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and Zedekiah, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire' (Jer. xxix. 21, 22).

AHASUE'RUS, or ACHASHVEROSH, is the name, or rather the title, of four Median and Persian monarchs mentioned in the Bible.

The first Ahasuerus is incidentally mentioned, in Dan. ix. 1, as the father of Darius the Mede. It is generally agreed that the person here referred to is the Astyages of profane history. See the article DARIUS.

The second Ahasuerus occurs in Ezra iv. 6, where it is said that in the beginning of his reign the enemies of the Jews wrote an accusation against them, the result of which is not mentioned. The Persian king here meant seems to be the immediate successor of Cyrus, the frantic tyrant Cambyses, who came to the throne B.C. 529, and died after a reign of seven years and five months.

AHASUERUS

first king of his race, must have rendered such alliances indispensable?

The whole question, therefore, lies between Xerxes and his successor, Artaxerxes Longimanus. As Artaxerxes allowed Ezra to go to Jerusalem with a colony of exiles in the seventh year of his reign (Ezra vii. 1-7); and as he issued a decree in terms so exceedingly favourable to the religious as well as civil interests of the Jews (Ezra vii. 11-26), how could Haman, five years afterwards, venture to describe the Jews to him as a people whom, on the very account of their law, it was not for the king's profit to suffer? And how could Haman so directly propose their extermination, in the face of a decree so signally in their favour, and so recently issued by the same king? especially as the laws of the Medes and Persians might not be altered! Again, as Artaxerxes (assuming always that he is the Artachshast of Ezra vii. 1, and not Xerxes) was capable of such liberality to the Jews in the seventh year of his reign, let us not forget that, if he is the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther, it was in that same year that he married the Jewess. Now, if-by taking the first and tenth months in the seventh year of the king (the dates of the departure of Ezra, and of the marriage of Esther) to be the first and tenth months of the Hebrew year (as is the usual mode of notation), and not the first and tenth from the period of his accession-we assume that the departure of Ezra took place after his marriage with her, his clemency might be the effect of her influence on his mind. Then we have to explain how he could be induced to consent to the extirpation of the Jews in the twelfth year of his reign, notwithstanding that her influence_still continued, for we find it evidently at work in the twelfth year. But if, on the other hand, his indulgence to Ezra was before his marriage, then we have even a greater difficulty to encounter. For then Artaxerxes must have acted from his own unbiassed lenity, and his purposed cruelty in the twelfth year would place him in an incongruous opposition with himself. As we. moreover, find Artaxerxes again propitious to their interests, in the twentieth year of his reign

The third Ahasuerus is the Persian king of the book of Esther. The chief facts recorded of him there, and the dates of their occurrence, which are important in the subsequent inquiry, are these: In the third year of his reign he made a sumptuous banquet for all his nobility, and prolonged the feast for 180 days. Being on one occasion merry with wine, he ordered his queen Vashti to be brought out, to show the people her beauty. On her refusal to violate the decorum of her sex, he not only indignantly divorced her, but published an edict concerning her disobedience, in order to insure to every husband in his dominions the rule in his own house. In the seventh year of his reign he married Esther, a Jewess, who, however, concealed her parentage. In the twelfth year of his reign, his minister Haman, who had received some slights from Mordecai the Jew, offered him 10,000 talents of silver for the privilege of ordering a massacre of the Jews in all parts of the empire on an appointed day. The king refused this immense sum, but acceded to his request; and couriers were despatched to the most distant provinces to enjoin the execution of this decree. Before it was accomplished, however, Mordecai and Esther obtained such an influence over him, that he so far annulled his recent enactment as to despatch other couriers to empower the Jews-when he allowed Nehemiah to return to Jeruto defend themselves manfully against their enemies on that day; the result of which was, that they slew 800 of his native subjects in Shushan, and 75,000 of them in the provinces.

