Jordan and they being a valiant and a strong people would improve those advantages for the best defence of their Country Thus these ten Spies discouraged the people bringing an evil Report upon the Land telling them It was a Land that eateth up the Inhabitants thereof by reason of the Civil Wars and frequent intestine Commotions that arose among them and by reason of the Tyranny of the Gyants who oppressed those that were less powerful than themselves And if several of the Natives of the Land were expos'd to so much danger how much more had they need to fear that were Strangers and were held their Common Enemies and what could they expect but to be eaten up with continual Wars The people at this Relation being greatly terrified Caleb and Joshua rose up and contradicted this false Report and encouraged the people telling them they might easily by Gods assistance Conquer the Land see Ch. 14.6 7. They said all that they could to still and quiet them and to hearten them to go on but all in vain For they now fall into an high rage and discontent and murmur against Moses and Aaron and wish they had died in Egypt or the Wilderness Nay their discontent and impatience grew so high that they said Deut. 1.27 Because the Lord hated us he hath brought us out of the Land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorite to destroy us and that our selves our Wives and Children should
plow and draw their Carts with Heifers and Cows as well as with Oxen see Judg. 14.18 This Heifer was to be given to Eleazar because by doing this Service that was now to be done he was to be unclean and 't was fit that he rather than Aaron should be defiled She must also be carried out of the Camp as an accursed thing figuring Christs being made a Curse and suffering without the City Heb. 13.12 And Eleazar was to sprinkle of her blood seven times turning his face towards the Tabernacle of the Congregation And her skin and her flesh her blood and her dung were all to be burnt in his sight And Eleazar was to take Cedar-wood and Hyssop and Scarlet and to cast them into the midst of the burning of the Heifer to signifie that these things should be used for a sprinkle in sprinkling the unclean with the water of separation see Levit. 14.4 And Eleazar was to wash his Clothes and bath his flesh and to be unclean unto the evening * The like is injoyned to him that burnt this Heifer v. 8. and to him that gathered up the ashes v. 10. and to him that sprinkled an unclean person with the water made of those ashes v. 21. This might intimate to them that it was not so much the water made with the ashes of this Heifer as the thing signified thereby that had vertue in it to purifie those that were spiritually unclean and consequently to shew the imperfection of the legal Priesthood because they that were imployed in preparing this water which was for the cleansing of others were themselves defiled 'T was further injoyned That the ashes of this Heifer should be gathered up by a man that was clean and laid up without the Camp in a clean place (h) As for the place where those ashes were kept when they came into the Land of Canaan it is not expressed Some hold that those ashes were dispers'd into all the Cities that those who were unclean might have wherewith to purifie and cleanse themselves because they were now conseerated to an holy use However the man that gathered them up was thereby made unclean because they were the remainders of an Heifer slain for the sins of the people And the Statute of making and reserving of these ashes for a water of separation was to bind both the Israelite and the Proselyte or Stranger that sojourned with them as long as this Dispensation lasted By this Law it was further injoyned That he that touched the dead body of a man was to be unclean seven days and he was to purifie himself with this water on the third day and on the seventh day vers 19. and then he was to be clean else not And whoever having contracted this kind of uncleanness and doth not make use of this way to purifie himself but cometh in that state into the Court of the Tabernacle he shall be cut off by the Sentence of the Judge if it be proved that he did it presumptuously because he despiseth not only the Ceremonial purifying but the thing signified thereby viz. the spiritual cleansing thorow the blood of the Messias Otherwise if he did it ignorantly he was to bring such a Sacrifice as is injoyn'd Levit. 5.3 6. Further if any man came into the Tent of a dead man it rendred him unclean yea and all that was in the Tent Every open Vessel that takes in the air of the Tent was ceremoniously unclean Or if a man touched a dead body or the bone of a dead man it rendred him unclean And thus hereby was figured the spreading and infectious nature of sin And one of the Priests that was clean was to put running water to the ashes of the burnt-Heifer and with a bunch of Hyssop tied to a Cedar-stick with a Scarlet-thread to sprinkle the person or Tent or Vessels that were unclean and then to be himself unclean until the evening because he had touched the water of separation And whatsoever any unclean person touched was to be held unclean to signifie the contagion of sin spreading from one to another Numb 19. whole Chapter SECT LXVII THe Camp now advanced to Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin which was near to the Land of Edom in the first month of the fortieth year after their coming out of Egypt and there Miriam died and was buried four months before her Brother Aaron and eleven months before her Brother Moses She was the eldest of the three she attained to the age of 130 see Exod. 2.4 7. she was a Prophetess and by her also God guided the Israelites in their Travels see Mich. 6.4 she in all likelihood was the Girl that was set to watch what would become of Moses when he was expos'd in an Ark of Bulrushes on the River Nile see Exod. 2.4 c. Numb 20. vers 1. SECT LXVIII AT this Kadesh (i) So that in their Travels from Kadesh-barnea where the Spies came back to Moses to this Kadesh in the Desart of Zin there were about 38 years spent and most of their Fathers that were numbred at their coming out of Egypt were in this time dead the people for want of water murmur again against Moses and Aaron With the same want God had tried their Fathers in the first year after their coming out of Egypt Exod. 17.4 and they murmured then as their Children do now and they had water given them out of a Rock But these their Children were worse than their Fathers because the supply their Fathers had from God in that extremity should have been an argument and encouragement to them to rely on his Providence now and not to have distrustfully murmured or wished so desperately as they did Would God say they we had died with our Brethren whom God suddenly destroyed in the Insurrection of Corah and at other times thereby as it were slighting that fearful Judgment of being cut off in Gods firery Indignation in comparison of being pinch'd with a present want of water They highly expostulate with Moses and Aaron for bringing them into that barren Wilderness which was no place to sow seed in or plant Figg-Trees Vines or Pomegranates but a Land of Desarts a Land of Drought and where there was no water a Land thorow which no man passed and where no man dwelt see Jer. 2.6 Moses and Aaron hereupon betake themselves unto the door of the Tabernacle to intercede with God as formerly for this rebellious people And the Lord immediately signified his approach and the actual manifestation of his glorious Presence by the descending of the Cloud to the door of the Tabernacle see Ch. 14.10 and Ch. 16.19 And here He Commands Moses to take the Rod viz. Aaron's Rod which budded out of the Tabernacle * See Numb 20. v. 9. Ch. 17.10 and with that Rod in his hand to speak to the Rock before the Children of Israel and it should give forth water Moses indeed with his miraculous Rod at
and so the Israelites possessed themselves of all their Cities utterly destroying all the Inhabitants thereof and his Country unto the borders of the Amorites which was strong and therefore Sihon had not encroached upon their Country as he had upon the Moabites at least not beyond the River Jabbock Among other Cities which they took Heshbon was one which Sihon took from the former King of the Moabites who was King before their present King Balak and so both Heshbon and the Country adjoyning was the possession of Sihon when the Israelites took it To prove this Moses alledgeth the proverbial or aenigmatical Song which it seems was first made and used by the Amorites by way of triumph over the vanquished Moabites Come into Heshbon let the City of Sihon be built and prepared implying that though Heshbon perished * Vers 30. being in Moabs hands yet now it should be more fairly built and fortified being in Sihons hands For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon a flame from the City of Sihon it hath consumed Ar of Moab and the Lords of the high places of Arnon that is the fury of War which was kindled and began in the subversion and laying waste of Heshbon brake out from thence and consumed the Country of the Moabites as far as Ar a chief City of theirs and the Lords of the high places of Arnon that is their great men and Priests that sacrificed in their high places Woe unto thee O Moab thou art undone O people of Chemosh In this clause of their Song the Amorites scoff at Chemosh the God of the Moabites (n) See Jer. 48.7 13. The Ammonites god was Milcom 1 Kings 11.5 1 Kings 11.7 because he was not able to help them but had permitted those of them that escaped the Sword to be taken Captives by Sihon They further triumphantly add We have shot at them that is all their Country between Heshbon and Dibon one of their high places in the Land of Moab we have taken from them And we have wasted their Country even unto Nophah which reacheth unto Medeba (o) See Isa 15.2 Jer. 48.18 22. another City in the Land of Moab Numb 21. from 18. to 31. SECT LXXVI AFter this Moses sent his Spies to Jaazer a City also that had been Moabs Jer. 48.31 32. but now was the Amorites which they took with the Towns thereunto belonging and cast out thence the Amorites from the River Arnon which is the bound of Moab to the Brook of Jabbock which parteth it from Arnon yet medled not with the Country lying upon the River Jabbock neither with any of the Lands belonging at that time to the Children of Ammon or Moab as God commanded them After this the Children of Israel marched to Bashan a rich Country famous for its huge Oaks Ezek. 27.6 and rich Pastures which nourished strong and great Cattel Deut. 32.14 Amos 4.1 Og King of this Country being a remnant of the Giants whose Bedsted was of Iron nine Cubits in length and four in breadth Deut. 3.11 came out against them and fought with them at Edrei and was there with all his people utterly vanquished and destroyed by Moses and the Israelites whom God encouraged to go out against him and they possessed themselves of all his Country to wit sixty Cities and all that Coast as far as Argob Deut. 3. from vers 1. to 18. Numb 21. from vers 31. to the end SECT LXXVII AFter these Victories the Israelites encamped in the plains (p) So called becase they had been sometimes Moabs though since the Amorites and now the Israelites by Conquest of Moab on this side of the Ford of Jordan right over against Jerico at Abel-Shittim which was their 42d Encamping Here they continued till after Moses's death and till under the Conduct of Joshua they passed over Jordan unto the Land of Canaan In which time many notable things fell out even all recorded from this place to the end of Deuteronomy Numb 22. vers 1. SECT LXXVIII THe Moabites had no reason to be afraid of the Israelites because God had commanded them not to meddle with them and accordingly they had peaceably passed by their Country Yet their minds were stricken with such a terrour from God that all this could not quiet them They saw the Israelites were a numerous and mighty people They had already vanquished two Kings they were still upon their borders Thus God made good his Promise to his people Exod. 15.15 As for the mighty men of Moab trembling shall take hold upon them all the Inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away and Deut. 2.25 This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the Nations that are under the whole Heaven who shall hear report of thee and shall tremble and be in anguish because of thee Balak King of Moab and his people being under these fears they send to the Elders of the Midianites to joyn with them against the Israelites telling them That this vast Company were like to lick up all about them as the Ox licketh up the grass of the field 'T is very plain that the Midianites had no manner of reason to joyn with them For first They were allied to the Israelites being the Posterity of Midian who was the Son of Abraham by his wife Keturah Gen. 25.12 Secondly The Israelites had not hitherto medled with them Thirdly The Israelites Conquest of the Amorites was an advantage to them because they were by this means freed from Sihons Tyrannical Yoke under whom as it appears they were before in bondage However after Consultation it seems they joyned together in this business and Balak and they sent for Balaam a Southsayer who was at that time famous for his Inchantments and Divinations and dwelt at Pethor a City in Mesopotamia his native Country (q) In Mesopotamia or Aram Abraham first dwelt Acts 7.2 Gen. 24.4 10. and there he served strange Gods Josh 24.2 In this Country all the Patriarchs the Sons of Jacob except Benjamin were born and brought up Gen. 35.26 till Jacob their Father fled the Land Gen. 31.21 Jacob's Posterity hereupon professed their Father to be an Aramite Deut. 26.5 And from Aram is now Balaam sent for to curse them The Eastern-Country was infamous for Divination and such like Arts Isa 2.6 scituate upon the River Euphrates to come and curse the Israelites purposing afterwards to make War upon them The Messengers carrying with them large Presents to satisfie him for his Divinations call'd by the Apostle the wages of unrighteousness 2 Pet. 2.15 come to Him and tell him That there was a mighty great people come out of Egypt which covered the face of the Earth and they were now encamped over against Moab They tell Him they came to him from Balak King of Moab and from the Midianites to desire him to come over and curse this people For they were confident he was able by his Curses and
whom was the Spirit of God and an extraordinary measure of Grace he employs that short time in faithfully instructing the people and earnestly exhorting them to walk steadfastly in the ways of God He rehearses to them several remarkable Occurrences and passages of divine Providence which had happened to them during their forty years travels in the Wilderness not binding himself always to exact order as to times and places in his Narration that they might remember them for their benefit And this being for the most part a new Generation the old rebellious Stock having perished in the Wilderness He sets himself to instruct them in the Laws and Statutes of God not only repeating them to them but explaining and amplyfying many of them and adding some new ones * Hence this Book is call'd Deuteronomy or a second Declaration of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi secunda vel secundaria Lex Repetitio est praecipuarum Legum ac monitorum in eorum gratiam qui tempore promulgatae Legis aut nondum nati aut per aetatem intelligendi incapaces erant Cum quibus Moses hic instaurat foedus praeterea quaedam hic nova addita to them He causes them to enter into a solemn Covenant to serve the Lord faithfully He Predicts and foretells what would befal them hereafter and solemnly blesses them before his death Chap. I And first He reminds them of Gods calling Israel from Horeb to march towards Canaan He tells them how when they had continued well nigh a full year at Horeb * In journying from Egypt to Kadesh-barnea they spent about two years and from thence to the fields of Moab about 38 years whereas from Horeb or Sinai to Canaan it was but about 11 or 12 days Journey had they not provoked God by their sins to keep them wandring in the Wilderness so long God commanded them to march towards Canaan the borders of which he describes towards the South West North and East Deut. Ch. 1. from 1. to 9. 2. He reminds them how about that time by the advice of Jethro his Father-in-law he set Judges and Officers over the people For says he finding my self not able to bear the weight and burden of governing so great a people alone I said unto you The Lord hath multiply'd you as the Stars of Heaven and the Lord God of your Fathers make you a thousand times so many more as you are and bless you choose out therefore from among you wise and understanding men and I will make them Heads over you I will Constitute some of them to be Rulers over Thousands others to be Rulers over Hundreds others Rulers over Fifties and others to be Rulers over Tens And I charged the Judges at that time that they should judge rightâ—ously between man and man and not respect persons in Judgment but should hear the small as well as the great that they should not be afraid of men for the Judgment is Gods that is it is ordained by him and to be executed in his Name and the Judges representing his Person and sitting in his Seat should in judging follow the Rule by him prescribed and should judge justly as God Himself would do see 2 Chron. 19.6 And I further said If ye find any Cause too hard for you to determine bring it unto me And many other things I delivered and taught the Judges their duty in a more full and ample manner than now I express Deut. Ch. 1. from 9. to 19. 3. He shews them that when they left Horeb they marched thorow all that great and terrible Wilderness a Land where no man dwelt and wherein were fiery Serpents and Scorpions Deut. 8.15 a Land extream barren and destitute of all things necessary for the sustenance of man except by miraculous supply and came to Kadesh-Barnea Then says he I said unto you Ye are come to the Mountain of the Amorites the border of the Land which the Lord our God hath given unto us Go ye up therefore and possess it as God has commanded you fear not nor be discouraged But ye desired that Spies * Atque hic certum est Exploratores esse exigente populi incredulitate missos Deum Ducem sequi dâ—bebant Cananaeos fidenter aggredi Sed Dei promissis fidem non habebant Deut. 9.23 might first be sent to search the Land and to inform you concerning it and concerning the way wherein you must go up to take possession of it and what Cities you must first assault And I having inquired of the Lord concerning it Numb 13.3 and the Lord giving way to it or at least permitting it I was content with it and took twelve men one of a Tribe and they went up into the Mountain and came to the Valley of Eshcol And the Spies brought back some of the fruits of the Land namely Grapes Pomegranates and Figgs and said The Land was a very good Land But ye refused to go up and so rebelled against the Commandment of the Lord. And ye murmured in your Tents and said Because the Lord hated us he hath brought us forth out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites and to destroy us You further said Our Brethren whom we sent as Spies have discouraged us viz. all of them but Caleb and Joshua They tell us The people of that Land are greater and taller then we their Cities are great and walled up to Heaven moreover they tell us That the Sons of the Anakims those great Giants are there Then said I dread them not nor be afraid of them For the Lord your God goeth before you and will fight for you as he did in Egypt and as he hath hitherto done for you in the Wilderness there you have seen how the Lord by his Almighty Power hath born you as a Father takes up and carries his Child in his arms and hath born with your manners and perverseness as a tender Father doth with a froward Child Yet notwithstanding this incouragement you did not believe * This unbelief the Apostle notes to be the cause why they entred not into the Land of Promise Heb. 4.6 in the Lord your God who went before you to search out a place for you to pitch your Tents in in a Pillar of Cloud by day and a Pillar of Fire by night And the Lord was angry at your Murmurings and Vnbelief and sware there should not one of that evil Generation see that good Land Numb 14.23 save Caleb the Son of Jephunneh who followed the Lord fully and Joshua the Son of Nun Numb 14.6 30 38. And says he the Lord hath since that time at the other Kadesh been angry with me for your sakes For being moved with your Provocations I offended both in unadvised Speeches and distrust and thereupon the Lord said I should not go into the Land Numb 20.1 2 12. But Joshua who is continually about me to minister unto me He should go into it therefore
epulis Deut. 12.12 17. praecipue 14. 22. 3. Decima de decimâ quae â—at sacerdotum 4. Decima trieterica tertio quovis anno from him which were to be the means of his livelihood all the time they should live upon the Land He shews they might kill and eat for their own refreshing whatsoever they desired at home and when they had a purpose to offer Peace-Offerings and by way of thankfulness to God for some eminent mercy to rejoyce together if the holy place were too far from them they might feast together upon their Cattel which they might kill for food only then they must be sure not to eat them as holy things but even as they would eat the Roe-Buck or Hart. Only says he as I said before be sure you eat not the blood for the blood is the vehicle of the animal life and therefore you may not eat it with the flesh And you must observe this Precept that it may go well with you and your Children (g) A man cannot better bless his Children than by his own Obedience to his heavenly Father after you continually As for their Burnt-Offerings He shews them they must offer the flesh and blood together upon the Altar and the blood of their other pacifick Sacrifices and Peace-Offerings must be poured out upon the Altar and then they might eat of the flesh of * For only the fl sh of these Sacrifices was to be eaten by the Owners Levit. 15. them Further he shews them That when the Lord their God shall have destroyed the Nations before them whose Land they go to possess then they must especially take heed that they be not insnared by following their Idolatry Therefore says He I advise you not to inquire after their gods or how they worshipped them thinking to serve the true God as they served their Idols For they use to perform such Rites and Services to their Idols which are most abominable to the Lord particularly they burn their Sons and Daughters * Of this abomination practis'd by the Heathâ—n and imitated by the backsliding Jews see Jer. 7.31 19.5 in the fire to their gods Take heed therefore of following them in these or any other of their abominations do what I command you from the Lord neither add it to it nor diminish from it 18. He comes now to expound and dilate upon the Third Commandment The Third Commandment by prohibiting Chap. XIII the abuse of the Lords Name which was profaned by false Prophets Revolters and Inticers to Idolatry Having given the people warning to take heed of being seduced to Idolatry by Strangers of other Nations here he gives them the like warning to take heed of being seduced by any that should arise among their own Brethren If there shall arise saith he among you any that shall pretend himself to be a Prophet and shall say that God hath appeared to him a Vision or a Dream and he giveth you a sign or wonder (h) Such as the cleaving Jeroboam's Altar which the Prophet told them of before hand 1 Kings 13.3 as a sure sign that God had sent him that is laboureth to confirm what he saith he had by Vision or Dream by foretelling some wonderful and supernatural thing that shall come to pass though this sign and wonder come to pass yet if withall he shall perswade you to worship false gods or to worship the true God in a false manner you shall not because of his signs and wonders regard what he saith if his Doctrine be not according to the truth which God hath taught you For the Lord may by the Spirit of Prophesie reveal things to come to wicked men and false Prophets as he did to Balaam and Caiaphas He knowing how thereby to bring Glory to Himself though they intend only to corrupt and seduce thereby For the Lord may suffer the Devil and false Prophets thus to abuse men to try and make known whether they love the Lord their God with all their Hearts and Souls and will cleave to him For those whose hearts are upright towards God will not be drawn away from the true Doctrine he hath taught them by such delusions see Gal. 1.8 Therefore he injoyns them to put to death every Dreamer or false Prophet that shall endeavour to seduce them from the true Worship and Service of God unto Idolatry and in so doing they shall not only justly punish evil doers but prevent the hurt which they would do among the people And He tells them That not only the false Prophet but all others whatsoever were to be put to death that should seduce them though secretly to Idolatry and they were not to spare those that were dearest to them in this case If thy Brother says he or thy Son or Daughter or the Wife of thy bosome or thy Friend which is as thine own Soul entice thee secretly saying Let us go and serve other gods of what Nation soever thou shalt not consent and hearken unto him neither shall thine eye pity him neither shalt thou spare or conceal him thou shalt certainly procure his death by declaring the thing to the Magistrate and informing and bearing Testimony against him and procuring justice to be executed upon him according to this Law and as his just Accuser thou shalt throw the first stone at him see Deut. 17.7 and then the rest of the people shall stone him And all Israel shall hear and fear and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you Further that he may manifest Gods extream hatred and detestation of Idolatry he tells them That if in any of their Cities they shall hear of the revolt of any other of their Cities through the instigation of some wicked men Sons of Belial that went out from among them separating themselves from Gods people in point of Religion they must first inquire diligently concerning the truth of the thing and if they find it certain that such abomination is wrought among them then they shall smite the Inhabitants of that City with the edge of the Sword destroying it utterly and all that is therein and the Cattel thereof and they shall gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof and shall burn with fire the City and all the spoil thereof every whit for the honour of God and in Obedience unto his Command thereby offering it up as a Sacrifice to Him and that City shall be a ruinous heap for ever and shall not be built again They must not take to themselves or their own use any part of the accursed goods of the City see Josh 6.17 that so the Lord may turn from the firceness of his anger which oftentimes is kindled not only against the Sinners themselves but all Israel for their sakes see Joshua 7.1 11 12. Chap. XIV 19. He comes now to give them some Precepts concerning their Conversation among themselves which he shews should be holy
suddainly stor'd again Therefore they must take heed that in their rage they did not so wast the Land as to prejudice Posterity But with other Trees that were not Fruit-Trees they might build Bulwarks about a City which they besieged till it was subdued from vers 10. to the end He now gives directions concerning uncertain Murder how it is to be expiated Chap. XXI If one be found slain and lying in a field and it be not known who hath slain him then the Elders and Judges of the Towns and Cities round about shall for the better satisfaction of them all come forth and see the measure taken between the dead body and the Cities round about it if it be doubtful what City is nearest because the next City is to make expiation for the Murder in manner following viz. The Elders of that City shall take an Heifer that hath not been wrought with and which hath not drawn in the Yoke and they shall bring down the Heifer unto a rough and obscure Valley that lies neglected and uncultivated to make the thought of Murder more horrible and dreadful and there they shall strike off the Heifers neck signifying that the Murderer ought so to be used could he be found out and that if they had him in their hands they would so serve him And the Priests the Sons of Levi shall come near whom the Lord hath chosen to minister unto Him and to bless the people in his Name to shew by their presence that this was an extraordinary Sacrifice and that the Elders might before them as in Gods presence protest their Innocence and to see that all things were done according to Law and to satisfie the Elders in any thing that might seem doubtful For by their word and Sentence as Expounders of Gods Law any thing in Controversie or any Stroke must be judged or tried And all the Elders of that City which was nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the Heifer thereby intimating that they were innoceâ—â— of the blood of the slain man see Matth. 27.24 and they shall solemnly declare and protest That their hands have not shed that blood neither have their eyes seen it shed by any other Then the Priest shall say Be merciful O Lord unto thy people Israel whom thou hast redeemed and lay not innocent blood unto their Charge Impute not that to them which hath not been done by them and lay not the punishment thereof upon them And so they shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among them that is they shall be discharged from the guilt of this murther and shall not be punished for it they performing all these things which are here commanded by God from vers 1. to 10. 2ly He gives direction that when they go out to War with a foreign Nation and among the Captives see a beautiful Woman * It was not lawful for them to contract any alliance by marriage with the Amorites see Exod. 34.16 Deut. 7.3 which one of them hath a desire to make his wife In such case he shall bring her home to his house and she shall shave her Head and pare her Nails and shall put off the Heathenish Garment wherein she was taken and shall bewail her Father and Mother a full month as if they were dead she being to bid farewel for ever to them by all which things was intimated that she must renounce her Heathenism and all the corrupt Customs and Superstitions thereof and forsaking her Fathers house must be ingrafted into the Israel of God and must worship God as they did These things being performed she might become his wife But if after he had consummated the marriage †This liberty for Israelites to marry Heathenish Captive-women is like that of Divorce Deut. 24. which was only suffered for the hardnâ—ss of their hearts and is only to be understood of the Captives of foreign Nations not of the Canaanites who were all to be destroy'd with her he should find no content in her and was desirous to put her away he might do it but must then freely set her at liberty to go whether she would because he had humbled her He must not sell her for money under pretence that she was his Captive and Servant from vers 10. to 15. 3ly If a man have two wives which though contrary to God's first Institution Gen. 2.22 23 24. yet He for a time suffered but approved not as appears Mal. 2.15 Matth. 19.4 5. and one of them was better beloved by him than the other and he have Sons by them both He commands that the Son by the first wife though less beloved shall not lose his right of Primogeniture but he shall injoy the right of the first-born which by the Law of Nature belonged unto him and his Father shall give him a double portion of all that he hath For he is the beginning of his strength from vers 15. to 18. 4ly If any man have a stubborn and rebellious Son which will not obey the voice of his Father or the voice of his Mother and that when they have chastened him will not hearken unto them then shall his Father and Mother bring him to the Elders of the City and shall say unto them This our Son is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey our voice he is a Glutton and a Drunkard Then the Elders of the City shall examine the matter brought against him and if they find it true the men of the City shall stone him with stones that he die So shall ye put away evil from among you and all Israel shall hear and fear By the severity of this Law Children were taught to be more obedient to their Parents and Parents were taught to be more careful in a right Education of their Children from vers 18. to 22. 5ly If any man have committed some notorious Offence that deserveth the judgment of death and being condemned for it be hanged on a Tree His body shall not remain all night upon the Tree but they must in any wise bury him that day for he that is hanged is accursed of God that the Land be not defiled This kind of death was usually the punishment only of those who had by some notorious wickedness provoked God to pour out his Wrath upon the whole Land and so were hanged up to appease his Wrath as we may see Numb 25.4 2 Sam. 21.6 And it was esteemed the most shameful and accursed * Hence it was that God would have his dear Son our blessed Lord and Saviour suffer this kind of death that even hence it might be more evident that in his death he bare the Curse due to our sins according to that of the Apostle Gal. 3.13 because the very manner of this death did intimate that such men as were thus executed were such execrable and accursed Wretches that they did as it were defile the Earth with treading on it and would
Therefore says he keep your selves all of you from the accursed thing Take none of the accursed banned things to your own use lest you bring a Curse upon your selves and upon the Camp of Israel thereby Joshua having given the people these Instructions he gave order to the Army to march round about the City seven days in the manner that was prescribed the Sabbath-day being one of them and that by Command of him who is Lord of the Sabbath The armed-men marched before the Ark and the remainder of the people that were in the Rear not armed followed after and thus they did six days on the seventh day they rose early and compassed the City after the same manner seven times and at the seventh time when the Priests that blew with the Trumpets made a long blast Joshua bad them shout for the Lord had given them the City The people hereupon gave a great shout and the wall of the City fell down flat viz. all that part of it over against which the Israelites in a long train marched and so all the armed men went up every man right from the place where they were and entred in at the breach into the City And they utterly destroyed all that was in the City Men Women young and old and the Oxen and Asses and Sheep and what ever they met with excepting Rahab and her Family whom Joshua sent the two Spies unto whom she had preserved to bring them forth and to leave them without the Camp till they were cleansed from their former pollutions according to the Law Numb 31.19 and were instructed in the Israelites Religion and admitted into the Congregation and so they and their Posterity continued among the Israelites and Rahab was afterwards married to Salmon a Prince of the Tribe of Judah one of Christs Progenitors Matth. 1.5 Luke 3.32 Then they burnt the City with fire and all that was therein excepting only the Silver and Gold and Iron and Brass which were reserved to be put into the Treasury of the House of the Lord none of them offering to meddle with one jot of the Spoil save only Achan of whom more presently In the judgment of reason one would have thought it must needs be grievous to the Israelites to destroy so brave a City and so goodly Houses wherein they might so conveniently have setled themselves and the Prey and Spoil of so fair and rich a City whereby they might have so greatly inriched themselves The more remarkable therefore and commendable was their ready Obedience herein to Gods Commands And Joshua by a special Inspiration of the Holy Ghost adjured them not to go about to build that City again and pronounced a Curse upon that man that by rebuilding it should as it were endeavour to blot out the memorial of this miraculous Work of God in giving this Idolatrous City after so strange a manner into their hands Whosoever shall go about to do it says He he shall lay the Foundation thereof in his First-born and in his youngest Son shall he set up the Gates thereof that is it shall cost him the loss of his Children of the first when he begins it of the other as he goeth forward with the work and of the youngest when he finisheth it and hangeth up the Gates thereof This Curse afterwards fell upon Hiel the Bethelite who in Ahab's Reign built this City again 1 Kings 16.34 This man was very ignorant if he knew not of this Curse but if he did know of it he was very audacious and impudently profane in not regarding it But though he was in his own particular severely punish'd for thus transgressing Gods Command and neglecting this Curse yet the City being rebuilt it was afterward allowed for a fit Habitation even for good men to lodge in as Elijah and Elisha 2 Kings 2.4 18. yea our Saviour himself did honour this City with his presence and Miracles Luke 19.1 5. Josh Ch. 5. from 13. to the end Josh Ch. 6. whole Chapter SECT XCIX JOshua now sent Spies to Ai not to go into it as those sent to Jericho did but to bring him Intelligence in what posture the City and Country thereabout was The Spies return and make a Report as if the place were of no great strength and might easily be taken by a few of the Israelites and therefore there was no need to carry up the whole Host of Israel against it Let only about two or three thousand say they go up and finite it Joshua accordingly sent up about three thousand against it But the men of Ai couragiously sallying out upon them the Israelites fled presently before them which plainly shewed that God being offended with them for something amiss among them did in an extraordinary manner strike them with fear and astonishment The men of Ai chased them from their City Gates to Shebarim and killed 36 of them in the going down of the Hill so that it seems the Israelies fled at the first On-set and were slain only in flying The whole people of Israel were extreamly terrified and dismaid at this For God seemed to have withdrawn his supporting Hand from them and in such a case the most stout and valiant will soon shrink and be afraid Joshua and the Elders of Israel hereupon rent their Clothes * A Ceremony used in great Mournings see 2 Sam. 1.11 Job 2.12 Ezek. 27.30 put dust upon their Heads and fell to the earth on their faces before the Ark. Neither was it their loss so much as the apprehension of Gods displeasure that so much afflicted them God had promised that no man should stand before them Ch. 1.5 and that they should drive out the Inhabitants out of the Land Their flying therefore now before the Enemy especially in such an inglorious manner was a plain Demonstration that God was offended with them and had withdrawn his gracious presence from them And the smallest Affliction if it be looked upon as an effect of Gods anger is very dreadful Joshua lying thus prostrate before the Lord said Alas O Lord God wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us I wish we had been content to have staid and dwelt on the other side Jordan * Joshua seems here a little too much transported thorow humane frailty O Lord what shall I say when Israel turneth their backs before their Enemies For the Canaanites the Inhabitants of this Land will hear of it and will inviron us round and cut off our Name and Memorial from off the Earth and what wilt thou then do to thy great Name How wilt thou preserve thy Glory when the Canaanites shall say Thou hadst not power to subdue them nor defend us against them and thou wast not able to give us this Land which thou hadst promised us See Deut. 33.27 Then the Lord spake to Joshua saying Get thee up why liest thou prostrate on thy face
