On the other hand, the ages of Jehoahaz, of Jehoi achin, and of Zedekiah, at the accession of each, are fpecified (the fecond not without a variation, the third erroneoufly); also the duration of their reigns, though the first two do not enlarge the chronology. All three were removed, and, as private characters, died in a state of degradation, ignominy, and exile. Impoffible it therefore is, to ascertain the length of their lives; and were it poffible, it is needless, because these three names are excluded from the genealogy.

IT is farther to be noted, as a peculiarity of the chronological numbers in the history of the kings, that the royal calendar of Samaria does not mention at what age the kings over the ten tribes afcended the throne. The duration of their reigns is specified. So much was indifpenfably neceffary to characterise coincident years, in coexiftent reigns, and to circumfcribe the prophetical period of 390, from the difmembering of the kingdom after Solomon; and no farther did the intent of the inspired hiftorians extend.

THE queftion now recurs. Why is the chronology of the kings over Judah discriminated with so many fingular and appropriate marks of precifion? Why is the age of each, at the time of his acceffion, expreffed, and not only fo, but repeated, together with the length of the feveral reigns?

ONE reafon occurs. It was, doubtless, to give the chronology of the period an additional character of certainty and perfection, by bringing it to the infallible teft of genealogy, that the notations of time, fhould

they

they be accidentally corrupted, (which in several cafes has happened), might be restored to purity by adjusting them to the uniform courfe of nature in generation *.

THIS laft column comprehends 21 lives, of which the fum is 1054; or 50 years three months each. Thus every 51ft year is the intermediate point in time, equi-, diftant from the birth of a family fucceffor, (the common interval fuppofed to be 30), and from 70, the ufual period of longevity.

IN this roll the shortest life is 24, the longest 71. But they were the lives of kings, who, from the

*For any thing known to the author of these sheets, this only poffible method of correction has now, for the first time, been attempted. The difquifition has been a work of labour. Difappointment was often the refult, in many steps of his procedure. By adding the age of acceffion to the length of every reign, was the duration of each life difcovered; and the effect of retrograde computation pointed out the current year of every fovereign at the nativity of his fucceffor. If the year thus either affumed, or found, were apparently dif. cordant with history, every circumftance was brought into juxtaposition, compared with discrimination, and a conclufion framed, according to the highest probability. If the year discovered were repugnant to the course of nature, three expedients occurred; 1. A minority, and confequently a regency. 2. A conjunct reign, whence the hiftory dates invariably the age of the junior fovereign. 3. An erroneous note of number, arifing from the fimilar figures of numerical fignatures in the Hebrew alphabet. With deference are his researches, and conclufions, submitted to the decifion of candid and impartial judges.

accidents

accidents already enumerated, have fewer chances of longevity than other men. Eight of this number were cut off by a violent death. The last two were dethroned, and no account of their age occurs *. On these principles it is a fair conje&ture, that men in private life furvive the birth of their heirs 25 years at an average.

"It came to pass in the 37th year of Jehoiachin's capti. vity, in the 12th month, on the 27th day of the month, that Evil-Merodac, the fucceffor of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, did lift up the head of Jehoiachin, out of prison: and he fpake kindly unto him, and fet his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon; and changed his prifon-garments: and he did eat bread continually before him, all the days of his life. His allowance was a continual allowance, given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life." 2 Kings, xxv. 27. The 37th of Jehoiachin's This quotation mentions

captivity was the 55th of his age. an allowance for his support, all his days, which evidently implies that he furvived his enlargement from the prison several years. But on this furmife, though it were certain, nothing depends. Salathiel might have been born about the time of Zedekiah's degradation, or 52 years before the return from Babylon; and Zerubabel, the grandfon of Jehoiachin, might in the firft of Cyrus conduct the captives back to their own Jand.

CHAP.

CHAP. VI.

Continuation of the Third Series.

3. Coniah, Jehoiachin, or Jeconias II.

EARTH, earth, earth, hear the word of the

Lord; write ye this man childlefs, a man that shall not profper in his day; for no man of his feed fhall profper, fitting upon the throne of David, or ruling any more in Judah *." This folemn denunciation is not to be literally interpreted. Kings may be faid to be fathers in two refpects. Heirs of their blood and of their dignity, are in different senses their children. Jeconias was in both refpects the fon of Jehoiakim; but in the latter fenfe only was Zedekiah the son of Jeconias. He fucceeded him on the throne, and was the last of David's race who ruled in Judah. The denunciation does not imply the extinction of Jeconiah's family, but exprefsly affirms the diffolution of the monarchy, as the words are properly applied. In this view the threatening is equivalent to another on the

* Jer. xxii 29, 30.

fame

fame fubject, though in different terms: "The Lord faid, I will remove Judah alfo out of my fight, as I removed Ifrael, and will caft off this city Jerufalem","

&c.

4. Salathiel, Shealticl.

"THE fons of Jeconiah, Affir, Salathiel +," &c. « Tremellius thinks he had no fon called Affir, nor any fon at all;-that the word Affir here is not the name of a man, but fignifies bound or captive;-and that the words fhould run thus; the fons of Jeconiah the captive, Salathiel, Malchiram, and Pedaiah," &c.

THIS conjecture has every aspect of truth. Frequent examples occur of names impofed on children, in allufion to hiftorical incidents. The eldeft fon of Mofes, born in Midian, was called Gershom, a stranger there, and for a like reafon the firft born of Levi in Egypt.

5. Zorobabel.

IN Mat. i. 12. he is faid to be the fon of Salathiel, and in Chron. iii. 19. the fon of Pedaiah. But either way he was the grandfon of Jeconias. Other difficulties occur, for which Grotius, Trapp, and Yardley, (to whom the learned reader is referred), offer not improbable folutions. Of Zorobabel's fons and more remote defcendants, the names in the Chronicles differ entirely from those in the Evangelift, unless Abiud here be the

* 2 Kings, xxiii. 27.

Chron, iii. 17.

fame