this argument for it, that Mount Gerizim having been the mountain that was appointed whereon to declare the blessings of God, and Mount Ebal whereon to denounce his curses, the mountain of blessing was very proper, and the mountain of cursing very improper, for an altar of God to be built upon. But, notwithstanding this allegation in their behalf, all other copies and translations of the Pentateuch make against them, and prove the corruption to be on their side. And it very much aggravates their guilt herein, that they have not only corrupted the Scriptures in this place, but have also interpolated them with this corruption in another, that is, in Exodus xx, where," after the tenth commandment, they have subjoined, by way of an additional precept thereto, words taken out of Deuteronomy xi, and xxvii, to command the erecting of the altar in Mount Gerizim instead of Mount Ebal, and the offering of sacrifices to God in that place. And in that they have thus voluntarily made a corrupt alteration in one place, and a corrupt addition in another, merely out of design to serve an ill cause, this gives the less authority to their copy in all other places, where, either by alterations or additions, it differs from that of the Jews.

These two mountains, called Gerizim and Ebal, are in the tribe of Ephraim, near Samaria; and in the valley between them lieth Shechem, now called Naplous, which hath been the head seat of the Samaritan sect ever since Alexander expelled them out of Samaria for the death of Andromachus. This place the Jews in our Saviour's time, by way of reproach, called

r The words added by the Samaritans after the tenth commandment, in Exodus xx, are as followeth. "And it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath brought thee into the land of the Canaanites, whether thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt set up great stones, and plaster them with plaster, and thou shalt write upon these stones all the words of this law. And it shall be, when ye are gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in Mount Gerizim, and thou shalt build there an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones. Thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them. Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of whole stones. And thou shalt there offer burnt-offerings thereon to the Lord thy God, and thou shalt offer peace-offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before the Lord thy God. This mountain is on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, who dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh, which are over against Shechem.'

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,y 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, Ist. That the Scriptures place these two mountains 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 bill from which Jotham the son of Gideon made his speech to the Shechemites, being a called Gerizim, and that certainly

s John iv, 5.

a

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 temple of the Samaritans was built.

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. e Lib. 2, p. 66, 76. d Gen. xxxv, 2—4.

VOL. II.

29

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.

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. 368.

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