Antiquities of the Jews — Book 10, Chapter 11

1. Now when king Nebuchadnezzar had reigned forty-three years, 20 he
ended his life. He was an active man, and more fortunate than the kings
that were before him. Now Berosus makes mention of his actions in the
third book of his Chaldaic History, where he says thus: "When his father
Nebuchodonosor [Nabopollassar] heard that the governor whom he had set
over Egypt, and the places about Coelesyria and Phoenicia, had revolted
from him, while he was not himself able any longer to undergo the
hardships [of war], he committed to his son Nebuchadnezzar, who was
still but a youth, some parts of his army, and sent them against him. So
when Nebuchadnezzar had given battle, and fought with the rebel, he beat
him, and reduced the country from under his subjection, and made it a
branch of his own kingdom; but about that time it happened that his
father Nebuchodonosor [Nabopollassar] fell ill, and ended his life in
the city Babylon, when he had reigned twenty-one years; 21 and when he
was made sensible, as he was in a little time, that his father
Nebuchodonosor [Nabopollassar] was dead, and having settled the affairs
of Egypt, and the other countries, as also those that concerned the
captive Jews, and Phoenicians, and Syrians, and those of the Egyptian
nations; and having committed the conveyance of them to Babylon to
certain of his friends, together with the gross of his army, and the
rest of their ammunition and provisions, he went himself hastily,
accompanied with a few others, over the desert, and came to Babylon. So
he took upon him the management of public affairs, and of the kingdom
which had been kept for him by one that was the principal of the
Chaldeans, and he received the entire dominions of his father, and
appointed, that when the captives came, they should be placed as
colonies, in the most proper places of Babylonia; but then he adorned
the temple of Belus, and the rest of the temples, in a magnificent
manner, with the spoils he had taken in the war. He also added another
city to that which was there of old, and rebuilt it, that such as would
besiege it hereafter might no more turn the course of the river, and
thereby attack the city itself. He therefore built three walls round
about the inner city, and three others about that which was the outer,
and this he did with burnt brick. And after he had, after a becoming
manner, walled the city, and adorned its gates gloriously, he built
another palace before his father's palace, but so that they joined to
it; to describe whose vast height and immense riches it would perhaps be
too much for me to attempt; yet as large and lofty as they were, they
were completed in fifteen days. 22 He also erected elevated places for
walking, of stone, and made it resemble mountains, and built it so that
it might be planted with all sorts of trees. He also erected what was
called a pensile paradise, because his wife was desirous to have things
like her own country, she having been bred up in the palaces of Media."
Megasthenes also, in his fourth book of his Accounts of India, makes
mention of these things, and thereby endeavors to show that this king
[Nebuchadnezzar] exceeded Hercules in fortitude, and in the greatness of
his actions; for he saith that he conquered a great part of Libya and
Iberia. Diocles also, in the second book of his Accounts of Persia,
mentions this king; as does Philostrates in his Accounts both of India
and of Phoenicia, say, that this king besieged Tyre thirteen years,
while at the same time Ethbaal reigned at Tyre. These are all the
histories that I have met with concerning this king.