Although almost every Medo-Persian king, from Cyaxares I. down to Artaxerxes III. (Ochus), has in his turn found some champion to assert his title to be the Ahasuerus of Esther, some have contended on very plausible grounds that Darius Hystaspes is the monarch referred to. But in the first place, it is impossible to find the name of Darius in Achashverosh; and, in the second, the moral evidence is against him. The mild and just character ascribed to Darius renders it highly improbable that, after favour ing the Jews from the second to the sixth year of his reign, he should become a senseless tool in the hands of Haman, and consent to their extirpation. Lastly, we read of his marrying two daughters and a grand-daughter of Cyrus, and a daughter of Otanes-and these only; would Darius have repudiated one of these for such a trifle, when his peculiar position, as the

salem-it is much easier to believe that he was also favourably disposed to them in the twelfth. At any rate, it would be allowing Esther a long time to exercise an influence on his disposition, if his clemency in the twentieth year was due to her, and not to his own inclination. Besides, the fact that neither Ezra nor Nehemiah gives the least hint that the liberal policy of Artaxerxes towards them was owing to the influence of their country woman, is an important negative point in the scale of propabilities. In this case also there is a serious difficulty in the name. As Artaxerxes is called Artachshast in Ezra and Nehemiah, we certainly might expect the author of the book of Esther to agree with them in the name of a king whom they all had had such occasion to know. Nor is it perhaps unimportant to add, that Norberg serts, on the authority of native Persian historians, that the mother of Bahman, i. e. Artaxerxes Longimanus, was a Jewess. This statement would agree excellently with the theory that Xerres was Ahasuerus. Lastly, the joint testimony borne to his

AHAZ

clemency and magnanimity by the acts recorded of him in Ezra and Nehemiah, and by the accordant voice of profane writers, prevents us from recognising Artaxerxes in the debauched, imbecile, and cruel tyrant of the book of Esther. On the ground of moral resemblance to that tyrant, however, every trait leads us to Xerxes. The king who scourged and fettered the sea; who beheaded his engineers because the elements destroyed their bridge over the Hellespont; who so ruthlessly slew the eldest son of Pythius because his father besought him to leave him one sole support of his declining years; who dishonoured the remains of the valiant Leonidas; 1 and who beguiled the shame of his defeat by such a course of sensuality, that he publicly offered a reward for the inventor of a new pleasure--is just the despot to divorce his queen because she would not expose herself to the gaze of drunken revellers; is just the despot to devote a whole people, his subjects, to an indiscriminate massacre; and, by way of preventing that evil, to restore them the right of self-defence (which it is hard to conceive how the first edict ever could have taken away), and thus to sanction their slaughtering thousands of his other subjoets.

There are also remarkable coincidences of date between the history of Xerxes and that of Ahasuerus. In the third year of his reign the latter gave a grand feast to his nobles, which lasted 180 days (Esth. i. 3); the former, in his third year, also assembled his chief officers to deliberate on the invasion of Greece. Again, Ahasuerus married Esther at Shushan, in the seventh year of his reign in the same year of his reign, Xerxes returned to Susa with the mortification of his defeat, and sought to forget himself in pleasure;--not an unlikely occasion for that quest for fair virgins for the harem (Esth. ii. 2). Lastly, the tribute imposed on the land and isles of the sea also accords with the state of his revenue exhausted by his insane attempt against Greece. In fine, these arguments, negative and affirmative, render it so highly probable that Xerxes is the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther, that to demand more conclusive evidence, would be to mistake the very nature of the question.

The fourth Ahasuerus is mentioned in Tobit xiv. 15, in connection with the destruction of Nineveh. That circumstance points out Cyaxares I. as the person intended.

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AHAZIAH

47 had imposed upon the Hebrew kings, and had regard only to his own depraved inclinations. He introduced the religion of the Syrians into Jerusalem, erected altars to the Syrian gods, altered the temple in many respects after the Syrian model, and at length ventured to shut it up altogether. Such a man could not exercise that faith in Jehovah, as the political head of the nation, which formed the courage of a Hebrew king. Hence, after he had sustained a few repulses from Pekah and Rezin, his allied foes, when the Edomites had revolted from him, and the Philistines were making incursions into his country, notwithstanding a sure promise of divine deliverance, he called Pul, the king of Assyria, to his aid [ASSYRIA]. He even became tributary to that monarch, on condition of his obliging Syria and Israel to abandon their design of destroying the kingdom of Judah; and thus afforded to Tiglath-pilezer, the successor of Pul, an opportunity of conquering Syria, Israel beyond Jordan, and Galilee. The Assyrians afforded Ahaz no real assistance; on the contrary, they drove him to such extremities that he was scarcely able, with all the riches of the temple, of the nobility, and of the royal treasury, to purchase release from his troublesome protectors. He died at the age of thirty-six (2 Kings xvi. ; 2 Chron. xxviii.; Isa. vii.).

