A. Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, and Zephaniah.* A. M. 3382. Q. What occurred in the eighteenth B. C. 622. year of his reign >

A. While the workmen were repairing the temple, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law, and sent it to the king. Josiah immediately ordered Shaphan the scribe to read it; but was so alarmed at the judgments denounced against idolatry, of which the house of Judah had been very guilty, that he sent several men of rank to inquire of the Lord, by Huldah the prophetess, concerning them.

Q. What answer was returned?

A. They were sent back to tell Josiah that the Lord would bring upon Jerusalem, for the idolatry of its inhabitants, all the curses of the book; but that he should be gathered to his grave in peace, and should not see the evil, because he had humbled himself before God. Josiah therefore assembled the elders and people of the land, small and great, in the temple; and having read to them the book of the law, engaged them to serve the Lord with all their hearts.

Q. What was the consequence of this covenant?

A. Josiah demolished the idolatrous temples, brake the images in pieces, burnt the chariots of the sun, and took away the horses; overturned all the altars, cut down the groves, defiled the high places and Tophet,

* Obadiah and Habbakuk are supposed by commentators to have been cotemporary with these prophets.

purged the temple of the vessels made for Baalim and and slew the idolatrous priests.

the groves;

Q. What prediction was fulfilled at this time?

A. The prediction of the man of God who cried against the altar at Bethel, in the days of Jeroboam I.; for Josiah offered upon that altar the priests of the high places, and burnt upon it the bones of men brought from the neighbouring sepulchres ;* after which he broke down both the altar and high place.

Q. What respect did he show to the memory of the man of God?

A. Having ascertained his sepulchre by the inscription upon it, he forbade the disturbance of his bones, and of those of the old prophet.

Q. How was the passover observed this year?

A. It was observed with unusual solemnity, for there had been no passover like it kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. It appears to have been followed by a peace of thirteen years' continuance.t

* By the law of Moses a dead body conveyed a legal pollution to every thing that touched it,—even to the very house and furniture, Numb. xix. 14-16. and this was the reason why the priests, because of their daily ministrations, were forbidden to assist at any funerals, but those of near relatives. Nay, the very bones, though they had lain ever so long in the grave, if digged up, conveyed a pollution to any who touched them; and on this account Josiah caused the bones of the false priests to be burnt upon the altar at Bethel, 2 Kings xxiii. 15, 16. to the intent that being thus polluted, it might be held in the greater detestation.-See HORNE's Introduction, vol. iii. p. 4. chap. 8.

+ 2 Kings xxiii. 21-23. 2 Chron. xxxiv, 8—xxxv. 19.

A. M. 3395. Q. What befel Josiah ?

B. C. 609. 4. In the thirty-first year of his reign he attacked Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, who had gone up to fight against the king of Assyria by the Euphrates. Pharaoh in vain remonstrated with him : the two armies fought at Megiddo, and Josiah was slain.* "And all Judah mourned for him; and Jeremiah lamented him, and all the singing women and the singing men spoke of him in their lamentations, and made them an ordinance in Israel."†

A. M. 3395. Q. Who succeeded him?

B. C. 609. A. The people of the land made Jehoahaz king: but after three months, Pharaoh raised Eliakim, another of Josiah's sons, to the throne, and changed his name to Jehoiakim; and carried Jehoahaz captive to Egypt, where he died.‡

Q. Did Jehoiakim fear God?

A. No: "he did evil in the sight of the Lord,"§ and the Lord sent against him the Syrians, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. A. M. 3398. This prince having captured Jerusalem, plundered the temple, and carried away captive" certain of the children of Israel,

B. C. 606.

Nebuch. 1.

It had been prophecied that he should come to the grave in peace; which can only be explained of his removal from this life before the scourge was sent upon the land of Judah; because God, in mercy to him, designed that his eyes should not see the evils which were about to be inflicted on his subjects. + See Appendix F. Jerem. xxii. 10–12.

Jerem. xxii. 13-17. xxvi. 20-23.

and of the king's seed, and of the princes," to minister to the king of Babylon.

Q. How are these captives described ?

A. They were comely in person, "and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science."

Q. Who among these captives were particularly distinguished?

A. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Their names were changed, by the prince of the eunuchs, to Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego ;* they were fed from the royal table; and were provided with a course of instruction for three years, in the learning and language of the Chaldeans. Daniel and his three friends, however, fearing defilement† from the king's meat, obtained permission to use pulset instead.

Q. Was Nebuchadnezzar satisfied with their proficiency?

:

A. Yes "at the end of the days the king communed with them, and in all matters of wisdom and understanding, found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.” A. M. 3400. Q. What happened in the second year B. C. 604. of Nebuchadnezzar's reign ?

These names have reference to the Babylonish gods.

+ This defilement may have been three-fold: because the Babylonians ate animals proscribed as unclean by the Jewish law; animals strangled or not properly blooded ; and animals previously offered to their gods. See Dr. A. CLARKE'S Com. Such vegetable diet as barley, peas, &c.

1

A. He had a very singular dream; but being unable to recollect it, he required the wise men to show to him both the dream and its signification: and because they declared the thing to be beyond the reach of human wisdom, he commanded Arioch,* captain of the guards, to slay them all. But Daniel, hearing of the decree, went to the king, and promising to make known the dream, obtained a respite.

Q. How was Daniel enabled to fulfil his promise?

A. He and his friends "desired mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret ;" which, in answer to their prayers, was revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven."

Q. How did Daniel relate the dream to Nebuchadnezzar ?

A. Daniel, after impressing on the king's mind that it was the living God who had made known to him what should come to pass in the latter days, thus proceeded, "Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image.— And the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the

This man's situation as chief of the slayers, was precisely the same as Potiphar's under Pharaoh, and Benaiah's under Solomon.-See pages 55, 183, 200, 201.