PART I. a war in which the Scythians had involved him with the Lydians, the kings of Media and Babylon, Ant. Chr. with their joint forces, subverted the Assyrian emNabonass. pire, and accomplished the destruction of Nineveh, in the manner we have seen 600. æra 147. 88 History, as I have formerly had occasion to observe, has furnished us with no particulars of the siege of Nineveh. Nor do we know, with certainty, any thing concerning the structure of its buildings, or the manners of its inhabitants; for no ancient historian or geographer, who speaks of it, had seen it before it was destroyed. That it was utterly demolished, Strabo bears witness89. All ancient authors however agree, that Nineveh was as large, if not larger, and as populous and superb as Babylon, when it was conquered by Cyrus the great, or entered by Alexander the Macedonian; and consequently one of the greatest and most magnificent cities in the ancient world9o. It was situated on the eastern bank of the Tygris, in a large plain, between that river and the Lycus". While Nebuchadnezzar was employed in subduing the Assyrian provinces to the east of the Euphrates, 90. Diod. Sicul. lib. ii. Strabo, lib. xvi. Plin. lib. vi. According to the prophet Jonah, the only person we read of that ever visited Nineveh during its grandeur, it was "a great city of three days jour'ney;" (Jonah, chap. iii. ver. 3.) or about sixty miles, by common computation, in circumference; and contained one hundred and twenty thousand souls that could not discern between their right "hand and their left;" (Id. chap. iv. ver. 2.) so that the whole number of inhabitants, by the most moderate calculation, must have been about one million. Diodorus Siculus (lib. ii.) gives Nineveh nearly the same dimensions as Babylon. Strabo only says, in general terms, (Geog. lib. xvi. init.) that it was larger than that city. 91. Strabo, lib. xvi. init. Jehoiakim, IX. Jehoiakim, king of Judah, threw off the Babylonian LETTER yoke. But he paid dear for his temerity. Harassed by enemies on all sides, from the Syrian provinces, that preserved their allegiance to the king of Babylon, and whose governors, at last, invaded Palestine with their collected forces, he was slain in the neighbourhood of his capital; and his body being denied the honours of sepulture, was exposed in the high-way93. Jerusalem, which had long been threatened and insulted, was now formally invested; and after the siege had continued about three months, Nebuchadnezzar, in person, led an army against it. Jehoiachin, the son of the deceased king, who had assumed the royal dignity, conscious of his inability to hold out, attempted, by submission, to deprecate the vengeance of the incensed monarch. He accordingly walked out in the form of a suppliant, attended by his mother; and his whole court. But his submission availed him nothing beyond the sparing of his life. He was put in chains; and Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, was placed on the tributary throne of Judah94. Nor was this all: Nebuchadnezzar pillaged a second time the temple, and also the palace of Jerusalem, and carried captive to Babylon the degraded king, Jehoiachin, with his wives, his nobles, and officers both civil and military; seven thousand men habituated to the use of arms, and one thousand artificers 95. This victorious monarch, after his return to his capital, seems to have spent, as formerly, several years of peace in adorning the seat of his power, and in enjoying the glory of greatness, and the pride of 92. 2 Kings, chap. xxiv. ver. 1, 2. Joseph. Antiq. lib. x. 93. Id. ibid. Jeremiah, chap. xxxvi. ver. 30. 94. 2 Kings, chap. xxiv. ver. 10-17. 95. Id. ibid. VOL. II. Ε dominion, Ant. Chr. 599. Nabonass. æra 148. PART I. dominion, in the midst of his courtiers and tributary princes. But he was again roused to arms by the revolt of the Jews. Zedekiah, king of Judah, in violation of his oath of fealty to the king of Babylon, had been for some time forming a plan of independency with the neighbouring princes; and persisted in his negociation with those princes, notwithstanding the strong declaration of the prophet Jeremiah, "That the Lord of Hosts, the God of the whole earth, had doomed "them all to be servants to Nebuchadnezzar, that "they should all serve him, his son, and his son's son; that such as should offer to dispute his sway, "the Lord would punish with the sword, with "famine, and with