canonical, as it appeared by the difficulty which the Trentine fathers found to make it so. In the fifth year of Zedekiah, which was also the fifth year of Jehoiachin's captivity, and the thirtieth from the great reformation made in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, Ezekiel An. 594. Zedek. 5. was called of God to be a prophet among the Jews of the captivity. And this same year he saw the vision of the four cherubims, and the four wheels, which is related in the first chapter of his prophecies. The same year were also relvealed unto himh the three hundred and ninety years of God's utmost forbearance of the house of Israel, and the forty years of God's utmost forbearance of the house of Judah, and the judgment which, after that, God would inflict upon both; as the whole is contained in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of his prophecies. In the same yeari died Cyaxares, king of Media, after he had reigned forty years; and Astyages his son, who in Scripture is called Ahasuerus reigned in his stead. In the same year* died also Psammis, king of Egypt, in an expedition which he made against the Ethiopians; and Apries his son, the same who in Scripture is called Pharaoh Hophra, succeeded him in that kingdom, and reigned twenty-five years. In the same year Ezekiel, being in a vision, was carried to Jerusalem, and there shewn all the several sorts of idolatry which were practised by the Jews in that place, and had revealed unto him the punishments which God would inflict upon them for those abominations; and this makes up the subject of the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters of his prophecies. But at the same time, God promised to those of the captivity, who, avoiding these abominations, kept themselves steady and faithful to his service, that he would become a sanctuary unto them in the strange land where they were carried, and bring them back again unto the land of Israel, and there make them flourish f The History of Trent, book 2, p. 144. g Ezek. i, 1, 2, 3, &c. Ezek. iv, 4, 5, 6, &c. i Herod. lib. 1. k Herod. lib. 26. in peace and righteousness, as in former times. AllTM which the prophet declared to the Jews at Babylon, among whom he dwelt. In the seventh year of Zedekiah, God did, both by types and words of revelation, foreshew unto An. 592. Ezekiel the taking of Jerusalem by the ChalZedek. 7. deans, Zedekiah's flight from thence by night, the putting out of his eyes, and his imprisonment and death at Babylon; and also the carrying away of the Jews at the same time into captivity, the desolation of their country, and the many and great calamities which should befall them for their iniquities: and this is the subject of the twelfth chapter of his prophecies. And what is contained in the seven following chapters was also the same year revealed unto him, and relates mostly to the same subject. n At this time Daniel was grown to so great a perfection and eminency in all righteousness, holiness, and piety of life, in the sight both of God and man, that he is by God himself equalled with Noah and Job, and reckoned with these two to make up the three, who of all the saints that had till then lived upon the earth, had the greatest power to prevail with God in their prayers for others. And yet he was then but a young man; for, allowing him to be eighteen when he was carried away to Babylon, among other children, to be there educated, and brought up for the service of the king, (and a greater will not agree with this character,) thirty-two at this time must have been the utmost of his age. But he dedicated the prime and vigour of his life to the service of God; and that is the best time to make proficiency therein. Zedekiah, having in the seventh year of his reign ° An. 591. sent ambassadors into Egypt, made a confedZedek. 7. eracy with Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt; and therefore, the next year, after breaking the oath of fidelity which he had sworn in the name of the Lord his God unto Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, he rebelled against him; which drew on him that war which ended in his ruin, and in the ruin of n Ezek. xiv, 14, 20. o Ezek, xvii, 15. m Ezek. xi, 25. An. 590. Zedek. 9. all Judah and Jerusalem with him, in that calamitous destruction in which both were involved hereby. In the ninth year of Zedekiah,P Nebuchadnezzar, having drawn together a great army out of all the nations under his dominion, marched against him, to punish him for his perfidy and rebellion. But on his coming into Syria, finding that the Ammonites had also entered into the same confederacy with Egypt against him, he was¶ in a doubt for some time which of these two people he should first fall upon, them, or the Jews; whereon he committed the decision of the matter to his diviners, who, consulting by the entrails of their sacrifices, their terephim, and their arrows, determined for the carrying of the war against the Jews. The way of divining by arrows was usual among these idolaters. The manner of it, Jerome tells us was thus: They wrote on several arrows the names of the cities they intended to make war against, and then putting them promiscuously all together into a quiver, they caused them to be drawn