The Annals of the World
The land which remained, was divided among the other seven Tribes for their inheritance, and a book drawn up containing their several proportions, [ Josh. 18. and 19. chapters ] and so after the seven Nations of the Canaanites were destroyed, the distribution of their lands among the Israelites followed, and was compleately finished.
In the year after the Election of the Fathers, much about 450. [ Acts 13. 17, 19, 20.] for from the birth of the promised seed Isaac, to this time, are reckoned, 452. years: and from the rejection of Ishmael, 447. but between both, we may count, 450. years.
Out of the land, [Year of the World d.] as well on this, [The Julian Period 3270] as on that side Jordan, [Year before Christ 1444] were set apart, 48 Cities for the inheritance of the Levites: six whereof were made Cities of Refuge; and Sanctuaries were therein made, unto which those who committed not wholly willful murder, might fly for protection, [ Josh. 20. and 21.] and so the Israelites now possessed the land promised to their fathers: God giving them rest and peace round about, accordding to all that he had promised to their fathers by an oath, [ Josh. 21. 43, 44.] whereupon the companies of the Rubenites, Gadites, and half Tribe of Manasseh, which came over Jordan to help their brethren in this achievement; God having now fully settled them there, took their leave of Joshua, and returned to their possessions, which Moses had given them, on the other side Jordan, [ Josh. 22. 4. with chap. 1. 14, 15. and Numb. 32. 21, 22.]
But when in their return homeward, they were come unto Gilead at the passage of Jordan, in the borders of the land of Canaan, they had there built a great Altar: the other Tribes supposing thereby that they intended a separation, and to revolt from them, they resolved to make war upon them; yet sending Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the High Priest, with ten other Princes of the people, to know the reason of their so doing; and understanding, that the Altar was not built to offer sacrifice thereon, but only testify the communion and fellowship which they had with the rest of the Tribes of Israel, they changed their purposes, and laid down their arms, [ Josh. 22.]
Joshua built the city of Timnah-Sera, [Year of the World 2561] in mount Ephraim, in which he dwelt many years, after that God had given Rest to Israel; and having lived 110. years (which was the age of Joseph, mentioned in the end of Genesis) he there died, and was buried, [ Josh. 23. 1. Josh. 24. 29, 30.]
When as in the times of Anarchy or mis-rule, [Year of the World 2591. d.] which followed after the decease of Joshua and the Elders, [The Julian Period 3301] who out-lived him, [Year before Christ 1413] and who being young men, when they came out of Egypt, could well observe and remember the wonders which God had wrought for Israel: every man now doing what seemed him good in his own eyes, all those disorders were committed, which are reported in the five last chapters of the book of Judges; to wit, the Idolatry of Micah, and the children of Dan, and the war of the Benjamites, and the cause thereof. And there succeeded a generation of men which forgot God, and mingled themselves with the Canaanites by marriage, and worshipped their Idols. And God hereby provoked to wrath, gave them up into the hands of Cushan, King of Mesopotamia; which first calamity of theirs, held them eight years only, [ Judge. 2. 7. and Judge. 3. 6, 7, 8.]
Othon • el the son of Kenaz, [Year of the World 2599. d] and son in law to Joshua, [The Julian Period 3309] [ Josh. [Year before Christ 1405] 15. 17. Judge. 1. 31.] of the Tribe of Judah, being stirred up by God, as a Judge and avenger of his people, defeated Cushan, and delivered the Israelites out of their bondage; And the land had rest 40 years, after the first, rest, which Joshua procured for them, [ Judge. 3. 9, 10, 11.]
In this year was kept the first Jubilie, [Year of the World 2609. a.] in the land of Canaan. [The Julian Period 3318] [Year before Christ 1396]
Was kept the second Jubilie. [Year of the World 2658 a.] [The Julian Period 3367] [Year before Christ 1347]
After the decease of Othoniel, [Year of the World 2661. d.] the Israelites, [The Julian Period 3371] falling again to sin against God, [Year before Christ 1343] were again by him given over into the hands of Eglon, King of Moab; who joining with the Ammonites, and Amalekites, overthrew the Israelites, and took Jericho, and this second oppression of their continued, for the space of eighteen years, [ Judge. 3. 12, 13, 14.]
Then Ehud, [Year of the World 2679. b.] the son of Gera, [The Julian Period 3389] of the tribe of Benjamin (which was but a little before, [Year before Christ 1325] almost wholly destroyed) was raised up by God for an avenger of his people: for feigning a message to Eglon, he ran him into the belly with his dagger, and left him dead in his own dineing room, and then getting cunningly away, he gathered all Israel into a body, in Mount Ephram, and slew ten thousand of the most valiant men of Moab, and the land had rest 40 years; after the former rest, and deliverance gotten them by Othoniel, [ Judge. 13. 15, 30.]
After him also Shamgar, the son of Anath, slew 600 Philistines with an Ox-goad; and he also avenged Israel, ib. v. ult.
Belus the Assyrian reigned in Babylon, [Year of the World 2682] after the Arabians 55 years, [The Julian Period 3392] saith Iul. [Year before Christ 1322] Africanus.
The Israelites, [Year of the World 2699. d.] after the death of Ehud, [The Julian Period 3409] returning to their old sin, [Year before Christ 1305] were given up by God into the hand of Jabink of Canaan: who reigned in Hazor, and had 900 chariots of Iron: and this third thralldom of their continued 20 years, [ Judge. 4. 1, 2, 3.]
Was the 3 Jubile. [Year of the World 2707. a.] [The Julian Period 3416] [Year before Christ 1298]
Deborah, [Year of the World 2719. d.] the wife of Lapidoth, [The Julian Period 3429] a prophetess, [Year before Christ 1285] who at that time judged Israel, in Mount Ephraim, and Barack of the tribe of Nepthaile, the son of Abinoam, being made Captain of the host of Israel, in a fight at Megiddo, rowted Sisera, Captain of Jabins army, and he being afterward killed by Jael; the wife of Heber the Kenite, in her own Tent, with a nail struck into the temples of his head, Deborah made a song thereof, for a memorial of that victory, and the land rested 40 years, after the former rest, or peace, restored by Ehud, [Judge. 4. and 5. 31.]
Ninus the son of Belus founded the Empire of the Assyrians; [Year of the World 2737] which continued in Asia by the space of 520 years, [The Julian Period 3447] as Herod. [Year before Christ 1267] in his first book, cap. 95. affirmeth: whom Appian. Alexander. in the beginning of his work followeth. But Dionysius Halicarnassus, a most diligent searcher into all such matters, in his first book of Antiquities, saith, that they had a very small part of Asia, under their command; yet Diodoius Siculus in his Bibliotheca, reports that Ninus, confederating with Arieus King of Arabia, possessed all Asia, having India and Bactria, by the space of seventeen years, and that at length, he took in the Bactrians also with their King Zoroastres: of whom Justin also; out of Trogus Pompeius, thus writeth, lib. 1. Ninus, having conquered his next neighbors, joined their forces to his own, and thereby went on still the stronger to the conquest of the next, and every last victory was a step to another, and by this means, he subdued all the people, of the east. His last was was with Zoroastoes King of Bactria, who is said to have been the first that found out of the art magic, and to have most diligently looked into the nature of the world, and motion of the stars: him Ninus slew; and presently after died himself. Julius Africanus and Eusebius say, that he reigned 52 years.
The Israelites sinning again, [Year of the World 2752. d.] are delivered into the hands of the Midianites, [The Julian Period 3462] which fourth thralldom of theirs, [Year before Christ 1252] lasted 7 years, [ Judge. 6. 1.]
Was the 4 Jubile. [Year of the World 2759. a.] [The Julian Period 3465] [Year before Christ 1249]
The Israelites falling into this fourth thralldom, cried unto God for help, and were reproved by a prophet. Then was Gideon of Manasseh, son of Joash the Abicarite stirred up by an Angel sent from God, to deliver them. And first by command from God, he overturned the Altar of Baal, and burnt his grove: whereupon, when strife arose between him and the people, he was called Ierub-baal. and Ierub-besheth, [2 Sam. 11. 21.] He out of 32 thousand men, which came unto him, chose only (God so commanding) 300. but with them, and their trumpets, pitchers and torches in them, he so affrighted the Midianites, that he put to flight all their host; whom the Ephraimites afterwards pursuing, slew their Princes, Oreb and Zeeb. Gideon then, having first pacified the Ephraimites, who complained that they were not called to the battle at first, passed the river Jordan, and defeated the remainder of the Midianitish army: he chastised also the men of Succoth and Penuel, who had refused him victual in his journey, and slew two Kings of the Moabites, Zebah and Zalmunna. After which great victories attained, when the Israelites offered to settle the kingdom upon him, and his posterity, he refused it: but receiving their golden earings, he made thereof, an Ephod, whereof they took afterward an occasion to fall into Idolatry, and so the Midanites being vanquished, the land had rest 40 years, after the former rest restored to them by D • bora and Barak] Judge. 4. 8. 28.]
So soon as Gideon was dead, [Year of the World 2768. d.] the Israelites falling back to Idolatry, [The Julian Period 3478] worshipped Baal-Berith for their god, [Year before Christ 1236] [ Judge. 58. 33.] and Abimelech the son of Gideon, (begotten upon a woman of Shechem, his Concubine) purposing to get to himself the kingdom, which his father had refused, slew seventy of his Brothers, all upon one stone, [ Judge. 9. 15, 18, 24. 56.]
When Abimelech, by the help of the Shechemites had got to be made king, Jotham the youngest son of Gideon, who only escaped Abimelech's clutches, [Year of the World 2769. a.] from the top of the mount Gerizim, expostulated with them in the wrong they had done to his fathers house: and by way of a parable, foretold them of their ruin, that would ensue thereon: which done, he forthwith fled, and dwelt quietly in Beerith, [ Judge. 9.]
When Abimelech had now reigned over the Israelites three years, [Year of the World 2771. d] Gaal, [The Julian Period 3481] a man of Shechem, [Year before Christ 1233] made a conspiracy against him; which being discovered to him by Zebul, the city of Shechem was utterly destroyed, and sowed with salt, the inhabitants all put to the sword, and the temple of their god Beerith burnt with fire. And from thence Abimelech, going to besiege Thebez, he was there knocked on the head, with a piece of a millstone, cast upon him by a woman, and then killed out right, by his own Armor-bearer, [ Judge. 9. 50, 54. with 2 Sam. 11. 21.]
After Abimelech, [Year of the World 2772. a.] Tolah, the son of Puar, of the tribe of Isacar, judged Israel 23 years, [ Judge. 10. 12.]
Argon, [Year of the World 2781] the son of Ninus, [The Julian Period 3491] after the Aryadans first reigned in Sardis: [Year before Christ 1223] whose posterity held the kingdom of Lydia, by the space of 505 years, two and twenty generations; the son ever succeeding the father in his throne: down to Candaules the son of Myrsus, Herod. lib. 1. c. 7.
Semiramis, [Year of the World 2789] the daughter of Derces, wife, first of Menon, afterward of Ninus, reigned over all Asia, save only India, and lived sixty two years, whereof she reigned forty two, as Diodorus Siculus reports in the second book of his Bibliothcea: out of Cresias Cnidius: where out of the same Cresias, he setteth out at large, her noble Acts, especially against Strabrobates King of Indea: though Megasthenes, who writes expressly of the Indian affairs, as we find in Strabo, lib. 15. and in Arrianus, in his book, De Indicis saith, that she died before she ever came into India. Herod. lib. 1. cap. 184. reporteth, that she cast up huge works round about Babylon; whereas formerly the river (Euphrates) was wont to overflow all the lower parts thereof: and Justin also, speaking of her, lib. 10. out of Trogus Pompeius, speaketh in this wise. This Semiramis, built Babylon, and walled it round with bricks: laying the stones with brimstone, instead of sand; which brimstone riseth naturally out of the earth, everywhere in those parts. This Queen did many other very memorable acts: for not content to keep what her husband had got, she added also, Ethiopia to her dominions, she also made war upon India; which never any set foot in besides her self; and Alexander the great. Where yet we must note, that besides these two, Dionysius also, all. Bacchus, is reported by all other writers, to have conquered India; as for that tale which goes of her enclosing of Babylon, with a wall of brick, it is indeed generally • o said, when in truth it was the work of Nebucadnezar, and his daughter in law, N • ctoris many ages after. But for that lie of her first building of Babylon, reported by Diodorus and Trogus, as also by Strabo, in his second and sixteenth books of his Geography, it is evidently refuted, not only by the sacred History of the book of [ Gen. c. 11.] but also out of Eupolemus, who in his book, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in Eusebius, lib. 9. Preparat. Evangel. saith, that it was first built by those, which escaped the deluge; and out of Erranius, mentioned by Stephanus Byzantinus, in his book, de Vrbibus, in the word Babylon: and Eustatius in Dionys. Perieg. p. 126. where he notes, that Babylon was built 1002 years before Semyramis was borne; who if he had said 1022 years, (as perhaps he did) had not much varied from the Babylonish Calendar or account, sent from thence by Calisthenes, (which I m • ntioned before) out of Porphyry, upon the year of the world, 1770. The same Porphyry also, lib. 4. cont. Christianos, cited by Eusebius. lib. 1. Prepar. Evangel. speaking of one Sancuniathon Berution, a most ancient writer, of the first origin, or beginning of the Phoenicians, saith, that he took his argument or matter from Hierombal (which comes very near to the name of Jerubbaal, of whom I spake before, to the year of the world 2759) a Priest of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of Jevo, all. Jehovah, the God of the Jews, which History of his was dedicated to Abibalus, King of the Berutians, and he says further, that this Sancuniathon, lived in the days of Semyranis, Queen of the Assyrians; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ( i.e.) who is said to have been before the Troian wars, or about that very time: which very well agreeth with my account: which, allowing her to have out-lived the destruction of Troy eleven years, shows, that she was in her prime both before, and at the time of the war at Troy.
Eli, [Year of the World 2790. a.] the Priest was borne, for he died at the age of 98 years, [1 Sam. 14. 15.] in the year of the world, 2888.
When Tola was dead, [Year of the World 2795. a.] and buried at Shamir, [The Julian Period 3504] in mount Ephraim, [Year before Christ 1210] there succeeded after him, Jair a Gileadite, of the tribe of Manasseh, beyond Jordan, who judged Israel, 22 years, [ Judges 10. 1, 2, 3.] and was descended of that Jair, who having taken the cities of Argob, called them after his own name, Havoth-Jair, [ Numb. 32. 41. Deut. 3. 14] after whose example, the thirty sons of this second Jair; (who, to difference him from the former, [1 Sam. 12. 11. and 1 Chron. 7. 17.] seemeth to have been surnamed Bedan; called likewise the 30 cities, which they possessed by the name of Havoth-Jair, [Judge. 10. 4.]
The Israelites, [Year of the World 2799 a.] for saking the true God, and falling to worship the gods of several nations, were given up into the hands of the Philistines, and of the Ammonites, which fifth thralldom of theirs, lasted 18 years, [ Judge. 10. 8.] ending with the victory, which was gotten over the Ammonites, in the beginning of Jepthaes ruling over the Israelites.
Was the fifth Jubile. [Year of the World 2805 a.] [The Julian Period 3414] [Year before Christ 1200]
This year, [Year of the World 2816 d.] to wit, [The Julian Period 3516] on the eighth of their thralldom, [Year before Christ 1188] when the enemies had crushed the Israelites, which dwelt beyond Jordan, to pieces, and the Ammonites had passed the river also, to set upon Judah and Benjamin and Ephraim, whom the Philistines had already sorely harrowed, the Israelites calling upon God, were grievously rebuked by him, yet at length showing their repentance and abandoning their Idols, obtained mercy, [ Judge 10. 8.]
Jair died, [Year of the World 2817. a.] and was buried at Camon, [ Judge. 10. 5.]
The same year, the Ammonites camping in Gilead, and the Israelites in Mizpah, which is also in Gilead, [ Judge. 10. 17. and chap. 11. 11.] Jephtha the Gileadite, being called by the men of Gilead, was made Captain of the host of Israel. He, when he had tried all fair means with the Ammonites, and could do no good with them, made war upon them, and subdued them. But returning from the battle, vowed his daughter unawares to be offered in sacrifice to God, and put to the sword 42000 Ephraimites, who had behaved themselves somewhat insolently against him, and judged Israel six years, [ Judge. 11. and 12. 6; 7.]
Troy was destroyed by the Greeks 408 years before the first Olympiad. [Year of the World 2820. c.] [The Julian Period 3530] [Year before Christ 1184]
When Jephtha was dead, [Year of the World 2823. d.] and buried in Gilead, [The Julian Period 3539] Ibzan, [Year before Christ 1175] the Bethleamite, judged Israel seven years, [ Judge. 12. 7, 8, 9.]
Ibzan deceasing and being buried at Bethlehem, [Year of the World 2830. a.] Elon the Zabulonite succeeded him, [The Julian Period 3539] who judged Israel 10 years, [Year before Christ 1175] [ Judge. 12. 10, 11.]
Semiramis, [Year of the World 2831] when she would have lain with her son, was by him slain, having held that kingdom 42 years after Ninus, Justin lib. 1. cap. 2. and although it be a thing scantly credible, that a woman of 62 years of age, should affect such a prodigious act of incest, yet it seemeth that St. Austin, lib. 18. de Civita. Dei, believed it; but of Semiramis her death, you may read more in Diodorus. Sicu. lib. 2. Biblio.
Her son and successor in the kingdom, Ninus or Ninyas, resting content with the Empire, which his parents had gotten, laid aside all cares of military affairs, and, as if he had changed sexes with his mother, seldom came in company, or sight of men; spent his age in the company of women and Eunuchs, Justin. lib. 1. cap. 2. out of Trogus, Diodorus. Sic. lib. 2. and Atheneus lib. 12. out of Ctesias, lib. 3. Persicorum.
Elon being dead, [Year of the World 2840. a.] and buried at Ajalon in the tribe of Zebulon, [The Julian Period 3549] Abdon the Ephramite, [Year before Christ 1155] the son of Hillel the Pirathonite succeeded him, and judged Israel eight years, [ Judge. 12. 12, 13, 14.
Abdon deceased, [Year of the World 2848. a. a. c.] and was buried at Pirathon in mount Ephraim, [The Julian Period 3557] [ Judge. [Year before Christ 1157] 12. 15.] and after him came Eli, the High Priest (in whom the High Priesthood, was translated from the stock of Eleazar to Ithamar) and he judged Israel 40. years, [1 Sam. 4. 18.] But Israel falling to sin again, were delivered up by God into the Philistines hands: which lasted likewise 40 years; [The Julian Period 3558] [ Judge. [Year before Christ 1156] 13. 1.] which term of their sixth thralldom, as we make to end seven months after the death of Eli, when the Ark was brought back again, so in like manner, we make it to have begun seven months after he began to judge Israel, to wit, [Year of the World d.] about the beginning of the third month, which was, afterward called Sivan.
The Angel appearing to the wife of Manoa, of the tribe of Dan, at Zora, told her, that she hiterto barren, should yet conceive and bear a son, who should be a perpetual Nazarite: and should begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines, [ Judge. 13. 5.]
Sampson the Nazarite, [Year of the World 2849. b.] as the Angel had foretold, [The Julian Period 3559] was born at Zora, [Year before Christ 1155] [ Judge. 13. 24. for since it appeareth, that he was conceived after their forty years thralldom, by the Philistines begun, [ the same chap. v. 1. 5.] and likewise, that he avenged the Israelites twenty years, in the time of the Philistines, as is positively said, [ Judge. 15. 20.] it is manifest, that the time of his brith, cannot be put off to any further day, unless we will imagine, that he began to be an avenger of Israel, before he was 18 years old.
Was the sixth Jubile. [Year of the World 2854. a] [The Julian Period 3563] [Year before Christ 1151]
Whiles Eli the High Priest executing the office of a judge in civil causes, [Year of the World 2867. d.] under the Philistines, [The Julian Period 3577] Sampson picking a quarrel against him by occasion of a marriage, [Year before Christ 1137] which he had contracted with a woman of Timnah, began to play the part of an avenger of the Israelites, being then about 22 years of age, [ Judge. 14. 4.] for when, on the day of his betrothing, he had killed a Lion, having nothing in his hand, and there of made a riddle: at the wedding feast, he propounded it to the guests, with a wager: which when he had lost, because his wife had told them what the meaning of the riddle was, in a rage, he went and slew thirty men of Askelon, & gave them the suits of raiment, which he had stripped off their bodies, in performance of the wager, which he had lost; and so returned home to his father.
Sampson again in harvest-time, [Year of the World 2868. c.] went to present his wife with a kid, [The Julian Period 3578] at his fathers house; [Year before Christ 1136] but found that she was otherwise disposed of, and given away to another man in marriage, whereof he resolved to be revenged: and catching three hundred Foxes, and tying firebrands to their tails, turned them all going into the Philistines corn-fields, and vineyards, and olive-gardens, and set them all on fire: whereat the Philistines being moved to wrath, took Sampson's wife, and father in law, and consumed them with fire. In revenge whereof, Sampson slew a great multitude of them, and sat down upon the rock of Etam: from whence being taken by three thousand of the Jews, and by them delivered into the hands of the Philistines, he slew of them a thousand men with the jaw-bone of an asse. In which place called Lechi from that jaw-bone, God at the prayer of Sampson, opened a hole in the earth, and made it a Fountain (called Enhaccore, (i.) the Fountain of him which called upon God; ) with the water whereof, he refreshed himself when he was thirsty, and ready to saint, [ Judge. 15.]
