kingdom between us. So certain did thefe adverse powers apprehend they were of victory in their intended expedition, that they had planned the divifion of the country before they entered it; and determin ed on the very person whom they were to invest with regal authority, who was to act as vice-roy, The fon of Tabeal, who was nominated to this high office, not being mentioned in any other place of scripture that I recollect, I prefume not to affirm any thing concerning him; but fuppofe that he was a branch of the royal family and house of Tabrimmon, the father of Benhadad, king of Syria.Men may propofe, but God difpofeth of all perfons and events. Plans are often formed for execution which the Moft High fruftrateth, and bringeth to nothing, as we fee exemplified in the inftance before us. When highly provoked by the pride, the prefumption, the avarice, and other fins of a nation, he permits them to run into ruin. Deftitute of public fpirit, and wife coun fel, they become feeble, entangled by difficulties from which they cannot extricate themselves; dangers are not foreseen, opportunities are neglected, and their plans of operation are difconcerted,

7 Thus faith the Lord GoD, It fhall not ftand, neither fhall it come to pass.

.

Ahaz, and the people of Judah, are here informed of the grounds upon which was founded the encourag ing exhortation, Fear not, neither be faint-hearted,' notwithstanding the combined efforts of their numerous enemies.Thus faith the Lord God, to whose power all things are fubject, by whofe wildom they are directed, who does according to his pleasure in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth, and who always exercises the most tender care of his peculiar people.--It shall not stand, ncither fhall it come to pass: the evil counfel devised by the affociated princes against Judah, to vex that na.

tion, and to make a breach in its defence; to dethrone their king, and to fet up another in his room. These events, which they were intent, if poffible, to bring about, the Almighty here declares, they fhould not be able to effectuate by all their united exertions. Thus were they to be made to know, that the Moft High ruleth among men, and giveth the kingdoms of the earth to whomfoever he pleafeth. This evil counsel, though the refult of much ingenious contrivance and serious deliberation, was to be wholly overturned, and never carried into execution. It is the glorious work of God to defeat the pernicious delibe rations of wicked men, to prevent them from doing what they would do, and to bring to pafe what they endeavour with all their might to oppofe. How many visible demonftrations hath he given, in all ages, of this remarkable truth! Pharaoh, king of Egypt, framed evil counsel against the children of Ifrael; but it could not stand. Haman, the Agagite, devifed evil against the Jews, intending no lefs than their deftruction; in which he was totally difappointed, through a remarkable interpofition of providence. Herod contrived a wicked plot in order to destroy the child Jefus; but he could not perform his enterprise. Rezin and Pekah took counsel against Judah; but it was fruftrated. The Lord had them in derifion; and none of these men of might found their hands able to execute the defigns they had framed. In thefe and innumerable other inftances, the Lord bringeth the counfel of the Heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect *.

8 For the head of Syria is Damafcus, and the head of Damafcus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years fhall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people.

* Pfal. xxxiii. 10.

9. 9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliahs fon. If ye will not believe, furely ye fhall not be established.

The most explicit affurance is here given, that the hoftile defigns of the confederate princes fhould be disappointed; that the danger which was fo much dreaded fhould be averted; and that the deliverance of Judah was to be followed by the overthrow of Ifrael. The Almighty would reftrain both kingdoms that were united in league, within the bounds he had fet them. The learned Bishop of London fuppofes, that the order of thefe verfes hath been difturbed by a tranfpofition, through mistake of fome copiest. The order, he fays, as it now ftands, is prepofterous, the deftruction of Ephraim being first denounced, and then their grandeur is fet forth; whereas naturally the defcription of their grandeur fhould precede that of their deftruction. He obferves, the arrangement of the whole fentence feems originally to have been thus: "Though the head of Syria be Damafcus, and the head

of Damafcus Rezin, and the head of Ephraim be Sa"maria, and the head of Samaria Remaliah's fon; yet

