OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ZEPHANIAH.

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THE prophet Zephaniah informs us that he was the son of Cushi; and that the word of the Lord came to him in the days of Josiah king of Judah. He is supposed to have been of the tribe of Simeon; and as he traces back his pedigree for four generations, he was doubtless of noble birth; though not of the royal family, as some have imagined, from the resemblance between the names of Hezekiah and that of Hiskia, from whom the prophet professes himself to have been a descendant; the period which intervened between king Hezekiah and the time in which Zephaniah flourished, being scarce sufficient to admit of three intermediate ancestors to the prophet.

Zephaniah begins with denouncing God's wrath against "the remnant of Baal,d and the name of the Chemarims;" against them that worshipped the host of heaven, and swore by Malcham; and therefore probably he addressed those idolatrous priests who were not yet extirpated by the religious zeal of Josiah he foretold, also, the destruction of Nineveh, which happened A. M. 3392. And upon these considerations he may

11; Acts xiii. 41, comp. with Hab. i. 5. St. Luke cites this passage according to the Septuagint; and Pocock has shewn that the original will admit of the apostle's construction. Vid. Pocock in Porta Mosis, c. 3. He derives the word Bagojim, which we translate," among the heathen," from the word Baga, which still signifies, in the Arabic, to be "proud or scornful ;" and the word Tamah may be translated, "wonder and perish."

a Some of the Jews fancied that these ancestors were all prophets. Vid. Hieron. Com. in Sophon. init.

b Cyrill.

c R. Aben-Ezra.

d Baal was anciently a name applied to the true God, and afterwards prostituted to many pagan deities. The Baal whose worship Jezebel introduced from Zidon, was, according to Mede, a deified king of the Phoenicians. The name was often given to the heavenly bodies when made the object of idolatrous worship. Vid. Selden. de Diis Syris Syntag. ii. c. 1. Mede, b. i. disc. 42.

e The word Chemarim is translated

"idolatrous priests," 2 Kings xxiii. 5. They were called Chemarim, because clothed in black garments. Vid. Kimchi in loc. and in 2 Kings xxiii. 5. Black was the customary dress of idolatrous priests in many nations. Vid. Horace, lib. i. sat. viii. 23, 24. Apoll. Rhod. lib. iii. 861. Plutarch. de Isid. Apuleius, i. 10. Miles. The black ox, that represented Osiris among the Egyptians, was covered with a black silk or linen garment. Vid. Patrick in 2 Kings xxiii. 5.

f Malcham was the same deity with Moloch, a god of the Ammonites. Some suppose him the same with Baal, as both words signify dominion; but the name particularly means the sun. He was worshipped by heathens with human sacrifices; and the Israelites dedicated their children to his service, by making them pass through the fire. Vid. Vossius de Orig. et Progres. Idolat. lib. ii. cap. 5. Patrick in Levit. xviii. 21; and Calmet's Diss. sur l'Idolat.

Comp. Zeph. i. 4-9, with 2 Kings xxiii. 5, 6, 12, &c.

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be supposed to have prophesied before the last reformation made by Josiah, A. M. 3381. He may be conceived also to have entered on his office towards the commencement of the reign of that monarch, who ascended the throne A. M. 3364, since he preceded Jeremiah, who began his prophetic ministry in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign. Epiphanius relates that Zephaniah was born at Mount Sarabatha, or Baratha."

Zephaniah and Jeremiah resemble each other so much in those parts where they treat of the idolatries and wickedness that prevailed in their time, that St. Isidore asserts, that Zephaniah was the abbreviator of Jeremiah: but he apparently prophesied before Jeremiah; and the latter seems to speak of those abuses as partially removed, which the former describes as present in the most flagitious extent.

