Annotations upon the remaining historicall part of the Old Testament. The second part. to wit, the books of Joshua, Judges, the two books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, and the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther : wherein first, all such passages in the text are explained as were thought likely to be questioned by any reader of ordinary capacity : secondly, in many clauses those things are discovered which are needfull and usefull to be known ... and thirdly, many places that might at first seem to contradict one another are reconciled ... / by Arthur Jackson.

CHAP. XXV.

Vers. 2. ANd the city was besieged unto the eleventh yeare of king Zedekiah, &c.] The city was surrounded on the tenth day of the tenth moneth, in the ninth yeare of Zedekiahs reigne, verse 1. and was taken by storm on the ninth day of the fourth moneth of the eleventh yeare, the siege therefore continu∣ed a full yeare and an half: when Nebuchadnezzar first came against the city, Je∣remiah had prophesied that the city should be taken and burnt, and Zedekiah car∣ried away captive though not slain, as Jehoiakim was; for which he was by the instigation of the princes clapped up in prison; see Jer. 32, 1, 5.34.1, 7. Jer. 17.38. &c. Indeed a while the Chaldeans left the siege, for Pharaoh Hophre a king of Egypt entring the borders of Judah with his army to succour Zedekiah, Ne∣buchadnezzar and his Chaldeans fearing the disadvantage of being set upon by the Egyptian army, whilest they lay before Jerusalem, where the Jews might al∣so assail them from within the city, they resolved rather to raise the siege for a time. At this time the Jews begun to entertain great hopes again, and (as it is probably thought) having in their former extremity set free their bondmen (as the law required) by the advice of Zedekiah, when the Chaldeans were gone, they repented them of their charity, and reduced them again into their former sla∣very; see Jerem. 34.8, 9, &c. but Zedekiah knowing that if the Egyptians prevail∣ed not, they should soon be surrounded again with the Chaldean army; he sent to Jeremiah the prophet to pray for him. and received this message from him by his servants; that the Chaldeans should return again, and take the city, and burn it with fire; and being cast for this by the enraged princes into the dungeon, under a pretence at first of his attempting to fly unto the Chaldeans; he often earnestly perswaded Zedekiah to yield himself to the Chaldeans, and so to save both him∣self and the city. See Jerem. 37. and Jerem. 38. but he not hearkening to him, what the Prophet had said came exactly to passe, for the Egyptians not daring to encounter with Nebuchadnezzar, did soon return again into Egypt, and abandon their enterprize, and on the other side the Chaldeans did as speedily return to the siege of Jerusalem, and never after that left it till they had taken it.

Vers. 3. The famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.] Insomuch, that as Ezekiel had prophecyed, who begun to prophesie in the fifth yeare of Zedekiahs reigne, Ezekiel 1.2. parents did eat their own children, and children their parents, Ezekiel 5.10. Therefore the fathers shall eat the sonnes in the middest of thee, and the sonnes shall eat the fa∣thers, &c. Lament. 4.10. The hands of the pitifull women have sodden their own children, they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Vers. 4. And the city was broken up, &c.] And so the middle gate was imme∣diately

taken, Jerem. 39.3. And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sate in the middle gate, &c. and then as it followes, all the men of warre fled by night, by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the kings gar∣den; for there was it seems a secret gate in some place near to the kings garden, closed upon each side with a false wall, provided on purpose for a means of escape in such a time of danger, and through this therefore the souldiers with the king, Je∣rem. 39.4. fled now out of the city, being helped in their flight, either by the darknesse of the night, or by the advantage of a cave or vault under ground, into which the secret gate led them, and through which they might steal away, the besiegers not seeing them; and thus it came to passe as Ezekiel had foretold, Ezek. 12.12. And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twi∣light, and shall go forth; they shall dig thorough the wall to carry out thereby; he shall cover his face that he see not the ground with his eyes.

Vers. 5. And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, &c.] Having by some means received some information of his flight.

Vers, 6. So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah, &c.] Though therefore it be said vers. 1. that Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem; yet it seems he himself stayed at Riblah, or at least, thither he was retired in the time of the siege, that so he might there take care of his own countrey, and might supply his army at Jerusalem with men and provision, as need required.

Vers. 7. And they slew the sonnes of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, &c.] And then was that prophecy of Ezekiel fulfilled, Ezek. 12.13. My net will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans, yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.