for their present use out of an act of base sloth suffered them to roost among them and did not endeavour to drive them out Moses in the division of that Land without Jordan gave no part to the Tribe of Levi that is no Regions or Parts of the Country as he did to the other Tribes upon which they might live by Tillage and Husbandry but only some Cities to dwell in and the Suburbs belonging to them with some circuit of Ground for the feeding of their Cattel because God himself was to be their Portion and the Sacrifices and other Oblations due unto God were to be for their Maintenance Now the bounds of the Lands given to each Tribe beyond Jordan by Moses are particularly set down to prevent all strife and division among them for the future Joshua 13. whole Chapter SECT CIX JOshua now with Eleazar the High Spirit and the Elders of the Tribes who were expresly chosen and named by the Lord for this purpose Numb 34.17 c. at Gilgal set upon this great Work of dividing the Land on this side Jordan among the nine Tribes and an half And accordingly first they cast the Land into so many several Portions or Provinces as were the number of the Tribes that were to inhabit it yet so as the certain bounds of each Portion or Province were not certainly limited and appointed till they knew which Tribes the Lord would by the designation of the lot settle in each of them and then they were to inlarge or lessen the Portion according as the number of the Tribe that was there to be setled was greater or less so that the lots were only to determine in what part of the Country each Tribe should be planted and afterwards the quantity of the Land which each Tribe was to enjoy was to be set out by Joshua Eleazar and the Heads of the Tribes as was appointed Numb 26.55 56. What manner of Lottery they used in this business is no where expressed The common Opinion of the Hebrew Writers is That there were two Pots or Vrnes set before the Tabernacle the one having the Names of the Tribes in it that were to have their portion of Land assigned to them the other had just so many lots in each of which such and such a part of the Land was described and that some man appointed to that Service probably Eleazar the High Priest drew out first out of one Pot one of the Tribes then out of the other Pot one of the lots there and so that Tribe had their portion assigned them in that part of the Land described and set forth in that lot and accordingly they did by the rest And though this way and method be not any where particularly expressed in this Book yet the phrase that is often used in the following Chapters that such a lot came out and such a lot came up may seem covertly to imply it see Ch. 19.1 10 17. And herein the Hand of God in ordering the lots was the more wonderful and the Prophesies of Jacob and Moses concerning the several Inheritances of the Tribes were more evidenced to be of God Joshua therefore and the Elders now setting upon this Work the first lot came out for the Tribe of Judah and his lot fell out in the richest and best part of the Kingdom whereby the purpose of God in exalting this Tribe above the rest was made very apparent The largeness of Judah's lot and the bounds of it and the Cities thereof are set forth Chap. 15. The next two lots that were drawn were for Ephraim and Manasseh the Sons of Joseph immediately one after the other upon whom God transferred a part of Reuben's Birth-right as is expressed 1 Chron. 5.1 2. The Writer of this Book first shews joyntly where the Inheritance of those two Tribes lay and then afterwards shews severally what each of them had for their portion Chap. 16. at vers 5. He begins the Discription of Ephraim's lot which came out before the other For though he was younger than Manasseh yet he was prefer'd before him by Jacob's appointment Gen. 48 19. and besides the Cities that stood within his own lot he had many Cities allotted him within the portion of Manasseh vers 9. The lot that fell to Manasseh is described Ch. 17. and 't is said to be for Machir the only Son of Manasseh whence the whole Tribe beareth the Name of Machir Judg. 5.14 and because Machir that is the Machirites his Posterity were a Warlike people they had Gilead and Bashan allotted to them that is half of it which they did win by dispossessing the Enemy of it see Numb 32.39 40. Therefore half of the Posterity of Machir being setled on the East-side of Jordan the other half were according to Gods appointment to have their portion and lot on the West-side And there fell ten portions to Manasseh that is their Land was divided into six parts according to the number of the Sons of Gilead mentioned vers 2. And Hepher's part who was one of them was divided into five parts or portions and given to his Son Zelophehad's five Daughters and so they were ten portions in all see Numb 26.33 The Cities and Country of Ephraim and Manasseh were much intermixed one with the other These two Tribes complained to Joshua that the quantity of Land assign'd to them for their portion was not sufficient for them They alledged that it was no more than might have been well assigned to one Tribe Why hast thou say they given us but one lot and one portion to inherit seeing we are a great people But Joshua and the rest of the Commissioners had not given them too little circuit of Land to inhabit but indeed part of it was over-grown with Woods and a great part of it was yet in the possession of the Canaanites who had the advantage of Iron-Chariots to fight with Also in their portion there were the Perizzites a wild and savage people much given to Spoil and Prey and the Rephaims or Giants with whom they were not very willing to encounter These things considered these two Tribes thought they had reason to alledge That they had no more given them than would well serve for one populous Tribe Joshua retorts the strength of their argument upon themselves If says he ye be so great a people as you alledge then you are the more able to drive out the Canaanites out of those places allotted to you for your portion and the greater will be your shame if you let them alone and yet complain of the narrowness of your lot If you are so great a people get you up to the Wood-Country and cut down the Woods and make the ground fit for Tillage and build Houses and Cities upon it and drive out and destroy the Canaanites that lurk there and so you may have Land enough to dwell in and need not complain that your portion is too straight for you The Children of Joseph reply
That if those woody Hills and Mountains were made fit to inhabit and were added to their portion yet there would not be Land enough for them And as for the Canaanites that dwelt in the Valleys and Champion-Countries they were not so easily to be conquered for they were a formidable people and used Iron-Chariots in their Wars which having Hooks and Sythes fastened to them did usually do great Execution in a Fight and mowed down all before them Joshua tells them He could give them no other Answer than he had done They were a great people and had great Power they excelled in number and strength and had no cause to complain that they had but only one lot or that their portion was too straight for them for if their own Sloth Cowardize and Diffidence of Gods Power and Providence did not hinder them they might inlarge it when they would If they were not wanting to themselves they would find the portion allotted to them was more than one lot for if they took the course he prescribed them the mountainous Country would be theirs they might plant it and possess it from one end to the other and all the adjacent Vallies and Champion-Country would be theirs also seeing if they did with Courage and Faith in God attempt to gain it God would surely enable them to drive out the Canaanites notwithstanding all their strength and the advantage they had by their Iron-Chariots Thus we see how uprightly Joshua carried himself in this matter being no ways partial to his own Tribe the Tribe of Ephraim nor to that of Manasseh so nearly allied to him Joshua 14.1 to 6. Ch. 15. from 1. to 13. and from 20. to 63. Ch. 16. from 1. to 10. Ch. 17. from 1. to 12. from vers 14. to the end SECT CX WE return now to the Tribe of Judah whose lot as we have shewn falling to them in the richest and best part of Canaan an eminent Person of this Tribe namely Caleb descended of Kenaz 1 Chron. 4.13 15. attended with the chief Men and Elders of Judah made his Address to Joshua and spake to him after this manner Thou maist remember the thing that the Lord spake to Moses the Man of God at Kadesh-Barnea concerning thee and me when we returned thither from searching the Land namely that we only of all those that were above twenty years old at that time should see this good Land Numb 14.30 I was forty years old when I was sent by Moses to spy out the Land (p) The Israelites after this wandring 38 years in the Wilderness this must needs be the seventh year since they came into Canaan and I brought him word again as it was in my heart I told him faithfully what I thought of the Land and did neither for fear nor favour of any man speak otherwise than I thought in my Conscience My Brethren that went up with me viz. ten of them made the hearts of the people melt and faint within them by telling them of the invincible strength of the Canaanites but I wholly followed the Lord my God as thou also didst and shewed my Obedience to him faithfully and perswaded the people without fear to enter into the Land resting upon the Promises and powerful Assistance of the Almighty And Moses sware to me on that day to wit by the motion and direction of God saying Surely the Land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine Inheritance and thy Childrens for ever namely some special part of it and particularly that wherein Hebron (q) And this place of the Land was given him rather than any other because when the other Spies had seen those Giants the Anakims Numb 13.23 near Hebron and had thereupon discouraged the people Caleb resolutely opposed these his faint-hearted Brethren and when they objected the invincible strength of the place and people He encouraged the Israelites and told them they might with God's help easily vanquish them And hereupon it seems there was some particular promise made to him concerning this Inheritance Josh 15.13 is situate because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God Thus Moses sware to me And now behold the Lord hath kept me alive these forty and five years since He spake this word unto Moses so that I am now fourscore and five years old and yet I am as strong this day as I was on the day Moses sent me As my strength was then so is it now both for War or any other business Thus the Lord hath wonderfully preserv'd my life and strength and reserv'd me as it were to enjoy that portion of Land which was then promised me Give me therefore I pray thee this mountainous Country where Hebron and Debir are situate and if the Lord will please to be with me as I trust He will I make no doubt but that I shall be able to drive out these Anakims and get this portion for an Inheritance to me and my Children as the Lord graciously promised me Joshua readily granted his Request and blessing him gave him Hebron for an Inheritance that is the Country and Territory in which Hebron and Debir were situate with the Towns belonging to them It is plain that Hebron and Debir were taken by Joshua and the Israelites in their Expedition against those five Kings that had joyned their Forces together to besiege Gibeon as we may see Ch. 10.36 37 38. He then took Hebron and cut off many of the Anakims from the Mountains about it but in process of time the Israelites as it seems not leaving Garrisons in those Towns the Inhabitants that got away and especially the remaining Anakims did again sieze upon Hebron and repossess it Wherefore Joshua would not permit Caleb alone without the assistance of some of his own Tribe to go up and assault it but he himself went with his Army and took it and he utterly destroyed the Anakims and their Fortresses and cleared the Country of them saving only that there remained some of them in Gaza Gath and Ashdod Cities of the Philistines There these Giants remained many years after For Goliah was of Gath 1 Sam. 17.14 and those four huge Giants mentioned 2 Sam. 21.16 c. were all of the Philistines Joshua having taken Hebron gave it to Caleb namely the Land and Villages thereunto adjoyning reserving the City it self and the Suburbs thereof for the Priests and to be a City of Refuge Josh 21.11 12. Hebron being thus retaken 't is probable Joshua sent a great Brigade of his Army under the Command of Caleb who had been very active with the assistance of those of his own Tribe as it seems before in slaying the three Sons of Anak Sheshai Ahiman and Talmai and driving their Adherents out of the Coasts of Hebron to take in Debir where He to excite the valour of his Souldiers promised to give his consent * See Judges 1.12 We cannot hence infer that he might lawfully force upon his Daughter what Husband he
let on God's part but they might enter into their Inheritances and those persons whom he had appointed to divide their Inheritances to them by lot were ready to do their duty therein He therefore requires them to choose out from among them three men of every Tribe that the matter might be carried on impartially and he would send them to go through the Land and to take a Survey not only of the parts of the Country already subdued but of those that remained yet in the Enemies hands that they might describe the largeness of every Region and Province and set down how many Cities and Villages were in each of them That so having as it were a Map of the Land that remained to be divided before them they might justly divide it into seven parts and so give proportionable Shares and Inheritances to every Tribe according as they were in number fewer or more He tells them That the Tribe of Judah and the Sons of Joseph Ephraim and Manasseh should continue seated the one in the South the other in the North according as their lots fell to them at Gilgal but yet he seems to intimate that if their Shares were found to be too large then some other Tribes might have a share with them as it afterwards happened for the Tribe of Simeon had their portion assigned to them out of that which was at first the lot of Judah Ch. 19.9 When these Surveyors had gone through the Land and divided it into seven parts for the Levites were to have no part among them the Priesthood of the Lord being their Inheritance and the other Tribes had had their lots before then He orders that the Description of it should be brought to him and he would cast lots for them before the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle The men thus appointed went out accordingly being secure and confident of Gods Protection and dividing themselves as 't is probable and going under pretence possibly of Negotiation or Traffick they spent seven months in this Survey as Josephus tells us Antiq. lib. 5. and so made a Description of it in a Volume or Map with all the Cities and Towns belonging to each Province and divided it into seven parts and so presented it to Joshua and the Elders at Shiloh Then Joshua cast lots for them according to the divisions of their Tribes And the first lot came up for the Children of Benjamin whose lot fell between the Children of Judah and Joseph and the bounds of their lot with the Cities belonging thereunto are described Ch. 18. from vers 11. to the end Thus Benjamin had the honour to have the first lot among the seven Tribes and was by providence seated the very next to his Brethren Ephraim and Manasseh and had also part of the Royal City of Jerusalem within his Borders whereby was fulfilled what Moses prophesied of this Tribe Deut. 33.12 And of Benjamin he said the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him and the Lord shall cover him all the day long and he shall dwell between his Shoulders The next lot came forth for Simeon and their Inheritance was within the lot of the Tribe of Judah It seems they that were sent to search the Land not yet divided that they might part it into seven lots for the seven Tribes remaining found that the portion which Joshua and Eleazar and the other Commissioners for dividing the Land had formerly assigned to Judah was too large considering what was left for the other Tribes and therefore they agreed unanimously that a whole portion for one of the Tribes which had not yet their Inheritance assigned to them should be taken out of that which was formerly given to Judah and some Cities also they took from Judah to be as part of another lot see Josh 19 40 41. And thus by the Providence of God there being one Tribe to be provided for within the portion of the Children of Judah the lot fell upon this Tribe of Simeon that was fewest in number of all the Tribes see Numb 26.14 And by this Tribes being intermingled with Judah and not having a portion by themselves apart that Prophesie of Jacob was fulfilled Gen. 49. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel The bounds of this Tribes portion are not described only the chief Cities and Towns are named that were in their lot and that because their Inheritance was within that of Judah The third lot came up for the Children of Zebulun Their Borders are described Ch. 19. from vers 10. to 17. The fourth lot came out to Issachar Their Borders are described from vers 17 to 24. The fifth lot for the Tribe of Asher Their Borders are described from vers 24. to 32. The sixth lot came out for the Children of Naphtali Their Borders are described from vers 32. to vers 40. The seventh lot came out for the Children of Dan. Hence it appears that this Book was not written by Joshua except we shall say that some particulars in it were afâ—erwards inserted by some other holy men Their Borders are described from vers 40. to 47. Their lot fell to them in the Southern parts close by Judah's portion and they being not able to drive out the Philistines out of their Land in after-times viz. after Joshua's death they were streightned and so went out and took Laish a City in the North parts * Judg. 20.1 in Naphtali's lot see Judg. 18. though then in the Zidonians possession and transplanted a Colony thither calling it Dan from Dan their Ancestor Son of Jacob. Ch. 18. from 2. to the end Ch. 19. from 1. to 49. SECT CXVI WHen they had made an end of dividing the Land among all the Tribes and the distribution thereof was fully finished then the Children of Israel gave Joshua an Inheritance in Timnah-serah in Mount Ephraim And herein was the modesty of this great General remarkable that he was content to stay till all the other Tribes had their portion ere he made any motion for that which by special Prerogative was to be conferred on him according to the Word of the Lord spoken to Moses not only concerning Caleb but also Joshua Ch. 14.9 2ly He was content to receive what the Lord had promised him as by way of Gift from the people 3ly Whereas he might have chosen the fairest and goodliest City in all their Tribes He chose his Seat in a mountainous Country and it seems a City that was ruinated so that he was fain to build it ere he could dwell in it Josh Ch. 19. from vers 49. to the end SECT CXVII THe Levites now come to Joshua and Eleazar and the rest of the Commissioners for dividing the Land to receive from them the Cities which God appointed to be set apart for their dwellings And they accordingly set apart forty eight Cities for them as God had commanded Numb 35.7 The Commissioners 't is like chose these Cities out of each
raise up the Name of the dead upon his Inheritance that it may not be cut off from among his Brethren and from the Gate of his Place that is from among the Inhabitants of Bethlehem who daily go in and out at the Gates of the City and upon all civil Occasions resort thither as to their place of Judicature Hereupon the Elders and all the people there present declared that they were all Witnesses to these Transactions And so they wished Boaz all happiness with Ruth whom he intended to take for his Wife praying unto the Lord that she might be to him what Rachel * Here Rachel is named before Leah because she was Jacob's true and lawful wife Leah was fraudulently put upon him and Leah which two did build the House of Israel were to Jacob viz. that she might be very loving and comfortable to him and might bear him many Children as they did that thereby the Israel or Church of God might be increased Then speaking to Him they said As for thy self we heartily wish thou mayest do worthily in Ephratah and be famous in Bethlehem We heartily wish thy House may be like the House of Pharez †See Sect. 35. of Chap. 3. that is as Pharez of whose Stock thou art was blessed in his Posterity though his Mother was a Stranger and not of the Stock of Israel so that his Children and Childrens Children have been most honourable in the Tribe of Judah so we wish that thou maist be blessed in thy Children begotten of this poor Stranger and that they may still uphold the Honour of that House So Boaz took Ruth to wife and God gave her to conceive and she bare him a Son Upon this the Women congratulated Naomi saying Blessed be the Lord who hath not left thee this day without a Kinsman a pious Kinsman indeed who hath raised up Seed to his Kinsman thy Son deceased and let his Name be famous in Israel for it He will comfort and revive thee and restore thee as it were to a new life He will be a Nourisher of thy old age and make thee as it were young again For Ruth thy beloved Daughter-in-law who is better to thee than seven Sons hath now born him * Vers 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 poterit verti peperit ei scil vindici Pronomen enim affixum saepe ponitur Et exponendum est per dativum separatum Capel a Son which must needs be matter of great joy to him Then Naomi took the Child and laid him in her Bosom and became a dry-Nurse to him And the Women her Neighbours said There is a Son born to Naomi because this Son of Ruth was to raise up the Name of her deceased Husband Mahlon the Son of Naomi and to be accounted his Son rather than the Son of Boaz. However they gave their advice that his Name should be called Obed importing that they hoped he would be very serviceable to his Mother and Grand-Mother Indeed every where in the Genealogies Obed is reckoned the Son of Boaz but that is because there it is fit the line should be drawn according to the natural Descents that we may truly know the Ancestors of whom Christ came without any respect to this legal Ordination This Obed was the Father of Jesse who was the Father of David The principal end of setting down this Genealogy †By the Genealogy of David set down in the end of this Book 't is manifest it was written after David's time unless that were added to the Book in succeeding times by some other Author here seems to be to shew the truth of Jacob's Prophesie concerning Christ's coming of the Tribe of Judah and therefore it begins with Pharez Juda's Son and so descendeth to David of whose Stock it was also known that the Messiah was to come Ruth Ch. 4. whole Chapter SECT CXXXVI WE return now to the History of the Judges When Ebud was dead the Children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord. Vnder none of the Judges did they enjoy so long a peace as in the days of Ehud as we may see Ch. 3.30 viz. 80 years And now we shall shew how ill they requited the Lord for so great a Mercy As standing waters are wont to putrifie so they were corrupted by their long Peace and by degrees fell off from God unto Idolatry as they formerly had done Upon this God gave them up into the hands of Jabin King of Canaan that is of those Canaanites that dwelt in the Northern parts Successor to that Jabin slain by Joshua whose chief City Hazor he burnt Josh 11.1 10 11 12. yet this Son or Successor of his it seems re-inforcing himself recovered from the Israelites that part of Land and Territory that lay about Hazor and repairing the City reigned there as his Predecessors had done And now at last not contented with his own Kingdom he made War against the Israelites in general and brought them into Subjection to him and cruelly oppressed them in Revenge no doubt of what Joshua had formerly done against that Kingdom and City The Text says He mightily oppressed them vers 3. which Expression is no where used concerning any other Bondage the Children of Israel were under and he oppressed them a long while viz. twenty years Third Oppression under Jabin twenty years and this Oppression must needs be the more grievous to them because they were brought under the Canaanites that accursed Nation whom God promised to cast out before them and would have done it had not they by their grievous Sins prevented their own Mercies And observable it is that whereas their first Bondage under Cushan-rishathaim King of Mesopotamia continued but seven years the next under Eglon continued eighteen years and this under Jabin continued twenty years Thus we see when lighter Corrections did no good the next were sorer and of longer continuance and because they abused God's Mercy and readiness to withdraw his Hand when they cried unto him therefore he continued the next Judgments longer upon them But to go on The Captain of Jabin's Host was Sisera who dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles in the lot of Naphtali whither many of the Canaanites in the timâ— of Israels prevailing fled as unto a place of Strength and there fortified themselves Jabin had a great Army and 900 Chariots of Iron and continuing to Oppress Israel very sorely they cried unto the Lord and humbled themselves Deborah the Third Judge and He was at length pleased to hear their Cry and send them a Deliverer It seems at this time * Namely whilst Jabin oppressed them so that those 20 years or within 〈◊〉 those 40 yâ—ars of Dâ—brorah vers 31. Populum judicabat sine Principatu tamen Jus populo dixit litesque composuit sed absque jurisdictione sive potestate judiciariâ Quia Prophetissa mulier prudens erat sponte populus ad eam controversias suas detulit Judices
Israel many years He had many Wives by whom he had sixty nine Sons and one Concubine who dwelt at Shechem whom he took as a secundary Wife and in an inferiour degree having been before his Maid-Servant Ch. 9 18. by whom he had Abimelech At length Gideon died in a good old age and was buried in the Sepulchre of his Father at Ophra Ch. 8. from vers 22. to the 33. SECT CXLI PResently after Gideon was dead the Israelites fell to Idolatry again and went a whoring after Baalim and worshipped Baal-Berith for their god the Idol of the Shechemites signifying the Lord of the Covenant so called possibly because when they made choice of him to be their Idol-god they bound themselves by Covenant to serve him which possibly the Devil put them upon in imitation of God and so by adhering to him they broke their Covenant with God And they were now so besotted with Idolatry that they forgot the only true God their great Deliverer and wholly neglected his Worship and Service and worshipped only Idols Neither shewed they themselves grateful to Gideon who had deserved so well of them neither did they shew kindness or seek the good and welfare of his Family The people being thus generally corrupted as the Lord had formerly punished their Idolatry and Apostacy by suffering some of the Neighbour-Nations to Invade them and sorely Afflict them so now he resolved to punish them by the Tyranny of One from among themselves even by Abimelech the Son of Gideon their late Judge who upon his Fathers death attempted to get to himself the Regal Power which his Father had so lately refused To make way hereunto he went presently to Shechem and there began to tamper with his Vncles his Mothers Brothers and the rest of her Kindred and employed them as his Instruments being possibly of some Rank and Esteem in Shechem to see if they could draw the Inhabitants of that City to Aid and Assist him in his Project not doubting but if he could effect this he should be able well enough to accomplish the rest of his Design And thus by the Miseries which this Son of a Concubine brought upon his Fathers House and the whole Kingdom we may see that God did even in those Times testifie his Displeasure against their having several Wives and Concubines though for the present He did permit it But to proceed Abimelech being come to Shechem and addressing himself to his Kindred and acquainting them with his Design He desires them to perswade the men of Shechem to make him King He tells them That though his Father had in modesty refused the Kingdom yet it was fit now according to their Profer they should settle it upon his Posterity Secondly He perswades them that his Brethren had a Plot upon the Kingdom to divide it among themselves though it does not appear they had any such thought and he shews them that it were better for them to settle the Government upon Him alone then to suffer themselves to be under the Command of all Gideon's Sons 3ly He tells them He was bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh and being of their own blood they might expect all kindness and favour from him and further it would be a great honour and advantage to them to have a King so nearly allied to them Abimelech's Kindred seemed much pleased with what he had said to them and accordingly moved the business to the rest of the men of Shechem whose hearts readily inclined to favour Abimelech's design because he was their Kinsman And in order to the carrying on thereof they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the Treasure of their Idol-god Baal-Berith wherewith he hired vain and light persons to follow him and these he armed that he might by their Aid and Assistance accomplish what he had designed And thus the money that had been given to their Idol-god became the first fewel for the kindling of that fire in the Land wherewith the Lord intended to punish the Idolatry and other Sins of the people With these Forces and the assistance of some of the Shechemites V. 5. Being threescore and ten persons 'T is usual in Scripture to put a perfect and round number for an imperfect see Gen. 42.13 Numb 14.32 33. 1 Cor. 15.5 Abimelech went to Ophra and there seizing all his Fathers Sons excepting Jotham the youngest and pretending something against them under a pretence of Justice as if they had had some Plot upon the State tending to the ruine of it he put them all to death and executed them all in one place upon one Stone This being done the men of Shechem gathered themselves together and the Magistrates of the City who were wont to meet in a Town-House or Common-Hall called the House of Millo and made Abimelech King Abimelech the Fifth Judge if at least He may be so esteemed seeing He was not set up by the appointment of God and so proclaimed him in the Field near Shechem where Joshua in former time had erected a great stone under an Oak Josh 24.26 Indeed it may seem strange that the Inhabitants of one City should dare to do this alone of themselves it being expresly also against the Law of God Deut. 17.14 15. Thou shalt in any wise set him King over thee whom the Lord thy God shall chuse But though the Shechemites possibly at first made him King only over their own City yet afterwards it seems many other Israelites of other Towns and Tribes did come in moved by their Example and Perswasion and joyned with them and accepted him for their King and the rather because they generally began to be weary of the Government God had established among them and longed to be like other Nations in having a King to Reign over them Abimelech therefore daily gathering more and more strength at last he usurped the Title of King over the whole Nation whence he is said to have reigned three years over Israel vers 22. The Lord now intending to punish Abimelech and the Shechemites for changing the Government which he had established among them and especially for the barbarous Murther committed upon the Sons of Gideon by a special Instinct of his Spirit He moved Jotham who of all the Sons of Gideon had escaped the hands of Abimelech to go to the Inhabitants of Shechem and to give them warning before-hand of the Calamities and Judgments that were like to befal them if they did not repent of this their great wickedness Accordingly going to Mount Gerizim which was near Shechem and at a time as it seems when the Shechemites upon some publick Festivity or such solemn occasion were there * From the Mountain of Blessings they now hear a Curse denounced against them met together He lift up his Voice and spake to them saying Hearken to me ye men of Shechem that God may hearken unto you intimating to them that God had sent him to them with that
Family in Shechem that we must serve him is He not the Son of a Concubine And what is this Zebul but his Officer his Creature his Tool to tyranize by And must such an ancient and brave City as Shechem be inslav'd to every domineering Officer that this Son of an Hand-Maid shall set over you If you have a mind to give away your Liberty and be in Bondage you had better call in the old Lords of this place the Descendents of Hamor the Father of Shechem and serve them than serve this new base upstart Abimelech Well! if you men of Shechem would all put your selves under my Government I would quickly ease you of this Abimelech He should not long King it over you Then in a Bravado he cries out O Abimelech make thy self as strong as thou canst with all thine Allies and Friends and then come out and fight with me if thou darest Zebul the Ruler of the City hearing of these vaunting words of Gaal was greatly inrag'd and sent secret Intelligence to Abimelech How Gaal and his Adherents were fortifying the City against him He advises him therefore to come by night against Shechem with all his Army and having laid the greatest part of them in Ambush He should the next morning shew himself with the rest before the City against whom when Gaal came forth as undoubtedly he would He would fall unexpectedly into the snare Abimelech accordingly marched with his Army in the night towards Shechem and divided his Men into four Companies and laying three of them in Ambush He marched only with the fourth in the morning towards the City Gaal going early to the Gate of the City and Zebul the Major of the Town being by He said to him Behold there come people down from the top of the Mountains Zebul jeeringly replied Surely thou takest the shadows of the Mountains for Men. Gaal presently in some consternation cries out There was another Company coming by the middle of the Land and another by the Plain Then Zebul tauntingly ask'd him Where is now thy mouth wherewith thou saidst who is Abimelech that we should serve him where are thy great Brags and Boastings now Is not this the people whom thou didst so contemptuously despise Go out now and fight with them and shew thy valour if thou hast any Shew that thou canst fight as well as talk Gaal upon this got as many of the men of Shechem together as he could and marched out before them to fight with Abimelech But Abimelech quickly routed him and slew and wounded many of his men and chased the rest even to the Gates of the City Then Abimelech for the present withdrew his Forces to Aramah a place not far from Shechem to refresh them after the Fight and to wait for some better opportunity of surprizing the City The people of Shechem being now greatly vex'd and inraged at their Defeat 't is like Zebul suggested to them that the Cowardize and ill Conduct of Gaal and his Brethren had been the cause thereof and so he easily procur'd them to be cashier'd and sent away out of the City The Shechemites then choosing for themselves a new Commander in whom they might more confide and having recruited their Army resolved to march out the next morning to be revenged on Abimelech for their former loss and to drive him out of the Country Abimelech hearing they were come out against him He marched towards them and then dividing his Army into three parts He designed with one of them which he kept with himself to lie in Ambush and to surprize the City on a suddain whilst the Shechemites were ingaged with the other two Brigades of his Army or at least to keep them from sallying forth to assist those that were ingaged in the Fight and to prevent those in the Field from making any Retreat if they were worsted Accordingly whilst Abimelech and those that were with him ran and got to the Gate of the City his other two Parties ran upon the Shechemites in the Field and made a great slaughter of them Having thus vanquished the Field-Army he fought against the City all that day and at last took it and put to the Sword all that came in his way Many of the Shechemites had it seems got into the Tower of Shechem or House of Millo to secure themselves but hearing the dreadful Cries and Shreekes of their dying Fellow-Citizens they forsook that and betook themselves to the House of Baal-berith either trusting more to the strength of the Place or else flying to it as to a Sanctuary in this their great Extremity Abimelech hereupon went to Mount Zalmon a Hill near Shechem and cut down a Tree and laid it on his Shoulder and encouraged his Souldiers to do the like and with those he fired the House of Baal-berith and there destroyed about a thousand men and women of the Shechemites He then ras'd the City of Shechem to the ground and in detestation and for an exemplary Punishment he sowed it with Salt as a sign of an utter Vastation and perpetual Desolation But herein he failed of his end for it was afterwards rebuilt by Jeroboam 1 Kings 12.25 and inhabited 2 Chron. 10.1 Jer. 21.5 and afterwards it was called Sychar Joh. 4.5 Some of the Inhabitants of Shechem had it seems during these Disasters betaken themselves to Thebez a Town near Shechem which had a strong Fort or Castle in it Thither now Abimelech marches with his Army The people of Thebez betook themselves to the Castle as the only place of Security Abimelech resolving to set fire on the Gate of it went so near to it himself to give Orders about it that a woman from the top of the Tower cast a piece of a Mill-stone upon him and brake his Skull * Thus Phyrrhus was slain by a woman casting a Tile on his head at the taking of Argos He finding he had received his deaths wound bad his Armour-Bearer run him through with his Sword that it might not be said that a woman kill'd him (b) De Abimelech verum erat illud ingressus est ut vulpes regnavit ut Leo mortuus est ut Canis Thus we see how Jotham's Prophesie was fulfilled That a fire should come out from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and a fire should come out from the men of Shechem and should devour Abimelech Thus He who had slain his Brethren all upon one stone receives his own death by a stone He that had before managed this War politickly and successfully now by one rash unadvised Action going too near to the Gate of the Castle is ignominiously destroyed When the people that followed Abimelech saw he was dead they departed every one to his own home Judg. Ch. 9. whole Chapter SECT CXLII AFter Abimelech Tola the Son of Puah a man of the Tribe of Issachar Tola the Sixth Judge was raised up by God to Judge Israel and fitted with Heroick Gifts of Wisdom
