daughters for themselves, and for their sons, so that the holy seed had mingled themselves with the people of those lands, and that even the hand of the princes and rulers had been chief in the trespass; wherefore, this holy servant of God rent his garment, and his mantle, and so great was his grief, as well it might, that he plucked off the hair of his head, and of his beard, and sat down astonished. Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; and I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice.

And at the evening sacrifice, I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto Jehovah, my God, and said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens, since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day: and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day. And now, for a little space, grace hath been shewed from Jehovah, our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments, which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets,

land, with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another, with their uncleanness. Now, therefore, give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this; should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping? O Jehovah, the God of Israel, thou art righteous; for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.*

Now, when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men, and women, and children: for the people wept very sore, and answered, and said unto Ezra, we have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Now, therefore, let us make a covenant with our God, to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. Arise; for this matter belongeth unto thee: we also will be with thee: be of good courage, and do it.†

Having exacted an oath from the chief priests, the Levites,

and all Israel, that they would do according to his word, andassociated with himself, Jonathan, and Jahaziah, they made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem, to gather themselves to Jerusalem within three days, upon pain of forfeiting all their substance, and the benefit of the restoration.* When assembled, Ezra thus addressed them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel. Now, therefore, make confession unto Jehovah, the God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives. Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, as thou hast said, so must we do.†

After a careful and solemn examination of every family, Ezra proceeded with the work of separation, and which appears to have been universally submitted to, although many of them had children by these strange women.‡

Mordecai, the uncle of Hadassah, and who seems to have anticipated that his niece was preordained to render some especial service to her nation, in the exercise of holy faith, had walked patiently, but no doubt anxiously, every day before the court of the women's house, in the palace of Shushan, to know how Hadassah did, and what should become of her ;§ and upon

Ezra, x. 1844. "According to a passage in Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew, Ezra offered a paschal lamb on this occasion, and addressed the people thus: This passover is our saviour and our refuge; and if ye will be persuaded of it, and let it enter into your hearts, that we are to humble to him in a sign, and afterwards shall believe in him, this place shall not be destroyed for ever, saith Jehovah of Hosts; but if ye will not believe in him, nor hearken to his preaching, ye shall be a laughing-stock to the Gentiles.'-Dial. cum Tryphone, sec. 72. This passage, Justin says, the Jews, through their enmity to Christ, blotted out of the book of Ezra. He charges them with cancelling several other places, through the same spirit of enmity and opposition." A. CLARKE,

§ Est. ii. 11.

her advancement to the throne,* was raised to sit in the king's gate, or seat of judgment.† Whilst fulfilling the duties of his office, he discovered a conspiracy against the life of Ahasuerus, by Bigthan and Teresh, two of his own chamberlains, and which he defeated by communicating it to the monarch through Hadassah; upon which both the traitors were *hanged. And soon afterwards, by the same instrumentality, was the malignant purpose of Haman, the Agagite, defeated, which aimed at the destruction of the whole nation of the Jews, throughout the empire; but which was so overruled by their provident and almighty benefactor, that Mordecai was invested with the supreme authority under the monarch, and the event of their signal deliverance has been celebrated ever since, by all their descendants in the well known feast of Purim.§ So Mordecai, the Jew, was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.||

Notwithstanding all the encouragements which the restored Jews had experienced, they were far from being in a state of comfort, or security; for in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes, Hanani, and others of his brethren,

Est. ii. 17-19.

+ "Where the king's officers usually attended to receive the royal commands." A. CLARKE.

Est. ii. 21-23.

Est. iii.-x. Prid. i. 381. For a minute account of the ceremonies and practices (some of them not very reputable) with which the modern Jews keep this festival, see the notes of A. Clarke at the end of the book of Esther, Picart's Religious Ceremonies, vol. i. 221., Basnage's History of the Jews, 452. Dr. Jennings's Jewish Antiq. ii. 305.

Est. x. 3. Burder gives extracts from several modern travellers, of the actual existence of the tombs of Esther and Mordecai, which seem better entitled to credence than such matters usually O. L. No. 665.

are.

came to Nehemiah, in the palace at Shushan,* where he filled the office of cupbearer,† and informed him that the remnant that were left of the captivity at Jerusalem, were in great affliction and reproach; that the wall of Jerusalem also was broken down, and the gates thereof were burnt with fire.+

On receiving this information, the holy man gives us the following relation of his feeling, When I heard these words, I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven, and said, I beseech thee, O Jehovah, the God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him, and observe his commandments: let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel, thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned: we have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandest thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress I will scatter you abroad among the nations: but if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them: though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. Now these are thy servants, and thy people, whom thou has redeemed by thy great power, and by thy

Nehem. i. 1-3. "The ancient city of Susa, called in Persian, Shuster; the winter residence of the Persian Kings." A. CLARKE. + Nehem. 1-11.

Nehem. i. 3. See a more minute account of this interview in Jos. i. 109.