shipping the God of the Edomites, whom he had conquered.

21. He is generally called Uzziah One of the names fignifies the help of God, and the other the strength of God.

22 This was a city belonging to Edom, Deut. ii, 8. 2 Ch. viii, 17, conquered by David, but recovered in the reign of Joram.

23. This was the longest of any of the reigns of the kings of Ifrael.

25. Joafh his father had recovered many cities from the Syrians, and he received others, from the Northern boundary of the country to the Southern. We have no other account of this prediction of Jonah than this incidental mention of it. He was the firft of the prophets after Samuel whofe writings are come down to us; But what we have of him relates wholly to Nineveh. Gathhepher was near Taberias, on the fea of Galilee.

26. There was none to fuccour or affift him; fo the L.XX, and other verfions render the phrase.

28. The LXX and the Chaldee have Judah in Israel, and the Syriac and Arabic in Israel, which was probably the true reading.

Ch. XV. 1. Amaziah, the father of Azariah, lived only fifteen years after the beginning of the reign of Jeroboam; fo that Azariah began to reign not in the twenty feventh, but in the beginning of the feventeenth year of Jeroboam. Perhaps Jeroboam reigned with his father eleven years, or there might be an interreg num between the death of Amaziah and the inauguration of Azariah. Jofephus has the fourteenth year

instead

mftead of the twenty Teventh.

fome error in the prefent text.

There is probably

2. This is the longest reign of any of the kings of Judah, and this king distinguished himself, as we shall find, very much, 2 Ch. xxvi, 5, &c.

5. The caufe of this is faid, 2 Ch. xxvi, 16, to have been his prefuming to officiate in the priests office.

7. In 2 Ch. xxvi, 23, it is faid that he was buried in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings, which might be nothing more than another method of defignating the faine place.

8. Perhaps this was the thirty eighth year from the time that Azariah began to reign with his father.

12. This was the fourth in defcent from Jehu. They were Jehoahaz, Joafh, and Jeroboam,'

15. No particulars are known of the reign of Zechariah, or that of Shallum, and but little of that of Menahem, the chronicles of the kings of lfrael being loft.

19. Pul is the first king of Affyria that is mentioned in the fcriptures; and it is evident from the preceding hiftory, that there could not have been any empire of Affyria that extended weftward before this time; Syria having fome time before been not only independent,but very powerful.

22. There must have been an interregnum between the reign of Menahem and that of his fon. For the lat ter did not begin to reign till the ninth year of Azariah, and Menahem died the year before.

23. Dr. Geddes fays perhaps the fortieth year.
29. He was the fen of Pul. He carried away more

than half of the people of Ifrael. Some think that Puf took fome captives. But this does not appear from 2 Ch. v, 26, which is the only authority for the fuppofi

tion.

30. It is faid v. 53, that Jotham reigned only fixteen years; but he might have reigned four years together with his father. Dr. Geddes fuppofes the true reading to have been the tenth, inftead of the twentieth, af Jotham.gho

32. The name Uzziah is oftener ufed than that of Azariah; but this is the only time in which he is fo called in this book. Perhaps the perfon who copied it changed the name without defign.

35. This was between the temple and the king's houfe. Ch. xviii, 20. It was firft built by Solomon," but perhaps rebuilt and repaired by Jotham.

37. It is probable that the war, tho' planned, was not actually made, before the reign of Ahaz.

Ch. XVI. 2. Twenty five years, 2 Chron. xxviii, 1, LXX.

3. He was properly an idolater, worshipping the gods of the feven devoted nations, which is the more extraordinary as the kings of Ifrael had abandoned that worfhip from the time of Ahab. Perhaps Ahaz might afcribe the declining state of the kingdom of Ifrael to the neglect of that worship. His making his fon to pass through the fire, does not imply that he burned him alive, but merely his drawing him over a flame, or fire, by way of purification, or confecration to a heathen deity. Burning men alive, and efpecially the fons of princes, was never done but on extraordinary occafions

in any country, fnch as does not appear to have occurred in the reign of Ahaz. For when he was alarmed by the invasion of the Syrians and Ifraelites, he had af. furance of deliverance by Ifaiah.

5. They ravaged the country, 2 Ch. xxviii, 5, but could not take Jerufalem, as Ahaz had been affured by Ifaiah.

6. This city, which was on the Red fea, had been recovered to the dominion of Judah by Uzziah, Ch. xiv 22. He took it from the Syrians, who now retook it.

9. In 2 Chron. xxviii, 20, it is faid that Tiglathpilefer did not help him. But as he turned his arms against Rezin, one of his enemies, and conquered him, Ahaz must have derived fome advantage from it.

Thus was fulfilled the prediction of Ifaiah, who faid that before a child who would foon be born could dif tinguish good from evil, both Syria and Ifrael would be deprived of their kings. Kir, Jofephus fays, was in upper Media.

Tho' the form of this altar was different from that of Solomon, it is not certain that the erection of it was contrary to the law; nor is it all probable that the facrifices upon it were to any other God than Jehovah the God of Ifrael. Indeed we never read of any morn ing and evening facrifices to any heathen god, except at Hierapolis, and they were probably very different from thofe of the Ifraelites. His facrificing to thefe gods was probably in fome other place.

15. He propofed to make fome particular ufe of the former altar; or perhaps his meaning was that it thould remain there till he had confidered what to do with it.

18. This was perhaps a covered feat, or throne, for the king and his family when they attended in the tem ple. He alfo cut off the communication between the king's house and the temple. This, however, was probably after the erection of the new altar in the temple, and when he proceeded to greater degrees of idolatry. mentioned in the book of Chronicles. For while he made ufe of any altar in the temple, he would want a communication between his house and it.

Ch. XVII. 1. In Ch. xv, 30, it is faid that he began to reign in the twentieth year of Jotham, which was the fourth of Ahaz. Mr. Whifton thought there was an interregnum of twelve years from the death of Jerobo am II, and this is not improbable from what is faid by Hofea, who lived in this time. Ch. x, 30. Now shall they say we have no king, because we feared not the Lord. What then should a king do, unto us? Dr. Ged. des reads the fecond year inftead of the twelfth. It is thought that there was an anarchy of nine years after the death of Pekah.

2. Perhaps not like Ahab, who worshipped Baal, but adhered to the worship of the golden calf at Bethel. Dan was at that time in the poffeffion of the Affyrians.

4. It is pretty evident from a Differtation of Sir William Jones on the subject, that the Afghans, a warlike nation between Perfia and Indoftan, are defcended from the Ifraelites. This agrees with their own traditions, and the beft Perfian hiflorians, tho' fince their convertion to Mahometanifm they endeavour to conceal their origin. Their language has a manifeft refemblance to the Chaldaic, and a confiderable diftrict

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