SECTION III.

FROM THE ARRIVAL OF NEHEMIAH TO THE INVASION OF ASIA BY ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

IN the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, Nehemiah, the cup-bearer of the king, obtained permission to visit Jerusalem, and bringing a commission from the king, to act with plenary authority as governor, he of course superseded Ezra, and took the supreme direction of all affairs into his own hands. Nehemiah was a man of uncommon piety; and immediately on his arrival, devoted himself to the business of repairing, or rather rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, and setting up the gates, for which work he had obtained an express commission from the king. That which stirred up the heart of this good man was, the reports brought to him of the desolate condition of the holy city, and the deep affliction of the people there.

It is altogether probable that his petition to the king, was rendered successful, in a great measure, by queen Esther; for it is particularly mentioned, that the queen was sitting by the king. (Neh. ii. 6.)

A royal decree was issued for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem; and the king, to give honour as well as safety to the mission of his favorite courtier, sent with him a guard of horse. Still, however, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the Samaritans, continued to cast obstructions in the way of the execution. of this work. Not only were they influenced by their old hatred of the Jews, but during the captivity they had seized on their vacant lands, which they were now required to relinquish. But Nehemiah, in spite of all opposition, pushed on the work, distributing to particular persons and companies, the several parts of the wall; so that in fifty-two days after the commencement of the work, the wall was finished.

Sanballat the Horonite, Tobias the Ammonite, and Geshem. the Arabian, were the men who continually endeavoured to obstruct the work in which Nehemiah was engaged. They laid many snares for his life, which by his courage and wisdom he was enabled to escape. During part of the time, however, the people were obliged to work on the wall with their weapons in their hands; and as they were far separated from each other, on different parts of the wall, the Tirshatha or governor, gave orders that in case of attack, the trumpet should sound, and all hands should immediately resort to him. After the walls were finished and the gates set up, a public dedication was celebrated with great solemnity, by the priests, Levites, and all the people. The people having much public work to perform, and many

of them being poor, were under the necessity of borrowing money, of which necessity avaricious usurers took advantage, by lending out their money at exorbitant interest; by which means multitudes were ruined in their circumstances, and were forced to mortgage their lands, and sell their children for bondmen, to obtain bread for their subsistence. Nehemiah was much displeased upon hearing of this iniquity, so contrary to the Jewish law. He therefore set himself with energy to correct the abuse. After expostulating with the transgressors, he had a decree enacted in a full assembly of the people, that all money exacted for usury should be returned, and that all mortgaged lands should be restored, and thus the yoke of oppression was broken off from the necks of the poor.

Nehemiah having spent twelve years at Jerusalem, prepared to return to the Persian court, for he had received permission to be absent only for a limited time. Having arranged affairs as well as he could, and appointed Hanani and Hananiah to be governors of Jerusalem, he returned to Persia. This fact is not stated in the sacred text, but it may be inferred from the appointment of the aforementioned persons as governors, which could not have been necessary, had he continued there.

His object in returning to Persia was not to remain there, but to obtain a new commission from the king, to carry on the reformation of the Jewish church and state. It seems probable, that he was not absent much more than one year, after which he came back to Jerusalem, and continued his pious and useful labours, by establishing a strict and regular police in the city. But observing that the number of inhabitants was still too small to occupy the place, he invited the rulers and great men of the nation to build houses in Jerusalem, and dwell there: and also caused every tenth man of the tribes to be taken by lot, whom he compelled to make this the place of their residence. Every thing being now well regulated, and the city well supplied with inhabitants, it arose rapidly to a state of prosperity; so that Herodotus, the historian, who visited it not long after this time, compares it to Sardis, the metropolis of Asia Minor.

Nehemiah now addressed himself to the work of having the genealogies of the people, and especially of the priests, correctly made out; which was necessary, not only for the regulation of the landed property of the nation, but also for the service of the temple; so that no person not of the sacerdotal race might be permitted to officiate there. He, therefore, searched for the genealogies of those who first returned from captivity, under Joshua and Zerubbabel, and from these he formed new tables, by striking out such families as had become. extinct, and inserting the names of those who had returned.

since that time. This will account for the discrepance between the genealogies recorded in the book of Ezra, and in that of Nehemiah.

Although after the arrival of Nehemiah at Jerusalem, the government devolved upon him, yet Ezra continued his biblical labours; and by the time that Nehemiah made his second visit, he had copies of the Scriptures corrected and prepared, and began the public reading of them at the feast of trumpets. This occurred on the first day of Tisri, which had always been reckoned the first month of the year, until the time when the Israelites left Egypt, after which they were directed to commence their year with the month Nisan. Still, however, for all merely civil matters, Tisri was reckoned the beginning of the year. At this festival, the people being assembled from all parts at Jerusalem, Ezra was requested to bring out the law and read it. A pulpit, or scaffold of wood, was erected, that he might be elevated above the people, and that there might be room, this pulpit was set up in the widest street in the city. And so intent were the people on hearing, that they assembled for the same purpose the next day, and although there fell a hard rain during the time, they remained in their place.