Canis enim si fuerit obvia nec immolari poterat imo nec redimi quidem of being sacrificed according to the Law he would offer it up for a Burnt-Offering unto Him Howsoever if it were a thing fit it should be hallowed and consecrated unto Him Jephtah having made this Vow and now engaging with the Children of Ammon the Lord was pleased to deliver them into his hands and he smote them with a very great slaughter and had the chase of them a long way and so the Children of Ammon were subdued that day before the Children of Israel Jephtah now after this great Victory returning to his own house at Mizpeh his Daughter his only Child accompanied with other young Virgins came out to meet him with Timbrels and Dances and chearful Tripudiations according to the Custom of those days wherein Women and Maids after great Victories us'd to sing Songs of Triumph see Exod. 15.20 Judges 5.1 1 Sam. 18.6 When Jephtah saw Her he rent his Clothes expressing thereby the bitterness of his Grief and cried out alas My Daughter thou hast brought me very low and thou art one of them that trouble me Thou art now unwittingly a cause of much sorrow and affliction to me For I have made a Vow to God concerning whatsoever should first come forth to meet me and I cannot reverse it (e) This he speaks not knowing it seems that the Law of God gave him liberty in this case to have redeemed his Daughter with thirty Shekals of silver Levit. 27.4 'T is probable he then told her more particularly the substance of his Vow She tells him That if he had made such a Vow and by that Vow she must be consecrated to God and live a Virgin all her days She freely submitted to it and should do it the more willingly because God had given him so great a Victory over their Enemies And this seems to be the meaning of this passage For we cannot rationally think that Jephtah commended for his Faith Heb. 11.32 should offer his Daughter for a Burnt-Offering seeing that would have been much more odious to the Lord than to have offered to Him Swines blood or a Dogs-head Isa 65.4 and was expresly forbidden by Him as most abominable Deut. 12.31 Jephtah's Daughter therefore being devoted to serve God in a state of Virginity she desires she might have two months time to go up and down in the Mountains with some young Virgins her Companions that in those unfrequented and solitary places she might express her grief and lamentation that she must live and die a Virgin * She speaks not of bewailing her approaching death or being sacrific'd but her Virginity and consequently Barrenness leaving no Posterity behind her which was in those days esteemed one of the greatest of earthly Infelicities When the two months of her Lamentation were ended she returned to her Father who did not redeem her according to the Law Levit. 27.4 but consecrated her to God to serve him as a Virgin in the single life And so she lived a Virgin as her Father had vowed and she consented And the Daughters of Israel went four days in a year to Her partly to Condole with her and partly to Comfort and Chear her up in this her solitary Condition Judg. Ch. 10. from 10. to the end Judg. Ch. 11. whole Chapter SECT CXLV AFter this great Victory obtained by Jephtah the men of Ephraim having passed over Jordan turned Northward into the Land of Gilead and envying Jephtah and the Gileadites the glory of this Victory they began to quarrel with Him that he had not call'd them to assist * Upon the same account they quarrelled with Gideon Ch. 8. him when he went to fight against the Children of Ammon And they were so hot that they threatned to burn his house over his head and they gave the Gileadites opprobrious Language calling them Fugitives of Ephraim as if that half-Tribe of Manasseh beyond Jordan had been no better than Fugities that were run away from them and the meer Refuge and Scum of Ephraim and Manasseh within Jordan And it seems these proud Ephraimites told them That they viz. the men of Gilead were no way to be compar'd with them and therefore ought not to have undertaken a business of such Importance as this War was without first acquainting them with it and desiring their assistance Jephtah tells them He and his people were at great strife with the Children of Ammon about the Land that the Israelites possessed on that side Jordan And he had sent to the men of Ephraim as being their Brethren and Confederates to desire their Aid and Assistance but they had not thought fit to grant it to them Hereupon he gathered together what Forces he could and trusting in God He put his life in his hand and resolved to expose it to the utmost danger in so good a Cause and so went out to fight against the Ammonites and the Lord delivered them into his hands And this being the true state of this business I pray you says he what cause have you to come out in this War-like manner against us who are your Brethren But though Jephtah had reason on his side yet it did nothing move as it seems these haughty Ephraimites Hereupon He immediately gathered together all the men of Gilead that could on so short warning be got together and fell suddenly upon them and gave them a great overthrow and then the Gileadites to prevent those that escaped in the Fight from getting into their own Country took the Fords of Jordan before them and when any straglers came to those Fords to get over the Gileadites to try whither they were Ephraimites or of other Tribes as 't is like they pretended to be made them pronounce Shibboleth The Ephraimites could not pronounce the aspirate but said Sibboleth which was a pronunciation it seems they were accustomed and habituated unto Thereupon they slew them and many of them were here slain So that there were slain in the battel and chase and at these Fords of Jordan forty two thousand of the Ephraimites Jephtah having judged Israel six years died and was buried in one of the Cities of Gilead Judg. Ch. 12. from 1. to 8. SECT CXLVI AFter Jephtah Ibzan of Bethlem judged Israel Ibzan the Ninth Judge He had thirty Sons and thirty Daughters by divers Wives His Daughters he sent out of his own Family bestowing them upon Husbands in other Families and he took in thirty Daughters for his Sons to be Wives to them He judged Israel seven years About the fifth year of his Government the Israelites did evil again in the sight of the Lord and he gave them into the hands of the Philistines which Thraldom lasted forty years The sixth Oppression under the Philistines Judg. 13.1 And indeed Jephtah's slaying forty two thousand of the Ephraimites Ch. 12.6 must needs be a great weakning to the Israelites in those parts and possibly
Dei dispositus hoc factum qui neque Davidi quicquam perire voluit neque aliis propter Davidem and Davids men took all the flocks and herds which the Amalekites had taken from other places besides Ziklag and drove them before those Cattel which they had taken from Ziklag which belonged to David and his followers extolling David and proclaiming this is Davids spoil that is which belongeth to him by the Souldiers free consent and gift and accordingly afterwards he bestowed it on whom he pleased David with his men now returning with the captives and spoils they had taken he came at last to the place where he left the two hundred weary men who came forth with great joy to meet David and the people that were with him When they came near him he spoke kindly and courteously to them that they might not be discouraged at the thoughts of their absence from the fight seeing it was occasion'd by their weariness They desiring to have a part in the spoils some of the four hundred who had with David vanquished the Amalekites being wicked men and sons of Belial exprest an unwillingness that they should have any share therein but only their wives and children again though it was not cowardize but meer faintness that made them stay behind and their staying behind with the carriages to defend the stuff and being in readiness to aid and assist their fellows if they had been forc'd to retire might be lookt upon as a good service David mildly speaks to these murmurers saying to them Ye shall not do so my Brethren with the spoil the Lord hath given us and which we have gotten not by our own valour and strength but by Gods gracious favour who hath preserved us and given our enemies into our hands the thing you propose is unreasonable and unjust therefore I shall decide the matter thus As his part is that goeth down to the battel so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff that is the men that tarried behind and abode with the baggage shall have their share of the prey as well as those that marched out with me unto the battel And so from that day he revived and ratified a statute formerly made by God Numb 31.27 Josh 22.8 that the spoil should be divided betwixt those that fought with the enemy and those that stayed with the stuff And when David was return'd to Ziklag he sent some of the spoils he had taken to the Elders of Judah his friends partly by way of restitution because the Amalekites had taken much of this prey from the South parts of Judah and partly by way of thankfulness for the many kindnesses he had received from them when Saul hunted him from place to place and partly in a way of prudence to make them hereby the more firm to him and more ready to give him their assistance when he should stand in need of it Thus as it is always darkest just before day dawneth so God useth to visit his servants with greatest afflictions when he intends their speedy advancement 1 Sam. Ch. 20. whole Chapter 16. We return now to the Philistines and Israelites whom we left nigh to each other Ch. 29. who joining battel at the very time as Josephus says when David was victorious over the Amalekites the Israelites were smitten and Saul's three Sons Jonathan (a) By Jonathan's death the Lord cleared the way for Davids advancement to the Kingdom For if Ishbosheth a worthless man found so many of the people ready to side with him against David what would they have done for Jonathan so brave and worthy a Prince if he had out-liv'd his Father And Jonathan was no loser by it for instead of an earthly God gave him an Heavenly Kingdom Aminadab and Melchishua slain And the battel went sore against Saul himself for the Archâ—rs hit him and sore wounded him he saw his Army routed his friends and followers slain his dear Sons killed before his face he found himself sore wounded and inviron'd with enemies and apprehending no possibility of escaping he bad his Armour-hearer take his sword and run him thorough lest the uncircumcised Philistines should take him and put him to some ignominious death but his Armour-bearer utterly refusing to do it he fell upon his own sword And thus Saul with the sword he had drawn against David slew himself and so concluded a wicked life with a desperate death the Lord in a just judgment giving him up to act this horrid murder on himself as a punishment of his former wickedness therefore 't is said 1 Chron. 10.14 that the Lord slew him His Armour-bearer seeing what he had done followed his wicked example and fell likewise upon his own sword and killed himself Thus died Saul and his three Sons and his Armour-bearer and most of his family and kindred most of his Courtiers and Commanders with a great part of his army see 1 Chron. 10.6 And when the Israelites who dwelt on each side of this valley of Jezreel where the battel was fought and they that dwelt in it 1 Ch. 10.7 saw that their army was routed and that Saul and his Sons were slain they forsook their Cities and Towns and fled for their lives and the Philistines entred into them and possessed them On the morrow after the battel was fought the Philistines coming to strip the bodies of the slain they found Saul and his three Sons fallen in mount Gilboa and they cut off Sauls head and stript off his armour His head they carried about as a Trophy and shewed it in all parts of their Country publishing their victory and the death of Saul and his Sons in a way of joy and triumph in the houses of their Idols (b) Heb. Terrors so called because they possess the minds and hearts of their superstitious worshippers with terrors and fears and do neither teach nor comfort them Hinc superstitio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur i. e. Daemonium pavor and afterwards set it up in the house of Dagon their God thereby ascribing to him the glory of their victory as appeareth 1 Chron. 10.10 so David had before served the head of Goliath which he carried to Jerusalem Ch. 17.54 They plac'd his Armour in the house of Ashtaroth see the Note on Judg. 2.13 his body and the bodies of his Sons they fastened to the wall of Bethshan (c) A Town that belonged to the lot of Manasseh but not recovered from the Philistines in the first conquest Judg. 1.27 nor to this day as was said before of Ziklag Ch. 27.6 viz. in a street that was by the City-wall see 2 Sam. 21.12 And when the Inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to the bodies of Saul and his three Sons in gratitude to Saul who had rescued them from Nahash King of the Ammonites when he had straitly besieged their City Ch. 11.11 all the valiant men of that City arose and march'd all night and
and so would not go home to his own house but lay in the Court among the Kings houshold-servants And thus the Lord counterplotted David and would not suffer him to smother his sin as he earnestly endeavoured to have done David seeing that none of these devices would do resolves now upon a worse project than any of the former he writes a Letter to Joab and sends it by Vriah himself commanding him to set Vriah in the forefront of the hottest battel and to retire from him that he might be smitten and die Behold here the fearful progress of sin from one degree to another David whose conscience was once so tender that it smote him for cutting off the lap of Sauls garment being now left to himself groweth to such an hardness in sin that he scrupleth not to murder a faithful innocent and valiant subject and together with him divers others of his good subjects and draweth Joab also to partake with him in the same wickedness so great cause have we daily and earnestly to pray unto God not to lead us into temptation or not to leave us unto the power of it Joab having received these orders not regarding as it seems whither they were just or unjust right or wrong but resolving to please his Prince upon whose favour he depended whither he pleased God or no he sets himself to put them in execution and perhaps he hoped thereby to recover the Kings favour to the full height which had been much lessened and abated towards him since he had killed Abner and possibly he thought that David would be the more propitious to him when himself was become guilty in the like kind Observing therefore in what part of the City the stoutest Soldiers of the enemy manned the walls he assigned Vriah with a commanded party to that quarter and the City sallying out upon them several of them were slain and Vriah among the rest Then Joab sent a messenger to David to inform him how things went and put words into his mouth and instructed him what he should say if he found the King displeased at the loss of his men he tells him that possibly the King would be angry that they approached so near the walls of the City seeing they could not but think the enemy would shoot upon them from thence and would say what did they not remember how Abimelech the Son of Jerubbesheth (a) Call'd Jerubbaal Judg. 7.1 but here Jerubbesheth because the Hebrews detestation of Idols did expunge the word Baal out of their names and put Bosheth or Besheth in the room of it signifying an infamous thing as the Idol was Hos 9.10 compare 1 Chron. 8.33 with 2 Sam. 2.8 and 1 Chron. 8.34 with 2 Sam. 4.4 where Eshbaal and Meribaal in the one place are called Ishbosheth and Mephibosheth in the other or Gideon was slain Judg. 9.53 by venturing too near to the wall of Thebez He bids him that if the King expressed himself to him after this manner then he should forthwith say thy servant Vriah the Hittite is slain among the rest The messenger coming to David told him it seems only that the men of Rabbah had sallied out upon them and at first prevailed against them but they soon forced them to retreat and pursuing them too hotly even to the Gate of the City and the shooters shooting from the wall upon them they slew some of the Kings servants and among the rest his servant Vriah The King hearing this expressed no such displeasure at the loss of his men as Joab imagined he would do seeing Vriah whose death he mainly designed was taken off but bad the messenger tell Joab that he must not be over much troubled at this loss for the sword devoureth one as well as another therefore he must be content and bear with patience such accidents and take care to strengthen his siege for the future against the City that he might take it The King further bad the Messenger in his name to comfort and encourage Joab that he might go on chearfully with the war When Bathsheba heard that her husband Vriah was dead she put her self into mourning * The time of ordinary as Josephus writes lasted but seven days see Gen. 50.10 but their more solemn mournings lasted thirty days Deut. 34.8 for him the better to conceal her sin but whether she were inwardly grieved or no (a) Lacrymas non sponte cadentes effudit gemitusque expressit pectore laeto Lucan be sure she had cause enough of heart-bleeding and heart-breaking mourning if she considered that by her sin she had occasioned her husbands untimely death But when the time of her mourning (b) Tempus luctus quod Romanis mulieribus erat annus vel decem menses intra quod tempus nubere eis non licebat Haebreis in lege non erat constitutum was over which undoubtedly was as short as conveniently might be David sent for her and made her his wife that she might be thought to be with child by him after they were married but their adultery could not be so concealed for she soon was brought to bed of a Son and the thing that David had done highly displeased the Lord and he soon found the bitter effects of it 2 Sam. Ch. 11. whole Chapter SECT CXCIII IOab resolutely pursuing the siege of Rabbah at last he took that part of the City which was called the Royal City wherein the Kings Palace stood and the City of waters because it was invironed with waters both for safety and delight and knowing that the other part could not long stand out he sent to David to intreat him to come thither with some new forces that so he might have the honour of taking it and the glory and renown of this great enterprize For he knew that Kings were apt to be jealous and did not love that their subjects should eclipse their glory David accordingly went thither and took the City and with it their King Hanun and putting his Crown of State the weight whereof was a talent of Gold (c) A Crown of State and too weighty to be worn adorned with precious jewels upon his head and then taking it off they set it upon Davids to shew that the Royal dignity of that Nation was removed from him and conferred on David and then Hanun as 't is probable was either instantly deposed or put to death and his Brother made Governour of Rabbah under David whence it was that he shewed such respect to David when he fled from Absalom David was never so severe and cruel as at this time when he lay under the guilt of Adultery and murder Ch. 17.27 28. David having thus taken the City he brought forth the spoil of it in great abundance and took so many of the people as he thought fit to make exemplary and such of their Elders and Rulers as had been the chief ringleaders in all their vile and wicked actings and inflicted most severe
generously resolved gave order that he and his men should pass over the River Kidron (b) Called Cedron Joh. 18.1 which lay between the City and mount Olivet which they accordingly did their Children whom they brought along with them following them And the people thereabout wofully lamented the sad condition they saw their King now in and the King and the people that were with him passed over the river 2 Sam. Ch. 15. from v. 17 to 24. 2ly Zadock who was next to the High-Priest Abiathar and whose course it seems it was at this time to attend upon the Ark came with many of the Levites to David bearing the Ark of God and when they came to the place where David and his Company stayed they set it down and Abiathar the High-Priest went in the forefront of the people that came out to David and led them up to Mount Olivet until all the Company that followed him were passed over the Brook Kidron David then spake to Zadock and Abiathar to carry back the Ark to Jerusalem for though he highly valued the Ark being the visible sign of Gods presence and at which they used to ask counsel of God in their difficulties yet because it could not be conveniently carried about with them in that flying posture they were now in and he could not enjoy it unless he had the Priests and Levites also with him to attend it and being unwilling to expose them to so much danger as he himself was like to be exposed unto he commanded them to carry it back into the City saying to them If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me back again unto it and to the Tabernacle or Tent I have provided for it in which he uses in an especial manner to manifest his gracious presence But if he say I have no delight in thee nor will accept thee because of thy heinous sins behold here I am let him do to me as seemeth good unto him I wholly submit my self to his good pleasure Further he said to Zadock Art not thou a Seer and a Prophet whose duty it is to instruct the people Return thou therefore and Abiathar into the City in peace go and that with my love and good liking and take your two Sons Ahimaaz and Jonathan along with you You may do me great service there by inquiring into the counsels and observing the motions of the enemy and giving me intelligence thereof and this I desire you to do for me and I will tarry in the plain of the Wilderness till I hear from you Zadock and Abiathar accordingly carried the Ark back again to Jerusalem but did not take their Sons Ahimaaz and Jonathan along with them as David appointed but ordered them to stay at Enrogel in the borders of Judah and Benjamin not far from Jerusalem see Ch. 17.17 that lying there in obscurity they might receive intelligence from their Fathers and so acquaint David therewith as occasion required 2 Sam. Ch. 15. from 24 to 30. 3ly David now marches up to Mount Olivet weeping bitterly for his sins that had brought these troubles upon him and he went barefoot and with his head covered as was the custom of mourners among the Jews thereby testifying his deep humiliation and shame for so highly offending God And the people also that went up with him covered their heads and wept bitterly thereby testifying their simpathy with their King in his sorrows and sufferings ver 30. 4ly David upon this occasion composed the 3d. and 55. Psalm One comes now to David and acquaints him that Achitophel that great Politician had join'd himself to Absalom and the Conspirators with him whereupon David earnestly prayed unto the Lord to turn his counsel into foolishness Which petition the Lord was pleased graciously to grant as we shall see Ch. 17.14 23. v. 30. 5ly Being come to the top of the Mountain he there prayed and worshipped God and humbly implored his mercy towards him and to help him against his enemies and behold immediately Hushai the Archite * Of the Town of Archi in Ephraim his faithful friend and Counsellor and a great Politician came to him who was a man whom God had qualified with such a measure of wisdom that he was able to countermine and counterplot Achitophel Hushai came to him with his Coat rent and earth upon his head thereby testifying the deep sense he had of his great afflictions and sufferings David kindly receives him but tells him it would not be any advantage to him but rather a burden to take him along with him he being a Statesman and not a Souldier but he would do him much better service if he would go to Jerusalem and seemingly join with Absalom and say to him I will be thy servant O King as I have been thy Fathers servant and so by insinuating himself into his favour and being made acquainted with his counsels he might defeat them (a) Davids sending Hushai to dissemble with Absalom may teach us how prone men are in their extremities to pitch upon such courses as are not so good and right as they should be And says he thou wilt have Zadock and Abiathar there to assist thee with their best endeavours and what thou hearest from Absalom or his Council thou maist impart to them and they have with them their two Sons by whom thou maist send to me It seems David thought their Sons had gone back with them to the City and did not know that they were ordered by them to stay at Enrogel as we shew'd before Hushai being Davids sure friend complies with him herein and accordingly goes to Absalom at Jerusalem and insinuates himself into his favour 2 Sam. Ch. 15. from v. 32 to the end 6ly When David was a little past the top of the hill and was going on towards the Wilderness Ziba servant to Mephibosheth meets him with two Asses sadled and laden with two hundred loaves of bread and a hundred bunches of raisins and a hundred pieces of summer-fruits and a leather-sack of wine The King asked him what he meant by these He replied the Asses be for any of the Kings Houshold to ride upon and the bread and summer-fruits and wine for any of the young men that are his followers to refresh themselves with and he hoped the King would please graciously to accept his humble respect and duty though the things in themselves were of so small value The King then askt him where Mephibosheth was his Master Jonathan's Son and what the reason was seeing he had shewed him so great kindness that he did not come to him Ziba answer'd Behold he abides at Jerusalem for he said To day shall the house of Israel restore me the Kingdom of my Father A shameful lye and slander and very improbable if Mephibosheths lameneness and infirmities to rule be considered as also how the peoples hearts were at this time set upon Absalom However David being very
give David speedy notice thereof and advise him not to lodge that night in the plain of the Wilderness but speedily to pass over Jordan lest he should be surprized For though he had at present as he thought diverted them from following Achitophels dangerous counsel yet he knew not how soon their minds might change Jonathan and Ahimaaz of whom before stayed at Enrogel not far from Jerusalem expecting to hear from their Fathers for they durst not come into the City being suspected to be of Davids party Therefore Zadock and Abiathar sent their message to them by a young maid who was not like to be suspected that they might conveigh it speedily to David But it seems a lad accidently saw them at Enrogel and went and gave intelligence of them to Absalom who speedily sent some to surprize them But they understanding some way or other that they were discovered hasted away presently to Bahurim and betaking themselves to a friends house they hid themselves in the well which was in the Court of the house and to conceal them the more the mans wife spread a covering over the wells mouth and spread ground-corn thereon Absalom's servants pursue them thither and inquire diligently after them the woman of the house tells them they were gone over the water telling therein as they call it an officious lye to preserve them and so when they had sought them in vain and could not find them they returned to Jerusalem They being gone Ahimaaz and Jonathan came out of the well and went speedily to David to acquaint him with what Achitophel had counselled against him and shew him that he must speedily arise and pass over Jordan if he intended to preserve himself This therefore David and his followers immediately did that night and by the morning the whole army was past over And the special Providence of God appeared herein that they were all preserved in such a dangerous passage and that in the night When Achitophel saw that his counsel was not followed but Hushai's prefer'd before his and foreseeing that this counsel of Hushai would certainly be their ruin and that David by gaining this time would so strengthen himself that he would be too hard for Absalom when they came to fight it out in the field and concluding that if David prevail'd as 't was most likely he would there was no mercy for him to be expected at his hands who had been so false and treacherous to him he being greatly discontented went to his own City Giloh and there putting his house in order making his will and disposing of his estate and taking care of all things but his soul he hanged himself * Herein he was a Type of Judas and was buried in the Sepulchre of his Father 2 Sam. 17. from v. 1 to 24. David upon occasion of Achitophel's counsel against him compos'd the 55 Psalm 12ly David by this time having gathered a good Army together marched with it to Mahanaim a City in the Tribe of Gad beyond Jordan and was there furnished with provisions by three eminent persons the first was Shobi the Son of Nahash of Rabbah brother of Hanun King of Ammon whom David had deposed for abusing his Messengers and set this Shobi up in his stead in thankful remembrance whereof he now brought provisions to David The second was Machir of Lodebar who was Guardian to Mephibosheth when David came to the Crown see Ch. 9.4 who observing how much David favoured him and what kindness he shewed to him did highly esteem him ever after for it and was the readier as 't is probable to commiserate him in this time of his troubles The third was Barzillai the Gileadite of whom we shall say more when we come to the 19th Chapter These all came to comfort David †Sic solet Deus cum usitata auxilia absunt suis de improviso suecurrere in his great distress when his own unnatural Son sought his life and they brought beds and cups and earthen vessels and wheat barley meal parched corn beans lintils and parched pulse and honey butter and sheep and cheese to refresh David and the people that were with him who they thought must needs be weary and hungry and thirsty having had so long a march thorough the Wilderness where they could not but be in great want From v. 27 to the end 13ly Absalom having now gathered together a mighty Army of the Israelites as Hushai had advised he marches out with them against his Father Amasa (a) 'T is said here that Ithra an Israelite was his father and Abigail sister to Zerviah his mother In 1 Chron. 2.17 this Ithra is call'd Jether the Ishmaelite It seems therefore that he was an Ishmaelite by birth but an Israelite by profession and habitation being become a proselyte or else he was call'd an Ishmaelite because he had lived among the Ishmaelites as upon the same account some were called Hittites and Gittites 'T is said of this I hra that he went in to Abigail and begat this Amasa on her which intimates he was not then married to her 'T is also said of this Abigail that she was daughter to Nahash sister to Zerviah 1 Chron. 2.16 17. 't is evident that both this Abigail and Zerviah were daughâ—ers of Jesse and Sisters to David Either therefore Jesse had also the name of Nahash or his wifes name was Nahash who was the mother of Abigail who was Nephew to David and Cousin-german to Joab being made his General and with them he passed over Jordan and pitched in the land of Gilead 2 Sam. 17. v. 24 25 26. 14ly The Armies of David and Absalom being now near one another David drew out his Army which was at this time much increased by the resort of many out of the two Tribes and half on the other side Jordan unto him and mustering them he set Captains over hundreds and Colonels over thousands and divided his Army into three Battalions appointing three Generals over them viz. Joab Abishai and Ittai Then he told them He would go forth with them in person to encourage them and possibly he inclined the more to it that being present in the Army he might use his best endeavour for the saving of Absalom his great Commanders and Souldiers would by no means consent that he should venture his person in the battel telling him that he was worth ten thousand of them the Commonwealth should receive more damage and the enemy more advantage if he should be kill'd than if ten thousand of them should be slain alas say they if we should flee or half of us be slain the enemy will not much regard it if thou remainest alive who art the mark at which they principally aim and who they know as long as thou livest wilt be able to raise forces and make head against them and therefore we think it much better that thou remain in the City and from thence that thou send us forth succours and
Is the young man Absalom safe Ahimaaz answers that when Joab sent away Cushi the Kings servant and him to bring tidings he saw a great tumult but knew not what the matter was He knew undoubtedly of Absalom's death but through humane frailty fearing to displease the King he here miserably faulters Then came Cushi who cried out Good tidings my Lord the King for the Lord hath avenged thee this day of all those that rose up against thee Then said the King is the young man Absalom safe Cushi replied let the enemies of my Lord the King and all that rise up against him be as that young man is David was smitten with a wonderful consternation at this news and his grief and passion brake out so violently that it almost overwhelmed him he now retires into the Chamber over the Gate there in secret to pour out his sorrow and as he went up he cried out O my Son Absalom my Son Absalom would God I had died for thee my Son Absalom if my temporal death would have saved thee from eternal misery 2 Sam. Ch. 18. whole Chapter 15. The King taking on so immoderately for the death of Absalom his excessive grief came to be known in the Army and caused great trouble of spirit among them also so that the victory was turned into mourning neither came they up like a victorious army with joy and triumph to the City but dispersing themselves secretly stole into it not as if they had been Conquerours but rather as if they had been beaten and fled away from their enemies The King still took on excessively and covered his head in token of extream sorrow and cried out O my Son Absalom O Absalom my Son my Son Joab understanding this and seeing in what a discontent the Souldiers were hereupon and how their hearts began to be alienated from the King so that they were even ready to fall quite off from him he comes in a great rage to him and highly expostulates with him and tells him He had shamed the faces of all his faithful servants that day who had saved his life and the lives of his wives and children with the extreme hazard of their own and had frustrated them of their deserved praise and reward this strange carriage of thine saith he sheweth as if thou lovedst thy enemies in that thou mournest so excessively for this Traytor Absalom and hatedst thy friends seeing thou dost thus discountenance their faithful service Thou seemest not to regard thy faithful subjects let them be of what degree or quality they will I perceive that if that Arch-Rebel Absalom had lived thou hadst not much cared if all we had died I solemnly protest to thee if thou wilt not give over thy whining for that Rebel and go forth presently and speak comfortably to thy people and congratulate their victory and give them thanks for their venturing their lives for thee I believe they will all forsake thee as a person unfit to govern them who canst not govern thine own passions and possibly they will think of chusing another * Prospicient sibi de alio rege site aequum habere non possint and that will be worse to thee than all the afflictions thou hast hitherto met with in all thy life David being startled at this bold speech of Joab's which though harsh and tart yet was needful at this time he took his counsel and went and sat in the Gate and there shaking off sorrow manifested his kindness and grace to his Souldiers to win their hearts again to him As for those that had followed Absalom and escaped in the battel they were fled to their own houses 2 Sam. Ch. 19. from v. 1 to 9. 16. The people now through all the Ten Tribes of Israel began to blame one another for siding with Absalom against his Father and to call upon one another and upon their Elders and Officers to submit themselves unto David and to go and fetch him back again to the City of Jerusalem with honour they began to recount the great and manifold benefits they had enjoyed under his Government and how he had saved them out of the hands of their enemies especially the Philistines And they saw that God was against them in that attempt of making Absalom King and therefore there was great reason they should go and seek reconciliation with David whom they had so highly injured and offended This resolution of the Israelites to fetch their King home with honour coming to his ears and he perceiving that the men of Judah who had been first and chief in siding with Absalom and had delivered up to him the City of Jerusalem and the strong fort of Sion being conscious to themselves of their great ingratitude against him were now afraid to address themselves to him or to go to fetch him home therefore he sent to Zadock and Abiathar who had stayed all this while at Jerusalem that they should acquaint the Elders of Judah how ready he was to pardon them and to forget all that was past They were also to assure them of his singular affection to them they being his brethren and of the same Tribe therefore he would not have them to be the last in fetching home their King who ought to be the first He sends also unto Amasa whom Absalom had made General of his Army and who if he should despair of pardon might draw a great party of the Israelites after him to assure him that he was ready to receive him into his favour and to regard him as his nephew nay he intended to prefer him and to make him General of his Army as long as he lived in the place of Joab Indeed Joab had incurred his displeasure by killing Abner and several other unjustifiable acts yet he had also done him great services and had been always faithful to him whereas Amasa had been faithless and rebellious Besides the place of General belonged to Joab both by Davids promise and his own purchase he having hazarded his life in that dangerous service of assaulting and taking the strong fort of Sion However David being now offended with him for killing Absalom he resolv'd to prefer Amasa before him thinking by that policy to reduce all Absaloms party that stood out against him under his obedience By this kind message to the men of Judah and to Amasa David bowed the hearts of the men of Judah even as the heart of one man so that they sent this word unto the King Return thou and all thy servants we are most willing to receive thee and submit unto thee David considered that it might cost a great deal of blood to subdue them by force therefore he thought it best by these tenders of grace to bow their hearts to him and it happened according to his desire for the men of Judah now agreed to meet together at Gilgal and from thence they passed over the river Jordan to meet the King and to bring him