Sampson being betrayed by Delilah his concubine, [Year of the World 2887. c. d.] and despoiled of the hair of his Nazariteship, [The Julian Period 3597] [Year before Christ 1177] is delivered to the Philistines: who plucking out his eyes, carried him away prisoner to Gaza, and put him there in prison, fast bound with chains of brass: where his hair growing again, and his strength withal renewing, he pulled down the Temple of Dagon, whiles the Princes of the Philistines, with a great multitude of the people which were therein; being more men killed with the fall thereof, and himself for company, than he had slain in all his life before: and he was buried with his father, between Zoar and Eshtalon, when he had been the Avenger of the Israelites 20 years, [ Judge. 16. 30, 31.]
The Israelites (taking courage, [Year of the World 2888. a.] as it seemeth, by this great loss of the Philistines,) gathered together and pitched near unto Eben-Eser (for so it was called by the Prophet Samuel, when twenty years after this time, the Philistines were by him overthrown in the the very self same place) [1 Sam. 7. 12.] and there the Israelites lost 4000. men. And when they had sent for the Ark of the Covenant from Shiloh to be brought into the Camp; the Philistines seeing that now all lay at stake, upon that battle; encouraged one another to play the men that day, least (said they) we be forced hereafter to live in thralldom, under the Hebrews, as they hitherto have done under us. And so falling on, they slew in that second battle, 30 thousand of the Israelites. The Ark of God was taken by them, Hophin and Phineas, Priests, the sons of Eli, were there slain; of all which, when tidings came to Eli, with the very fright thereof amazed, he fell off from his chair backward, and brake his neck: his daughter in law also, the wife of his son Phineas, hearing thereof, fell in travel of the child she went with; and being delivered of a son, called Ichabod, gave up the ghost, [1 Sam. 4.] But the Philistines having gotten the Ark into their hands, carried it to Azotus, and placed it in the Temple of their god Dagon.
But when Dagon had been found two several times fallen groveling before it upon the ground, and the inhabitants of the place, partly died of the plague, and partly were struck with the filthy emetauds in their secret parts, [ Psal. 78. 66.] they removed it from thence, to the Gittites first, and afterward to the Ekronites: But when the same plagues or judgments followed, where ever it went; after seven months space, by the advice of their Priests, the Philistines, they sent home the Ark again with presents, and gifts, into the land of the Israelites; where the men of Beth-Shemish, in the time of wheat-harvest, (which was toward our Whitsuntide, and about the beginning of the third month) who would needs be peeping into the Ark, were stricken, and perished, to the number of fifty thousand and seventy souls, [1 Sam. 5. and chap. 6. 1, 13, 19.] From thence therefore the Ark was removed, and carried to the house of Aminadab in Gibeah, all. the Hill of the city of Kirioth-jarin, [1 Sam. 7. 1, 2. 2 Sam. 6. 3, 4.] which standing in the Tribe of Judah, was called also Baala, and Kiriath-Baal, [1 Chron. 13. 6. Josh. 5. 9. 60.] yet all this while the Tabernacle, and the Worship of God therein used, continued still in Shiloh of the Tribe of Ephraim, [ Judge. 18. 31. with 1 Sam. 14. 3.]
Barzillai the Gileadite was born; [Year of the World 2894. c.] for he was 80 years of age, [The Julian Period 3604] when Absalom rebelled against his father, [Year of the World 2903. a.] [2 Sam. 19. 35.]
Was the seventh Jubilie. [The Julian Period 3612] [Year before Christ 1102]
For twenty years together after the Ark came to Kiriath-Jearim, [Year of the World 2908. c.] [1 Sam. 7. 2.] the Israelites were grievously oppressed by the Philistines; [The Julian Period 3618] but being at length persuaded by Samuel, [Year before Christ 1096] they returned to the Lord; and having first abandoned all their Idols, came together at Mizpah: where they are said to have drawn water, (i. ) to have drawn tears from the bottom of their hearts, and to have poured them out before the Lord, [ verse 6.] using withal, perhaps, some external effusion or pouring forth of water, to represent and signify their inward repentance and mourning, for their sins: as may be gathered [2 Sam. 14. 14.] which yet some will rather have to be understood of the Repentants themselves, out of [ Gen. 35. 2. and out of Exod. 19. 14.] But upon this conversion of theirs; God by thunder from heaven immediately delivered the people of the Israelites from the invasion of the Philistines, [1 Sam. 7. 10. compared with Josh. 10. 10, 11.] with which terrible thunder from God, the Philistines being affrighted, quitted all the cities of the Israelites, which formerly they held, [1 Sam. 7. 14.] leaving certain small garrisons, and that, in some few places only, [1 Sam. 10. 5.] and came no more to invade their borders; because they saw that the hand of the Lord was against them all the days of Samuel, [1 Sam. 7. 12.] to wit, till Saul came to be King: under whom, they returned again, and grievously oppressed Israel, as we shall see anon. Mean while, Samuel, being now grown old, and desirous to take his ease, took for his Assistants, his two sons; that they might judge the people at Beersheba, who yet walked not in their fathers ways; but for rewards and bribes perverted judgment, [1 Sam. 8. 1, 2, 3.] But, that he put not off the whole office of Judicature to his sons, is manifest out of, [ chap. 7. 15, 16, 17.] for there it appears, that he continued his custom of judging the people by himself to the very last.
Now after that, [Year of the World 2909. c.] when not only his sons, [The Julian Period 3619] but King Saul himself, [Year before Christ 1095] also came to the government of things, the Israelites began to make light of the good old man; which troubled him, and offended God, [1 Sam. 8. 6, 8.] grounding their dislike, upon the ill carriage and behavior of his sons; who at their very first entrance into the government, (at what time Rulers, which are none of the best, yet use commonly to show a little moderation) brake out into all excess, which the people greedily laid hold on, and desired a new form of government, and to have a King, as other Nations had [ chap. 8. 4, 5.] of which Innovation, there was yet another, and in truth, a more urgent cause: which was, that whereas the Philistines kept still some footing, and garrisons in their land: the fame also went, that Naash, King of the Amorites made great levies of men, and preparations for war against them; which fear sinking deep into them, they resolved to rely no longer, neither upon Samuel's wisdom, nor yet upon the power or providence of God, who yet had hitherto been their King and Avenger, of which they had so late an experiment, in sending the Philistines packing out of their coasts: but cast off both, and desired to have a King, [1 Sam, 12. 12, 17, 19.] whereupon God gave them a King in his wrath, [ Hos. 13. 10, 11.] to wit, Saul, the son of Kish, of the Tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years, [ Acts 13. 21.] of which age, when his son Ishbosheth who succeeded him in the Kingdom, is said to have been, [2 Sam. 2. 11.] it is manifest, that he was then also born into the World. Saul therefore was first anointed privately, and afterward publicly, and before all the people, made and proclaimed King at Mispa, by Samuel, who from the death of Eli, to this time, had judged Israel one and twenty years, 1 Sam. 10. 1, 24, 25.] And not long after, as appears, [ chap: 12. 12. 16.] to wit, about one month, (as the Septuagint, and Josephus, lib. 6. Antiquit. expressly have it) Jabesh Gilead was besieged by Naash King of the Ammonites; and the siege was raised by Saul, who there put the Ammonites to flight: whereupon all the whole Congregation of Israel coming together at Gilgal, Saul was there again made and proclaimed King, [ chap. 10. 14, 15.] Samuel mean while protesting of his sincerity in the execution of his place and function, and complaining of the wrong that had been done him, and terrifying the people on the one side with the rain and thunder which fell upon them in the time of wheat-harvest, and recomforting them on the other, with the promises of God's mercies, [ chap. 12. v. 17.] from whence it appeareth, that all this fell out, about our Whitsuntide, or feast of Pentecost, and beginning of the third month; one and twenty years after the bringing again of the Ark out of the country of the Philistines, at the very self same season of the year, [1 Sam. 6. 13.] from all which, as we gather, that full twenty years passed between the bringing back of the Ark, and the subdueing of the Philistines out of the, [ seventh chap. v. 2, 13.] so that there passed one whole year, between the ridding of the Philistines out of the land of Israel, and the declaring of Saul to be King, we gather out of those words of the thirteeneth chapter, first verse; Filius anni erat Saul, cum regnaret ipse, & duobus annis regnavit super Israelem (i.) Saul was the son of one year when he reigned; and reigned two years over Israel. Of which word, there can be no fitter sense rendered, than this; that after the Philistines were subdued by Samuel, there had passed one year, when Saul began to reign: and that then he reigned two year free from the subjection of the Philistines.
For shortly after, [Year of the World 2915. c.] Saul was put from the Kingdom again by the Philistines, [The Julian Period 3621] and the Israelites again grievously enthraled by them: [Year before Christ 1093] Which yoke being again shaken off, Saul is said to have gotten the Kingdom: that is, to have recovered it again, out of the Philistines hands, [1 Sam. 14. 47.] Now that this thralldom cotinued many years upon them, appeareth by this: that whereas it began eight years before David was borne, yet before it ended, Samuel prophesied and foretold of his succeeding after Saul in the Kingdom. The Lord hath sought him a man according to his own heart, and God hath commanded him to be Ruler our his people, [1 Sam. 13. 14.] For the Philistines, to put them out of all possibility of anymore rebelling against them, for want of arms, had taken from them all kind of smithes: so that when afterward, notwithstanding they did rise and came to fight; none of the people, but only Saul and Jonathan his son, had either sword or spear to bring into the field against them, [1 Sam. 13. 19, 22.]
Jessai the Ephrathite in his old age, [Year of the World 2919. c.] [1 Sam. 17. 12.] had his youngest son David born at Bethlehem; [The Julian Period 3629] which was therefore afterward called The City of David, [Year before Christ 1085] [1 Sam. 20. 6. and Luke 2. 4.] thirty years before he succeeded Saul in the Kingdom, [2 Sam. 5. 4. with 1 Sam. 16. 1.]
God having now rejected Saul, [Year of the World 2941. c.] and debarred his race and family from succeeding in the Kingdom, [The Julian Period 3651] sent Samuel, [Year before Christ 1063] after his long mourning for Saul, to Bethlehem, there to anoint David to be King, forty years before the rebellion of Absalom, [1 Sam. 16. 1. with 2 Sam. 15. 7.] who being, A lovely keeper of a lovely flock, was called from keeping his fathers sheep, [1 Sam. 16. 13.] and preferred before his elder brethren; and being anointed in their presence, [1 Sam. 16. 13.] incurred their envy, [ chap. 17. 28.] no less than Joseph did of his brethren: and at last, was set over the Tribe of Judah, at the same age that Joseph was made Ruler over all Egypt, [ Gen. 41. 46.] Meanewhile, from the very day of his anointing, the Spirit of God came upon him; to wit, the spirit of courage and wisdom, [1 Sam. 18. 5, 13. 2 Sam. 5. 2.] In both which respects, even while Saul lived, he was made General over all Israel, [1 Sam. 18▪ 5. 13. and 2 Sam. 5. 2.] and withal grew a great Warriour, to fight the Lord's battles, [1 Sam. 25▪ 28.] and besides was a Prophet, and made the sweet Singer of Israel; as one, who by his divine Psalms should teach and instruct the people of God to the end of the worl • , [ Acts 2. 30. 2 Sam. 23. 1, 2.]
Mephibosheth, who was also called Meribbaal, [1 Chron. 18. 34. and 9. 40.] the son of Jonathan was borne five years before the death of his father, [2 Sam. 4. 4.]
David fearing he might at last fall into Saul's hands, [Year of the World 2944. c.] fled to Gath, [The Julian Period 3654] (whither he had also formerly retired himself, [Year before Christ 1060] 1 Sam. 21. 10.) unto King Achish, carrying with him, six hundred men: and having obtained of him the town of Ziklag to dwell in, he continued one year and four months in the land of the Philistines: from whence, making often inroads upon the Geshuri • es, and Gersites, and the Amalekites, he put to sword all, both men and women, not leaving one alive to carry news thereof to King Achish, of what he had there done, [1 Sam. 27. 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, &c.]
Whiles David was at Z • glag, there repaired to him, of the kindred of Saul, many valiant men of the Tribe of Benjamin, as also of the Tribe of God, sundry principal soldiers, which came over Jordan to him in the first month, at what time it overflowed all his banks, with divers other Captains and Commanders of the Tribes of Benjamin and suda [1 Chron. 12. 1, 15, 18.]
King Achish purposing with his army of Philistines to invade the Israelites; [Year of the World 2949. c.] took David along with him in that voyage, [1 Sam. 2 • . 1, 2.] and to him whiles he was upon his march with his six hundred men, repaired sundry others of the Tribe of Manasseh, and joined with him, [1 Chron. 1 • . 19.] and the Philistines were then encamped at Shunem: but the Israelites, in Gilboa, [1 Sam. 28. 4.]
Saul seeing the Army of the Philistines, fell into a fear, and sought counsel from the Lord: But receiving no answer from him, neither by dream, neither yet by Urim, nor by his Prophets: leaving him, he went to Endor by night, to consult with a Witch there: where by a vision of Samuel raised by her, he received that dreadful doom. God shall deliver Israel, together with thyself, into the hands of the Philistines: and tomorrow, thou and thy children shall be with me, [1 Sam. 28. 5, 6, 19. and 1 Chron. 10. 13, 14.]
While David was away upon his march, the Amalekites took Ziklag; plundered it, and burnt it: carrying away with them among the rest, David's two Wives, Ahinoam of Iezrael, and Abigail, the relict of Nabal, [1 Sam. 30.]
Saul returning the same night from the Witch, the Israelites removed to the Fountain of Iezrael, and the Philistines to Aphek: where the Princes of the Philistines growing jealous of David, he and his company early the next morning, left their army, and returned towards Ziklag; and the Philistines in this interim, marched up to Iezrael, to fight with the Israelites, [1 Sam. 28. 25. and 29. 1, 3, 10, 11.] whence it appear, that Saul and his sons, were not slain the next day after his communication with the apparition of Samuel (for all that day David was in the army of the Philistines) but some while after his departure from them.
When David was upon his return to Ziklag, there came unto him seven Colonels of the Manassi • es, [1 Chron. 12, • 0, 2 • . ] where arriving the third day after, and finding the town plundered and c • ns • med with fire; he left two hundred of his Company, which were tired in the march, at the brook B • zor; and with the other four hundred he followed after the Amalekites, and overtaking them, slew them, from the twilight of the first day, to the evening of the next; and having recovered all that was lost, returned home w •• h joy, [1 Sam. 30.]
The Host of Israel being wholly routed, the three sons of Saul, Jonathan, Aminidab, and Milch • shu • , were there also slain; Saul, and the Squire of his body fell upon their own swords. The day following, the Philistines having taken off the head of Saul, hung up his armor in the temple of their Ido Ashtaroth; and the bodies of him, and his three sons, upon the walls of Bethshemish: But the men of Jabesh Gilead, remembering the favor which Saul at the entrance of his reign had done unto them, stole away their bodies from thence and burnt them; and buried their bones under an oak at Jabesh, and kept a fast for them seven days long, [1 Samuel 31. verse 1. 1 Chron. 10.]
Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, who was now slain, when his nurse, upon the tidings thereof, fled away with him, in a great fright and haste, fell out of her arms, and became lame of his feet ever after, [2 Sam. 4. 4.]
David returning from the slaughter of the Amalekites, three days after heard of the defeat of the Army of the Israelites, by a boy of the Amalekites, who was in the fight: and brought Saul's Crown, and the Bracelet of his arm (both which he had taken off from Saul's body,) unto him, [2 Sam, 1. 1.] From which so late tidings, though brought with all speed, coming unto David, it is gathered, that the defeat in Gilboa, happened some number of days after David's leaving the Army of the Philistines. Nor may any man marvel, that the battle was so long after delayed, when we read, that the Syrians also long after that, encamping against the Israelites at the same place of Aphek, sat there seven days, and upon the seventh, joined battle with them, [1 Reg. 20. 26, 29.]
David having put to death the Amalekite who professed that he had slain Saul, lamented the death of Saul and Jonathan, and of the people of God in a funeral Song, [2 Sam. 1.] And when the companies of the Israelites Army came daily flocking to him, [1 Chron. 12. 22.] asking counsel first of God, he went up to Hebron with those which were about him and their families: where being anointed King by the men of his own Tribe, when he was now thirty years of age; he reigned over Judah by the space of seven years and six months, [2 Sam. 2. 1, 3, 4, 11. and chap. 5. 4, 5.]
Abner, who was formerly the chief of Saul's gendarmery, carrying Ishbosheth Saul's son to Mahanaem, there made him King over the rest of Israel; who being then forty years old, is said to have reigned two years over Israel, [2 Sam. 2. 8, 9, 10.] to wit, quietly, and without any quarrel with the house of David: as also his fathers two years reign is meant of his reign free and uncumbred by the Philistines; as was said before, [1 Sam. 13. 1.]
David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead, thanking them for the kindness which they had shown to their Lord and Master Saul; and to let them know, that the kingdom of Judah was settled upon him, [2 Sam. 2. 5, 6, 7.] wherein the better to strengthen himself, he contracted affinity with Tolmaie, King of Geshur, and married his daughter Maacah: which bare unto him, Absalom and Tamar, [2 Sam. 3. 3. and 13. 1.]
After the two years quiet reign of Ishbosheth over Israel, [Year of the World 2951. c.] there grew a long war between his partakers, [The Julian Period 3661] and the partakers of David: [Year before Christ 1053] Joab the son of Zervia, David's sisters son, bearing up the one side, and Abner the other: and sundry battles and skirmishes passed between them; yet so, as that David's party waxed every day stronger and stronger, and the other weaker and weaker, [2 Sam. 2. 26. and chap. 3. 1.]
Was the eighth Jubilie. [Year of the World 2952. a.]
Abner being used with some disgrace by Ishbosheth, [Year of the World 2956. d.] revolted from him, [The Julian Period 3666] and fell over to David: [Year before Christ 1048] and dealt with the chief Men and Heads of Israel, to transfer the whole kingdom unto David, and this, in the hearing of the Benjaminites, [1 Sam 25. 44. 2 Sam. 3. 14, 15.]
Michal David's wife, whom her father Saul after David was fled, had given in marriage unto Phaltrel; upon David's demand, was sent back to him by Ishbosheth, [1 Sam. 25. 44. 2 Sam. 3. 14, 15.]
Abner coming with a train of twenty men unto David, was by him received and feasted; and returning from him in peace, was upon the way treacherously slain by Joab; and with great mourning and lamentation made over him by David, was buried at Hebron, [2 Sam. 2.]
When all Israel was troubled at the death of Abner, Bahana and Recab, of the Tribe of Benjamin, murdered their Lord and Master Ishbosheth, as he lay resting himself on his bed in the heat of the day: and bringing his head to David, were for their pains by him put to death, [2 Sam. 4.]
The Captains and Elders of all the Tribes coming to Hebron, made David now a third time, an anointed King over all Israel, [1 Chron. 12. from verse 23. to the end of that chapter, with chap. 11. 1, 2, 3. and 2 Sam. 5. 1, 2, 3.]
David with all Israel marched to Jerusalem against the Jebusites; [Year of the World 2957. a.] and there took the Fort of Zion, by the special service of Joab; and from thence, that was called the City of David, no less than Bethlehem, where he was borne. And making Jerusalem the seat of his Kingdom, reigned there over all Israel, the term of 33. years, [2 Sam. 5. 5, 6, 7, 9. 1 Chron. 11. 4, 5, 6, 7.]
The Philistines hearing that David was, [The Julian Period 3667] by the general consent of the tribes, [Year before Christ 1407] made King overall Israel, led their army twice against him to the valley of the Raphaeàns: and were twice beaten by him, [2 Sam. 5. 1 Chron. 14.] where when David, in the time of harvest, desired a draught of water, out of the well at Bethlehem; and three most valiant Captains of his arm, to pleasure him, brake through the host of the enemy to fetch it, and brought it to him, he would not drink it, [2 Sam. 23. 13. 1 Chron. 11. 15.]
David built the City of Zion round about, [Year of the World 2958. b.] as well the fortification, [The Julian Period 3668] as the houses within, [Year before Christ 1046] and Joab repaired the rest of the City, [2 Sam. 5. 9. 1 Chron. 11. 8.]
Hiram sent messengers to David, and cedar wood, and Carpenters and Masons, who built him his house, [2 Sam. 5. 11. 1 Chron. 14. 1.]
