8

9

of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him. 7 And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and they bound him with. two chains of brass, and brought him to Babylon.

And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the executioners, a servant of the king of Babylon, to Jerusalem. And he burned the house of Jehovah, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burned he 10 with fire. And all the army of the Chaldæans, that were with the captain of the executioners, tore down the walls of 11 Jerusalem round about. And the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the executioners carry away captive. 12 But the captain of the executioners left of the poor of the 13 land to be vine-dressers and husbandmen. And the pillars

of brass that were in the house of Jehovah, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of Jehovah, did the Chaldæans break in pieces, and carried the brass thereof 14 to Babylon. And the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the censers, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they 15 ministered, took they away. And the snuff-dishes, and the basins, what was of gold, in gold, and what was of silver, in 16 silver, the captain of the executioners took away. The two

pillars, the one sea, and the bases, which Solomon made for the house of Jehovah, the brass of all these vessels was with17 out weight. The height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the capital upon it was brass; and the height of the capital was three cubits; and lattice-work and pomegranates were on the capital round about, all of brass; and like to these had the second pillar on lattice-work.

18

And the captain of the executioners took Seraiah the chief

VV. 18-21. Leading and representative men holding official stations, and private men of sufficient account in position and numbers, were selected for exemplary punishment, and as a warning against further attempts at resistance. For the personal character of the agent in this transaction, see Jer. 40: 1-6.

priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and three keepers of 19 the door; and out of the city he took an officer that was set over the men of war, and five men of them that were in the king's presence, who were found in the city, and the scribe of the captain of the host, who mustered the people of the land, and threescore men of the people of the land that were 20 found in the city. And Nebuzar-adan captain of the executioners took these, and brought them to the king of Babylon 21 to Riblah. And the king of Babylon smote them, and slew them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of their land.

22

And the people that remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, over them he made 23 Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler. And all the captains of the armies, they and the men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor. And they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Careah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of a Maacha24 thite, they and their men. And Gedaliah swore to them, and to their men, and said to them: Fear not the servants of the Chaldæans. Dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon; and it shall be well with you.

25

And it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldæans that were with him 26 at Mizpah. And all the people, both small and great, and the captain of the armies, rose up, and came to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldæans.

27

And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evil

V. 21. So Judah was carried away captive out of their land. This transaction completed the work of removing the population of the country, in the year 587 before Christ. None of any account were left in the land. As a provision against anarchy and misrule, the king placed over them a competent ruler, selected from their own people.VV. 23-25. For a more detailed account, see Jer. 40: 7-41 : 3.-V. 26. Rose up and came to Egypt. See Jer. 42: 1--43 : 7.

merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, out of 28 prison. And he spoke kindly to him, and set his throne

above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon. 29 And he changed his prison garments, and ate bread continu30 ally before him, all the days of his life. And his allowance, there was given him a continual allowance from the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life.

V. 27. Evil-merodach; Nebuchadnezzar's son, and his successor B. C. 561.

Here closes the history of the occupation of Palestine, commenced in the book of Joshua, and continued through the books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings, a period of about eight and a half centuries.

The kingdom of Judah was now annihilated. The city of Jerusalem, and the temple of Jehovah, were leveled to the ground; the consecrated vessels of the sanctuary were borne away for use in an idol temple; the population of the country was dispersed in other lands. Not a vestige of the nation, or of its institutions, remained. The name of the true God was blotted out, in the only place on earth where he had been known and worshipped; and the only people, among whom he had been acknowledged as God, were scattered through nations knowing only idol-gods. To all human foresight, the institutions for the maintenance of Jehovah's worship were now extinct, and their restoration hopeless. The light which had illumined Palestine was extinguished, and darkness settled down on all the earth.

But only in part was the Divine purpose thus terminated. It had a wider field than Palestine, and a wider scope than that which now came to an end. The dispensation of law, do this and live, had been fully tried, under circumstances the most favorable, and by every means consistent with human freedom and moral accountability. All had failed; and in their failure had left a lesson of instruction for all mankind.

But the continuity of the Divine purpose was unbroken. The promise to the world through Abraham, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," was yet to be fulfilled. In this hope the dispersed exiles were encouraged to return to their own land; that in them might be completed the Divine purpose, by the coming of the promised Deliverer, the Savior of mankind. That he came in the fullness of time, is abundantly shown in the record of the world's history.

357

NOTES ON THE HEBREW TEXT.

I. Sam. 13: 1. Literally, Saul was the son of a year when he began to reign. It is conceded by all, that the rendering of the first four words, in our common English version, is a false construction of the Heb. text. It is supposed that a letter, expressing the number of years, has fallen out of the text. There is nothing to indicate what that number was.

Ch. 14: 32. The people flew upon; the reading of the Keri.

II. Sam. 2:23. The fifth. The Heb. word occurs in five places. In Gen. 47: 26 it means a fifth; a meaning which should not be sacrificed, for an uncertain etymology, in the other four.

Ch. 3: 24. Is quite gone. For this use of the Infin. abs., see Ges. Gram. § 131, Rem. 1, Ewald, Lehrb. 8te Ausg. § 280.

Ch. 13:16. There is no cause. The form in Heb. is deprecatory. The nearest expression of the meaning in English is that of the common version.

Ch. 15: 7. Four years. "Forty years" appears to be a clerical error. See the discussion in Keil, Lange, Speaker's Commentary, and others.

Ch. 21 9. All seven. The dual form indicates seven-fold; an emphasis best expressed by the all of the common version.

Ch. 22 51. Great deliverances, etc.; as in Kethib.

I. Kings 12: 4. Somewhat best expresses the force of the Heb. particle; lighten from it, by taking a part from it.

Ch. 15:13. An idol. So Gesenius; and without doubt correctly. The ground-meaning of the root is fear or terror, and by metonomy that which inspires fear. Gen. 31 : 42, 43. Fürst, in his lexicon, assuming here the signification horror, supposes a Phallus-image to be meant. But the horror expressed by a derivative of the verb (Ps. 55:5; Ezek. 7: 18) is that inspired by fear or dread, not by disgust and aversion.

Ch. 19 4. Asked for his life, that he might die. Ewald's unnatural construction (Lehrb. 8te Ausg. § 336b) is far less probable.

II. Kings 6:5. The axe-head. Literally, the iron itself, the part that was iron, in distinction from the wooden handle.

Ch. 10 24. The man who lets one escape. The verb should be pointed as Piel, and not as Niphal in the common Heb. text.

358

THE END.