1. AHAZI'AH (whom Jehovah sustains); son and successor of Ahab, and seventh king of Israel. He reigned two years, B.C. 897, 896. It seems that Jezebel exercised over her son the same influence which had guided her husband; and Ahaziah pursued the evil courses of his father. The most signal public event of his reign was the revolt of the Moabites, who took the opportunity of the defeat and death of Ahab to discontinue the tribute which they had paid to the Israelites. Ahaziah became a party in the attempt of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to revive the maritime traffic by the Red Sea; in consequence of which the enterprise was blasted, and came to nothing (2 Chron. xx. 35-37). Soon after, Ahaziah, having been much injured by a fall from the roof-gallery of his palace, had the infatuation to send to consult the oracle of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, respecting his recovery. But the messengers were met and sent back by Elijah, who himself announced to the king that he should rise no more from the bed on which he lay (1 Kings xxii. 51, to 2 Kings i. 18).

2. AHAZIAH, otherwise JEHOAHAZ, son of Jehoram by Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and sixth king of Judah. He reigned but one year (B.C. 885), and that wickedly, suffering himself in all things to be guided by the

AHA VA, Ezra viii. 21, 31, the river by which the Jewish exiles assembled their second caravan under Ezra, when returning to Jerusalem. It would seem from ch. viii. 15, that it was designated from a town of the same name: I assem-wicked counsels of his idolatrous mother, Athabled them at the river that flows towards Ahava.' In that case, it could not have been of much importance in itself; and probably it was no other than one of the numerous streams or canals of Mesopotamia communicating with the Euphrates, somewhere in the north-west of Babylonia.

A'HAZ (possessor), son of Jotham, and eleventh king of Judah, who reigned sixteen years, beginning in B.C. 741, and ending in 726. Ahaz was the most corrupt monarch that had hitherto appeared in Judah. He respected neither Jehovah, the law, nor the prophets; he broke through all the restraints which law and custom

liah. He cultivated the connections which had unhappily grown up between the two dynasties, and which had now been cemented by marriage. Hence he joined his uncle Jehoram of Israel in an expedition against Hazael, king of DamaceneSyria, for the recovery of Ramoth-Gilead; and afterwards paid him a visit while he lay wounded in his summer palace of Jezreel. The two kings rode out in their several chariots to meet Jehu; and when Jehoram was shot through the heart, Ahaziah attempted to escape, but was pursued, and being mortally wounded, had only strength to reach Megiddo, where he died. His body was

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conveyed by his servants in a chariot to Jerusalem for interment (2 Kings ix. 28).

AHIO

xv. 24-37; xvii. 15-21). As may be inferred from his being chosen for this service, Ahimaaz was swift of foot. Of this we have a notable example soon after, when, on the defeat and death of Absalom, he prevailed on Joab to allow him to carry the tidings to David. Another messenger, Cushi, had previously been despatched, but Ahimaaz outstripped him, and first came in with the news. He was known afar off by the manner of his running, and the king said,

1. AHI'AH (friend of Jehovah); (1 Sam. xiv. 3), son of Ahitub, and high-priest in the reign of Saul, and brother and predecessor of the Abimelech whom Saul slew for assisting David. Seeing that Abimelech was also high-priest in the same reign, and was also the son of Ahitub (1 Sam. xxii. 11), some have thought that both names belonged to the same person; but this seems less likely than the explanation which has just beenHe is a good man, and cometh with good tidgiven.

2. AHIAH, one of the two secretaries of Solomon (1 Kings iv. 3). Two other persons of this name occur in 1 Sam. xiv. 3; 1 Chron. viii. 7.

AHI'AM, one of David's thirty heroes (2 Sam. xxiii. 33).

AHIE'ZER (brother of help), the hereditary chief or prince of the tribe of Dan at the time that the Israelites quitted Egypt (Num. i. 12).

AHI HUD (brother, i. e. friend of the Jews), the prince of the tribe of Asher, who, with the other chiefs of tribes, acted with Joshua and Eleazer in dividing the Promised Land (Num. xxxiv. 27).

AHIJAH (same name as AHIAH), a prophet residing in Shiloh in the times of Solomon and Jeroboam. He appears to have put on record some of the transactions of the former reign | (2 Chron. ix. 29). It devolved on him to announce and sanction the separation of the ten tribes from the house of David, as well as the foundation (1 Kings xi. 29-39), and, after many years, the subversion of the dynasty of Jeroboam (1 Kings xiv. 7-11) [JEROBOAM].

