Sichar; and therefore we have it so named in St. John's gospel. It signifieth the drunken city; and the prophet Isaiah having called the Ephraimites (whose dwelling was in those parts) Sicorim, that is, drunkards, they have this text on their side for the justifying of that name. Near this place was the field" which Jacob bought of the children of Hamor, and gave unto Joseph his son a little before his death. Therein Joseph's bones were buried when brought up out of the land of Egypt; and within the same plot of ground was the well, called Jacob's well, at which our Saviour sat down, when he discoursed with the woman of Samaria. But, after all the contest that is made between the Samaritans and the Jews about these two mountains, Jerome is positive, that neither of them were the Gerizim and Ebal of the holy Scriptures, but that the two mountains so called in them, and on which the blessings and the cursings were proclaimed by the children of Israel, on their first passing over Jordan into the land of Canaan, were two small mountains or hills lying near Jericho, at a great distance from Shechem. And Epiphanius was of the same opinion with Jerome in this matter: and they having been both upon the place, may well be thought the best able to pass a true judgment about it. Their arguments for it are, 1st. That the Scriptures place these two mountain over against that part of the river Jordan where the children of Israel passed into the land of Canaan, and near Gilgal; but Shechem is at a great distance from both: and, 2dly. That the mountains near Shechem, called Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, are at too great a distance from each other for the people from either of them to hear either the blessings or the cursings which were pronounced from the other; but that it would be quite otherwise as to the hills near Jericho, which they conceive to be the hills by the names of Gerizim and Ebal meant in Scripture. But that hill from which Jotham the son of Gideon made his speech to the Shechemites, being called Gerizim, and that certainly

s John iv, 5.

u Gen. xxiii, 19; xlviii, 22. Joshua xxiv, 32.

x Joshua xxiv, 32.

y John iv, 6.

t Isaiah xxviii, 1.

a Judges ix, 7.

a Vide Scaligeri Animadversiones in Eusebii Chron. sub. Numero 1681.

lying just over them (for otherwise they could not have heard him from thence,) this clearly makes against this opinion, and evidently proves the Mount Gerizim of the holy Scriptures to be that very Mount Gerizim on which the teinple of the Samaritans was built.

C

The Jews accuse the Samaritans of two pieces of idolatry, which they say were committed by them in this place. The first, that they there worshipped the image of a dove; and the other, that they paid divine adoration to certain teraphim, or idol gods, there hid under that mountain. For the first charge they took the handle from the idolatry of the Assyrians: for that people having worshipped one of their deities (Semiramis, saith Diodorus Siculus) under the image of a dove, they reproached the Samaritans as worshippers of the like image, because descended from them; and perchance they were so while they wor shipped their other gods with the God of Israel, but never afterwards. And as to the second charge, it is true, Jacob having found out, that Rachel had stolen her father's teraphim, or idol gods, took them from her,d and buried them under the oak in Shechem, which they suppose to have been at the foot of the mountain Gerizim; and, from hence, because the Samaritans worshipped God in that mountain, the Jews suggest, that they worshipped there for the sake of these idols, and paid divine adoration unto them. But both these charges were malicious calumnies, falsely imputed to them: for, after the time that Manasseh brought the law of Moses among them, and instructed them in it, the Samaritans became as zealous worshippers of the true God, and as great abhorrers of all manner of idolatry, as the most rigorous of the Jews themselves, and so continue even to this day.

And with this last act of Nehemiah's reformation, and the expulsion of those refractory Jews that would not conform to it, not only the first period of Daniel's 70 weeks, but also the holy Scriptures of the Old Testament ending, I shall here also end this book; and proceed to relate what after followed from the beginning of the next.

b Talmud in Tractatu Cholin. vide etiam Waltoni Prolegom. xi. ad Biblia Polyglotta Lond. sec. 7, & Hottingeri Exercitat. Antimorinianas, sec. 16,17. c Lib. 2, p. 66, 76. d Gen. xxxv, 2-4.

THE

Old and New Testaments

CONNECTED, &c.

BOOK VII.

Anno 408.

