Analysis of Sacred Chronology
The Babylonish Servitude
“On this occasion Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years.” Dr. Hales. Being subject to Egypt; the subjection of Egypt would make him subject to Babylon; as we read: “In his days Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years; then he turned and rebelled against him.” 2 Kings 24:1. ASC 125.1
According to Ptolemy’s Canon, Nabopolassar dying, Nebuchadnezzar succeeded to the throne of Babylon, B. C. 604, and reigned forty-three years. But Berosus dates his expedition against Egypt, in the year before his father’s death and his actual reign. We afterwards find that the eleventh year of Jehoiakim synchronizes with the seventh of Nebuchadrezzar, which makes the first year of his actual reign synchronize with Jehoiakim’s fifth. B. C. 604. ASC 125.2
“In the fourth year of Jehoiakim,” came the word of the Lord that is contained in the 36th chapter of Jeremiah 5:1. “And it came to pass, in the fifth year of Jehoiakim,” .... “in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the Lord,” and Jeremiah wrote on a roll the words of the Lord, and sent them to the king, who burned them in the fire. “Therefore, thus saith the Lord, of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, He shall have none to sit on the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out, in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.” vs. 9-32. ASC 125.3
After three years of service, the rebellion of Jehoiakim would date B. C. 601. ASC 126.1
“In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God; which he carried into the land of Shinar, to the house of his God.” Daniel 1:1. ASC 126.2
The Duke of Manchester, in his late work on the “Times of Daniel,” advances the hypothesis, and with much plausibility, that this “third year” of Jehoiakim, is not the third year from his accession to the throne, but the third year from his rebellion against Nebuchadrezzar, after he had served him three years, which would be B. C. 598. ASC 126.3
This would correspond with the “seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar,” in which he “carried away captive ...three thousand Jews, and three and twenty.” Jeremiah 52:28. It would also be the eleventh year of Jehoiakim; and we read: “Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.” 2 Chronicles 36:5, 6. This is the first account we have, that any of the Jews were carried to Babylon; and yet, in Daniel 1, we read, that “the king spake unto Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes, children in whom was no blemish, ......whom they might teach the learning of the Chaldeans,” during “three years, that at the end thereof, they might stand before the king. Now, among these were ...Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.” vs. 3-6. ASC 126.4
Jehoiachin. “So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers: and Jehoiachin, his son, reigned in his stead. Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months,” 2 Kings 24:6, “and ten days.” 2 Chronicles 36:9. “And when the year was expired,” v. 10, “Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came against the city, and his servants did besiege it. And Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, went out to the king of Babylon, he and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.... And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold, which Solomon, king of Israel, had made in the temple of the Lord, as the Lord had said.... And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen, and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land...And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king’s mother, and the king’s wives, and his officers, and the mighty men of the land, those carried he into captivity, from Jerusalem to Babylon.... And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all that were strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon...And the king of Babylon made Mataniah, his father’s brother, king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah.” 2 Kings 24:11-17. B. C. 597. ASC 127.1
This is an epoch from which many reckon the seventy years. It is called “the going away into Babylon.” Matthew 1:12, 17. Mordecai’s ancestor was carried to Babylon at this time. Esther 2:6. Ezekiel reckons from it. Ezekiel 1:2. And “these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah, the prophet, sent from Jerusalem” to the captives, “after that Jeconiah, the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem.” Jeremiah 29:1, 2: “Thus saith the Lord, that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.” v. 10. ASC 128.1
“Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.” 2 Kings 24:18. ASC 128.2
Jeremiah sent a message “by the hand of the messengers which came to Jerusalem, unto Zedekiah, king of Judah,” .. to say unto their masters, from “the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel;” “Now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come: and then, many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.” Jeremiah 27:6, 7. ASC 128.3
