ulars in his history, it seems most likely, that he lived much longer. And, I doubt not, it was in those travels which he undertook from Thurium, that he went through Judea, and there saw Jerusalem, which he calls Cadytis; for that the city, which he describes under that name, could be none other than Jerusalem, I have already shewn.

Nehemiah finding it necessary to have the genealogies of the people well examined into, and clearly stated, betook himself in the next place to inquire into that matter. And this he did, not only for the sake of their civil rights, that all knowing of what tribe and family they were they might thereby be directed where to take their possessions; but especially for the sake of the sanctuary, that none might be admitted to officiate there, either as Levites which were not of the tribe of Levi, or as priests which were not of the family of Aaron. And, therefore, for the true settling of the matter, search was made for the old registers; and having among them found a register of the genealogies of those who came up at first from Babylon with Zerubbabel and Joshua, he settled this matter according to it, adding such as afterwards came up, and expunging others whose families were extinguished; and this hath caused the difference that is between the accounts which we have of these genealogies in Ezra and Nehemiah; for, in the second chapter of Ezra, we have the old register made by Zerubbabel, and in the seventh of Nehemiah, from the sixth verse to the end of the chapter, a copy of it as settled by Nehemiah, with the alterations I have mentioned.

Ezra, having completed his edition of the law of God, and written it out fairly and correctly in the Chaldean character, did this year, on the feast of trumpets, publicly read it to the people at Jerusalem. This feast was celebrated on the first of Tisri, the seventh month of the Jews' ecclesiastical year, and the first of their civil year. Their coming out of Egypt having been in the month of Nisan," from that time the beginning

of the year, in all ecclesiastical matters, was reckoned among them from the beginning of that month (which happened about the time of the vernal equinox;) but, in all civil matters, as in contracts, bargains, and such like, they still continued to go by the old form, and began their year from the first of Tisri (which happened about the time of the autumnal equinox,) as all other nations of the East then did (as hath been afore observed,) and all instruments and writings, relating to contracts, bargains, or other civil matters among them, were dated according to this year; and all their jubilees and sabbatical years began with it: and, therefore, it being reckoned their new-year's day, they celebrated it with a festival. And this festival being solemnized by the sounding of trumpets, from the morning of that day to the end of it, thereby to proclaim and give notice to all of the beginning of the new-year, it hath from hence been called the feast of trumpets. For the celebrating of this feast the people being assembled from all parts of the land at Jerusalem, and understanding that Ezra had finished his revisal of the law, and written out a correct copy of it, they called upon him to have it read unto them. Whereon a scaffold, or large pulpit, being erected in the largest street of the city, where most might stand to hear, Ezra ascended into it, with thirteen others of the principal elders of the people; and, having placed six of them on his right hand, and seven on his left, he stood up in the midst of them, and, having blessed the Lord, the great God, he began to read the law out of the Hebrew text. And as he did read it in this language, thirteen others of the Levites, whom he had instructed and appointed for this purpose, rendered it period by period into Chaldee, which was then the vulgar language of the people, and therein gave them the meaning of every particular part, and made them understand the same. And thus the holy scribe, with these his assistants, continued from morning till noon, to read and explain unto

o Joseph. Antiq. lib. 1, c. 4. Talmud in Rosh Hashanah.

p Levit. xxv, 9.

q Levit. xxv, 8, 9. Maimonides de Anno Sabbatico. r Neh. viii.

