ed in Israel, and to carry captive into the Ammonites' country the people that abode in Mispah, than a desire of embroiling Nabuchodonosor with so many labours at once, as should make him retire into his own country, and abandon those wasted lands to himself and others for whom they lay conveniently. Such, or the like policy, the Moabites did exercise; whose pride and wrath were made frustrate by God, and their dissimulation condemned, as not doing right.

All these nations had the art of ravening, which is familiar to such as live or border upon deserts; and now the time afforded them occasion to shew the uttermost cunning of their thievish wits. But Nebuchadnezzar did cut asunder all their devices by sharp and sudden war, overwhelming them with unexpected ruin, as it were in one night; according to the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, who foretold, with little difference of words, the great'ness and swiftness of the misery that should come upon them. With which of them he first began, I find not it seems that Moab was the last which felt his hand; for so do many good authors interpret the prophecy of Isaiah, threatening Moab with destruction after three years, as having reference to the third year following the ruin of Jerusalem, the next year after it being spent in the Egyptian expedition. This is manifest, that all the principal towns in these regions were burnt, and the people slain or made slaves, few excepted, who, being preserved by flight, had not the courage to return to their habitations over hastily, much less to attempt any thing against Nabuchodonosor, but lived as miserable outlaws, or at least oppressed wretches, until the end of the seventy years, which God had prescribed unto the desolation of their countries, as well as of the land of Judæa.

7 Isa.. xvi. 14.

SECT. VIII.

That Egypt was conquered, and the king therein reigning slain by Nabuchodonosor, contrary to the opinion of most authors, who, following Herodotus and Diodorus, relate it otherwise.

WHEN, by a long course of victory, Nabuchodo nosor had brought into subjection all the nations of Syria, and the bordering Arabians, in such wise that no enemy to himself, nor friend of the Egyptians, was left at his back, that might give impediment unto his proceeding, or take advantage of any misfortune, then did he forthwith take in hand the conquest of Egypt himself, upon which these other nations had formerly been depending. Of this expedition, and the victorious issue thereof, the three great prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, have written so plainly, that I hold it altogether needless to look after more authority, or to cite for proof half of that which may be alleged out of these. Nevertheless, we find many and good authors, who, following Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, are well contented to strain these prophecies with unreasonable diligence unto such a sense, as gives to Nabuchodonosor little more than the honour of having done some spoil in Egypt, omitting the conquest of that land by the Babylonian, and referring the death of Apries, or Hophra, to a chance long after following, which had no coherence with these times or affairs. So preposterous is the delight which many men take in the means and second helps conducing to their purpose, that oftentimes they prefer the commentator before the author, and, to uphold a sentence giving testimony to one clause, do carelessly overthrow the history itself, which thereby they sought to have maintained. The reports of Herodotus and Diodorus, concerning

the kings of Egypt, which reigned about these times, are already rehearsed in the former book; but that which they have spoken of Apries, was purposely reserved unto this place. Herodotus affirms', that he was a very fortunate king, but wherein he telleth not, (unless we should understand that he was victorious in the war which he is said to have made upon Tyre and Sidon ;) that he reigned twenty-five years, and was finally taken and put to death by his own subjects, who did set up Amasis as king, which prevailed against him. The rebellion of the Egyptians he imputeth to a great loss which they received in an expedition against the Cyrenians, by whom almost their whole army was destroyed. This calamity the people of Egypt thought to be well pleasing to their king, who had sent them on this dangerous expedition, with a purpose to have them consumed, that so he might, with greater security, reign over such as staid at home. So they who escaped, and the friends of such as were slain, rebelled against Apries who sent Amasis to appease the tumult; but Amasis, became captain of the rebels, and was by them chosen king. Finally the whole land consented unto this new election; whereby Apries was driven to trust unto his foreign mercenaries, the Ionians and Carians, of whom he kept in readiness thirty thousand good soldiers that fought valiantly for him, but were at length vanquished by the great numbers of the Egyptian forces, amounting unto two hundred and fifty thousand, which were all by birth and education men of war. Apries himself being taken prisoner, was gently entreated by Amasis for a while, until the Egyptians, exclaiming upon him as an extreme enemy to the land, got him delivered into their hands, and strangled him; yet they gave him honourable burial. Such is the report of Herodotus, with whom Diodorus Siculus nearly a