The Ark of the Covenant, [Year of the World 2059] which in the first Sabbatical year, [The Julian Period 3669] was brought from Gilgalto to Siloh, [Year before Christ 1045] was this year, being also a sabbatical year, brought from Kiriath-jearim (whither it was removed from Shiloh 70 years before) out of the house of Abinadab, thirty thousand choice men out of all Israel, attending on it, and singing the 68 Psalm, as may probably be collected out of the first verse thereof, because taken out of that form of prayer which was appointed by Moses, to be used and sung at every removal of the Ark, [ Numb. 10. 35.] and was carried first to the house Obed-Edom; and after three months, removed into the City of David, or the fort of Zion, David himself rejoicing before it, and singing that of [ Psalm, 132. 8.] which Solomon his son in the year of Jubilie next following, when he brought the Ark into the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Temple, repeated, viz. Arise O Lord into thy resting place, thou and the Ark of thy strength: with the rest there found, concerning the same Ark, [ v. 60.] Behold we (i.e. the men of Bethlehem dwelling thereby) have heard of it at Ephratah (our own Country) and found it in the fields of Jair, or the wood; i.e. In the hill of Kiriath-jearim, for that signifies a City, bordering upon woods, and again, [ v. 13, 14.] The Lord hath chosen Zion, for an habitation for himself; saying, This is my rest forever here will I dwell, for I have a delight therein: whence it is, that the Ark is said There to have rested, [1 Chron. 6. 31.] being received into the new Tabernacle which David had prepared for it at Jerusalem, [3 Sam. 6. 17. 1 Chron. 16. 1. 2 Chron. 1. 4.]
For the Tabernacle of the Congregation built by Moses, with the brazen altar, whereon was offered the daily sacrifice, remained at Gibeon (which was likewise in the Tribe of Judah, and stayed no longer in Shilo, which was in the tribe of Ephraim) until the Temple of Solomon was built, [1 Chron. 6. 32, 48. 49. 1 Chron. 16. 39, 40. and 21. 29. 16. 2 Chron. 1. 3, 5, 6. 1 Reg. 3. 2, 4.]
And so the Ark, being removed out of the Tribe of Joseph, of which Ephra • m was a part, into the Tribe of Judah, Shilo from thence forth lay neglected, [ Psal. 78. 63, 64. Ier. 7. 12, 14. and Ier. 26. 6.]
David now dwelling in his house of cedar, [Year of the World 2960. d.] which he had built, [The Julian Period 3670] and living in a full and perfect peace, [Year before Christ 1044] imparted unto Nathan the Prophet, the purpose he had of building a house for God: but was answered from God, that thi • was a work which should be done, not by him, because he was a man of blood, and trained up wholly in warlike affairs, but by his son Solomon a man of peace, which should be borne unto him, [2 Sam. 7. 1, 2, 11, 13. 1 Chr. 17. and c. 22. 8, 9, • 0. and c. 24. 3, 6. and 2 Chron. 6. 8, 9. 1 Reg. 8. 18, 19.] Now the time which passed from hence forward, till the birth of Solomon, was all taken up, and spent in wars; wherein David subdued the Philistines, the Edomites, the Amalekites, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and the Syrians, [2 Sam. 8. 3. 1 Chron. 18.] and the bounds of Israel stretched not only from Shicot in Egypt to Hamath, [1 Chron. 13. 5.] but even from thence to the river Euphrates, and even to the borders of Syria Zobea, [2 Sam. 9. 3.] which was the utmost bound of all that land, which had been formerly promised to the seed of Abraham, [ Gen. 15. 18. with Deut. 11. 24. and Ios. 1. 3, 4.] and never possessed by any of them, save only by David, and his son Solomon, [1 Reg. 4. 21, 24. 2 Chron. 9. 28.]
At this time Hadad-ezer, all, Hadar-ezer (for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 with the Hebrews easily taken one for the other) the son of Rehob, was King of Syria Zobea, and to him was joined Rezon the son of Eliod with his forces out of Syria of Damascus when he was ready to fight against David, not far from the river Euphrates. But David having first routed Hadad-ezers army, slew afterward, two and twenty thousand of the Syrians of Damascrs, and put garrisons upon all that country: But when Rezon saw that David prevailed, he fell off from Hadad-ezer, and commanded, himself in chief, over such forces as he had newly raised; and marching with them to Damascus, set up there a kingdom for himself, and his own posterity, who, we find, afterward proved very bitter enemies to Solomon, and the rest of the Kings of Israel, [2 Sam. 8. 5, 6. 1 Reg. 11. 23, 24, 25.] of this battle fought by David near unto the river Euphrates, Nicolaus Damascenus, in Josephus, ( lib. 7. Antiq. c. 6. all. 5.) maketh mention, where he calleth this Rezon Adad; and addeth, that he left this name to descend to his successors to the tenth generation, as Ptolemy did to his in Egypt.
After Naash King of the Ammonites, [Year of the World 2967. a.] succeeded Hanun his son: [The Julian Period 3676] [Year before Christ 1038] who foully abused such messengers, as David out of kindness had sent to comfort him over the death of his Father.
Against him therefore Joab, [The Julian Period 3677] sent by David, [Year before Christ 1037] went and overthrew a huge army of the Ammonites, and Syrians, whom the Ammonites had in pay: and so returned with victory to Jerusalem, [2 Sam. 10. 1 Chron. 19]
David passing over Jordan with his army, [Year of the World 2968. b.] made a vast slaughter of the Syrians, led by Shobach, General of the army of Hadad-ezer, King of Syria Zobea: whereupon followed a peace between David and the petty Kings of Syria; so that they durst no more send aide to the Ammonites: but served him, [2 Sam. 10. 1 Chron. 19.]
At the end of this year, [Year of the World 2969. b.] what time kings use to go forth to battle, [The Julian Period 3679] Joab, [Year before Christ 1035] going with the army against the Ammonites, besieged Rabba, the head City of Ammon: whiles David took his ease at Jerusalem, [2 Sam. 11. 1. 1 Chron. 20. 1.] and there defiled, by adultery, Bathsheba the wife of Uriah the Hittite, who was then in the army, and in consequence thereof, procured the husband to be slain by the hand of the Ammonites, [2 Sam. 11.]
When the child so gotten in adultery, [Year of the World 2970. b.] was born, [The Julian Period 3680] David being convinced by Nathan the Prophet of his fault, [Year before Christ 1034] repented him of his sin, and composed the 51 Psalm, for a memorial of it: yet the new born babe was taken away by death, [2 Sam. 12.]
Bathsheba, [Year of the World 2971. a.] being now his wife, [The Julian Period 3681] bare David a son, unto whom, as to one who should prove a man of peace, [Year before Christ 1033] God gave the name of Solomon, [1 Chron. 22. 9.] and as to one beloved of God, the name of Jedidia, [2 Sam. 12. 25.]
Ammon, [Year of the World 2972. c.] David's eldest son, [The Julian Period 3682] deflowered his lifter Tamar. [Year before Christ 1032] [2 Sam. 13.]
Ammon, [Year of the World 2974. c.] two years after that incestious rape of his, [The Julian Period 3684] was slain by the setting on of his brother Absalom at the time of sheep-shearing, [Year before Christ 1030] [2 Sam. 13. 23.] to wit, at the end of the spring, at the second math of grass, which was wont to be mowed before corn harvest, a little after the midst of the first month: as Codomanus upon this place noteth, out of [ Amos 7. 1. compared with Jos. 3. 15. and Jos. 4. 9. and Jos. 5. 10, 11, 12.]
But Absalom having done the deed, fled away to Geshur in Syria: where he continued 3 years with king Tolmay his grandfather by the mothers side, [2 Sam. 13. 37, 38. and 15. 8.]
Absalom, [Year of the World 2977. c.] after three years exile, [The Julian Period 3687] returned to Jerusalem: [Year before Christ 1027] his father being then pacified towards him by the speech of the woman of Tekoa, set on work by Joab, [2 Sam. 13. 38. and 14. 1, 23. ib. ]
Absalom, [Year of the World 2979] having set Joab's barley on fire, [The Julian Period 3689] a little before harvest this year (for the year following was a sabbatical year, [Year before Christ 1025] wherein there was no harvest in Judea) was by his means admitted to his fathers presence, whom he had not seen in two years after his return from exile, [2 Sam. 14. 28. 30, 33.]
This sabattical year came between the burning of Joab's corn field, [Year of the World 2980] and the rebellion of Absalom against his father: [The Julian Period 3690] [Year before Christ 1024] in which this rebellion, having gotten chariots, and horses, and a guard of ruffians about him, insinuated himself into the favor of the people, and stole away their hearts from his father David, [2 Sam. 13. 1.]
Fourty years after the anointing of David by Samuel, [Year of the World 2981. c.] Absalom, [The Julian Period 3691] following the advise of his chief counselor Architophel, [Year before Christ 1023] got himself into possession of his fathers kingdom, between Easter and Whitsuntide; as Codomanus gathers out of Barzillaie his furnishing of David (when he fled) with new fruits, and parched corn, [2 Sam. 17. 28]
Against the practices of Absalom, and Architophel, David composed the 3, and 55 Psalms: Shime • also, of the Tribe of Benjamin, railed upon David, as he fled▪ [2 Sam. 16.]
And Architophel seeing his counsel not followed by Absalom, went and hanged himself, [2 Sam. 17.]
Absalom, having lost twenty thousand men, fled, and a bough of a thick oak, catching hold of his long hair, he there hung between heaven and earth, and was thrust through and slain by Joab, [2 Sam. 18.]
After the victory thus gotten, David, by the men of Judah, and one half of the people of Israel, was brought home again; and the Israelites mutining, because they had not had a chief hand in that work, a new rebellion grew thereon: which yet was soon over, by throwing the head of Sheba the son of Bicri, over the walls to Joab, by the inhabitants of Abel, [2 Sam. 19. 20.]
The harvest of this year failing, [Year of the World 2983. c.] there began a famine, [The Julian Period 3693] which afflicted the land three years, [Year before Christ 1021] for the blood of the Gibionites, shed by Saul and his family, [2 Sam. 21. 1, 2.]
The famine still continuing, [Year of the World 2986. c.] the G • beonites, [The Julian Period 3696] in the beginning of barley harvest, [Year before Christ 1018] hung up two sons, and five grand-children of Saul's: whose bodies, Rispa, Saul's concubine, watched, and kept from being devoured by ravenous birds or beasts, till water dropped upon them from heaven, [2 Sam. 21. 8, 9, 10.]
David caused the bone of Saul and Jonathan his son to be removed out of Jabesh Gilead, together with the bones of the seven that were hanged, and to be buried at Zela, in the sepulcher of Kish the father of Saul, [2 Sam. 21. 12, 13, 14.]
Many batteis were fought with the Philistines and their Giants; in one whereof, David being now old, and fainting in the fight, was like to have been slain by Ishibenod a Giant, and hardly escaped: and this was the last fight that ever David was in, in person, [2 Sam. 21. 1 Chron. 20.]
David, [Year of the World 2987. d.] what by the testation of Satan, what through his own ambition, would needs have the number of his people to be taken; and thereby kindled the wrath of God against the Israelites: The number therefore throughout all the tribes, (except the tribes of Levi, and Benjamin, [1 Chron. 21. 6. with chap. 27. 24.] of all the men upwards of twenty years old, [1 Chron. 27, 23.] was taken. Which numbering, being finished in nine months and twenty days, [2 Sam. 24. 8.] the choice, of famine, sword or Pestilence, was put unto him by Gad the prophet, [2 Sam. 2. 48.] which famine was to be of three years continuance, to wit, one after another then immediately following, as [1 Chron. 21. 12.] or of seven years, as [2 Sam. 24. 13.] to wit, counting the three years of famine preceding, and this present sabbatical year, (which having no sowing, cannot repair the losses of the former years) for a fourth, as it it had been said. Three years of famine, for the slaughter of the Gibeonites, are already past: after which there was a harvest indeed; but for want of seed, a very poor one, and no ways able to supply the want of the two years following, which the intervening of the sabbatical year must needs draw with it; so that the famine must needs continue still upon the land, especially upon the poorer sort therein, and now to these by-past years of famine, God proposeth unto thee three years more of famine, to choose, if thou wilt. And the way or reason of reconciling these two differing places, hath especially moved me in this passage, to refer this history of David's numbering the people, unto this Sabbathical year.
Now of the three, David chose the plague; whereof there died in one day seventy thousand men: and when the Angel was about to destroy Jerusalem, God of his mercy bade him hold his hand; and withal, commanded David to offer whole burnt offerings, and peace-offerings in the threshing-floor of Araunah or Ornan the Jebusite, [2 Sam. 24. 1 Chron. 21.] [Year of the World 2988. a.]
David fore-seeing, that the house of God should be built in that threshing-floor of Araunah, [1 Chron. 22. 1. with 2 Chron. 3. 1.] began presently to prepare materials necessary for so great a work, exhorting his Son Solomon, and all the Heads of Israel, to fall in hand with all their might, and to go thorough with it, [The Julian Period 3698] [1 Chron. [Year before Christ 1016] 22. 1, 2, 3, 17, 18, 19.]
He also taking the number of the Levites, first from thirty, then from twenty years old and upwards, divided them into many ranks, and appointed to every of them their several offices and established a set form, both of ecclesiastical, and also of civil government, in the fortieth year of his reign, [1 Chron. 23. 2, 27. and 24, 25, 26, 31.] to wit, in the beginning thereof, ( i.e. ) one year and an half before his death.
Rehoboam was born unto Solomon by Naaman, an Ammonitish woman; as being 40 one years old, when he began to reign, [1 Reg. 14. 21, 1 Chron. 12. 13.] for though Solomon called himself a little child, [1 Reg. 3. 7.] and David his father said, he was a child, young and tender, [1 Chron. 22. 5. and 29. 1. yet in another place, he termeth him a man of wisdom, [1 Reg. 2. 9.] and this, before that great measure of knowledge and understanding was cast upon him over and above by God: which three things; tender years, a son born, and perfect wisdom, no man may wonder to find attributed to Solomon, at eighteen years of age, when he sees the very same to be spoken afterward of King Josiah, [The Julian Period 3699] at his age of sixteen, [Year before Christ 1015] [2 Chron. 34. 1, 2, 3. with chap. 36. 5.]
David being now seventy years of age, [Year of the World 2986. d.] and broken with continual cares and wars, was grown so weak and feeble, that applying of warm clothes, would hardly keep any heat in him: And therefore was there sought out Abishag, a young maiden, a Shunamite, to keep him warm: [Year of the World c.] and Adonias, seeing his father thus declining, by the counsel and advice of Joab, and Abiathar, the High Priest made himself King: whereof, when David was advertized by Bathsheba, and Nathan, he presently caused his son Solomon to be appointed King by Zadok the Priest, and Nathan the Prophet, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, in Gihon; which so soon as Adonias heard, he presently fled, and took sanctuary; and laying there hold on the horns of the altar, was pardoned by the grace and favor of Solomon, and set at liberty, [1 Reg. 1.]
David assembling all the Governors, Captains and Commanders of Israel, together with his sons and servants, exhorted them all to the fear and worship of God, and in special, Solomon his son to go in hand with the building of the temple: giving him in writing, the platform, or model, according to which it was to be coutrived and built, and consigning unto his hands gold and silver, by weight, for the making every vessel and implement for the use of the Temple [1 Chron. 28.] after which, what by his example, what by his exhortation, he prevailed so far, that every man, cast in gold and silver, and brass, and iron, and stones, all in great abundance towards the building of God's house. And then, thanks first rendered unto God, the next day after, they offered a thousand young bullocks, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs, with the meat-offerings thereunto belonging: and for a conclusion, made Solomon King the second time apointing him for their Sovereign King, and Zadok, for the High Priest, [1 Chron. 29. 1, 23.]
David having given instructions to his son Solomon; [Year of the World 2990 a.] departeth this life, [1 Reg. 2. 1, 10.] after he had reigned in Hebron seven years six months, and 33 years in Jerusalem, over all Israel, [2 Sam. 5. 5.] of which the forty years, which the Scriptures attribute to his reign, we must take for the term which he reigned, before he made Solomon king in his room; and that he survived six months after: so that the years of Solomon's reign, mentioned in the scripture, are to be reckoned from the first month, a full half year, before the decease of David.
Adonias, [Year of the World b.] by the means, [The Julian Period 3700] and intercession of Bathsheba, [Year before Christ 1014] sueth to Solomon; to give him Abishag the Shunamite to wise, and was therefore as one aspiring to the kingdom, put to death. Abiather of the race of Eli, was put from the High Priesthood; and Zadok put in his room, who was descended from Phineas: as it was foretold by God, should come to pass, [1 Sam. 2. 33, 35.] and so the High Priesthood reverted from the family of Ithamar to the family of Eleazar, and there continued; Joab for fear fled to the Tabernacle, where, having hold on the horns of the taltar, he was slain by Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, who was forthwith made captain of the host, in his room by the king. But Shimei, who had heretofore railed upon David, was confined only to his house, yet with this condition, that if at any time, he passed over the brook Kedron, he should die the death, [1 Reg. 2.]
Hadad the Edomite, hearing that Joab was dead, returned out of Egypt into his own country. Him God afterward, when Solomon began to follow after vanities, raised up an enemy unto him, [1 Reg. 11. 14, 21.]
Pharaoh King of Egypt, [Year of the World 3991. a.] gave his daughter in marriage to Solomon, and gave her Gezer, a city sometime belonging to the tribe of Ephraim, [ Jos. 21. 21.] but which he had taken from the Canaanites, putting all the inhabitants to the sword, [1 Reg. 9. 16.] and Solomon brought her into Zion, the palace of David, [2 Reg. 3. 1, 2. 2 Chron. 8. 11.]
Solomon offered a thousand whole burnt-offerings at Gibeon, [Year of the World c.] where the Tabernacle then was, [The Julian Period 3701] where, [Year before Christ 1013] when God appearing to him in his sleep, and bad him chose, and ask what he would, and it should be given him; he chose, and asked wisdom to be given him: God therefore gave him wisdom from above; casting in all other gifts over and above: And of his wisdom, the first experiment was made, in deciding the controversy between the two women about the child, and that first gave him an opinion and reverence with the people, [1 Reg. 3.]
Solomon being visited by messengers sent from Hyram, [Year of the World 2992. a.] King of Tyre, desired further of him, to help him with timber, toward the building of the Temple: which Hyram, upon certain conditions, and consideration of paying for it, promised to do, and did it, Solomon finding the work-men, over whom he had set pay-masters, and other officers to put on the work.
The fifth Age of the World.
IN the year 480. [Year of the World c.] from the coming of the children of Israel out of Egypt, [The Julian Period 3702] in the fourth year of the reign of King Solomon, [Year before Christ 1012] on the second day of the second month, which was then called Ziu ( of our May 21, being Monday ) the foundation of the temple was laid, [1 Reg. 6. 1, 37. 2 Chron. 3. 2.]
Shim • i, [Year of the World 2993. b.] three years after he was commanded to keep him at Jerusalem, [The Julian Period 3703] and not to go over the brook Kidron; [Year before Christ 1011] returning from Gath, from whence he had fetched back two runaway servants of his, was put to death by Solomon's command, [1 Reg. 2. 39.]
In the eleventh year of Solomon's reign, [Year of the World 3000. a.] in the eighth month, [The Julian Period 3709] which was called Bul. [Year before Christ 1005] the building of the temple was finished with all things belonging thereunto: having been seven years and an half in working, [1 Reg. 6. 38.] but the dedication of it was put off till the next year by season of the Jubile.
This was the ninth Jubile, [Year of the World 3001. a.] opening the fourth Millenary of the world, [The Julian Period 3710] wherein Solomon with great magnificence, [Year before Christ 1004] celebrated the dedication of the temple. For all Israel being assembled together in the 7 th month, called Ethanim, the Ark was brought out of Zion, into the Sanctum Sanctorum, and the Tabernacle and holy vessels, from Gibeon, into the treasury of the Temple; where when God had given a visible and wonderful token of his presence, Solomon being upon a scaffold made of brass, and kneeling upon his knees, uttered a set prayer unto God, and afterward blessing the people, he offered twenty two thousand oxen, and 120 thousand sheep; and so having celebrated the feast of the dedication of the Altar seven days, (and the feast of Tabernacles other seven days, and the celebrity of the eighth day of Tabernacles being finished, at last, upon the three and twenty day of the seventh month, the people were dismissed every man to his home, [1 Reg. 8. 1, 2, 65, 66. 2 Chron. 5. 3, 4, 5. chap. 6. &c. chap. 7. 8, 9, 10.]
The eighth day of the seventh month, (to wit, 30 of our Octob. being friday, was the first of the seven days of the dedication; the tenth day, ( with us, Novemb. 1. upon a Saturday ) was the fast of expiation or atonement held, whereon (according to the Levitical law, [ chap. 25. 9.) the Jubile was proclaimed by the sound of a trumpet.
The fifteenth day, ( our November 6▪ being friday ) was the feast of Tabernacles. The 22 ( our Novemb. 13. being also friday ) was the last of the feast of Tabernacles; which was always very solemnly kept, [2 Chron. 7. 9. with Levite 23. 36. and John 7. 37.] and at the day following, ( Novemb. 14. being our Saturday ) when the Sabbath was ended, the people departed home.
Solomon, [Year of the World 3012. c.] in the thirteenth year after the temple was built, [The Julian Period 3722] made an end also of building his own house, [Year before Christ 992] having spent full twenty years upon both of them: whereof seven and a half upon the Temple, and thirteen or twelve and a half upon his own, [1 Reg. 7. 1. and 9. 10. ib▪ and 2 Chron. 8. 1.]
After all which, Solomon offered unto Hiram King of Tyre 20 cities of Galilee, or Cabul, joining upon the tribe of Asher, (which himself had purchased) in requital of those many good offices which Hiram had done him, toward the building of the temple; which when Hiram refused, he built them all anew himself, and planted colonies of the Israelites in them, [1 Reg. 9. 10. and 2 Chron. 8. 1, 2.]
