counsel of the young men.

And when all Israel saw that the king would not hearken unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? and we have none inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to your tents, O Israel: and now, David, see to thine own house. So all Israel went to their tents.

"But as for the children of Israel that dwelt in the cities of Judah and Benjamin, Rehoboam reigned over them."

In this manner were the tribes of Israel divided, and under two distinct governments, for two hundred and fiftyfour years; when the ten revolted tribes, having become weak and degenerated, by following the wickedness and idolatry of the kings who governed them, fell a prey to Salmanazer, king of Assyria, who, in the reign of Hoshea, king of Israel, besieged the city of Samaria, laid their country waste, and utterly extirpated their government. Such was the wretched fate of a people who disdained subjec

tion to the laws of the house of David, and whose impiety and effeminacy ended in their destruction.

After a series of changes and events, of which an account may be found in the history of the temple, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, with his forces, took possession of Jerusalem, and having made captive Jehoiachim, the king of Judah, elevated his uncle, Zedekiah, to the throne, after binding him by a solemn oath neither to make innovations in the government, nor to take part with the Egyptians, in their wars against Babylon.

At the end of eight years Zedekiah violated his oath to Nebuchadnezzar, by forming a treaty offensive and defensive with the Egyptians; thinking that jointly they could subdue the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar immediately marched, and ravaged Zede. kiah's country, seized his castle and fortress, and proceeded to the siege of Jerusalem. Pharaoh, learning how Zedekiah was pressed, advanced to his relief, with a view of raising the siege. Nebuchadnezzar, having information

thereof, would not wait his approach, but proceeded to give him battle, and in one contest drove him out of Syria. This circumstance suspended the siege.

In the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, the king of Babylon again besieged Jerusalem, with a large army, and for a year and a half exerted all his strength to conquer it; but the city did not yield, though enfeebled by famine and pestilence.

In the eleventh year the siege went on vigourously; the Babylonians completed their works, having raised towers all round the city, so as to drive the invaded party from its walls. The place, though a prey to plague and famine, was obstinately defended during the space of a year and a half. But at length, want of provisions and forces compelled its surrender, and it was accordingly delivered, at midnight, to the officer of Nebuchadnezzar.

Zedekiah, seeing the troops enter the temple, absconded by a narrow pass to the desert, with his officers and friends but advice of his escape bc

ing given to the Babylonians, they pursued them early in the morning, and surrounded them near Jericho, where they were bound, and carried before the king, who ordered his wives and children to be put to death in his sight; and then ordered Zedekiah's eyes to be put out, and himself conducted in chains to Babylon.

After this victory, Nebuchadnezzar despatched his principal officer, Nebuzaradan, to Jerusalem, to ransack and burn both palace and temple, to raze the city to the ground, and conduct the captive inhabitants to Babylon: this order he accordingly executed..... Among the captives were the following persons of eminence: Saraiah, the high priest; Zephaniah, next in rank; the secretary to the king; three principal keepers of the temple; seven of the king's chosen friends, and other persons of distinction.

In the seventieth year of the captivity of the Jews, and the first of the reign of Cyrus, king of Persia, he issued his famous edict, purporting that the God adored by the Israelites was

the eternal Being through whose bounty he enjoyed the regal dignity, and that he had found himself honourably mentioned by the prophets of ancient date, as the person who should cause Jerusalem to be rebuilt, and restore the Hebrews to their former state of grandeur and independency; he therefore gave orders for the release of the cap. tives, with his permission to return to their own native country, to rebuild the city, and the house of the Lord.

The principal people of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with the priests and Levites, immediately departed for Jerusalem and commenced the undertaking; but many of the Jews determined to remain in Babylon, rather than relinquish the possessions they had obtained in that city.