And them that had escaped from the sword carried he to Babylon where they were servants to him, and his sons, until the reign of the kingdom of Persia." That was the overthrow of the temple and city of Jerusalem, and the kingdom of Judah at that time. All which is related at large, and rather more particularly, in the fiftysecond and last chapter of the book of Jeremiah: and may be seen also in 2 Kings, ch. xxiv. xxv. And it may be worth the while to observe here, Jer. xxv. 1-11, "The word that came unto Jeremiah concerning all 1—11, the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon: Which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even unto this day, (that is, the three-and-twentieth year,) the word of the Lord hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early, and speaking, but ye have not hearkened. And the Lord hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord hath given to you, and to your fathers for ever. And go not after other gods to serve and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands, and I will do you no hurt. Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the Lord, that ye might provoke me to anger, with the works of your hands to your own hurt. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, because ye have not heard my words, behold I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon my servant, and bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereofAnd this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment. And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." t It ought to be here particularly observed by us, that this calamity is said to have been brought at length upon this 3 Jeremiah seems there to intend, as prophets of former times, so also some who were contemporary with him, two of which are mentioned in scripture, Zephaniah, whose prophecies we have, and Urijah, mentioned here, ch. xxvi. 20. See Lowth upon the place. And says Grotius upon ver. 1. A tertio anno regni Josiæ. -Nam 31 annis regnavit Josias. Ab his deme 12, et adde annos 4 Joakimi; fiunt ipsi anni 23. Per quos nullo labore et se et socios suos abstinuisse ait Jeremias, ut ad meliorem frugem populum reduceret. • Prædictio insignis, ob ita exactam temporis designationem. Grot. people "because they had refused to hearken to the words of God, spoken to them by the prophets." The vessels of the temple were carried to Babylon, and lodged in the temple there dedicated to Belus. 2 Chr. xxxvi. 7, " Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon." They are more particularly enumerated, Jer. lii. 17-23. This, undoubtedly, was intended by way of scorn and insult to the conquered people of Israel, and as a triumph over the God whom they worshipped. Nevertheless they were thereby preserved, and many of them were afterwards returned. That they were there near the end of the captivity we learn from the profane and unseasonable feast made by Belshazzar, as related, Dan. v. 1-4. "Who then commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels, which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple, which is at Jerusalem, that the king and his princes, and his wives and concubines, might drink therein." the end of the captivity, when Cyrus permitted the people to return to their own country, he also gave orders for the restoring of these vessels, as related at the beginning of the book of Ezra, ch. i. 1—11, “ Now, in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, (that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled,) the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made proclamation, throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying: Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia. The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? His God be with him, and let him go to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God which is at Jerusalem -Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his god. Even these did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. And this is the number of them: thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, nineand-twenty knives: thirty basons of gold: silver basons of a second sort, four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand. All the vessels of gold and silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity, that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.” The first thing that was done by them, after their return to VOL. VI. 2 P Jerusalem, was restoring the altar for burnt-offerings. Ezra iii. 2, “Then stood up Joshua, the son of Josedech, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt-offerings thereon-From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt-offerings unto the Lord, But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid." The building of the temple met with opposition; and therefore it was several years before it was finished which is mentioned, Ezra vi. 14-16, “And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet, and Zachariah the son of Iddo, and they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of Cyrus and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. And the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house with joy." : At first they were discouraged by the little prospect they had of raising the temple suitably to their wishes. Ezra iii. 12, "Many of the priests and Levites, and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, who had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice, and many shouted aloud for joy." But God himself encouraged them to proceed with the most gracious assurances. Haggai ii. 1-7. "In the seventh month, in the one-and-twentieth day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying: Speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedech the high-priest, and to the residue of the people. Who is left among