“And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah” prophesied falsely, saying, “Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel saying; I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon...Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house, that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon.” Jeremiah 28:2, 3. ASC 129.1
As Zedekiah reigned but eleven years, his fourth year could not be called the beginning of his reign. Scaliger supposes it was the fourth year in course, reckoning from the preceding seventh year Sabbath. The Duke of Manchester thinks this a just inference, and sustains it by the “two years” of Hananiah, which seem to point to the coming Sabbath, in the third of Zedekiah. The tenth of Zedekiah was a Sabbath. See Jeremiah 34:8-11. With this explanation of the “fourth year,” we learn that “the reign of Zedekiah commenced in the fifth month.” B. C. 597. ASC 129.2
In Jeremiah 51:59, is written “the word which Jeremiah, the prophet, commanded Seraiah, the son of Neriah, ...when he went with Zedekiah, the king of Judah, into Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign.” This marks an epoch in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, of sufficient importance to induce Zedekiah to send to Babylon, to do fealty to his king. B. C. 594. ASC 130.1
Daniel. The Duke of Manchester supposes, that it was the second year from this epoch, that Daniel reckoned, “the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar,” in which that king dreamed dreams. Daniel 2:1. Others suppose it was the second year of Daniel’s appearing before the king. As he went to Babylon in the seventh of Nebuchadnezzar, and then studied three years, he could not have stood before the king till the eleventh, and the second year from that would be the twelfth of Nebuchadnezzar, and the second year from Zedekiah’s sending an embassy. B. C. 593. ASC 130.2
Ezekiel began to prophesy also, this year: “Now, it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives, by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s captivity, the word of the Lord came,” etc. Ezekiel 1:1, 2. ASC 130.3
The “thirtieth year,” harmonizing with the fifth of Jehoiachin’s captivity, would date from the eighteenth of Josiah,-the year when “there was holden such a passover” as had not before been observed, “from the days of the judges.” 2 Kings 23:23. The year of the observance of that passover was, doubtless, a jubilee, and the “thirtieth year” of Ezekiel 1:1, is evidently the thirtieth from that jubilee. ASC 131.1
The visions recorded in the eighth chapter of Ezekiel and onward, were seen “in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month.” Ezekiel 8:1. B. C. 592. ASC 131.2
“And it came to pass, in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month,” that occurred the events of the twentieth chapter, and onward. 20:1. B. C. 591. ASC 131.3
“Again, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this same day: the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day.” Ezekiel 24:1. B. C. 589. ASC 131.4
This proves that the years of the captivity of Jehoiachin, and the years of Zedekiah, were the same; for we read that “it came to pass in the ninth year of his [Zedekiah’s] reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it.” 2 Kings 25:1, and Jeremiah 39:1, and Jeremiah 52:4. ASC 131.5
“In the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, which was the eighteenth of Nebuchadnezzar,” the word recorded in the thirty-second of Jeremiah came to him from the Lord. v. 1. B. C. 588. ASC 132.1
“In the tenth year, in the tenth month, in the twelfth day of the month.” Ezekiel prophesied against Egypt, that it should be desolate, and not “inhabited forty years;” and that “at the end of forty years,” it should be restored, and “be the basest of the kingdoms,” and “no more rule over the nations.” Ezekiel 29:1-15. ASC 132.2
“Then Pharaoh’s army was come forth out of Egypt: and when the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they departed from Jerusalem.” Jeremiah 37:5. As this was after the siege of Jerusalem, and before the capture of the city, it must be “the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar,” in which “he carried away captive from Jerusalem, eight hundred and thirty-two persons.” Jeremiah 52:29. B. C. 588. ASC 132.3
“When the king of Babylon’s army fought against Jerusalem,” Zedekiah “made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them.” Jeremiah 34:7, 8. For some reason, “they turned and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return.” v. 11. This was probably because the army of the Chaldeans had departed from Jerusalem. Therefore, Jeremiah said, “Behold Pharaoh’s army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt, into their own land. And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.” Jeremiah 37:7, 8. ASC 132.4