AHI KAM (brother of the enemy), one of the four persons of distinction whom Josiah sent to consult Huldah, the prophetess (2 Kings xxii. 12-14). Ahikam and his family are honourably distinguished for their protection of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. xxvi. 24; xxxix. 14).

AHIM'ÀAZ (brother of anger, i. e. irascible), son and successor of Zadok, who was joint highpriest in the reign of David, and sole high-priest in that of Solomon. His history belongs to the time of David, to whom he rendered an important service during the revolt of Absalom. David having refused to allow the ark of God to be taken from Jerusalem when he fled thence, the high-priests, Zadok and Abiathar, necessarily remained in attendance upon it; but their sons, Ahimaaz and Jonathan, concealed themselves outside the city, to be in readiness to bear off to David any important information, respecting the movements and designs of Absalom, which they might receive from within. Accordingly, Hushai having communicated to the priests the result of the council of war, in which his own advice was preferred to that of Ahithophel [ABSALOM], they instantly sent a girl (probably to avoid suspicion) to direct Ahimaaz and Jonathan to speed away with the intelligence. The transaction was, however, witnessed and betrayed by a lad, and the messengers were so hotly pursued that they took refuge in a dry cistern, over which the woman of the house placed a covering, and spread thereon parched corn. She told the pursuers that the messengers had passed on in haste; and when all was safe, she released them, on which they made their way to David (2 Sam.

ings; and this favourable character is justified by the delicacy with which he waived that part of his intelligence concerning the death of Absalom, which he knew would greatly distress so fond a father as David (2 Sam. xviii. 19-33).

AHIM'AN (brother of a gift), one of three famous giants, of the race of Anak, who dwelt at Hebron when the Hebrew spies explored the land (Num. xiii. 22).

AHIM'ELECH (brother of the king, i. e. the king's friend); he was son of Ahitub, and brother of Ahiah, who was most probably his predecessor in the high-priesthood [AHIAH]. When David fled from Saul, he went to Nob, a city of the priests in Benjamin, where the tabernacle then was; and by representing himself as on pressing business from the king, he obtained from Ahimelech, who had no other, some of the sacred bread which had been removed from the presence-table. He was also furnished with the sword which he had himself taken from Goliah. and which had been laid up as a trophy in the tabernacle (1 Sam. xxi. 1-9). These circum stances were witnessed by Doeg, an Edomite in the service of Saul, and were so reported by him to the jealous king as to appear acts of connivance at, and support to, David's imagined disloyal designs. Saul immediately sent for Ahimelech and the other priests then at Nob, and laid this crime to their charge, which they repelled by declaring their ignorance of any hostile designs on the part of David towards Saul or his kingdom. This, however, availed them not; for the king commanded his guard to slay them. Their refusal to fall upon persons invested with so sacred a character might have brought even Saul to reason; but he repeated the order to Doeg himself, and was too readily obeyed by that malignant person, who, with the men under his orders, not only slew the priests then present, eighty-six in number, but marched to Nob, and put to the sword every living creature it contained. The only one of the priests that escaped was Abiathar, son of Ahimelech, who fled to David, and afterwards became high priest (1 Sam. xxii.) [ABIATHAR].

AHIN'ADAB (liberal, or, noble brother), one of the twelve officers who, in as many districts into which the country was divided, raised supplies of provisions in monthly rotation for the royal household. Ahinadab's district was the southern half of the region beyond the Jordan (1 Kings iv. 14).

AHIN'OAM (brother of pleasantness), a woman of Jezreel, one of the wives of David, and mother of Amnon. She was taken captive by the Amalekites when they plundered Ziklag, but was recovered by David (1 Sam. xxv. 43; xxvii. 3; xxx. 5; 2 Sam. ii. 2; iii. 2).

AHIO (brotherly), one of the sons of Abin

AHITUB

adab, who, with his brother Uzzah, drove the new cart on which the ark was placed when David first attempted to remove it to Jerusalem. Ahio went before to guide the oxen, while Uzzah walked by the cart (2 Sam. vi. 3, 4) [UZZAH]. AHIRA (brother of evil), chief of the tribe of Naphtali when the Israelites quitted Egypt (Num. i. 15).

AHI'SHAR (brother of the dawn), the officer who was over the household' of King Solomon (1 Kings iv. 6). This has always been a place of high importance and great influence in the East.