out thence in the manner as they draw lots; and that city, whose name was on the arrow first drawn, was the first they assaulted. And by this way of divination, the war being determined against Judah, Nebuchadnezzar immediately marched his army into that country, and in a few days took all the cities thereof, excepting only Lachish, Azekah, and Jerusalem: whereon, the Jews at Jerusalem, being terrified with these losses, and the apprehensions of a siege, then ready to be laid to that place, made a shew of returning unto the Lord their God, and entered into a solemn covenant, thenceforth to serve him only, and faithfully observe all his laws. And in pursuance hereof, proclamation was made, that every man should let his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant, being an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free," according to the law of God; and every man did according hereto. p 2 Kings xxv, 1. 2 Chron. xxxvi, 17. Jer. xxxix, 1; lii, 4. q Ezek. xxi, 19-24. r In comment. in Ezek. xxi, u Deut. xv, 12. VOL. 1. 27 8 Jer. xxxiv, 7. On the tenth month of the same year, and the tenth day of the month, (which was about the end of our December,) Nebuchadnezzar, with all his numerous army, laid siege to Jerusalem, and blocked it close up on every side; in memory whereof, the tenth day of Tebeth, which is their tenth month, hath ever since been observedy by the Jews, as a day of solemn fast even to this time. On the same tenth day of the tenth month, in which this siege began at Jerusalem, was the same revealed to Ezekiel in Chaldea; where, by the type of a boiling pot, was foreshewn unto him the dismal destruction which should thereby be brought upon that city. And the same night, the wife of the prophet, who was the desire of his eyes, was, by a sudden stroke of death, taken from him; and he was forbid by God to make any manner of mourning for her, or appear with any of the usual signs of it upon him, thereby to foreshew, that the holy city, the temple, and the sanctuary, which were dearer to them than any wife can be in the eyes of her husband, should not only, by a speedy and sudden stroke of destruction, be taken from them, but that the calamity ensuing thereon should be such, and so great, as should not allow them as much as to mourn for the loss of them. In the beginning of the tenth year of Zedekiah, b the prophet Jeremiah, being sent of God, deAn. 589. clared unto him, that the Babylonians, who Zedek. 10. were now besieging of the city, should certainly take it, and burn it with fire, and take him prisoner, and carry him to Babylon; and that he should die there. Whereon Zedekiah, being much displeased, put him in prison, and, while he was shut up there, even in this very year, he purchased of Hanameel, his uncle's son, a field in Anathoth; thereby to foreshew, that although Judah and Jerusalem should be laid desolate, and the inhabitants led into captivity, yet there should be a restoration, when lands and possessions should be again enjoyed by the legal owners of them, in the same manner as in former times. x 2 Kings xxv, 1. Jer. xxxix, 1; lii, 4. a Ezek. xxiv, 16-18. c Jer. xxxii, 1—3. d Jer. xxxii, 7—17. ! Pharaoh Hophrae coming out of Egypt with a great army to the relief of Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar raised the siege of Jerusalem to march against him. But, before he went on this expedition,f he sent all the captive Jews which he then had in his camp to Babylon, the number of which were eight hundred and thirty-two persons. On the departure of the Chaldeans from Jerusalem, Jeremiah being again set at liberty, 8 Zedekiah sent unto him Jehucal, the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to inquire of the Lord by him, and to desire him to pray for him and his people. To whom the prophet returned an answer from God, that the Egyptians, whom they did depend upon, would certainly deceive them; that their army would again return into Egypt, without giving them any help at all; and that thereon the Chaldeans would again renew the siege, take the city, and burn it with fire. But the general opinion of the people being, that the Chaldeans were gone for good and all, and would return no more to renew the war against them, they h repented of the covenant of reformation, which they had entered into before God, when they were in fear of them; and caused every man's servant, and every man's handmaids, whom they had set at liberty, again to return into servitude, to be unto them again for servants and for handmaids, contrary to the law of the Lord and the covenant which they had lately entered into with him, to walk according to it. For which inhuman and unjust act, and their impious breach of the covenant lately made with God, Jeremiah proclaimed liberty to the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, to execute the wrath of God upon them, and their king, and their princes, and all Judah and Jerusalem to their utter destruction. While the Chaldeans were yet absent from Jerusalem,* Jeremiah intending to retire to Anathoth, his native place, that thereby he might avoid the siege, which he knew would be again renewed on the return e Jer. xxxvii, 5. g Jer. xxxvii, 3-10. i Jer. xxxiv, 17-22. k Jer. xxxvii, 11-15, |