Fulfilled cir.

168.

the

4

des

4

eth.

shal

dissemble.

A.C. 534. 30 For the ships of Chittim shall come against him:

therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indigna-
tion against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even
return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the
holy covenant.

31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pol

lute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily Or, astonish. sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that * maketh

desolate.

32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall Or, cause to he + corrupt by flatteries : but the people that do know their

God shall be strong, and do exploits.

33 And they that understand among the people shall in-
struct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame,
by captivity, and by spoil, many days.
34 Now when they shall fall

, they shall be holpen with a
little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries.

35 And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try Or, by them. I them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the

time of the end : because it is yet for a time appointed.

36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he
shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god,
and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods

,
and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished : for
that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers

, nor
the desire of women, nor regard any god : for he shall mag
nify himself above all.

38 $ But | in bis estate shall be honour the God of 'Heb. as for * + forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he The almighty

honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and noneur, yea, I pleasant things.

39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a show, and strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with

glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and zim, or, God's shall divide the land for gain.

40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south

push at him: and the king of the north shall come against Heb. for him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with borsemen,

and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, || Heb. a price. and shall overflow and

pass

over.
* Or, goodly 41 He shall enter also into the ** glorious land, and
land, ver. 16.
+ Heb, land of many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape
delight, or, or-

out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the
children of Ammon.
42 He shall I stretch forth his hand also upon

the cout-
tries : and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

Or, But in his stead.

God, in his scat he shall

he skall hous nour a god,

tions.
+ Heb. Maur.

protectors.
| Heb. things
desired, Is.
xliv. 9.

of munitions.

nament.

1 Heb. scnd forth.

43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold A.C. 534. and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

44 But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.

45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palaces between the seas in the *+ glorious holy mountain ; yet he or goodly. shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

+ Heb.
lain of delight
of holiness,

1 Michael shall deliver Israel from their troubles. 5 Daniel is informed of the

times.
1 And at that time shall Michael " stand up, the great
prince which standeth for the children of thy people : and
There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since
there was a nation even to that same time : and at that time
thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found
written in the book.

13 Much discussion has at various times been entered into respecting the meaning of the word Michael, which occurs in this last vision of Daniel. Many learned men are of opinion that Michael is but a name for Christ, or the angel of the covenant, the angel Jehovah.

Lightfoot is of this opinion. In his fiftli of November Sermon, preached at Ely, of which Church he was a Prebendary, in 1661; he is discussing the passage in Daniel x. 21. “there is none that holdeth with me but Michael your Prince. Who is the Prince of the Church but Christ,” &c. &c. &c.-Vide Lightfoot's works, vol. ii. p. 114.

The learned Joseph Mede is of the opposite opinion. Sed quis, inquies, est iste Michael ? Non opinor Christus ipse, sed, &c. &c. &c. Mede's Works, p. 495. line 1.

Bishop Horsley, in his Sermon on the watchers, supposes that Michael is merely a name given to Christ; and after much ingenious discussion, he thus proceeds ; “From all this it is evident that Michael is a name for our Lord himself, in his particular character of the champion of his faithful people, against the violence of the apostate faction, and the wiles of the devil. In this point I have a host of the learned on my side ; and it will be further evident from what is yet to come.”—Horsley's Sermons, vol. ii. p. 376.

Bishop Warburton has given his vote on the opposite side : in a very singular remark contained in the thirty-fourth of his letters, p. 92.

Mr. Faber too agrees with Lightfoot and Horsley in their opinion that Michael was Christ. See the arguments on this point, admirably discussed in the fifth Exercitation of the learned Witsius. With the most commendable impartiality he has examined both sides of this question, and I think the reader will be inclined to adopt his conclusion, that Michael the Archangel is the Saviour of the Christian Church. Vide Witsius Miscel. Sacra. Exerc, 5.-De Michaele.

y Matt. xxv,

1

Jud unt

1 Don LOR She

a ch. x. 5.

2

Or, from above.

A.C. 534.

2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth

shall awake, y some to everlasting life, and some to shame
16. John v. 29. and everlasting contempt.
*Or, teachers. 3 And they that be * wise shall ? shine as the brightness
* Matt. xii. of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteous-

ness, as the stars for ever and ever.

4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end : many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

5 | Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood + Heb. lip. other two, the one on this side of the + bank of the river,

and the other on that side of the bank of the river.

6 And one said to a the man clothed in linen, which was I upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?

7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon b Rev. x. 5. the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand

and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth
Or, part. for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and

when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the
holy people, all these things shall be finished.

