The consent of time disciphering the errors of the Grecians in their Olympiads, the vncertaine computation of the Romanes in their penteterydes and building of Rome, of the Persians in their accompt of Cyrus, and of the vanities of the Gentiles in fables of antiquities, disagreeing with the Hebrewes, and with the sacred histories in consent of time. VVherein is also set downe the beginning, continuance, succession, and ouerthrowes of kings, kingdomes, states, and gouernments. By Lodovvik Lloid Esquire.

CHAP. VI.

Of the continuance of the kings of Iuda after the kingdome of Israel was destroied, Samaria taken, and the 10. tribes of Israel carried captiue by Salmanassar into Assyria.

THis time reigned in Ierusalem Ezechias, a * 1.1 godly zealous king, who destroied idols, and brake in peeces the brasen serpent, he tooke away the high places, & cut downe the groues, the altars, their images and i∣dols, and walked before God vprightly, and in the 14. yeere of his reigne came Senaherib with an huge host to Iuda, spoiling and destroying * 1.2 Libna, Lachis, and other cities, laide siege to Ierusalem, threat∣ned the king, and blasphemed God most horribly, challen∣ging the gods of the nations, and defying the God of Israel, preferring the armies of flesh, and the strength of his hoste.

But his bragging & boasting was sharply punished by the Angel of God, who slew at that time of the Assyrians an hun∣dreth

foure score and fiue thousand, and Senacherib him selfe * 1.3 before his idoll Niseroch, whom he worshipped & preferred before the liuing God, was slaine of his owne sonnes Adra∣melech & Sarezer, the iust iudgement of God for blasphemie.

After this, Ezechias fell sicke, and was restored to health, in signe whereof God brought the Sunne 10. degrees backe in Achas diall: this good king repaired the Temple, instru∣cted the Leuites in the religion: he and all his princes of Iuda frequented the Temple, sacrificed daily to their God oblati∣ons of thanks giuing, and he commanded all the Nobles of Israel and Iuda, from Dan to Bersheba, to repaire to Ierusalem to keepe the Passeouer to the Lorde, which Passeouer was so great, that the like was not in Israel.

This Passeouer vnder Ezechias, was 775. yeeres after the * 1.4 Passeouer of Moses, and 775. yeeres before the Passeouer of Christ our Sauiour in the Newe Testament. Now after that Ezechias had destroied idolatrie, and had appointed Priestes and Leuites according to the commandement of God, prai∣ed for his people, and prouided for the Leuites liuings, and ordained ouerseers to distribute to euery Leuite his portion: Israel prospered all the daies of Ezechias, and all things went well with Iuda.

But Ezechias being deade, Manasses his sonne succeeded * 1.5 him, not in religion, nor in godlines: (for he followed not his father Ezechias in vertue, but his Grandfather Achas in all kinde of vices:) for this most wicked king restored idolatrie in Israel, vsed great crueltie, and he erected altars to Baal, and set vp images in groues: he practised witchcraft and sorcerie, and frequented the companie of them that had familiar spi∣rits, and those that were soothsayers.

This king did much euill in the sight of God, he martyred the Prophet of God Esay, and consecrated his sonne in fire to his idoll: he shed innocent blood, and filled Ierusalem with iniquitie. Beholde, such a good father to haue such a wicked sonne. But the Lord God stretched ouer Ierusalem the line of Samaria, & the plummet of the house of Achab, and promised

to destroy Iuda, as he had destroied Israel: so he did with Ma∣nasses, and gaue him to Assur, and to his Captaines, who brought him in fetters, and bound in chaines to Babylon.

But when he was in tribulation in Babylon, he called then * 1.6 vpon God, and God heard him, and deliuered him, and resto∣red him to his kingdome: so merciful is God when he is cal∣led vpon: for by this God instructed him to know him selfe, and to humble him selfe before God, whome he much abu∣sed. You may read in the bookes of the Kings, & in the Chro∣niches, the histories of the kings of Israel at large.

Manasses died, and left behind him Amon his sonne, who * 1.7 reigned 2. yeeres in Ierusalem: he forsooke God also, & wal∣ked in the waies of Achas, and he was slaine by his owne ser∣uants which conspired against him in his owne house, & the people made Iosias his sonne king ouer Iuda, who beganne to * 1.8 reigne in Ierusalem in the 8. yeere of his age, and in that age he was instructed by God to haue care ouer the people of Isra∣el: he sent messengers vnto all the townes, cities, and coun∣tries, & territories, to cal the Priests, the Leuits, the Nobles, and all men of what degree soeuer, to come to Ierusalem, where he him selfe read the bookes of Moses vnto the people, with oblations and sacrifices vnto God for the sinnes of Isra∣el: and those Priests that were not of Aarons stocke, that ser∣ued idols and images, he commanded them to be slaine: and whatsoeuer he found in Israel of the reliques of Ieroboam, he destroied, and burned the bones of the false prophets vpon the altars that Ieroboam erected: his zeale was prophesied of by Iaddo, 300. yeeres before Iosias was borne. * 1.9