that time fourscore years old and therefore 't was time for him to think of dying and not of enjoying the pleasures of the Court I cannot now says he taste what I eat or what I drink neither can I hear the voice of singing men or singing women wherefore then should I go to be a burden to my Lord the King Besides let not the King think of recompencing me for the poor kindness I did him in lately sending him in some supplies seeing what I did was no more than my duty obliged me to I will therefore wait upon the King over Jordan and then I pray thee let thy servant return back again to his own house that there I may retire my self and prepare for my latter end for I desire to die in my own City and to be buried with my Fathers but as for my Son Chimham I am very willing he should go over with my Lord the King let him therefore I pray thee be taken into thy favour and employ him as thou thinkest fit David readily entertained the motion and promises Barzillai to do for his Son whatsoever he should desire of him So the King and the people passing over Jordan Barzillai there took leave of him and at their parting the King kissed him and blessed him and retained so great a sense of his kindness to him that afterwards he commanded his Son Solomon to take an especial care of his Sons and to let them be of the number of those that did eat at his Table 1 King 2.7 2 Sam. Ch. 19. from v. 9 to 40. 17. The King being now come over Jordan the generality of the Tribe of Judah and some few of the ten Tribes viz. as many as in that hast could come together conducted him to Jerusalem the rest of the Israelites that as it seems could not get ready to come so soon came to the King and exprest themselves greatly discontented that they had not in hand in bringing him back as well as the Tribe of Judah Why say they have the children of Judah stollen thee away and carried thee home as it were by stealth without calling us or expecting our company and so have endeavoured as it were to ingross thee to themselves and to appropriate to themselves the intire glory of this action The men of Judah hearing this answered that the King was of their Tribe and near a kin to them wherefore then say they be ye angry for this matter We have not put the King to any expense we have born our own charges neither have we received nor do we expect any reward from him for this service The men of Israel replied that they being Ten Tribes had more right to the King than Judah who with Benjamin join'd to them were but two and they being the greatest part of his subjects had most interest in him And therefore say they why did you thus despise us as not to think us worthy to be sent unto or advised with about bringing back the King the men of Judah presuming upon the dignity of their Tribe gave them a rough and stout answer and their words were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel This contention the King heard and 't is like was troubled at but not setting himself speedily to compose it being loth to displease either party it brake out into a great inconvenience soon after for seeing Judah challenged so great a part in the King and the King did not contradict it Israel being impatient of such a disparagement resolv'd as it seems they would have no interest in him at all 2 Sam. Ch. 19. from v. 40 to the end 18. The King being now come to Jerusalem he shut up the ten Concubines that had been defiled by Absalom in an house of custody where he provided for them but went not in unto them and so they remained shut up unto the day of their death in a state of widdowhood but though David was come to his Royal City yet his troubles were not yet at an end For as bones new set are easily put out again if great care be not taken so people that have broken out into sedition and are newly quieted are very apt to break out again if they be not charily handled and thus it was with the Israelites at this time for upon this quarrel between them and the men of Judah Sheba a Benjamite by descent but of the hill-country of Ephraim by residence and possibly of the house of Saul having this opportunity out of hatred to David and hope to reduce the Crown back again to that Tribe and Family he blew a Trumpet to assemble the Israelites together who being met he spake to them after this manner You all see my Brethren that we have no part in David nor portion in the Son of Jesse see 1 King 12.16 Alass we are counted pitiful people not worthy to be regarded the men of Judah they are the only brave men they it seems have a King but we have none at least they desire to have him wholly to themselves and for my part let them take him and let us chuse another for our selves who will own us for his subjects let us all now return to our own houses and Tribes and there advise and consider what is fit for us to do in this case The men of Israel readily embraced this motion and leaving David followed Sheba but the men of Judah unanimously followed the King and conducted him from Jordan to Jerusalem David was much startled at this unexpected defection of the Israelites from him and therefore resolves to raise an Army speedily to reduce them in order hereunto he makes Amasa his General being inwardly offended with Joab for slaying Absalom and commands him to assemble the people of Judah within three days and then to come to him and receive further orders This was a short time for so great a work but David thought Expedition absolutely necessary lest Sheba by their delaying should so encrease his numbers and grow so strong that it would be difficult to suppress him But the time being so short and many of the people as 't is like being addicted to their old General Joab who had been successful were loth to engage under this new who had been unprosperous or whatever else the cause was Amasa could not accomplish it within the time limited David being impatient of this delay appoints Abishai to take his own guard viz. the Cherethites and Pelethites and his other servants and attendants who were valiant and faithful men and with them to pursue after Sheba with all speed for says he if this Sheba be not suddenly suppressed he will raise a more dangerous rebellion against me than Absalom did and will with his forces get into fenced Cities and then it may be difficult to deal with him Abishai immediately marched out with that party to seek Sheba with whom some that were formerly under Joab's command joined themselves and as it seems
the Kings Sons and Joab and Abiathar and many Captains of the host and behold they eat and drink before him and say God save King Adonijah Surely this is not done with thy allowance for matters of so great moment thou didst not use to transact without consulting me first about them Then the King called for Bathsheba and said to her As the Lord liveth who hath redeemed me out of all former distresses as I sware to thee that Solomon should sit on my Throne after me so it shall be Then Bathsheba bowed her face to the earth and said Let my Lord King David live for ever As if she should have said Long may the King live and I wish if it were the will of God we might never lose him Then the King call'd for Zadok Nathan and Benaiah and commanded them to take with them his Life-guard viz. the Cherethites and Pelethites and to set Solomon on his own Mule and to carry him to Gihon (a) A Mount with a rivulet close by it on the West-side of Jerusalem and that Zadok the Priest and Nathan the Prophet should there anoint him King over all Israel and when that was done they should blow with the Trumpet and say God save King Solomon and then says he ye shall attend him back in state to Jerusalem that he may come and sit on my Throne and be thereby declared King in my stead For I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah * It seems there was emulation between Judah and the other Tribes before the division of the Kingdom See 2 Sam. 19.41 Benaiah the Son of Jehoiada hearing the King speak thus answered in his own and the name of the rest Amen The Lord God confirm what the King hath said As the Lord hath been with my Lord the King so may he be with Solomon also and make his Throne greater than the Throne of his Father Then Zadok Nathan Benaiah and the Kings Life-guard carried Solomon to Gihon and there Zadok the Priest anointed him with oyl taken out of the Tabernacle viz. the Tabernacle which David had set up for the Ark 2 Sam. 6.17 for oyl being kept there for several holy uses Zadok took an horn full of it and therewith anointed the King Which done they blew the Trumpet and all the people there present shouted God save King Solomon Then they carried him in state towards Jerusalem and the people followed after piping with Pipes and rejoicing with great joy and they shouted so loud that the earth even rent (a) An Hyperbolical expression setâ—ing forth the greatness of their acclamations with the sound of their acclamations Adonijah and the company that were with him just as they were concluding their great Feast heard this extraordinary noise and acclamation and Joab heard the sound of the Trumpet and wondred what the matter was and thought there might be some uproar in the City but immediately Jonathan the Son of Abiathar came to them Adonijah seeing him O come in says he for thou art a good (b) Hebr. a man of vertue man and bringest good tidings The tidings says Jonathan that I bring are that David hath made Solomon King and Zadok Nathan and Benaiah have anointed him in Gihon and they came up with him from thence rejoicing and shouting so loud that the City rang again and this is the noise ye heard and Solomon sits now on the Throne and is in actual possession of the Kingdom and the Kings servants came and blest our Lord King David and rendred him humble thanks for setting Solomon on the Throne and pray'd that the Lord would make the name of Solomon more famous than he had made Davids and his Kingdom greater and the King bowed himself upon his bed and worshipped and praised God saying Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who hath setled my Son Solomon this day on my Throne my own eyes seeing it The Guests that were with Adonijah hearing this had enough of their Feast and began to be sore afraid and got themselves away as fast as they could to their own houses leaving Adonijah to shift for himself Adonijah then not well knowing what to do and being sorely afraid that Solomon would take away his life he fled to Gibeon where the Tabernacle of Moses now was 1 Chron. 21.29 and there took hold on the horns of the Altar For though we read of no express Law that God ever gave to his people that those that fled to the Altar should be there secured yet that it was a custom for malefactors to fly to the Altar as to an Asylum or place of refuge may be gathered from Exod. 21.14 and the Altar being the place where God did shew forth the riches of his grace in accepting a sacrifice for sin this hanging upon the horns of it was a kind of pleading that mercy should be shewed them for Gods sake And accordingly Adonijah fled to the Altar and being there he desireth that King Solomon so he acknowledgeth him would swear to him that he would not put him to death Solomon sent him word that if he would shew himself a worthy man and a loyal subject for the future not an hair of his head should fall to the ground but if he appeared to be wicked and disloyal after this he should surely die Upon this promise they brought Adonijah from the Altar to Solomon to whom he bowed himself and Solomon bad him go to his own house and there live peaceably and quietly 1 King Ch. 1. from v. 5 to the end SECT CCX DAvid having now caused Solomon to be anointed King he giveth him in charge the building of the Temple speaking to him after this manner My Son it was in my heart to build an house for the Lord but the Lord would not permit me to do it because I had been engaged in many wars and had shed much blood (c) God does not upbraid David for shedding blood in his own cause Saul and Ahab for sparing blood lost their Kingdoms 1 Sam. 15.23 1 King 20.22 42. The Levites for their fact in shedding blood Exod. 32. and Phineas for his Numb 25. have the Priesthood setled on them and so was not so fit to build a Temple to him which was to be a figure of the Messias the Prince of Peace But he said to me a Son shall be born to thee who shall be a man of rest and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about his name shall be call'd Solomon that is peaceable for I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days he shall build an house for my name he shall be my Son and I will be his Father and I will establish the Throne of his Kingdom over Israel for ever that is for a long time and as long as the Kingdom of Judah shall continue one of Solomon's posterity shall sit in the Throne of David (a) Possibly none of
presently imparted it to some of his friends and possibly thereby designed to draw off their hearts from Solomon and to make a party for himself Solomon it seems got some intelligence hereof and thereupon sought to kill him Jeroboam hearing of the Kings fierce anger against him fled presently into Egypt to Shishack the present King thereof who as 't is probable was Solomon's wife's brother and possibly was much offended with him for taking so many wives besides his sister and therefore for that or some other reason he gave entertainment to Jeroboam and he continued there till Solomon's death 1 King Ch. 11. from v. 14 to 41. SECT XVIII SOlomon now having reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years died and slept with his fathers and was buried in the City of David his Father He left only three children though he had so many wives and concubines viz. two daughters who were married to two of his own subjects as we may see Sect. 13. and one Son viz. Rehoboam who reigned in his stead The Acts of Solomon were written by Nathan Ahijah and Iddo Prophets that lived in his time 2 Chron. 9.29 But this Book of the Acts of Solomon seems to have been some compleat History not now extant of the reign of Solomon gathered out of the several writings of these Prophets and other records of those times wherein possibly many passages of his life were set down not expressed in the Sacred History And among other things possibly that of his repentance which though it be not here so clearly mentioned yet it may be gathered from 2 Chron. 11.17 For three years they walked in the ways of David and Solomon his Son where Solomon and David are jointly commended Some also collect it from that promise Psal 89.33 Nevertheless I will not utterly take away my loving kindness from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail But especially from the Book of Ecclesiastes which questionless was written as a publick testimony of his Repentance And in the 2 Pet. 1.20 21. we find that all the Penmen of the holy Scripture are said to have been holy men of God And 't is probably conjectured that Solomon before his death did throw down Idolatry and restrain'd his wives from it in that the people who set themselves to defame his Government complained of no such matter to Rehoboam Chap. 12.4 1 King Ch. 11. from 41 to the end 2 Chron. Ch. 9. from v. 29 * V. 29. In the visions of Iddo that is such Visions and Revelations as were registred being by Gods Spirit manifested to Iddo It seems this Iddo who wrote the History of Rehoboam Ch. 12.15 did also join the story of Jeroboam therewith against whom he wrote to the end SECT XIX Kings of Israel JEroboam being chosen King by the Ten Tribes The first King of Israel JEROBOAM he first repaired and fortified Shechem and built himself a Palace there and made it the chief place of his residence and fortified Penuel on the other side of Jordan and placed a Garrison in it And being now setled in his Kingdom though God had promised him by Ahijah the Prophet Ch. 11.38 that if he would walk in his ways he would be with him and build him a sure house as he had done for David yet having no confidence in this promise he began to think that if he should suffer his subjects to go up to Jerusalem to sacrifice there as God commanded they would soon fall off from him to Rehoboam For first he apprehended they would be in danger to be seized upon as Traytors when they came up to Jerusalem if they did not renounce their allegiance to him 2ly The Priests and Levites and their Brethren of Judah he thought would be continually setting before them the sin of falling off from their lawful Soveraign 3ly He supposed the very sight of the Temple and the worship of God there celebrated would much win upon them to come over to the Kingdom of Judah And if their hearts were once turned to Rehoboam he thought they would be sure to kill him and not having faith to believe that God would either prevent or divert these dangers from him if he were faithful to him he resolved to set up some other way of worship for his subjects that they should not need to go up to Jerusalem to worship there And thus that very thing which God appointed to keep the people of the Jews in one uniform way of worship viz. that there should be but one Altar and one place of Sacrifices namely at the Temple at Jerusalem that proved the occasion of setting up a new way of Worship Wherefore Jeroboam by the advice of those about him made two Golden Calves in imitation of the Egyptians Idol-gods among whom he had lived of late and with whom 't is like he desired to hold a strict league and amity and that possibly was another politick reason that induc'd him to make such Idols as these However he pretended the peoples ease and accommodation to be the chief thing that mov'd him to take this course and like a kind and indulgent Prince told them it was too much for them to go up thrice a year viz. at the solemn Feasts to Jerusalem and therefore he had found out a way to save them that labour and accordingly had made two Golden Calves for them to worship in their own Country And these he had made not to represent any false God but as remembrances and representations of the true God of Israel who brought them up out of the land of Egypt and therefore he was not afraid to say to them these be thy Gods O Israel When he had given them this account of his proceedings he placed one of his Calves in Bethel a City * By reason of Jeroboams impiety the Prophet calls it Bethaven Hos 10.5 belonging to the Tribe of Benjamin but it seems it had revolted to him and so was now in his power and the Southern border of his Kingdom the other Calf he placed at Dan which was the Northern border And so he provided that his subjects both in the North and South should have a place to worship at But this thing became a grievous sin and high provocation to the Almighty and drew all Israel from God into Idolatry and therefore 't is put into his stile Jeroboam the Son of Nebat who made Israel to sin 2 King 10.31 For the people did presently yield to worship these his Idols both at Dan and Bethel And further instead of Gods Temple at Jerusalem he made a Temple on one of the high places or mountains where Altars were reared to commit Idolatry thereon and he made Priests for the high places and for the Devils †Such devotion as is not done to the true God is done to Devils see Lev. 17.7 Idols there so called and for the Calves which he had made 2 Chron. 11.15 of the meanest of the people and such
and the Ass and the Lion standing by it so that the Lion had neither eaten the carcass nor torn the Ass The Lion it seems ran away immediately upon the old Prophets coming as having now done what he stayed for and so the old Prophet took and carried the dead body of the other Prophet to be buried and laid it in his own sepulcher which he had prepared for himself and he and his sons mourned over him and said alas my brother See Jer. 22.18 And the old Prophet further spake unto his Sons saying When I am dead bury me in the sepulcher wherein this man of God is buried lay my bones by his bones that so my bones may lye at rest and not be digged up and burnt by Josiah And for the accomplishing of this end he caused a superscription to be engraven on the Sepulcher whereby it might be known who was buried there and herein he had his desire as we may see 2 King 23.17 18. He further declared that the saying of the deceased Prophet which he uttered by the command of God against the Altar of Bethel and against all the houses of the high places which were in the cities of the Kingdom of Israel afterwards call'd the Kingdom of Samaria shall surely come to pass But notwithstanding this fair warning Jeroboam returned not from his Idolatry and evil ways One would have thought that his hand being miraculously stricken dead and as miraculously healed upon the prayer of the Prophet he should presently with that hand have plucked down his Idolatrous Calves and Altars but neither that nor the cleaving of the Altar asunder nor the strange death that befell the young Prophet whereby the truth of what he had spoken was mightily confirm'd could prevail with him to forsake that Idolaty whereby he sought to assure the Kingdom to himself and his posterity but therein he was miserably deceived for this Idolatry was not only the ruin of his own house but of the whole Kingdom of Israel at last and the cause of their captivity And possibly from the violent death of the Prophet that came from Judah he took occasion to harden himself in his evil ways and not to regard his threatnings And thereupon being obstinate in his Idolatry he cast off the Priests that were of the lineage of Aaron and the Levites and made of the lowest of the people Priests of the High-places even whosoever would offer himself he consecrated him and made him a Priest of that order Whereupon many Priests and Levites leaving their possessions which they had in those parts retired into Jury and were followed by all such out of every Tribe of Israel who set their minds upon the true worship of God Some years after his Son Abijah fell sick at Tirzah for though Shechem was at first the Royal City of Jeroboams Kingdom yet afterwards as it seems he built some stately Palace for himself at Tirzah a goodly and pleasant City to which Solomon alludes Cant. 6.4 and so both Jeroboam and the other Kings of Israel that succeeded him did usually keep their Courts there till Samaria was built by Omri From thence therefore he sends his wife to Shiloh to the Prophet Ahijah who first told him he should come to the Kingdom and was now blind with old age He appoints her to go disguised lest if the Prophet knew her he should either refuse to answer her being offended with their Idolatry or else give her such an answer as they should be loth to hear he enjoins her therefore to go to him in this manner and to carry a small present to him viz. ten loaves and cakes and a bottle of honey that by so small a present she might be thought to be only the wife of some poor Country-man and only came to ask him what should become of her Son that was sick 'T is to be observ'd that he sends her not to him to beg his prayers for the child though he had had experience of the efficacy of a Prophets prayers in the miraculous restoring of his own hand It seems his obstinacy in his Idolatry discouraged him from seeking such a favour from him His wife going accordingly to Shiloh the Lord by the secret inspiration of his Spirit inform'd Ahijah of her coming and that she would feign her self to be another woman and tells him what he shall say to her Accordingly when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came into the door of his house he said to her Come in thou wife of Jeroboam why feignest thou thy self to be another woman I am sent from the Lord to thee with heavy Tidings go tell Jeroboam thus saith the Lord God of Israel I exalted thee from among the people and made thee King over Israel and rent ten of the Tribes away from the house of David and gave them unto thee and yet thou hast not been as my servant David who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart and as to my worship did only that which was right in my sight But thou hast done evil above all that were before thee Saul though a wicked man was no Idolater Solomon though by his wives instigation he permitted Idolatry yet he was not an Idolater himself but thou hast made thee other Gods * Representations of God are accounted as Gods and molten Images to provoke me to anger and hast cast my Law behind thy back therefore behold I will bring evil upon thy house and will so utterly destroy it and all that belong to it that I will not leave in it so much as a dog to piss against the wall and will destroy both him that is shut up at home or left abroad in the field and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as a man taketh away dung till it be all removed for being a noisome and filthy thing he will take it every whit away (a) The accomplishment of this see Chap. 15.29 Furthermore let thy husband know that him of the house of Jeroboam that dieth in the City the dogs shall eat and him that dieth in the field the fowls of the air shall eat (b) Intimating they should die unhappy deaths and not have the honour of burial for the Lord hath spoken it Arise therefore and go thy ways home and as soon as thy feet enter into thy house which is in the City Tirzah thy Son shall die and this judgment is the beginning of your sorrows But all Israel shall mourn for him and he shall be buried with lamentation and he only shall come to the grave because of all Jeroboams family in him only there is found some good thing some seeds of piety and the fear of the Lord and consequently some regard to the true worship of God Moreover I must tell thee the Lord will raise up a King (c) Viz. Baasha who made a conspiracy against Nadab Jeroboam's Son and slew him in the second year
of his reign and destroyed all the house of Jeroboam Ch. 15.27 over Israel that shall cut off the house of Jeroboam If thou askest when or at what time this shall come to pass I answer very quickly and sooner than you do expect And the Lord will smite Israel as a reed is shaken in the water He will afflict both Prince and people with uncessant wars and troubles both intestine and forreign so that they shall never abide long in any setled condition but as reeds that grow in the water are continually shaken so shall it be with this Kingdom partly by the frequent transferring the Crown from one family to another and partly by the frequent invasions of the men of Judah or some other neighbouring Nation And the Lord will root up (b) First by Tiglath-pilesar in the days of Pekak King of Israel 2 King 15.29 the greatest part after by Salmanassar in the days of Hoshea 2 K. 17.6 Israel out of this good land which he gave to their Fathers and will scatter them beyond the river to wit Euphrates into the land of Assyria Mesopotamia and Media whither they shall be carried captive because they have made Groves for Idols thereby provoking him to anger And he will give up Israel into the hands of their enemies because they consented to the Idolatry of Jeroboam who did sin highly against God and made Israel to sin by causing them to leave the Temple of the Lord and to worship the calves he hath set up Ahijah having thus spoken Jeroboam's wife departed and as she came to the door of her house her Son died And they buried him and all Israel lamented for him as God had foretold by the ministry of his Prophet There were many bickerings and continual hostility between Jeroboam and Rehoboam all their days and the borderers on both sides did continually invade one another but after Rehoboam's death Jeroboam in the eighteenth year of his reign gathered together a vast army of eight hundred thousand men to set upon Abijah Rehoboam's Son newly come to the Crown and Abijah met him with four hundred thousand and with them discomfited his mighty Army and slew five hundred thousand of them and pursuing his victory took from him Bethel and two other Cities as may be more fully seen in the life of Abijah Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again during Abijah's reign Jeroboam at last was stricken with some extraordinary sickness or disease from the Lord in the days of Abijah but he died not till the second year of Asa Son of Abijah and it seems he died not an ordinary death He reigned 22 years and Nadab his Son succeeded him 1 King 12. from 12 to the end 1 King 13. wh Ch. 1 King 14. from 1 to 21. 2 Chron. 13. wh Ch. NAdab began his reign in the second year of Asa Second King of Israel Nadab and reigned only two years namely in part of the second and third year of Asa He did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his Father Gibbethon a City belonging to the Tribe of Dan Josh 19.44 was in the days of David and Solomon in the Israelites possession but now it seems the Philistines had gotten it Nadab therefore and all Israel with him went and laid siege to it to recover it and here during the Siege he was treacherously slain by Baasha of the Tribe of Issachar and so the siege as it seems was raised for twenty six years after or thereabouts the Son of Baasha did again lay siege to this City as we may see Chap. 16.15 Baasha now setting up himself in the Throne he smote all the house of Jeroboam according to the Prophesie of Ahijah 1 King 14.10 Behold I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as a man taketh away dung till it be all gone So with Nadab the Regal power in Jeroboam's house ended And thus the Idolatry wherewith Jeroboam thought to have established the Kingdom to himself and his posterity was the very cause of the ruin of his family and the transferring the Kingdom to another 1 King 15. from 25 to 32. BAasha the Son of Ahijah of the Tribe of Issachar began his reign in the third year of Asa Third King of Israel Baasha and reigned twenty and four years He did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of Jeroboam In the thirty sixth year of Asa's Kingdom as it stood divided from the Kingdom of Israel but in the sixteenth year of Asa's own reign and about the fourteenth of Baasha's he perceiving Asa to grow potent and that many of his subjects fell off to him he began to arm against him and never ceased from henceforward to make war upon him all his days and he went up to build Ramah which lay between Samaria and Jerusalem that he might suffer no man to come out from or go unto Asa King of Judah but he was fain to give it over being recalled by an invasion made into his Country by Benhadad King of Syria hired thereunto by Asa 2 Chron. 16. from 1 to 7. and 1 King 15.32 Jehu the Son of Hanani the Prophet delivers him a sad message from the Lord concerning the destruction of his house for his Idolatry and killing of Nadab (a) For though Baasha did herein what God had decreed yet he had no command from God to do it but did it only to serve his own ends and to get the Kingdom Saepe Deus decreta sua exequitur per malos homines qui longe aliud agentes sua quaerunt ideoque poena digni sunt Impii saepe imprudentes serviunt voluntati Dei quam in lege patefactam scientes oppugnant This Jehu was that Prophet that was sent afterwards to Jehoshaphat to reprove him for his league with Ahab 2 Chr. 19.2 and he that wrote the Chronicles of those times 2 Chron. 20.34 And his father Hanani was the Prophet that reproved Asa for seeking to Benhadad for aid against Baasha so that both Father and Son were eminent Prophets of the Lord at the same time and both sent to the Kings of Israel to whom the Lord was pleased to send many Prophets to reclaim them Jehu coming to Baasha tells him Thus saith the Lord forasmuch as I exalted thee out of the dust and from a mean condition made thee Prince (b) For it was the Providence of God that made Baasha's attempt against Nadab so successful Collatio regni Deo doll vero parricidium Baasae attribuuntur over my (c) They were Gods people by Covenant and outward profession and they retained still Circumcision and the Laws of Moses and there were many pious Prophets and some good people among them people Israel and thou hast walked in
the ways of Jeroboam and hast made my people to sin by thy example and hast provoked me to anger behold I will cut off thy posterity and will make thy house as the house of Jeroboam And as this judgment was pronounced against Jeroboam 1 King 14.11 viz. that such of his house as died in the City the dogs should eat and such as died in the fields the fowls of the air should eat that is they should die unhappy deaths and not come to an honourable burial the very same judgment must I pronounce against thee and in the same words see v. 4. because thou persistest in the same sins Baasha died in the twenty fourth year of his reign and was buried in Tirzah and his Son Elah reigned in his stead 1 King 15.33 34. 1 King 16. from 1 to 8. ELAH began to reign in the 26th year of Asa Fourth King of Israel Elah and reigned two years though not compleat Being upon the Throne his servant Zimri Captain of half his Chariots conspired against him and as he was drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza his Steward he slew him in the second year of his reign his forces lying then encamped against Gibbethon and then Zimri immediately by the assistance of the Souldiers that were under his command slew all his kindred and near relations and so destroyed all the house of Baasha he left him not one that pisseth against a wall by which Proverbial speech an utter destruction of all that belonged to him is to be understood Thus the Lord dealt with the house of Baasha For as Baasha slew Nadab when he had reigned two years and that whilst he was laying siege to Gibbethon and then immediately destroyed all the rest of his family so Zimri slew Elah the Son of Baasha in the second year of his reign and then immediately cut off the rest of his family and friends and that whilst his army lay encamped against Gibbethon And thus God destroyed both the house of Baasha and Elah for their great sins and transgressions whereby they had provoked him and particularly by their vanities that is Image-gods and Idols 1 King 16. from 8 to 15. ZIMRI having thus wickedly made himself King Fifth King of Israel Zimri his reign continued but a week for notice that the King was slain coming to the Camp at Gibbethon all the host of Israel that were there encamped presently made Omri their General King over Israel Omri hastens with his Army to Tirzah to besiege Zimri and so the siege of Gibbethon was a second time raised Zimri when he saw the City was taken by storm betook himself to the Kings Palace and burnt himself with it that he might not fall into the hands of his enemies Thus those that are cruel to others are oftentimes given over to be cruel at last to themselves But though Zimri reigned but seven days before Omri was proclaimed King by the Soldiers yet perhaps it was longer e're he was forced to burn himself And besides within the space of those seven days he might by his Edicts make known to the people his resolution to continue the worship of Jeroboam's Calves and might destroy the family of Baasha 1 King 16 v. 17 18 19 20. Things being now at this pass the people of Israel were much divided some of them misliked that the Souldiers should choose a King for them and they chose Tibni for their King Between Tibni and Omri there were continual wars for about four years till at last Omri prevailed and Tibni dying Omri reigned alone 1 King 16. from 15 to 23. OMRI reigned twelve years Sixth King of Israel Omri reckoning from his first election whereof six years in Tirzah Zimri having burnt the Royal Palace in that City he removed the Seat of his Kingdom from thence to Samaria which he built in the hill which he bought of Shemer for two Talents of Silver * A Talent of Silver was reckoned at 375 l. sterling but a Talent of Gold at 3750 l. so he paid 750 l. sterl for the Hill and so made that his Royal City and the Metropolis of his Kingdom He did evil in the sight of the Lord and worse than all that went before him For it seems he did not only obstinately continue in the Idolatry of Jeroboam himself but with violence forced and pressed the people thereunto notwithanding all the judgments he had seen on all the former Kings of Israel for that sin In Micah 6.16 we read of the Statutes of Omri to wit concerning their Idolatrous worshipping of the Golden Calves He was buried in Samaria and Ahab his Son succeeded him 1 King 16. from 23 to 29. AHAB in the thirty eight year of Asa began to reign Seventh King of Israel Ahab and reigned two and twenty years over Israel He did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that went before him and as if it had been a small thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam he took to wife Jezebel * Who was a most wicked woman Jehu complain'd of her Witchcrafts and Whoredoms 2 King 9.22 and she is often mentioned as a great persecutor of Gods Prophets and a great promoter of the Idolatry of Baal and therefore St. John calls that false Prophetess who in his time had seduced many to Uncleanness and Idolatry in the Church of Thyatira Jezabel Rev. 2.20 the daughter of the King of the Sidonians and served Baal the Idol-god of that people and built an house and an Altar for him in Samaria Now this Idolatry was far worse than that of Jeroboam's for in that though they had Idols to wit the Golden Calves yet they pretended still to worship the true God but in this they worshipped Baal as their God In his days did Hiel the Bethelite which shews the horrible prophaneness and contempt of God at this time adventure to rebuild Jericho which though belonging to the Tribe of Benjamin yet it seems was at this time under the power of the King of the Ten Tribes notwithstanding Joshuah's curse pronounced against any that should attempt it and therefore it had continued a heap of rubbish from that time till this but now that bold wretch Hiel that dwelt at Bethel undertook the work and paid dear for it as Joshua had threatned for it cost him the loss of all his sons of the first-born when he began it and of some more of them as he went forward with the work and of the youngest when he finished it and hung up the Gates of it Josh 6.26 And Joshua adjured them at that time saying Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth this City Jericho he shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born and in his youngest Son shall be set up the gates of it Though the Israelites were at this present fallen to the horrid Idolatry of worshipping Baal †〈◊〉 was the God of the Sidonians Ahab