“So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled.... But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho.... Now, in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-aden, captain of the guard which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem. And burned the house of the Lord, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, burned he with fire: and all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about. Then Nebuzaraden, the captain of the guard, carried away captive certain of the poor of the people, and the residue of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. But Nebuzar-aden, the captain of the guard, left certain of the poor of the land, for vinedressers and for husbandmen.” Jeremiah 52:5-16. “In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.” 39:2. “And as for the people that remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had left, even over them he made Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler.” 2 Kings 25:22. B. C. 587. ASC 133.1
“In the eleventh year” of Jehoiachin’s captivity, “the prophecies in Ezekiel 26th and 31st chapters, were uttered against Egypt. ASC 134.1
“In the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came to me saying: the city is smitten.” Ezekiel 33:21. In this year also were uttered the prophecies in the 32nd of Ezekiel, vs. 1, 17. B. C. 586. ASC 134.2
“In the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzar-aden, the captain of the guard, carried away captive, of the Jews, seven hundred forty and five persons.” Jeremiah 52:30. “And them that had escaped from the sword, carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil three score and ten years.” 2 Chronicles 36:20, 21. B. C. 582, ASC 134.3
“In the fifth year” from the time “the Chaldeans took Jerusalem, and burned it with fire,” the apochryphal book of “Baruch” purports to have been written in Babylon. Bar. 1:1. ASC 135.1
“In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day,” the visions and prophecies recorded in the 40th to the 48th chapters of Ezekiel were shown him. Ezekiel 40:1. ASC 135.2
B. C. 573. ASC 135.3
“In the seven and twentieth year,” Ezekiel again prophesied against Egypt. Jeremiah 29:17. B. C. 571. ASC 135.4
Evil-merodach. “And it came to pass, in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, did lift up the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, out of prison.” 2 Kings 25:27. Jeremiah 52:31. B. C. 561. ASC 135.5
As Jehoiachin was carried to Babylon in the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar, and Evil-merodach succeeded Nebuchadnezzar, near the close of the thirty-seventh year of Jehoiachin’s captivity, it follows that Nebuchadnezzar’s sole reign equalled forty-three years. The Bible does not give the length of the reign of Evilmerodach. The Canon of Ptolemy gives two years from B. C. 561. ASC 135.6
Ncrriglisar succeeded him, and, according to the Canon of Ptolemy, reigned four years, from B. C. 559. ASC 136.1
Laborosarchad succeeded him, and was put to death after a reign of nine months; being less than a year, his reign is not counted in the Canon of Ptolemy. ASC 136.2
Nabonadius was his successor; his reign, according to Ptolemy’s Canon, was seventeen years; according to Dr. Jarvis, he is the Belshazzar of Daniel. B. C. 555. ASC 136.3
“In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head,” of four successive monarchies, extending down to the coming of the Ancient of Days. Daniel 7:1. ASC 136.4
“In the third year of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared unto” Daniel, covering the same period of time. 8:1. B. C. 553. ASC 136.5
In the last year, “Belshazzar, the king, made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand...They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick, upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote...In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain. And Darius, the Median, took the kingdom, being about three score and two years old.” 5:1-30. B. C. 538. ASC 136.6
Dr. John Mayer, in his Commentary, published in London, A. D. 1652, says, that according to the computation of time by the Chaldeans, the seventy years of Jeremiah 25th had apparently expired; and that the king made this feast to rejoice over the fancied failure of the prediction in God’s word. ASC 137.1
Darius. “In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign,” “Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.” In this year Daniel receives the prophecy of the seventy weeks: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. Know, therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice, and the oblation, to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” Daniel 9:1-27. ASC 137.2
“Darius, the Mede, was sixty-two years old at the time he became sovereign of Babylon, and reigned two years only, when he died,” and was succeeded by Cyrus.-Hales, vol. ii., page 508. B. C. 536. ASC 138.1
Cyrus, the nephew of Darius, was his contemporary in Persia, and successor in Babylon. “By the death of his father, he began to reign in Persia when he was forty years old, and continued ...twenty-one years. He then became associated with his uncle, for two years, at Babylon, and after his death continued seven years longer.”-Dr. Jarvis. ASC 138.2
