or Tirhakah, who reigned B.c. 705. The close of this dynasty was followed by the Dodecarchy, or the reign of twelve princes, B.C. 685; but after a short time this, too, was set aside, and native kings again began to reign.

Psammetik I., 670. In order to check the power of the Assyrian kings (Esarhaddon was at this time on the throne-see Tabular View), he led an army against the Assyrians, but was detained for 29 years by the siege of Azotus (Ashdod), the longest siege recorded in history. After his death, Pharaoh Necho succeeds to the throne B.C. 616. He attempted to join the Nile to the Red Sea (a Suez Canal!), but was obliged to desist, after losing about 120,000 workmen. In his reign the Cape of Good Hope was for the first time rounded-21 centuries before Vasco di Gama, a Portuguese, discovered the same route to India by which Necho's mariners had succeeded in sailing from the Red Sea round South Africa, and through the Straits of Gibraltar back to Egypt again. In 626 the Babylonian king (or governorgeneral as he then was) having, in conjunction with Cyaxares, king of Media, overthrown Nineveh, Pharaoh Necho, alarmed at the growing power of the Chaldees, determined to check it in its infancy. He accordingly led an army to the Euphrates, met the Chaldean army at Carchemish, inflicted a defeat on them, and secured by this victory the whole country between the Euphrates and Egypt, including Syria and Palestine. This battle was fought B.C. 610. On his way to Carchemish he was met by Josiah, king of Judah, at Megiddo; but Necho defeated him, and passed on his way to Assyria. On his return, after three months, he placed Jehoiakim on the throne, in the place of Jehoahaz-whom the people had made king on the death of Josiah, his father-and bound him by an oath of fidelity as a vassal to Egypt. Four years afterwards, Nebuchadnezzar having been raised to the throne by his father Nabopolassar, a second battle was fought at Carchemish, in which the Egyptians suffered defeat, and the provinces between the river of Egypt and the Euphrates were re-annexed to the Chaldean throne, B.C. 606. In this year the fourth of Jehoiakim-the 70 years' captivity began.

Psammis, or Psammetik II., B.C. 600, succeeds on his father's death. There is no event of importance in his reign of six years.

Apries, or Pharaoh Hophra, 594, succeeds his father Psammis, and reigns twenty-five years. To this king the words of Ezekiel refer, in which he is described as a great dragon (Ezek. xxix. 3-9). At this time Zedekiah was on the throne of Judah, bound by an oath of fidelity to the king of Babylon, who had placed him there; but, in violation of his oath, he sent an embassy to Pharaoh Hophra (Ezek. xvii. 15), seeking an alliance against the Chaldeans. The king of Babylon's armies were now investing Jerusalem, but on hearing of the approach of the Egyptian army they raised the siege, in order to stand ready for the coming battle. The Egyptians were defeated, Jerusalem speedily re-invested, and after a brief struggle Zedekiah was taken, and led to Babylon. Soon afterwards Egypt was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, and annexed to the Chaldean Empire; the words of Ezekiel being in every particular fulfilled, that Egypt would henceforth be a base kingdom, and that there should be no more a "prince of the land of Egypt" (Ezek. xxx. 13); for since then Egypt has invariably been governed by strangers; -the Ptolemies from B.C. 300 to the Battle of Actium, 30 B.C.; and after the fall of Rome, by Saracens, Mamelukes, and Turks successively.

Amasis, 569, succeeds to the throne, and reigns forty years; but he is celebrated more as a patron of learned men than as a warrior. We meet in his reign the names of Solon, Pythagoras, the philosopher, Polycrates, king of Samos, and many others. He was succeeded by

Psammenitus, B.C. 525, who was dethroned by the Persian king, Cambyses, son of Cyrus the Great.

OUTLINE HISTORY OF JUDEA,

From 641 to 580.

Instead of a sketch of Jewish history, the following "Order of Events," including a chronological arrangement of the Text of Scripture, is given as likely to be of greater service to young students than a mere narrative.

The book of Jeremiah is rendered more difficult than other books of Scripture, because the chapters are not in historical order. It is only by a careful comparison of the chapters with the histories in Kings and Chronicles that we can secure a clear understanding of the political history of the times, and of the personal history of the prophet.

In submitting the following " Order of Events," we wish to impress on our young readers a few points of much importance.

(1.) The events include a period of over sixty years— from the beginning of Josiah's reign, B.C. 641, to the death of Jeremiah in Egypt, (date not known, but after 588). The political history of the whole period must be not only studied, but be well known.

