On the other hand, Mr. Wolff has some doubts respecting the Affghans; First, because they have not the Jewish physiognomy; secondly, because there existed a contrary tradition, that they were descended from the Copts; thirdly, because he could only trace one word in their language which was strictly Hebrew, viz. N or, light, (p. 231.) He confesses, however, that there were two tribes of this people-the Youssuf Szeye and the Khaibaree, "which cannot be looked upon without astonishment. They are the only two tribes having a Jewish countenance: their customs are quite patriarchal; and they are the most hospitable of the Affghans,' (p. 242.) Mr. Wolff also believes, and gives the positive proof of documents on the subject, that the proper names of the Affghans in general are in numerous instances Jewish. They have many Hebrew names in their genealogy in tracing themselves up to Affghana their ancestor. This Affghana, according to an ancient Persian manuscript, is the son of one Irmiah or Jeremiah, and before him all is regularly Hebrew up to Abraham. (p. 241-2.)

The opposing testimony to Mr. Wolff, as regards their language, is of high authority. Sir William Jones says, that the best Persian historians declare them to be descended from the Jews; and that their families are distinguished by the names of the Jewish tribes: although, since their conversion to Islamism, they studiously conceal their origin.-"The Pushtoo language (he adds) of which I have seen a dictionary, has a manifest resemblance to the Chaldaic." And he notices the fact, that the Apocryphal Ezra speaks of a portion of the ten tribes who separated from the rest, and settled in a district which he calls Arsareth, and that there was then a considerable district under the dominion of the Affghans, which they called Hazareth or Hazaret. Captain S. Riley of Nusseerabad, a letter from whom is likewise inserted in the Journal (p. 227,) believes the Affghans to be of Jewish descent; on account of the great number of Hebrew proper names in their appellatives, and their dialect still retaining the genitive sign of the Chaldee, and other marks of cognate affinity. The missionaries Carey and Marshman state "that in the Pushtoo or Affghan language there are more

* Mr. Wolff also instances some remarkable customs observed in another tribe of them, which he calls the Kaffre Seeah Poosh: viz. in their sacrifices they sprinkle the blood of the victim (a sheep or a cow) on an idol which is sitting on a horse, and the meat they give to men. They have a throne of stone, in which are some words taken from the Pentateuch of Moses. They distinguish between clean and unclean animals,-mice, dogs, and fish being of the latter: and women after childbirth are separated from them for three days, and considered unclean. (See Lev. xii. 2-6.) Page 246.

+ In Burnes' Travels to Bokhara he states, that they look like Jews, and that the younger brother marries the widow of the elder. Vol. i. p. 164.

Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 336.

VOL. II.-17

Hebrew words than in that of any other nation:"* and they quote a learned Affghan as saying, "that his nation are Beni Israel, but not Yahood"-that is to say, sons of Israel, but not Jews.

The most reasonable conclusion therefore is, that Mr. Wolff is mistaken in regard to their language. He did not understand it, but merely picked up a few words as he travelled, which were given to him in answer to his inquiries, as the names of objects to which he probably pointed. This afforded him no opportunity of judging of the inflexions of the words as they come under regimen; which is the point to which Captain Riley speaks: nor is a column or two of words accidentally assorted, to be put in competition with the dictionary which Sir William Jones declares he inspected. Neither does it account for the admitted fact of the number of Hebrew appellatives.

Other places have been named, in which it is supposed the descendants of the ten tribes have existed; as the kingdom of Cashmere in Hindostan, and the interior of Africa; both mentioned by Basnage in his History of the Jews.t I do not however wish to enter into conjectural matter, excepting with regard to one instance; which is based upon a hint contained in scripture, and therefore entitled to consideration. I must preface it, however, with the observation, that the fact of the existence of the ten tribes having in later years become involved in considerable obscurity, is no argument against the literal fulfilment of the prophetic word respecting them, but a very striking confirmation of its literal certainty and truth: since the scriptures themselves speak of them as if removed from observation previous to their restoration. They are called in the first instance "outcasts of Israel," as distinguished from the "dispersed of Judah," (Isa. xi. 12.) and on their restoration Zion is described as exclaiming, "Who hath begotten

* See a note in Mr. Bickersteth's "Guide to Prophecy," p. 51.

+ Bernier, in his description of Hindoostan, gives ground to conclude that` Cashmere was anciently possessed by either Jews, or the posterity of the ten tribes, and that they apostatized. Mr. Wolff could find none there on his recent visit, but picked up traditionary accounts that many of them had emigrated into Tartary. And Basnage quotes the opinions of travellers, as to there being large colonies of the ten tribes in Tartary; and also that there existed in the neighbourhood of Persia, secured by mountains which surrounded them, and independent of the Persian power, a race of Jews, who were in their habits very like Tartars, having flocks and dwelling in tents. (Bk. vi. ch. 2, 3, &c.) Mr. Habershon, in his recently published "Dissertation on the Prophecies,' speaking of the Ten Tribes, says, "Various communications have lately been made to the world, through Jews who have visited the Leipsic fair, as well as by means of an Oriental Geographical Society established at Calcutta, that a people exist in the interior of Asia, whose usages, physiognomy, and other characteristics, prove them to belong to the Hebrew nation." Page 181.

me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? And who hath brought up these? Behold I was left alone: these, where had they been? Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people, and they shall bring THY SONS in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried on their shoulders?" (Isaiah xlix. 21, 22.)