Vers. 8. And in the fifth moneth, on the seventh day of the moneth, &c.] Zedekiah being brought to Riblah to Nebuchadnezzar, in the fourth moneth, and there used as abovesaid, on the seventh day of the fifth moneth, Nebuzar-adan was sent away by the king, with a commission to ruine the city, and carry away the people; who arriving at Jerusalem the tenth day of the moneth, did accordingly ef∣fect what the king had commanded, Jer. 52.12. Now in the fifth moneth, in the tenth day of the moneth, (which was in the nineteenth yeare of Nebuchadnezzars reigne) came Nebuzar-adan captain of the guard, which served the king of Ba∣bylon to Jerusalem; and hence▪ is, that seeming contradiction between these two places; whereas here it is said, that it was in the nineteenth yeare of Nebuchadnez∣zar when these things were done; yet Jer. 52.29. it is said, that these Jews were carri∣ed away to Babylon in the eighteenth of Nebuchadnezzars reigne; this is onely be∣cause these things were done in the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth of Nebuchadnezzars reigne, for with both these years of his reigne did the eleventh of Zedekiahs concurre.

Vers. 9. And he burnt the house of the Lord.] To wit, about foure hundred and fifty years after it was first built by Solomon.

Vers. 11. Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, did Nebuzar-adan captain of the guard carry away, &c.] To wit, eight hundred thirty two

persons, Jer. 52.29. In the eighteenth yeare of Nebuchad-rezzar, he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons.

Vers. 12. But the captain of the guard left of the poore of the land, to be vine-dressers, and husbandmen.] Yet about foure or five years after this, even these also as it seems were carried away, to wit, in the three and twentieth yeare of Ne∣buchad-rezzer, Jerem. 52.30. In the three and twentieth yeare of Nebuchad-rez∣zer, Nebuzar-adan captain of the guard carried away of the Jews seven hun∣dred fourty and five persons; all the persons were foure thousand and six hundred; that so the land might enjoy her Sabbath: 2. Chron. 36.20, 21. And them that escaped the sword, carried he away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sonnes, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, untill the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths, &c:

Vers. 13. And the pillars of brasse that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the brasen sea, &c.] Indeed that these things should be carried into Ba∣bylon Jeremiah had beforehand prophesied, Jer. 27.21, 22. Thus saith the Lord concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah and Jerusalem, They shall be carried to Babylon, &c.

Vers. 17. And the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, &c.] See the note 1. Kings 7.15.

And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, &c.] Seraiah was the grandchild of Hilkiah, who was high priest in Hezekiahs time, and father of Jehozadak, who was carried into Babylon, 1. Chron. 6.14. and Zephaniah called here the second priest, (concerning which title see the note, Numb. 3, 32.) was it seems in great esteem with the king, and therefore usu∣ally sent by him to Jeremiah, Jer. 21.1. and 37.3. now because the priests were al∣wayes bitter enemies to Jeremiah, Jer. 26.7, 8. hence we may conceive that both he, and all the rest here mentioned, were picked out by Nebuzar-adan, not for ca∣ptivity, but for the sword; because Zedekiah had been much led by their coun∣sels in resisting the king of Babylon, contrary to what Jeremiah had commanded them.

Vers. 19. And out of the city he took an officer that was set over the men of warre, and five men of them that were in the kings presence, &c.] Jeremiah saith se∣ven, Jer. 52.25. he took also an Eunuch which had the charge of the men of warre, and seven men of them that were near the kings person; adding two more to these here mentioned, which were not perhaps of so great note, as these five were.

And threescore men of the people of the land, that were found in the city.] That is, of the common people, such as it seems were of the richer sort, and had most op∣posed the king of Babylon.

Vers. 22. Over them he made Gedaliah the sonne of Ahikam, the sonne of Sha∣phan, ruler.] Both the favour which Nebuzar-adan shewed to this Gedaliah by Nebuchadnezzars appointment, Jer. 40.5. and Jeremiahs making choice to live with him, when Nebuzar-adan had taken him out of prison, as Nebuchadnezzar had given him order to do; and had given him liberty to go with him into Babylon, or to stay where he pleased in his own countrey, Jer. 39.11, 12. and 40.1—6, I say both these

make it probable, that he was one of them that had followed the advice which the Prophet gave both to Zedekiah and the rest; to wit, to yield themselves to the Ba∣bylonian, Jerem. 21.8, 9, 10. Thus saith the Lord, I will set before thee the way of life, and the way of death, he that abideth in this citie shall die by the sword, famine, and pestilence, but he that goeth out and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, &c. and that therefore he was now made provinciall governour of Judea by Nebuchadnezzers command, to rule over them that were carried away captive.

