02.08. FROM THE CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH TO THE CLOSE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

CHAPTER 8. FROM THE CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH TO THE CLOSE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. “IN the fifth year” from the time “the Chaldeans took Jerusalem and burned it with fire,” the apocryphal book of “Baruch” purports to have been written in Babylon. Bar 1:1. “In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day,” the visions and prophecies recorded in the fortieth to the forty-eighth chapters of Ezekiel were shown him. Ezekiel 40:1. — B.C. 573 . “In the seven and twentieth year,” Ezekiel again prophesied against Egypt.

Ezekiel 29:17. — B.C. 571 . EVIL-MERODACH. “And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison.” 2 Kings 25:27; Jeremiah 52:31. — B.C. 564 . As Jehoiachin was carried to Babylon in the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar, and Evil-merodach succeeded Nebuchadnezzar near the close of the thirty-seventh year of Jehoiachin’s captivity, it follows that Nebuchadnezzar’s sole reign equalled forty-three years. The Bible does not give the length of the reign of Evil-merodach. The Canon of Ptolemy gives two years from — B.C. 561 . NERIGLISSAR succeeded him, and, according to the Canon of Ptolemy, reigned four years from — B.C. 559 . LABOROSOARCHOD succeeded him, and was put to death after a reign of nine months; being less than a year, his reign is not counted in the Canon of Ptolemy.

NABONADIUS was his successor; his reign, according to Ptolemy’s Canon, was seventeen years: according to Dr. Jarvis, he is the Belshazzar of Daniel. — B.C. 555 . “In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head,” of four successive monarchies, extending down to the coming of the Ancient of Days. Daniel 7:1. About B.C. 541 or 540. “In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared unto” Daniel, covering the same period of time. Daniel 8:1. About 539 or B.C. In the last year, “Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.... They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.... In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.” Daniel 5:1-31. — B.C. 538 .

Dr. John Mayer, in his Commentary, published in London, A.D. 1652, says that according to the computation of time by the Chaldeans, the seventy years of Jeremiah 25 had apparently expired; and that the king made this feast to rejoice over the fancied failure of the prediction in God’s word f24 DARIUS. “In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign,” “Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.” In this year Daniel received the prophecy of the seventy weeks: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate, [upon the desolator, margin].” Daniel 9:1-27. — B.C. 538 . “Darius, the Mede, was sixty-two years old at the time he became sovereign of Babylon, and reigned two years only, when he died,” and was succeeded by Cyrus. — Hales, vol. ii, p. 508. — B.C. 536 . CYRUS, the nephew of Darius, was his contemporary in Persia, and successor in Babylon. “By the death of his father, he began to reign in Persia when he was forty years old, and continued... twenty-one years. He then became associated with his uncle, for two years, at Babylon, and after his uncle’s death continued seven years longer.” — Dr. Jarvis. As Cyrus was the more conspicuous of the two, and shortly became the sole ruler of the Medo-Persian Empire, his reign alone is referred to in the Canon of Ptolemy, where it is given as nine years. The Scriptures speak of him as the successor of Darius, and date his first year from Darius’s death.

Two hundred years before his birth, God called him by name, and said “of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure; even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.” Isaiah 44:28. “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of Heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up.” 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1; Ezra 1:3. — B.C. 536 . The Medo-Persian Empire extended “from India even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces.” Esther 1:1. Consequently, all the Jews, wherever they might have been scattered, had full permission to return to their own land, in fulfillment of preceding prophecies respecting their restoration. This harmonizes the seventy years’ captivity with the history of Josephus: “In the first year of Cyrus, which was the seventieth from the day of the removal of our people from their native land to Babylon,” etc. — Ant. 11, 1.1. “And came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city” (Ezra 2:1), “forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore, besides their servants and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven.” Ezra 2:64-65. The numbers given of the Jews do not make this sum; but Bishop Patrick says: “There is no doubt but many of their brethren of the ten tribes incorporated themselves with the two tribes in captivity, and took the advantage of returning with them; which may be the meaning of those words in the first chapter, ‘Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up,’ that is, saith Diodati, all those of other tribes, according to 1 Chronicles 9:3.” “And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.” “From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt-offerings unto the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.” Ezra 3:1; Ezra 3:6. “In the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel... to set forward the work of the house of the Lord... But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice.” Ezra 3:8-12. — B.C. 535 . “When the adversaries of Judah” heard that they “builded the temple,” they “troubled them in building, and hired counselors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius [Hystaspes] king of Persia.” Ezra 4:1-5. “In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia” the prophecies in Daniel 10:1-21, Daniel 11:1-45, Daniel 12:1-13 were revealed to him. Daniel 10:1. — B.C. 534 .