the people the law of God, in such manner as might best make them to know and understand it. But it being a festival day, when the time of dining approached, Nehemiah, and Ezra, and the rest that were assisting to them in thus instructing the people, dismissed them for that time to their dinner, to eat and drink, and rejoice before the Lord the remaining part of the day, because it was consecrated to be thus kept holy unto him. But the next morning they assembled again in the same place, and Ezra and his assistants went on farther to read and explain to them the law of God, in the same manner as they had done the day before; and when they came to the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus, wherein is written the law of the feast of tabernacles, and had from thence explained unto them the obligation which was upon them to observe this festival, and shewn them, that the fifteenth day of that month was the day appointed for the beginning of it, this excited an eager desire in all the people of fulfilling the law of God in this particular. And therefore proclamation was forthwith made through all Judah to give notice of the festival, and to warn all to be present at Jerusalem on the said fifteenth day of that month, for the observing of it. And accordingly they came thither at the time prescribed, and, as they had been instructed from the law of God, prepared booths made of the branches of trees, and kept the festival in them through the whole seven days of its continuance, in such solemn manner as had not been observed before from the days of Joshua to that time. Ezra taking the advantage of having the people in so great a number thus assembled together, and so well disposed towards the law of God, and the observance of it, went on with his assistants farther to read and explain it unto them, in the same manner as had been done in the two former days; and this they did, day by day, from the first day to the last day of the festival, till they had gone through the whole law. By which the people perceiving in how many things they had transgressed the commands of God, through the ignorance in which they had been kept of them (for till now the law had never been read to them since their return from Babylon,) expressed great

1

trouble of heart hereat, being much grieved for their sins, and exceedingly terrified with the fear of God's wrath for the punishment of them. Nehemiah and Ezra finding them in so good a temper, applied themselves to make the best improvement that could be made of it, for the honour of God, and the interest of religion; and therefores forthwith proclaimed a fast to be held the next day save one after the festival was ended, that is, on the twenty-fourth day of the same month; to which having called all the people, while the sense of these things was fresh and warm on their minds, they excited them to make a public and solemn confession before God of all their sins, and also to enter into a solemn vow and covenant with God to avoid them for the future, and strictly hold themselves fast to the observance of God's laws. The observances which they chiefly obliged themselves to in this covenant were; 1st. Not to make intermarriages with the Gentiles, either by giving their daughters to them, or by taking any of their daughters to themselves; 2dly. To observe the sabbaths and sabbatical years; 3dly. To pay their annual tribute to the temple, for the repairing of it, and the finding of all necessaries for the carrying on of the public service in it; and, 4thly. To pay the tithes and first-fruits to the priests and Levites. Which particulars, thus especially named in this covenant, shew unto us what were the laws of God which hitherto they had been most neglectful of since their return from their captivity.

And it being their ignorance of the law of God that had led them into these transgressions against it, and this ignorance having been occasioned by their not having it read unto them; for the preventing hereof for the future, they, from this time, got the learnedest of the Levites, and other scribes that were best skilled in the law of God, to read it unto them in every city: which at first they did no doubt in the same manner as Ezra had done, that is, by gathering the people together to them in some wide street, or other open place of their city, which was of fittest capacity to

Nehemiah ix.

receive them. But the inconvenience of this being soon felt, especially in the winter and stormy seasons of the year, for the remedy hereof, they erected them houses or tabernacles, wherein to meet for this purpose; and this was the original of synagogues among them. That they had no synagogues before the Babylonish captivity, is plain, not only from the silence which is of them in all the Scriptures of the Old Testament, but also from several passages therein, which evidently prove there could be none in those days. For, as it is a common saying among the Jews, that, where there is no book of the law, there can be no synagogue; so the reason of the thing proves it: for the main service of the synagogue being the reading of the law unto the people, where there was no book of the law to be read, there certainly would be no synagogue. But how rare the book of the law was through all Judah before the Babylonish_captivity, many texts of Scripture tell us. When Jehosaphat sent teachers through all Judah to instruct the people in the law of God, they " carried a book of the law with them, which they needed not to have done, if there had been any copies of the law in those cities to which they went; which certainly there would have been, had there then been any synagogues in them; it being the same absurdity to suppose a Jewish synagogue without a copy of the law, as it would with us to suppose a parish church without a Bible. And, therefore, as this proves the want of the law through all Judah in those times, so doth it also the want of synagogues in them. And when Hilkiah found the law in the temple, neither he nor king Josiah needed have been so surprised at it, had books of the law been common in those times. Their behaviour on that occasion sufficiently proves, they had never seen it before, which could not be, had there then been any other copies of it to be found among the people. And if there were no copies of the law at that time among them, there could then be most certainly no synagogues for them to resort to, for the hearing of

u

t Midrash Esther 123. 1. Tanchuma 54. 2. u 2 Chron. xvii, 9.

x 2 Kings xxii.