When Solomon had finished both houses, and the wall of Jerusalem round about, then he removed his wife, the daughter of Phataoh, out of the city and house of David, into a house, which himself had built, and prepared for her, [1 Reg. 3. 1. and chap, 7. 8. and chap. 9. 24. and 2 Chron. 8. 11.] He new built also Gezer, which Pharaoh the father, having taken from the Canaanites, had given to Solomon, lying within the precincts of the tribe of Ephraim, [1 Reg. 9. 15, 16, 17.]
Sesack; [Year of the World 3026. c.] which others cal Sesonchis (according to our Egyptian Chronology) began to reign; [The Julian Period 3736] unto whom Jeroboam the son of Nebar fled, [Year before Christ 978] and continued with him till after Solomon was dead, [1 Reg. 11. 40. and chap. 12. 2.]
Solomon, [Year of the World 3029. c.] having forsaken his lusts and vanities, [The Julian Period 3739] to which he was too intemperately addicted toward his later days, [Year before Christ 975] having testified his deep repentance for it, in his book called The Preacher, and having made his peace with God, [2 Chron 11. 17.] at last died; when he had reigned 40 years, [1 Reg. 11. 42. 2 Chron. 9. 30.]
Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when all Israel me • at Shechem to make him King, by a harsh answer made unto them, alienated the hearts of ten tribes from him, who presently sending into Eypt for Jeroboam the son of Nebat, made him King over them, and under his conduct, they fell of both from the house of David (killing Adoram, whom Rehoboam had sent unto them) and also from the true worship of God, [1 Reg. 12.] In memorial of which sad disaster, the Jews afterward, kept a solemn fast yearly, upon the 23 of the third month, called Sivan.
From this dismal rent made of that kingdom, Rehoboam reigned over Judah and Benjamin seventeen years, [1 Reg. 14. 21. 2 Chron. 12. 1, 2.] and Jeroboam over Israel, ( i. e. ) over the other ten tribes, by the space of 22 years. [1 Reg. 14. 20.]
Rehoboam returning to Jerusalem, levying men to the number of one hundred, and fourscore thousand men, and purposed to make war upon the ten tribes: but being admonished from God by the prophet Semajah, he gave it off, [1 Reg. 12.] though there followed continual wars between the two kings all their days, [1 Reg, 14, 13.
Jeroboam in the beginning of his reign, repaired Shechem, where he was chosen king by the people, and which had been destroyed by King Abimel • ch, 258 years before, and there dwelt, till going afterward over Jordan, he there built Penuel, [1 Reg, 12. 25. and at last, built Tirza, and made that the seat of his kingdom, [ ib. chap. 14. 17.] But fearing lest his new-gotten subjects should haply revolt from him again, he diverted their thoughts from looking anymore after Jerusalem, by a new devised form and fashion of religion, setting up two golden calves, the one at Bethel, the other at Dan, for the brain-sick people, to run a whoring after them, [1 Reg. 12.]
REHOBOAM. [Year of the World 3030. a.] [reign of the King of Judah 1]
The Priests and Levites, [Year of the World b.] and other Israelites, who feared God, falling off from Jeroboam to Rehoboam, mantained the kingdom of Judah three years. For so long walked they in the ways of David and Solomon, [2 Chron. 11. 17.]
Rehoboam, [Year of the World 3032. d.] being once settled in his kingdom, forsook the Law of the Lord, and all Israel and Judah with him, [2 Chron. 12. 1.] For the Jews, who by their good example should have stirred up their brethren the Israelites to repentance, provoked the Lord with their own sins; wherein they offended beyond all that ever their forefathers had done. For they made also to themselves High-places, and Images, and Groves, upon every high hill, and under every green tree, doing according to all the abominations of the Gentiles, which the Lord had therefore cast out before them, [1 Reg. 14. 22, 23, 24.]
In the 5 year of Rehoboam, [Year of the World 3033. c.] Sesak, King of Egypt, invited perhaps by Jeroboam, (who had formerly lived with him, as I noted before upon the year of the World, 3026.) led an Army of 120. Chariots, and 60000. Horse, with foot innumerable out of Egypt, of the Lubaeans, Succaeans, and Cusites, into the land of Judea; and having won all the rest of their fenced cities, came at last before Jerusalem: where the King and his Princes, being drawn to repentance, by the preaching of Semaia the Prophet, received a gracious promise of their deliverance indeed: but at a dear rate; for they were to give up to the Egyptians all the treasure of the Temple, and of the Kings house, and all the sheildes of gold which Solomon had made, instead whereof Rehoboam made them as many brass ones, [1 Reg. 14. v. 25. 2 Chron. 12. 2, 12.] [reign of the King of Judah 6] [reign of the King of Judah 7] [reign of the King of Judah 8] [reign of the King of Judah 9] [reign of the King of Judah 10] [reign of the King of Judah 11] [reign of the King of Judah 12] [reign of the King of Judah 13] [reign of the King of Judah 14] [reign of the King of Judah 15] [reign of the King of Judah 16] [reign of the King of Judah 17]
Abijah the son of Rehoboam, [Year of the World 3046] succeeded his father deceased, [reign of the King of Judah 1] in the beginning of the 18 year of Jeroboams reign, and reigned 3 years, [1 Reg. 15. 1, 2. 2 Chron. 13. 1, 2.]
Abijah with an army of four hundred thousand men, [Year of the World 3047] encountering with Jeroboam and his army, [reign of the King of Judah 2] consisting of eight hundred thousand men, and having first placed his trust and confidence in God, obtained a notable victory against him, wherein he slew of his men, five hundred thousand; such a number as was never slain in any one battle before or since, and then pursuing his victory, he took Bethel, where one of the Calves was set up, and Jesana, and Hephravin, with the towns about them, [2 Chron. 13.] [reign of the King of Judah 3]
Asa, [Year of the World 3049. c.] in the very end of the 20 year of Jeroboams reign, [reign of the King of Judah 1] succeeded his father Abia, deceased, in his kingdom, and reigned 41 years, [1 Reg. 15. 8, 9, 10.]
This year was the tenth Jubile. [Year of the World 3050. d.] [reign of the King of Judah 2] [Year of the World 3051. d.] [reign of the King of Judah 3] [reign of the King of Judah 4]
God now gave ten years peace without interruption to the land, [Year of the World 3053. c.] [ 2 Chron. 14. 1, 6.] even to the 15 year of king Asa his reign, [reign of the King of Judah 5] or to the 35 year from the rent made of that kingdom from that other of Israel, [ c. 15. 10, 19.] in which year, this godly king Asa put away all public Idolatry, and reforming his kingdom, fortified the Cities of Judah against the invasion of enemies, [reign of the King of Judah 6] [ c. 14. 16.]
Jehoshaphat was born unto Asa, [Year of the World 3055] by his mother Azuba, [reign of the King of Judah 7] which afterward at 35 years of age, succeeded him in his kingdom, [1 Reg. 22. 42. 2 Chron. 20. 31.] [reign of the King of Judah 8] [reign of the King of Judah 9] [reign of the King of Judah 10] [reign of the King of Judah 11] [reign of the King of Judah 12] [reign of the King of Judah 13] [reign of the King of Judah 14]
In the beginning of Asa his reign, [Year of the World 3063. c.] Zerach the Ethiopian, [reign of the King of Judah 15] with an innumerable army of his own Cushites (who as it seemeth came out of Arabia Petraea, and the desert) and ten hundred thousand of the Lubeans, besides those which fought aloft from the Chariots; invaded the land of Judah. These Asa met, with three hundred thousand men out of Judah, and two hundred and fourscore thousand out of the Tribe of Benjamin, and calling on the name of the Lord, routed and slew that vast army, and took the spoil of them: After which, being encouraged by Azaria the Prophet, he assembled all his own subjects, and very many also of the Israelites, which clave unto him, at Jerusalem, in the third month, in which the feast of Pentecost fell; where they sacrificed to God out of the spoil, which they had taken, seven hundred oxen, and of other cattle, seven thousand, and solemnly renewed their covenant with God; Asa also proceeding to the fuller reformation of his kingdom so well begun, removed Maacha his grandmother, a great patronesse of Idolatry, from the honor of Queen mother, and the things which his father and himself had consecrated to God, he brought into the temple, [2 Chron. 14. 9. chap. 15. 1, 10, 11, 12, 16. chap. 16. 8.] [Year of the World 3064. c.] [reign of the King of Judah 16]
Asa hired Benadad King of Syria to come and hinder the building of Rama, which he did; and Asa of the stones and timber which was provided for the building of Rama, built Geba and Mizpa. Also when Hanan the prophet reproved him, for craving aid of the king of Syria, he cast him into prison, and at the same time, vexed some of this people, [2 Chron. 16.] [reign of the King of Judah 17] [reign of the King of Judah 18] [reign of the King of Judah 19] [reign of the King of Judah 20] [reign of the King of Judah 21] [reign of the King of Judah 22] [reign of the King of Judah 23] [reign of the King of Judah 24] [reign of the King of Judah 25] [reign of the King of Judah 26] [Year of the World 3074. d.] [Year of the World 3075. d.] [Year of the World 3077] [reign of the King of Judah 28] [reign of the King of Judah 29] [Year of the World 3079. d.]
Jehoram was born to Jehoshaphat 132 years, [Year of the World 3080. d.] before his father took him into the consortship of his kingdom, [reign of the King of Judah 32] [2 Reg. 8. 17. 2 Chron. 21. 20.] [reign of the King of Judah 33] [reign of the King of Judah 34] [reign of the King of Judah 35] [reign of the King of Judah 36] [reign of the King of Judah 37] [reign of the King of Judah 38] [Year of the World 3086]
Asa in the 39 year of his reign, [Year of the World 3087] being diseased in his feet, [reign of the King of Judah 39] sought for help, not from God, but from the Physicians, [2 Chron. 16. 12.] [reign of the King of Judah 40] [reign of the King of Judah 41]
Asa in the end of the 41 year of his reign died, [Year of the World 3090] and was buried in a room, [reign of the King of Judah 1] stuffed with Sweet odors, which he had prepared for himself, in the city of David, 2 Chron. 16. 13, 14.] This father was good, but a better son succeeded him in his stead, called Jehoshaphat, who, in the very latter end of the fourth year of Ahab's reign, coming to reign over Judah, held it 25 years, [1 Reg. 22. 41, 41. 2 Chron. 20. 31.] [reign of the King of Judah 2] [reign of the King of Judah 3]
Jehoshaphat being settled in his kingdom, [Year of the World 3092] began with the taking away of the high places and the groves, and in the third year of his reign, took order that the Levites and other chief men, were sent about into all cities, to instruct the people, while God in the mean time kept off some of his enemies from invading him, and subdued others to him, [2 Chron. 17. 7.] [reign of the King of Judah 4] [reign of the King of Judah 5] [reign of the King of Judah 6] [reign of the King of Judah 7]
Athaliah the daughter of Ahab, [Year of the World 3097. d.] King of Israel, being married to Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat King of Judah (which is that affinity which the Scripture says Jehoshaphat contracted with Ahab) [2 Chron. 18. 2.] bare unto him a son Ahaziah, [reign of the King of Judah 8] who at the age of 22. years, succeeded him in the kingdom, [2 Reg. 8. 18, 26, 17. 2 Chron. 22. with 21. 6.]
The eleventh Jubilie. [Year of the World 3099. a.] [reign of the King of Judah 9] [reign of the King of Judah 10] [reign of the King of Judah 11] [reign of the King of Judah 12] [reign of the King of Judah 13] [Year of the World 3103. c.] [reign of the King of Judah 14] [Year of the World 3104. d.] [reign of the King of Judah 15] [Year of the World 3105] [reign of the King of Judah 16]
Jehoshaphat after the example of Ahab, [Year of the World 3106 d.] made Jehoram his son, Vice-Roy of the kingdom: whereupon it is that Jehoram the son of Ahab, who succeeded his brother Achazia in the kingdom over the Israelites, in the 18. year of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, [2 Reg. 3. 1.] is said to have begun his reign, in the 2. year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, [2 Reg. 1. 17.]
Jehoshaphat going to visit Ahab in the third year of the peace which he had made with the As • yrians, [Year of the World 3107] in the very end of the year; [reign of the King of Judah 18] was invited by Ahab, to go with him to the siege of Ramoth Gilead, and upon his entreaty he went: but escaped thence, not without extreme danger of his life, [1 Reg. 22. 2. 2 Chron. 18.] At his return home, he was reproved by the Prophet Jehu, the son of Hanam, for aiding such a wicked King, [1 Reg. 19. 1, 2.]
When Jehoshaphat had rigged his Navy, [Year of the World 3108. a.] to send it to Ophir for gold, and Achazia the wicked son of Ahab, would needs go sharer with him in that voyage: at first, Jehoshaphat would no, [1 Reg. 22. 49.] but at last, condescended thereto. And for so doing, God reproved him by the mouth of his Prophet Eliezer, the son of Dodona, and destroyed his Fleet, [2 Chron. 20. 35, 36, 37.] [Year of the World b.] [reign of the King of Judah 19] [Year of the World 3109. c.] [reign of the King of Judah 20] [reign of the King of Judah 21] [reign of the King of Judah 22]
Jehoshaphat now grown old, [Year of the World 3112. c.] and desiring to settle his house, [reign of the King of Judah 23] gave the rest of his son, [reign of the King of Judah 1] many gifts, with fenced Cities in Judea; but his eldest son Jehoram (whom he had formerly employed as his Vicegerent) he now joined with himself, and made him his consort in the kingdom, in the fifth year of Jehoram king of Israel▪ which he held by the space of eight years, [reign of the King of Judah 24] [reign of the King of Judah 2] [2 Chron. [reign of the King of Judah 25] [reign of the King of Judah 3] 21. 2, 3, 5, 20. [2 Reg. 8. 16, 17.]
When Jehoshaphat was dead and buried in the City of David, [Year of the World 3115. c.] [1 Reg. 2. 50. 2 Chron. 21. 5.] [reign of the King of Judah 4] Jehoram, a detestable son, of a most blessed father, held that kingdom alone, by the space of 4 years, who being so settled in his kigdome, slew all his brethren, and many also of his other Princes of Israel, [2 Chron. 21.] And now the Edomites, which from the time of king David [2 Sam. 8. 14. had ever lived in subjection to the Tribe of Judah, fell off, and revolted from it: and although they had been smitten by Jehoram, yet, according to the foretelling of Isaac, [ Gen. 27. 40.] they forever after shook off his yoke; Libna also, a City of the Priests, in the Tribe of Judah, [ Jos. 12. 13.] fell off from him at the same time, [2 Reg. 18. 20, 21, 22. 2 Chron. 21. 8, 9, 10.]
Jehoram following the counsel of his wicked wife Athaliah, [Year of the World 3116. a.] set up in Judah, and even in Jerusalem it self, the idolatrous worship of Baal, after the fashion of his father in law Ahab and his house: and compelled his subjects to do the like, for which he was reproved by a letter written, and left for him by the Prophet Elias, before his assumption, with a foretelling of all those calamities and punishments, which accordingly afterward fell upon him.
For first God stirred up against him the Philistines and Arabians, [Year of the World c.] which breaking in upon Judea, plundered, and carried away, what ever was found in the kings house, together with the persons of his sons and wives; so that all his other sons being slain, he had none left him, save only Jehoachaz, [2 Chron. 21.] who was also called Achazia, and Azaria, and who succeeded him in the kingdom, [ ib. c. 22. 1, 6.]
After this God struck Jehoram with an incurable disease in the bowels, [Year of the World 3117. c.] which tormented him, [reign of the King of Judah 6] two whole years, [2 Chron. 21. 15, 18, 19.]
Jehoram being thus afflicted with sickness, [Year of the World 3118. d.] made his son Ahazia, [reign of the King of Judah 7] his Vice-roy, in the 11 year of Jorum the son of Ahab, 2 Reg. 9. 29.]
Jehoram his bowels breaking out, [Year of the World 3119] died a miserable death, [reign of the King of Judah 81] and was buried in the city of David, but without all pomp, and not among the kings, 2 Chron. 25. 19, 20.] After whom succeeded his son Achazia, in the 12 year of Joram the son of Ahab, and reigned one year in Jerusalem; and he also, following the train of a wicked mother, Athaliah, and of the house of Ahab, set up, and maintained the worship of Baal, [2 Reg. 8. 25. 27. 2 Chron. 22. 1, 2, 3, 4.]
Achazia, had a son by Zibia of Beersheba, whose name was Joash, who at the age of 7 years, was afterward proclaimed king, [2 Reg. 11. 21. 2 Chron. [Year of the World 3120] 24. 1.]
Achazia returning from the battle at Ramoth Gilead, against Hazael, after a while, went to Iezrael, to see Jehoram the king of Israel, lying sick of the wounds, which he had taken, where Jehu finding many of his blood, which there attended him, and sundry princes of Judah, he slew them also: and then searching for Achazia himself, who had gotten away, and was fled to Megiddo, and overtaking him afterward in the going up to Gur, which is in Jibleham, in the tribe of Manasseh; caused him to be killed in his chariot. Who being taken and carried from thence by his servants, was buried with his forefathers in the city of David, [2 Reg. 9. 2. 2 Chron. 22.] Jehu also going on to Samaria, and meeting by the way with forty two men of the blood of Achazia, who were going to Jezrael, there to salute the kings children, caused them every man to be butchered in the place, [2 Reg. 10. 13, 14.]
Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, seeing her own son Achazia dead, [reign of the King of Judah 1] destroyed all the race of the house of Judah, and possessed herself of the kingdom; but Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, and wife to Jehoida, the High Priest, took Joash, being then an infant, and son to her brother Ahazia, and him with his nurse, hid six years in the Temple, whiles Athaliah ruled all, and so saved him from the butchery which was made of the rest of the blood-royal, [2 Reg. 11. 1, 2, 3. 2 Chron. 22. 10, 11, 12.] [reign of the King of Judah 2] [reign of the King of Judah 3] [reign of the King of Judah 4] [reign of the King of Judah 5] [reign of the King of Judah 6]
Jehoiada the high Priest, [reign of the King of Judah 1] brought out Joash, [Year of the World 3126. c.] being now seven years old, and anointed him king: caused Athaliah to be slain, and restored the worship of the true God, destroying the house of Baal. and cammanding his priest Matthanes to be kisd before his altars, [2 Reg. 11. 4, 21. 2 Chr. 23. 1, 21.] Now Joash beginning his reign in the seventh year of Jehu, reigned 40 years in Jerusalem, [ 2 Reg. 12. 1. 2 Chron. 24. 1.] [reign of the King of Judah 2] [reign of the King of Judah 3] [reign of the King of Judah 4] [reign of the King of Judah 5] [reign of the King of Judah 6] [reign of the King of Judah 7] [reign of the King of Judah 8] [reign of the King of Judah 9] [reign of the King of Judah 10] [reign of the King of Judah 11] [reign of the King of Judah 12] [reign of the King of Judah 13] [reign of the King of Judah 14] [reign of the King of Judah 15]
Amasia was this year born in Jerusalem, [Year of the World 3140. d.] being the son of Joash, and Jehodana, for he was 25 years old when he began to reign, [2 Reg. 14. 2. 2 Chron. [reign of the King of Judah 16] 25. 1.] [reign of the King of Judah 17] [reign of the King of Judah 18] [reign of the King of Judah 19] [reign of the King of Judah 20] [reign of the King of Judah 21] [reign of the King of Judah 22]
Joas commanded the Prists to repair the Temple of God, [Year of the World 3147. d] out of the pole-money gathered for that purpose, [2 Reg. 12. 2 Chron. 24.]
Joash seeing the Priests to go on very slowly in the repairing of the Temple in the 23 of his reign, committed the charge thereof to Jehoiada, the chief priest and others, to complete that work. [reign of the King of Judah 24] [reign of the King of Judah 25] [reign of the King of Judah 26] [reign of the King of Judah 27] [reign of the King of Judah 28] [reign of the King of Judah 29] [reign of the King of Judah 30] [reign of the King of Judah 31] [reign of the King of Judah 32] [reign of the King of Judah 33] [reign of the King of Judah 34] [reign of the King of Judah 35] [reign of the King of Judah 36] [reign of the King of Judah 27] [reign of the King of Judah 38] [Year of the World 3163. c.]
Zacharias the Priest, [Year of the World 1164. c.] son of Jehoiada, [reign of the King of Judah 39] for reproving the Israelites backsliding into Idolatry, after Jehoiada was dead, was stoned to death by the people, set on by the king, in the court of God's house, [2 Chron. 24.]
The next year, [Year of the World 3165] certain companies of Hazael, [reign of the King of Judah 40] king of Syria, [reign of the King of Judah 1] though small in number, yet fell upon Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the chief of the people, and sent away all the spoil of them, to their own king. But when they were gone, leaving him very sick, his own servants conspiring against him, in revenge of Zacharias' death, and murdered him as he lay in his bed; in the beginning of the 40 year of his reign, [2 Chron. 24. 1, 23. &c. with 2 Reg. 12. 1, 17. &c.] whose successor Amasia in the later end of the second year of Joash king of Israel, reigned 29 years, [2 Reg. 14. 1, 2.] Who, so soon as he was quietly settled in his kingdom, put to death such of his servants, as had had a hand in the death of his father; yet spared their children, according to the law of God, delivered by Moses, [ ib, v. 5, 6. 2 Chron. 25. 3, 4.] [reign of the King of Judah 2] [reign of the King of Judah 3] [reign of the King of Judah 4] [Year of the World 3168. c.] [reign of the King of Judah 5] [reign of the King of Judah 6] [reign of the King of Judah 7] [reign of the King of Judah 8] [reign of the King of Judah 9] [reign of the King of Judah 10] [reign of the King of Judah 11] [reign of the King of Judah 12] [reign of the King of Judah 13]
Amasia the king had by Iecholia, [Year of the World 3178] a woman of Jerusalem, [reign of the King of Judah 14] a son called Uzziah, all. Azariah, who was 16 years of age, when he succeeded his father in the kingdom, [2 Reg. 15. 2. 2 Chron. 26. 2.]