CAMBYSES. “In the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they [the adversaries of Judah] unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.” Ezra 4:6. “This is the person who is called Cambyses by the Greeks. He reigned seven years and five months; and during the whole of that time the building of the temple was interrupted.” — Dr. A.

Clark.

Ptolemy mentions an eclipse of the moon, in the seventh year of Cambyses, which, according to modern astronomical calculation, took place in the night following the 16th of July, in the year of the Julian period 4191, at the beginning of the second year of the sixty-fourth Olympiad. As the Vulgar Era is dated from January 1, 4714, of the Julian period, it follows that this eclipse was — B.C. 523 . The date of this eclipse, decided by the unerring record of astronomy, is undisputed. Consequently, as Petavius observes, it is “the cardinal point and foundation, on which depend the arrangement of preceding and succeeding times, and the concord of sacred and profane history.” — De Doct. Temp., Lib. X, c. 14. Of the accuracy with which the dates of eclipses may be settled, Professor Mitchell says: — “Go back three thousand years — stand upon that mighty watchtower, the Temple of Belus, in old Babylon — and look out. The sun is sinking in eclipse, and great is the dismay of the terrorstricken inhabitants. We have the fact and circumstances recorded. But how shall we prove that the record is correct? The astronomer unravels the devious movements of the sun, the earth, and the moon, through the whole period of three thousand years; with the power of intellect, he goes backward through the cycles of thirty long centuries, and announces that at such an hour, on such a day — as the Chaldean has written — that eclipse did take place.” As this was the seventh year of Cambyses, his first year must have been in B.C. 529, and the first of Cyrus, when terminate seventy years from the fourth of Jehoiakin, B.C. 536. The Bible, therefore, gives us the chronology of the world, till we come to a period the distance from which to the present time is easily calculated, and fixed beyond dispute.

Consequently, we are favored with an inspired chronology of the world, so far as an inspired chronology would be of any use to us; for at this point the light of history is emitted with so much clearness, that its further continuance would have been absolutely useless. In this we see the wisdom and goodness of God. That we should be furnished with an inspired chronology to this epoch, and no further, gives evidence of his readiness to assist his creatures. In the Canon of Ptolemy, eight years are allowed for the reign of Cambyses; but according to Herodotus, they included the seven months of his successor, Smerdis Magus, of which no account is made in the Canon, which adds another year to his reign, and brings us to — B.C. 521 . DARIUS [Hystaspes]. According to OEschylus (Dr. Hales’ New Anal.

Chro., vol. 1, page 287), Smerdis was succeeded by two conspirators, Maraphis and Artaphrenes, who continued but about six months, which is included in the reign of Darius Hystaspes, the next Persian king. It was in the reign of this king that the work of the temple was again commenced, — which was first commenced under Cyrus, but ceased in the days of Artaxerxes (Smerdis), “unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.” Ezra 4:24. — B.C. 520 . HAGGAI andZECHARIAH. “Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them.” Ezra 5:1. “In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel.” “And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel,... and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, in the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius,” in “the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid” (or the renewal of the work) came the word of the Lord, contained in Haggai 2:1; Haggai 2:10; Haggai 2:18. He inquires: “Who is left among you, that saw this house in her first glory? and how do you see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Haggai 2:3. “In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah;” and also in “the eleventh month,” as recorded in chapters one to eight of that prophecy. At this time he had the vision of the horses among the myrtle trees, whose riders had been “sent to walk to and fro through the earth;” and who reported to the angel of the Lord: “We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest. Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? And the Lord answered... with comfortable words.” Zechariah 1:7; Zechariah 1:17. When the Jews began again to build, Tatnai and others demanded their right so to do, and wrote to that effect to Babylon, when, search being made, the decree of Cyrus was found; and Tatnai and others were forbidden to molest them. “And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.” “And the children of the captivity kept the passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month.” Ezra 6:15; Ezra 6:19. — B.C. 516 . An eclipse of the moon, observed in the twentieth year of Darius, is found, by astronomical calculation, to have occurred — B.C. 502 .