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AHITH'OPHEL (brother of foolishness), the very singular name of a man who, in the time of David, was renowned throughout all Israel for his worldly wisdom. He is, in fact, the only than mentioned in the Scriptures as having acquired a reputation for political sagacity among the Jews; and they regarded his counsels as oracles (2 Sam. xvi. 23). He was of the council of David; but was at Giloh, his native place, at the time of Absalom's revolt, whence he was summoned to Jerusalem; and it shows the strength of Absalom's cause in Israel that a man so capable of foreseeing results, and of estimating the probabilities of success, took his side in so daring an attempt (2 Sam. xv. 12). The news of this defection appears to have occasioned David more alarm than any other single incident in the rebellion. He earnestly prayed God to turn the sage counsel of Ahithophel foolishness' (probably alluding to his name); and being immediately after joined by his old friend Hushai, he induced him to go over to Absalom with the express view that he might be instrumental in defeating the counsels of this dangerous person (xv. 31-37). Psalm Iv. is supposed to contain (12-14) a further expression of David's feelings at this treachery of one whom he had so completely trusted, and whom he calls, My companion, my guide, and my familiar friend. The detestable advice which Ahithophel gave Absalom to appropriate his father's harem, committed him absolutely to the cause of the young prince, since after that he could hope for no reconcilement with David (2 Sam. xvi. 20-23). His proposal as to the conduct of the war undoubtedly indicated the best course that could have been taken under the circumstances; and so it seemed to the council, until Hushai interposed with his plausible advice, the object of which was to gain time to enable David to collect his resources [ABSALOM]. When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was rejected for that of Hushai, the far-seeing man gave up the cause of Absalom for lost; and he forthwith saddled his ass, returned to his home at Giloh, deliberately settled his affairs, and then hanged himself, and was buried in the sepulchre of his fathers, B.C. 1023 (ch. xvii.). This is the only case of suicide which the Old Testament records, unless the last acts of Samson and Saul may be regarded as such.

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1. AHI TUB (brother of goodness), son of Phinehas, and grandson of the high-priest Eli. His father Phinehas having been slain when the ark of God was taken by the Philistines, he succeeded his grandfather Eli B.C. 1141, and was himself succeeded by his son Ahiab about B.C. 1093.

AJALON

2. AHITUB was also the name of the father of Zadok, who was made high-priest by Saul after the death of Ahimelech (2 Sam. viii. 17; 1 Chron. vi. 8). There is not the slightest ground for the notion that this Ahitub was ever high-priest himself-indeed, it is historically impossible.

AHOʻLAH (her tent) and AHOLIBAH (my tent is in her), two fictitious or symbolical names adopted by Ezekiel (xxiii. 4) to denote the two kingdoms of Samaria (Israel) and Judah. They are both symbolically described as lewd women, adulteresses, prostituting themselves to the Egyptians and the Assyrians, in imitating their abominations and idolatries; wherefore Jehovah abandoned them to those very people for whom they showed such inordinate and impure affection. They were carried into captivity, and reduced to the severest servitude. The allegory is an epitome of the history of the Jewish church.

AHO'LIAB (tent of his father), of the tribe of Dan, a skilful artificer appointed along with Bezaleel to construct the Tabernacle (Exod. XXXV. 34).

AHUZZATH (possession), the 'friend' of Abimelech II., king of Gerar, who attended him on his visit to Isaac (Gen. xxvi. 26). In him occurs the first instance of that unofficial but important personage in ancient Oriental courts, called 'the king's friend,' or favourite.

AI (Josh. vii. 2; Gen. xii. 8; Neh. xi. 31; Isa. x. 28), a royal city of the Canaanites, which lay east of Bethel. It existed in the time of Abraham, who pitched his tent between the two cities (Gen. xii. 8; xiii. 5); but it is chiefly noted for its capture and destruction by Joshua (vii. 2-5; viii. 1-29). This, as a military transaction, is noticed elsewhere [AMBUSCADE]. At a later period Ai was rebuilt, and is mentioned by Isaiah (x. 28), and also after the Captivity. The site was known, and some scanty ruins still existed in the time of Eusebius and Jerome, but Dr. Robinson was unable to discover any certain traces of either.

AIR, the atmosphere, as opposed to the ether, or higher and purer region (Acts xxii. 24; 1 Thess. iv. 17; Rev. ii. 2; xvi. 17). The phrase to speak into the air (1 Cor. xiv. 9) is a proverbial expression to denote speaking in vain, and to beat the air (1 Cor. ix. 26), denotes acting in vain, and is a proverbial allusion to an abortive stroke into the air in pugilistic contests. The later Jews, in common with the Gentiles, especially the Pythagoreans, believed the air to be peopled with spirits, under the government of a chief, who there held his seat of empire. These spirits were supposed to be powerful, but malignant, and to incite men to evil. The early Christian fathers entertained the same belief, which has indeed come down to our own times.