THUS far we have had the light of Scripture to follow. Henceforth the books of the MacDar. Nothus 16. cabees, Philo Judæus, Josephus, and the Greek and Latin writers, are the only guides which we can have to lead us through the future series of this history, till we come to the times of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How long after this Nehemiah lived at Jerusalem is uncertain; it is most likely, that he continued in his government to the time of his death; but when that happened is no where said; only it may be observed, that at the time where he ends his book, he could not be much less than seventy years old. After him, there seems not to have been any more governours of Judea; but that this country, being added to the prefecture of Syria, was thenceforth wholly subjected to the governour of that province, and that under him the high priest had the trust of regulating all affairs therein.

While Darius was making war against the Egyp tians and the Arabians, the Medes a revolted from him; but, being vanquished in battle, they were soon forced again to return to their former allegiance, and, for the punishment of their rebellion, submit to an heavier yoke of subjection than they had on them before; as is always the case of revolting subjects when reduced again under the power against which they rebelled.

a Xenophon Hellenic. lib. 1. Herodotus, lib. 9.

And, the next year after, Darius seems to have had as good success against the Egyptians: for Amyrtæus being dead, (perchance Dar. Nothus 17 slain in battle,) Herodotusb tells us, his

Anno 407.

son Pausiris succeeded him in the kingdom, by the favour of the Persians; which argues that, before they granted him this, they had reduced Egypt again under them, otherwise Pausiris could not have been made king of it by their favour.

C

Darius having thus settled his affairs in Media and Egypt, sent Cyrus his younger son to be commander in chief of all the provinces of Lesser Asia, giving him authority paramount over all the lieutenants and governours afore placed in them. He was a very young man to be instructed with so large an authority: for having been born after his father's accession to the throne, he could not have been now above sixteen years old. But, being the darling and best beloved son of Parysatis, who had an absolute ascendant over the old king her husband, she obtained this commission for him, with an intention, no doubt, to put him into a capacity of contending for the crown after his father's death; and this use he accordingly made of it, to the great damage and disturbance of the whole Persian empire, as will be hereafter related.

On his receiving his commission, he had this chiefly given him in charge by his father, that he should help the Lacedemonians against the Athenians, contrary to the wise measures hitherto observed by Tissaphernes, and the other governours of the Persian provinces in those parts. For their practice hitherto had been, sometimes by helping one side, and sometimes by helping the other, so to balance the matter between both parties, that each being kept up to be a match for the other, both might continue to harass and weaken each other by carrying on the war, and neither be at leisure to disturb the Persian empire. This order of the king's for a contrary practice soon discovered

b Lib. 3.

c Xenoph. Hellen. lib. 1. Plutarchus in Artaxerxe, et Lysandro. Ctesias. Justin. lib. 5, c. 5. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 13, p. 308.

d Xenoph. ibid. Diodorus Siculus, ibid. Thucydides, lib. 2. Justin ibid.Plutarchus in Lysandro.

the weakness of his politics. For the Lacedemonians having, by the help which Cyrus gave them, according to his father's instructions, soon overpowered the Athenians, and gained an absolute conquest over them, they were no sooner at leisure from this war, but they sent first Thimbro, and after him, Dercylidas, and at last Agesilaus their king, to invade the Persian provinces in Asia; where they did the Persians a great deal of damage, and might at length have endangered the whole empire, but that the Persians, by distributing vast sums of money among the Grecian cities, and the demagogues that governed them, found means to rekindle the war again in Greece; which necessitated the Lacedemonians to recal their forces for their own defence, just when they were going to march into the heart of that empire, and there strike at the very vitals of it. So dangerous a thing is it in neighbouring states to break the balance of power which is between them, so as to put any one of them into a capacity of oppressing and overpowering the rest. And this instance also shews, that it is no new thing for the managers of public affairs, to barter away their national interest for their private gain, and sell it for money even to those whom they have most reason always to hate, and always to be aware of.

e

Cyrus at Sardis, having put to death two noble Persians, who were sons to a sister of Darius' for no other reason, but that they

Anno 405.

Dar. Nothus 19. did not, on their meeting of him, wrap up their hands within their sleeves, as was used to be done among the Persians on their meeting of the king; Darius, on complaint made hereof by the parents of the slain, was grievously offended, not only for the death of his two nephews, but also for the presumption of his son in challenging to himself the honour which was due only to the king; and therefore not thinking it fit any longer to trust him with that government, recalled him to court, on pretence that he was sick, and therefore desired to see him. But, before Cyrus did put himself upon this journey,f he or

e Xenophon Hellenicorum, lib. 2.

f Plutarchus in Lysandro. Xenoph. Hellenic. lib. 2. Diod. Sic. lib 13.