pestilence; but that those who quietly submitted their necks to the yoke of the king of Babylon, should be spared, and permit"ted to dwell in their own land, and to cultivate "it" Regardless of this declaration, and other prophecies, particularly respecting the kingdom of Judah, Zedekiah, having engaged his principal subjects to enter into his views, and received assurances of support from the king of Egypt, broke out into open rebellion against the authority of the king of Babylon9. The Jewish king's alliance with the rival power of Egypt, from which the sovereignty of Syria had been formerly wrested, as we have seen, by the youthful arms of Nebuchadnezzar, more than every other circumstance, may be supposed to have provoked the vengeance of that haughty monarch. For Apries or Hophra, the grandson of Nechaoh, who now filled the Egyptian throne, was an ambitious prince; and for 96. Jeremiah, chap. xxvii. ver. 4-11. midable IX. midable both by land and sea98. The enraged Baby- LETTER lonian conqueror, therefore, as if guided by the hand of God, for the correction of his chosen, but sinful and perverse people, and animated by the voice of his prophets, entered Palestine, breathing terror, Ant. Chr. at the head of a vast body of forces in hostile array; bore down all resistance in the field, and invested Jerusalem9. The king of Judah and his subjects, who had hitherto proved obstinately hardened against the remonstrances of the prophet Jeremiah, forewarning them of the fatal consequences of a breach of faith, no sooner saw the holy city formally besieged, than they became sensible of their folly and impiety. They affected repentance, and entered into a solemn covenant with the Lord their God; by which they engaged to worship him only, and faithfully to observe all his laws 100 100. 590. Nabonass. æra 157. 589. Ant. Chr. The approach of an Egyptian army, however, dissipated the melancholy apprehensions of the Jews, and inspired them with new confidence; gave them the prospect of recovering their independency, or at least of changing their master. They accordingly ra 158. reverted to their former mode of thinking; and, during the first moments of illusive hope, broke the covenant which they had made with the Lord, through fear. And their fate was worthy of such a fickle and faithless people; a people ever equally regardless of their engagements, sacred and civil. Nebuchadnezzar, as soon as he was informed of the approach of the Egyptian forces, had raised the 98. Herodot. lib. ii. Diod. Sicul. lib. i. 99. 2 Kings, chap. xxv. ver. i. 100. Jeremiah, chap. xxxiv. ver. 8, 9, 10. 101. Ibid. ver. 11-20. 102 PART I. siege of Jerusalem, and marched against the gene rals of Apries1o2. Hence the renewed confidence and impiety of the Jews, who flattered themselves the Babylonians would molest them no more. But they were miserably disappointed. The Egyptians, intimidated at the appearance of so numerous and well appointed an army, as that under the king of Babylon, retired toward their own frontier, without hazarding a battle; and the redoubted Nebuchadnezzar rereturned to his station before Jerusalem, and resumed the siege of that sacred and venerable city1o3, No besieged place had ever less chance of escaping the calamities with which it was threatened, than the metropolis of Judea; whether we consider the state of the garrison by which it was defended, or that of the army with which it was invested. The forces of Nebuchadnezzar, equal to the greatest enterprise by their numbers, their experienced valour, their weapons and warlike engines, were elated with the flight of the Egyptians before them, the only enemy they had to fear; and now considered the plunder of Jerusalem as their certain prey. The king of Judah and his nobles were not destitute of courage; but the soldiers and citizens were in danger of being driven to desertion or despondency, by the disheartening prophecies of Jeremiah; who publicly declared, in the name of the Lord, That every one who remained in the city should perish by the sword, by famine, or by pestilence; but that such as went out, and sub❤ mitted to the king of Babylon, should be safe1o4, After such a declaration, your lordship will not be surprised, I presume, that the Jewish princes and nobles said to the king, "Webeseech thee let this man 102. Joseph, Antiq. lib. x. Jeremiah, chap. xxxvii. ver. 5—10. 103. Id. ibid. 104. Jeremiah, chap. xxxviii. ver. 2. "be |