Iosias hauing repaired the Temple, and hauing found the booke of the Law, he maketh a couenant with the Lord, that he and his people should walke before God vprightly and iustly. After that, he killed their Priestes, he brought downe their idols, he slew the coniurers, sorcerers, and soothsayers, and he burned the Priestes of Baal called Chemarims, whome * 1.10 the kings of Iuda had founded to burne incense in high pla∣ces; & euery place of Iuda to the Sunne, to the Moone, to the

planets, and to all the hostes of heauen. His zeale encreased more and more, he threw downe the altars of Achas, and the altars of Manasses: hee had put also downe the horses, the charets which the idolatrous kinges had dedicated to the Sunne: he ouerthrewe the abominable idolatrie of Salo∣mon * 1.11 in the mount of Oliues, called also in the Chronicles the mount of corruption, where Salomon builded vp altars and groues to Ashtaroth the idoll of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the * 1.12 idol of the Moabites, & for Milchom the idol of the Ammonits.

In Iosias time all Iudea flourished with the seruice of God, and the lawes of the Countreies were put in practise: for there was in euery citie among the Hebrewes a chiefe Magi∣strate, as a Prince or Iudge, to determine causes in equitie & iustice among the people. But in the Metropolitane Citie, which was Ierusalem, were 70. wise & graue men, whose court or consistorie was kept in Gazith. The Iewish Talmudists na∣med these Sanhedrin: these passed both in nomber & in dig∣nitie other Magistrates: these first gouerned in Silo, & after in * 1.13 Ierusalem elected by Moses, by the expresse word of God: these * 1.14 were Iudges for life & death, & according to the custome & lawes of the Hebrewes, they were to condemne offendors 4. kind of waies: by running vpon a man to death, by stoning, by burning, and by strangling. That day that these iudged any offender to death, they obstained from meate. These Councellers continued vntill Herods time, and kept their Court at Gazith. Beside these Sanhedrioth, which were 71. were also twelue Princes ouer the people, of euery tribe of Israel one, which gouerned the whole twelue tribes of the people. Some write, that in euery Citie were seuen of euery tribe.

But this good king was slaine in Mageddo, by Necho king of Egypt, who went vp at that time against the king of As•…•…hur, wherein Iosias did offend God, because he consulted not with the Lord, before he sought with Necho.

In Iosias time, in the 13. yere of his reigne, Ieremie began to * 1.15 prophesie the destruction of Ierusalem, & he foreshewed of

the captiuitie of Babylon, of the miserie of the Iewes, of the fa∣mine, and of the last ruine by Nabuchadonosor: and howe af∣terward that king could not be quiet, but was troubled with one dreame and other, seeking soothsayers, wise men of Ba∣bel, coniurers, sorcerers, to interprete his visions & dreames: his vision of the 4. beastes, of the 10. hornes, of the battel be∣tweene the Ramme and the Goate, of the great image whose head was gold, &c.

In Iosias time reigned in Media Phaortes the 6. king of the Medes, and in Lidia reigned Ardis the 6. king of the Lidians: * 1.16 for (as I wrote before) Lidia, Media, and Rome, began welnigh together. In Babylon reigned Nabuchodonosor the first of that name, and the father of Nabuchodonosor the Great: yet some take exception against the first Nabuchodonosor, saying that there was none such, as Beroaldus affirmeth. He was the 3. king * 1.17 of the Chaldeans, after Merodachs time. In Rome gouerned Tul∣lius Hostilius, their 3. king, who was now in warre with the Sa∣bines, and in Macedonia, Philip the 6. king: about which time the Grecians vsed first the Oracle called Dodonium oraculum.

Nowe in Locretia reigned Zaleuchus, a famous Law maker, and more famous for the keeping of his lawes being made, euen against his owne sonne that should succeede after him king, as in an other place you may read more. Sibylla which is called Herophila, was of great fame in Samos at this time. Hero∣dotus writeth, that Batius the first king of Cyrena builded Zoan, * 1.18 and after builded Cyrenes, and furnished the same with peo∣ple of Tyre, and of Greece. In the beginning of Iosias gouern∣ment, florished the great Historiographer Archilochus, whose authoritie for time is with the best approued: for he wrote a booke entituled De temporibus, with whom at one time liued Simonides, and Aristoxenes the Musition. Iosias began to reigne in the 30. Olympiad, and died in the 37. Olympiad, and 16. Iubile of the Iewes.