did evil in the sight of the Lord but not like his Father or his Mother He put away the Image of Baal which his Father had made but cleaved to the sins of Jeroboam and upheld still the Idolatry of the Golden Calves 2 King 3. from 1. to 4. God now revealed to Elijah that he should shortly be taken up to heaven as appears Ch. 2.9 but first he commanded him to visit the Schools of the Prophets which were at Bethel and Jericho that he might both by his counsel and prayers leave a blessing among them and perhaps that he might put into their hands the Prophesie against Jehoram Son of Jehoshaphat King of Judah which some time after was to be delivered unto him whereof mention is made 2 Chron. 21.12 Elijah therefore addressing himself to this journey immediately after which he knew he was to be taken up into heaven and not knowing as it seems whither the Lord would allow any witnesses to be present to see his Ascension or desiring to be alone that he might the better prepare himself for this his strange passage to the other world or desiring to try the constancy of Elisha's love to him and to discover whither God had revealed any thing to him concerning this his assumption or whatever else the reason was when he was going from Gilgal he advised Elisha to stay there But Elisha told him As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee shewing therein his grateful faithfulness to his Master So they came down together to Bethel * In his locis erant Prophetarum conventus quos Reges Israel quamvis Idololatrae passi sunt Quod singulari Dei Providantia factum est ne populus ipsius praesidio verbi sui penitus denudaretur P. Martyr which City was indeed since the division of the Kingdom won by Abijam 2 Chron. 13.19 but it seems it was afterwards recovered and was at this present in the hands of the Kings of Israel The Sons of the Prophets that dwelt there came to Elisha Elijah probably not being by and said to him knowest thou not that the Lord will take thy Master from thy head this day †Id est brevi non enim uno die consecerunt hoc iter A capite tuo a praesentia tua vel a capite tuo i. e. sursum rapitur nempe in caelum Some think here is an allusion to the Elder Prophets sitting in high places in their Schools above the heads of the younger and the younger sitting in lower places as it were at their feet Act. 22.3 that is take him up and carry him over thy head to heaven It seems the Lord had revealed Elijah's assumption unto some of them (c) Deus eos qui cum Prophetis vivebant paulatim assuefaciebat Prophetiae nunc hoc nunc illud de consiliis suis ipsis aperiens Grot. thereby inuring them by degrees to receive Prophetical revelations They therefore ask Elisha whither he were not acquainted that Elijah should be taken up from him into heaven very shortly He tells them He knew it very well they needed not enter into any discourse with him about it Elijah would have had Elisha stay here telling him that he himself must go up to Jericho where was another School of the Prophets which he also must visit Elisha answers him as he did before viz. that he would not leave him So they came together to Jericho The Sons of the Prophets there also having Elijah's assumption revealed to them they askt Elisha the same question that those of Bethel had done and he gave them the same short answer Elijah would have had Elisha to have stayed here telling him that as for himself the Lord had ordered him to go to Jordan And hereby he tried his constancy and faithfulness to him a third time as our Saviour tried Peter's love Joh. 21.15 16 17. Elisha tells him again as he did before He would not leave him So they two went on Fifty Sons of the Prophets of Jericho knowing what was to be done went and stood though at some distance in the sight of the place where Elijah was to be taken up to heaven This was so ordered by Divine Providence that there might be many witnesses of Elijah's assumption * Thus was our Saviour taken up while many beheld it Act. 1.9 Elijah and Elisha coming to the River Jordan Elijah took his mantle and wraping it together he smote the waters and they were divided hither and thither and so they two went over on dry ground See Josh 3.17 When they were come to the other side of Jordan Elijah said to Elisha Ask what I shall do for thee as Gods instrument or what I shall crave of God for thee Elisha said I pray thee let a double portion of thy spirit be conferred upon me that is a great and eminent measure of the gifts of the Spirit wherewith thou art endued even double to what other Prophets usually receive seeing I am to succeed in thy room 1 King 19.16 and to be a Father to the Schools of the Prophets and to be chiefly imployed in opposing the daring corruptions of the times Elijah said to him Thou hast asked an hard thing that is a thing not easie to be obtained and which God doth rarely bestow on his servants the Prophets nevertheless if thou see me when I am taken from thee it shall be done And this condition possibly was added to make Elisha the more heedful in observing the manner of Elijah's departure that he might be an eye witness thereof as the men of Galilee were of our Saviours Ascension Act. 1.10 11. As these two great Prophets were talking together Elijah having informed Elisha as 't is probable of such matters as should fall out in Israel after his departure behold there appeared a fiery splendid apparition not in a terrifying but in a glorious manner of a chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire The holy Angels appearing in this form and shape to conveigh Elijah to heaven See Psal 104.4 And hereby the Lord did highly honour his faithful servant Elijah whose soul was inflam'd with such an heroick and servent zeal for the glory of his Creator This fiery apparition coming between these two Prophets and parting them asunder as the nearest and dearest friends must at last part Elijah went up into this glorious chariot and a whirlwind carried it up to heaven to which glorious place he was carried up in soul and body like Enoch so that he died not but was changed in a moment his corruptible body putting on incorruption and his mortal body immortality And thus he was a type of Christs Ascension and hereby God was pleased to give a clear and evident proof that he had prepared the Heaven of Heavens for the perpetual abode of his Saints and that though our bodies be laid for a while in the grave yet they shall at last be taken up into Heaven being
and shall fell every good tree This by the general rule of the Law Deut. 20.19 they might not do viz. in those Countries they should subdue for their own use and habitation but here the Prophet by special direction from God injoin'd them to do it for the punishing of the Moabites being a people devoted by him to ruin and destruction Further he tells them they shall stop up their wells and mar and spoil the best pieces of their land by casting stones into them Accordingly the next morning about the time of the ordinary morning sacrifice †Virtus sacrificii cooperata est ad hoc miraculum signum est Elisaum tunc preces suas conjunxisse cum precibus populi in Templo orantis Videntur omnes fideles Israelitae ubicunque suissent illis horis Deum pro necessitatibus Ecclesiae atque Reipublicae orasse ut suas preces una cum illis qui praesentes oblationibus aderant copularent Martyr which was offered on on the Altar at the Temple see Exod. 29.39 when the faithful servants of God were at their devotions they saw water running along from the Country of Edom down to this wilderness there being no spring-head or river or such like means from whence it could come and yet the valley was filled with water And this is the fourth miracle wrought by Elisha The Moabites understanding that these three Kings were come to fight against them they gathered together all that were able to put on armour or use weapons both younger and elder and they stood at the border of their land to defend their Country and keep out their enemies And rising early in the morning to see whither the enemy were near them when the Sun arose its beams shining upon the waters made them seem to them at that distance as if it had been blood So that they thought the place where the Israelites were was all bloody * There use to arise some vapours out of the waters which the Sun at its rising not dispelling but shining weakly through them it makes them appear read as blood which they thought had happened by their slaughtering one another And that which induc'd them the rather to think so was because the like had before befallen their people when they went with the Ammonites and Edomites against Jehoshaphat at which time dissention arising amongst them they fell upon and slew one another see 2 Chron. 20.22 23. And they thought the like had now happened among these Kings that had combined against them not imagining there could be any water in those dry and sandy deserts Hereupon they encourag'd one another and gave the word Moab to the spoil So leaving their own borders they came to the Camp of the Israelites whom they found contrary to their expectation ready to receive them and by them they were totally routed and vanquished and pursued into their own Country and then the Israelites performed what the Prophet had before told them they should do concerning beating down their Cities and cutting down their Trees and stopping up their wells and where ever they came in the land of Moab they did what they could to spoil their Country at last they laid siege with all their three Armies to Kirharaseth the chief City of the Moabites see Isa 16.7 whither the King of Moab had fled with a party of his Souldiers and though they could not presently take it nor demolish the Stone-walls thereof yet the Slingers went about it that is the Engineers who with violence shooting stones out of their Engines did much batter it When the King of Moab saw that his enemies were too strong for him and like to take the City he sallied forth with 700 men upon that quarter where the King of Edom lay hoping to break through and so to escape But he found Edom's quarter better man'd and stronger than he imagined so as he was forc'd to retreat back into the City Being now straitly begirt and not knowing what course to take to help himself in this his desperate distress he took his own son * Had it been the King of Edoms Son as some imagin from Amos 2.1 this barbarous fact would have so inraged him and the other two Kings that they would have prest the Siege the more vehemently that they might have been revenged on the King of Moab for it As for that place Amos 2.1 it speaks of burning the King of Edom not the King of Edoms Son and therefore seems to be meant of some other savage act of cruelty in the Moabites against the King of Edom. and heir and according to the blind and abominable superstition of the Gentiles sacrific'd him as a burnt-offering on the wall to his Idol Chemosh see 2 King 23.13 that with so precious a sacrifice he might prevail with him for help After this prodigious act of blind superstition both the King of Moab and the inhabitants of the City were more bitterly enraged against the Israelites than ever and were resolved to fight it out to the last man rather than yield which the Israelites understanding and being perhaps moved with some compassion upon that lamentable spectacle they had seen of the burning the young Prince of Moab upon the wall they raised the siege and went away home And it seems the Kings of Judah and Edom were greatly incens'd against the King of Israel because his wrath against Moab had given occasion to this horrid act 2 King 3. from v. 4 to the end Elisha now returning out of Moab into Israel a certain widdow of one of the Prophets cried unto him saying Thy servant my husband is dead and died in debt being not able to pay what he owed but he would willingly have payed it if he could for thou knowest he was a man that truly feared the Lord. And now behold my husbands creditor not finding goods sufficient with me to discharge the debt is come to take my two Sons for bondmen either that he himself may use them as such or sell them to others to repay himself for that I owe him * Liberi jure Hebraeo res parentum ob parentum debita vendi poterant ut patet ex Isa 50.1 Mat. 18.25 See Levit. 25.39 Elisha answered What shall I do for thee what hast thou in the house which may go towards the payment of thy debt She said I have nothing of any value in the house besides the beds we lye on and some few other necessaries save only one pot of oyl He bad her go and borrow of all her neighbours empty vessels and to borrow a good many he intending she should have enough to discharge the debt to the full And says he when thou art come in thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy two Sons that the work the Lord intends to do for thee may not be interrupted nor any others come in and seek to share with thee in the oyl the Lord intends to
Joram to fly drew a bow with his full strength and smote him in the back between his shoulders and the arrow went out at his heart and he sank down in his Chariot and died Jehu â—hen call'd to Bidkar his Captain to take and cast his body in the field of Naboth the Jezreelite for remember says he when thou and I being Commanders under his Father and following him as his attendants at that time when he took possession of Naboths vineyard * Which was the day after his death heard this dreadful judgment (c) The Lord laid this burden on him v. 25. Onus Vocat Prophetiam gravem onerosam denounced against him by Elijah from the Lord Surely I have seen the blood of Naboth and the blood of his Sons who it seems were put to death with him that none of them might afterwards challenge the inheritance †Filii ejus contra legem Deut. 24. una interfecti erant licet nulla hujus caedis mentio facta est 1 Reg. 21.13 Sic multa a sacâ—is historicis omissa videmus que ab aliis per occasionem dicta sunt Sanctius and I will requite thee in this plat now therefore cast him into that portion of ground according to the word of the Lord that the dogs may lick his blood see 1 King 21.19 When Ahaziah King of Judah saw this he fled but they pursuing him first wounded him and afterwards killed him in Megiddo as may be seen more fully in his life Then Jehu march'd into Jezreel and Jezebel hearing of his coming painted her face and tired her head thinking possibly by her Majestick bravery to daunt him and looking out of the window when Jehu entred the Gate of her Palace she cried out Had Zimri peace who slew his Master see 1 King 16.10 as if she should have said Remember what he did and fear the like event Jehu looking up to the window askt who is there on my side who Two or three Eunuchs (a) Such were Chamberlains of Queens and Princesses for the most part in those times attendants on the Queen looking out he call'd to them to throw her down which they God so working upon their hearts and possibly fearing Jehu immediately did And he and his followers trod her under their horses feet and so pash'd her to pieces that some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses Jehu having done this great work and having taken much pains in this expedition from Ramoth to Jezreel and seeing all was quiet in the City and that none oppos'd him he went now to refresh himself After a little time he bad some about him to go look after the body of that cursed woman Jezebel and to take it up and bury it for says he she was a Kings daughter viz. the King of Zidon's This order 't is like he gave on the sudden not remembring the Prophecy of Elijah nor what the Prophet that anointed him said unto him ver 10. but they bringing him back word that the dogs had eaten all but her scull and feet and the palms of her hands then he said this is the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah saying Near * â— Reg. 21.23 In pro juxta In eo territorio in quo injuste damnatus est Naboth the portion of Naboth in Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel and so much of her body as is left by the dogs shall be as dung upon the face of the field and shall lye and rot in the open air so that none shall be able to say of it this is Jezebel 2 King 8.28 29. 2 King 9. wh Ch. JEHV being thus come to the Crown The 10th King of Israel JEHU and having already executed his Commission on Jehoram Ahaziah and Jezebel he now proceeds on to root out the house of Ahab It seems Ahab had many Sons born to him of several wives and many grand-children in all about seventy who were bred up under several great men and some of them Rulers in Jezreel who upon these distractions fled with them to Samaria a well fortified City to secure them there Jehu understanding this wrote a Letter to those who had the tuition of these children and to the Elders of Samaria which spake after this manner Seeing your Masters Sons are with you and there are with you chariots and horses and you are in a fenced City and have arms look out therefore the best and meetest of your Masters Sons and set him on his Fathers Throne and fight for your Masters house This he wrote in an Ironical way but gave them thereby an intimation that if they stood out against him or offered to oppose him he doubted not but he should easily subdue them And indeed the Lord having appointed him to destroy the whole stock of Ahab did in order thereÌ„unto put such a fear into the hearts of these Rulers that they said among themselves Behold two Kings could not stand before him how then shall we be able to deal with him Hereupon he that was chief over all those that appertained to Ahabs house and the chief Magistrate of Samaria and the Senators of the City and the Governours of the Kings childreâ— returned this tame answer to Jehu we are thy servants and will do whatever thou commandest us they interpose no such condition as this if the thing be honest and just or the like so slavish does fear make men we will make no King nor set up any to oppose thee thou maist do what thou pleasest as for us we are ready to obey thee in every thing Jehu then wrote another Letter wherein he told them that if they were his servants in reality and would be obedient to him as they professed then he required them forthwith to cut off the heads of those seventy Sons and Grandchildren of Ahab and to bring them to him to Jezreel the next day This was indeed a very severe command and 't is strange they did not utterly refuse to obey it but they â—â—garding more their own safety then either humanity or the charge and trust committed to them without any more ado complied with it and cutting off the heads of these young Princes put them in baskets and sent them to Jezreel and followed after them themselves When they were come thither a messenger acquainted Jehu that these Rulers of Samaria had brought the heads of the Kings Sons unto him according to his command It being as it seems late Jehu ordered that they should be laid in two heaps at the entring of the Gate till the morning certainly a most sad and ruful spectacle it was to see so many young Princes heads lying on heaps together but this seems so ordered by Providence that all the people might see the dreadful judgment of God upon the house of Ahab for his cruelty and Idolatry and might be deterred from going on in it In the morning Jehu went out
Son of Nebat for their King But the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin stuck fast to Rehoboam In memorial of this sad rent the Jews afterwards kept a solemn Fast yearly upon the three and twentieth day of the third month called Sivan Rehoboam being come to Jerusalem forthwith raises an Army of an hundred and fourscore thousand valiant men out of Judah and Benjamin to reduce the Ten Tribes back to his subjection but is forbidden to proceed on in that enterprize by the Prophet Shemaiah who told him that the thing was of God who had so ordered it for the punishment of his Fathers defection from him and so the people returned to their own homes But though for the present that design was laid aside yet there followed continual bickerings between the two Kings all their days and the borderers on both sides did continually make inrodes one upon another see Ch. 14.30 Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem and built and fortified fifteen Cities for the defence of Judah and made great warlike provisions and put Garrisons into the Cities and placed Captains and Commanders over them some whereof it seems were his own Sons for 2 Chron. 11.23 't is said He dealt wisely and dispersed all his children thoroughout all the Countries of Judah and Benjamin into every fenced City And in that it must be acknowledged he dealt prudently for in his own Sons he might most securely confide And he stored those Garrisons with plenty of victuals and with wine and oyl and in every Garrison he put Shields and Spears and other Warlike ammunition and made them exceeding strong And many Priests and Levites that were cast off by Jeroboam and his Sons * They probably were placed as Captains in the Cities of Israel as Rehoboam's Sons were in the Cities of Judah who would not suffer them to execute the Priests office in their Cities and many people out of all the Ten Tribes who set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel resorted unto him whereby his Kingdom was much strengthned For three years he and his people walked in the ways of David and in the ways of Solomon viz. his first ways before his fall but afterwards they forsook the Law of the Lord though some particular persons among them undoubtedly remained faithful to God and made themselves High-places Images †So that none of the twelve Tribes at this time continued faithful to God the Ten revolted with Jeroboam and these two with Rehoboam and Groves doing according to all the abominations of the Heathen And they did evil in the sight of the Lord and provoked him to jealousie with their sins insomuch that in none of their Fathers days there was such a general apostasie And it seems there were among them some that practised that abominable sin of Sodomy so that they did after all the abominations of the Heathen whom God cast out before their Fathers As for the Domestick affairs of Rehoboam we find that he took eighteen Wives and sixty Concubines and begat twenty eight Sons and sixty Daughters and dispersed his Sons through all the Countries of Judah and Benjamin into the several fenced Cities and there gave them liberal and Princely allowances and sought out many Wives for them out of Noble Families to strengthen their interest by their alliances Of all his Wives he loved Maachah best the daughter of Absalom who was a great Idolatress see 1 King 15.13 and he made Abijah her Son to be chief ruler over his brethren intending he should succeed him in the Throne In the fifth year of his reign because he had so heinously transgressed against the Lord Shishak King of Egypt invited possibly thereunto by Jeroboam who had lived there and been kindly entertained by him before he was made King came up against him with twelve hundred chariots and threescore thousand horsemen and people without number Some of them were Lybians a people in Africa bordering upon Egypt some Suckites otherwise call'd Troglodites a people dwelling in Caves of Rocks and some of them Ethiopians With this great Army invading Judea he took the fenced Cities that were in his way to Jerusalem and then came before that City also The people of Judah being now in great distress Shemaiah the Prophet came to Rehoboam and the Princes * Ver. 6. Princes of Israel that is the Princes of Judah who were Israelites that were gathered together in Jerusalem and spake to them after this manner Thus saith the Lord ye have forsaken me and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak Rehoboam and the Princes upon this humbled themselves and confest their sins and said the Lord is righteous in all the judgments he hath brought upon us Hereupon the Lord spake to Shemaiah again saying They have humbled themselves therefore I will not utterly destroy them but grant them some deliverance and my wrath shall not be poured forth upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak nevertheless they shall be his servants and shall yield to such terms as he shall put upon them that they may know my service and the service of the Kingdoms of the Countries That is that they may know by the hard conditions Shishak will put upon them how much better it had been for them to have served me than by their sins to have brought themselves into bondage to other Nations See Isa 26.13 So Shishak being come before Jerusalem to save the Temple and City from plunder and to regain the Cities he had taken as he came up to them they were forc'd to give him the Treasures †This was the first spoiling of the Temple of the Temple not the holy vessels but such gold and silver and other precious things as were laid up for repairing the Temple and other holy uses as also the Treasures of the Kings house as also the Golden Shields that Solomon had made 1 King 10.16 Instead of these Rehoboam made Shields of Brass and committed them to the hands of the chief of the Guard that kept the door of the Kings house And when the King entred into the house of the Lord the Guard came and fetched them and carried them before him and when he was come back returned them again into his Guard-chamber Thus Rehoboam humbling himself the wrath of God turned from him so as he would not destroy him altogether And after this things began to go well again in Judah for they enjoyed their liberty of serving the true God the benefit of their own Laws and had for the most part peace and prosperity So Rehoboam recovered strength again and repaired and fortified the Cities of his Kingdom yet he did not sincerely set and fix his heart to seek the Lord that is did not endeavour to know him aright to worship him purely to call upon him fervently and to obey him faithfully and in all these to persevere constantly Now the Acts of Rehoboam first and last namely such as were done in his
and his Priests with sounding Trumpets * See Numb 10.9 to cry an alarm against you Consider O children of Israel what ye do fight ye not against the Lord God of your Fathers and assure your selves that if you persist ye shall not prosper Thus Abijah spake to Jeroboam and the Israelites but they were so far from being mov'd with any thing he said that Jeroboam in the mean time drew an Ambushment behind the Camp of Judah so that the main Battalia of the Israelites faced them and an Ambushment was secretly laid behind them to fall upon their reer When the fight began the Army of Abijah beheld and lo the battle was both before them and behind them Then they cried unto the Lord for help and trusted in him and the Priests sounded with their Trumpets to strengthen their faith in the Lords promise Numb 10.9 So the men of Judah giving a great shout and falling on the Lord smote Jeroboam and all his Army with such a dreadful fear that they fled before Abijah and Judah and were discomfited and Abijah and his Soldiers slew them with a great slaughter and cut off no less than five hundred thousand of them so that they slew more than every one his man Thus the children of Judah prevailed at this time because they trusted and relyed on the Lord God of their Fathers Abijah pursuing his victory took from Jeroboam several of his Cities viz. Bethel where one of his Golden Calves was set up Jeshanah and Ephraim with the Towns belonging to them Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in the days of Abijah Abijah now waxed mighty He married fourteen Wives partly before he was King and partly after and begat twenty two Sons and sixteen Daughters And the rest of the Acts of Abijah and his ways and his sayings are they not written in the History of the Prophet Iddo see Ch. 12.15 So Abijah having reigned three years slept with his Fathers and they buried him in the City of David And Asa his Son reigned in his stead 1 King 15. from 1 to 9. 2 Chron. 13. wh Ch. The third King of Judah ASA IN the 20th year of Jeroboam Asa began to reign over Judah and he reigned 41 years He began his reign in the time of the first King of Israel and continued to the reign of the eighth In which time the Kingdom of Israel was in three several families viz. Jeroboam's Baasha's and Omri's 'T is probable that he was very young when he came to the Crown and that hereupon Maachah his Grandmother the wife of Rehoboam his mother possibly being dead was made Queen Regent during his minority But when he came to some ripeness of years he shewed that his heart was upright before the Lord and that he was an enemy to the Idolatry that was in the land and desired to maintain the true worship of God a thing the more to be wondred at he having such a Father and such a Grandmother His Grandmother it seems had out of her zeal to Idolatry set up some new abominable Idol in a Grove He though young took courage and assuming the Government into his own hands deposed her from being Queen Regent and destroyed her Idol and burnt it by the Brook Kidron and stampt it to powder out of indignation and cast the dust thereof into the Brook He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and reformed those things that were out of order in matters of Religion and removed all the Idols that his Fathers had made yet the high places where the people worshipped the true God of Israel were not removed the people being very loth to be tyed to one place for the offering of their Sacrifices but the high places that were dedicated to the worship of strange gods he took away He took away also all the Sodomites out of the land which he could discover see Ch. 14.24 but some it seems remained till his Son Jehoshaphat came to the Crown and then he removed them 1 King 22.46 During this time of peace which the Lord had given them he exhorted his subjects to assist him in fortifying several Cities in his Kingdom and to make about them Walls Towers Gates and Bars while yet the land was quiet before them For says he we have sought the Lord and he hath given us rest on every side therefore let us make a good improvement of this mercy by preparing in time of peace for war 2 Ch. 14.6 7. After this he brought into the Lords house the things that his Father after his famous victory over Jeroboam had dedicated adding something more of his own free gift viz. silver and gold and vessels for the services of the Temple For ten years he enjoyed peace during which time Jeroboam died and Nadab his Son succeeded him Nadab two years after was slain by Baasha who reigned in his stead When those ten years were expired some enemy or other made war against him but who it was is not expressed And afterwards about the fourteenth year of his reign Zerah the Ethiopian with a vast Army of the Arabians as it seems and Philistines joining with him invaded the Kingdom of Judah with an host according to common fame of a thousand thousand and with a thousand †Supple mille 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut patet ex Cap. 16.8 and three hundred Chariots and Horsemen proportionable Ch. 16.8 * See Ch. 16.8 Asa met them with an Army of five hundred and eight thousand levied out of Judah and Benjamin all mighty men of valour And at Mareshah a City in Judah they set their armies in battle-array to fight Then Asa cried unto the Lord his God and prayed saying It is nothing with thee to help whither with many or them that have no power Help us O Lord our God for we rest on thee and in thy name we go out against this great multitude O Lord thou art our God let not man prevail against thee So the Lord smote the Ethiopians with such a dreadful fear that they fled before Asa and the men of Judah and so many of them were slain and the rest routed that they could not rally or make head again So the men of Judah pursued them to Gerar a City of the Philistines and spoiled it and the Cities round about it and carried away very much spoil from them for a great terrour from the Lord fell upon them so that they durst not resist And the men of Judah fell also upon the Tents of the Arabians who had joined with these Ethiopians and took from them abundance of sheep and camels and so laden with spoils marched back to Jerurusalem Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Azariah the Son of Oded and he went out to meet Asa and his Army at their return and lest they should be too much puffed up with this great victory he said unto Asa and his Soldiers You see by experience that the
were suspected not to be firm against Judah and therefore were slain by the men of Moab and Ammon fell unexpectedly upon them like men that rise suddenly out of an ambush upon their enemies and when they had destroyed them they fell out among themselves and destroyed one another The Army of Jehoshaphat coming now to the Watch-tower of Ziz in the Wilderness they looked towards the formidable army of their enemies and they saw none but dead bodies on the ground they saw none flying or escaping whom they needed to pursue or fall upon and so that was accomplished which the Prophet foretold v. 17. Ye shall not need to fight in the battel When Jehoshaphat and his people came to the field where their enemies lay slaughtered they found very rich spoils among the dead bodies viz. rings on their fingers chains about their necks jewels in their ears besides the wealth and riches they brought on their beasts and in their carts and carriages and their being so vast a number of the enemy slain the Israelites could not carry away all in one day but were three days in gathering the spoil it was so much so God not only freed them from their enemies but greatly enriched them by them On the fourth day they marched to the valley of Berachah or blessing and there solemnly praised the Lord for this great victory and from thence that valley had this name given it Then they all marched with great joy to Jerusalem Jehoshaphat marching in the front of them for the Lord had made them rejoice over their enemies And they came to Jerusalem playing on Psalteries and Harps and with the sound of Trumpets and so went to the house of the Lord to offer up there their more solemn praises and sacrifices of thanksgiving And the fear of the Lord fell on all the Kingdoms round about when they heard how the Lord had fought against the enemies of his people So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet for his God gave him rest round about But notwithstanding this signal deliverance and though Jehoshaphat had been reproved by the Lord for joining first with wicked Ahab and then with Ahaziah his wicked Son in building and fitting out Ships to go to Tarshish yet he fell again a third time into the like sin by assisting Jehoram the second Son of Ahab who succeeded Ahaziah and going forth with him and the King of Edom against the Moabites In which expedition he and the two other Kings were in great danger of perishing for want of water had they not been supplied by the prayers of Elisha the Prophet who had a great regard for Jehoshaphat 2 King 3.14 and so they obtained a great victory over their enemies 2 King 3. from v. 4 to the end Of this we may see more in the life of Jehoram King of Israel This seems to have happened about the 22th year of Jehoshaphat and then 't is probable he set up his Son Jehoram again as his Viceroy or took him into Copartnership with him in the Kingdom 2 King 8.16 as he had made him his Viceroy before when he went to visit Ahab Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 21.2 is call'd King of Israel that is of the Israelites that lived in the Kingdom of Judah He reigned 25 years and they buried him with his Fathers in the City of David and his Son Jehoram succeeded him who reigned eight years which together are 33 years Yet in Chronological account there were not above 29 years in the reigns of them both because Jehoshaphat did set up his Son Jehoram as partner with him in the Kingdom whilst he himself was alive see 2 King 8.16 which was about the 22th year of his reign so that the four last years of his reign and the four first of his Son Jehoram's were not eight but only four years seeing both of them reigned together at the same time 1 King 22. from 41 to 51. 2 Chron. 17. whole Chapter 2 Chron. 18. wh Ch. 2 Chron. 19. wh Ch. 2 Chron. 20. wh Ch. 2 Chron. 21.1 The 5th King that reigned in Judah was JEHORAM JEhoshaphat had designed his Son Jehoram to be King and appointed him to govern the Kingdom in his absence in the 17th year of his reign a little before he went with Ahab against Ramoth-Gilead thence the beginning of the reign of Jehoram King of Israel is counted to be both in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat * 2 King 3.1 and in the second year of Jehoram †2 King 1.17 Son of Jehoshaphat but at his return resumed the Royal power wholly to himself not communicating the same again to his Son until the fifth year of Jehoram King of Israel which was the 22th of Jehoshaphats own reign and then this King being old took Jehoram his Son as partner with him in the Government The cause whereof in all probability was some discord or differences that brake out even then between him and his younger Brethren which moved Jehoshaphat to give to his younger Sons great gifts of gold and silver and jewels and to commmit to their custody some strong fenced Cities in Judah 2 Chron. 21.3 the better to secure them against the power of their Elder Brother and on the other side he put his Eldest Son into the possession of the Kingdom whilst himself was living for fear of tumults and commotions that might arise after his death Jehoram therefore being 32 years old succeeded his Father and reigned eight years in Jerusalem to wit four years together with his Father and four years by himself alone He walked in the Idolatrous ways of the Kings of Israel as did the house of Ahab whose daughter he had married viz. Athaliah and a vertuous daughter she was like to be that sprang from the cursed root of Ahab and Jezebel she soon drew him to follow her Fathers courses so great an influence have bad wives upon their husbands to draw them to evil He did that which was very evil and provoking in the sight of the Lord howbeit the Lord would not destroy the house of David because of the Covenant he had made with him to give him always a light that is a royal glory in a successor and to continue the Soveraignty in his race as long as that Kingdom should last See 1 King 11.36 When he was setled in the Kingdom he sought to make himself strong as Jeroboam did 2 Chron. 13.7 that he might the better effect his mischievous intents and purposes and accordingly getting his six younger brethren into his hands he like a cruel Tyrant slew them and many also of the great men of the land who he thought favoured them and had a kindness for them He made great innovations in Religion erecting those Idolatrous places in mountains which his Father and Grandfather had with so much zeal destroyed He caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit spiritual fornication in worshipping of Baal and to embrace that Idolatry which himself had learned from