2. But now, after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, Evil-Merodach his son
succeeded in the kingdom, who immediately set Jeconiah at liberty, and
esteemed him among his most intimate friends. He also gave him many
presents, and made him honorable above the rest of the kings that were
in Babylon; for his father had not kept his faith with Jeconiah, when he
voluntarily delivered up himself to him, with his wives and children,
and his whole kindred, for the sake of his country, that it might not be
taken by siege, and utterly destroyed, as we said before. When Evil-
Merodach was dead, after a reign of eighteen years, Niglissar his son
took the government, and retained it forty years, and then ended his
life; and after him the succession in the kingdom came to his son
Labosordacus, who continued in it in all but nine months; and when he
was dead, it came to Baltasar, 23 who by the Babylonians was called
Naboandelus; against him did Cyrus, the king of Persia, and Darius, the
king of Media, make war; and when he was besieged in Babylon, there
happened a wonderful and prodigious vision. He was sat down at supper in
a large room, and there were a great many vessels of silver, such as
were made for royal entertainments, and he had with him his concubines
and his friends; whereupon he came to a resolution, and commanded that
those vessels of God which Nebuchadnezzar had plundered out of
Jerusalem, and had not made use of, but had put them into his own
temple, should be brought out of that temple. He also grew so haughty as
to proceed to use them in the midst of his cups, drinking out of them,
and blaspheming against God. In the mean time, he saw a hand proceed out
of the wall, and writing upon the wall certain syllables; at which
sight, being disturbed, he called the magicians and Chaldeans together,
and all that sort of men that are among these barbarians, and were able
to interpret signs and dreams, that they might explain the writing to
him. But when the magicians said they could discover nothing, nor did
understand it, the king was in great disorder of mind, and under great
trouble at this surprising accident; so he caused it to be proclaimed
through all the country, and promised, that to him who could explain the
writing, and give the signification couched therein, he would give him a
golden chain for his neck, and leave to wear a purple garment, as did
the kings of Chaldea, and would bestow on him the third part of his own
dominions. When this proclamation was made, the magicians ran together
more earnestly, and were very ambitious to find out the importance of
the writing, but still hesitated about it as much as before. Now when
the king's grandmother saw him cast down at this accident, 24 she began
to encourage him, and to say, that there was a certain captive who came
from Judea, a Jew by birth, but brought away thence by Nebuchadnezzar
when he had destroyed Jerusalem, whose name was Daniel, a wise man, and
one of great sagacity in finding out what was impossible for others to
discover, and what was known to God alone, who brought to light and
answered such questions to Nebuchadnezzar as no one else was able to
answer when they were consulted. She therefore desired that he would
send for him, and inquire of him concerning the writing, and to condemn
the unskilfulness of those that could not find their meaning, and this,
although what God signified thereby should be of a melancholy nature.

3. When Baltasar heard this, he called for Daniel; and when he had
discoursed to him what he had learned concerning him and his wisdom, and
how a Divine Spirit was with him, and that he alone was fully capable of
finding out what others would never have thought of, he desired him to
declare to him what this writing meant; that if he did so, he would give
him leave to wear purple, and to put a chain of gold about his neck, and
would bestow on him the third part of his dominion, as an honorary
reward for his wisdom, that thereby he might become illustrious to those
who saw him, and who inquired upon what occasion he obtained such
honors. But Daniel desired that he would keep his gifts to himself; for
what is the effect of wisdom and of Divine revelation admits of no
gifts, and bestows its advantages on petitioners freely; but that still
he would explain the writing to him; which denoted that he should soon
die, and this because he had not learnt to honor God, and not to admit
things above human nature, by what punishments his progenitor had
undergone for the injuries he had offered to God; and because he had
quite forgotten how Nebuchadnezzar was removed to feed among wild beasts
for his impieties, and did not recover his former life among men and his
kingdom, but upon God's mercy to him, after many supplications and
prayers; who did thereupon praise God all the days of his life, as one
of almighty power, and who takes care of mankind. [He also put him in
mind] how he had greatly blasphemed against God, and had made use of his
vessels amongst his concubines; that therefore God saw this, and was
angry with him, and declared by this writing beforehand what a sad
conclusion of his life he should come to. And he explained the writing
thus: "MANEH. This, if it be expounded in the Greek language, may
signify a Number, because God hath numbered so long a time for thy life,
and for thy government, and that there remains but a small portion.
THEKEL This signifies a weight, and means that God hath weighed thy
kingdom in a balance, and finds it going down already.—PHARES. This
also, in the Greek tongue, denotes a fragment. God will therefore break
thy kingdom in pieces, and divide it among the Medes and Persians."

4. When Daniel had told the king that the writing upon the wall
signified these events, Baltasar was in great sorrow and affliction, as
was to be expected, when the interpretation was so heavy upon him.
However, he did not refuse what he had promised Daniel, although he were
become a foreteller of misfortunes to him, but bestowed it all upon him;
as reasoning thus, that what he was to reward was peculiar to himself,
and to fate, and did not belong to the prophet, but that it was the part
of a good and a just man to give what he had promised, although the
events were of a melancholy nature. Accordingly, the king determined so
to do. Now, after a little while, both himself and the city were taken
by Cyrus, the king of Persia, who fought against him; for it was
Baltasar, under whom Babylon was taken, when he had reigned seventeen
years. And this is the end of the posterity of king Nebuchadnezzar, as
history informs us; but when Babylon was taken by Darius, and when he,
with his kinsman Cyrus, had put an end to the dominion of the
Babylonians, he was sixty-two years old. He was the son of Astyages, and
had another name among the Greeks. Moreover, he took Daniel the prophet,
and carried him with him into Media, and honored him very greatly, and
kept him with him; for he was one of the three presidents whom he set
over his three hundred and sixty provinces, for into so many did Darius
part them.