Amasia, growing proud upon a victory lately obtained against the Edomites, in this fourteenth year of his reign, as Josephus, lib 9. Antiquit. cap. 10. hath it, provoked Joash king of the Israelites, to battle; and in a pitch-field at Bethshemish, was overcome and taken prisoner, and upon a great ransom, & hostages given, was let go again, [reign of the King of Judah 15] [2 Reg. 14. 2 Chron. [Year of the World 3179. c.] 25.] [reign of the King of Judah 16] [reign of the King of Judah 17] [reign of the King of Judah 18] [reign of the King of Judah 19] [reign of the King of Judah 20] [reign of the King of Judah 21] [reign of the King of Judah 22] [reign of the King of Judah 23] [reign of the King of Judah 24] [reign of the King of Judah 25] [reign of the King of Judah 26] [reign of the King of Judah 27] [reign of the King of Judah 28]
Amasia, [Year of the World 1194. c.] finding a conspiracy made against him at Jerusalem, [reign of the King of Judah 29] fled to Lachish: where he was murdered, and was from thence carried and buried in the city of David, [2 Reg. 14. 19, 20. 2 Chron. 25. 27, 28] after whom came Uzzia, or Azaria, in the 27 year of Jeroboam, King of Israel: reckoning from the time that he began to reign in consortship with his father, as before, in the year of the World, 3168. was said; and he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem, [2 Reg. 15. 1, 2.]
Under him did the kingdom of Judah flourish no less than that other of Israel did under Jeroboam the second; for so long as following the advice of the Prophet Zacharias, he applied his mind to matters of piety and religion; so long, born up by the hand of God, he subdued the Philistines, and other bordering enemies of his; and grew mighty in his kingdom, as is at large expressed, [2 Chron. 26. from the 2. to the 16. verse. ] [reign of the King of Judah 2] [reign of the King of Judah 3]
Now was the 13 Jubilie held under two most flourishing Kings, [Year of the World 3197. a.] under whom also lived sundry great Prophets in either kingdom; [reign of the King of Judah 4] as in Judah, that Evangelical Prophet, Esau, the son of Amotzus, [ Isaiah 1. 1.] and Joel, the son of Pethuel; who prophesied before Amos, as Codomanus conceiveth, because that in the end of his first chapter, he foretelleth of a drought to come, which Amos in his fourth chapter, complaineth to have come. But Amos living in Judea, amongst the Heardsmen of Tekoa, was called and sent to be a Prophet to the kingdom of Israel, two years before the Earth-quake which fell out in the days of these two Kings Uzzia and Jeroboam the second, [ Amos 1. 1. Zacha. 11. 5.] [reign of the King of Judah 5] [reign of the King of Judah 6] [reign of the King of Judah 7] [reign of the King of Judah 8] [reign of the King of Judah 9] [reign of the King of Judah 10] [reign of the King of Judah 11] [reign of the King of Judah 12] [reign of the King of Judah 13] [reign of the King of Judah 14] [Year of the World 3207] [reign of the King of Judah 15] [reign of the King of Judah 16] [reign of the King of Judah 17] [Year of the World 3210] [reign of the King of Judah 18] [reign of the King of Judah 19]
There was an Eclipse of the sun, [reign of the King of Judah 20] of about 10. digits in the year after the Julian Period, [Year of the World 3213] 3923. on the 24 day of June, in the feast of Whitsuntide; and another of almost 12 digits, eleven years after, according to the Julian Period, an. 3943. upon the eighth of our November, in the days of the Feast of Tabernacles. And a third, of above 11. digits in the year following after the Julian Period, 3944. our May 5. in the Feast of Unleavened bread: to which that prophesy of Amos, [ Chap. 8. 8, 9, 10.] may seem to have reference, where he saith; In that day, saith the Lord Jehovah, the Sun shall set, at noon-day, and I will bring darkness upon the earth in a clear day; and I will turn your festivals into mourning, and all your solemn songs into lamentations: which as in an allegorical sense, the fathers heretofore took as referring to that darkness which fell in the Feast of Easter, at the passion of our Savior. So in these three great Eclipses, falling upon those three great Feasts, at which all the Males of them were to be present at Jerusalem before the Lord, and bringing a darkness those days, that prophesy may not without reason be thought to have been in a literal sense fulfilled. That as among the Grecians, Thales was the first who by his knowledge in Astronomy; as I shall show upon the year of the World, 3403. so among the Hebrews, Amos by a divine instinct and inspiration, may be deemed the first that ever fore-told the Eclipses of the Sun. [reign of the King of Judah 21] [reign of the King of Judah 22] [reign of the King of Judah 23] [reign of the King of Judah 24] [reign of the King of Judah 25] [reign of the King of Judah 26] [Year of the World 3220]
Uzzia king of Judah, had Jotham, by his wife Jer • sha, [Year of the World 3221. c.] the daughter of Zadoc: who when his father was stricken with a leprosy, and secluded from the company of men, had the rule of the kings house, and judged the people: and after his death, succeeded him in the kingdom: being then but 25 years of age, (2 Reg. 15. 5, 33. 2 Chron. 26. 21. and c. 27. 1, 8.] From whence we may gather, that long after, when Menachem, got the kingdom of Israel into his hands, Uzzia then in his old age, adventuring to the Priests office, was stricken with that plague of leprosy: contrary to what the Jews, and Procopius Gazeus affirms, upon the seventh chapter of Isaiah, that this leprosy befell him, about the 25 of his reign; and at the very time of the Earth quake, which happened in the days of Uzzia and Jeroboam, [ Amos 1. 1. Zach. 11. 5.] for that it is manifest, that when Jeroboam died, Jotham was not yet born. [reign of the King of Judah 29] [reign of the King of Judah 30] [reign of the King of Judah 31] [reign of the King of Judah 32] [reign of the King of Judah 33] [reign of the King of Judah 34]
From the summer of this year 3228, [Year of the World 3228. c.] begins the first olympiade of the Greek Chronologers, [reign of the King of Judah 35] wherein Choraebus of Eli’s, wan the race; but of the Iphitean accompt, the 28. As Julius African • s showeth out of the writings of Aristodemus Eleus, and Polybus (as in the Greek edition of Eusebius by scaliger, p. 13. & p. 216.) appeareth: And here also endeth that interval of time, which by that most learned Varro (as in Censorinus his book, de die natali, is reported) is termed 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ( i.e. ) fabulous because many fabulous things are therein said to have happened, and withal beginneth that time which is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : ( i.e.) Historical, because from thence, things credible and true, begin to be recorded. [reign of the King of Judah 36] [reign of the King of Judah 37] [reign of the King of Judah 38] [Year of the World 3232. a.]
Boccaris Saites, [Year of the World 3233. c.] reigned in Egypt 40 years, [ African. ] [reign of the King of Judah 41] [reign of the King of Judah 42] [reign of the King of Judah 43] [Year of the World 3237] [reign of the King of Judah 44] [reign of the King of Judah 45] [reign of the King of Judah 46] [reign of the King of Judah 47] [reign of the King of Judah 48]
Achaz the son of Jotham, [Year of the World 3242] was in this year born: [reign of the King of Judah 49] for he was twenty years old, when he came afterward to reign, 2 Reg. 16. 2. 2 Chron. 28. 1. But because he reigned 16 years only; and after his decease, h • s son Esechias, is said to have been twenty five years old, when he began to reign, whereby Achaz could be but eleven years old, [Year of the World 3243] when his son was borne, [reign of the King of Judah 50] therefore Tremellius would have it understood that Achaz was twenty years old, not when himself, but when his father Jotham began to reign.
Habyattes the elder, [Year of the World 3245] reigned in Lydia 14 years, [reign of the King of Judah 51] Euseb. Chron.
The 14 Jubile, [Year of the World 3246. a.] in which the prophet Isaiah saw and beheld the glory of the Lord, sitting in his throne, and compassed about with a guard of Angels; singing, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, the people of the Jews, growing from this time forward, more & more obdurate and blind every day than other; lest they should understand the words of the prophets, which were sent unto them, and should be converted and healed, [ Isaiah 6. John. 12. 40, 41.]
This vision of the prophet Isaiah, befell in the last year of king Uzzia, [ Isaiah 6. 7.] after whom being buried in the cities of David, and in the burying place of the kings; but a part from the rest, because of his leprosy, succeeded his son Jotham, in the 20 year of Peka, king of Israel, and reigned 16 years in Jerusalem, [ 2 Reg. 15. 7. 32, 33. 1 Chron. 26. 23. and 27. 1. 8.]
Jotham, fought a battle against the Ammonites, and overthrew them, whereupon they became tributary to him, by the space of three years, [2 Chron. 27. 5.] under him and his two successors, Micah the Morashite, together with Isaiah, and Hosea, executed his prophetical function, [ Mic. 1. 1.] In his time also, as Josephus lib. 9. Antiq. cap. 11. all. 12. affirms, did Nahum the prophet foretell, the subversion of the Assyrians, and city of Nineveh, which came to pass 100 and 15 years after, whereas by that reckoning, he should rather have gathered, that Nahum prophesied in the time of Achaz, the son of Jotham. [reign of the King of Judah 2] [reign of the King of Judah 3] [reign of the King of Judah 4] [reign of the King of Judah 5] [reign of the King of Judah 6] [reign of the King of Judah 7]
In this year was Hezekiah the son of Achaz, [Year of the World 3252. c.] born of Abiah, the daughter of Zacharia, [reign of the King of Judah 8] for he was 25 years old when he began to reign, [Year of the World 3254] [2 Reg. 18. 2. 2 Chron. [reign of the King of Judah 9] 29. 1.]
Rome, [Year of the World 3256] according to the reckoning of Fabius Pictor, [reign of the King of Judah 11] the most ancient of all Roman writers, and according to the accompt kept, of the secular games, of all others most religiously observed by the ancient Romans, began to be built by Romulus a little before the beginning of the 8 Olympiad, on the feast of their goddess Pales, upon the 10 day of April, though the feast of Pales, according to Varro his accompt, be full five years more ancient than it is by Fabius, his saying; of which day, yet the Poet Ovid speaking, saith,
Vrbs oritur (quis tunc hoc ulli credere posset?)
Victorem t • rris impositura pedem.
Fal. 4. this is,
A City's born, (which who then would have thought)
That since, [Year of the World 3257] the world hath in subjection brought.
Meles in Lydia reigned 12 years, [reign of the King of Judah 13] [ Euseb. [reign of the King of Judah 14] Chron. ] of whom more is to be seen in Herod. [reign of the King of Judah 15] lib. [reign of the King of Judah 16] 1. cap. 84.
Achaz succeeding his father Jotham in the very end of the 17 year of Peka, [Year of the World 3262. c.] the son of Remalia, [reign of the King of Judah 17] reigned 16. years in Jerusalem, [2 Reg. 16. 1, 2. 2 Chron. 28. 1.]
When, towards the end of the reign of Jotham, God began to stir up Resin the King of Syria, and Peka the son of Remalia against Judah, [2 Reg. 15. 37.] The house of David, at the report of his approaching, with all the people of Judah, were sorely affrighted; as apprehending a sudden and final destruction from them. But unto Achaz in his fear, God, by Isaiah the Prophet sent a gracious message, with a promise of deliverance to him, and destruction to his enemies: And for a sign of his deliverance (when the incredulous King, being bidden to ask what sign he would, would ask none) God made him a promise of a Virgin, that should bear Immanuel; who both in regard of his person, should be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , God and man: God with us, or dwelling in our flesh; and also in regard of his office, whereby, as the only Mediator of God and man, [1 Tim. 2. 5.] he should bring to pass, that God should be with us, [Isaiah 8. 10.] gracious and propitious to us, and a very present help in trouble, [ Psal. 46. 1, 2, 7. with Rom. 8. 31, 32.] which advertisement was most befitting the business then in hand, both in regard that all promises of God in Christ, are Yea and Amen, [2 Corin. 1. 20.] to be fulfiled generally in him, and for him: and besides, for that, the land of Judea, by a spec • all privilege, was to be the land of this Immanuel, [ Isaiah 8. 8.] wherein, as pertaining to the flesh, he was to be born, not only of the Jews, but also of the very house of David; and that, according to the foretell • ng of Jacob, [ Gen. 49. 10.] before the Scepter should depart from Judah, ( i. ) before Judea should wholly leave off to be a Common-Wealth, ruled by a Kingly government; and therefore at that time, the destruction or abolishment of the house of David, or nation of the Jew, was not to be feared; which misery sixty five years after, betided the nation of the Ephraimites, as had been foretold them, by the Prophet Isaiah, [chap. 7. 8.]
As for the utter and final destruction of those Kings who had then banded themselves against him, the Prophet was commanded to foreshow it, by bringing forth Shear Jashub his son: and to tell him (after he had declared that great Mystery or Oracle of a God-bearing Virgin, by the motion of his finger, or some other gesture) that butter and honey he should eat, and be nourished thereby, until he came to such an age, as to know the good from the evil; for that before that time, both those Kings should be destroyed each out of his own land, [ Isaiah 7. 3, 15, 16.] And whereas it fell out at the same time, that Isaiah his wife, a Prophetess, bare him another son: by God's appointment, his name was called Maher-shalal-hash-baz, importing, that the Assyrian should make haste, and take away the spoil: and should plunder both Syrians and Israelites, before the child should be able plainly to pronounce, My father, or My mother. And so the sons of the Prophets were made to serve for signs and documents from God to the Israelites, [ Isaiah 8. 3, 4, 18.] After these prophesies uttered, Rezin and Peka, jointly came up to besiege Jerusalem, wherein Achaz then was: but could not take it, as was told beforehand that they should not, [ Isaiah 7. 1, 7. 2 Reg. 16. 5.] But this wicked Achaz, was no sooner delivered out of this imminent danger, but he forsook God his Deliverer: For he forthwith walked in the ways of the Kings of Israel, and set up the Idolatrous worship of Baal; offered incense in the valley of Ben-Hinnon, and made his own son to pass thorough the fire, and offered sacrifice in the High places, and upon the Hills, and under every green tree, [2 Chron. 28. 2, 3, 4. 2 Reg. 16. 3, 4.]
So when Achaz forsook God, [Year of the World 3263. c.] God also forsook him: [reign of the King of Judah 2] wherefore Rezin and Peka, dividing their forces, overcame him, which both joined together, they could not do. For God gave him over both into the hands of the Syrians, who, having smitten him, carried away a great multitude of his people captive to Damascus, and also into the hands of the King of Israel, who made a great slaughter of his people, [2 Chron. 28. 5.]
At the same time, Rezin subdued Elath, which King Azarias, or Uzzias had recovered to Judah, and bu • lt it anew, and placed his Syrians therein to dwell, [2 Reg. 14. 22. 2 Chron. 26. 2. 2 Reg. 16. 2.]
Moreover the Edomites invaded Judah, [Year of the World 3264. c.] and carried from thence many Captives. [reign of the King of Judah 3]
The Philistines also whom King Uzzia, whiles he trusted in God, had subdued, [2 Chron. 26. 6, 7.] now brake in upon the cities of Judah, in the low countries and south parts thereof, and dwelt therein; for God gave them over to the spoil, for Achaz his sin: and because he had drawn away Judah, to forsake the Lord, [2 Chron. 28. 17, 18, 19.]
But Achaz took all the gold and silver, that was found in the Lord's house, and in the Treasury of the Kings house, and sent it for a present to Tiglath-Pileser King of Assyria, desiring him to come and deliver him from the kings of Syria, & Israel's hands: & he thereupon came and took Damascus, and carried away all the inhabitants thereof to Ki • e, & put to death Rezin, the king of Syria, [2 Reg. 16. 7, 8, 9.] fulfilling therein the prophesy as well of Isaiah, [ c. 7. 16. &c. 8. 4 &c. 9. 11.] as of Amos; who long before had fore-told the ruin of the kingdom of Damascus, in these words. I will send a fire upon the house of Hazael, which shall consume the palaces of Benhadad, and I will break in pieces the bars of Damascus, and root out the inhabitants of the valley of Aven, and him that beareth the scepter out of the house of Eden, and the people of Syria shall be carried away into Assyria, saith the Lord, [Amos 1. 4, 5.] And so the kingdom of Damascus, and with it, that of Hamath, of which, as then being in a most flourishing estate, mention is made, [ Amos 6. 2. and of Aradus, Jer. 49. 23. Isaiah 10. 9. and 36. 19. and 37. 12, 13.] which was begun, in Rezon, [1 Reg. 11. 23, 24.] ended in this Rezin, which continued for ten generations, as Nicol. Damascenus, cited by Josephus, lib. 7. Antiquit. c. 6. affirmeth, see before upon the year of the world 2960.
But when Achaz went to meet Tiglath-pileazer at Damascus, and to congratulate him, for his great victory there obtained, he there saw the great altar; the fashion whereof he forthwith took, and sent to Uria, the priest, that he might make the like of it, in Jerusalem, on which, upon his return thither, he both offered himself, and also caused the people to offer their sacrifices, removing the brazen altar, a far off from the fore-part of the house, that it might not stand between his altar, and the house of the Lord, [2 Reg. 16.]
When Achaz had now made him self a servant to the K. of Assyria, [Year of the World 3265. c.] he then found, [reign of the King of Judah 4] that he had received more hurt than help from him, [ 2 Chr. 28. 20, 21.] which the prophet a little before had • ntimated to him, by that allegory of this, saying, The Lord shall shave off the hair of thy head & feet, with an hired razor, from beyond the river, even the king of Assyria, and it shall also consume the beard, [ Isaiah 7. 20.] wherefore also Achaz turned the entry without, which led from the kings house to the house of the Lord, for fear of the king of Assyria, [2 Reg. 16. 18.] that is, as Tremellius understands it, for fear lest the king of Assyria, should assault him that way, and so break into his palace, and yet in the midst of all these his afflictions, he sinned still more and more against the Lord, 2 Chron. 28. 22.] [reign of the King of Judah 5] [reign of the King of Judah 6] [reign of the King of Judah 7] [reign of the King of Judah 8]
Candaules, [Year of the World 3269] whom the Greek Authors call, [reign of the King of Judah 9] as Herodotus saith, [reign of the King of Judah 10] Myrsylus, the son of Myrsus, the last of the stock of the Heraclydae, reigned in Lydia 17 years, Euseb. Chron.
Nadius, [Year of the World 3271] or Nabius, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 reigned over the Babylonians, 2 years, Ptol. in Reg. Canone. [reign of the King of Judah 11] [reign of the King of Judah 12]
Chinzirus and Porus, [Year of the World 3273. c.] reigned over the Babylonians, five years, [ Id. ib. ] [Year of the World 3274. c.] [reign of the King of Judah 13] [Year of the World 3276. b.] [reign of the King of Judah 14]
Achaz, [Year of the World 3277. c.] in the last year of his reign, [reign of the King of Judah 1] joined his son Ezekia within, [reign of the King of Judah 16] in the kingdom, who from that time, being the later end of the third year of Hosea king of Israel▪ reigned 29 years in Jerusalem, [2 Reg. 18. 1, 2.]
Jugaeus or Ilulaeus, [Year of the World 3278. a.] reigned over the Babylonians 5 years, Ptol. Reg. Canon.
And in this year died Achaz: [Year of the World b.] and the Prophet Isaiah foretold the Philistines (who at that time, unjustly detained a part of Judea, as was shown before, in the 3264. year of the world) of their destruction, [ Es. 14 from the 28 verse to the end thereof: as likewise he forewarned the Moabites of a great calamity to befall them within three years after, [ Isaiah 15. 1. and 16. 14.] of the fulfilling of which prophesies, look what we shall hereafter say, upon the years 3280. and 3284.
Achaz dying, was buried in the city of David, [2 Reg. 16. 20.] but not among the Kings, [2 Chron. 28. 27.]
Hezekiah, [Year of the World c.] (his father being dead, and he now at his own disposing) toward the later end of the first year of his reign, in the first month. Abib, opened the doors of the Lord's house, which his father had caused to be shut up, [2 Chron. 28. 24.] and commanded the Priests and Levites to sanctify themselves, and then to cleanse the Temple, [2 Chron. 29. 3, 4.]
And they taking courage hereupon, upon the first day of the first month, ( Apr. 21. upon the Sabbath-day ) sanctified themselves. And the • , according to the Kings command, came to cleanse the house of the Lord; and upon the eighth day of the same month, (28 Apr. being also upon the Sabbath-day ) entering into the porch of the Temple, they sanctified the ho • se of the Lord eight days; so that upon the sixteenth day of the first month ( • of our May, being Sunday ) they finished that work, [2 Chron. 29. 15. 17.]
