neral Joab.' And it is true, that he gave fuch a charge about Joab, who well deferved to be cut off for his infolent behaviour to himself, and his treacherous fhedding of the blood of his two brave generals, Abner and Amafa, 1 Kings, ii. 5. But where do we read that he declared any defire to have Adonijah flain, as criminal as his conduct was in affuming the royal dignity without his authority, and against his intentions? Solomon himself, who fucceeded David on the throne by his express direction, affured this Adonijah, when he had taken fanctuary at the horns of the altar through conscious guilt, that he should not fuffer any punishment for his attempt to feize the kingdom, if he approved himself, for the future, a worthy or honeft man, 1 Kings, i. 50, 53. and he only proceeded, after fome interval, to take away his life when he prefumed to make ufe of Bathfheba's interceffion, that he might obtain his leave to marry Abifhag, the Shunamite virgin, who had been the cherisher of David's oldage, at the fame time intimating, that this was but a fmall recompence for the surrender of the crown, which belonged to him by the right of primogeniture, amidst the univerfal attachment of the nation to him, 1 Kings, ii. 24. which was furely a very heinous offence.

I complain not for his faying, in the next page, that King Afa put part of the people of Jerufalem to death;' for, though our tranflators fay in the text only He oppreffed fome of them,' that is, he gave them fevere and rigorous ufage, 2 Chron. xvi. 12. (whence the Targum paraphrafes it 'He enflaved them,') they have placed in the margin, 'He crufhed,'

and others expound it, 'He flew fome of them.' So Houbigant, who makes the cause to have been their displeasure which they teftified against him for incarcerating the prophet Hanani, on account of his free cenfure and reproof of his conduct in applying to Benhadad king of Syria for help, when, by divine favour, he had been fo lately victorious over the immense hoft of the Ethiopians; and to this purpofe he, by a small variation, reads and renders the whole verfe, thus, Then Afa was wroth with the feer, and put him in a prison-house, though in the 'indignation of his people about this,' (that is, though his people were angry at fuch confinement of him) ⚫ and he flew some of the people at the same time.' But why does he affert that 'Jehu affaffinated Joram and Josias, seventy fons of Ahab, forty-two brothers of • Achafias, and all their friends?' The Scripture calls the person whom he flew after Joram king of Ifrael, not Jofias, but Ahaziah king of Judah, who had been his auxiliary, in his attempt to recover Ramothgilead from the Syrians, 2 Kings, ix. 27. and while it relates, that he killed all the brethren of this Ahaziah, whoever * are meant thereby, 2 Kings, x. I 3, 14. makes not the least mention of his butchering all their friends.

* The reason of this qualification is, while fome understand' his ⚫ brethren' in a strict sense, others interpret the word of his kinfmen,' according to that more lax and extenfive fignification of it, which is not unusual in Scripture; wherefore, Lot is called Abraham's brother, though he was his brother Haran's fon, and Zedekiah uncle to Jehoiakin is called, his brother. See Gen. xii. xiii. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 10. and 2 Kings, xxiv. 17. Indeed this laft explication is thought more. probable, partly because there is nation of his finding his fon's fons,

Finally, while it is not very material, that he represents Zacharias to have been flain by Menahem, whereas according to the facred hiftorian, he was put to death by Shallum the fon of Jabefh, as he again was affaffinated by Menahem, 2 Kings, xv. 8. It is furely of fome importance to animadvert on his affertion That the ten tribes who were carried off by Salmanaffar king of the Babylonians, were enflaved and dispersed for ever, except fome hufbandmen ' who were kept to cultivate the land;' For how glaring his falfhood here! Not to mention that a greater number of the ten tribes seem to have continued in their own country from 2 Chron. xxxiv. 6-9. it is plain, thefe with the other two tribes, had a share in the promise of being recalled, and dwelling again in that land, Jerem. xxxi. &c. It is certain also, that Cyrus and Artaxerxes invited all the Jews indifcriminately, as they were all under their government, to return into the country of their fathers, and lastly, it is evident, that multitudes of the ten tribes, taking the advantage of these royal edicts, went back, as well as their brethren of Judah and Benjamin, to fettle there, though perhaps but a small part in comparison of those that chose to abide in the territory where their enemies had planted them, having been reconciled to it by a refidence of almoft two hundred years, and having acquired property therein. See Ezra, i. 3, 2. 70. vi. 17, 21. vii. 13, 28. viii. 35. 1 Chron. ix. 13. *

