2 KING. XXV. vers. 2. to vers. 20. 2 CHRON. XXXVI. vers. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. JEREMY XXXIX. vers. 2. to vers. 15. And LII. vers. 5. to vers. 28.
IN the fourth month of this eleventh year of Zedekiah, which was the month Tammuz on the ninth day of the moneth, [much about our Mid-summer day] there is no more provision left, and the City is broken up. Zedekiah and the men of war get away by night; but Zedekiah is overtaken near Jericho, ere he could reach the foords of Jordan, and brought to Nebuchad-nezzar, and judgment passed upon him, &c. And he that would never see the danger, now seeth the Judgment, and his eyes are put out.
In the fifth moneth, the seventh day of the month, Nebuzaradan fireth the Temple and Jerusalem, about the 23 of our July, captiveth the remnant of the people, leaving only some for husbandry, over whom he maketh Gedaliah Governor, and carrieth away all the Ves∣sels of the House of the Lord, and the two brazen pillars that stood before it.
In reckoning the height of the two Pillars Jachin and Boaz, there is some difference and difficulty; for in 2 Kings 25. 17. It is said, The height of one Pillar was eighteen cubits. And so 2 King. 7. 15. and Jer. 52. 21. But in 2 Chron. 3. 15. it is said, He made two Pillars thirty five cubits high.
And in that very verse it is said, the Chapiter that was on the top of each of them, was five cubits: And so 2 King. 7. 16. and Jer. 52. 22. But in 2 King. 25. 17. it is said, The height of the Chapiter was three cubits.
Solution. 1. Of the difference in the former reckoning; the rea∣son is this, because the Book of Kings, and Jer. 52. 21. reckon the height of each Pillar distinct, and say plainly, they were eighteen cu∣bits high a piece; But the Book of Chronicles reckoneth the measure of them both joyntly together, and saith, they were five and thirty cubits long; that is, both together were so long, and severally they were seventeen cubits and an half a piece. Now the half cubit that is reckoned above [when it is said they were eighteen cubits high a piece] was taken up within the Chapiter, for the Chapiter being a long massey piece of brass, set upon the head of the Pillar, the Pil∣lar must needs be let in something into it, as a tenon into a morteise to make it fast, and so it was half a cubit; so that the Pillar was eighteen cubits high, but it was only seventeen cubits and an half ap∣pearing.
2. The difference of the second accounting [viz. of the height of the Chapiter, one Text saying it was three cubits high, and the other five] ariseth from this, That the Chapiters themselves were five cubits high a piece, but there was net work wrought about them at their bottom, which stood as a Crown about them on the top of the Pillars, that only three cubits of the plain Chapiter could be seen.
In this captivity was Seraiah the father of Ezra taken and slain, 2 King. 25. 18. Ezr. 7. 1. he was the High Priest, and he and Zepha∣niah the second Priest or Sagan, came to an end as fatal, as Hophni and Phinehas had done at the ruine of Shiloh.
Were Ezra never so young now, yea were he now in his mothers womb, yet must he needs be very aged when he cometh up to Jeru∣salem so long after the captivity, Ezr. 7. we shall judge of this by then we come there.