sengers, with terms of most humble submission and entreaty, and with the most costly presents that his kingdom could furnish, to secure the alliance and aid of Tiglath-Pileser the king of Assyria. 2 Kings xvi. 7, 8. It was at this time, when Ahaz was so much alarmed. that Isaiah met him at the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field (Isa. vii. 3, 4,), and assured him that he had no oc casion to fear the united armies of Syria and Samaria; that Jerusalem was safe, and that God would be its protector. He assured him that the kingdoms of Syria and Samaria should not be enlarged by the acression and conquest of the kingdom of Judah (Isa. vii. 7—9); and advised Ahaz to ask a sign, or demonstration, from JEHOVAH that this should be fulfilled. Isa. vii. 10, 11. Ahaz indignantly, though with the appearance of religious scruple, said that he would not ask a sign. vii. 12. The secret reason, however, why he was not solicitous to procure a sign from JEHOVAH was, that he had formed an alliance with the king of Assyria, and scorned the idea of recognizing his dependence on JEHOVAH.-Isaiah, therefore, proceeded (vii. 13 seq.) to assure him that JEHOVAH Would himself give a sign, and would furnish a demonstration to him that the land would be soon forsaken of both the kings which Ahąz dreaded. See Notes on ch. vi. Isaiah then proceeded to state the consequences of this alliance with the king of Assyria, and to assure him that the result would be, that, under pretence of aiding him, he would bring up his forces on the land of Judah, and spread devastation and ruin, and that Jerusalem only would be spared. Isa. vii. 17 seq. and ch. viii. The prophecy respecting the speedy removal of the two kings of Syria and Samaria was accomlished. See Notes on ch. vii. 16. At about the same time the kingdom of Judah was threatened with an invasion from the Edomites and Philistines. 2 Chron. xxviii. 17, 18. In this emergency Ahaz had recourse to his old ally the king of Assyria. 2 Chron. xxviii. 20, 21. To secure his friendship, he made him a present obtained from the temple, from his own house, and from the princes. 2 Chron. xxviii. 21. The king of Assyria professedly accepted the offer; marched against Rezin the king of Syria, took Damascus, and slew Rezin, agreeably to the prediction of Isaiah, ch. vii. 16. While Tiglath-Pileser was at Damascus, Ahaz visited him, and being much charmed with an altar which he saw there, he sent a model of it to Urijah the priest to have one constructed like it in Jerusalem. 2 Kings xvi. 10. seq. This was done. Ahaz returned from Damascus ; offered sacrifice on the new altar which he had had constructed, and gave himself up to every species of idolatry and abomination. 2 Kings xvi. 12 seq. He offered sacrifice to the gods of Damascus, on the pretence that they had defended Syria, and might be rendered propitious to defend his own kingdom (2 Chron. xxviii. 23); he broke up the vessels of the temple, shut up the doors, and erected altars to the heathen deities in every part of Jerusalem. 2 Chron. xxviii. 24, 25. He thus finished his inglorious reign in the thirty-sixth year of his age, and was buried in the city of Jerusalem, but not in the sepulchres of the kings on account of his gross abominations. 2 Chron. xxviii. 27.

The prediction of Isaiah (chs. vii. viii.) that his calling in the aid

of the king of Assyria would result in disaster to his own land, and to all the land except Jerusalem (Note, ch. viii. 8), was not accomplished in the time of Ahaz, but was literally fulfilled in the calamities which occurred by the invasion of Sennacherib in the times of Hezekiah. See Notes on ch. viii. and chs. xxxvi.-xxxix.

It is not certainly known what prophecies were delivered by Isaiah in the time of Ahaz. It is certain that those contained in chapters vii. viii. and ix. were uttered during his reign, and there is every probability that those contained in chs. x. xi. xii. were also. Perhaps some of the subsequent predictions also were uttered during his reign.