and thirty years he died He was about ten or eleven years old at Solomons death and lived in the reigns of eight Kings of Judah It was a great blessing to that Kingdom that he lived so long And they buried him in the City of David among the Kings which was an high honour to him because he had done good in Israel both towards God in restoring his worship and towards his house in causing it to be repaired Now after the death of Jehoiada that wise godly and zealous Governour several of the Princes of Judah who as it seems had concealed their impious mind and hollow heartedness in Religion before came now to Joash and making a low obeisance to him and presenting unto him a flattering address they petitioned him as appears by what follows that they might have leave to set up the Idolatry of Baal again in the land and to worship God in the high places after the manner of their fathers because it was burdensome to go up from all parts to the Temple The King being prevailed upon by their flatteries * Multorum Principum aures nihil accipiunt nisi jucundum lâ—surum Tacitus granted their request and so they left the Temple the house of the God of their Fathers and served Idols in Groves and thereby brought the wrath of the Lord upon Judah and Jerusalem by this their great trespass For shortly after Hazael King of Syria see 2 King 12.17 invaded the land and took Gath (a) This City David recovered from the Philistines 1 Chr. 18.1 and the Kings of Judah held it to this time It was one of the Cities Rehoboam fortified 2 Chr. 11.8 and was preparing to go against Jerusalem So formidable to Joash was this approach of Hazael that he was forc'd to purchase his peace with him by making him a present of all the hallowed things and of all the gold that was found in the Treasuries of the Temple and in his own house (b) 2 Chron. 24.27 The greatness of the burdens laid upon him may hereby be meant which are mentioned in some Civil Records Sundry Prophets and extraordinary messengers God sent to them one after another to reclaim the King and his people from those evil ways and to bring them again to the Lord. And these Prophets (c) So the Lord dealt with the Ten Tribes 2 King 17.13 and with the men of Judah after this 2 Chron. 36.15 16. did faithfully declare their sin to them even to their very faces and foretold them of the judgments God would bring upon them if they did not repent however they would not hearken to them but by an obstinacy in sin pull'd down vengeance on their own heads At length Zachariah the Son of Jehoiada was by the Spirit of God stirred up to admonish them of their wickedness who accordingly did it with great boldness and courage and standing up in an high place in the Court of the Temple and speaking to the King his Nobles and people he told them Thus saith the Lord why do ye so transgress the commandments of the Lord that ye cannot prosper because ye have forsaken the Lord he hath forsaken you and given you over into the hands of the Syrians Hereupon these Idolatrous Princes and the people that were like them being enraged immediately consulted together to destroy him and probably complained grievously to the King of him representing him as the manner of such persons is as a man highly disaffected to the Kings person and government and an enemy to the State And having by this means inflam'd the King against him they askt him if they should presently stone him which he agreeing to and commanding they furiously rushed into the Priests Court whither Zachariah had betaken himself and with most daring impiety stoned him between the Temple and the Altar * See Mat. 23.35 But before he expired he said The Lord will look upon it and require it that is he will severely avenge my blood upon you Thus Joash remembred not the kindness which Jehoiada the Father of Zachariah had done for him who had nourished him in the Temple in his infancy and with extream hazard to himself set him upon the Throne and instructed him in the ways of God and had been his most faithful counsellor and a means of procuring many blessings to him and yet notwithstanding all this he now cruelly consents to the murdering of his Son and that only for giving him faithful counsel But though Joash was thus abominably ungrateful yet the Lord would not let it so pass For before that year was expired the Syrians invaded the land again and executed the judgment of God upon them with great severity For though they came only with a small company of men intending possibly to pillage rather than to perform any great action and Joash went out against them with a very great army yet this small band of the Syrians overthrew that great host of Judah because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers The Syrians being highly encouraged with this victory they went up against Jerusalem and destroyed all the Princes of the people on whom they could lay their hands who had been the great instruments to draw away their King from the worship of the true God to Idolatry and they sent the spoil of them to the King of Damascus And when they departed they left Joash in sore diseases perhaps by reason of some wounds he had received in the fight which advantage two of his own servants laying hold upon slew him in his bed and thereby avenged the blood of the Son * V. 25. For the blood of the Sons of Jehoiada i. e. one of his Sons the Plural numâ—er for the Singular of Jehoiada the Priest he was slain in the beginning of the fortieth year of his reign And they buried him in the City of David but not in the Sepulchres of the Kings He reigned twenty two years with Jehu the rest in the time of Jehoahaz Jehu's Son and Jehoash his Grandchild and Amaziah his Son succeeded him 1 King 11. wh Ch. 2 King 12. wh Ch. 2 Chron. 23. wh Ch. 2 Chron. 24. wh Ch. The 9th King of Judah AMAZIAH AMAZIAH the Son of Joash was twenty five years old when he began to reign and reigned twenty nine years †T is said that in the second year of Joash King of Israel he began to reign that is in the second year of Joaâ—h after he began to reign alone his father Jehoahaz being dead For Joa h began to reign three years before hâ—s father died and that was the 37th year of Joash King of Judah the father of Amaziah who reigned forty years compleat In the beginning of his reign he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord viz. that which was for the substance of it good and approved of God yet not with an upright heart like David but according to what Joash his
did but in the good only Howbeit the people did yet very corruptly and by their Priests who too much complied with them therein offered sacrifice and burnt incense on the high places which had Jotham removed he might have prevented the people's corrupting themselves in that thing and therefore his not doing it is noted as a blemish of his government About this time namely in the year wherein Vzziah died the Prophet Isaiah saw that glorious vision of the Lord sitting on his throne and compassed about with his holy Angels singing Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbath And he foresaw the people of the Jews from this time forward growing more and more obdurate and blind every day than other resisting the counsel of the Prophets and so obstructing the means God afforded them for their conversion and healing Isa 6. Jotham was a great builder he built or renewed and repaired the high-gate of the house of the Lord which was as it seems the Gate whereby they went into the Kings Palace 2 Chron. 23.20 And on the wall of Ophel * Ophel was a Tower on the outside of the City and was the place where in those times the Nethinims dwelt Nehem. 3.26 he built much He built also divers Cities in the hills of Judah and in the Forrests he built Castles and Towers to prevent incursions of enemies He subdued the Ammonites and forced them to pay him tribute by the space of three years viz. an hundred talents of silver and of wheat and barley ten thousand measures of each So he became mighty because he ordered his counsels and actions as in the sight of the Lord and so as he might please him The Prophet MICAH In his days the Prophet Micah began to Prophesie and under him and his two next successors he executed his Prophetick function together with Isaiah and Hosea He prophesied a great while as appears Jer. 26.18 He is very like the Prophet Isaiah both in matter and loftiness of stile He prophesied both against Judah and Israel He declareth Gods wrath against them he laments their condition and foretells their destruction and captivities by the Assyrians and Babylonians for the manifold sins that all sorts had committed viz. Princes Prophets and people Ch. 1.2 3. Then he comforteth those that repent with promises of temporal blessings and deliverances from their enemies but chiefly with promises and predictions of Christ foretelling the place of his nativity and the manifold blessings of his Kingdom Ch. 4. 5. In the next place he expostulates with all sorts for their so ill requiting Gods great kindness and mercy to them and provoking him so highly by their manifold sins Ch. 6. Then he complains of the paucity and scarceness of good men and he endeth his Prophesie with consolations to the Church exhorting her to expect Gods time to plead her cause to the shame of her insulting enemies and her own marvellous comfort Ch. 7. Towards the latter end of Jotham's reign Rezin King of Syria and Pekah King of Israel began to conspire against Judah but they did not invade the land till his Sons days the Lord therein shewing mercy to him in taking him away before those heavy calamities fell upon Judah He was buried in the City of David and Ahaz his Son reigned in his stead 2 King 15. from 32 to the end 2 Chron. 27. whole Chapter The 12th that reigned in Judah AHAZ AHAZ succeeded his father Jotham in the very end of the seventeenth year of Pekah He was twenty * Object If he was only 20 years old when he began to reign and reigned only 16 years then how could his Son Hezekiah be 25 when he began to reign 2 King 18.2 for then he must be born when Ahaz was but 11 years old Ans Ahaz was 20 years old when he was first designed King in his Fathers life time it being the manner of Kings in those troublesome times to set up their Sons in the Throne with themselves in their life time that they might hold it the more sure after their death But when he began to reign by himself alone after his fathers death from which the 16 years of his reign must be reckoned he might be 24 or 25 and so his Son Hezekiah might well be 25 at his death years old when he began to reign and reigned sixteen years He did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord his God like David his Father The Lord was his God as to outward profession and David was his Father by lineal descent but he would neither faithfully serve God nor imitate David Soon after his Father was dead Rezin King of Syria and Pekah King of Israel confederated together and conspired against him intending with their joint forces to go up and besiege Jerusalem and to depose him and to make the Son of Tabeal probably some eminent Syrian King in his stead The King and people of Judah were exceedingly startled at these tidings as apprehending a sudden and final destruction of their Kingdom God hereupon sends the Prophet Isaiah to Ahaz to comfort him and bids him take his Son Shear-jashub along with him whose name intimated that though the Jews should be brought low yet a remnant of them at least should return to their former condition again and should encrease and enjoy the happiness of being a people and a Commonwealth of themselves It seems the names of Isaiahs Sons (a) The Sons of Isaiah were for signs and for wonders C. 8. 18. by reason of the signification of their names which presignified the goodness of God to the Jews were imposed upon them by a spirit of Prophesie and so they were for signs and significations of the goodness of God which he intended to the Jews see Isa 8.18 And thus Isaiah brought his Son Shear-jashub to Ahaz to confirm him and his people with this sign that they should not utterly be destroyed by these two confederate Kings Therefore he advises him to take heed of distrusting God and to be quiet and not to be afraid of those two Tails or ends of smoking fire-brands viz. Rezin and Pekah whom he so calls because they should soon be extinct and their attempts vanish into smoke though they thought to have burnt up all before them For within the compass of 65 years reckoning from the Earthquake in the 22 year of Vzziah's reign * See more hereof in the life of Uzziah the Kingdom of Syria shall be swallowed up by the Assyrian and Ephraim shall be broken †This was brought to pass by Salmanassar 2 King 17.6 that it be not a people But Ahaz seems still incredulous and believed not the Prophets words Isaiah therefore tells him if he doubted of the truth of what he had said to him in Gods name he might freely ask a sign of the Lord to be shewn him either in the heaven or in the earth for the confirmation of his faith But he
seemeth to have been missing ever since the beginning of Manasseh's reign who possibly at first endeavoured to burn all the Books of the Law and so this Book was hid in some secret place of the Temple by some faithful Priest that it might be preserved for future times Hilkiah having found it he sent it by Shaphan the Scribe unto the King who having heard it read all over to him was exceedingly affected therewith and rent his clothes and more especially as 't is likely at those dreadful threatnings against Idolatry which are written in Levit. 26. Deut. 28. Hereupon he immediately sent to (b) Miriam and Deborah and Anna were all Prophetesses Thus the Lord is pleas'd to endue some women with the spirit of Prophesie to shew that he is not tyed to any sex Huldah a famous Prophetess who dwelt in Ierusalem in the suburbs or second part and desired her to ask counsel of the Lord for him Ieremy possibly being not then at Ierusalem but at Anathoth For Iosiah hearing those curses in the Law denounced against Idolatry and knowing how much some of his Predecessors had been guilty thereof he much seared lest the judgments threatned in that Book might fall upon him and his people and desired to know whither there might be any means to pacifie Gods wrath and prevent those judgments Huldah returned this answer Thus saith the Lord Behold I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof even all the curses written in the Book which the King of Judah hath read because they have forsaken me and burnt incense to other gods and have provoked me to anger with the works of their hands viz. their idols and altars therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place and shall not be quenched intimating the utter extirpation of the Jews out of that good land but to the King of Judah who sent you say to him Thus saith the Lord as touching the words and threatnings which thou hast heard read out of the Book because thy heart was tender and soon moved at the hearing of my threatnings and thou hast humbled thy self before me when thou heardest what I spake against this place and the inhabitants thereof that they should become a desolation and a curse that is have the curses written in this Book executed upon it and hast rent thy clothes and wept before me Behold I will gather thee unto thy pious ancestors in heaven before these dreadful calamities shall fall upon this place and people and thou shalt be gathered unto thy grave in peace This answer of Huldahs being brought to the King his heart was so affected with it that to prevent if it were possible this judgment threatned he called together the Elders of Judah and Jerusalem together with the Priests and Prophets viz. Jeremy Baruck Zephany and Vriah and the people both small and great and caused one of the Levites to read in their ears all the words of the Book of the Covenant * The Law is called a Cove an t because obedâ—ence was therein requir'd on the peoples part and a blessing thereupon promised on Gods part so called because it contained the Covenant that God made with the people of Israel See 1 King 8.9 And the King stood by the Pillar on the Brasen Scaffold or on some Throne erected by a pillar in the Temple for him to stand upon at that time and there solemnly made a Covenant before the Lord in his own name and the name of the people to walk after the Lord that is to observe what he prescrib'd unto them and to keep his commandments testimonies and statutes with all their heart and with all their soul and to perform the words of the Covenant written in that Book and he caused all that were present to give their consent to it and the inhabitants of Jerusalem were the most forward to engage themselves to walk according to the Covenant of the Lord God of their Fathers and did accordingly so walk Then the King commanded Hilkiah the High Priest and the Priests that were next unto him and the Levites to bring forth out of the Temple * Josiah did begin to purge Judah and Jerusalem of Idols in the twelfth year of his reign six years before the Book of the Law was found but upon hearing those dreadful threatnings in the Law against Idolatry he now proceeded further and perfected that reformation which was then begun Therefore the Penman of the Sacred History of the Chronicles relating the Reformation that Josiah wrought in the twelfth year of his reign adds also what was done afterwards when the Book of the Law was found and speaking how he suppressed Idolatry upon the hearing of the Law read to him he joins many things of the same nature that were done in the twelfth year of his reign that all his zealous acts in rooting out Idolatry might he related together all the vessels that were made for Baal and used in his worship or in the Idolatrous worship of the Groves or of the Host of Heaven and he burnt them in the field by which the river Kidron did run and carried the ashes of them to Bethel therewith to defile the prime seat of Jeroboams Idolatry These things had been us'd by Manasseh and Amon but were set aside as it seems in some by-place of the Temple in Josiah's time and seeing still they remained there this good King's zeal would not permit them to be there any longer And he put down the Idolatrous Priests or Chemarim whom the Kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in high places in the Cities of Judah and in places round about Jerusalem He put down those also who burnt incense to Baal or to the Sun Moon and the Planets and host of heaven and he brought out the Image whereon a grove was engraven which it seems was hung up in the Temple and stampt it to powder and cast the dust thereof upon the graves of those that had worshipped Idols and sacrificed unto them 2 Chron. 34.4 And he brake down the Tents of the Sodomites that were in the grove by the house of the Lord and where the women wove hangings for those filthy tents so that in that grove they not only worshipped Idols but as it seems defiled themselves also with all manner of abominable uncleanness And he brought all the Priests that were the Sons of Aaron and had served the true God in high places out of the Cities where they had exercised that false worship and would not suffer them to live there and he defiled the high places even from Geba the North border of the Kingdom of Judah to Beersheba the South-border and beat down their Altars and burned dead mens bones on them v. 14. to make them unclean and brake down the high places that were erected at the entring of the Gates by Joshua the Governour of the City whither it seems many of the people used to
resort so that in his reformation he spared neither the high places of great or small And the Priests of these high places he permitted not to offer sacrifice at the Altar in the Temple yet he permitted them to eat of the unleavened bread that is of the shew-bread and such provisions * Species hic Synecdochice ponitur pro genere q.d. participes erant omnium illorum quibus alii sacerdotes vesci poterant Tirinus as were allotted for the maintenance of the Priests Also he defiled Tophet an high place in the valley of the Son of Hinnon near Jerusalem Josh 15.8 by casting dead mens bones into it that none might hereafter sacrifice his Son to Molech in that place as they had us'd to do Moreover he took away the horses that had been nourished and kept to carry men with speed from the Gate of the house of the Lord †Equitabant ab ingressa Templi ad cameram Nathan-Melech vel ad suburbia Munster to the chamber or house of Nathan-Melech the Chamberlain which was in the suburbs of the City of David where they might see the Sun rise and so might worship it at its first appearing which was an Idolatrous practice of the Persians and it seems the Israelites had learned it from them And he burnt the Chariots wherein the worshippers of the Sun were carried by the help of those horses to see the Sun rise or perhaps the Idolatrous Israelites might set a glorious image of the Sun in one of those Chariots which at sometimes was drawn up and down by those horses for all sorts of people to see and adore And therefore he is said to have burnt the Chariots but to have taken away the horses Furthermore the Altars that were on the flat roof of an upper Chamber of Ahaz which possibly he made to sacrifice thereon to the Sun Moon and Stars see Jer. 19.13 Zeph. 1.4 5. And the Altars which Manasseh had made in the two Courts of the Lords house did he break to pieces For though Manasseh after his repentance did cast out of the City all the Idolatrous Altars that he had made see 2 Chron. 33.15 yet possibly Amon his Son might restore them to their places again and so they might have continued until now but Josiah now tumbleth them down breaks them to pieces and beats them to powder and casts the dust of them into the brook Kidron And the high places which were near Jerusalem on the right hand of the mount of corruption viz. Mount Olivet so called because it was so full of Idols in the days of Solomon * See 1 King 11.7 wherewith the people corrupted themselves Deut. 32.5 he defiled as he had done other high places before 'T is like those high places were defac'd by Asa or Jehoshaphat or Hezekiah but Amon might put them to those Idolatrous uses for which they were before erected and thereupon Josiah took occasion utterly to demolish them that they might never again be used for any such purpose Thus we see how zealously this good King endeavoured a thorough reformation by breaking in pieces Idolatrous Images and cutting down Idolatrous Groves and defiling those those places with dead mens bones that they might never be used for those purposes again 2 King 22. from 3 to the end Chap. 23. from 1 to the 15. 2 Chron. 34. from 8 to the end Josiah now proceeds further in his reformation even to the Cities of the Ten Tribes which he had any power over and first he went to Bethel where coming to the high-place which Jeroboam the first had there made and seeing many sepulchres in the mount of the Idolatrous Priests that had been there buried He undoubtedly by a special instinct from God caused their bones to be taken up and burnt them on that Altar and thereby polluted it according to the word of the Lord which the man of God spake 1 King 13.2 Who cried against that Altar in the word of the Lord and said O Altar Altar thus saith the Lord Behold a child shall be born unto the house of David Josiah by name and upon thee shall he offer the Priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee and mens bones shall be burnt upon thee Then looking about he saw an inscription upon a monument and inquiring what it signified the men of the City told him it was the sepulchre of the man of God who came from Judah and foretold that Josiah should do these things And the old Prophet that seduced him buried him in that sepulchre and gave order that he himself should be there buried also and that there should be an inscription made declaring that there the man of God was buried that when the time came that the things which he had prophesied should be fulfilled his sepulchre might hereby be known from the rest and so neither the bones of the man of God nor his own bones might be disturbed Josiah being satisfied by the inscription whose sepulchre it was he gave order that the bones of those two Prophets should not be disturbed and so the old Prophets desire was fulfilled see 1 King 13.31 32. Then he brake down the high place and the Altar and stampt it small to powder and burnt the Grove where the high place was Then he proceeded to the Cities of Manasseh Ephraim and Simeon even unto Naphtali and caused the Altars and graven Images to be broken down with mattocks and did unto them as he had done at Bethel And such Idolatrous Priests as he met with who sacrificed to false gods and opposed him in this reformation he slew upon their Altars and therein fulfilled what was long since prophesied 1 King 13.1 2. And Josiah took away all the abominations out of the Countries that belonged to the children of Israel over which he had power and caused all of them as much as he could to serve the Lord their God and all his days they departed not from following the Lord God of their Fathers 2 Chron. 34.33 Whereby it appears that though the Ten Tribes were carried away captive into Assyria yet there were some both of the Priests and people that either were left behind or return'd * Abeuntibus Assyriis multi profugi exules qui antea fuga alio alio dilapsi sunt ad suas sedes redierunt cum suis sacerdotibus ibi que ut ante idola sua coluerunt again into the land of Samaria It appears also that the greatest part of the Kingdom of Samaria was at this time under the power of Josiah which possibly the King of Babylon who set Manasseh at liberty might give him with his liberty on condition that he should defend his Territories against the Egyptians who began in those times with great power and success to oppose the Babylonians 2 King 23. from 15 to 21. 2 Chron. 34. from 4 to 8. In the same 18th year of his reign on the 14th day of the
first the particulars of his dream and then the interpretation thereof shewing him how the four Monarchies which were in their order to succeed one another was the thing signified by that great image made up of divers metals which he saw in his dream Whereupon the King enriched him presently with great gifts and made him Governour of all the Province of Babylon and chief over all the wisemen thereof And moreover at his request made his three Companions Shadrach Meshach and Abednego principal officers in all that Province Dan. 2. wh Chap. Jehoiakim for three years viz. the fifth sixth and seventh of his reign was Tributary to Nebuchadnezzar but the King of Egypt who had set him up could not bear this and therefore threatned as it seems to restore Jehoahaz his Brother whom he still held prisoner in Egypt And though Jeremy had Prophesied it should never come to pass as we find Jer. 22.11 Thus saith the Lord touching Shallum the Son of Josiah King of Judah which reigned instead of Josiah his Father and who went forth out of this place he shall not return hither any more but shall die in the place whither they have led him captive and shall see this land no more yet the fear of it did much perplex him so that he was now in a great straight he was in danger of the Egyptians if he kept faith with the Babylonians and of the Babylonians if he should revolt again to the Egyptians at length namely in the eighth year of his reign hearing perhaps of great preparations made by the Egyptians against the Babylonians he renounced his subjection to the Babylonians and sided with the Egyptians again 2 King 24.1 Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth year of his reign seems to have erected that huge golden image in the plains of Dura a Province of Babylon to be worshipped Daniel's three companions that were newly advanced are accused for not worshipping of it 'T is like out of envy to them and to entrap them some of the Babylonians got the King to erect this idolatrous image These three worthies being brought before Nebuchadnezzar make a stout profession of their resolution to own and serve only the true God Hereupon they are cast into a fiery furnace but are miraculously preserved and delivered by God The King seeing the miracle was exceedingly astonished at it and blessed and praised God Dan. 3. wh Ch. Nebuchadnezzar being detained for three years after Jehoiakim's revolt by other occasions at last in the seventh year of his reign and the eleventh of Jehoiakim's with an army consisting of several Nations he invades Judea and besieges Jerusalem and takes it and Jehoiakim in it and being enraged against him for his perfidiousness he caused him to be bound in chains intending to carry him captive to Babylon But Jehoiakim through grief as 't is probable suddenly after dying he caused his dead body to be dragged out of the Gate of Jerusalem and cast into the fields to be devoured by birds and beasts so that having no burial he may be said to be buried like an Ass as Jeremy had before prophesied of him Jer. 22.18 19 Ch. 36.30 though he dying of himself and not by violence he also may be said to have slept with his Fathers or to have fallen asleep and died as his fathers did Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and the abominations that he did viz. his killing of Vriah the Prophet and his perfidiousness to Nebuchadnezzar and other evils that were found in him behold they are written in the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah 2 King 24. from 1 to 7. 2 Chron. 36.6 Nebuchadnezzar carried away at this time three thousand twenty and three Jews prisoners in the latter end of the seventh year of his reign Jer. 52.28 JEhoiakin was called Jeconiah * In the Genealogy of Christ Jehoiakim the Son of Josiah seems quite to be left out Mat. 1.11 And Josias begat Jeconias and his brethren c. for the resolving of which doubt some conceive that Jehoiakim the Father was called Jeconiah as well as Jehoiakin the Son and so whereas it is said that Josias begat Jeconias and his brethren it must be understood of Jehoiakin the Son of Josias who had several brethren whereas Jehoiakim had none And then that which follows ver 12. And after they were brought to Babylon Jeconias begat Salathiel must be understood of Jehoiakin the Son some learned men viz. Beza and Pareus have been ready to think there is an errour in the generallty of the Greek copies crept in by some unadvised scribe leaving out Jehoiakim the father of Jeconias And Rob. Stephen in his Diversae Lectiones collected out of old Copies readeth that eleventh ver thus Josias begat Jakim which is the contract of Jehoiakim and Jakim begat Ieconias and his brethren and some colour there may seem to be for it because otherwise there is one wanting to make up the third or last fourteenth generation mentioned by the Evangelist which he intended as appears ver 18. So all the Generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen Generations and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen Generations 1 Chron. 3.16 and Coniah by way of contempt The 19th that reigned in Judah was JEHOIAKIN Son of JEHOIAKIM Jer. 22.24 As I live saith the Lord though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim King of Judah were as the signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck him thence This Jehoiakin was eighteen years old when he began to reign that is when he began to reign alone after his fathers death for in his fathers life-time as it seems he was crowned King ten-years before this when he was but eight years old as we have shewed before in the life of Jehoiakim He reigned only three months and ten days and did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord as his father had done before him Against him therefore a dreadful decree went out from the Lord dooming him childless that is as some interpret it that none of his race should succeed him in the Regality to sit on the throne of David though in a kind of Soveraignty Zerubbabel the son or Grandchild rather of Salathiel by Pedaiah did succeed him 2 King 24.8 9. 2 Chron. 36.9 Jer. 22. from 24 to the end 'T is not expressed whether Jehoiakin were made King by Nebuchadnezzar when he last took Jerusalem and bound his Father in chains or was set up by the people when the Babylonians were marched away from the City If he were set in the throne by Nebuchadnezzar it may well be as Josephus thinks that the King of Babylon shortly after his departure bethinking himself how dangerous it might be to leave the Son in the Throne whose Father he had lately taken and cast his dead body out unburied he changed his purpose and presently sent his Captains back with