After Iosias, Ioachim his sonne succeeded: for Necho king * 1.19 of Egypt, after hee had killed Iosias in Mageddo, hee gaue the kingdome to this Ioachim, called also Eliachim, paying 100.

talents of siluer, and one talent of gold, for yeerely tribute * 1.20 vnto Egypt. But Necho within a while was ouerthrowen in battell by Nabuchodonosor the great, and the tribute which the Iewes paied vnto Necho now being slayne in the field by * 1.21 the king of Chaldea, was paied to Nabuchodonosor. But I haue writtē of this Ioachim & of his sonne that succeeded him, cal∣led also Ioachin, or Iechonia, & of Nabuchodonosor, in the histo∣ries of the Chaldeans, how they were subdued by Nabuchodo∣nosor, * 1.22 whom God raised to destroy the rest of Israel the tribe of Iuda and the tribe of Beniamin. With this Iechonia was Da∣niel, Ananias, Azaria and Misael, caried captiue to Babylon: of whom Nabuchodonosor had care to instruct them in the Chal∣dean tongue, whereby they might serue the king and be in fa∣uour. It was the kings will that they should bee of Zedechias bloud, of the best fauour, and of the best complection. Some write that this captiuitie began from the 3. yeere of Ioachim, vnto the 20. yeere of Cyrus. Some other write that it began * 1.23 from the preaching of Ieremie, which was the 13. yeere of Io∣sias, vnto the first yeere of Cyrus: and others, in the eleuenth yeere of Zedechias.

They would not heare Ieremie the Prophet, who did fore∣shew the calamitie and miserie that should come vpon Ieru∣salem: but they despised him, imprisoned him, and burned his bookes, vntill an huge infinite armie of the Chaldeans laid siege to Ierusalem 18. moneths, and that it was at length taken and destroied, after much famine and plague during the time of these 18. moneths, after that 21. kings of Dauids tribe raig∣ned in Ierusalem for the space of 500. yeeres and odde, coun∣ting * 1.24 as Iosephus saith, beginning from Sauls raigne, which was of another tribe.

The wonders which were seene, before Ierusalem was de∣stroied, * 1.25 besides the threatning of the Prophets, were such, as might well perswade the Iewes of their calamities and mise∣ries not then beleeued, but afterwards felt. The first time they * 1.26 saw right ouer the citie of Ierusalem a firie burning Comete, most like a bloodie naked sword flourishing to and fro ouer

the citie, which continued for the space of one whole yeere.

The 2. wonder was a sudden cleere shining light, as bright as day light being in the night time. This light onely shined * 1.27 about Salomons Temple, and about the sacrificing altars, the which the Iewes construed to be their better fortune, wherin they were deceiued.

The 3. wonder was, that an Oxe being brought to the * 1.28 Temple to bee slaine and sacrificed vpon a festiuall day, ac∣cording to the Iewish maner, that it brought foorth against the course of nature a Lambe in the middest of the temple, which was terrible and monstrous.

The 4. wonder was, that the East brasen gate of Salomons Temple being so great and so heauie with iron barres and * 1.29 great brasen bolts, that Vix à viginti viris clauderetur, the very wordes of Iosephus, that 20. strong men could scant shut that gate, opened of it selfe most willingly. The barres loosed, the bolts yeelded, that some of the ignorant Iewes prognostica∣ted the opening of the Temple should bee some great good thing to come.

The fift wonder was seene vpon the 21. day of May, which seemed to be an hoste of men armed running on horsebacke, * 1.30 and in charets, aboue the Citie in the skies, a little before Sunne setting.

The sixt wonder, when the priests went vnto the temple in the feast of Pentecost, as they were woont to do by night, to * 1.31 celebrate diuine seruice, they vpon a sudden felt the ground quiuer vnder their feete, and the temple shooke, and a voyce speaking, Migremus hinc, let vs depart hence.

Yet a more horrible wonder there was, the daily crying * 1.32 and exclaiming of a countrey man Iesus the sonne of Ananus, who for 7. yeeres and 5. moneths before the destruction, cea∣sed not in euery corner of the Citie, in euery streete, and spe∣cially in the temple vpon the Sabboth day, saying, Vox ab ori∣ente, vox ab occidente, vox à quatuor ventis, vox in Ierosolymam & templum, & vox in omnē hunc populum, continuing still this cry, though he was punished by the magistrates, and brought be∣fore

Albinus the Roman, which was then Caesars deputie in Ieru∣salem, in somuch as he was thought to be some furious foole, that he was left after whipping alone, who cried, Vae, vae ciuita∣ti, vae phano, vae populo, and last of all he said, vae mihi. This Iose∣phus saw with his eies, & heard with his eares, who wrote this historie. A greater wonder then all these, The true Messias * 1.33 Christ, 40. yeeres before told of this, & yet was not beleeued. Ierusalem (as it was oftentimes) was neuer destroied, but they were warned before by the prophets of God: but they would not know the time of their visitation, and therfore came these euils vpon the Iewes: the towne sackt and made euen to the ground, their temple burned, & themselues slaine, destroied and scattered from the face of the whole earth.