Zephaniah, in this book, appears to have conspired with Josiah in his righteous design of bringing back the people to the worship and obedience of the true God. His first chapter contains a general denunciation of vengeance against Judah, and those who superstitiously observed the rites of idolaters, or violently invaded the property of others; and he declares that "the great day of trouble and distress, of desolation and darkness," was at hand. In the second chapter, the prophet predicts woe to the Cherethites,' the Moabites, Ammonites, and Æthiopians, and describes the desolation of Nineveh, in terms wonderfully descriptive." These prophecies were chiefly accomplished by the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar. In the third

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h Dorotheus calls the place Sabarthara. Sarathasa is mentioned in Joshua, as a mountainous place in the territory of Reuben. Zeredatha, or Sarthas, is spoken of in 2 Chron. iv. 17. The place of Zephaniah's nativity might be Saraa, near Eshthaoh, in the tribe of Simeon, with the addition of Beth, or Batha, which signifies an house, or place of residence.

i Comp. Zephan. i. 4, 5, 9, with Jerem. ii. 5, 20, 32.

Chap. i. 9. The Chaldee paraphrast applies this verse to those who lived after the rules of the Philistines. Vid. Bochart. Hierozoic. lib. ii. c. 36. If a superstitious practice be alluded to, it might be derived from the blind prejudice of the Philistines. Vid. 1 Sam. v. 1-5. Traces of a similar observance may be found among other nations. Vid. Juven. Sat. vi. 47. Tibul.

lib. i. eleg. ii. 89, 90.

Lucan. lib. ii. 359. The Cherethites, or Cherethims, were the Philistines who bordered on the Mediterranean, called Cherethims. Ezek. xxv. 16; and Kpηres, Cretans, in the Septuagint. They are supposed to have been a colony removed from Crete to Palestine. Vid. Lowth and Calmet.

Chap. ii. 12, comp. with Jerem. xlvi. 2, 9; Ezek. xxx. 4-10. Joseph. Ant. lib. x. c. 11.

Chap. ii. 14, 15. Some have, without sufficient reason, supposed that this prophecy is an interpolation from Jonah; and that it is alluded to in Tobit xiv. 4, 8. Vid. Whiston's Authentic Records, vol. ii. append. 4.

• Prid. Con. in 21, 31, and 32 of Nebuchadnezzar.

chapter, the prophet returns to Jerusalem, arraigns her pollutions, oppressions, and corruption, which should be punished in God's general vengeance; and concludes, as is usual with the prophets, with promises of a remnant who should trust in the Lord's name; of a return to his favour; and of blessings partly completed by the Gospel dispensations, but finally to be accomplished in the general restoration of the Jews. In the second and third chapters, likewise, the prophet magnifies his expressions, in speaking of temporal events, to an importance which accords only with the effects produced by the preaching of the Gospel, in the destruction of idolatry, and in the calling of the Gentiles to God's service. The style of Zephaniah is poetical; but it is not distinguished by any peculiar elegance or beauty, though generally animated and impressive.

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET HAGGAI.

HAGGAI is generally reputed to have been born in the captivity, and to have returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel." He is reckoned as the tenth in order among the prophets, both in the Hebrew and Greek copies; and may be considered as the first of the three prophets who flourished among the Jews after their return to their country. He appears to have been raised up by God to exhort Zerubbabel, and Joshua the high-priest, the son of Josedech, to resume the work of the temple; which had been interrupted near fourteen years, in consequence of the intrigues of the Samaritans, and other obstructions excited to defeat the edict of Cyrus. He began to prophesy in the second year of Darius Hystaspes, A. M. 3484, about fifteen years after the foundation of the temple had been laid. The prophets, after the

P Chap. iii. 8-20.

4 Chap. ii. 11; and ch. iii.

and Joshua must have been dead, as well as all those who remembered the temple

a Ezra ii. 2. Cyrill. lib. i. Adv. Julian. in its first glory. But as the second year Epiphan. et Doroth.

b Ezra v. 1.

c Ezra iv. 24.

d Ezra v. 1. The Darius of Haggai and Zechariah could not have been Darius Nothus, who did not begin to reign till above one hundred years after the decree of Cyrus, and before whose time Zerubbabel

of Darius Hystaspes corresponds with the seventeenth year after the return from the captivity, many might have at that time been living who remembered Solomon's temple, which was destroyed only sixtyeight years before; and we may allow the temple to have been rebuilt in about twenty years. Vid. Joseph. Antiq. lib. xi.

captivity sometimes reckoned by the dates of those sovereigns to whom their country was subjected.