this place And so that came to pass which God threatned Levit. 26.34 35. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths as long as it lyeth desolate it shall rest because it did not rest in your Sabbaths when ye dwelt upon it * See Pag. 169. Hereupon many begin the seventy years captivity from the destruction (c) Here many begin the Seventy years captivity though some begin it from the carrying away of Jeconiah 2 King 24.12 of Jerusalem which are called the seventy years of the desolations of Jerusalem Dan. 9.2 Now the desolation of that City was not till the last fatal destruction of it And the same term also of seventy years is set for the subjection of the neighbouring Nations as we find Isai 23.15 And it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years according to the days of one King after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot c. CHAP. VI. The sixth Age of the World containing the space of time from the carrying of Judah into Captivity unto the liberty granted by Cyrus for their return and consists of seventy years ending in the 3478 year of the World THE City of Jerusalem and the Temple being thus destroyed and burnt down to the ground by Nebuzaradan he left only a few and those of the poorer sort of the people there to dress the Vineyards and to be husbandmen over whom Gedaliah the Son of Ahikam a man of the same Nation was placed Governour but as a Provincial Governour only without any badg of Regality or Kingly Title 'T is like this Gedaliab was one of those that followed the advice which the Prophet Jeremy gave both to Zedekiah and the rest Jer. 21.8 9 10. And unto this people thou shalt say thus saith the Lord Behold I set before you the way of life and the way of death He that abideth in this City shall die by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence but he that goeth out and falleth to the Caldeans that besiege you he shall live and his life shall be unto him for a prey For I have set my face against this City for evil and not for good saith the Lord it shall be given into the hand of the King of Babylon and he shall burn it with fire 'T is like therefore that upon this account he was made Governour by Nebuchadnezzar's command Jer. 39.10 Jer. 40.5 2 King 25.12 22. Seraiah the chief Priest and Zephaniah the second Priest and the three Keepers of the Gate of the Temple and other principal men by whose counsels Zedekiah had been much led to resist the King of Babylon contrary to Jeremy's warnings Nebuzaradan took and carried them to Riblah to Nebuchadnezzar and there they were put to death But Jehozadak the Son of Seraiah who after him came to be High Priest was carried away prisoner to Babylon 2 King 25. from 18 to 22. Jer. 52. from 24 to 28. 1 Chron. Ch. 6.15 The Prophet Jeremy being bound with chains was carried with the rest as far as Rama towards Babylon and had there his irons knocked off and was set at liberty and had his choice given him whither he would go on to Babylon and there to be honourably treated or stay in Judea with those poor people that were there left And he choosing to stay was sent back with money in his purse to Gedaliah the Governour who made his residence at Mizpeh in the Tribe of Benjamin Jer. 39. from 11 to 15. Jer. 40. from 1 to 7. Some of those Captains and Souldiers which upon the taking of Jerusalem had fled away by night and were scattered over the Country and some of the Jews that had fled to the Moabites and Ammonites and other neighbouring Nations returned after a while to Gedaliah into their own Country where they had good provision of wine and oyl and other summer-fruits to subsist withal Gedaliah made his residence at Mizpeh in the Tribe of Benjamin leaving the rest of the Jews that were with him to live in such Towns as they thought fit Jer. 40. from 7 to 13. 2 King 25.23 24. Ismael the Son of Nethaniah of the race of the Kings of Judah had it seems during the siege of Jerusalem kept himself out of the storm with Baalis King of the Ammonites Jer. 40.14 and being of the Royal seed he envied that the Government of the Jews should be committed to Gedaliah who seems to have been but of private condition and being stirred up likewise as 't is probable by the King of Ammon he made a conspiracy with some few more to slay him Johanan of whom mention is made 2 King 25.23 came and discovered this conspiracy to Gedaliah and offered his help to dispatch Ismael to prevent it but Gedaliah would not believe it but thought he spake falsely of Ismael and would by no means consent he should be taken off Not long after Ismael came to him with ten resolute fellows to Mizpeh where Gedaliah friendly entertained him giving no credit to such as informed him of his treacherous intentions against him and in the seventh month Ismael with his associates taking their opportunity wickedly murdered Gedaliah and such Jews and Caldeans as he had then about him And a day or two after fourscore Jews coming from several places of the Kingdom in a most sad and mournful manner with their beards shaven and clothes rent and having cut themselves deploring the desolation that was fallen upon Jerusalem and bringing certain offerings and incense with them which they purposed to offer to the Lord in the place where the Temple before stood now lying in its dust Ismael having notice of their coming went out to meet them and with counterfeit tears making shew that he also bore a part with them in their sorrow he invited them to go with him to Gedaliah feigning himself to be one of his friends thereby to try how they stood affected to him and having gotten them within the City of Mizpeh he and his companions slew them all there in the open streets ten only excepted whom he spared because they promised to discover to him some treasure hid in the fields during the war and the bodies of the slain he threw into King Asa's pit * In the days of King Baasha Asa King of Judah it seems made a pit in Mizpâ—h for a hiding place in case of danger of which we find no mention but only here which he made in Mizpeh for fear of Baasha See 1 King 15.22 Jer. 40. from 13 to the end Jer. 41. from 1 to 10. 2 King 25.25 Ismael having now taken the Kings daughters whom the Caldeans had left behind being hidden possibly at first and afterwards coming forth had committed themselves to the care of Gedaliah and many others of the people captive he was returning with them as his prisoners to the King of Ammon but Johanan meeting him with a band of men
into subjection all Countries far and near Whereupon Cyrus was by his Fatheâ— Cambyses and the Council of the Kingdom made General of the Persian forces and sent away into Media with thirty thousand Souldiers and one thousand Commanders and when he came thither he was by his Uncle Cyaxares who had sent for him made General of the Median forces also and the management of the war against the Babylonians wholly committed to him Cyaxares and Cyrus march against the Babylonian King and against Croesus and the rest of the Confederates and gain'd a great victory over them The King of Babylon fell in the battel Croesus with those of his people that were left brake up his Camp by night and fled Cyrus having made a league with the Hircanians who had fallen over to him from the Babylonians using their help and guidance in the way pursued the enemy that was fled overtook them and fought them and again overthrew them The Hircanians fell upon the Companies of the Cappadocians and Arabians and slew both their Kings Cyrus sparing the lives of such as were either taken by force or had yielded to mercy divided the spoil of the field among his Souldiers Herod Lib. 3 4. Belshazzar Grandchild to Nebuchadnezzar by his son Evilmerodach succeeds in the Kingdom In the first year of this Kings reign Daniel had the vision shew'd him of the four Beasts signifying the four Monarchies of the World and of Gods delivering over all power and Soveraignty to the Son of Man Dan. 7. whole Chapter In the third year of Belshazzar Daniel had the vision of the Ram and He-goat foreshewing the destruction of the Persian Monarchy by Alexander and that he being dead and his horn broken four horns should arise instead thereof denoting four Kingdoms and that out of one of them a little horn should come forth viz. Antiochus Epiphanes which should prevail to take away the daily Sacrifice and bring much misery upon the people of God This was shew'd to Daniel then living at Susa in the Province of Elam upon the bank of the river Vlai which was then in the hands of the King of Babylon under whom Daniel lived And the Angel Gabriel comforted Daniel and interpreted the vision to him by the command of Christ Dan. 8. whole Chapter In the year of the world three thousand four hundred sixty five Cyrus and Belshazzar those two great Lords of the world fought a pitched battel near Babylon and the Caldeans being worsted retired to the City where Cyrus besieged them with a vast army When he had viewed the wall he concluded there was no storming of it and therefore resolved that the best way was to pine and starve them out at which the besieged scoffed as thinking themselves utterly out of danger But Cyrus taking notice how the river ran through the City caused deep ditches to be made which by draining rendred it fordable and taking advantage of a solemn Feast which they kept entred by night and surprized them whilst they were banqueting and reveling and in their cups And so vastly big was the City that when the skirts of it were surprized and taken they who dwelt in the heart of the City heard not of it to which that of Jeremiah seemeth to have reference Jer. 51.31 that post upon post and messenger upon messenger should run to tell the King of Babylon that all the skirts of the City were possessed by the enemies Belshazzar was at this time as it seemeth feasting with his Nobles and had caused to be brought forth the vessels of silver and gold which his Grandfather * For that he was his Sons Son may be gathered out of Jer. 27.7 And all Nations shall serve him and his Son and his Sons Son until the very time of his land come and then many Nations and great Kings shall serve themselves of him Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the Temple at Jerusalem that he his nobles his wives and concubines might drink in them But God suddenly sent a hand to write upon the wall where the King and his Nobles sat drinking Mene Mene Tekel Vpharsin Hereby evidently declaring that sudden destruction should fall upon him But his Wizards of Caldea could not read the writing hereupon his Queen advised him to send for Daniel who came and both read the writing as also gave the interpretation thereof and for his pains was presently proclaimed the third man in the Kingdom Presently after this in this very night was Belshazzar slain by the Souldiers of Gobrias and Gadales who having been formerly injured by him had revolted to Cyrus And so the Babylonish Kingdom came to an end as had been sundry times foretoâ—â— by Isaiah Chap. 13. Chap. 14. Chap. 21. Chap. 34. Chap. 46. Chap. 47. By Habakkuk Chap. 2. and by Jeremy Chap. 25. Ch. 50 51. Dan. 5. from 1 to 31. The Babylonish Empire being now translated to the Medes and Persians Darius the Mede Son of Ahashuerus otherwise called Cyaxares the Son of Astyages took upon him the Kingdom which was delivered to him by Cyrus the Conquerour And the Angel in this first year of his reign is said to have confirmed and strengthened him in his Kingdom After which he reigned two years Dan. 5.31 Dan. 9.1 Dan. 11.1 Cyrus having set all things in order at Babylon went into Media and married the only daughter and heir of Darius and for dowry had the whole Kingdom of Media given him with her and the marriage finished he returned with her to Babylon Darius now set over the Kingdom a hundred and twenty Princes or Governours and over all the Governours he made three Overseers the principal of which was Daniel whereupon the rest of the Governours being stirred up by a spirit of envy against him moved the King to make a decree that for thirty days space no petition should be made to any God or man but to himself alone which decree when Daniel had broken by making his prayer to God three times a day he was cast into the Lions den and thence delivered without any hurt at all done to him and then Darius having caused those malicious plotters to be cast into the same Lions den published that memorable decree through all his dominions that every man therein should reverence and stand in awe of Daniels God Dan. 6. whole Chapter Towards the end of the first year of the reign of Darius over the Babylonish Empire the seventy years of the captivity of the Jews drew towards a period and this was the last of those years of their calamty specified by Jeremy Chap. 25.12 And it shall come to pass when seventy years are accomplished that I will punish the King of Babylon and that Nation saith the Lord for their iniquity c. And Chap. 29.10 c. For thus saith the Lord that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return to
purple and the inhabitants of Shushan not only Jews but many others also greatly rejoyced at this change of affairs The Jews had now light and gladness joy and honour most men having them in high esteem and account And in all the Provinces and Cities where this new decree came they greatly rejoiced and feasted together and kept a good day And many of the people of the land became Proselytes and embraced the Jewish Religion seeing the wonders God had done for his people and God struck the hearts of the Heathen with such a fear of the Jews that they durst not execute Hamans Edict against them Esther Chap. 8. In the next place we come to describe the full deliverance of the Jews and the destruction of their enemies and how they exprest their thankfulness for so great a mercy The 13th day of the month Adar being come the enemies of the Jews hoped to have had power over them but it turned quite contrary through the gracious Providence of God and the assistance which the Rulers of Provinces afforded the Jews through the dread they had of Mordecai the new and great favourite and through the fear that seized on the hearts of such as bore them ill will For the Jews in all the Provinces gathered themselves together to resist those that sought their hurt and none of them could stand before them In Shushan some of Hamans faction combined together to revenge his death being possibly put on by his ten Sons but they being suddenly daunted the Jews slew of them five hundred and among them Hamans ten Sons but on the spoil though the King permitted it they laid not their hands to shew that what they did was not out of covetousness but for their own defence The number of those that were slain in Shushan by the Jews was that day brought to the King and he acquaints the Queen with it himself knowing it would be acceptable news to her And says he if they have slain so many in Shushan what have they done in the rest of my dominions Thou seest what I have done for thee and yet I am ready to do more therefore tell me what thou dost further desire of me Esther replied If it please the King let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according to what thy decree allows them to do this day For though 500 were slain in the City yet she understood as it seems that many had escaped who bare a deadly hatred to the Jews and might seek an opportunity another time to be revenged on them for the death of Haman and his Sons therefore to prevent that mischief she desires leave for the Jews to destroy such of their enemies as had escaped She further desires that the bodies of Hamans ten Sons that had been newly slain by the Jews might be hanged on the same Gallows that Haman himself was hanged for their greater reproach and for terror to others The King consented to both her desires and so Hamans ten Sons were accordingly hanged on the same Gallows and the Jews in Shushan gathered themselves together on the 14th day of Adar and slew 300 more of their enemies in that City but on the prey they laid not their hands The Jews also in the other Provinces gathered themselves together on the 13th day of Adar and slew their enemies that assaulted them and then rested and kept a day of feasting and rejoycing on the 14th day whereas those at Shushan slew their enemies both on the 13th and 14th days and so kept not their day of feasting till the 15th day And Mordecai wrote * V. 20. And Mordecai wrote these things c. It may possibly be extended to the whole Book of Esther of which Mordecai in probability was the Penman unto the Jews scattered abroad in all the Provinces and gave them an account concerning the two days which the Jews at Shushan had spent in destroying their enemies and shewed them that that was the reason of their keeping the 15th day as a day of feasting So that though for this time the Jews in the Country kept the 14th day and those at Shushan the 15th day yet in succeeding time year after year Mordecai orders them all to keep both days shewing them that they ought to rejoyce in one anothers welfare and to keep both days as days wherein the Lord gave them rest from their enemies and to remember that month above all months wherein their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into gladness and that they should constantly observe them year after year as days of feasting and rejoycing and of sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor and that they should keep those feasts in remembrance of Purim or the lots that were cast for their destruction and fell in that month and how God turned those lots or divinations to contrary issues and made them vain The Jews accordingly as well for the words of Mordecai's letter as also for what they had seen of those things with their own eyes and what had been related to them by others as of Hamans casting lots c. they ordained it for a law and engaged for themselves and their children and such proselytes as should joyn themselves to them that they would keep those two days yearly according to the writing they had received from Mordecai which was registred And lest they should not hold on in their yearly observing this feast Queen Esther and Mordecai wrote a second letter to enjoyn the continuance of this anniversary feast and authoritatively to press upon them the observance of it And in thesâ— letters he enjoyned them to live peaceably among themselves and with others also and to hold fast to the truth Those days therefore were first enjoyned and afterwards the observance of them confirmed by Esther and Mordecai as the Jews had formerly decreed for themselves and for their seed the matter of the fastings and their cry that is to keep certain days of publick humiliation with fasting and prayer in remembrance of the desolation of Jerusalem and burning of the Temple of which fasts the Prophet Zachary speaks Ch. 7.5 Esther Chap. 9. Ahashuerus now laid a tribute upon all parts both Continent and Islands that were under his dominion which is here set down as an evidence of the good offices that Mordecai did for the Jews for whom he got an exemption as it seems from this tribute so that he sought the weal of his people neither did his greatness though advanced to be the next man to Ahashuerus make him forget them but he was always ready to speak to the King for them and to do whatever might be for their peace and welfare Esther Ch. 10. Ahashuerus having reigned thirty six years dies and leaves the Empire to his Son Zerxes the fourth King of Persia after Cyrus who trusting in his riches as they were indeed exceeding great stirred up his own subjects
Tent slew 4000 men and giving an alarm to the whole Army at break of the day safely retreated whereupon the King marched towards him next day and they coming to an engagement Antiochus lost several hundreds more but the Jews seeing themselves overpowered retreated The King then returned to the siege and they not being well stored with provision this being the Sabbatical year at last yielded up the Town upon composition Antiochus having herein placed a Garrison marched up to Jerusalem and there made all provision possible for the gaining of it all manner of Engines being raised for the casting of fire and stones but the besieged defended themselves bravely though provisions were very short with them and the famine prevailed so much among them that they were in danger of falling into the Kings hands but before he could finish his work news came that Philip whom his father had appointed to be Guardian being returned out of Egypt was coming with the forces that Epiphanes had left in Persia and Media to recover his right usurped by Lysias Hereupon both he and his Captains were presently perswaded by Lysias because the place was strong and provisions began to fail in the Leaguer and the affairs of the Kingdom required it to make peace with the besieged and with the whole Nation of the Jews upon such terms as they required Then returning to Ptolemais the inhabitants thereof being great enemies to the Jews stickled hard to perswade him to break the League but Lysias so well argued the matter among them that he quieted their minds and confirmed the peace so that the Investiture of the commanding power in the Hasmoneans took its rise from the time of this peace agreed on betwixt Antiochus Eupator and Maccabeus The King hasting thence towards Antioch brought along with him as a prisoner Menelaus the High Priest whom Lysias accused as an Incendiary and the cause of the war whereupon by order from the King he was let down into a Tower filled with ashes and there miserably ended his life ten years after he had first usurped the Priesthood Menelaus being thus taken out of the way the King substituted in his room one Alcimus a man every whit as bad as he Indeed he was of Aaron's progeny but not of the High Priests blood and Lysias perswaded the King to transfer that dignity into another family Onias the Son of Onias the third seeing the High Priesthood conferred on Alcimus went into Egypt and after he had well insinuated himself into the affections of Ptol. Philometor and Cleopatra his wife obtained of them leave to build a Temple to God in the jurisdiction of Heliopolis answering to that at Jerusalem and that they would constitute him High Priest there See more of this in Vsher p. 467. Antiochus coming to Antioch found Philip Master thereof but setting upon it he took it by force and taking Philip therein put him to death and so quickly quieted those stirs being reserved with Lysias his Guardian though but a little time for others more dangerous Demetrius Soter Son of Seleucus Philopator the right heir to the Kingdom now escaping from Rome quickly got the Kingdom and put to death Eupator and Lysias his Guardian Alcimus who had procured from Eupator to be made High Priest being not now receivâ—d nor owned by the people for that in the days of Epiphanes he had wilfully defiled himself came to Demetrius with other Apostates to get the Priesthood confirmed to him He accused his Countrymen especially the Hasmoneans viz. Judas and his Brethren as guilty of cutting off the Kings friends and banishing them out of the Country Hereupon Demetrius sent Bacchides the Governour of Mesopotamia his trusty friend with great forces into Judea and confirmed the High Priesthood to Alcimus whom he sent back with him All their design was being arrived there by fair speeches to get Judas and his Brethren into their hands but they gave no credit to them Many of the Scribes went out to them to seek peace expecting they should have obtained it of Alcimus who was of the seed of Aaron and had now great power in the army but having gotten them into his hands he most wickedly contrary to agreement and his oath put sixty of them to death all in one day by which perfidiousness many being terrified fled from the City Then Bacchides going from Jerusalem caused many that had fled from him and several others of the Jews to be slain and cast into a great pit and so committing the care of the Country to Alcimus for the defence of which he left him some forces he returned unto the King After his departure Alcimus striving all he could to confirm himself in the Priesthood made great havock of the people Hereupon Judas went out through the whole Country taking vengeance on such as had revolted from him and so terrified those that adhered to Alcimus that they were forced to keep themselves within their Garrisons and durst not make any more incursions into the Country Alcimus apprehending danger to himself from these proceedings goes once more to Demetrius carrying along with him a Crown of Gold to present unto him For Judas and his party increasing in power would not suffer him to come near to the holy Altar at which being enraged he eagerly accused them to the King as authors of all the commotions and disturbances in Judea further complaining that he was deprived of the Priesthood the honour as he said of his Ancestors and further affirmed that as long as Maccabeus lived the Kings affairs could not be secure This being seconded by some ill-willers to the Jews and his friends Demetrius was so inflamed that sending for Nicanor one of his chiefest Princes and a bitter enemy to the Jews made him General against Judea giving him order to destroy Judas and disperse his associates the Assideans and to settle Alcimus in the High Priesthood The Jews upon the report of Nicanors approach and the Association of several Gentiles with him cast dust upon their heads and made their Supplication to God And it so happened that after a short skirmish betwixt Simon Judas's Brother and a party of Nicanors near the Village Dessaro Nicanor understanding the Courage and Resolution of Judas and his Party in defending their Country he was unwilling to run the hazard of a Battel but sent to parle with the Jews and to make peace with them upon mutual engagements of fidelity each to other And Articles being agreed upon between them the two Captains met and the Conference proved very successful and closed in a League without the Kings Privity Nicanor after this abode a while in Jerusalem and dismissed the Companies he had collected and was so taken with Judas that he continued with him some time and loved him in his heart and lived so friendly and familiarly with him that he perswaded him to marry a Wife But when that wretched fellow Alcimus observed this Correspondence between them he addressed
a great Marriage and bring the Bride from Medaba with great Pomp being the Daughter of one of their Noblest Princes they went and hiding themselves under the Covert of the Mountain when the Bridegroom and his Friends came forth with Timbrels and Instruments of Musick rose up out of the Ambush slew 400 of them and took the Spoil So having revenged the death of their Brother they returned again into the Marshes of Judea 1 Mac. 9. When Bacchides heard this he marched down and came thither with a great Army upon the Sabbath-day and Jonathan being beset behind and before by the enemy and on each side with the River and Marshes yet encouraged his men to fight and after having slain about a 1000 of them seeing himself too weak for the enemy He and his men leaped into Jordan and got over to the other side neither did the enemy attempt to follow him As for Bacchides he returned to Jerusalem and built fenced Cities in Judea and a Fort in Jericho and other places and garrison'd them all that by their Sallies and Incursions they might annoy the Israelites He fortifyed also the Cities of Bethsura and Gazara with the Castle at Jerusalem where he placed Soldiers and Provisions and taking the Sons of the chief of the Country for Hostages he put them in ward in the Tower of Jerusalem 1 Mac. 9. The Ambassadors sent from Judas Maccabaeus to Rome were kindly received and concluded a League of Association with the Romans the Tenor of which was That they should mutually assist and succour each other against the common Enemy And the Articles were written in Tables of Brass The Senate also wrote Letters to Demetrius That he should forbear to oppress the Jews any further being their Confederates otherwise they vvould vvage War upon him both by Land and Sea And this vvas the first League that vvas ever knovvn to be betvven the Romans and the Jews About this time as it should seem Alcimus commanded the wall in the Temple which severed the Court of the People from that of the Gentiles to be pulled down which had been built by Zerubbabel and the Prophets whose Monuments he began also to pull down and destroy But at the same time he was so smitten that he could not open his own mouth nor so much as give orders concerning his own House but died in great Torment the third year after he had usurped the High-Priesthood After his death Jerusalem was seven years without any High-Priest at all But then Jonathan put on the High-Priests Robes After Alcimus's death Bacchides returned to Demetrius For two years the land of Judea continued quiet but at the end thereof certain wicked Jews sent for Bacchides again acquainting him that he might easily apprehend Jonathan and his Company in one night Whereupon Bacchides made towards them with a great force and sent privily Letters to his Friends in Judea to assist him in this Enterprize But their Plot was discovered to Jonathan and his Company and he taking 50 of the Contrivers of that Villany put them all to death Then Jonathan and Simon and those that were with him removed to Bethbasin in the Wilderness and repaired the walls thereof and fortified it which Bacchides having notice of went down thither and besieged it But such was his Entertainment from the besieged who sallying out burnt his Engines and killed many of his men that having lain before the place a long time to no purpose and being thus disappointed in his hopes he turn'd his anger against those that had procur'd him to make this Expedition in so much that he slew many of them and purposed to return into his own Land Jonathan having notice thereof sent to him to treat of peace and to exchange Prisoners which he gladly accepted of protesting he would not any more disturb Jonathan all the days of his life So he returned home into his own land and never after entred into Judea with an Army The Wars thus composed in Judea Jonathan dwelt at Michmash in the Tribe of Benjamin and began to judge the people and to take away the Wicked out of Israel About this time Alexander Bala crying himself up for the Son of Antiochus Epiphanes seized upon Ptolemais a City in Phaenicia Demetrius hearing of this began to prepare to fight with him and sent Letters also to Jonathan whereby he renewed peace with him and gave him Authority to levy forces and provide Arms that he might assist him in his War against Alexander He commanded also that the Hostages which were kept in the Fort should be released which was accordingly done and he delivered them to their Parents Jonathan improving this opportunity began to re-edifie and repair Jerusalem and to build up the Walls And the Aliens that were in the Forts which Bacchides built quitted them and hasted away to their own land Alexander having notice of Demetrius's Message to Jonathan he courts him likewise and desires his Friendship and Association And among many other Priviledges and Immunities which he granted to that Nation he appointed him to be the High-Priest sending him Purple and a Crown of Gold and honoured him with the Title of being called the Kings Friend So in the seventh month of the 160th year of the Seleucides Jonathan put on the holy Robe in the nineth year after the death of his brother Judas the Priesthood having been vacant seven years from the death of Alcimus being the first of the Hasmoneans that arrived at this dignity as being descended from Jehojarib of the Priests family indeed but not from Jaddus the High-Priest whose Heir Onias now lived in Egypt with Ptol. Philometor The Jews now disclaiming Demetrius of whose hatred to them they had had sufficient experience stick close to Alexander and from that time forward continued his Confederates in the War Alexander Bala having gotten an Army together made up partly of the Soldiers that revolted to him from Demetrius and partly of the Auxiliaries of Attalus King of Pergamus Ariarathes King of Cappadocia and Jonathan and especially Ptol. Philometor encountred Demetrius and conquering his Army killed him in the Fight after he had reigned in Syria twelve years And so Alexander obtained the Kingdom Alexander shortly after remembring how much he was engaged to Ptol. Philometor for his assistance sent to him to desire his Daughter to make him a Wife which he willingly assented to and brought her to Ptolemais in Phoenicia and there married her to him with Royal and magnificent Solemnity Jonathan being by Alexander invited to this Wedding he brought with him great Presents of Gold and Silver and several other things which he presented to both the Kings and their Friends so that thereby he much wrought himself into their favour At the same time several vile male-contents came out of Judea to accuse Jonathan but Alexander was so far from listning to any Tales against him that he caused him to be clothed with Purple and to set next to
himself and forbad by Proclamation any to speak against him or molest him in any matter The King also did him a great deal of honour by listing him among those that were esteemed his most intimate Friends After this Alexander gave himself up to Idleness and Luxury and permitted the affairs of his Kingdom wholly to be managed by one Ammonius who carried himself insolently and made slaughter of the Kings friends and among the rest put to death the Lady Laodice Daughter of Epiphanes These things coming to the notice of Demetrius eldest son of Demetrius Soter he procured out of Crete a considerable force of Mercenary Soldiers and with them sailed into Cilicia At the notice of which Alexander being affrighted hasted to Antioch to secure his affairs there before Demetrius should come where he made Hirax and Tryphon Governours With Demetrius joyned Apollonius the Governour of Coelosyria who was ordered by him to go against those Jews that adhered and continued firm to Alexander Apollonius having gotten together a great Army encamped at Jamnia and sent a proud challenge to Jonathan to come and meet him if he durst and to fight with him in the plain field Jonathan enraged hereat marched from Jerusalem against him with 10000 men In his way he took Joppa which Apollonius understanding marched to Ashdod and left an Ambush in the way to intrap him but he getting clear of it engaged Apollonius and put all his Forces to flight whereof many fled to the Temple of Dagon which Jonathan set on fire and so what with the Sword and what with Fire destroyed about 8000 of Apollonius his men This coming to the ears of Alexander he honoured Jonathan more than ever and sent him the Golden Buckler which was usually given to those of the Blood Royal and gave him Accaron a City of the Philistines with its Territories for an Inheritance to him and his Heirs for ever Ptol. Philometor now comes out of Egypt with great forces both by Land and Sea under pretence of aiding his Son-in-law Alexander but indeed with an Intention to seize upon Syria He fell out with Alexander because he would not deliver up Ammonius to him who he alledged had plotted his Destruction Hereupon taking his Daughter Cleopatra away from Alexander her Husband he gave her to Demetrius promising to assist him in the recovery of his Fathers Kingdom The Antiochians also deserted Alexander because of Ammonius who had used them so hardly Hereupon Ammonius endeavoured to make an Escape in Womans apparel but was taken and slain Ptolemy went to Antioch and being there saluted as King was crowned with two Diadems the one for Syria the other for Egypt But at last perswaded the Antiochians to receive Demetrius for their King Alexander was at this time at Cilicia whereupon consulting the Oracle of Apollo 't is said he received for answer That he should take heed of that place that had brought forth a double formed Spectacle which semed to point out the City Abas in Arabia where a certain Woman as 't was thought named Herais being married to one Samias was found to be a man into which City he went not long after For invading and wasting of Syria with Fire and Sword Ptolemy and Demetrius his new Son-in-law met him and overthrew him at the River Oenopara whereupon he flying to Abas his Head was cut off by Zabdiel the Prince of the place and sent to Ptolemy who though he received it with much joy yet having in the Fight received a great hurt in his head he died of that Wound three days after Demetrius now obtaining his Fathers Kingdom was called Nicanor About this time Jonathan besieged the Castle at Jerusalem and did all he could with his Engines to reduce it This being made known by some wicked Jews to Demetrius he in great anger sends to him to raise his siege and appear before him at Ptolemais Jonathan would not draw off his siege but taking with him the Elders and Priests he ventured to go to the King and by the Presents he brought and other ways so appeased him that the King rejecting his Accusers confirmed the High-Priesthood upon him and counted him one of his chief Friends And upon promise to pay to him 300 Talents he procured from him an immunity from Tribute for all Judea and the three Seigniories thereunto annexed Demetrius seeing all in peace at home disbanded his old Soldiers which bred great discontents among them Diodotus afterwards called Tryphon one of Alexander Bala's Captains laying hold on this opportunity went to Elmacuel the Arabian with whom Antiochus Alexander Bala's young Son was brought up and acquainting him how matters stood with Demetrius obtained of him to have the young Child delivered up to him undertaking to settle him in his Fathers Kingdom Demetrius in this tottering condition of his affairs sends to Jonathan for a supply who sent him 3000 men which stood him in good stead For he going about to disarm the Antiochians they rose up in Arms and many thousands of them assembling together they attempted to surprize the King himself insomuch that he was forced to retreat to his Palace but the Jews hastning to his relief overcame this Rabble and slaying a great number of them set the City on fire whereupon the Citizens were glad to submit Tryphon now bringing Antiochus the young son of Bala from Arabia into Syria he there set the Crown upon his head calling him Theos Hereupon all the disbanded Soldiers flocked unto him so that Tryphon grew strong enough to fight with Demetrius and overthrowing his Army forced him to fly to Seleucia Then Tryphon in the name of Antiochus sent Messengers to Jonathan to draw him to his party And in order thereunto confirmed the High-Priesthood to him sent him also chargers of Gold and gave him leave to drink in vessels of Gold to be clothed in Purple and to wear the Golden Buckler Jonathan was easily drawn to be for Antiochus because Demetrius had for some time past falsifyed his word and dealt very ungratefully with him Jonathan now having gotten leave of Antiochus to wage War against Demetrius his Captains gathered his men together and reduced the Country beyond Jordan as far as Damascus and overthrew a party which there met him killing to the number of 3000 men Jonathan observing now how his affairs were in a good condition sent Ambassadors to Rome to renew the Allyance made with them by Judas Maccabaeus And he gave them Instructions that in their return homeward from Rome they should visit the Lacedemonians and to mind them of the Alliance and ancient League with Onias the third sending a Letter to the same purpose wherein the people of Judea among other things signified how that as a Testimony of their continued affection towards them they constantly remembred them as their Brethren in their solemn Sacrifices and Devotions These Ambassadors were very honourably received both by the Romans and Lacedemonians and effected what they were sent