The next morning, King Ezechia, early in the morning, ( May 6 being Monday ) called together all the Rulers of the City, and went up into the house of the Lord; wherein, together with the people, by the ministry of the Priests and Levites, he offered many sacrifices upon the Altar of the Lord, with great joy and gladness, [2 Chron. 29. v. 20. 36.]
But because the Passover could not be kept at the same time when that meeting and the cleansing of the Temple was appointed, because the number of the Priests then sanctified was not sufficient, and the people was not gathered together from all parts to Jerusalem, according to the law, [ Numb. 9. 10, 11.] therefore was the Passover appointed to be kept, in the second month, whereof notice • eing given to the people from Beersheba even to Dan; not only the Jews, but some also out of the Tribes of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulon, (the rest of the Tribes laughing at such warning given) came together in Jerusalem: where the Idol-altars, and altars of incense being demolished fi • st, and then thrown into the brook Kidron, they killed the Pascal lambs upon the 14. day of the second month ( being on our third of June, falling upon a Sunday ) then kept they the Feast of sweet-bred 7 days, offering their sacrifices of thanksgiving, and • inging praises to the God of their forefathers: to which in further testimony of their thankfulness unto God, they add seven days more; all which they kept and celebrated with great glee and joy of heart, [2 Chron. 30. 23.]
And when they had finished all things, then all the Israelites, which were there present, about the end of the said second month, went forth throughout all the cities of Judah, and brake down the Images, & cut down the groves, and destroyed the High places and Altars, throughout the whole land of Judah and Benjamin, and even throughout Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had finished the work they went about: which done, the Israelites returned every man to his own home, in their several countries [2 Chron. 31. 1.]
But Ezechia went further, and brake in pieces the very brazen Serpent, which Moses had set up, [ Num. 2 • . 9.] because unto those days the children of Israel had burnt incense to it; and in contempt thereof, by a diminutive term, called it Necushtan, (i. ) a little piece of bras • e. And in like manner, taking order that the Priests and Levites should serve every of them, in his office, and by turn; he also provided them of victuals and maintenance, by setting on foot again the law of first-fruits and tithes, [2 Chron. 31.]
Whereupon, in the third month, every man brought in, who should bring fastest, their first fruits and tithes, and delivered them to the Priests, [2 Chron. 31. 5, 6, 7.]
In the seventh month, [Year of the World 3279. a.] wherein the gathering of the fruits of the whole year was finished, [ Exod. 23. 16.] the bringing in of the first fruits and tithes, was fully complete and ended, [2 Chron. 31. 7.] and officers were appointed by Ezechia for the just distribution of them, [2 Chron. 31.] [Year of the World b.] [reign of the King of Judah 3] [Year of the World 3280] [reign of the King of Judah 4] [reign of the King of Judah 5]
Mardocempadus began to reign in Babylon, [Year of the World 3283] after the beginning of Nabonassers reign there 26 years: [reign of the King of Judah 6] from the end thereof 12 years, as we find in Ptolomies, Reg. Canon. By the Prophet Isaiah, Merodac Baladan, is called the son of Baladan: [ c. 39. 1.] as being Belesis, or the son, or according to a most usual Hebraism, Nephew of Nabonasar, in this Mardocempadus his first year, the moon was eclipsed at Babylon, as Ptolomei in his 4 book of his great Syntaxis, c. 6. noteth, in the 27 of Nabonasar, 29 of the month Thoth, as the Egyptians call it, (to wit, toward the end of the 19 day of our March ) two hours and an half before midnight.
JEROBOAM.
Jeroboam, the 15 day of the 8 month, [reign of the King of Israel 1] ( our Decemb. 6. Monday ) at a feast of his own devising, somewhat resembling the feast of Tabernacles among the Jews, upon an Idolatrous altar, which he had built, at Bethel, offered sacrifice to his calf, [1 Reg. 12, 32, 33.] At what time, a certain Prophet sent by God out of Jury, foretold what judgment one of King David's linage, Josiah by name, should one day execute upon the Altar, and the Priests that served at it: which Prophesy he then and there confirmed, by signs and prodigies shown upon that Altar then standing, and upon the King himself, [1 Reg. 13. 2. Reg. 23. 16, 17.] From which beginning of this Idolatrous worship, and public manifestation of God's judgment thereupon; we are to reckon the 390. years of the iniquity of Israel, spoken of in [ Ezek. 4. 5.]
This Prophet being deceived by another Prophet of Bethel, who abused the name of God unto him: did contrary to the express commandment of God to himself delivered, eat meat at Bethel; and was therefore in his return homeward met with and slain by a Lion: whereof when tidings came to the Prophet which had deceived him, he took up the body, and honourably enterred it, assuring his sons, that what had been foretold by that other Prophet, should undoubtedly come to pass, [1 Reg. 13. with 2 Reg 23. 17, 18.]
Jeroboam persisting in his revolt, [The Julian Period 3740] cast off the Priests that were of the linage of Aaron and the Levites, [Year before Christ 974] and made Priests of the High places, men taken from among the common people, [1 Reg. 13. 33, 34. 2 Chron. 11. 14, 15. and chap. 13. 9.] whereupon the Priests and Levites, leaving their possessions which they formerly had in those parts; retired into Jury, and were followed thither, by all such out of every Tribe, as set their minds upon the true worship of God; and came to Jerusalem, there to do worship and to sacrifice to the God of their forefathers, [2 Chron. 11. 13, 14, 16. [The Julian Period 3743] [Year before Christ 971] [reign of the King of Israel 6] [reign of the King of Israel 7] [reign of the King of Israel 8] [reign of the King of Israel 9] [reign of the King of Israel 10] [reign of the King of Israel 11] [reign of the King of Israel 12] [reign of the King of Israel 13] [reign of the King of Israel 14] [reign of the King of Israel 15] [reign of the King of Israel 16] [reign of the King of Israel 17] [reign of the King of Israel 18] [The Julian Period 3756] [Year before Christ 958] [reign of the King of Israel 19] [The Julian Period 3757] [Year before Christ 957] [reign of the King of Israel 20] [reign of the King of Israel 21] [The Julian Period 3759] [Year before Christ 965] [reign of the King of Israel 22] [reign of the King of Israel 1] [The Julian Period 3760] [Year before Christ 954]
Nadab in the second year of Asa, succeeded his father Jeroboam deceased, in his kingdom, wherein he continued only the space of 2 years, [1 Reg. 15. 25.
Nadab, [reign of the King of Israel 1] at the siege of Gibbethon of the Philistines, [reign of the King of Israel 2] was slain by Baasa, [The Julian Period 3761] a man of the Tribe of Issacar, [Year before Christ 953] in the third year of the reign of Asa; and the same year, having made himself king over Israel, he utterly destroyed all the race of Jeroboam, and reigned 24 years, [1 Reg. 15. 27, 28, 29, 33.] [reign of the King of Israel 2] [reign of the King of Israel 3] [The Julian Period 3763] [Year before Christ 951] [reign of the King of Israel 4] [reign of the King of Israel 5] [The Julian Period 3765] [Year before Christ 949] [reign of the King of Israel 6] [reign of the King of Israel 7] [reign of the King of Israel 8] [reign of the King of Israel 9] [reign of the King of Israel 10] [reign of the King of Israel 11] [reign of the King of Israel 12] [reign of the King of Israel 13] [The Julian Period 3773] [Year before Christ 941] [The Julian Period 3774] [Year before Christ 940]
Baasa, [reign of the King of Israel 14] when he saw Asa thus busy in restoring religion, and perceived that many of his subjects were fallen over to him; that they might partake of the covenant of God, [ 2 Chron. 15. 9.] never ceased to make war upon him all his days, [1 Reg. 15, 16, 32.] and pursuing his point, this year which was the 36 of Asa his reign, to wit, over the kingdom of Judah, as it stood divided from Israel, and which Asa then held, went up against Judah, and built Rama, that he might suffer no man to come out from, or go into Asa, king of Judah, [2 Chron. 16. 1.]
At the same time Benadad king of Syria, marched forth against the Cities of Israel, and destroyed Ijon, of the tribe of Asher, and Dan, of Dan, and Abeth-maacah of the tribe of Manasseh, and all the coast of Cinnereth, with all the land of Naphtali, which made Baasa give over his building of Rama, and resided at Tirza, [1 Reg. 16. 20, 21. 2 Chron. 16. 4, 5. with Isaiah 9. 1.] Now this Benadad was son of Tabrimmon, the son of H • zion, [1 Reg. 15. 8.] or of Rezon the first king of Syria, of Damascus, from whom the name of Hadad, was derived to his posterity, in the kingdom, as Nicolaus Damascenus noteth, recorded by Josephus lib. 7. of his Antiquities, c. 6. • l. 5. where, when the said Nicolaus tells us, That the third of that name seeking to wipe of the blot of the overthrow, received in his grandfathers days, marched into Judea, and destroyed Samaria, Josephus understands it, of the invasion made upon Samaria, by Benhadad, in the time of Ahab, [reign of the King of Israel 15] see before in the year of the world, [reign of the King of Israel 16] 2960. and hereafter in the year 3103. [reign of the King of Israel 17] [reign of the King of Israel 18] [reign of the King of Israel 19] [reign of the King of Israel 20] [reign of the King of Israel 21] [reign of the King of Israel 22] [reign of the King of Israel 23]
Baasa dying, [reign of the King of Israel 24] and being buried at Tizra, [The Julian Period 3784] his son Ela succeeded in his room. [Year before Christ 930]
In the second year of Ela, [The Julian Period 3785] 27 of Asa, [Year before Christ 929] Ela with the whole race of Baasa, was rooted out by Zimri, who reigned in Tirza seven days. But the soldierie which then lay before Gibbethon, a town of the Philistines, made Omri, the General of the Army, king, who coming to besiege Tirza, Zimri, set fire on the kings palace, and consumed it and himself therein, [1 Reg. 16. 15, 16, 17, 18.]
The people of Israel falling in two factions, [reign of the King of Israel 1] one part followed Thibni, the son of Ginath, the other adhered to Omri; but Omri his side was stronger of the two, [1 Reg. 16. 8, 21, [reign of the King of Israel 2] 22.]
Athaliah the daughter of Ahab the son of Omri, [reign of the King of Israel 3] as it seemeth was borne 42 years before her son Ahazia reigned over Judah. [reign of the King of Israel 4]
Omri, [reign of the King of Israel 5] his rival being now at Tibni, [The Julian Period 3789] began to reign over Israel alone in the 31 year of king Asa. [Year before Christ 925]
When Omri had now reigned six years in Tirza, [reign of the King of Israel 6] he then removed the seat of his kingdom from thence to Samaria, [The Julian Period 3790] which he built in the hill of Somron, [Year before Christ 224] a place which he had purchased of one Semor, [1 Reg. 16. 23, 24.] [reign of the King of Israel 7] [reign of the King of Israel 8] [reign of the King of Israel 9] [reign of the King of Israel 10] [reign of the King of Israel 11] [reign of the King of Israel 12]
Omri dies, [reign of the King of Israel 1] and was buried at Samaria, [The Julian Period 3796] a bad father, [Year before Christ 918] but Ahab the son, that succeeded him, was worse than he; who yet reigned after him 22 years, [1 Reg. 16. 28, 29.] [reign of the King of Israel 2] [The Julian Period 3797] [Year before Christ 917] [The Julian Period 3800] [Year before Christ 914] [reign of the King of Israel 6] [reign of the King of Israel 7] [The Julian Period 3802] [Year before Christ 912] [reign of the King of Israel 8] [reign of the King of Israel 9] [reign of the King of Israel 10] [reign of the King of Israel 11] [reign of the King of Israel 12] [The Julian Period 3807] [Year before Christ 907] [reign of the King of Israel 13] [The Julian Period 3808] [Year before Christ 906] [reign of the King of Israel 14] [reign of the King of Israel 15] [reign of the King of Israel 16] [reign of the King of Israel 17] [reign of the King of Israel 18]
Benhadad, [The Julian Period 3813] King of Asyria, [Year before Christ 901] gathering all his together, with the assistance and attendance of 32 petty kings, besieged Samaria; but was fain to give it over and fled upon a great blow, which he received before, it, [1 Reg. ]
About a year after, [reign of the King of Israel 19] Benhadad came a second time up as far as Apseka, [The Julian Period 3814] to make war upon the Israelites; [Year before Christ 900] where upon a mighty overthrow received, he gave himself • p into Ahab's hand. Ahab received him with all courtesy and honor; and after a while, let him fairly go, having made a league of friendship with him: for which act of his, God forthwith denounced a judgment upon him by his Prophet, [1 Reg. 20.] Nevertheless, upon this league made, there followed a three years cessation of arms, between the two Nations, [1 Reg. 22. 1.]
Ahab, [reign of the King of Israel 20] when he could not get Naboth to sell him his vineyard, [The Julian Period 3815] grew sick upon it. [Year before Christ 899] Jezebel his wife, gate Naboth by false witness to be condemned to death, and stoned; and so put him in possession of the vineyard. Whereupon the Prophet Elias, foretold him of destruction which was to befall him, and all his posterity: and upon Jezebel herself. Ahab, trembling hereat, by a timely repentance, obtained a respite of this judgment, [1 Reg. 21.]
Ahab in the 17. year of the reign of Jehoshaphat, joined his son Achazia with him in the rule of the kingdom, or rather made him his Vice-Roy, [1 Reg. 22. 51.]
Ahab, [reign of the King of Israel 22] having gotten Jehoshaphat to go along with him, [The Julian Period 3817] went to besiege Ramoth Gilead. [Year before Christ 897] But before he went, [reign of the King of Israel 2] he asked counsel of 400. false Prophets; and withal of Micaiah, the true Prophet of God, what the issue and event of this war should be. They told him, all should do well: Micaiah foretold his overthrow, and according to his word, Ahab, though in a disguised habit, was slain in the fight, and was buried in Samaria, [1 Reg. 22. 2 Chron. 18.]
So soon as he was dead, all the land of Moab fell away from the Israelites, [2 Reg. 1. 1. and chap. 3. 5.] which had continued in subjection to them, ever since King David's days, [2 Sam. 8. 2.]
Achazia King of Israel, [The Julian Period 3818] falling out of a grate of his Dining-room in Samaria lay sick of it, [Year before Christ 896] and asked counsel of Baal-zebub, the god of the Ekronites, concerning his recovery. And the Prophet Elias, when two Captains over fifty men a piece, with their companies, were sent to apprehend and bring him to the King; destroyed them & their companies with fire called down from heaven upon them: and at last, going voluntarily with the third Captain that came for him, he told the King plainly, that he should die. [2 Reg. 1.] and accordingly die he did, after he had spent two years, partly with his father, partly by himself, in the administration of the kingdom, [1 Reg. 22. 51.]
When Achazias was dead, his brother Jehoram, the son of Ahab succeeded him, in the later end of the 18 year of Jehoshaphat, and reigned 12. years, [2 Reg. 3. 1.]
Elias was taken up into heaven in a fiery chariot, [reign of the King of Israel 1] [2 Reg. 2.]
Three Kings, [reign of the King of Israel 2] to wit, [The Julian Period 3815] of Israel, Judah, and Edom, (which Edom had hitherto continued in subjection to the kings of Judah) joined together to reduce the rebellious Moabites; in which war, E • izeus the Prophet, miraculo • sly furnished the army with water, and assured them of the victory over their enemies: Nevertheless, Mesah king of the Moabites being shut up, in Kir-hareseth, with such small forces as he had left about him, and making a salley out, took prisoner the son of the king of Edom, being his first-born (and who was to have succeeded him in the kingdom, and is in that regard, by the Prophet Amos, [ c. 2. 1.] styled, king of the Edomites) and offered him for a whole burnt-offering upon the wall of the City, [2 Reg. 3.] [reign of the King of Israel 3] [reign of the King of Israel 4] [reign of the King of Israel 5] [The Julian Period 3822] [Year before Christ 892] [reign of the King of Israel 6] [reign of the King of Israel 7] [The Julian Period 3825] [Year before Christ 889] [reign of the King of Israel 8] [reign of the King of Israel 10] [The Julian Period 3827] [Year before Christ 887] [reign of the King of Israel 11] [The Julian Period 3828] [Year before Christ 886] [reign of the King of Israel 12] [The Julian Period 3829] [Year before Christ 885]
Jehoram king of Israel, [The Julian Period 3830] and Achazia King of Judah, [Year before Christ 884] went out jointly with their armies to Ramoth Gilead, against Hazael, who had newly succeeded Benadad, in the kingdom of Syria, as Eliseus the prophet had foretold him. In that fight, Jehoram was grievously wounded by the Syrians, and he retired himself to Iezrael, there to be cured of his wounds, [2 Reg. 8.] mean while a certain son of the prophets sent by Eliseus the prophet, came to Ramoth, and there anointed Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, king over Israel, and opened to him the will of God, for the rooting out of the house of Ahab, who forthwith being proclaimed king, by the captains and officers of the Army, marched straight on to Iezrael, and there slew both Jehoram and Jezebel, [ chap. 9.] and Eft-soons dispatched away letters to Samaria, and there caused the seventy sons of Ahab to be slain, maintaining this act of his, by the foretelling and prophesy of Elias. Then taking with him Iehonadab, the son of Recab; he came himself to Samaria, and destroyed all the race of Ahab, and all the priests of Baal; though having put down the worship of Baal, he departed not from the worship of Jereboam's golden calves, but maintained that inveterate Idolatry among the Israelites all the time of his reign, which was for eight and twenty years, [2 Reg. 10. 28, 29, 39.] [reign of the King of Israel 1] [reign of the King of Israel 2] [reign of the King of Israel 3] [reign of the King of Israel 4] [reign of the King of Israel 5] [reign of the King of Israel 6] [reign of the King of Israel 7] [reign of the King of Israel 8] [reign of the King of Israel 9] [reign of the King of Israel 10] [reign of the King of Israel 11] [reign of the King of Israel 12] [reign of the King of Israel 13] [reign of the King of Israel 14] [reign of the King of Israel 15] [reign of the King of Israel 16] [reign of the King of Israel 17] [reign of the King of Israel 18] [reign of the King of Israel 19] [reign of the King of Israel 20] [reign of the King of Israel 21] [The Julian Period 3850] [Year before Christ 864] [reign of the King of Israel 22] [reign of the King of Israel 23] [reign of the King of Israel 24] [reign of the King of Israel 25] [reign of the King of Israel 26] [reign of the King of Israel 27] [reign of the King of Israel 28] [The Julian Period 3857] [Year before Christ 857] [The Julian Period 3858] [Year before Christ 856]
Jehochaz succeeded his father Jehu, in the kingdom of Israel, in the 23 year of Joash, the son of Achazia: and reigned 17 years, [2 Reg. 13. 1.] during all which time, Hazael king of Syria lay heavy upon the Israelites, [ Chap. 13. 3, 7, 22.] and exercised all the cruelty upon them, which Eliseus the prophet had foretold, he should, [reign of the King of Israel 2] [ Chap. 8. 12.] [reign of the King of Israel 3] [reign of the King of Israel 4] [reign of the King of Israel 5] [reign of the King of Israel 6] [reign of the King of Israel 7] [reign of the King of Israel 8] [reign of the King of Israel 9] [reign of the King of Israel 10] [reign of the King of Israel 11] [reign of the King of Israel 12] [reign of the King of Israel 13] [reign of the King of Israel 14] [reign of the King of Israel 15] [reign of the King of Israel 16]
Joas the son of Jehoachaz, [The Julian Period 3873] was taken into the consortship of this kingdom by his father, the later end of the 37 years of Joas king of Judah, [Year before Christ 841] and reigned 16 years, [reign of the King of Israel 17] [2 Reg. [reign of the King of Israel 2] 13. 10.]
Jehoachaz, [reign of the King of Israel 3] the son of Jehu died, [The Julian Period 3875] and was buried in Samaria, [Year before Christ 839] when he had reigned 17 years, [2 Reg. 13. 1, 9.] but King Joaz, not long after the funeral of his father, went, as it seemeth, to visit Elisha the prophet, then lying in his death-bed and with many tears, asking counsel of him, concerning the miserable distracted state of the kingdom, [reign of the King of Israel 4] as then it stood; [reign of the King of Israel 5] was foretold that he should obtain three victories over the Syrians, [reign of the King of Israel 6] [ ib from v. 14. to v. 20.]
Jeroboam the second, [The Julian Period 3878] seemeth to have been taken into the consortship of the kingdom, [Year before Christ 836] by his father Joash, going to war against the Syrians, in which war, he overthrew Benhadad, (who succeeded his father Hazael in the kingdom of Syria) in three pitched fields, and recovered out of his hands the cities, which Jehocahaz his father had lost) so that from hence we may gather, that Azarias king of • uda began his reign in the 27 year of this Jeroboam, [2 Reg. 15. 1.] [reign of the King of Israel 7] [reign of the King of Israel 8] [reign of the King of Israel 9] [reign of the King of Israel 10] [reign of the King of Israel 11] [reign of the King of Israel 12] [reign of the King of Israel 13] [reign of the King of Israel 14] [reign of the King of Israel 15] [reign of the King of Israel 16] [The Julian Period 3888] [Year before Christ 826]
Joas having overcome and taken prisoner Amasia, king of Judah, brake down four hundred cubits of the wall of Jerusalem, even from the gate of Ephraim, to the corner gate; and so having gotten from him all the treasure both of the temple, and also of the kings own house, returned to Samaria, [2 2 Reg. 14. 13, 14. Chron. 25. 23, 24.]