Ahaz was succeeded by his son Hezekiah, one of the most pious kings that ever sat on the throne of David. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years. 2 Chron. xxxix. 1. His character was the reverse of that of his father; and one of the first acts of his reign was to remove the evils introduced in the reign of Ahaz, and to restore again the pure worship of God. He began the work of reform by destroying the high places, cutting down the groves, and overturning the altars of idolatry. He destroyed the brazen serpent which Moses had made, and which had become an object of idolatrous worship. He ordered the doors of the temple to be rebuilt, and the temple itself was thoroughly cleansed and repaired 2 Kings xviii. 1-6. 2 Chron. xxix. 1-17. He restored the observance of the Passover, and it was celebrated with great pomp and joy (2 Chron. xxx. seq.), and he restored the regular worship in the temple as it was in the time of Solomon. 2 Chron. xxviii. 18. Successful in his efforts to reform the religion of his country, and in his wars with the Philistines (2 Kings xviii. 8), he resolved to cast off the inglorious yoke of servitude to the king of Assyria. 2 Kings xviii. 7. He refused. therefore, to pay the tribute which had been promised to him, and which had been paid by his father Ahaz. As might have bee expected, this resolution excited the indignation of the king of Assyria, and led to the resolution to compel submission. Sennacherib, therefore, invaded the land with a great army; spread desolation through no small part of it; and was rapidly advancing towards Jerusalem. Hezekiah saw his error, and, alarmed, he sought to avoid the threatened blow. He, therefore, put the city in the best possible posture of defence. He fortified it; enclosed it with a second wall; erected towers; repaired the fortification Millo in the city of David; stopped all the fountains; and made darts and shields that the city might be defended. 2 Chron. xxxii. 1-8. He endeavoured to prepare himself as well as possible to meet the mighty foe; and he did all that he could to inspire confidence in God among the people. Notes on Isaiah xxii. 9-11. Yet as if not quite confident that he could be able to hold out during a siege, and to resist an army so mighty as that of Sennacherib, he sent embassadors to him, acknowledged his error, and sued for peace. Sennacherib proposed that he should send him three hundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold, and gave the implied assurance that if this were done his army should be withdrawn. 2 Kings xviii. 13, 14. Hezekiah readily agreed to send what was demanded; and to accomplish this he emptied the treasury, and stripped the temple of its orna.

ments. 2 Kings xviii. 15, 16. Sennacherib then went down to Egypt (see Notes on chs. xxxvi. xxxvii.), and was repelled before Pelusium by the approach of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, who had come to the aid of the Egyptian monarch. On his return, Sennacherib sent messengers from Lachish, and a portion of his army to Jerusalem to demand its surrender. Isa. xxxvi. 2. To this embassy no answer was returned by the messengers of Hezekiah (Isa. xxxvi. 21, 22); and the messengers of Sennacherib returned again to him to Libnah. Note on Isa. Xxxvii. 8. At this period, Sennacherib was alarmed by the rumour that Tirhakah, whom he had so much reason to dread, was advancing against him (Isa. xxxvii. 9), and he again sent messengers to Hezekiah to induce him to surrender, intending evidently to anticipate the news that Tirhakah was coming, and to secure the conquest of Jerusalem without being compelled to sit down before it in a regular siege. This message like the former was unsuccessful. Hezekiah spread the case before JEHOVAH (Ch. Xxxvii. 15—20), and received the answer that Jerusalem was safe. Sennacherib advanced to attack the city; but in a single night 185,000 of his men were destroyed by an angel of the Lord, and he himself fled to his capital, where he was slain by his two sons. Ch. xxxvii. 36-38.

These events were among the most important in Jewish history. Isaiah lived during their occurrence; and a large portion of his prophecies from ch. xiv. to ch. xxxix. are occupied with allusions to and statements of these events. He gave himself to the work of preparing the nation for them; assuring them that they would come, but that Jerusalem should be safe. He seems to have laboured to inspire the mind of Hezekiah and the minds of the people with confidence in God, that when the danger should arrive, they might look to him entirely for defence. In this he was eminently successful; and Hezekiah and the nation put unwavering confidence in God. An accurate acquaintance with the causes, and the various events connected with the overthrow of Sennacherib, is indispensable to a clear understanding of Isaiah; and these causes and events I have endeavoured to present in Notes on the several chapters which refer to that remarkable invasion. Soon after this, Hezekiah became dangerously ill; and Isaiah announced to him that he must die. Isa. xxxviii. 1. Hezekiah prayed to God for the preservation of his life, and an assurance was given to him that he should live fifteen years longer. Isa. xxxviii. 5. In attestation of this, and as a demonstration of it, the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz was made to recede ten degrees. See Notes on ch. Xxxviii. 8.

Hezekiah, after his signal success over his foe, and the entire deliverance of his kingdom from the long dreaded invasion, and his recovery from the dangerous illness, became eminently prosperous and successful. He was caressed and flattered by foreign princes; pres ents of great value were given him, and he encompassed himself with the usual splendour and magnificence of an oriental monarch. 2 Chron. xxxii. 23, 27, 28. As a consequence of this, his heart was lifted up with pride, he gloried in his wealth, and magnificence, and even became proud of the divine interposition in his favour. To show what

was in his heart, and to humble him, he was left to display his treas ures in an ostentatious manner to the embassadors of MerodachBaladan king of Babylon (2 Chron. xxxii. 25, 31), and for this received the assurance that all his treasures and his family should be carried in inglorious bondage to the land from whence the embassadors came. 2 Kings xx. 12-18. Notes on Isa. xxxix. The remnant of the life of Hezekiah was peace. Isa. xxxix. 8. He died at the age of fiftyfour years; and was buried in the most honoured of the tombs of the kings of Judah (2 Chron. xxxii. 33); and was deeply lamented by a weeping people at his death.

