1 Jehoiachin is brought A. M. 3404. OL XLV. 1. Tarquinii Prisci, A. M. 3415. Anno Ol. XLVII. 4. CHAP. LII. 28 h This is the people whom persons were four thousand and m out of prison. A. M. 3442. 31 " And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the 29 1In the eighteenth year of twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day Nebuchadrezzar he carried away of the month, that Evil-merodach king of captive from Jerusalem eight Babylon in the first year of his reign lifted hundred thirty and two persons: up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and 30 In the three and twentieth brought him forth out of prison, year of Nebuchadrezzar Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty and five persons: all the b2 Kings xxiv. 2.- See 2 Kings xxiv. 12.- See 2 Kings xxiv. 14. See ver. 12; chap. xxxix. 9.- m Heb. souls. A. M. 3420. Tarquinii Prisci, 32 And spake kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon, 33 And changed his prison garments: 4 and 2 Kings xxv. 27, 28, 29, 30.- o Gen. xiv. 13, 20.- - Heb. good things with him. -12 Sam. ix. 13. at which time they might think it proper to send off the prisoners that were in camp, under a guard to Babylon. at the same time carried away the gleanings of Jews that remained in their own land, amounting in all to no more than seven hundred and forty-five. Verses 28-30. On these verses Dr. Blayney has some sensible remarks; I will extract the substance. These verses are not inserted in 2 Kings xxv. Are we to conclude from these verses that the whole num- And the last, in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadber of the Jews which Nebuchadnezzar, in all his ex-nezzar, was when that monarch, being engaged in the peditions, carried away, was no more than four thou-siege of Tyre, sent off Nebuzar-adan against the Moabsand six hundred? This cannot be true; for he car-ites, Ammonites, and other neighbouring nations, who ried away more than twice that number at one time; and this is expressly said to have been in the eighth year of his reign, 2 Kings xxiv. 12-16. Before that time he had carried off number of captives from Jerusalem, in the first year of his reign, among whom were Daniel and his companions, Dan. i. 3-6. These are confessedly not noticed here. And as the taking and burning of Jerusalem is in this very chapter said to have been in the fourth and fifth months of the nineteenth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, those who were carried into captivity at the date of those events cannot possibly be the same with those that are said to be carried away either in the eighteenth or twenty-third year of that prince. Nor, indeed, is it credible that the number carried away at the time that the city was taken, and the whole country reduced, could be so few as eight hundred and thirty-two, (see ver. 29;) supposing a mistake in the date of the year, which some are willing to do without sufficient grounds. Here then we have three deportations, and those the most considerable ones, in the first, in the eighth, and nineteenth years of Nebuchadnezzar, sufficiently distinguished from those in the seventh, eighteenth, and twenty-third years. So that it seems most reasonable to conclude with Abp. Usher, in Chronologia Sacra, that by the latter three the historian meant to point out deportations of a minor kind, not elsewhere noticed in direct terms in Scripture. The first of these, said to have been in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, was one of those that had been picked up in several parts of Judah by the band of Chaldeans, Syrians, and others, whom the king of Babylon sent against the land previously to his own coming, 2 Kings xxiv. 2. That in the eighteenth year corresponds with the time when the Chaldean army broke off the siege before Jerusalem, and marched to meet the Egyptian army, Josephus speaks of this expedition against the Moabites and Ammonites, which he places in the twentythird year of Nebuchadnezzar; but mentions nothing done in the land of Israel at that time. Only he says, that after the conquest of those nations, Nebuchadnezzar carried his victorious arms against Egypt, which he in some measure reduced, and carried the Jews whom he found there captives to Babylon. But the Egyptian expedition was not till the twenty-seventh year of Jehoiachin's captivity, i. e., the thirty-fifth of Nebuchadnezzar, as may be collected from Ezek. xxix. 17; so that those who were carried away in the twenty-third year were not from Egypt, but were, as before observed, the few Jews that remained in the land of Judah. Verse 31. In the twelfth month] Answering nearly to our twenty-fifth of April, A. M. 3442. Lifted up the head of Jehoiachin] This phrase is taken from Gen. xl. 13. It is founded on the observation that those who are in sorrow hold down their heads, and when they are comforted, or the cause of their sorrow removed, they lift up their heads. The Hebrew phrase, lift up the head, signifies to