within threefcore and five years Ephraim fhall be "broken, that it be no more a people." So be it. The conjecture seems worthy of being adopted. Damafcus was the chief city of Syria, and Rezin reigned in Damafcus over Syria. Samaria was the metropolis of Ephraim, and the fon of Remaliah reigned in Samaria over Ephraim. In this ftate thefe two'confederate nations were to remain: their territories were not to be enlarged by their union and expedition against Judah notwithstanding all their efforts, it was to continue an independent kingdom. The daring project formed by these princes, of fetting up the fon of Tabeal to be their vice-roy, was to be baffled; and Judah was to be governed by its own kings, until Shiloh, the promifed Meffiah, did appear. This was the unalterable decree of that God who worketh all in all,

and

who fets the boundaries of mens habitations, and who exactly fulfilled his purpose in its feason.

And within threefcore and five years fhall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. Ephraim was originally the name which the patriarch Joseph gave to his fecond fon*: afterwards it was transferred to one of the tribes of Ifrael. It was alfo the name of a mountain which belonged to the inheritance of the children of Jofeph, and remarkable for being the burying-place of Jofhuat. In following ages, there was a city called Ephraim, into which we are informed Jefus Christ entered, and there continued with his difciples t. Not only was this name given to the pofterity of Ephraim, the fon of Jofeph, but this tribe being the most numerous and powerful of all the tribes of Ifrael, and the tribe to which their first king belonged, who governed them after their revolt from Judah, the name is often ufed to fignify the whole ten tribes of Ifrael; and in this extenfive fense it is doubtlefs to be understood in the prediction before us. Commentators have been much embarraffed in explaining the chronological difficulty which occurs here. If this prophecy was delivered about the beginning of the reign of Ahaz, as feems highly probable, it was exactly fixty-five years from the second year after he afcended the throne to the total depopulation of the kingdom of Ifrael by Ezarhaddon, who planted the country with new inhabitants, and carried away the remains of the ten tribes which had been left by Tiglath-pilefer and Shalmanezer. Until that period the land of Ifrael was not wholly divested of its inhabitants, as appears from feveral paffages of the history of Ifaiah, in which Ifraelites are mentioned as ftill remaining in the country. Ephraim then ceased to be a people; the state was diffolved; the kingdom was destroyed. To prevent, however, the land from becoming entirely defoiate, people were tranfported

Gen. xli. 52. + Judges ii. 9. || 2 Chron. xxxiv. 6, 7. 33. 3 E

John xi. 54

from

from Babylon, from Cutha, from Ava, from Hamath, and Sepharvaim, to dwell in the cities of Samaria. Thus were brought to ruin, from which they never recovered, the ten tribes of Ifrael, called Ephraim. Those of them who were carried away captive, a few excepted, who joined themselves to the Jews, foon adopted the idolatrous cuftoms of the nations among which they dwelt; and, after fome time, lofing their name, their language, and religious rites, were totally abforbed by other kingdoms. Thus ended the kingdom of Ifrael, according to this prediction, fixty-five years after it was delivered by our prophet, which may be calculated in the following manner:

Ahaz reigned, after the time in which Ifaiah received this meffage from God,

Hezekiah reigned

Manaffeh, prior to the accomplishment of this prophecy,

14

In all 65 years.

The exact fulfilment of this prediction, by the deftruction of the kingdom of Ifrael, forms a very memorable and awful event, which proclaims the folly, wickednefs, and ingratitude of that people; and announces, in the moft folemn manner, the righteoufnefs and vengeance of almighty God. It inftructs the inhabitants of the world to learn righteoufnefs: it demonftrates the perversity of mankind; and calls loudly to us to repent of our fins, and return to the Lord, whom we have greatly provoked to caft us off, and to deal with us as with Ifrael of old. Let us hearken to the admonition, and without delay obey the call.

If ye will not believe, furely ye shall not be established. To believe, is to give credit to the teftimony of those in whofe knowledge and veracity we fafely con fide, firmly perfnaded of the truth of what is related. In this fenfe the word is ufed in common language, in many paffages of fcripture, and particularly in the

words