partly because his brethren, literally fo called, appear to have been carried captive by fome enemies, who made a fuccessful incurfion into Judah before this; nor do we read of their being released and fent home, Chron. xxi. 17. with Patrick's notes.

Compare Ant. Univ. Hift. 4. 317. and 10. 180, 181. in

SECTION XV.

Of misrepresentations in his forty-third chapter, 'Of the Jewish prophets,' that Balaam was the prophet of another God,—that Jeremiah, Isaiah, &c. were ill-treated, because it was difficult to diftin-' guish between false and true pretenders to the prophetic character, -that Hofea declares the prophets fools, that the prophets treated one another as vifionaries, there being no other method to feparate the true from the false, but by waiting for the accomplishment of the predictions.

*

.

MR. VOLTAIRE's next chapter, which is Of 'the Jewish prophets,' furnishes us with more numerous proofs of his neglect of truth.

Notes. Agreeably, not only is there mention of Anna of the tribe of Afer at Jerufalem, when Jefus was prefented to God in the temple there; but the ten tribes are spoken of as existing in the times of the apostles, as well as the two, by whatever name their posterity are now called, and in whatever places they are at present fituated. Says Paul before Agrippa, I am judged for the hope of the promise made of God. to our fathers, unto which promise our twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come,' Acts, xxvi. 6, 7. James inscribes his epistle to fo many, James a fervant of God, and of the Lord Jefus Chrift, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad.' i. I. And Jofephus himself is exprefs, that as the two tribes were spread through the Roman empire in Asia and Europe, so when he wrote, the other ten tribes inhabited the region beyond the Euphrates, and were fuch multitudes as could not be computed, Antiq. 11. 5. 2. to fay nothing of the stories of the Talmudists, which are so full of wonders about the regularity and fplendor of their government, as to deserve no credit.

Phil. of Hift. ch. 43. P. 103.

When he says, 'We know that God did not com'municate himself to the Jews, except in fome par'ticular cafes, as for example when he infpired Ba"laam, the prophet of * Mefopotamia, and made him utter the contrary of what he was to have been 'made to fay,' I fuppofe there is a flip of the pen, or an error of the prefs; for the connection requires he should have denied, not God's communicating himself to the Jews, but his communicating himself to others than the Jews, except on rare occafions. But when he proceeds, This Balaam was the prophet ' of another god, and yet it is not faid that he was a 'false prophet,' it does not admit such an apology. Does the Scripture teach us to view Balaam in this light? No. It neither calls him the prophet of an idol-deity, as it does others, nor affords any good reafons for forming this judgment concerning him. On the contrary, it fhews us, that he addreffed Jehovah instead of a fictitious divinity. Therefore Mofes reminds his nation, Jehovah thy God would not 'hearken to Balaam, but Jehovah thy God turned 'the curfe into a bleffing, because Jehovah thy God 'loved thee,' Deut. xxiii. 5. And Jehovah, God of Ifrael, mentions this by the mouth of Joshua, among

* A learned foreigner, Harenberg, by the Mefopotamia or Aram Naharaim of Scripture, understands not the country between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, but that between Jordan and the river Jaboc to its east, even Bashan or Batanaea. See Acta Erudit. Lipfiae. 1740, p. 270. &c.

This fame Voltaire, when it fuits his purpofe, fcruples not to fay elsewhere, 'Balaam though an idolater, was his (the living God's) pro- . phet, to fhew that God takes as much care of idolaters, as of his che'fen Jews.'