comfort, cheer, make happy. Verse 32. Spake kindly] Conversed freely with him. Set his throne] Gave him a more respectable seat than any of the captive princes, or better than even his own princes had, probably near his person. Verse 33. And changed his prison garments] That is, Jehoiachin changed his own garments, that he might be suited in that respect to the state of his elevation. Kings also, in token of favour, gave caftans or robes to those whom they wish to honour. Jehoiachin treated kindly A. M. 3442. Ol. LIV. 3. R. Roman., 17. he did continually eat bread be- | of the king of Babylon, every r Heb. the matter of the day in his day. A. M. 3442. B. C. 562. OL. LIV. 3. Anno Servii Tullii, R. Roman., 17. And he did continually eat bread before him] Was the following words: And done is aftir that into a constant guest at the king's table. caitifte is brougt Esrael, and Jerusalem is destroide, Verse 34. And there was a continual diet given | Satte Perempe the prophet weepund, and weiled with him] This was probably a ration allowed by the king for the support of Jehoiachin's household. For other particulars, see the note on 2 Kings xxv. 30. All the days of his life.] I believe these words have been by mistake added from the preceding verse. There, they are proper; here, they are tautological. They are wanting in the Septuagint and in the Arabic. The preceding words, im Dryad yom motho, "to the day of his death," are wanting in two of De Rossi's and one of Kennicott's MSS. Coverdale ends thus: All the days of his life untill he died. This is better than the common Version. Immediately after this verse my old MS. Bible adds 398 this lamentacion Jerusalem; and with bitter inwit sighand and criand weilawai, seide. Then follows in red letters: Here beginneth the Lamentation of Jerempe, that is intitle Cenoth; with the sortynge out of Ebrue letters. ALEPH: How sittith aloon the ritp, &c. See something of a similar kind from other authorities, at the beginning of Lamentations. . THIS book, like the several books of the Pentateuch, is denominated in Hebrew now eicah, It is one of the books of the mban Megilloth, or Roll, among the Jews; and because it relates to the ruin of their affairs, and contains promises of restoration, it is peculiarly prized, and frequently read. The five Megilloth are: Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Lamentations, Ruth, and Esther. There has been little difference among learned men concerning the author of this book. The whole current of antiquity and modern times has pointed out Jeremiah as the writer: of this the style is a sufficient evidence. Mr. John Henry Pareau, in a Dissertation prefixed to his Translation and Notes on this book, (8vo. Lugd. Bat. 1790,) has proved this point amply from a general collation of the prophecy of Jeremiah with select passages in this book. I have heard of but one learned man who has entertained serious doubts on the subject, Mr. Herman Van der Hardt, who has supposed the five chapters were written by Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Jeconiah. To this opinion I suppose none has ever been converted. There has been more difference of opinion relative to the subject and occasion. Some have thought the book was composed on the death of Josiah; others that it was composed on occasion of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the various desolations connected with it. To this all its parts and its general phraseology seem best to apply; and this is the sentiment most generally embraced at present. This will receive much proof from a minute consideration of the book itself. The composition of this poem is what may be called very technical. Every chapter, except the last, is an acrostic. Of the two first, each verse begins with a several letter of the Hebrew alphabet, in the order of the letters, with this exception, that in the second, third, and fourth chapters, the phe is put before the y ain; whereas in all the acrostic Psalms the latter precedes the former, as it does in all grammars of the Hebrew language. In the first and second chapters each verse is composed of three hemistichs or half verses, except the seventh verse of the first, and the nineteenth of the second chapter, which have each four hemistichs. The third chapter contains sixty-four verses, each, as before, formed of three hemistichs, but with this difference, that each hemistich begins with the same letter, so that the whole alphabet is thrice repeated in this chapter. INTRODUCTION TO THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH. The fourth chapter is made up of twenty-two verses, according to the number of the Hebrew letters; but the composition is different from all the rest, for each verse consists of only two hemistichs, and those much shorter than any in the preceding chapters. I have called this an inimitable poem; better judges are of the same opinion. "Never," says Bishop Lowth, "was there a more rich and elegant variety of beautiful