from the threatened blow. The prophet anticipates the glories, temporal and religious, of the Jerusalem of the future, in strains not less animated than those of Isaiah and Micah :

"And it shall come to pass that every one that is left,
Of all the nations which came against Jerusalem,
Shall even go up from year to year,

To worship the King, the LORD of hosts,
And to keep the feast of Tabernacles."

(xiv. 16.)

NAHUM.

NAHUм's prophecy is intitled: "The burden of Nineveh; the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite." Elkosh is generally understood to have been a village in Galilee. But some take it to have been in Assyria, and Nahum to have been among the captives there. Internal evidence combines with the natural probabilities of the case to shew that this burden of Nineveh was spoken after the captivity of the ten tribes, and while Judah was still standing, but threatened by the same great power. What more natural occasion than the discomfiture of the invading hosts of Sennacherib? Nahum belongs, there can be no doubt, to the latter part of the time of Isaiah and Micah,―to the reign of Hezekiah, in all probability, though some think the reign of his successor, Manasseh. Whether delivered in the prophet's own country, in Assyria, or in Jerusalem, the purpose of this burden plainly is to denounce these formidable invaders, and to encourage Judah and Jerusalem to retain their allegiance to the true worship of the Almighty.

An allusion to " populous No;" or rather No-Ammon

(iii. 8), is generally taken as confirming a fact of some obscurity as regards the relation of the Assyrians and Egyptians at this period, namely, that Sennacherib, or his general, Tartan, before besieging Jerusalem, had pushed his conquests in Egypt with considerable success, and had taken No-Ammon, that is, Thebes, in Upper Egypt. (See 2 Kings xviii. 17, and Isaiah xx.) The Nineveh inscriptions found by Mr. Layard confirm this idea. It is quite clear from Isaiah's burdens against Egypt, that the Assyrians were intent upon conquest in that quarter, though the language of those burdens is very vague and even inconsistent, as already noticed. Nahum, however, speaks of No-Ammon as a warning to Nineveh in the following spirited lines (iii. 5—12):

Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts;

And I will lift up thy skirts over thy face,

And I will shew the nations thy nakedness,

And the kingdoms thy shame.

And I will cast abominable filth upon thee,

And make thee vile, and set thee as a gazing-stock.

And it shall come to pass that all that look upon thee

shall flee from thee,

And shall say, Nineveh is laid waste!

Who will bemoan her?

Whence shall I seek comforters for thee?

Art thou better than No-Ammon,

That was situate among the rivers,

That had the waters round about her,

Whose rampart was the sea,

And her wall was from the sea?

Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength,

Put and Libya were thy helpers.

Yet was she carried away; she went into captivity;
Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top

of all the streets;

And they cast lots for her honourable men;
And all her great men were bound in chains.

Thou too shalt be drunken;

Thou shalt be hidden;

Thou also shalt seek a refuge from the enemy," &c.

This is a fair specimen of Nahum's style, which is at once forcible and "classical" among Hebrew poetry. His short prophecy is confined to this one subject, the desired ruin of Nineveh, which is denounced with great force, but without even hinting from what quarter her ruin was to come. It came, in fact, above a hundred years after (about B. C. 606), from her neighbours and rivals, when Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, in conjunction with Cyaxares, king of Media, overthrew Nineveh, and it became a province of the Median empire.

JOEL.

THE inscription to Joel's prophecy merely says that he was the son of Pethuel. When and where he or his father lived, is quite unknown. But strong internal evidence seems to place his prophecy close amongst those hitherto analyzed. His burden is that of earnest warning and exhortation to Judah and Jerusalem, under imminent danger, after the repeated experience of hostile invasions against themselves, or their neighbour Israel, or both; which are graphically compared to swarms upon swarms of locusts, devouring all before them,-a figure fearfully intelligible to Eastern ears.

Some would place Joel earlier than Amos, on the ground that he does not mention the Syrians and Assyrians by name among the enemies of his people. But who else can these successive swarms of locusts be? Archbishop Newcome places him in the reign of Manasseh, the son and successor of Hezekiah. He has no

different topics from those of the prophets thus far examined.

Joel is supposed by some to have been a priest, or of a priestly family, from his mentioning, as a symptom of the extreme distress of Jerusalem, that "the flour-offering and the drink-offering are cut off from the house of the Lord,”* and from his desiring that a fast should be proclaimed and a solemn assembly called for humiliation. Feeble evidence. But admit it; and how well did even the priest understand the priority of virtue to sacrifice! Even in this connection Joel says,—

"Rend your heart, and not your garments,
And turn unto the LORD your God;

For he is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger and of great kindness,

And repenteth him of the evil.

Who knoweth but he will return and repent,

And leave a blessing behind him,

Even the meal-offering and the drink-offering unto the
LORD your God?"
(ii. 13, 14.)

So well do the scriptural expositions of Judaism distinguish between the religion of the heart and its emblems and aids in the outward act. Ceremonialism and Pharisaism were of later date than the prophets.

The style of Joel is much admired for its ease and elegance. The description of the locusts in the first chapter, insensibly merging in the second into the description of an army of horsemen and chariots, is very graphic. After exhorting to repentance, he promises the renewed and increased prosperity of Zion,-the repulsion of the invaders,—the increase of prophetic gifts: "I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh" (the passage quoted by Peter, Acts ii. 17),—the restoration of the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,—and the punishment of Tyre,

* Perhaps this marks Manasseh's idolatrous reign as the date of Joel.

Sidon and Philistia, who have sold Jewish captives to the Grecians for slaves; and he concludes with anticipating the beau-ideal of Judaism in similar strains to those of other prophets:

"The heavens and the earth shall shake.

But the Lord will be the refuge of his people,
The strength of the children of Israel.

Then shall ye know that I am the LORD your God,
Dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain.

Then shall Jerusalem be holy,

And strangers shall pass through her no more.

In that day shall the mountains drop down new wine,

And the hills shall flow with milk,

And all the rivers of Judah shall flow with water.

And a fountain shall come forth from the house of the
LORD,

That shall water the valley of Shittim." (iii. 16—18.)

Egypt and Edom are denounced as doomed to desolation for their violence against the sons of Judah, but "Judah shall be inhabited for ever,

And Jerusalem from generation to generation;
And the LORD will dwell in Zion."

(19-21.)

The prophets have now reached quite as low down as our historical summary, which left off (p. 421) with Hezekiah's reign, 728-699. We must now turn to the remaining history of the Jewish monarchy, which is contained in 2 Kings xxi. to the end of the book, and 2 Chron. xxxiii. to the end.

MANASSEH, the son of Hezekiah, succeeded (B.C. 699) at twelve years of age; and his long reign of fifty-five years saw the utter reversal of all that Hezekiah had done for purity of worship. Idolatry, with all its accompanying vices and atrocities, was openly encouraged everywhere, and the altars and images of strange gods were even introduced into the Temple at Jerusalem.