Now Ierusalem being thus destroyed, the temple burned, the people slaine, and the king Zedechia taken prisoner and brought to Babylon where he died: Nabuchodonosor like a fierce Lion proceedeth forward, inuaded Syria, subdued the Ammo∣nites and the Moabites, brought his armie to Egypt, slew the king, subdued the countrey, and brought those Iewes backe to Babylon that had fled from Ierusalem to Egypt.

This was the miserie of the Iewes, and the last confusion of * 1.34 Iuda. The historie of this king concerning the last end of the Iewes, no where may be better read then with the Prophets. Nabuchodonosor had a sonne called Euilmerodach, who after the * 1.35 death of his father enlarged Iechonia from prison, and vsed him princely: for Iechonia in respect of Ierusalem, and the people therein being by Ieremie the prophet perswaded thereto, yel∣ded himself, his wife, his children, his nobles, and all the two tribes, vnto the hands of Nabuchodonosor.

Ieremie, Ezechiel and Daniel, haue laid downe the ful histo∣rie * 1.36 of Nabuchodonosor and of Euilmerodach, and of Balthasar, the three last kings of the Chaldeans, in whose time the empire of Babylon was had away from the Chaldeans vnto the Persians by Cyrus. This was the stocke of Dauid, being 21. kings after Da∣uid, lineally from his bodie descending, ended, whose names are these,

• ...

• 1 Salomon.
• 2 Rehoboam.
• 3 Abia.
• 4 Asa.
• 5 Iosaphat.
• 6 Ioram.
• 7 Ochosias & his mother.
• 8 Athalia.
• 9 Ioas.
• 10 Amazias.
• 11 Azaria.
• 12 Iotham.
• 13 Achas.
• 14 Ezechias.
• 15 Manasses.
• 16 Ammon.
• 17 Iosias.
• 18 Ioachas.
• 19 Eliacim.
• 20 Ioachim.
• 21 Zedechias.

The kingdome of Iuda caried cap•…•…ue by Nabuchodonosor into Babylon after it had continued

• After the death of Salomon 395. yeeres.
• After the flud 1709. yeeres.
• After the natiuitie of Abra∣ham, 1416.
• After the burning of Sodom and Gomorrha, and the other three Cities, 1317.
• After the departure of the Is∣raelites out of Egypt, 912.
• After the destruction of Troy, 577.
• From the natiuitie of Da∣uid, 505.
• From the dedicating of Sa∣lomons temple, 412.
• And after the taking of Sa∣maria, and the destructi∣on of the ten tribes of Is∣rael, 133. yeeres.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Ezechias.
• * 1.2

  Senaherib laid siege to Hierusalem.
• * 1.3

  185. thousand slaine of the Assyrians by the Angel. Sanacharib slaine by his sonnes before his Idoll in the temple.
• * 1.4

  2. Cron. cap. 30. Ezechias Pas∣seouer.
• * 1.5

  Ezechias died Manasses suc∣ceeded him. Manasses Ido∣latrie.
• * 1.6

  Manasses a∣gaine restored to his king∣dome.
• * 1.7

  Amon king of Iudah.
• * 1.8

  Iosias king of Iudah.
• * 1.9

  Iaddo the Pro∣phet.
• * 1.10

  Chemarims Baals priests.
• * 1.11

  2. Reg. 23.
• * 1.12

  Ashtaroth, Che∣mosh and Mil∣com.
• * 1.13

  Sanhe•…•…rin.
• * 1.14

  Silo.
• * 1.15

  Ieremie began to prophecie the 13. of Io∣sias.
• * 1.16

  Media, Lidia, and Rome, welnigh o•…•… one continu∣ance.
• * 1.17

  Beroald. lib 3.
• * 1.18

  Herodot. lib. 4.
• * 1.19

  Iosias slaine.
• * 1.20

  Ioachim brought cap∣tiue to Baby∣lon.
• * 1.21

  Necho slaine by the king of Chaldea.
• * 1.22

  Iere. 36. Ioseph. lib. 10. c. 8. 9.
• * 1.23

  Some varie a∣bout the time of the capti∣uitie.
• * 1.24

  21. Kings of Israel.
• * 1.25

  Ioseph. lib. 7. cap. 12.
• * 1.26

  The first won∣der.
• * 1.27

  The 2. won∣der.
• * 1.28

  The 3. won∣der.
• * 1.29

  The 4. won∣der.
• * 1.30

  The 5. won∣der.
• * 1.31

  The 6. won∣der.
• * 1.32

  The 7. won∣der.
• * 1.33

  The 8. won∣der.
• * 1.34

  The misery of the Iewes.
• * 1.35

  Euilmerodach.
• * 1.36

  The captiuity of Babylon.