No. 2. "And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee."-ISA. xxix. 3. JERUSALEM a city of great strength. Its natural site specially adapted for security against sudden assault, "on the edge of one of the highest table-lands of the country," 'enthroned on a mountain-fastness," Ps. lxviii. 15, 16; lxxxvii. 1, 2; two remarkable ravines, one on the north-Kedron-and the other on the south-Hinnom-" separating it from the rocky plateau of which it forms a part," and serving as natural fosses, Josh. xv. 8; xviii. 16; Jer. xix. 2, 6; John xviii. 1; protected by the near ridge of Olivet, and by other mountains further off, Ps. cxxv. 2, (see Dean Stanley's "Sinai and Palestine," ch. iii.); and always strongly fortified, Ps. xlviii. 12, 13. Its original name was "Jebus;" and it was under this name, whilst yet inhabited by the early Canaanites, that it underwent its first siege by David, who, when he had taken it, made it thenceforth the royal city, Josh. xv. 63; 2 Sam. v. 6-9; 1 Chron. x. 4-8. It seems to have made but feeble resistance under Rehoboam against Shishak, king of Egypt, who plundered the royal palace, and took away the shields of gold that Solomon had made, 956 years B.C., 1 Kings xiv. 25, 26; 2 Chron. xii. 2—10. But stoutly resisted Sennacherib, king of Assyria, under Hezekiah, 200 years later, 2 Chron. xxxii. 1-8; and the King's faith was rewarded by the miraculous rescue of the city, 2 Kings xix. 4-20, 35, 36; 2 Chron. xxxii. 17-21. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took it after a siege of two years, 590 B.C.: 2 Kings xxv. 1-3. The Jewish king Zedekiah had his eyes put out, the inhabitants were either massacred or sold as slaves, the Temple was plundered and burnt: 2 Kings xxv. 5-15; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 17-20. A hundred and thirty-six years afterwards the walls were rebuilt by Nehemiah, by permission of King Artaxerxes: Neh. ii. 1—18. Its greatest siege and most terrible overthrow by the Romans, was foretold (even in its details) by our Lord, Luke xix. 41—44; xxi. 20-24; His predictions being fulfilled when the city was taken by Titus, A.D. 70, with horrors unequalled in history, no less than one million one hundred thousand Jews having perished by famine or the sword while ninety-seven thousand were carried into slavery. (See Gosse's "History of the Jews," chap. vii.) K 48. BALAAM. "The dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet."—2 PET. ii. 16. It is an instance of the coherence of all the parts of the Bible, as forming together ONE Revelation, that the history of Balaam, narrated in the book of Numbers, is referred to in no less than seven other books of Holy Scripture: viz. Deuteronomy, Joshua, Nehemiah, Micah, St. Peter's 2nd Epistle, the Epistle of St. Jude, and Revelation; four in the Old Testament, and three in the New. He lived in Aram, or "the Highlands," Numb. xxxiii. 7; called also Aram-Naharaim, or "the Highlands of the two rivers," i. e. the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, better known as Mesopotamia, Deut. xxiii. 4; at a place called Pethor, Numb. xxii. 5. And he was a worshipper of the one true God, though living amongst idolaters; as Job was in the land of Uz, and as Abram was in Ur of the Chaldees; this knowledge of And he had become famous as a prophet: The offer of money and honour, though re- Moreover, as though in revenge, because he Balaam, though a false man, was made |