As Cyrus was the more conspicuous of the two, and shortly became the sole ruler of the Medo-Persian empire, his reign alone is referred to in the Canon of Ptolemy, where it is given as nine years. The Scriptures speak of him as the successor of Darius, and date his first year from Darius’ death. ASC 138.3
Two hundred years before his birth, God called him by name, and said “of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.” Isaiah 44:28. ASC 138.4
“Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord, spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah, might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up.” 2 Chronicles 36:22, 23, and Ezra 1:1-3. B. C. 536. ASC 139.1
The Medo-Persian Empire extended “from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces.” Esther 1:1. Consequently, all the Jews, wherever they might have been scattered, had full permission to return to their own land, in fulfilment of preceding prophecies respecting their restoration. This harmonizes the seventy years’ captivity with the history by Josephus-“In the first year of Cyrus, which was the seventieth from the day of the removal of our people from their native land to Babylon,” etc. Ant. XI., 1:1. ASC 139.2
“And there came again into Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city,” (Ezra 2:1,) “forty and two thousand, three hundred and three score; besides their servants, and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven.” vs. 64, 65. The numbers given of the Jews do not make this sum; but Bishop Patrick says, “There is no doubt but many of their brethren of the ten tribes incorporated themselves with the two tribes in captivity, and took the advantage of returning with them; which may be the meaning of those words in the first chapter, ‘Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah, and Benjamin, with all them whose spirit God had raised to go up:’ that is, saith Diodate, all those of other tribes, according to 1 Chronicles 9:3.” ASC 139.3
“And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man, to Jerusalem.” Ezra 3:1. “From the first day of the seventh month, began they to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.” v. 6. ASC 140.1
“In the second year of their coming into the house of God, at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel ...to set forward the work of the house of the Lord.... But many of the priests and Levites, and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice.” 3:8-13. B. C. 535. ASC 140.2
“When the adversaries of Judah” heard that they “builded the temple,” they “troubled them in building, and hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even unto the reign of Darius, [Hystaspes,] king of Persia.” 4:1-5. ASC 140.3
“In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia,” the prophecies in Daniel 10-12 were revealed to him. Daniel 10:1. B. C. 534. ASC 141.1
Cambyses. “In the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote [the adversaries of Judah] unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.” Ezra 4:6. ASC 141.2
“This is the person who is called Cambyses by the Greeks. He reigned seven years and five smonths; and during the whole of that time the building of the temple was interrupted.”-Dr. A. Clark. ASC 141.3
Ptolemy mentions an eclipse of the moon, in the seventh year of Cambyses, which, according to modern astronomical calculation, took place in the night following the 16th of July, in the year of the Julian period 4191, at the beginning of the second year of the sixty-fourth Olympiad. As the vulgar era is dated from January 1st, 4714, of the Julian period, it follows that this eclipse was B. C. 523. ASC 141.4
The date of this eclipse, decided by the unerring record of astronomy, is undisputed. Consequently, as Petavius observes, it is “the cardinal point and foundation, on which depend the arrangement of preceding and succeeding times, and the concord of sacred and profane history.” (De Doct. Temp., Lib. X., c. 14.) ASC 141.5
Of the accuracy with which the dates of eclipses may be settled, Prof. Mitchell says: ASC 142.1
“Go back three thousand years-stand upon that mighty watch-tower, the Temple of Belus, in old Babylon-and look out. The sun is sinking in eclipse, and great is the dismay of the terror-stricken inhabitants. We have the fact and circumstances recorded. But how shall we prove that the record is correct? The astronomer unravels the devious movements of the sun, the earth, and the moon, through the whole period of three thousand years; with the power of intellect, he goes backward through the cycles of thirty long centuries, and announces, that at such an hour, on such a day-as the Chaldean has written-that eclipse did take place.” ASC 142.2
As this was in the seventh year of Cambyses, his first year must have been in B. C. 529, and the first of Cyrus, when terminate seventy years from the fourth of Jehoiakin, B. C. 536. The Bible, therefore, gives us the chronology of the world, till we come to a period the distance from which to the present time is easily calculated, and fixed beyond dispute. Consequently, we are favored with an inspired chronology of the world, so far as an inspired chronology would be of any use to us: for at this point the light of history is emitted with so much clearness. in connection with the certain deductions of astronomy, that its further continuance would have been absolutely useless. ASC 142.3