images and adjuncts arranged together within so small a compass, nor more happily chosen and applied." "One would think," says Dr. South, "that every letter was written with a tear; every word, the sound of a breaking heart: that the author was compacted of sorrows; disciplined to grief from his infancy; one who never breathed but in sighs, nor spoke but in a groan." "Nor can we too much admire," says Dr. Blayney, "the full and graceful flow of that pathetic eloquence in which the author pours forth the effusions of a patriotic heart, and piously weeps over the ruins of his venerable country. But it was observed before that the prophet's peculiar talent lay in working up and expressing the passions of grief and pity; and, unhappily for him as a man and a citizen, he met with a subject but too well calculated to give his genius its full display." David in several places has forcibly depicted the sorrows of a heart oppressed with penitential sorrow; but where, in a composition of such length, have bodily misery and mental agony been more successfully painted? All the expressions and images of sorrow are here exhibited in various combinations, and in various points of view. Misery has no expression that the author of the Lamentations has not employed. Patriots! you who tell us you burn for your country's welfare, look at the prophecies and history of this extraordinary man; look at his Lamentations; take him through his life to his death, and learn from him what true patriotism means! The man who watched, prayed, and lived for the welfare of his country; who chose to share her adversities, her sorrows, her wants, her afflictions, and disgrace, where he might have been a companion of princes, and have sat at the table of kings; who only ceased to live for his country when he ceased to breathe-that was a patriot, in comparison with whom almost all others are obscured, minished, and brought low, or are totally annihilated! Chronological notes relative to the Book of the Lamentations. Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3416.-Year of the Jewish era of the world, 3173. -Year from the Deluge, 1760.-First year of the forty-eighth Olympiad.-Year from the building of Rome, according to the Varronian account,.166.-Year before the birth of Christ, 584.-Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 588.-Year of the Julian Period, 4126.-Year of the era of Naboñassar, 160.-Cycle of the Sun, 10.-Cycle of the Moon, 3.-Second year after the fourth Sabbatic year after the seventeenth Jewish jubilee, according to Helvicus.-Twenty-ninth year of Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of the Romans: this was the seventy-ninth year before the commencement of the consular government. -Thirty-eighth year of Cyaxáres or Cyaraxes, the fourth king of Media. Eighteenth year of Agasicles, king of Lacedæmon, of the family of the Proclide.-Twentieth year of Leon, king of Lacedæmon, of the family of the Eurysthenida. Thirty-second year. of Alyattes II., king of Lydia. This was the father of the celebrated Croesus.-Fifteenth year of Æropas, the seventh king of Macedon.-Nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.-Eleventh year of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. CHAPTER I. The prophet begins with lamenting the dismal reverse of fortune that befell his country, confessing at the b pro-B. C. cir. 588. B. C. Cir. 3496. HOW doth the city sit solitary, and princess among the pro- A. M. cir. 3416. that was full of people: how vinces, how is she become tribu- Ol. XLVIII. 1. Ol. XLVIII. 1. is she become as a widow! she a Isa. xlvii. 7, 8.- b Ezra iv. 20. tary! Tarquinii Prisci, R. Roman., cir. annum 29. I subjoin another taken from the first PRINTED edition of the English Bible, that by Coverdale, 1535. "And it came to passe, (after Israel-was brought into captyvitie, and Jerusalem destroyed ;) that Jeremy the prophet sat weêping, mournynge, and makinge his mone in Jerusalem ; so that with an hevy herte he sighed and sobbed, sayenge." In all copies of the Septuagint, whether of the refines upon this: Matthew's Bible, printed in 1549, It happened after Israell was brought into captyvite, and Jerusalem destroyed, that Jeremy the prophet sate wepyng, and sorrowfully bewayled Jerusalem; and syghynge and hewlynge with an hevy and wooful hert, sayde." Becke's Bible of the same date, and Cardmarden's of 1566, have the same, with a trifling change in the orthography. The Vulgate has the same, with some variations :"Et factum est, postquam in captivitatem redactus est Israel, et Jerusalem deserta est, sedit Jeremias propheta flens, et planxit lamentatione hac in Jerusalem, et amaro animo suspirans et ejulans, dixit." The translation of this, as given in the first translation of the On this Becke and others have the following note :Bible into English, may be found at the end of Jerc-"These words are read in the LXX. interpreters: but miah, taken from an ancient MS. in my own possession. not in the Hebrue." 401 |