Exposition of the Whole Bible

fions itis there 18, as here: be reigned, in 5 ert _ lem three mouths 5 omitted for fhortnefs, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 19. and J mother’s name was Nebufbta, the daughter of than of Ferufalem; 3 a perfon no doubt well

"the ten days \befides < ere reigned: when the year was expired; fo it is in,

2 Chron. xxxvi. 10. or at the revolution: of the year, which fome take to.be autum ning of the civil year with the Yews; but rather it was the fpring, the time when kings went,out - to battle, 2 Sam. xi, 1. the fervants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up againft Serufalem; that is, his army under proper mae po al officers, and by his orders: and the city me fieged; in form by the Chaldean ar

¥. 11, 4nd Nebuchadnezzar king of somali againft tbe city, &c.) He came in perfon following his army: and bis fervants did befege it; clofely.

y.12. And Fehoiachin king of Fudab went out to. the king of Babylon, &c.| Not to fight with him, — but to fubmit to him, and to furrender the city to him, and be at his mercy: be and his mother, and bis fervants, and his princes, and his officers; the royal family, courtiers and nobles: aud the

king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of % hich

the eighth of the firft captivity, and from when the 70 years captivity were reckoned. — pat”

¥. 13. And he carried out thence all the iréafares of the houfe of the Lord, and the treafures of the king’s boufe, &c.] The gates of the city being thrown open to him, he entered and plundered the temple, and the royal palace, and took from thence all the riches thereof: and cut iw piece the veffels. of gold which Solomon king of Lrael ai made in the temple of the Lord, as the Lord b, ne ch. xx. 17. and fo the prophecy of Vai fulfilled. No more is faid of thefe vellls ay 2 Chron’ xxxvi. 10. than that they were brought toBabylou, and fo Pifcator renders the word here, they were carried whole to Babylon, Dan. v. 25.3. but as Hezekiah is faid to cut off the doors ofthe temple, that is, ftrip or fcrape off the gold of them, ch. a 16. foWebuchadnezzar cut off fromthe e, or Wie the it of the golden veflels in it 3 of great part of them, the greater part thet that there were fome left, is plain from ¢ aft

18—22. sues é carried wes a fen g yp 4 The ne deaie of it. them, but the chief of ‘hes Fic and ufeful; for th wards exprefled:

“and fmiths, belides the nobles and the foldiers, he took all the artificers that exercifed any handicraft trade or bufinefs; carpenters and blackfmiths, as fome interpret thefe two words; fo that there were none left to make arms for them; the laft word may be rendered inclofers, and are by fome interpreted of inclofers of jewels in metals, as gold and filver: none remained, fave thespooref fort of the people of the land; who were. left to till it, and to drefs the vines; fee ch. xxv. 12, |

¥. 15. And be carried away Feboiachin to Babylon, &c.]. Where he continued at leaft 37 years, ch. xxv, 27. and the king’s mother; whole name was Nebufhta, 9. 8. and the king’s wives, for though he was fo young, it feems he had many wives, as was the cuftom of thofe times; or his women, who

_ were cither his concubines, or fervants in his fami-

| ly: and his officers; in his court: and the mighty of the land; the princes and nobles thereof; or the fools of the land, as the word is written; {0 the people generally were: thofe carried be into captivity from Fevufalem to Babylon; which, according to Bunting *, were 680 miles diftant from each other. y¥. 16. And all the men of might, even 7000, &c.] The particulars of the 10,000 carried captive are here given; 7000 of which were the principal men of the land: and craft/men, and {miths 1000; “which made: 8000: @f/ that were firong, and apf for war; of thefe confifted the other’2000; ‘fo ‘Abarbinll reckons them; but, according to the Fewifh chronologer *, which Farchi and other Fewi h

‘commentators follow, the 7000 were out of the tribe of Bewjamin and the reft of the tribes, and the 30co out of the tribe of Fudab, which are

* 789 fuppofed to be thofe age? fpeaks of, ch. lii. 28. even then the king of Babylon brought captive to abylon, among thele zekiel the prophet, and Mordecai, the uncle of £/ther, os

¥. 17. And the king of Babylon ¢ Mattaniah his father’s brother king in his rec en" The third fon of Fofiah, 1 Chron. iii. 15. and changed bis name to Zedekiah; for the fame reafon the king of Egypt changed the name of Eliakim, ch. xxiii. 24. to fignify his fubjection to him; though tome think it was to put him» in mind of the juttice of God, as the name fignifies, that would overtake him, fhould he be treacherous to him, and rebel ® againft him; fo the Fewih Midrafh.

