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even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith Jehovah of Hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap; and he shall sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto Jehovah an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto Jehovah, as in the days of old, and as in former years. And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith Jehovah of Hosts. For I am Jehovah, I change not; therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.*

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But that they might be left without excuse, and that an additional warning might be given them, the prophet adds, Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of Jehovah : and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.t

With the transactions in which Ezra and Nehemiah were engaged ends the historical, and with Malachi the prophetical, canon of the Old Testament scriptures; for all the prophets, as we have seen, flourished during or previous to that period. We must now, therefore, forsake our unerring

* Mal. iii. 1-6. See this prophecy explained and illustrated by Dr. Gill, on the Messiah, and W. Harris's Practical Sermons, 561-591. Mal. iv. 4-6.

guide, and collect the intervening history of this interesting people from sources which, however correct, are destitute of that divine authority which is entitled to command belief.

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Nehemiah is supposed to have held the government of Judea till his death, of which we have no account, and that after his decease, that country was added to the prefecture of Syria, under whom the successive high priests administered the affairs of the Jewish nation.*

Eliashib held that sacred office in the time of Nehemiah,† and on the death of Joiada, it devolved upon his son, Johanan, or Jonathan.+

During this latter pontificate, the people incurred a severe punishment from the misconduct of Johanan; for Jeshua, his brother, having insinuated himself into the favour of Bagoses, then prefect of Syria, obtained from him a grant of the high priesthood, with which Johanan had already been invested some years. On coming to Jerusalem, and attempting to assume the duties of the priesthood by force, Johanan opposed him with equal violence; and in the contest, Johanan slew his brother, in the inner court of the temple, thereby committing alike the crimes of murder and profanation.

When Bagoses was informed of this transaction, he came to Jerusalem, and was proceeding into the temple to take cognizance of the fact. Upon its being represented to him, that his entrance therein as a gentile would be esteemed a profanation, he exclaimed, What! am I not more pure than

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the dead carcass of the man you have slain? And then proceeding into the temple itself, and examining the merits of the case, he imposed a fine, which is estimated at from £1,150. to £1,750. per annum, which continued about seven years afterwards.*

During the same pontificate, Ochus, who had succeeded Artaxerxes Mnemon on the throne of Persia,† having quelled the revolt in Phoenicia, and reduced the city of Sidon to ashes, +

* Prid. i. 541. 543. Josephus calls Joiada, Judas; Johanan, John; Jos. ii. 128. Antiq. xi. 7,

+ Prid. i. 547.

This was probably one of the oldest cities in the world, and named after the eldest son of Canaan. (Gen. x. 15. 19.) It was also a great city. (Josh. xi. 8. xix. 28.) She was the mother of Old Tyre, (Is. xxiii. 12. Newton, i. 175.); and she is included in most* of the denunciations against both Old and New Tyre; but there is one which seems peculiar to herself, and to foretel this very siege and its results. "Son of man set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it, and say, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I am against thee, O Zidon, and I will be glorified in the midst of thee, and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her. For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets, and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side, and they shall know that I am Jehovah." Ezek. xxviii. 21, 22, 23. "Tennes was at this time king of Zidon, and he had with him Mentor, the Rhodian, with four thousand Greek mercenaries; but on the approach of Ochus, both the one and the other betrayed the Zidonians, and allowed the Persians to come into the city, which was well fortified both by land and by sea. The inhabitants, finding themselves thus betrayed, retired into their houses, set fire to them over their own heads, and no less than forty thousand men, besides women and children, were destroyed; and last of all, Ochus put Tennes himself to death. There were such vast quantities of gold and silver in Sidon when this calamity happened, and which was all melted down by the flames, that Ochus sold the ashes of the ruined city for great sums of money." Prid. i. 553. Un. Hist. i. 411. So true is it that the goods of the wicked shall flow • Is. xxiii. 2. 4. Jer. xlvii. 4. Ezek. xxxii. 30. Joel, iii. 4. Zech. ix. 2.

marched against the Jews who had sided with the Phonicians; and having besieged and taken Jericho, made. many captives, and led part of them with him into Egypt, and sent a great number of others into Hyrcania, and there planted them on those parts of that country which lay on the Caspian Sea.*

On the death of Johanan, he was succeeded in the priesthood by his son Jaddua,† during whose pontificate, that extraordinary transaction with Alexander the Great took place, which, although it rests on the testimony of Josephus alone, appears to have obtained general credit amongst learned men. Philip, king of Macedon, having reduced the states of Greece to submission to his authority, and procured himself to be appointed captain general of the whole territory, engaged in a war with the Persians; and was about to join his army, when he was assassinated by one of his own subjects, just at the moment he was impiously assuming the power and authority of the Deity.+

Alexander, his son, succeeded to his throne and authority over Greece; and after a short interval marched with thirty thousand foot and five thousand horse to Sestus, and thence crossed the Hellespont into Asia, with a view to the conquest of the Persian empire.§

Having defeated the Persian army at the battle of Granicum,

away in the day of the wrath of Jehovah. Job, xx. 28. See an interesting account of Sidon, the modern Seyda, in Buckingham's Travels amongst the Arabs, pp. 385-433.

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It is observed by Diodorus, that, in this solemnity, the images of twelve gods and goddesses being carried before him into the theatre, he added his own for the thirteenth, dressed in the same pompous habit, whereby he vainly arrogated to himself the honour of a god; but he being slain as soon as this image entered the theatre, this very signally proved him to be a mortal. Prid. i. 561.

§ Prid. i. 563.

the dead carcass of the man you have slain? And the
ceeding into the temple itself, and examining the m
the case, he imposed a fine, which is estimated
£1,150. to £1,750. per annum, which continued abo
years afterwards.*

During the same pontificate, Ochus, who had Artaxerxes Mnemon on the throne of Persia,† havi the revolt in Phoenicia, and reduced the city of Sido.

* Prid. i. 541. 543. Josephus calls Joiada, Judas; Jo Jos. ii. 128. Antiq. xi. 7.

+ Prid. i. 547.

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