But Joash departing this life, [reign of the King of Israel 1] 15 years before the death of Amazia, Jeroboam his son succeeding him, reigned in Samaria 41 years, [2 Reg. 14. 23.]
By this man, did God deliver Israel, having recovered Damascus and Hamath, both which apperteined by right to the Tribe of Judah, [2 Sam. 8. 6. 2 Chron 8. 3.] and the old border thereof, [ Numb. 13. 21.] from the entrance into Hamath, even to to the sea of the plain; according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by the mouth of Jonas the Prophet, the son of Ammitthai, [2 Reg. 14. 25, 27, 28.] [reign of the King of Israel 2] [reign of the King of Israel 3] [reign of the King of Israel 4] [reign of the King of Israel 5] [reign of the King of Israel 6] [reign of the King of Israel 7] [reign of the King of Israel 8] [reign of the King of Israel 9] [reign of the King of Israel 10] [reign of the King of Israel 11] [reign of the King of Israel 12] [reign of the King of Israel 13] [reign of the King of Israel 14] [reign of the King of Israel 15] [reign of the King of Israel 17] [reign of the King of Israel 18] [reign of the King of Israel 19] [The Julian Period 3906] [Year before Christ 808]
At the same time, in the kingdom of Israel, prophesied Jonah the the son of Amitthai, and Hosea, the son of Beeri.
Jonah was of Gathe-Chepher, [2 Reg. 14. 25.] a town of the Tribe of Zebulon, [ Joh. 19. 13.] in Galilei of the Gentiles, [ Isaiah 9. 1.] which I note by the way, to meet with that of the Pharisees to Nicodemus, [ John. 7. 52.] where they say, [ Search and know that out of Galilie, never arose any Prophet ] for this man in the time of Joash, as it seemeth, what time the Syrians oppressed Israel, and all lay open to their invasion, and they spoiled all, and there was none to deliver them; foretold that Joash his son Jeroboam, should deliver Israel out of their hands, and avenge them of the wrongs they had endured, [2 Reg. 14. 25, 26.] and was afterward sent unto Nineveh, the Metropolis or Head city of Assyria; and by his preaching brought both King and people there to repentance for their sins, [ Jon. 3. Matth. 12. 41.]
Hosea, in the days of Jeroboam, under whom the kingdom of Israel principally flourishit; foretold the ruin and desolation of it: which also himself lived to see, as continuing in that function of prophesing, to the reign of King Hezekiah, [ Hosea 1. 1.] In the sixth year of whose reign, that of Israel came to its final end, [2 Reg. 18. 10.]
To him we may add a third, the Prophet Amos, who was taken from following his heard in Judea, and sent to prophesy to the people of Israel, [ Amos 1. 1. & 7. 14, 15.] For which cause being accused by Amasia the Priest at Bethel, before Jeroboam, and by him commanded to return into Judea; he pronounced this heavy judgment against him. Thy wife, said he, shall play the where in the very city, and thy sons, and thy daughters shall fall by the sword; and thy land shall be divided by the cord, and thou thyself shalt die in a polluted land; (viz. of Assyria) when Israel shall be carried quite away, out of her own land, [ chap. 7. 10, 12, 13, 17.] [reign of the King of Israel 20] [reign of the King of Israel 21] [reign of the King of Israel 22] [reign of the King of Israel 23] [reign of the King of Israel 24] [reign of the King of Israel 25] [reign of the King of Israel 26] [reign of the King of Israel 27] [reign of the King of Israel 28]
In Lydia, [reign of the King of Israel 29] Ardysus of the race of the Heraclidae, [The Julian Period 3917] reigned 36 years [ Euseb. [Year before Christ 797] Chron. ] [reign of the King of Israel 30] [reign of the King of Israel 31]
The kingdom of Macedon, [reign of the King of Israel 32] was set up by Caranus, [The Julian Period 3920] a man of the race of the Heraclidae. [Year before Christ 794] [reign of the King of Israel 33] [reign of the King of Israel 34] [reign of the King of Israel 35] [The Julian Period 3923] [Year before Christ 791] [reign of the King of Israel 36] [reign of the King of Israel 37] [reign of the King of Israel 38] [reign of the King of Israel 39] [reign of the King of Israel 40]
After Jeroboams death, [reign of the King of Israel 41] under whom that kingdom came to its full height and growth of glory, [The Julian Period 3930] all things declined, [Year before Christ 784] and fell headlong to decay. When those tumults arose which were the fore-runners of the destruction, first of Jeroboams own house, and then of the whole kingdom; as was foretold in the [ 7. and 8. chapters of the prophesy of Amos ] In which troubled and tempestuous state of things, all was reduced to a plain Anarchy among them: which lasted eleven years and a half, for in comparing the times of these two kingdoms, such an Interreg • um, or vacancy of a king, in the land of Israel we must make; that the six months of Zechariah the son of Jeroboam, may fall even with the thirty eighth year and the one month of Shallum, who slew him, with 39 year of Uzzia, or Azaria the king of Judah, [2 Reg. 15. 8, 13.] [The Julian Period 3931] [Year before Christ 783] [reign of the King of Israel 3] [reign of the King of Israel 4] [reign of the King of Israel 5] [reign of the King of Israel 6] [reign of the King of Israel 7] [reign of the King of Israel 8] [reign of the King of Israel 9] [The Julian Period 3938] [Year before Christ 776] [reign of the King of Israel 10] [reign of the King of Israel 11] [reign of the King of Israel 12]
Zacharias the son of Jeroboam, [reign of the King of Israel 1] the fourth and last of the race of Jehu, [The Julian Period 3941] and was foretold from God; [Year before Christ 773] began his reign in the 38 year of Azariah or Uzziah king of Judah, and reigned six months, [2 Reg. 15. 8. 12. with 10. 30.]
Now after the end of those six months, he was murdered by Shallum the sun o • Ja • esh, in the sight of all the people, [2 Reg. 15. 10.] after whose death, followed those direful calamities which were foretold by Amos the Prophet, c. 7. 9.] The High places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel made a wilderness, when I shall arise with a sword against the house of Jeroboam.
Shallum the son of Jabesh, reigned one month in the 39 year of Uzzia king of Judah, [2 Reg. 15. 13.]
Menachem the son of Gad, going from Tirza to Samaria, slew Shallum, wasted Tipsach with the borders thereof, and ripped up all the women that were great with child, [2 Reg. 15. 14, 16.]
This Menachem, is by Sulp • tius Severus in his 1 Book of his Histo. Sacra, termed here Manes; being the self-same name with Manes, or Manichaus, that grand heretic, in after times: the name of either importing as much as Parecletus, or a Comforter.
But whiles Menachem in these broils, was tugging eleven months to hold the possession of the kingdom, God stirred up the spirit of Paul king of Assyria, to invade the land of Israel, [1 Chron. 5. 26. 2 Reg. 15. 19.]
This Pul seemeth to have been the father of Sardanapalus, who was from him called Sardan-pul. as Merodach king of Babylon, from Baladan his father, was called Merodach Baladan [ Isaiah. 39. 1.] & is the same, whom Jul. African. calleth Acracarnes: Eusebius, Oceazapes: Stephanus Byzantinus, Cindaraxes: Strabo, Arrianus, and Soudas, Anacyndaraxes: and by other, (as we find in Atheneus, lib. 2. Deipnosoph.) Anabaxares, and moreover, considering well, the number of years assigned by Affricanus and Eusebius, to the reigns of him and his son, and reckoning the years backward, from the beginning of Nabonassar, and the end of Sardanapalus his reign, (which I conceive to have been both at one and the same time) this Pul may well seem to have been the self-same man, who was converted and brought to repentance by the preaching of the Prophet Jonas; so that here also the men of Nineveh, may seem to have risen in judgment against this Nation: and that God here raised up a heathen man, repentant, to take vengeance of unrepenting Israel.
But Menachem gave him a thousand talents of • ilver, to help, settle and confirm him in his kingdom, [2 Reg. 15. 19, 20.] whereunto some refer that of [Hosea, 5. 1.] When Ephraim saw her disease, and Judah her sore, Ephraim went away to the Assyrian, and sent to the king of Jareb, or, to the king, that should defend, or uphold him.
Menachem being thus confirmed in the kingdom which he had gotten, began to reign quietly in the later end of the 39 year of Azaria, or Uzzia his reign; and held the kingdom, by the space of ten years, [2 Reg. 15. 17.] [reign of the King of Israel 2] [reign of the King of Israel 3] [reign of the King of Israel 4]
Sardanapalus held the kingdom of the Assyrians, [reign of the King of Israel 5] 20 years, [The Julian Period 3947] Jul. [Year before Christ 767] African. and Euseb. who in his Epitaph (which is to be read in Atheneus lib. 12. out of Cli • archus: and in Strabo, l. 14. & in Arrianus, l. 3. of the acts of Alexander) is said to have built two Cities in Silicia, in one day, to wit, Anchialus and Tarsus. [reign of the King of Israel 6] [reign of the King of Israel 7] [reign of the King of Israel 8] [reign of the King of Israel 9] [reign of the King of Israel 10] [The Julian Period 3952] [Year before Christ 762]
Pekahia succeeded his father Menachem, [reign of the King of Israel 1] deceased in the 50 year of Azaria, [The Julian Period 3953] or Uzzia, [Year before Christ 761] k • ng o • Judah, and reigned two years, [2 R • g. • 5. 2 • . ]
Pekah, [reign of the King of Israel 2] the son o • Remalia, [The Julian Period 3955] • aving kill • ed Pekahia, [Year before Christ 759] in Samaria, in his own palace, reigned in his stead 20 years, reckoning from the 52 years of Azaria, all. Uzzia King of Judah, [2 Chr. 15. 25, 27.] [reign of the King of Israel 3] [reign of the King of Israel 4] [reign of the King of Israel 5] [reign of the King of Israel 6] [reign of the King of Israel 7] [The Julian Period 3962] [Year before Christ 752] [reign of the King of Israel 9]
Aradus, [reign of the King of Israel 10] which is a very small Island, [The Julian Period 3964] as Mela noteth, [Year before Christ 750] and the whole circumference thereof, taken up with one town, and Cyzicum, in Propontis; were this year built.
Arbaces the Governor of Media, scorning the effeminacie of Sardinapalus, conspired with Belesus the Governor of Babylon, and arm • ed against him four hundred thousand men, of Medes, Persians, Babylonians and Arabians; And having been overthrown in three battails, yet in the fourth, the Bactrian soldiers falling over to him, he set upon his enemies by might, at unawares, and beat them out of their camp, and when Sardana palus put over all the command and charge of the army, into the hands of Salaemenus his wives brother, he also being twice routed by the conspirators, lost himself, and almost all his army. And when Nineveh itself came to be besieged, Sardanapalus sent three of his sons and two daughters, with a great treasure into Paphlagonia, to one Cotta, Governor of that province; and withal, dispatched away messengers, and commissioners into all parts, to levy Soldiers, and provided all necessaries, [reign of the King of Israel 12] to endare a siege, [The Julian Period 3966] Diod. Sic. lib. [Year before Christ 748] 2.
In the third year of the siege of Nineveh. [The Julian Period 3966] the river overflowing with continual rains, [Year before Christ 748] came up into a part of the city, and foundering the wall thereof 20 furlongs in length, bare it down; which Sardanapalus perceiving, caused a huge pile of wood to be made in his palace court, set it on fire, and therein consumed himself with his concubins and eunuchs, and all his riches, and the palace it self to ashes.
The conspirators entering, by the breach which the water had made, took the city, and proclaimed Arbaces for their king, Diod. lib. 2. and Athenae. lib. 12. out of Ctesias. And so the kingdom of the Assyrians came to destruction, when from the beginning of Ninus his reign, they had held all the upper Asia 520 years, as Herod. in his first book. c. 95. affirmeth. This kingdom therefore now falling to be divided; Arbaces, whom Strabo calleth Orbacus; but Velleius Paterculus nameth Pharnaces, having freed his country-men the Medes, from the Assyrian yoke, enabled them to live in after-times, according to their own laws; as Herodotus, in the book afore-mentioned, affirmeth. Belesis, who in holy writ, [ Isaiah 39. 1. 2 Reg. 20. 12. is called Baladan: and by Agathias, lib. 2. Histo. out of Bion and Alex. Polyhist. Belessas, or Beleussus, and by Nicol. Damascenus, in his Eclogs, set forth by Hen. Valesius, Namnybrus; but by Hipparchus, Ptolomaeus, and Censorinus is called Nabonassarus, held the kingdom of Babylon 14 years.
Now from twelve a clock, of the first day of the Egyptian month Thoth, to wit, from the twenty sixth day of Feb. being with us Wednesday, evening, in the year 747. before our vulgar Christian account, all Astronomers with one consent, deduce the Calender of Nabonassar.
Ninus the younger, held the kingdom of the Assyrians (reduced now to the old bounds, and the Empire thereof quite extinguished in Sardanapalus) 19. years: as Eusebius in his Greek Chron. out of Castor the Rhodian, who in many large Volumes explained, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ( i. ) errors in Chronology. This Ninus, for better lucks sake, seemeth to have assumed the name of the first founder of the Assyrian kingdom. His own, and original name being (as Eliam, lib. 12. Histor. Annal. telleth us) Thilgamus: and in the Scriptures, Thilgath-Pilneeser, [1 Chron. 28. 20.] and Tiglath-Pileser, [2 Reg. 15. 29. and chap. 16. 7. 10.] [reign of the King of Israel 14] [reign of the King of Israel 15] [reign of the King of Israel 16] [reign of the King of Israel 17] [reign of the King of Israel 18] [The Julian Period 3972] [Year before Christ 740]
Peka slew of the men of Judah, [reign of the King of Israel 19] 120. thousand in one day, [The Julian Period 3973] all valiant men of war; [Year before Christ 741] Zichi also a mighty man of the Tribe of Ephraim slew Maaseia the Kings son, and Azrikam, the Steward of the Kings house, and Elkana who was next the King in authority. The Israelites also carried away captive out of Judah and Jerusalem, two hundred thousand women, boys, and maids, and made a vast spoil of their goods, and carried away all to Samaria: but, upon the counsel of Oded a Prophet of God, they released all that multitude of prisoners, and restored them their goods in the presence of their Princes and whole congregation of Samaria, who entreated them kindly, & caused them to be conveyed safe to their brethren at Jericho, [reign of the King of Israel 20] [2 Chron. 28.]
When Achaz implored the aide of the kings of Assyria, (for so it is said, [1 Chron. 28. 16.] in the plural number, by a usual enalage, or change of the number, Psal. 105. 30. Jer. 19, 3. and 25. 22. and 3 Isaiah. 1. 52.) against Peka, Tiglath Pileser, came up, and led away the people of Gilead or Peraea, to wit, the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, unto Chabor and Haram, and Neher-gozan; And then passsing over Jordan, possessed himself of Galiee, and carried away all the inhabitants of Nephthaly, which Ben-hadad had left, together with the men of Galilee into Assyria, [1 Chron. 5. 26. and 2 Reg. 15. 29.] which place compared with [1 Reg. 15. 20.] that place of [ Isaiah 9. 1.] seemeth to be expounded.
Hosea, [reign of the King of Israel 1] the son of Ela, [The Julian Period 3975] having murdered Peka, [Year before Christ 739] the son of Remalia, got the kingdom into his own hand, in the 20 year, from the time that Jotham began to reign over Judah, [2 Reg. 15.] that is, in the fourth year of the reign of Achaz, yet by reason of stirs and tumults, which arose thereupon, he could not presently enjoy it: but that state continued in confusion, and in a kind of Anarchy, for the space of 9 years. [reign of the King of Israel 2] [reign of the King of Israel 3] [reign of the King of Israel 4] [reign of the King of Israel 5] [The Julian Period 3979] [Year before Christ 735] [reign of the King of Israel 6] [reign of the King of Israel 7] [The Julian Period 3981] [Year before Christ 733] [reign of the King of Israel 8] [reign of the King of Israel 9] [The Julian Period 3983] [Year before Christ 731]
Hosea having composed all differences at home, [reign of the King of Israel 1] began now quietly to reign in the later end of the 12 year of Achaz king of Judah. [The Julian Period 3984] [Year before Christ 730]
Tiglath-pilezer, [reign of the King of Israel 2] or Ninus the younger, [The Julian Period 3986] when he had reigned 19 years, [Year before Christ 728] as hath been noted out of Castor, died; and after him succeeded Shalmaneser, called Evemassar, in the Greek copy of Tobias, and this seemeth to be that Shalman, who in the prophesy of Hosea 10. 14. is said to have laid wast the house of Arbel, (famous afterward for the overthrow of Darius the Persian) in the day of battle, to wit, the country of Arbela, in the land of Assyria, beneath Arpad; also against this Hosea, king of Israel, Shalmaneser came up; and made him to serve him, and to pay him tribute, [2 Reg. 17. 3.]
Sabacon an Ethiopian, [reign of the King of Israel 4] having taken Boccoris king of Egypt alive, [The Julian Period 3987] burnt him in the fire, [Year before Christ 727] and reigned in his place 8 years: [ Assrica. ]
Hosea the king of Israel, [reign of the King of Israel 6] consulting before hand with Sous king of Egypt, [The Julian Period 3989] refused to pay tribute any longer to Shalmaneser, [Year before Christ 725] [2 Reg. 17. v. 4.]
Which Sous or Sua, as Jerome calls him, seemeth to be none other, but Sabacon the Ethiopian.
Whence Chrysostom, in his 30 Homile upon John, says that this Hosea confederated with the Ethiopians: and Severus Sulpicius, in his sacred History lib. 1. saith, that he drew into his side, the kings of the Ethiopians, who at that time, held the kingdom of Egypt.
Shalmaneser, [reign of the King of Israel 7] getting knowledge that Hosea, had confederated with the king of Egypt: first of all made sure of all the land of the Moabites, that he might leave no enemy on the back of him, to annoy him or his army, razing to the ground their two chief Cities, Are, and Kir-hasareth, according to the prophecy of Isaiah uttered three years before it came to pass, [ Isaiah. 26. 1. and the last: with the notes of Tremellius thereupon:] and then he went through and wasted all the land of Israel: and then marching toward Samaria in the 4 year of Ezechia, and 7 of Hosea, in the beginning of each of them: besieged it three years, [reign of the King of Israel 8] [2 Reg. 17. 4, 5. and c. 18. 9.]
Toward the end of the 3 year of the siege of Samaria: [reign of the King of Israel 9] and 6 of the reign of Ezechia, [The Julian Period 3993] and 9 of Hosea, [Year before Christ 721] Shalmaneser took Samaria, and carried away the Israelites, into his own Country, and planted them in Chalacho, Chabor, and Nehar-gosan: whether Tiglath-pilesar, had formerly transported the inhabitants of Perea, or the two Tribes and a half inhabiting on the other side Jordan, [1 Chron. 5. 26.] and in the Cities of Media, [2 Reg. 17. 6. and c. 8. 10. 11.] for the Anarchy, which there was, before the kingly power of Media was settled upon Deioces gave occasion to the Assyrian, to invade and take in that whole country, whence it was that Tobit or Tobias the elder, who saith of himself, that he at this time, with Anna his wife, and his countrymen the Nepthalites, was carried away into the land of the Assyrians, and there made putveior or provider of corn and other victuals for Salmanasars household, and also that he was carried into media, and there placed in a principal City of Media, called Rages, and there deposited ten talents of silver, in the hand and trust of Gabel his near kinsman, and one that was carried away captive with him to the same place, [ Tobit. 1.] And this was the end of the kingdom of Israel, when it had stood severed from the kingdom of Judah, by the space of two hundred fifty and four years.
In the second year of Mardocempedus, [Year of the World 3284. b.] or of Merodach, [The Julian Period. 3994] there was seen another eclipse of the moon in Babylon, [Year before Christ 720] in the 28 year of Nabonasar, upon the 18 day of the month Thoth, at midnight (to wit, in the beginning of the 9 of March, according to the Julian Calender, upon Saturday) and 176 days, 20 hours and a half after, a third eclipse of the moon, upon the 15 day of the month Phamenoth ( in the end of the 1. of September, being Sunday ) three hours and a half before midnight, Ptolomeus lib. 4. magn. Syntax, cap 6, and 7.
Seucchus the Ethiopian, [Year of the World 3285] Sabacons son, [The Julian Period. 3995] reigned in Egypt, [Year before Christ 719] 14 years, [ African, ] who seemeth to be Sethos, Priest unto Vulcan: of whom Herodo • us, in his second book, c. 141. maketh mention.
Candaules having shown his wife to Gyges a Courtier of his, [Year of the World 3286] the son of Dascylus, [The Julian Period. 3996] in an unseemly manner, [Year before Christ 718] was by him (his wife setting him on thereto) murdered; and he thereby got, not only her, but with her the kingdom itself of Lydia also, for his labor, which is mentioned by Archilocus, of the Isle of Paros, who lived at the same time, in a Trimeter lambus of his; and so the kingdom of Lydia fell from the race of the Heraclide into the stock of the Mermuades: wherein it continued by the space of 170 years: of which Gyges himself reigned eighteen in it; Herod. lib. 1. Now that this Gyges was but a bond-slave, appeareth by that saying of Cresus his grandchild in Xenophon, Iustit. Cyri. l. 7. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . ( i.e. ) I under stand that the first of my Ancestors that here reigned, was made a king and a free man both at once: and Plato in his 2 de Repub. saith, that he was master of the kings cattle, and his name Gyges, in the eastern dialect seemeth to have been 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ( i.e. ) Gug, or Gog.