(2.) Certain events should be kept constantly in view as serving to explain the causes and motives of action, and as entering into the philosophy of the history of this eventful period. Among these are the following:

1. Josiah's opposition to Pharaoh Necho at the battle of Megiddo, notwithstanding the Egyptian king's explanation that he had no intention to molest Judah2 Ks. xxiii. 29, 30; 2 Chron. xxxv. 20-25. This is usually explained by saying that Josiah followed Jeremiah's instructions as Jehovah's voice; but there may have been another motive for the course which he then took. Dean Prideaux-vol. 1, pp. 49, 50-points out that Josiah evidently claimed and exercised authority over the kingdom of Israel—the ten tribes,—as well as over the kingdom of Judah, and explains this by shewing that after Manasseh's restoration the kings of Assyria conferred on the kings of Judah, in order to the better preservation of these frontier kingdoms against the encroachment of Egyptian power, the whole of the territory formerly belonging to the ten

tribes. In this case Josiah acted simply in accordance with his oath of fidelity to the kings of Babylon, as well as in obedience to the word of Jehovah by the prophet Jeremiah.

2. The battle of Megiddo, B.c. 610, must be regarded as one of the decisive battles of the Jewish history, (it is referred to as such in Rev. xvi., where evidently Armageddon is Hor Megiddo). By this battle the Jewish kingdom was so broken up that the death of Josiah is mourned for-Zech. xii. 11-as an event of unusual national importance. With this event the four great world empires, Dan. ii. and vii., commenced their rule, and, according to many of our best writers, the "times of the Gentiles," Luke xxi., then began. 3. The rivalry for power between the two great empires of Chaldæa and Egypt, is the real key to the history of Judah during the whole of this period; hence the history of these two kingdoms should be carefully studied.

4. The position of Judea between these rival powers, and the tendency of her kings to lean upon the power of Egypt rather than on that of Assyria or Chaldæathe former being an old and powerful kingdom, also close at hand; the latter being of recent growth, and far from the Jewish kingdoms. The difficulty which Jeremiah experienced in inducing the kings of Judah to submit to Chaldæa, and not to trust in Egypt, may thus be seen at once.

THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH.

The Title of this Book was originally of the same form as those of Hosea and Micah--" The word of Jehovah, which was to Jeremiah in the 13th year of Josiah, saying." This title is still retained by the Septuagint Version (Ixx.), but has undergone changes in the Hebrew.

Authorship. That Jeremiah was the author is admitted by all. St. Matthew not only quotes from his writings, but names him as the author-Matt. ii. 17, 18. Jeremiah was of the priestly line, having been descended from Aaron through Eleazar. His family resided at Anathoth (ch. i. 1), one of the cities appropriated to the use of the priests, in

the tribe of Benjamin-Josh. xxi. 18. His father's name was Hilkiah, and very probably the high priest by whom the law was found in the Tempie in Josiah's reign2 Ks. xxii. 8. As we are told in 1 Ks i 26 that Abiathar, of the line of Ithamar, retired to his own fields at Anathoth, it is supposed by some that Anathoth belonged to the line of Ithamar, and therefore that Jeremiah must have been of that line, and could not have been of that of Eleazar, to which Hikiah beicnged; but it has never been shown that priests of both lines may not have resided in the same towns. Anathoth, being only three miles from Jerusalem, may have been a place of residence for the officiating priests during the term of their service, and by either live property might have been acquired there. See Sp. Com.

Occasion of his Prophecies

1. The moral state of Judah.-The idolatries and crimes of the kings (Manasseh especially) and people of Judah.

2. The political state of Judah.—There were two great empires contending for the mastery, and claiming authority over Syria and Palestine. On the east and north the Assyrian empire had given way to the Chaldean-the first great world empire foreshown by Daniel, chaps. ii., vii., under Nebuchadnezzar. On the south-west, the old and powerful kingdom of the Pharaohs. In Jerusalem there were two great parties-the one in sympathy with the Chaldeans, and seeking to sustain the power of the Jewish kingdom by an alliance with the new and rising Babylonian empire; the other in sympathy with the Egyptians, embracing the kings (except Josiah) and almost all the princes and priests, whose hopes rested on an alliance with the powerful monarchy which lay so near them, that it was almost natural that the Jewish vine should, in the language of the prophet Ezekiel, “shoot forth her branches toward him "-Ezek. xvii. 7. The alliance with Egypt, so near and so powerful, seemed so natural to the Jewish mind; and the danger of trusting to a new power like the Chaldean, which might fall as rapidly as it had risen, and which was far from Judah, so obvious,—the prophet Jeremiah's great difficulty arose from the fact that, inspired by God, who had foretold the rise of the Chaldean power (the head of gold of Dan. ii.), he insisted on pressing upon the king and princes the absolute necessity,