In this we see the wisdom and goodness of God. That we should be furnished with an inspired chronology to this epoch, and no further, gives evidence of his readiness to assist his creatures. In the Canon of Ptolemy, eight years are allowed for the reign of Cambyses; but according to Herodotus, they included the seven months of his successor, Smerdis Magus, of which no account is made in the Canon, which adds another year to his reign, and brings us to B. C. 521. ASC 143.1
Darius [Hystaspes.] According to schylus, (Dr. Hales’ New Anal. Chro., vol. 1, page 287,) Smerdis was succeeded by two conspirators, Maraphis and Artaphrenes, who continued but about six months, which is included in the reign of Darius Hystaspes, the next Persian king. It was in the reign of this king that the work of the temple was again commenced,-which was first commenced under Cyrus, but ceased in the days of Artaxerxes, (Smerdis,) “unto the second year of the reign of Darius the Persian.” Ezra 4:24. B. C. 520. ASC 143.2
Haggai and Zechariah. “Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah, 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.” Ezra 5:1. “In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, came the word of the Lord, by Haggai the prophet, unto Zerubbabel.” “And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, ...and the spirit of all the people, and they came, and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, in the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.” Haggai 1:1, 14, 15. “In the seventh month,” and again, “in the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius,” in “the day that the foundation of the temple was laid,” [or the renewal of the work,] came the word of the Lord, contained in the second chapter of Haggai 2:1, 10, 18. He inquires, “Who is left among you, that saw this house in its first glory? and how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes, in comparison of it, as nothing?” 2:3. ASC 143.3
“In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah;” and also in “the eleventh month,” as recorded in chapters one to eight of that prophecy. At this time he had the vision of the horses among the myrtle trees, whose riders had been “sent to walk to and fro through the earth;” and who reported to the angel of the Lord: “We have walked to and fro through the earth, and behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest. Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? And the Lord answered ...with comfortable words.” Zechariah 1:7-17. ASC 144.1
When the Jews began again to build, Tatnai, and others, demanded their right so to do, and wrote to that effect to Babylon, when, search being made, the decree of Cyrus was found; and Tatnai and others were forbidden to molest them.” “And the house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of Darius, the king.” “And the children of the captivity kept the passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month,” Ezra 6:15, 19, seventy years from the time the city was smitten, B. C. 586, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, and the nineteenth of Nebuchadnezzar. B. C. 516. ASC 145.1
An eclipse of the moon, observed in the twentieth year of Darius, is found, by astronomical calculation, to have occurred B. C. 502. ASC 145.2
Another of the moon, observed in his thirty-first year, is found to have been B. C. 491. ASC 145.3
The reign of Darius, including that of the conspirators, was, according to Ptolemy’s Canon, thirty-six years, and closed B. C. 486. ASC 145.4
Xerxes, his son, succeeded Darius, and, according to Ptolemy’s Canon, reigned twenty-one years from B. C. 485. ASC 145.5
Artaxerxes. He was succeeded by his son, Artaxerxes Longimanus-the long-handed,-who, according to Dr. Prideaux, (Hist. Jews, vol. 1, page 222,) was the Ahasuerus of Esther; and according to Ptolemy’s Canon, reigned forty-one years from B. C. 464. ASC 145.6
“Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces,) ...in the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes, and his servants.” Vashti, the queen, was deposed, for refusing to come into the feast, and show the princes her beauty. Esther 1:1, 3-22. B. C. 462. ASC 146.1
“Now, after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia,” ...“Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses.... And there went up some of the children of Israel ...unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of the king. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king. For upon the first day of the first month, began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month, came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.” Ezra 7:1, 6-9. He “departed from the river of Ahava, on the twelfth day of the first month, to go unto Jerusalem.” 8:31. B. C. 458. ASC 146.2
Ezra went up to Jerusalem accompanied by 1754 persons, and this is a copy of the letter that the king, Artaxerxes, gave unto him. ASC 146.3