1 Herod. l. ii. and 1. 4.

grees, telling us, that Apries did vanquish the Cyprians and Phoenicians in battle at sea; took by force and demolished Sidon; won the other towns of Phoenicia, and the isle of Cyprus; and finally perished, as is before rehearsed, when he had reigned twenty-two years. This authority was enough, (yet not more than enough,) to inform us of Apries's history, if greater authority did not contradict it. But the destruction of Egypt by the Babylonian, foretold by the prophets, which hath no coherence with these relations, hath greater force to compel our belief, than have the traditions of Egyptian priests, (which the Greek historians followed,) and greater probabilities to persuade those that look only into human reasons. For Isaiah 3 prophecied long before of the shameful captivity of the Egyptians, whom the king of Ashur should carry away naked, young and old, in such wise, that the Jews, who fled unto them for deliverance from the Assyrian, should be ashamed of their own vain confidence in men so unable to defend themselves.

Bnt Ezekiel and Jeremiah, as their prophecies were nearer to the time of execution, so they handled this argument more precisely. For Ezekiel telleth plainly, that Egypt should be given to Nebuchadnezzar, as wages for the service which he had done at Tyre; also he recounteth particularly all the chief cities in Egypt, saying, that these by name should be destroyed and go into captivity; yea, that Pharaoh and all his army should be slain by the 'sword. Wherefore it must needs be a violent exposition of these prophecies, which, by applying the issue of such threatnings to an insurrection and rebellion, concludes all, without any other alteration in Egypt, than change of the king's person, wherein Amasis did succeed unto Apries, by force indeed, but by the uniform consent of all the people. Cer

2 Diod. Sic. 1. i. c. 2. and xxxii. 31.

2 Isa. xx. 4, 5, 6,

4 Ezek. xxix. 20. XXX

LLS

tainly, if that notable place of Jeremiah, wherein he foretelleth how the Jews in Egypt should see Pharaoh Hophra delivered into the hands of his enemies', as Zedekiah had been, were to be referred unto the time of that rebellion whereof Herodotus hath spoken, as the general opinion hath over-ruled it,-then was it vainly done of the same prophet (which God forbid that any Christian should think, seeing he did it by the appointment of God himself,) to hide, in the clay of a brick-kiln, those very stones upon which the throne of Nabuchodonosor should be set, and his pavilion spread. Yea, then was that prophecy no other than false, which expressed the end of Pharaoh thus: Behold I will visit the common people of No, and Pharaoh and Egypt, with their gods ⚫ and their kings, even Pharaoh, and all that trust in ' him and I will deliver them into the hands of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebu'chadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hands of his servants"." The clearness of this prophecy being such as could not but refute that interpretation of many other places, which referred all to the rebellion of Amasis, it caused me to wonder what those commentators would say to it, who are elsewhere so diligent in fitting all to the Greek historians. Wherefore looking upon Junius, who had, in another place, taken the enemies of Pharaoh Hophra to be Amasis and his followers, I found him here acknowledging that the Egyptian priests had notably deluded Herodotus with lies", coined upon a vain-glorious purpose of hiding their own disgrace and bondage. And surely it may well be thought, that the history of Nebuchadnezzar was better known to the Jews whom it concerned, than to the Greeks that scarcely at any time heard of his name. Therefore I see no cause why we should not rather believe Josephus, reporting that Nabuchodonosor in the twenty-third 7 Jun. in Jer,

5 Jer. xliv. 30. Jer. xliii. 10. xliv. 30.

6 Jer. xlvi. 25, 26.