It is

The reign of Hezekiah stretched through a considerable portion of the prophetic ministry of Isaiah. A large part of his prophecies are, therefore, presumed to have been uttered during this reign. probable that to this period we are to attribute the entire series from ch. xiii. to ch. xxxix. inclusive. The most important of his prophecies, from ch. xl. to ch. lxvi. I am disposed to assign to a subsequent period -to the reign of Manasseh. The reasons for this may be seen, in part, in § 2 of this Introduction.

Hezekiah was succeeded by his son Manasseh. The reasons for thinking that any part of the life of Isaiah was passed under the reign of this wicked prince have been stated above. He was the fifteenth king of Judah, and was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty-five years. It was during his reign, and by him, as it is commonly supposed, that Isaiah was put to death. He forsook the path of Hezekiah and David: restored idolatry; worshipped the idols of Canaan; rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah had destroyed; set up altars to Baal, and planted groves to false gods. He raised altars to the whole host of heaven even in Jerusalem and in the courts of the temple; made his son pass through the fire to Moloch; was addicted to magic and divination; set up the idol of Astarte in the house of God, and caused the people to sin in a more aggravated form than nad been done by the heathen who had formerly inhabited the land of Canaan. To all this he added cruelty in the highest degree, and "shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another." Probably most of the distinguished men of piety were cut off by him, and among them, it is supposed, was Isaiah. See 2 Kings xxi. 2 Chron. xxxiii.

So great were his crimes that God brought upon the land the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh from the hiding place where he sought a refuge amidst briers and thorns, and bound him, and carried him to Babylon (2 Chron. xxxii. 11),—another proof that Babylon was at this time a dependent province of the Assyrian monarchy. In Babylon, Manasseh repented of his sins and humbled himself, and he was again returned to his land and his throne. After his restoration he removed the worship of idols, and re-established the worship of JEHOVAH. He built a wall on the west side of Gihon, and extended it around to Mount Ophel, and put Jerusalem in a posture of defence. He broke down and removed the altars which he had erected in Jerusalem, and in the temple; and he removed all traces of idolatrous worship except the high places, which he suffered still to remain. There is evidence

of his reformation; and the latter part of his reign appears to have passed in comparative happiness and virtue.

It was only during the early part of his reign that Isaiah lived, and there is in his prophecies no express mention made of Manasseh. I he lived during any part of it, it is evident that he withdrew entirely, or nearly so, from the public exercise of his prophetic functions, and retired to a comparatively private life. There is evidently between the close of the xxxixth chapter of his prophecy, and the period when the latter part of his prophecies commences (ch. xl.), an interval of considerable duration. It is not a violation of probability that Isaiah after the death of Hezekiah, being an old man, withdrew much from public life; that he saw and felt that there was little hope of producing reform during the impious career of Manasseh; and that, in the distress and anguish of his soul, he gave himself up to the contemplation of the happier times which should yet occur under the reign of the Messiah. It was during this period, I suppose, that he composed the latter part of his prophecies, from the xlth to the lxvith chapter. The nation was full of wickedness. An impious prince was on the throne. Piety was banished, and the friends of JEHOVAH were bleeding in Jerusalem. The nation was given up to idolatry. The kingdom was approaching the period of its predicted fall and ruin. Isaiah saw the tendency of events; he saw how hopeless would be the attempt at reform. He saw that the captivity of Babylon was hastening on, and that the nation was preparing for that gloomy event. In this dark and disastrous period, he seems to have withdrawn himself from the contemplation of the joyless present, and to have given his mind to the contemplation of happier future scenes. An interval perhaps of some ten or fifteen years may be supposed to have elapsed between his last public labours in the time of Hezekiah, and the prophecies which compose the remainder of the book. During this interval he may have withdrawn from public view, and fixed his mind on the great events of future times. In his visions he sees the nation about to go into captivity. Yet he sees also that there would be a return from bondage, and he comforts the hearts of the pious with the assurance of such a return. He announces the name of the monarch by whom that deliverance would be accomplished, and gives assurance that the captive Jews should again return to their own land. But he is not satisfied with the announcement of this comparatively unimportant deliverance. With that he connects a far greater and more important deliverance, that from sin, under the Messiah. He fixes his eye, therefore, on the future glories of the kingdom of God; sees the long promised Messiah; de scribes his person, his work, his doctrine, and states in glowing lan guage the effects of his coming on the happiness and destiny of mankind. As he advances in his prophetic descriptions, the deliverance from Babylon seems to die away and is forgotten; or it is lost in the contemplation of the event to which it had a resemblance-the coming of the Messiah-as the morning star is lost in the superior glory of the rising sun. He throws himself forward in his descriptions; places himself amidst these future scenes, and describes them as taking place around him, and as events which he saw. He thinks and feels and