¥, 18, 19, 20. Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to reign, &c.) So that he was but between nine and ten years of age when his father Fofah died; for Feboabaz reigned three months, Fehoiakim eleven years, and his fon three months and ten days: and he reigned eleven years in Jerufalem: and bis mother’s name was Ha mutal the daughter of Feremiab of Libnah; by which it appears that he was the brother of Feboahaz by father and mother’s fide, ch. xxiii. 31. This and the two following verfes are exprefled in the fame words, as in Fer. lii. 1, 2, 3. fee the notes there” in 2 Chron. xxxvi. 12, 13. befides what is here faid, is written, that he humbled not himfelf before Feremiab the prophet of the Lord, that {poke in his name, but oppofed him; and rebelling againft the king of Babylon, broke his oath, and hardened his neck and heart againft the Lord, and was obftinate,» ftubborn, and felf-willed. — iL? this chapter is an account of the fiege, taking temple, Fachin and Boaz. Benjamin of T: udela fays at and burning of the city of Zeru/alem, and of the carrying captive the king and the inhabitants to Babylon, y. 1—12. as alfo of the pillars and veffels of the temple brought thither, ¥. 13—17. and of the putting to death feveral of the principal perfons of the land, ¥. 18—22. and of the miferable condition of the reft under Gedgliah, whom J/bmael flew, y. 23-26. and the chapter, and fo the hit

_ tory is concluded with the kindnefs Feboiachin met _ with from the king of Biaiplen, after 37 years cap- y¥. 1—7.° And it came to pafs in the oth year of bis reign, &c.] Of the reign of Zedekiah king of Fudab. From hence to the end of ¥, 7. the account

~ exactly agrees with Fer. lii. 4—11. fee the notes y. 8—12. And in the 5th month, he 7th day|prieft, &c. _ of the month, &c.] In Fer. lii. 12. it is the roth day of the month; which, how to be reconciled, there: which is the nineteenth year of the fon of The fagan, or deputy-prieft, who ” officiated for the high-prie he was rendered unfit and uncapable; fo Soleph, Ellem, as Fofephus* relates, officiated for tolemy’s \ Matthias, when defiled with a nocturnal pollution; 453, a and feven days be ret from hence, to the end of y. 12. facts are r lated always fubftituted one under the high-prieft, left king Ne dnezzar; who, according to canon, reigned 43 years aftbenes." lays

.13—17. And jhe pillane of brafs that were in as in Fer. li, 25—27 » J ] The two pillars in the! that men T Soa F ii @ ae c. p.to8. © _ * Seder Olas Rabba, Mr De ay Milica, 1. Pas 6. $44 r Haat that in the church of St. Stephen in Rome, thefe pillars now are with the name of Solomon engraved on each; and the Yews at Rome told him, when there, (in the 12th century) that on the gth’ of Ab (the day the temple was’ deftroyed) every year fweat was found upon them like water; the,one, I fuppofe, will equally be believed as the other, fince ig is here exprefsly faid, that the Chaldeans. broke them in pieces. ‘From hence, to the end of y. 17. is the fame with Jer. lii..17—-23. where it is rather more largely and fully exprefied; only there is this difference here in ¥.17. the height of the chapiter of a pillar is faid to be three cubits, there five cubits; for the reconciliation of which, fee the note there.

y.18—21. And the captain, of fe took ~

Seraiah the chief-prieft, and Zephaniah the fecond

thing of this kind fhould happen to him | hence, to theend of ¥.21. the account is the fam i, 25— nly here in ¥. 19. it is faid,

that were in the king’s prefence were — ~ “ as ¥. -

» ™% «fee the note there. 2—24. And as for i. 45 scoW A hat were, tin the landsto be vine- die ers eftehey fhould com and hufbandm 3 over ‘thefe the king of Babylon sal appoir ted se " “ginade Gedali overnor, to whom the captains, | 2 noe with their ttered troops came, and fubmitted for 530. Mbit’ é gen in the a time;“0f whom, as the notes on er. xl. %; of fe K, ch choiachin ing 8, 9.. » | Who scatltes CHS Sales; 50 And it came e pafs in” the feventh month,. c.] Not of Gedaliak’s government, but. ear, the month Ti/ri or September, nea ibe months @ after the deftru@ion of ‘ferufalem, the Fews. é 52 days after it; of the death of Gedaliah, and'the man that flew him, as. here related, fee the notes month, on +t th day of the et OOF or. lil i of the 3r. it is faid in the 25th days. on the reafon o which difference, fee the note there: that Evil-me fay eam king of Babylon, who is. fuppof d to be.the fame with Belbazzar, and Nerigli iar, the fame with Darius the Mede on fer. Xia 52, 3. niel. From hence, to the end of the chap & y. 26. And all the people, both {mall and great, ‘&c.} High and low, rich and poor, among whom were the King’s daughters, committed to the care ‘of Gedaliab, and alfo the prophet Ferémiah and Baruch, fee Jer. xii. 16. and xliii. 6..and the cap- {ame account is given of the kindnefs of t! is ki to Feboiachin, as in Fer. ii. 31—3A. fee the ne ie there. Metafthenes* calls him Amilinus Euil-meroe a dach, and fays he reigned 30° years, make eo Beloazzar, or Balt-affar, as he calls a ais