Cleopatra his Brothers wife all the Armies of the Syrians except a few revolted to him so that Tryphon seeing himself thus forsaken fled to Dora a Maritime City of Phoenicia whither he was straight pursued and blocked up both by sea and land Simon sent 2000 choice men to Sidetes at the siege of Dora but he to Simons great astonishment refused them all and brake whatever Covenants he had made with him And further sent Athenobius to him complaining of his holding Joppa Gazara and the Castle at Jerusalem and destroying the borders and holding the Government of divers places of his Kingdom requiring of him the tributes of those places beyond the bounds of Judea which were possessed by him or else in lieu thereof to pay 500 Talents and for the tribute of the other places held by him 500 Talents more menacing war against him except all things were performed that he demanded To these things Simon answered that he held no Towns belonging to any other Prince but had recovered by his sword some Towns of his own held back from him by his enemies as for Joppa and Gazara though they had done much harm to his people yet he was willing to pay an hundred Talents At this answer Sidetes was exceedingly enraged In the mean while Tryphon escaped away from Dora to Orthosias another Maritime City of Phoenicia Antiochus himself pursuing Tryphon left Cendebaeus to take care of the Sea-coasts and to build up Cedron and to deal with the Jews He being come as far as Jamnia began to make inroads into Judea and to take the people prisoners and to kill and slay such as he pleased John the Son of Simon then lying at Gazara and understanding how things went gave notice thereof to his Father who being now decrepid committed the managing of the war to him and his Brother Judas John therefore with 20000 Foot and some Horse marched against Cendebaeus who met them with a powerful Army and marshalling his body in such wife that the Horse and Foot might mutually protect each other and then sounding with their holy Trumpets they engaged the enemy and overthrew him and put his whole Army to the rout some betook themselves to the Fort newly built and others flying away he pursued as far as the Towers of Azotus and having slain about 2000 men in the pursuit he burnt those Towers and returned safe into Judea Tryphon at last fled to his own Country-men at Apamea and in the way as he went he scattered money on purpose to retard Antiochus's Souldiers in the pursuit of him and so escaped out of their hands but at last he was taken by Antiochus and put to death Simon traversing the Cities of Judea and providing for their orderly government came down with his Sons Mattathias and Judas to Jericho there Ptolemy the Son of Abubus his Son-in-law who was by him set over the Province of Jericho entertained them in Doc-castle which he had fortified but designing to get the Government of the Country to himself whilst he was treating them at a Banquet most treacherously and barbarously slew Simon with his two Sons and some of his servants after he had discharged the office of High Priest for the space of eight years and three months Ptolemy immediately acquaints Antiochus Sidetes with this villany desiring him to speed an Army for his assistance promising to deliver the Cities and Country of Judea into his hands So that it seems more than probable that this villany was not transacted without the privity of Sidetes and that the honour and reward which the Traytor so much aspired unto was before promised him by the King upon his performance of it This perfidious Ptolemy also sent other cut-throats to murder John Simon 's other Son but he escap'd them He dealt also with the Colonels of the Jewish Militia to draw them over to himself promising them great rewards And moreover sent some to seize upon Jerusalem and the mountain of the Temple John having received information of the murder of his Father and Brethren and that some were sent to do as much for him prevented his enemies by falling upon them first and so was made High Priest in the room of his Father 1 Mac. 16. And here the Author of the first Book of Maccabees concludes his work having therein delivered the History of forty years which Josephus continues on Antiochus Sidetes taking the opportunity of Simon 's death entred Judea with an Army and having wasted the Country forced John Sirnamed afterwards Hircanus to retire into the City of Jerusalem and then laid a close siege to it the siege was prolonged through the strength of the walls and valour of the defendants Antiochus built many turrets about it out of which he attempted the walls and begirt it so straightly with a double Trench that there was no getting out for the besieged any way Hircanus seeing a great and useless multitude in the City which consumed the victuals put out the more infirm out of the walls but Antiochus would not suffer them to pass so that they wandered about the walls almost famished till at last out of pity they were taken in again At this Feast Hircanus sent out to Antiochus to desire a truce for seven days for their Feasts sake which Antiochus not only granted but also brought in great pomp to the very gates of the City bulls with guilded horns and gold and silver cups filled with all manner of spices to be offered to the God of Israel and delivered sacrifices to the Priests of the Jews so easily can God change the hearts of Princes Hircanus was so taken with this great act of piety in Antiochus that from thence forward he gave him the title of Pius and sent to him to request terms of peace of him and that he would give them leave to live according to the Laws of their forefathers Many of those that were about the King pressed him not to make any peace with them but to demolish their City and destroy the whole Nation of the Jews as being a people severed from all other Nations by their peculiar laws and customs or if he would not do so at least to abrogate their Laws and force them to change their manner of living But God so over-ruled the Kings heart that he utterly rejected this counsel and approving the piety of the Jews offered them peace upon condition that they should pay him tribute for Joppa and other Towns without Judea and receive a Garrison They yielded to the former but not to the last in regard they would avoid all commerce with strangers in lieu of that they chose rather to give hostages for their fidelity amongst whom Hircanus's own Brother was one and to pay 500 Talents whereof 300 at present These terms being agreed unto by Antiochus the siege was immediately removed Hircanus opening the Sepulcher of David found there 3000 Talents wherewith he not only paid Antiochus his 300 but feasted him and his
familiarity with the Greeks succeded him He changed his Principality into a Kingdom setting a Diadem upon his head and was the first that did so after the return from the Captivity in Babylon His second Brother Antigonus he loved exceedingly in so much that he made him his Partner in the Kingdom but shut up the other three in Prison and with them his Mother who contended with him for the Principality and he proceeded to that height of Cruelty that he famished her to death in Prison Aristobulus now marched with his Army into Itrurea and layed a great part of it to Judea forcing the Inhabitants under penalty of Banishment to admit of Circumcision and other Jewish Ceremonies Not long after he caused his beloved Brother to be made away though against his will For Antigonus returning from the Wars in Triumph at the Feast of Tabernacles it so happened that Aristobulus was then sick and kept his Bed in the Tower that was afterwards called Antony's Tower Antigonus marched up with his Soldiers to the Temple intending to offer sacrifice for his sick Brother This was presently interpreted to Aristobulus as the effect of a bad intention toward him and a sufficient sign of his affecting the Kingdom and it was represented as if Antigonus would presently come down and kill him Aristobulus to provide for his own security and yet to shun suspicion commanded some of his Guard to stand in an obscure place where his Brother was to come and if he came armed then to kill him but if unarmed then not to meddle with him and that he might do so he sent one under hand to him to desire him not to come with his arms But Solome the Queen and the rest of Antigonus's back friends perswaded the Messenger to tell him that the King had a mind to see him as he then was in his Warriors habit So Antigonus thinking nothing but coming armed to see his Brother was there immediately slain upon the place After it was done Aristobulus was smitten with a great remorse for it tho' he knew nothing of the altering the purport of his Message and his distemper increasing at last he vomited blood which being carried out by one of his Attendants he chanced to spill some of it in that very place where Antigonus was slain Aristobulus having notice given him of this accident acknowledged the just Judgment of God therein and immediately gave up the Ghost in extream anguish both of body and mind having reigned only one year After his decease his Wife Solome whom the Grecians call Alexandria released his Brothers whom he had kept Prisoners a long time and made Alexander Jannaeus the eldest of them King in his room He as soon as he was possessed of the Kingdom put one of his Brothers to death upon the discovery of some treasonable design against him But he loved the other exceedingly who affected to live a retired life He was called Absolon and was taken Prisoner at Jerusalem by Pompey many years after Alexander Jannaeus having setled his affairs at home went and besieged Ptolemais which with Gaza only of the Sea-Towns remained unconquered besides the Tower of Straton since called Caesarea and Dora which Zoilus the Tyrant had got into his hands At this time the two Brothers Antiochus Gryphus and Cizicenus were eagerly destroying one another in Syria so that the Ptolemaians had little hope of Relief from them only Zoilus who gaped after the City himself gave them a little Relief There being no hope of any Relief but from Cyprus whither Ptol. Lathurus had been driven by his Mother Cleopatra they sent to him desiring his aid against Alexander giving him hopes that he should not only save them but with them the Inhabitants of Gaza on his side and that Zoilus the Sidonians and others would assist him also He being puft up with these Promises made what haste he could to their assistance and Zoilus and the Gazaeans joyning with him the Siege was raised before Ptolemais and Alexander departed home attempting afterwards by Policy to overturn the design of Ptolemy For openly professing himself his Friend and Ally he promised him 300 Talents to take off Zoilus the Tyrant and so lay his Territories to his own Dominions which Lathurus consented to do but then he privily sent to Cleopatra his Mother exciting her against him which Lathurus understanding tho' before he embraced his friendship yet now he utterly renounced the League he had made with him And laying a Siege with part of his Army against Ptolemais which City it seems had shut their Gates against him he march'd away himself with the residue of his forces against Judea Alexander Jannaeus marches out to meet him with fifty thousand men Ptolemais coming unawares on the Sabbath-day on Asychis a City in Galilee storm'd it and took it and carried away with him about 10000 Prisoners Next he fell upon Zephoris not far distant from thence but having lost many men before it he drew off to encounter Alexander They engage near Jordan and Ptolemy's Soldiers rout the Jews and in the pursuit slay many thousands of them Josephus says 30000. Ptolemy ranging up and down the Country fell at last into some Villages which being full of Women and Children he commanded his Soldiers to kill them promiscuously and cutting off their Limbs to cast them into Caldrons that so a report might be spread abroad that his army eat mans flesh which would strike Terror and Discouragement into their Enemies Cleopatra hearing how her Sons power increased held it small Policy to let him go on as he did therefore she came against him with Forces both by Land and by Sea over which she placed as chief Commanders under her self Chelcias and Ananias both Jews and Sons of that Onias who built the Temple in the Seigniory of Alexandria Her Son Lathurus imagining she had drained the Garrisons of Egypt to make up this great army hasted thither hoping to have surpriz'd that Kingdom in her absence but she left it so well provided that his attempts proved ineffectual Cleopatra with her Army now lays siege to Ptolemais and takes it Thither comes to her Alexander Jannaeus with Presents in his hands where he was received as a person distressed by her adversary and one only who had no other Refuge but her self to betake himself unto Some that were about her advised her to seize his Country immediately into her own hands and not to suffer so many good Jews to be at the pleasure and command of one man But Ananias advised the contrary accounting it a great wickedness to dispossess a man received into Friendship of his Estate And if the Queen should do so she would by offering injury to Alexander in a short time lose the affections of the whole Nation of the Jews The Queen being perswaded by Ananias entred into a League with Alexander at Scythopolis a City in Coelosyria Alexander being now freed from fear both of Mother and Son Ptolemy
Affairs of Government Antipater made his Son Phasaelus Captain of Jerusalem and the Country adjacent and committed Galilee to the Custody of his second Son Herod being then about 25 years of Age. Herod at the very first gave evidence of what Spirit and heigth of courage he was For there being at that time one Hezekias a notable Thief who with a great company of followers used to infest the Country of Syria he took him and put him to death with many others of that Rout which thing much endeared him to the Syrians and thereby he became known to Sextus Cesar the President and Kinsman to the Dictator Phasaelus his Brother was hereby much stirred up to Emulation and carryed himself very obligingly and honourably towards those of his Jurisdiction so that their Father was honoured by the people as a King and yet preserved his fidelity intire to Hircanus But divers of the Nobles and chief men of the Jewish Nation understanding how he flourished both upon his own account and that of his Sons inwardly fretted at it and the rather because he made use of Hircanus for his own ends as they conceived having contracted friendship with the Roman Generals and perswaded him to send money to them yet got to himself the credit of the President But especially the forward and bold disposition of Herod affrighted them whom they looked upon as a young and growing Tyrant They make their Addresses to Hircanus complaining to him bitterly against Antipater as one who carried away all the profit of the Kingdom They further complained of that bold act of Herods in putting to death Hezekias with many others without any Commission received from Hircanus in contempt of the Laws by which no man is to suffer tho' he were never so wicked till he had a legal Tryal and were condemned by the Sentence of the Judge Hircanus being at last wrought upon by these complaints summoned Herod to Jerusalem to give an account of these his actions before the Council Herod having settled the affairs of Galilee appeared at Jerusalem but with a Guard as his Father had advised him by Letter yet a moderate one lest he should affright Hircanus When he appeared before the Sanhedrin in his Royal Robes and with his Guard no body had the courage to say any thing to him or accuse him till one of the Council called Sameas a just man and yet no hot-spirited man as the Jewish Proverb shews Be thou humble as Hillel and not angry as Sameas rising up inveighed against him for the manner of his Appearance not suitable to the condition of a person summoned to answer for his faults and blamed both Hircanus and the Council for their too great Indulgence which he feared they would afterwards pay dearly for And the event proved his words true that very Council and Hircanus himself being afterwards put to death by Herod when he was King The Council being inflamed with Sameas's words had certainly now condemned him had not Hircanus foreseeing it put off the business till the next day and in the mean time privately advised Herod to shift for himself Herod thereupon retired to Damascus and visited Sextus Cesar who loved him as his own Son and then gave out That he would no more appear though he were cited at which they at Jerusalem fretted and perswaded Hircanus That all these things tended to his ruine Herod having purchased of Sextus Cesar the Government of Coelosyria disdaining now that he had been commanded to come and plead his cause at Jerusalem marches towards the City with an Army and if his Father and Brother had not met him and otherwise perswaded him he had made mischief enough Having therefore made a shew of his power he retreated About this time Caelicius Bassus in favour of Pompey made away Sextus Cesar and got his Army to submit to him but divers of Cesars party came to revenge his Kinsmans death and a War ensued about Epamea whither Antipater mindful of the Benefits he had received from Cesar sent his Sons with aid to assist Cesars Captains The War being drawn out in length Statius Marcus was sent to succeed Sextus and in the mean time Julius Cesar was stab'd in the Senate-house which as it bred trouble and disturbance to the whole Roman Empire so neither did Judea escape without its share thereof A Civil War insuing the chief Captains on both sides ran up and down to provide themselves for it Cassius one of them that slew Cesar came into Syria where raising the Seige before Apamea he drew both Marcus and Bassus to his Party and then taking upon him the Power of a General and Title of Proconsul he reduced to his obedience all the Cities of Syria and levied men and exacted grievous Contributions But especially he afflicted Judea levying a Tax of above 700 Talents upon it Antipater seeing the Commonwealth in trouble and fearing Cassius's Threats appointed his two Sons to gather part of the money and Malichus a Jew that was an enemy of his to gather another part and some others another part But Herod bringing first of all an 100 Talents which were imposed upon Galilee which belonged to his Government became thereby much in Cassius's favour But under the other Governours divers Cities were set to Sale to make up the Sum. And the Tax as it should seem came in so slowly that Cassius was exceedingly enraged and was about to put Malichus one of the Collectors to death had not Hircanus by sending to him a 100 Talents of his own money by Antipater appeased his fury But Antipater was ill requited by Malichus for this For as soon as Cassius left Judea Malichus practiced to take away Antipaters life thinking that he being removed out of the way they should better provide for the security of Hircanus's Government Antipater having an inckling of it passed over Jordan and gathered an Army intending to revenge the Treachery but Malichus being a crafty Dissembler so denyed the matter with Oaths to his two Sons that they reconciled him to their Father who by his Intercession saved him out of the Hands of Marcus President of Syria who understanding that Malichus attempted some Innovations in Judea had resolved to put him to death But Antipater preserved him to his own Destruction Cassius and Marcus having gathered an Army made Herod for his good services Governour of Coelosyria and gave him forces both of Horse and Foot and also Ships at Sea and promised to make him King of Judea if they got the better against Anthony and young Cesar Antipater not long after being feasted by Hircanus at Jerusalem Malichus corrupting the Kings Butler poisoned Antipater and gathering a Band of Soldiers seized on the Government of the City Antipaters Sons having notice of their Fathers death Herod would have revenged it out of hand and that by open force but Phasaelus thought it better to circumvent the Murderer in some more private way lest they should seem the beginners
had spies that mingled themselves in all companies yea he would sometimes go himself disguised among the people to hear what they said of him and his Government The disaffected to him he took a course to punish and the rest he bound unto him by an oath which he exacted of them After this in the eighteenth year of his reign taking down at least for the most part the old Temple at Jerusalem as Josephus reports Lib. 14. Ch. 14. he built another much more stately and magnificent having provided very great white stones * See Mark 13.1 whereof some were 25 cubits long twelve broad and eight in height and other materials for the work in the space of two years He began to build it forty six years before the first Passover of the Ministry of Christ see Job 2.20 where we may read the words forty and six years reckoning to this time hath this Temple been built The building the Temple under Zerubbabel began in the first year of the Monarchy of Cyrus and was after twenty years time finished in the sixth year of Darius the Son of Histaspis But this magnificent building of Herod's was finished in nine years and an half The inward Temple containing the Holy and Holy of Holies was finished in a year and an half In all which time it 's reported that it never rained in the day-time but only in the nights Then in the eight years following the Porches the Ranges and the rest of the building about the Temple were all finished He celebrated the Dedication of the Temple on his own birth-day sacrificing three hundred Oxen to the great joy of the people These things done Herod sets sail for Italy to salute Caesar and see his Sons and passing by Greece was not only present but made Judg at the Olympick Exercises and bestowing some Annual revenue upon them that they might be the more splendid for this bounty he is declared perpetual Judg of those Exercises Coming to Rome Caesar courteously received him and deliver'd to him his Sons well educated and instructed in all the Liberal Arts and Sciences Being returned home with his Sons Alexander and Aristobulus they being grown to mans estate he provided them wives for Alexander Bernice the daughter of Salome for Aristobulus Glaphira the daughter of Archelaus King of the Cappadocians These young men gained the love and affection of the people exceedingly but Salome and her followers feared they would sometime or other revenge their Mothers death and therefore she and Pheroras Herod's Brother practic'd against them infusing into their father suspition of them as if they were not well affected towards him but exclaimed greatly against the Authors of their Mothers death Herod troubled hereat called to Court Antipater his eldest Son begotten by him when he was a private man whom he had banished the City in favour of these two Sons only giving him liberty to come thither on Festival days that setting him up against them he might make them more careful of their behaviour But they were thereby the more incensed and Antipater making use of his time got more and more into his Fathers affections and at his intreaty brought to Court also his mother Doris whom being a woman of mean parentage Herod put away when he married Mariamne Herod hearing that Agrippa Caesar's great friend and Son-in-law having married Julia his daughter was come into Asia he went to him and invited him into Judea and entertained him magnificently in all the Cities and Castles he had newly built shewing him his buildings and presenting him and his friends with all the delights he could Then conducting him to Jerusalem all the Citizens met him in their best habit with joyful acclamations Agrippa having sacrificed an Hecatomb to God feasted the people and the winter drawing on he made hast to sail to Ionia As soon as it was spring Herod hearing that Agrippa was going with an Army to Bosphorus made hast to go to him he overtook him at Sinope a City in Pontus bringing some Auxiliaries with him for his service Agrippa embraced him with singular affection and made him partaker of his Counsels And afterwards in their return Agrippa was ready to gratifie Herod in any thing and at his intreaty relieved the necessities of many that made use of his Intercession He procured for the Iews that dwelt in Jonia a â—onfirmation of the priviledges formerly granted them which the Grecians would not suffer them to enjoy and that none should molest them for living after their Countries Laws Then with mutual embraces they took their leaves each of other Herod in few days arrived at Caesarea and thence came to Jerusalem where calling the people together he gave them an account of his journey and how he had procured liberty for the Ionian Jews and to ingratiate himself the more with them he declared he was willing to remit unto them the fourth part of their Tribute The people exceedingly pleased herewith wished all happiness to the King Agrippa after ten years Government in Asia being now to return to Rome Herod went again to salute him and take leave of him and taking of all his Sons only Antipater with him he delivered him to Agrippa to be brought to Caesar that he might by his means obtain the Emperour's favour Antipater accordingly was much honoured at Rome being commended to several friends and great persons by his Fathers Letters From thence he was not wanting by his Letters to whet his Fathers displeasure against his Brothers the Sons of Mariamne and seemed very sollicitous of his Fathers safety though aiming at the succession thereby Herod being by these artifices exceedingly incensed against his two Sons Alexander and Aristobulus sailed with them to Rome to accuse them before Caesar and carried with him Nicholas Damascene in the same Ship with whom he studied Philosophy Augustus being gone to Aquileia thither Herod went to him and the young men being there accused before Caesar of an intention to poyson their Father they so cleared themselves and by their tears and other evidences so manifested their innocency that Caesar reconciled them to their Father Then after thanks returned to the Emperour they departed and Antipater with them feigning himself glad that they were received again into favour Herod having given three hundred Talents to Caesar and been very liberal as his custom was in all places to the people of Rome Caesar bestowed on him half the profits of the Mines of Cyprus and gave him liberty to make which of his Sons he pleased his Successor or if he would to distribute his Kingdom among them all which Herod presently would have done but Cesar would not allow that he should part with the Government during his life In Herods absence the Inhabitants of Trachonitis a considerable part of his Kingdom rebelled but were reduced again to obedience by his Captains But some of them leaving their Country fled into Arabia Nabataea where they were entertained by Syllaeus the
so Jacob required of Joseph Ch. 47.29 to him by putting his hand under his thigh (l) Though the usual custom of swearing was by lifting up the hand to the most high God that he would not take a Wife for his Son of any of the Daughters of the Canaanities because he would not have his Seed mix themselves with that profane and Idolatrous people whose blood his Posterity was to shed without pity and to succeed in their room but should go to his own Country to Charran to seek for a Wife there where was the truest Worship of God next to that in his own Family though indeed very much corrupted as we may see in Laban Ch. 31.30 53. The Servant very discreetly objected that possibly a Woman of that Country would not be willing to come along with him so far nor would marry his Son on such Termes as to leave her own Relations and come and dwell in Canaan Therefore if his Son would have a Wife from thence in all likelihood he must consent to go and dwell there And if they in Mesopotamia should insist on such terms as these he desires to know what his Oath should bind him to Abraham tells him that by no means he must consent that Isaac should go and dwell there both because they were too Corrupt in Religion and because Isaac's going to dwell there would be in a sort to renounce the Land of Promise He must rather live here as a Stranger and Sojourner by Faith as he himself had done But he bids the Servant not to be over-careful in that matter for God would send his holy Angel to guide and direct him and shew him what he was to do And if the Woman he should chuse for a Wife for his Son would not be willing to come along with him he should be free of his Oath On these terms therefore the Servant undertook the business and sware to him to perform what he enjoyn'd him Then providing himself of all things needful for such an undertaking that he might set out in a Port and Equipage agreeable to the greatness and wealth of his Master he took 10 Camels and Servants answerable and furnished himself with Provisions for so long a Journey and carried with him many rich Presents of all sorts to present his Masters Kindred with as there should be occasion and to shew what a mighty man of Wealth his Master was Thus furnish'd he began his Journey and after several days travel he came to Haran where Nahor his Masters Brother dwelt And coming thither about eventide the time that the young women of the City us'd to go out to a Well hard by to fetch Water he caused his Camels to kneel down and be unloaded near that Fountain that so they might bait and be watered and rest themselves This done he betook himself by solemn prayer unto God humbly intreating him to prosper him in the business he came about And then as 't is like by the special motion of Gods Spirit (m) Without the like warrant we may not attempt the like he humbly desired of the Lord to give him a sign whereby he might know the person that his Providence had appointed for Isaac and that this in particular might be the sign namely that that Damosel among those that came out to draw Water who when he intreated her that he might drink of her Pitcher should answer Drink thy self and I will give thy Camels drink also might be the person whom He should look upon as designed for His young Master For that thing would argue her to be of a good ingenuous friendly hospitable nature and disposition Immediately upon this Rebecca Daughter of Bethuel and Grand-Child of Nahor Abraham's Brother came with her Pitcher to draw Water being a Virgin of great beauty and comeliness The Servant seeing Her addresses himself immediately to her and desires to drink of her Pitcher she readily gave it him and freely offered to draw water for his Camels also The man wondering at her Civility and Courtesie began silently to consider with himself whether this was not a clear evidence that God had heard his prayer and made his Journey successful and had now pointed out the Damosel to him that was pointed for Isaac And then asking her whose Daughter she was she told him Bethuels the Son of Nahor by Milca his lawful Wife He then acquainted her as 't is like whose Servant he was and from whom he came and presented her with a Jewel for her Forehead and two Bracelets for her Hands Then secretly worshipping God and praising of him that he had dealt so mercifully with his Master and had led him His Servant in the right way to take his Brothers Grand-Child for his Son he asked her if they had any room in her Fathers house for him and his Company She told him They had And then immediately she ran to tell them of her Mothers house what had happened For it seems it was the custom of those times and places for the Women to dwell in Tents and Houses by themselves apart See v. 67. Rebecca had a Brother whose Name was Laban who hearing these things and seeing the Jewel and Bracelets on the Forehead and Hands of his Sister by the appointment as 't is like of his Father and Mother who were both ancient he went to the Man and saluting him kindly said Come thou blessed of the Lord thou art welcome unto our house which is ready to receive thee Eliezer readily and thankfully accepted his kindness and went along with him unto his House When they were come thither Laban ungirded his Camels and gave them Provender and gave water to Eliezer and the other Servants that were with him to wash their Feet after the manner of those Eastern Countries and then they set Meat before them But Eliezer like a faithful Servant that was more intent upon his business than his belly told them That he would not eat till he had acquainted them with his Errand And then he declared unto them that he was Abraham's Servant that God had extraordinarily blessed his Master with great Riches that his Wife Sarah had born him a Son when she was very aged that this Son was to be his Heir that his Master had made him swear to him that he should not take a Wife for his Son of the Daughters of the accursed Canaanites but of his own Kindred That he had objected to his Master that peradventure such a Damosel would not be willing to come with him so far from her own Relations that his Master had answered That God would send his Angel with him to direct and prosper him and he should find a Wife for his Son among his own Kindred and if he could not find such an one among them that would be willing to come he should be clear of his Oath Upon these terms he undertook this Journey and when he came to the Well without their City he prayed
unto the Lord to prosper him in his business and that by such a sign he might know the Damosel God had appointed for his Masters Son and this sign he found pointed him clearly to Rebecca These things being all true and real he desired them that they would please to deal kindly and uprightly with his Master and to let him have a direct answer concerning this great and weighty matter that he might know whether to turn to the right hand or to the left that is that if they consented not he might somewhere else look for a Wife for his young Master Then Laban who as 't is like had the managing of all their affairs his Father being old spake in the Name of them all and told the Servant that the thing seemed to proceed from the Lord and from his all-wise Providence and therefore they could not speak unto him either good or bad Good reasons they had none against this motion and bad they would not urge so that they had nothing to say against it And therefore he should have their free consent to have Rebecca for his Masters Son provided she were willing seeing God had declared his good pleasure therein by pointing Her out to him by that sign When Eliezer heard this he worshipped God bowing himself to the ground Then he presented Rebecca with some rich picces of Gold and Silver plate and with rich Suits of apparel and presented her Mother also and her Brother with rich Gifts All things having thus prosperously succeeded Eliezer and his Company were now willing to eat and drink with Laban which having done they reposed themselves there that night Then rising early the next Morning Eliezer like a man that seriously minded his business desired them to hasten him away with his young Mistress Her Mother and Brother were not willing so soon to part with her but desired that she might stay with them at least ten days before she went But Eliezer was impatient of so long a stay and therefore intreated them that seeing the Lord had so eminently prospered him in his business hitherto he might now hasten home to his Master They replied They would call Rebecca and see what she said to it Rebecca expressing a modest willingness to go provided it might be with their good liking They said They saw the thing was of God and therefore she should go Then solemnly blessing her and praying that she might be the Mother of thousands of Millions that is of an innumerable Posterity who might possess the Gates of their Enemies they forthwith sent her away with Deborah her Nurse and some young Maids to attend her Rebecca with Her Attendants being thus committed to the Care of Eliezer they began their Journey towards Canaan and after some days travel they drew near to Beersheba where Abraham and Isaac dwelt It being now Eventide Isaac was walking in the Fields to pray and meditate His walk was in the way (n) Veniebat ea via qua itur ad puteum that leads to the Well Lahai-roi where on a sudden lifting up his eyes he saw the Camels coming towards him Rebecca seeing him at some distance ask'd Eliezer who He was and he telling her it was Isaac his young Master she immediately lighted off from her Camel and took a Veil and covered her face in token of modesty and subjection When they met the Servant told Isaac all that had happened and presented Rebecca to Him Isaac joyfully receiv'd and welcom'd Her and forthwith conducted her into his Mother Sarahs Tent (o) Women it seems had their Tents apart see Ch. 31.33 which it seems at her death about three years before had been reserv'd with its Furniture for his Wife And soon after He took her for his Wife by solemn marrying of her and loved her exceedingly and was highly pleased with Her So that the great grief he had before lien under for his dear Mothers death was now well mitigated and abated by the Comforts he had in his new Wife Ch. 24. whole Chapter SECT XV. ABraham having thus happily dispatched that weighty business of his Sons marriage he took to himself another Wife (p) Non libidine motus sed amore prolis ex divino instinctu ut ex eo semen inter gentes quoque multiplicaretur by name Keturah when he was about 140 years old For though forty years before that time his body was as it were dead Rom. 4.19 as to any humane likelihood of begetting Children yet God who strengthen'd him then to beget Isaac did it seems now renew that Masculine vigor and strength to him to make good his Promise of multiplying his Seed Ch. 17. 5. in others also though principally in Isaac that he inabled him to beget six Sons of Keturah in his old age To these he gave portions as he had done before to Ishmael the Son of Hagar being his Children by his Concubines (q) By this it appears that not only they were called Concubines who as Hagar were taken after a man was married to be as it were partner-wives or by-wives for the right of the Bed and propagation of Children though not solemnly betrothed nor taken with Dowry nor to be partners in the Government of the Family but to be subject to the lawful Wife and their Children were not to inherit except the Father pleased as Bilhah's and Zilpah's did extraordinarily becoming heads of Tribes I say not only such as these were called Concubines but second Wives taken after the first was dead were so called because their Children had no right of Inheritance and before his death sent them away into the East-Country into part of Arabia a good way off from Isaac the Heir of the Promise whom he made the sole and full heir of all his remaining Estate thus testifying his Faith that only Isaac and his Seed should enjoy the Land of Canaan Chap. 25. from 1. to 7. SECT XVI REbecca continued 19 years barren after her Marriage but at last upon Isaac's prayer who had prayed many years for her the Lord was intreated to bless her with power to Conceive and she conceived Twins who strugling in her Womb she said If it be so why am I thus that is if it be so that I am indeed with child why am I thus what is the reason I feel such a strange and extraordinary and painful strugling in my Womb more than other women do that are in my Condition Hereupon she betook her self either by her own private prayer or by some Prophet to inquire of the Lord what the meaning of it should be The answer she received was That she had two Sons in her Womb that should be the heads of two several Nations viz. Edomites and Israelites that these two Nations should differ very much one from the other They should be divided in habitation and should differ very much in their Laws Religion and Manners that Esau for some time should be greater than Jacob