When Ezra had read as far as to the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus, it was found that the law of God required the people to make booths of the branches of trees, and for seven days to celebrate a feast. Upon the hearing of which they determined, that when the appointed day arrived, (the fifteenth of Tisri,) they would literally comply with the requisitions of the law; which accordingly they did, and celebrated this feast with a solemnity exceeding any thing that had been witnessed since the days of Joshua. At this festival, also, Ezra took advantage of the collection of all the people, and went on with the reading and expounding of the law, which had been commenced at the feast of trumpets: and, during the whole seven days, he read to the people out of the law. The people, on hearing the precepts and commandments of the Lord, were greatly troubled on account of their transgressions, which they now found were very

numerous.

Ezra and Nehemiah, to improve the present convictions and penitent feelings of the people, proclaimed a fast immediately after the feast was over. At this time they engaged the people to enter into solemn covenant with God, obliging themselves, 1st. Not to intermarry with the heathen. 2. To observe the Sabbath, and the Sabbatical years. 3. To pay their annual tribute for the support of the temple.

The conviction that the people now felt, that their transgressions were very much owing to their ignorance of the law, was

the occasion of that frequent reading of it, which eventually led to the building of synagogues, wherever a sufficient number of Jews were settled to bear the expense, and conduct the worship.

Artaxerxes died 424 B. C., after a reign of forty-one years and a few months, and was succeeded by Xerxes, the only son that he had by his queen. By his concubines he had seventeen sons, among whom were Sogdianus, Ochus, and Arsites. Xerxes, having made himself drunk at a public feast, and having retired to his chamber, Sogdianus, taking advantage of it, went in and slew him, when he had sat but forty-five days on the throne. The mother of Xerxes died on the same day.

Sogdianus having rendered himself odious to the people, by the murder of his brother, and also by that of one of his father's most faithful eunuchs, found himself very unsafe on the throne, which he had obtained so unrighteously; whereupon, he grew very jealous of his brothers, and especially of Ochus, whom he sent for, to come to him. But Ochus, apprehending some mischief, drew together a large army and marched against him, professing that it was his purpose to avenge the death of his brother. Upon which many of the nobility revolted from Sogdianus, and went over to Ochus, and having put the royal diadem on his head, declared him king. Sogdianus finding himself abandoned, entered into negotiation with Ochus, who having got him into his hands, put him to death by throwing him into a furnace of ashes.

As soon as Ochus had possession of the throne, he changed his name to Darius. Among the Greek historians he is known. by the name of Darius Nothus. He for a while yielded himself up to the direction of his eunuchs and his wife. He ascended the throne 423 B. C. His brother Arsites revolted against him, but was unsuccessful, and being taken, was, like Sogdianus, thrown into a furnace of ashes-a cruel death in use among the Persians, in which the person died of suffocation, very gradually. Another insurgent, named Pysuthnes, was executed in the same manner. About the year 410 B. C., the Egyptians threw off the Persian yoke, and made one Amyrtaeus king. With the aid of the Arabians, they expelled the Persians from Egypt, pursued them as far as Phenicia, and maintained their independence sixty-four years. Ochus or Darius sent another army into Egypt, which, marching through Judea, inflicted many evils on the Jews.

Eliashib, who was high-priest when Nehemiah came to Jerusalem, died, 413 B. C., and was succeeded by his son Joiada. He had continued in the office of high-priest for no less than forty years.

About this time, Diagoras the Melian, who had settled himself at Athens, was condemned for teaching atheism; and though

he made his escape, the sentence was pronounced on him, while absent, and a talent offered to whomsoever should kill him, wherever he might be found. About twenty years before this time, the Athenians had proceeded against another philosopher, called Protagoras, for only expressing a doubt concerning the existence of God.

According to Dr. Prideaux, the first of the seventy prophetic weeks of Daniel ended with the fifteenth year of Darius Nothus; for then the restoration of the Jewish state, and the worship of the temple was completed. The last act of Nehemiah, which is recorded, (Neh. xiii. 23-31,) was just forty-nine years after the work had been begun by Ezra, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus. This last act was the separation of those from their heathen wives, who had transgressed the law in regard to marriage, and the prohibition of all such alliances for ever after. But it seems to have been impossible to prevent the continual repetition of this evil, and that by men in the highest stations; for Manasseh, as he is called by Josephus, the son of Joiada, married the daughter of Sanballat the Horonite, and when Nehemiah was using his utmost power to enforce the law, and cause the people to put away their strange wives, Manasseh rather than comply, left the nation; and relinquishing all his prospects of distinction, took up his abode with his father-in-law, the governor of Samaria.

This event gave rise to an important transaction, which perpetuated the hatred between the Jews and Samaritans. Sanballat obtained leave from Darius Nothus, to build on mount Gerizim, at Samaria, a temple, in imitation of the temple at Jerusalem, of which he made his son-in-law Manasseh the highpriest. Josephus places this event much lower down in another reign, but he has probably fallen into a chronological mistake. Samaria having now a rival house of worship, became the asylum of all renegado Jews. This ready reception of rebellious and excommunicated persons, produced a bitterness of hatred in the Jews against the Samaritans, which induced them to denounce against them an awful curse, and reject them from every sort of friendly intercourse; and even prevented their exercising towards them the common rites of humanity, of which there is sufficient evidence in the Gospels, as has been said before. The Jews went so far in their anathemas against the Samaritans, that they excluded them from all part in the resurrection, and would on no account receive them as proselytes.

After their temple was built, the Samaritans pretended that this was the mountain which God had chosen for his place of worship. They asserted that here Abraham and Jacob offered sacrifices and built altars; and that Joshua, when he brought