you that saw this house in its first glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes, in comparison of it, as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the priest, and be strong all ye people of the land, saith the Lord of hosts, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my Spirit remaineth among you fear ye not. For thus saith the Lord of hosts: Yet once a little while And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come. And I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." See likewise ch. i. and Zech. i. ii. iii. and viii. And now they restored the worship of God at the temple, according to the prescriptions of the law of Moses, for offering sacrifices. They kept the feast of the passover, and other great feasts, according to the law of Moses, and the priests and Levites were set to officiate in their courses. So, after the setting up the altar of burnt-offering, and their beginning to lay the foundation of the temple, it is said, Ezra iii. 10, "And when the builders laid," or were laying, “the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord after the ordinance of David king of Israel." And afterwards, when the temple was raised, it is said, Ezra vi. 18, " And they set the priests in their divisions, and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God, which is at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses." Then it follows, ver. 19, "And the children of the captivity," that is, who were returned from their captivity, "kept the passover, upon the fourteenth day of the first month." Thus the worship of God was again restored, and set up at his temple in Jerusalem. And though, undoubtedly, in the intermediate space the Jews met with various difficulties from surrounding enemies, and were now in subjection to the Romans, yet in the time of our Saviour and his apostles the Jewish people had free access to the temple, performed their sacrifices there, kept the Passover and Pentecost, and other great solemnities, according to the appointments of the law of Moses; and the genealogies of their tribes were in being: Jesus, our Lord, was of the tribe of Judah, and of the family of David, though then in low circumstances: Matt. i. and ii; Luke i. and ii. Zacharias, father of John the Baptist, was of the course of Abia, and his wife Elisabeth was of the daughters of Aaron and he executed the priest's office before God at the temple, in the order of his course. Luke i. 5-12, "Anna, a prophetess," is said to have been "the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser, a widow of fourscore years of age, who departed not from the temple, and served God with fastings and prayers night and day." : But it is not needful to add any thing more, it being apparent from the books of the New Testament, and from Josephus, as well as from other writings, that the worship at the temple in Jerusalem subsisted till the second year of Vespasian, and the year of Christ 70, in which year they had come up in great numbers to keep the Passover, and were suddenly shut up in the city by the Roman army. The times of the first and second temple are computed by Dr. Lightfoot in this manner; The time of the standing of the first temple, from its finishing in the eleventh year ' of Solomon, to its firing by Nebuzaradan, was four hundred and twenty years.' From the first year of Cyrus (in which he proclaimed redemption to the captives, and gave commandment to restore and build Jerusalem) to the ' death of Christ were four hundred and ninety years, as they are summed up by an angel, Dan. ix. and from the ' death of Christ to the fatal and final destruction of Jerusa'lem, were forty years more; five hundred and thirty years in all.' Which two numbers make no more than nine hundred and fifty years. In another place he computes the times of the two temples to be exactly one thousand years. Others may make different computations; but now we need not concern ourselves about a nice exactness: however, I refer to Prideaux, who may be consulted. X W III. I shall now shut up these reflections with some concluding observations. : Obs. 1. The temple at Jerusalem was designed by David, and erected by Solomon with divine approbation; and the worship there performed was of divine appointment and as the building itself, and the worship there, had a divine sanction, it was fit that a suitable respect should be shown to the place itself, and to the ordinances there enjoined, by all the worshippers of the true God. y Solomon, and all understanding Israelites, were persuaded of the divine omnipresence. Nevertheless, as God had determined to make peculiar manifestations of himself at the temple, it was fit that respect should be shown to it. 1 Kings viii. 27-30," But will God dwell on this earth? Behold the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee: how much less this house that I have built? Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servantThat thine eyes may be open toward this house, night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: [Deut. xii. 11.] And hearken thou to the supplication of "The Temple as it stood in the Time of our Saviour, ch. 40, p. 2063. ▾ Ib. p. 2064. If Jerusalem was destroyed exactly forty years after our Saviour's death, as it is apparent,-then that destruction of it befell just in the four thousandth year of the world. And so, as the temple of Solomon had been finished anno mundi exactly 3000, so in anno 'mundi exactly 4000 both the city and the temple that then was, were destroyed, never to be repaired or rebuilt again. And from that time most properly began the kingdom of heaven, and the New Jerusalem, when that earthly kingdom, and that old city, were utterly ruined.' Harmony of the four Evangelists, vol. i. p. 487. W * See his Connexion, &c. year before Christ, 458, vol. i. p. 2€2, &c. y See his letter to Hiram, king of Tyre, 2 Chr. ii. 1-—7. |