AJ'ALON, a town and valley in the tribe of Dan (Josh. xix. 42), which was given to the Levites (Josh. xxi. 24; 1 Chron. vi. 69). It was not far from Bethshemesh (2 Chron. xxviii. 18); it was one of the places which Rehoboam fortified (2 Chron. xi. 10), and among the strongholds which the Philistines took from Ahaz (2 Chron. xxviii. 18). But the town, or rather the valley to which the town gave name, derives its chief renown from the circumstance that

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when Joshua, in pursuit of the five kings, arrived | at some point near Upper Beth-horon, looking back upon Gibeon and down upon the noble valley before him, he uttered the celebrated command: Sun, stand thou still on Gibeon, and thou moon, in the valley of Ajalon' (Josh. x. 12). The site of the town has been identified with the small village of Yalo near Beit Ur (Beth-horon), and a broad wady to the north of it appears to be the valley of the same name.

AKRABBIM (Scorpion-height), an ascent, hill, or chain of hills, which, from the name, would appear to have been much infested by scorpions and serpents, as some districts in that quarter certainly were (Deut. viii. 15). It was one of the points which are only mentioned in describing the frontier-line of the Promised Land southward (Judg. i. 36), and has been conjectured to be the same with the mountains of Akabah, which bound the great valley of Arabah on the

east.

ALABASTER. This word occurs in the New Testament only in the notice of the alabaster bor,' or rather vessel, of ointinent of spikenard, very precious,' which a woman broke, and with its valuable contents anointed the head of Jesus, as he sat at supper in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper (Matt. xxvi. 7; Mark xiv. 3). At Alabastron, in Egypt, there was a manufactory of small pots and vessels for holding perfumes, which were made from a stone found in the neighbouring mountains. The Greeks gave to these vessels the name of the

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city from which they came. This name was eventually extended to the stone of which they were formed; and at length it was applied without distinction to all perfume vessels, of whatever materials they consisted. It does not, therefore, by any means follow that the alabastron which the woman used at Bethany was really of alabaster: but a probability that it was such arises from the fact, that vessels made of this stone were deemed peculiarly suitable for the most costly and powerful perfumes.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT. This mighty king is named in the opening of the first book of Maccabees, and is alluded to in the prophecies of

ALEXANDER

Daniel. These, however, are not the best reasons for giving his name a place in this work: he is chiefly entitled to notice here because his military career permanently affected the political state of the Jewish people, as well as their philosophy and literature. It is not our part, therefore, to detail even the outlines of his history, but to point out the causes and nature of this great revolution, and the influence which, formally through Alexander, Greece has exerted over the religious history of the West.

The conquest of Western Asia by Greeks was so thoroughly provided for by predisposing causes, as to be no mere accident ascribable to Alexander as an individual. The personal ge

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nius of the Macedonian hero, however, determined the form and the suddenness of the conquest; and, in spite of his premature death, the policy which he pursued seems to have left some permanent effects.

His respectful behaviour to the Jewish highpriest has been much dwelt on by Josephus (Antiq. xi. 8. 4-6), a writer whose trustworthiness has been much overrated. The story has been questioned on several grounds. Some of the results, however, can hardly be erroneous, such as, that Alexander guaranteed to the Jews, not in Judæa only, but in Babylonia and Media, the free observance of their hereditary laws, and on this ground exempted them from tribute every seventh (or sabbatical) year. It is then far from improbable that the politic invader affected to have seen and heard the high-priest in a dream (as Josephus relates), and showed him great reverence, as to one who had declared 'that he would go before him and give the empire of Persia into his hand.'

Immediately after, Alexander invaded and conquered Egypt, and showed to its gods the same respect as to those of Greece. Almost without a pause he founded the celebrated city of Alexandria (B.c. 332), an event which, perhaps more than any other cause, permanently altered the state of the East, and brought about a direct interchange of mind between Greece, Egypt, and Judæa [ALEXANDRIA].

The great founder of Alexandria died in his thirty-second year, B.C. 323. The empire which he then left to be quarrelled for by his generals comprised the whole dominions of Persia, with the homage and obedience of Greece superadded. But on the final settlement which took place after the battle of Ipsus (B.c. 301), Seleucus, the

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