8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, 0 my
Lord, what shall be the end of these things?

9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel : for the words are closed

up

and sealed till the time of the end.
10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried ;
but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked
shall understand ; but the wise shall understand.

11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be
taken away, and the abomination that * maketh desolate

there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety nation, $c.

days.

12 Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.

13 But go thou thy way till the end be: + for thou shalt
rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.

SECTION IV.
Building of the Temple resumed.

EZRA IV, LATTER PART OF ver. 24.
So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius
king of Persia 13.

|| Heb. to set
up the abomri.

set up,

*Or, astonisheth.

+ Or, and thou, fc.

620.

13 A new dynasty of kings may in one sense be said to have commenced with Darius Hystaspes, who in the second year of his reign published the decree for the resuming the building of the temple, which had been discontinued since the

c Hag. i. 1. d Zech, i.).

EZRA V. Ver. 1. 1 Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and · Zecha- A.C. 520. riah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them.

HAGGAI I. VER. 1-2. 1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord * by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of handelen in eine Shealtiel, + governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of an Josedech, the high priest, saying,

2 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.

third year of Cyrus. From the publication of this decree may be reckoned the
thorough restoration of the Jewish state. The dynasty of Cyrus, Cambyses, and
Smerdis, being at an end, the edict which probibited the building of the temple
was considered obsolete, yet the Jews neglected to resume the work. On ac-
count of this negligence God smote the land with barrepness, so that both the
vintage and harvest failed them. But in the second year of Darius, the prophet
Haggai being commanded to inform the Jews of the cause of this judgment upon
them, in obedience to his exhortations, they proceed with the work. This took
place in the second year of Darius, the sixth month, in the first day of the month,
vide Haggai, i. 1, compared with Ezra v. 1. The arrangement of the several
passages of the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, contained in this section,
is made on the authority of the various dates assigned by the prophets them-
selves. Compare Haggai i. 1, with Ezra v. 1.-Haggai i. 12, with Ezra v. 2.
Haggai ii. 1, Zech. i. 1.--Haggai ii. 10, and Zechariah i. 7.

With respect to Haggai, there is nothing transmitted to us on which we can
depend, but that he was the first prophet commissioned to make known the divine
will to the Jews after their return from captivity. The general opinion, founded
on the assertion of the Pseudo-Epiphanius, is, that he was born at Babylon,
and was one of the Jews who returned with Zerubbabel, in consequence of the
edict of Cyrus. The same author affirms that he was buried at Jerusalem
among the priests, whence some have conjectured that he was of the family of
Aaron. The times of his predictions, however, are so distinctly marked by him-
self, that we have as much certainty on this point as we have with respect to any
of the prophets.

The Jews, who were released from captivity in the first year of the reign of Cyrus (Ezra i. I, et seq.), having returned to Jerusalem and commenced the rebuilding of the temple (Ezra ii. 1-4,) were interrupted in their undertakings by the neighbouring satraps, who contrived to prejudice the Persian monarch against them (Ezra iv. 1, with 24,) until the second year of Darius. Discouraged by these impediments, the people ceased, for fourteen years, to prosecute the erection of the second temple, as if the time were not yet come, and applied themselves to the building of their own houses; for which they are reproved by Haggai, chap. i. 1-12.

* Heb. Set
your heart on
your ways.
e Deut. xxviii.
38. Mic. vi, 14,
15.

ihrough.

away.

f Deut. xxviii. 23.

6

A.C. 520. 3 Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the pro

phet, saying,

4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?

5 Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts ; * Consi-
der

your ways.
6 Ye have e sown much, and bring in little: ye eat, but
ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with

drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm ; and he that + Heb. pierced earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag + with

holes.

7 9 Thus saith the LORD of hosts ; Consider your ways.

8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD.

9 Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little ; and Or, blow it when ye brought it home, I did I blow upon it. Why?

saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is
waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.

10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew,
and the earth is stayed from her fruit.

11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine

,
and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth
forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the
labour of the hands.

EZRA V. Ver. 2.
2 Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and
Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house
of God which is at Jerusalem : and with them were the
prophets of God helping them.

HAGGAI I. VER. 12, TO THE END.
12 | Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua
the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant
of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and
the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God
had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord.

13 Then spake Haggai the LORD's messenger in the
LORD's message unto the people, saying, I am with you,
saith the LORD.

14 And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people, and they came and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God.