In Isaiah, however, chap. xvi. 3, 4, the prophet thus addresses Moab:* "Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noon-day; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth. Let MINE OUTCASTS dwell with THEE, MOAB-be THOU a covert to them from the face of the spoiler," immediately connected with which words are expressions which seem to imply, that thus it shall be, until that determined be poured out upon the desolator, and the spoiler shall cease from out of the land.-"For the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land; and in mercy shall the throne be established, and HE shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness." It would follow from this that the territory of Moab affords a covert for the ten tribes; and Mr. Keith in treating on Dan. xi. 41,"these [countries] shall escape out of his hand, even Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon,"-shews that there is to this day, in the possession of the Arabs, a district called Kurak, and also Moab, which never has been conquered by the Turkish arms; but that the Porte is indeed itself compelled to pay tribute to the Arabs of those parts, in order to obtain permission for the caravans to pass by their territory unmolested. And within this district is that part of Arabia Petrea, the inhabitants of which are so exceedingly jealous of strangers penetrating into their defiles and rocks and hills, that none have both successfully penetrated and fully discovered that singular region.t

3. There are other points worthy of notice in regard to the restoration, some of which are likewise somewhat involved in obscurity, from the circumstance that the different texts which

* In regard to Moab, I consider the prophecy here cited has respect to the territory and geographical circumstances of the country, whatever the inhabitants in possession of it may be called. At the same time it must not be forgotten that the captivity of Moab is to return. (Deut. ii. 9. Jer. xlviii. 47; xlix. 6.)

+ Mr. Keith does not make these remarks with any reference to the ten tribes. Particulars will be found in his work on the Evidence of Prophecy; and the circumstance of Moab being a convert for the Ten Tribes is more largely handled in the Investigator, vol. iv. p. 342. Egypt is also there mentioned, as being a country from whence they will in numbers proceed. See Lowth on Isaiah xix. 18-25.

treat of them have never yet been sufficiently considered, compared one with the other, and adjusted into their exact situations in the prophetic narrative. For example, there are passages which seem to declare that their repentance does not ensue until after their return, (or at least the return of a portion of them-which I hold to be the more probable opinion, and that these will be of Judah,) and that the nations have come up to besiege them. The Fathers of antiquity, who at least were acquainted with the earlier traditions of the church on the subject, thought that they would be restored in an unconverted state, by means of human policy, and that they would be the first to declare for Antichrist, who would march against Jerusalem and easily conquer it, and then cajole them by flatteries and impose upon them by spurious miracles. They farther supposed, that Antichrist will, in the first instance, rebuild the city and temple of Jerusalem, and that the Jews will deceive themselves with the hope, that the kingdom of Israel will be restored by his means to its former splendour.*

Certain it is, from the word of God, "that Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness; and the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed." (Isa. i. 27, 28.) And this is to be at the very period when "the Lord shall restore her judges as at the first, and her counsellors as at the beginning; and afterwards she shall be called, "The City of Righteousness, the Faithful City." (v. 26.) And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem; when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning." Isaiah iv. 3, 4. This cannot refer to either of the two sieges of Jerusalem which have already occurred; for there were none left remaining and written among the living in Jerusalem on those occasions; nor was the judgment followed (as in this case it is declared it shall be) by the Lord creating upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her

*See Aretas in Apoc. ix. 14; Lactant. lib. vii. cap. 17: Cyril Hieros. Catech. 15. §7; Theodoret in Daniel xi. Jerome Epist. ad Aglas. Quæst. Ecimen. in 2 Thess. ii. Ephraim Syrus de Antichristo. Hippolytus de Consum. p. 12. Sulp. Sev. 2 Dial.

John v. 43, has been supposed by some to be a prophetical denunciation of our Lord to the Jews, that in the last days, because they now rejected Christ, there should arise one who should glorify himself and whom they should receive. "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive."-See Dr. Hildrop on Antichrist, p. 120.

assemblies, "a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night." (verse 5.) But these scriptures seem to point to a time when there shall be a siege: and Zechariah xiv. 1, 2, decides it: "Behold the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee; for I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses rifled; and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city." In Isaiah x. is a prophecy concerning some signal enemy of the Lord's people, under the title of The Assyrian. Most expositors consider it the same as the wilful king of Daniel xi. and the Antichrist of the last days; be this as it may, the whole scope of the prophecy indicates, as well as particular sentences of it, that it chiefly refers to a period yet to come. It seems that the hypocritical portion of the nation shall lean upon this personage; and that the Lord by his means shall afflict them, but ultimately turn his hand against him. The expression in verse 20,-"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth," seems to justify the opinion of the Fathers before mentioned, that they shall be seduced by the Antichrist. And the probability is, that some political movement will take place, in accordance with the liberal spirit of the age, which shall reinstate the Jews (i. e. the two tribes) in their own land; and that though there will be among them a people afflicted for their sin and poor in spirit, whom the Lord will deliver as an election out of the midst of them; yet the "strange children shall dissemble with him," and they shall trust in princes, and lean upon the arm of flesh, and possibly again on Egypt, and these are "the rebels" whom the Lord shall consume from out of the midst of them, and purely purge away the dross and tin of the nation.

I consider the following texts perfectly reconcileable with the view here taken; viz.-Ezekiel xi. 14-21; xx. 33—44; xxxvi. 16-38; Zephaniah iii. 8-13; Zechariah xii. 1-4; and a careful consideration of them will well repay the student of prophecy. The only part of them difficult to reconcile is, verse 34, 35, of Ezek. xx., where the Lord says, he will "bring them out from the countries in which they are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out: and I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face; &c." but