Gyges having thus gotten the kingdom, [Year of the World 3287] sent sundry great offerings to Delphi, made war upon Miletus and Smyrna: [The Julian Period. 3997] and took the City of Colophos, [Year before Christ 717] by force, Herod. lib. 1. cap. 17.
Eluleus king of Tyre, reduced under his obedience the Gitteans, which had revolted from him, making a voyage thither by sea. Against the Tyrians, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marching with his army, invaded all Phenicia: yet shortly after, making a peace with them, he returned home again: and not long after, Sidon and Ace (called afterward Ptolomais) and Poletyrus or old Tyrus, with sundry other Cities, fell off from the Tyrians to the Assyrians; and when the Tyrians only now stood out against him, he returned a second time: in which action, the Phoenicians furnished him, with sixty ships, and eight hundred Mariners: whom the Tyrians set upon with twelve ships only, and routed all that Navy, and took five hundred prisoners of them: whereby they got no small reputation at sea: But Shalmaneser returning to besiege it, set guards upon the river, and conduits, which served the City, and cut them off: which hindered them from watering: which course being held against them five year together, forced them at last to dig wells within their City walls, and to live of that. This is delivered by Menander of Ephesus, in his Chronicles, translated into Greek, out of the Tyrian Annals, cited by Joseph. 9. Antiq. cap. ult. where for Eluleus, Rufinus, an ancient Latin interpreter, calleth him Ayluleus; and thence Scaliger taketh occasion to call him Eliseus; from whom yet I dissent in this, that he here saith that the Cyprians were by Menander called Kitteans: whereas he by the name of Gitteans, understood in deed the inhabitants of Gitta, or Gath known well enough by that name in the holy Scriptures, [2 Sam. 15. 18. and c. 21. 19.] compared with [1 Sam. 17. 4.] who were also subdued to Judah, by Esechia, in the very time of this Eluleus or Eliseus, as may be gathered out of Josephus: who saith that Esechia made war upon the Philistines, and having vanquished them, joined all their Cities and Country, from Gath, to Gaza, to the kingdom of Judah: 9. Antiq. c. last save one: as also, it is clear out of [2 Reg. 15. 18. and 18. 8.] that Esechia did smite the Philistines as far as Gaza, and the territories thereof: but against the Tyrians, who at this time were grown proud and insolent by reason of their wealth and success in wars, was uttered that prophecy by [ Isaiah, 23. 1.]
But when Shalmaneser died, his son Sennacharib reigned in his stead, [ Tob. 1. 18.] whom Herod. l. 2. calleth the K. both of Assyria, and Arabia too, perchance for that the Assyrians at that time, together with Peraea, or the land of Gilead, and Hamath, or Ituraea held also a part of Arabia, either Petraea, or Deserta. For that Ivua, or Ava, which Sennacherib so much boasteth of, to have been conquered by him or his ancestors, [2 Reg. 18, 34. chap. 19. 13. Isaiah 37. 13.] was a country lying in the desert of Arabia, Fram. Junius affirms, upon [2 Reg. 17. 24.] and the prophet Isaiah; foretelling the calamity which was to fall upon the Moabites, under Shalmaneser, of which I speak before upon the year of the world 3278. and 3280. threatens them, that what ever they had laid up in store, the Assyrians should carry it away into the valley of the Arabians. Berosus also, in his History of the Chaldeans, cited by Josephus, lib. 10. cap. 1. saith, both that Sennacharib reigned in Assyria, and also that he made hot war upon all Asia and Egypt.
Now that this war of his upon Egypt, [Year of the World 3291] lasted 3 whole years, [The Julian Period. 4001] and that Palaestina also joined with him therein, [Year before Christ 713] I gather out of the 20 of the prophet Isaiah: where putting off his coat of hairy clothe (belonging to his prophetical function, as in Zach. 13. 4.) from his loins, and his shoes from off his feet, he was commanded to walk up and down, naked and bare-foot 3 years together, for a sign and token to the Egyptians and Ethiopians; intimating, that that time once run out, they should in like manner, stripped out o • their cloths, and barefoot, be led away into captivity and bondage, by the king of Assyria, which command the prophet is said to have received in the year, when Tartan being sent by Sargon, King of Assyria, besieged Ashdod and took it, [ Isaiah 20. 1.] where, by Sargon, we must understand; Sennacharib himself: among whose commanders we find this Tartan to be named, [2 Reg. 18. 17.] and by Ashdod, that famous city Azotus, a city of the Philistines; whom we shown before out of Josephus to have been subdued by King Ezekia.
But when Ezekia had shaken off the king of Assyria's yoke (which his father Achaz had taken) and would no longer serve him, [2 Reg. 17. 7.] then in the 14 of his reign, toward the end thereof, Sennacharib, coming up against the kingdom of Judah, besieged their fenced cities, and took a many of them, [ Isaiah 36. 1. 2 Reg. 18. 13. 2. Chron. 32. 2.] And when Ezekia perceived that he had a draught upon Jerusalem likewise, taking advice with his princes, he stopped up all the fountains that were about the city, and turned away the brook Gichon, which ran through, and overflowed the region thereabout, and then built up all that part of the wall, which Joas the king of Israel had demolished in the time of Amazia, and a vaumure without; and fortified the house of David, and provided himself of Darts and Targets in great abundance, and set captains and colonels over the people, and calling them together to him in the street, of the gate of the city, he made a very pithy and grave oration to them, persuading them to be of courage, and not to have any dread of the king of Assyria, nor of his army, [2 Chron. 32. 2, 8, 30.]
In those days, Ezekia fell deadly sick, and being told by Isaiah that he should die, pouring out his tears and prayers unto God, he recovered his health, and obtained a prelongation of his life and kingdom, for fifteen years, [ Isaiah 38. 1. 5, 21. 2 Reg. 2. 1, 7. 2 Chron. 32. 24.] Whereupon he composed and set forth that song; wherein first he showeth, the grievousness of his bodily sickness, with the trouble, and disquietness of mind, which he endured therein, and withal his prayer unto God thereupon; and then acknowledgeth the great benefit of his recovery received from God; and last of all, testifieth his faith in God, and promiseth to be everlastingly thankful to him for the same. It is true, that in the scripture this is set down, after the story of the slaughter of Sennacharib, and his army; yet not precisely, but with a general annotation only of the time, In those days. For that this sell out before his sickness, those words do plainly show, I will add unto thy days fifteen years, and will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city, [Isaiah 38. 5, 6. 2 Reg. 20. 6.] Now if we will subduct, out of the 29 years which Hezekiah reigned, these 15 years, we shall plainly find, that this slaughter of Sennacharib and his army fell out, in the later end of the 14 year of his reign.
Now the sign of Ezekia his recovery, which God at his request gave unto him, was that miraculous going back of the shadow of the sun, upon the dial of Ahaz; of which we read in Isaiah 38. 8. Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the Sundyal of Achaz, ten days backward, so the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down. For so Jerome renders the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which Jonathan the Chldee Paraphraser interprets, to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the stone of the hours, and renders it, by the hours and the clock, yet in his commentary upon this place, he observeth, that the Hebrew word signifieth, degrees. Which also in [2 Reg. 2. 9,] he thus expresseth, wilt thou that the shadow ascend ten degrees, or that it return back ten degrees? not may we make light of the Greek interpretation of this place, as being more ancient than any of these, which saith, that by these words of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 here • sed, no other thing is meant in this history, but the degrees of those scales or stairs which were made by Achaz, seeing that it cannot be made appear, that till after their return, from the captivity of Babylon, there was any observation or use at all of hours, among the Jews: and others also attribute the invention of the Gnomon in the dial among the Greeks, to men of a younger date as Anaximadder or Anaximener, as I shall show hereafter upon the year of the World, 3457. which yet that they received origanally from the Babylonians appeareth by that place of Herodotus, where he saith, lib. 2. cap. 109. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . That is, The Pole, and the Diall, and the distribution of the day into twelve hours, all these the Greeks learned from the Babylonians.
But as concerning the retrogradation of the Sun, mentioned in, [ Isaiah 38. 8. and Ecclesiastic. 48. 8.] as when the Sun stood still at the prayer of Joshua, the Moon also stood still at the same time, [ Josh. 10. 12, 13.] so here also, it is manifest, that with the Sun, the Moon also, and all the frame of heaven was retrograde and went backward, and that there was as much substracted from the night, as there was added to the day. For albeit, that there was a miraculous alteration in the parts of the civil day, yet that by the divine providence, things were therein so ordered, that no hurt or hindrance did there by accrue to the constant and ever self-like motion and harmony of the heavenly bodies, is evident by those three lunary Eclipsis, of which I spake before, out of Ptolemy: the account whereof being cast up from these our times backward, yield the same result of the times, as was formerly observed by the Chaldeans, and in the same manner, as if no such retrogradation or going back of the Sun had ever been.
Now in the beginning of the 15 year of Ezechia's reign, renewed, as it were, together with his life, Merodach, or Berodach Baladan, the son Baladan, the King of Babylon, sent messengers with Presents to him, to inform themselves of that prodigious and miraculous retrogradation of the Sun, which was made in the World. To whom when Ezechia out of pride and vain ostentation, had shown all his Treasure and Pomp of riches; God presently foretold him of the captivity of Babylon, which was to ensure, in these words. Behold the day's come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried away into Babylon; nothing shall be left, saith the Lord: adding further concerning his sons, when as he had yet none born, that they should also be carried into captivity, in this manner. Thy sons also, that shall issue from thee, and which thou shalt beget, shall they take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the Palace of the King of Babylon, [Isaiah 39. and 2 Reg. 20. 12, 19.] Nevertheless when Ezechia had humbled himself for his former pride, both he, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the fierce wrath of the Lord fell not upon them, in all Ezechia his days, [2 Chron. 32. 25, 26, 31.]
Mica also the Morathite, prophesied to the people in Ezechia his days; That Zion should be plowed, and Jerusalem laid in heaps, and the mountain itself of the house of the Lord, as the high places in a forest [chap. 3. 12. Jer. 26. 18, 19.]
Memnon writeth, [Year of the World 3292] that Astacum in Bithynia, [The Julian Period. 4002] was built by the Megarenses, [Year before Christ 712] in the beginning of the 17 olympiade, in Biblioth,. Photii. pa. 374.
Herodotus, lib. 2. cap. 141. telleth us, that Sennacharib invaded Egypt, with a vast Army, and made war upon Sethon, the Priest of Uulcan, a poor spirited King, and famous for nothing; but for being devoutly, or rather superstitiously addicted to the worship of his petty god Vulcan. Where he also addeth, that even in his time, there remained an image of his cut in stone, holding a mouse in his hand, and uttering these words in a label of letters;
In this expedition of Sennacharibs, I conceive, it was, that the foreteling of Nahum the Prophet against Nô, a great and strong City in Egypt, was fulfilled: The words of which prophesy, were these; yet was she carried away; she went into captivity, her young children also were dashed in pieces in the top of every street, and they cast lots for their honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains, [chap. 3. 10.]
In the rest of Egypt also, [Year of the World 3292] was fulfilled what was spoken 3 years before by the Prophet, [Isaiah 24.] The King of Assyria shall carry away a great multitude of the Egyptians captive; and of the Ethiopians young and old prisoners, naked and bare-footed: neither do I see, why that should not be referred to the Jews which is said in the two verses next following; viz. And they shall be ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory: and the inhabitants of this country shall say in that day: Behold such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to be delivered from tde King of Assyria, and how shall we escape?
For it was not for nothing, that the Assyrian messenger put them in mind, of Egypt, saying, Now behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it; for even so is Pharaoh, to all such as trust upon him, [2 Reg. 18. 27.] for we find the same similitude used by God of the Egyptians and Israelites, in Ezekiel, 29. 6, 7. and likewise in Isaiah, chap. 30. and chap. 31. many things, spoken against the vain hope which the Jews had of help from Egypt, and among the rest this also, Therefore, saith he, shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and your trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion, for the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to stay at home, [chap. 30. 3, 7.]
Sennacharib, returning out of Egypt into Palestine, besieged Lachish, and all his power with him, [2 Chron. 32. 9.] Hezekiah sent unto him to Lachish, to buy his peace, and agreed with him for it, at a certain price; wherefore draining all his own treasure, whereof he had formerly been so proud; as also the treasury of the temple, he paid him 300 talents of silver, and 30 talents of gold; but he having received the money, stood not to his word, but sent Tartan, who had now taken Azotus, and Rabsari's, and Rabsheca with a great army, from Lachish to Jerusalem, [2 Reg. 18. 14, 17.]
These coming to Jerusalem, stood at the cundit, of the upper pool, upon the high-way of the fullers field, and when they called out to speak with the king Eliakim, the son of Hilkia; which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joach the son of Asaph, the Recorder, went fourth unto them. And when they would not deliver up the city, as was desired, Rabsecah then cried out, that Ezekia did all in vain rely upon God for help, and that he himself came not thither, but as he was sent from God; and having reviled the God of Israel and Ezekia, his servant with many reproachful languages, he moved at last the people, to mutiny and to fall over to his master the king of Assyria. And this they speak aloud, and in the Hebrew tongue; that the people which then stood upon the wall might hear and understand what they said; to frighten and perplex their minds, that in that tumult they might assault and take the city, [ Isaiah 36. 2 Reg. 18. from v. 17. to the end of the chapter, 2 Chron. 32. 9. 18.]
Ezekia hearing thereof, rent his clothes, and putting on sackcloth, went into the house of the Lord; and withal, sent Eliakim and Shebna, and with them, the elders of the priests, clothed likewise in sackcloth unto Isaiah the prophet, to pray him that he would ask counsel of God, in this sad case, and power forth his prayers unto him for help, and the prophet bade him be of good comfort; for that the king of Assyria, should hear a flying report, and thereupon should break up his siege, and get him gone into his own country, and there be slain with the sword; all which forth-with came to pass, [ Isaiah 37. 1. 17. 2 Reg. 19, 1, 7.]
Rabshakeh, when he could not prevail, returned to Sennacarib, whom he found risen from before Lachish, and besieging Libna, [ Isaiah 37. 8. 2 Reg. 19. 8.]
Tiraka king of Ethiopia, did not invade Egypt, and Syria, as Scaliger, without all ground, in his notes upon Eusebius; p. 72. and in his Isagogical Canons, pag. 311. would have it; but rather, he sent forces to assist and help the Egyptians and Jews; for the Scripture is clear, that he came forth to fight against Sennacharib, [ Isaiah 37. 9. 2 Reg. 19. 9.] This Tirhaka, Strabo lib. 1. and 15. calleth, Tearcon the Ethiopian: and further reporteth out of Megasthenes, a writer of the affairs of India, that he passed over into Europe, and went as far as Hercules his pillars.
Sennacharib therefore hearing a report of Tirhaka his approach, being ready to remove to Libna, sent his minatory and railing letters unto Ezekia, speaking therein of the God of Israel, as of the gods of the nations, the work of men's hands, which Hezekiah opening and spreading before the Lord in his Temple, with many tears poured forth, craved aide and deliverance from God, against the Assyrians, and received an answer from God by Isaiah the prophet, that God would defend that city, and that the king of Assyria should not so much as come before it, but should return by the way he came; [ Isaiah 37. 9, 35. 2 Reg. 19. 9. 2 Chron. 32. 17, 19, 20.]
The very self same night after these things passed at Jerusalem, and a few days, after his victory achieved against the Ethiopians, which to have fallen out much about this time, some gather out of the 18 and 20 chapters of Isaiah, God sent his Angel, and destroyed every man of valor, every commander, and chief man in the Assyrian army, and the next morning there were found one hundred fourscore and five thousand dead carcases lying on the ground: whereupon Sennacharib with shame, brak up, and returned into his own land, and rested him at Nineveh; where it came to pass, that as he was at his devotions, before his god Nisroch, Adramelich and Sharezer slew him with the sword; which done, they fled presently into the land of Ararat, or Armenia; and Esor-haddon his son reigned in his stead, [ Isaiah 37. 36, 37, 38. 2 Reg. 19. 35, 36, 37. 2 Chron. 32. 21.] All which had been fore-told by the prophet Isaiah, [ c. 38. and in chap. 31. 9. also,] as some conceive.
In the first chap. of the book of Tobia, there are these things found which belong to this story; That Sennacharib, when he came fleeing out of Judea, for the very hatred which he bare to the Israelites, slew many of the Jews, and that Tobit, or Tobia the elder, stole away the dead bodies, and bestowed burial on them; and that being thereof accused to the King of Nitive, he was fain to get him gone from thence, and to hide his head elsewhere for a certain time: and that he was plundered and spoiled of all his goods, having naught left him to trust unto, save only Anne his wife, and Tobias his son. That after 45 days, or as the Greek copy hath it, before 55 days, Sennacharib was murdered by his sons; and that they fleeing away into the mountains of Ararat, Esarchaddon his son reigned in his stead, being wrong named in sundry copies; in some Achirdon, in some Sarchedon; and that the new King set Achiacarus, the son of Hananeel Tobits brother, over all his fathers accounts and his own: insomuch, that he was not only his Steward and keeper of his accounts; but was also cup-bearer, and privy seal unto him, and was the second man after the King.
Hezekiah had his son Manasseh, by Hephziba, after the prolonging of his life 3 years, and 12 before his death.
When the Medes had hitherto now lived without a King, and Dejoces would not attend the judging of their causes and controversies any longer, and thereupon ensued nothing but spoilings and robberies in all places; the people finding the inconveniences of an Anarchy, or want of a King, whereof the least was not, that the Assyrian taking hold of this occasion, had possessed himself of many cities and places in Media; as I noted before upon the year of the World, 3283. they submitted all with one accord to Dejoces, 150 years before Cyrus began his reign: as Herodotus in his first book averreth; whom, giving off Ctesias in this point, both Dionysius, Halicarnasseus, and Appianus Alexandrinus, in the beginning of his Roman Histories, do follow. Though Diodorus Siculus, in his second book: whether thorough failler of memory, or false copying, hath here put Cyaxaris for Dejoces; who is said to have been elected King over the Medes, about the second year of the 17 olympiade, according to Herodotus: For subducting 150. years from the beginning of Cyrus his reign, which as he supposes, falls in with the beginning of the 55 olympiade, and consequently with the midst of the year, 4154. of the Julian Period: it follows that the 1 year of Dejoces the first King of the Medes must be placed upon the 3 year of the 17 olympiade, and the middle of the 4004. year of the Julian Period; allowing the later end of the second year of the same olympiade, to have been taken up and spent in the transaction of the business itself, and election made of the new King; which first Epocha or point of the beginning of this new kingdom of the Medes to have been most rightly assigned and set down by Herodotus, the precise times of every Kings reign, compared with the Eclipse of the Sun, which befell in the reign of Cyaxares, here underneath, in the year of the World, 3403. to be spoken of, will manifestly declare.
The fifteenth Jubilie, which was the middle-most of all the rest, and the most joyfully kept, [Year of the World 3295. a.] next to that of Solomon's at the dedication of the Temple; both for the fresh memory of so great a deliverace, and also for the great prosperity of the place ensuing thereupon: So that many brought offerings and gifts to the Lord at Jerusalem; and rich presents to the King himself; for he was magnified after this among all nations, and prospered in whatever he undertook, [2 Chron. 32. 23, 27, 30.]
And God himself did so rule, and govern the people itself of Judah, after such their delivery, that (according to his own promise made) they took root downward, and brought fruit upward, [2 Chron. 32. 22. Isaiah. 37. 31, 32.] Moreover the consideration of the Jubilie is necessary for the understanding of that sign of God's mercy given the year before unto Ezekia: You shall eat, saith God, this year, that which groweth of itself, and the second year, that which springeth of the same; and in the third year, sow ye, and reap ye, and plant vineyards, and eat of the fruit thereof, [Isaiah. 37. 30. 2 Reg. 19. 29.] for because the last years harvest was either gathered by the enemy which roved all the country over, [Year of the World c.] (according to God's threatening, Levite. 27. 16. Deut. 28. 33. Jerem. 5. 17.) or by them spoiled and trodden underfoot; necessary it was for the people to live that year upon that which grew of itself: and this year by reason of the Jubilie, it was not lawful either to sow or reap, which otherwise, no sabbatical year intervening, might well have been done: seeing the Assyrian Army being destroyed by the Angel, there was nothing to hinder them. But the year following, when there was neither enemy to fright them, nor sabbatical year to withhold them, they might fall securely to their husbandry as at other times.
Unto Mardosempadus, [Year of the World b.] or Merodach Baladam, after he had reigned 12 years in Babylon, succeeded Arkianus in the 29 year of Nabonaser, and reigned 5 years [ Ptol. in Reg. Can. ]
Parion in the coast of Hellespont, near unto Lampsacus, was built, Euseb. Chron. or rather re-edified by the Milesians and Erythreans, who sent thither a Colony at this time to plant it anew.
Dejoces King of the Medes in the first year of the 18 olympiade, [Year of the World 3296] which was this year, [The Julian Period. 4006] built Ecbatan, [Year before Christ 708] as we read in Eusebius his Greek Chronicle; This City in [ Ezra 6. 2.] is called Acmetha: but by Ctesias in his Persica,