Another of the moon, observed in his thirty-first year, is found to have been — B.C. 491 . The reign of Darius, including that of the conspirators, was, according to Ptolemy’s Canon, thirty-six years, and closed — B.C. 485 . XERXES, his son, succeeded Darius, and according to Ptolemy’s Canon, reigned twenty-one years from — B.C. 485 . “Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus which reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces),” “in the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants.” Vashti, the queen, was deposed, for refusing to come into the feast, and show the princes her beauty. Esther 1:1; Esther 1:3-22. — B.C. 483 . “Esther was taken unto King Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.” Esther 2:16. — B.C. 479 . “After these things did King Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him.” “In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar.” And Haman conspired against the Jews to destroy them in all the provinces of the kingdom; and on the thirteenth day of the first month, he dispatched letters from the king, “to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.” Esther 3:1; Esther 3:7; Esther 3:12-13. — B.C. 474 . At the request of Esther, the queen, the king issued a counter decree, “in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof,” giving permission to the Jews, that on “the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar” (Esther 8:9; Esther 8:12), the Jews should destroy all who should assault them, which gave “the Jews rule over those that hated them.” They smote their enemies with a great slaughter, “on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same rested they, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.” Esther 9:1-17. — B.C. 474 . ARTAXERXES. He was succeeded by his son, Artaxerxes Longimanus — the long-handed — who, according to Dr. Prideaux (Hist. Jews, vol. 1, page 222), was the Ahasuerus of Esther; and according to Ptolemy’s Canon, reigned forty-one years from — B.C. 464 -463. “Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia,” “Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses.... And there went up some of the children of Israel... unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.” He “departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go unto Jerusalem.” Ezra 7:1; Ezra 7:6; Ezra 7:9; Ezra 8:31. — B.C. 457 .

Ezra went up to Jerusalem accompanied by 1,754 persons, and this is a copy of the letter that the king, Artaxerxes, gave unto him. THE DECREE OF ARTAXERXES. “Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord, and of his statutes to Israel. “ Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of Heaven, perfect peace, and at such a time. “I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own free will to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee. Forasmuch as thou art sent of the king, and of his seven counselors, to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God which is in thine hand; and to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counselors have freely offered unto the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem. And all the silver and gold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon, with the free-will-offering of the people, and of the priests, offering willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem; that thou mayest buy speedily with this money bullocks, rams, lambs, with their meat-offerings and their drink-offerings, and offer them upon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem. And whatsoever shall seem good to thee, and to thy brethren, to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, that do after the will of your God. The vessels also that are given thee for the service of the house of thy God, those deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem. And whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king’s treasure-house. “And I, even I Artaxerxes the king do make a decree to all the treasurers which are beyond the river, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of Heaven, shall require of you, it be done speedily.

Unto a hundred talents of silver, and to a hundred measures of wheat, and to a hundred baths of wine, and to a hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much. Whatsoever is commanded by the God of Heaven, let it be diligently done for the house of the God of Heaven; for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons? Also we certify you, that, touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinims, or ministers of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute, or custom upon them. And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not. And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.” Ezra 7:11-26. From this decree, the great majority of expositors reckon the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24. In view of this decree, Ezra gave thanks and said: “Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.” “And now for a little space grace hath been showed from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.” “Should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping?” Ezra 7:27; Ezra 9:8-9; Ezra 9:14. The prophet seems fully sensible that should they again so displease the Lord as to be dispersed among all nations, they could no more be restored to their own land. Consequently, all the unconditional promises of their restoration had respect to their restoration from Babylon. “It came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year” when Nehemiah “was in Shushan the palace,” that he inquired of his brethren concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. “And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach; the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.” Nehemiah 1:1-11. — B.C. 445 . “And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes,” that Nehemiah requested of the king permission to go to the city of his “fathers’ sepulchers,” to “build it.” Nehemiah 2:1; Nehemiah 2:5. The king granted his request, and gave him a letter to “Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest,” to give him “timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house” that Nehemiah should “enter into.” Nehemiah 2:8. So Nehemiah went up to Jerusalem, and was “governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even unto the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that is, twelve years.” Nehemiah 5:14. “So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days.” Nehemiah 6:15. “In the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon,” Nehemiah came again “unto the king, and after certain days obtained leave of the king, and came to Jerusalem.” Nehemiah 13:6-7. — B.C. 433 . This is the latest date referred to in the canonical books of the Old Testament. MALACHI, the last of the prophets, prophesied subsequent to this, and soon after. His precise period is unknown. His complaints of the irreligion of the Jews is evidence that they did not, after their restoration, comply with the conditions, on the observance of which God had promised to make their restoration from Babylon a permanent one.