Vers, 23. And when all the captains of the armies, they, and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governour, &c.] To wit, amongst o∣thers those that fled out of the citie when Jerusalem was taken vers. 4.

And Jaazaniah the sonne of a Maachathite.] Or Jezaniah, Jer. 40.8.

Vers. 25. Ishmael the sonne of Nethaniah, the sonne of Elishama, of the seed royall, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, &c.] This Ishmael (as it seems) during the siege of Jerusalem, had kept himself out of the storm, with Baalis king of the Ammonites, Jer. 40.14. and being of the kings seed, he now envied that the government should be committed to Gedaliah; and stirred up also by the king of Ammon, he made a conspiracy with some few more to slay Gedaliah, this Johanan mentioned above, vers. 23. discovered to Gedaliah, and offered his help to slay Ishmael, Jer. 40.13, 14. but Gedaliah being incredulous, Ishmael had the better advantage to effect his purpose; for whilest he was feasting with him, he slew him, and those that were with him, Jer. 41.1, 2, 3. Ishmael the sonne of Ne∣thaniah of the seed royall, and ten men with him, came to Gedaliah, and they did eat bread in Mizpah together: and Ishmael arose, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah the governour, and all the Jews that were with him, &c. after this, fourescore men coming from severall places of the kingdome, in a most sad and mournfull manner, because of the desolation that was fallen upon Jerusalem, hav∣ing certain offerings, and incense with them, which they purposed to offer to the Lord, in the place where the Temple had stood, the place which God had chosen, though now ruined by the Chaldeans; Ishmael having notice of it went forth to meet them, and with counterfeit tears, making shew that he also bare a part with them in their sorrow, he invited them to go with him to Gedaliah, (thereby to try how they stood affected to him) and so having gotten them into the city, he slew them all, ten of them onely excepted; whom he spared because they promised to discover unto him some treasures hidden in the fields during the warres: he also addressed himself presently to return to the Amonites, and carried with him as captives all the inhabitants of that place, and amongst the rest Zedekiahs daughters committed to the care of Gedaliah, by Nebuchadnezzer; but Johanan hearing of it with such forces as he could get pursued him presently, and overtaking him at Gibeon, the ca∣ptives fell off him, and Ishmael with eight men onely escaped by flight: all which is largely related in the 40. and 41. chapter.

Vers. 26. And all the people both small and great, and the captains of the ar∣mies arose and came to Egypt, &c.] Fearing the Babylonian would take occasion upon the murder of Gedaliah, and the Chaldeans that were with him utterly to de∣stroy all the Jewes that remained in the land, Johanan and the other captains re∣solved

to fly with the people that were left into Egypt; first indeed they came to Je∣remiah, and asked counsel of him, vowing to do as he should direct them from the Lord, but when he answered them, that if they stayed in the land God would shew them mercy, but if they went down into Egypt, they should all perish there, they charged him with prophesying falsely in the name of the Lord, and despising the o∣racle of God, they went away to Egypt, and carried both Jeremiah and Baruch along with them, and inhabited near unto Taphnes; where when Jeremiah continued to reprove them for their idolatry, and to foretell the destruction of Egypt, and of the Jews, that sought to shelter themselves there (for this, with all before mentioned, is largely related by Ieremiah in the 41, 42, 43, and 44. chapters of his prophesie) he was at length there (as other histories report) stoned to death by his own ungrate∣full countrey-men.

Vers. 27. And it came to passe in the seven and thirtieth yeare of the captivity of Jehoiachin, &c.] Zedekiah died in prison in Babylon, Jer. 52.11. Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and car∣ried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death: and had one∣ly the honour of being buried as a prince, and lamented at his buriall by his peo∣ple, Jer. 34.5. But thou shalt die in peace, and with the buryings of thy fathers the former kings which were before thee: so shall they burn odours for thee, and they will lament thee, saying, Ah Lord; for I have pronounced the word, saith the Lord. But Jehoiachin because he yielded himself at Jeremiahs counsel to Ne∣buchadnezzer, was at length by Evilmerodach the sonne of Nebuchadnezzer, taken out of prison, and used with all princely respect: indeed whereas here it is said, this was done on the seven and twentieth day of the twelfth moneth, Jerem. 52.31. it is said to have been done on the five and twentieth day; but the reason of this may be, because order was given for his release on the five and twentieth day, but it was not done till the seven and twentieth day, as is here said.