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A.C. 519. strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built.

* Or, the hire of man became nothing, &c. f Hag. i. 6.

+ Heb. of peace.

g Ephes. iv.

*

10 For before these days there was no fhire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all men every one against his neighbour.

11 But now I will not be unto the residue of this people as in the former days, saith the LORD of hosts.

12 For the seed shall be + prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.

13 And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong.

14 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; As I thought to punish you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith the LORD of hosts, and I repented not:

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15 So again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: fear ye not. 16 These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ve Heb judge every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judg judgment of ment of truth and peace in your gates:

25.

truth, and the

peace.

17 And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD.

18

saying,

And the word of the LORD of hosts came unto me,

19 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah Or, solemn, joy and gladness, and chearful § feasts; therefore love the truth and peace.

or, set times.

h Is. ii. 3.

20 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of

many

cities :

21 And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, Mic. iv. 1, 2. saying, "Let us go || * speedily to pray before the LORD, Or, continu- and to seek the LORD of hosts: I will go also. *Heb. going. 22 Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to treat the face seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray of the LORD. the LORD.

ally.

+ Heb. to in

before

23 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall

come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all lan- A.C. 519. guages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.

SECTION VI,

Dedication of the second Temple 20.

EZRA VI. VER. 14, TO THE END.

515.

14 And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, Chald. deand according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.

15 And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

cree.

16 And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of † the children of the captivity, kept + Chald. the the dedication of this house of God with joy.

17 And offered at the dedication of this house of God an hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve he goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.

20 In the sixth year of Darius, according to the Jewish account, and on the 3d day of the 12th month, called the month of Adar (which answered to part of the third and part of the fourth month of the Babylonish year, and consequently was in the 7th year of Darius, according to the Babylonish account,) the building of the temple at Jerusalem was finished, and the dedication of it was celebrated by the priests and Levites, and all the rest of the congregation of Israel, with great joy and solemnity. And, among other sacrifices then offered, there was a sin offering for all Israel of twelve he-goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel; which fully proves that on the return of Judah and Benjamin from the Babylonish captivity, some also of each of the other tribes of Israel came with them out of Assyria, Babylon, and Media, whither they had been before carried, and, joining with them in the rebuilding of the temple (to which they had originally an equal right,) partook also with them in the solemnity of this dedication; otherwise there is no reason why any such offering should have been then made in their behalf. But the most of them that returned being of the tribe of Judah, that tribe swallowed up the names of all the test; for from this time the whole people of Israel, of what tribe soever they were, began to be called Jews; and by that name they have all of them been ever since known all the world over.

The temple was 20 years in finishing; from the 2d of Cyrus, when it was first begun, to the 7th of Darius, when it was fully finished.-Prideaux, Connection, Anno 515.-Darius 7.

sons of the transportation.

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A. C. 515.

18 And they set the priests in their divisions, and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God, which is at cording to the Jerusalem; *i as it is written in the book of Moses.

Chald. ac

writing.

i Num. iii. 6. & viii. 9.

+ Or, of.

19 And the children of the captivity kept the passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month.

20 For the priests and the Levites were purified together, all of them were pure, and killed the passover for all the children of the captivity, and for their brethren the priests, and for themselves.

21 And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land, to seek the LORD God of Israel, did eat,

22 And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy for the LORD had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

PSALM XLVIII.

The ornaments and privileges of the church.

A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah.

1 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.

2 Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

3 God is known in her palaces for a refuge.

4 For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.

5 They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away.

6 Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

7 Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. 8 As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever. Selah.

9 We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple.

10 According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteous

ness.

11 Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.

12 Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof.

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13 Mark ye well her bulwarks, † consider her palaces; A. C. 515. that ye may tell it to the generation following.

* Heb. Set

14 For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be your heart to our guide even unto death.

PSALM LXXXI.

1 An exhortation to a solemn praising of God. 4 God challengeth that duty by reason of his benefits. 8 God, exhorting to obedience, complaineth of their disobedience, which proveth their own hurt.

To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of Asaph.

1 Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

2 Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.

3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.

4 For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.

her bulwarks. + Or, raise up.

+ Or, for Asaph.

5 This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a Or, against. language that I understood not.

6 I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.

|| Heb. passed

away.

7 Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee k Ex. xvii. 6,7. at the waters of Meribah. Selah.

8 Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me;

9 There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.

10 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. 11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.

* Or, strife,

12 'So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and 1 Actsxiv. 16. they walked in their own counsels.

13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!

14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.

+ Or, to the hardness of their hearts, or, imagina tions.

feigned obe

15 The haters of the LORD should have § submitted tor, yielded themselves unto him: but their time should have endured dience. for ever.

Heb. lied,

the fat of

16 He should have fed them also || with the finest of the Heb. with wheat and with honey out of the rock should I have satis- wheat. fied thee.

A. C. 515.

* Heb. Hallelujah.

m Ps. cxviii. 8,9.

PSALM CXLVI 21.

1 The psalmist voweth perpetual praises to God. 3 He exhorteth not to trust in man. 5 God, for his power, justice, mercy, and kingdom, is only worthy to be trusted.

1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. 2 While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.

3m Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, Or, salva in whom there is no † help.

tion.

4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:

6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is which keepeth truth for ever:

7 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the pri

soners:

8 The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:

9 The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.

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n Ex. xv. 18. 10 The LORD shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the LORD.

21 Psalms cxlvi. cxlvii. and cxlviii. are placed in this section on the authority of Prideaux. They are inserted also both by Dr. Gray and Mr. Horne, with the exlixth and clth, among those which were written on some great deliverance of the Church. The two latter Psalms are so evidently written on the same model as those which precede them, that they may be justly referred to the same period, and to the same occasion. Psalm xlviii. is assigned by the same authorities to some season of joy, and its contents appear applicable to this period. The chronology of Psalm lxxxi. is uncertain; it is supposed to have been composed for the feast of trumpets. I have inserted it here; from comparing its contents with the account of the circumstances attendant on the dedication of the temple. The Psalm seems to be an address to the people, calling upon them to revive the solemn festivals which were "the statutes for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob." It enumerates their past deliverances, and invites the people to join in praises to the God of Jacob.

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