Haggai begins with representing to the people, who delayed by evasive procrastinations the work of the temple, that they were more solicitous to build and to adorn their own houses, than to labour in the service of God; and informs them, that the scarcity and unfruitful seasons which they experienced were designed as a punishment for their selfish disregard to the glory of the Lord. His earnest remonstrance and exhortations appear to have produced their effect; and the prophet-in order to encourage those who fondly remembering the magnificence of that glorious structure which had been reared by Solomon, and who, perhaps, impressed with the description furnished by Ezekiel, must have lamented the comparative meanness of the present building-declares to them, in the name of the Lord, that the glory of this latter house, though it might appear as nothing in their eyes, yet should be greater than that of the former; "for thus saith the Lord of hosts, yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations. shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts," with a greater glory, with a glory more apparent and manifest than was that clouded and symbolical representation of the divine majesty which overshadowed the mercy-seat in the old temple, and which prefigured only that incarnate presence of the Messiah, in whom should "dwell all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;"s that from this temple, though not decorated with silver and with gold, yet there should appear the Prince of Peace." Haggai, after again recapitulating the offences that

pression of dignity, (as even in the same word in Dan. ix. 23.) It is not clear, indeed, that the word is plural; for the vau, which constitutes the plural termination of 121, might perhaps belong to the next word, and signify he; and the Chaldee and Vulgate render the word in the singular number. Certain it is, that neither Zerubbabel's nor Herod's temple did ever equal that of Solomon in magnificence; and the solemnity with which this prophecy is introduced, as well as the grandeur of its description, are hyperbolical in the extreme, unless applied to the glorious presence of the Messiah. Vid. parallel text in Malac. iii. 1. Chandler's Def. sect. i. c. 2. Newcome, &c.

had excited God's anger, and which could not be atoned for till the people should have repented of their neglect of God's service; and after consoling them with a promise of future blessings, concludes his splendid prophecies, which he was enabled to deliver by four distinct revelations, with predicting the important revolutions that should precede the great and final advent of our Lord, typically described under the name of Zerubbabel, when the kingdoms of the world should become the kingdoms of the Lord, and his Christ: a consummation foreshadowed, perhaps, in the temporal commotions which happened before the first advent of our Saviour."

These signal predictions, which obtained to Haggai the character of a prophet," were supposed by the Jews to refer to the time of the Messiah. Some modern objections have, indeed, been made to the exact accomplishment of that prophecy which has been applied to Christ, on a pretence that the temple in which our Saviour appeared, was not in reality a second, but a third temple, rebuilt by Herod; but it is certain, that whatever alterations and additions were made by Herod to Zerubbabel's temple, yet it did not constitute an entirely new building; and as Herod's structure was a gradual work of forty-six years, no nominal distinction was ever made between the two, both being considered, in popular language, as the second temple; and had the prophet adopted such distinction, it must have led the Jews to expect a demolition of the temple, instead of serving to console them. It is likewise undeniable, that the Jews did, in consequence of this prophecy, expect the Messiah to appear in this temple, till after its destruction by Vespasian; they then applied it to a third, which they expect at some future period.

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The style of Haggai is represented by the learned Lowth as entirely prosaic; but bishop Newcome has given a translation of it, on an idea that a great part of it admits of a metrical iii. observ. 20.

They are precisely marked out. Vid. ch. i. 1; ii. 1,10, 20.

Chap. ii. 22, 23.

1 Dan. ii. 44; Rev. xi. 15.

As the Babylonian commotions under Darius, the Macedonian wars, and those between the successors of Alexander, or the disturbances in the Roman empire which succeeded the death of Cæsar. Vid. Orosius, lib. vii. c. 18, &c.

"Ezra v. 1; vi. 14; Heb. xii. 26.
• Aben-Ezra ap Degling. Obser. Sac. par.

P Joseph. Antiq. lib. xv. c. 15.

4 Joseph. de Bel. Jud. lib. viii. c. 18. Prid. Con. An. A. C. 534.

Talm. Sanh. c. 10. sect. 30. Maimon. in Sanh. Midr. on Deut. xxxiii. 12. Ber. Ketan. on Gen. i. par. ii. Ber. Rab. on Gen. xxvii. 27. Talm. Hier. tr. Beracoth in Lightf. R. Sal. Jarchi. Book Caphtor, quoted by Grotius de Verit. lib. v. Prælect. Poet. 21.