5. However, while Daniel was in so great dignity, and in so great favor
with Darius, and was alone intrusted with every thing by him, a having
somewhat divine in him, he was envied by the rest; for those that see
others in greater honor than themselves with kings envy them; and when
those that were grieved at the great favor Daniel was in with Darius
sought for an occasion against him, he afforded them no occasion at all,
for he was above all the temptations of money, and despised bribery, and
esteemed it a very base thing to take any thing by way of reward, even
when it might be justly given him; he afforded those that envied him not
the least handle for an accusation. So when they could find nothing for
which they might calumniate him to the king, nothing that was shameful
or reproachful, and thereby deprive him of the honor he was in with him,
they sought for some other method whereby they might destroy him. When
therefore they saw that Daniel prayed to God three times a day, they
thought they had gotten an occasion by which they might ruin him; so
they came to Darius and told him that the princes and governors had
thought proper to allow the multitude a relaxation for thirty days, that
no one might offer a petition or prayer either to himself or to the
gods, but that, "he who shall transgress this decree shall be east into
the den of lions, and there perish."

6. Whereupon the king, not being acquainted with their wicked design,
nor suspecting that it was a contrivance of theirs against Daniel, said
he was pleased with this decree of theirs, and he promised to confirm
what they desired; he also published an edict to promulgate to the
people that decree which the princes had made. Accordingly, all the rest
took care not to transgress those injunctions, and rested in quiet; but
Daniel had no regard to them, but, as he was wont, he stood and prayed
to God in the sight of them all; but the princes having met with the
occasion they so earnestly sought to find against Daniel, came presently
to the king, and accused him, that Daniel was the only person that
transgressed the decree, while not one of the rest durst pray to their
gods. This discovery they made, not because of his impiety, but because
they had watched him, and observed him out of envy; for supposing that
Darius did thus out of a greater kindness to him than they expected, and
that he was ready to grant him pardon for this contempt of his
injunctions, and envying this very pardon to Daniel, they did not become
more honorable to him, but desired he might be cast into the den of
lions according to the law. So Darius, hoping that God would deliver
him, and that he would undergo nothing that was terrible by the wild
beasts, bid him bear this accident cheerfully. And when he was cast into
the den, he put his seal to the stone that lay upon the mouth of the
den, and went his way, but he passed all the night without food and
without sleep, being in great distress for Daniel; but when it was day,
he got up, and came to the den, and found the seal entire, which he had
left the stone sealed withal; he also opened the seal, and cried out,
and called to Daniel, and asked him if he were alive. And as soon as he
heard the king's voice, and said that he had suffered no harm, the king
gave order that he should be drawn up out of the den. Now when his
enemies saw that Daniel had suffered nothing which was terrible, they
would not own that he was preserved by God, and by his providence; but
they said that the lions had been filled full with food, and on that
account it was, as they supposed, that the lions would not touch Daniel,
nor come to him; and this they alleged to the king. But the king, out of
an abhorrence of their wickedness, gave order that they should throw in
a great deal of flesh to the lions; and when they had filled themselves,
he gave further order that Daniel's enemies should be cast into the den,
that he might learn whether the lions, now they were full, would touch
them or not. And it appeared plain to Darius, after the princes had been
cast to the wild beasts, that it was God who preserved Daniel 25 for the
lions spared none of them, but tore them all to pieces, as if they had
been very hungry, and wanted food. I suppose therefore it was not their
hunger, which had been a little before satisfied with abundance of
flesh, but the wickedness of these men, that provoked them [to destroy
the princes]; for if it so please God, that wickedness might, by even
those irrational creatures, be esteemed a plain foundation for their
punishment.

7. When therefore those that had intended thus to destroy Daniel by
treachery were themselves destroyed, king Darius sent [letters] over all
the country, and praised that God whom Daniel worshipped, and said that
he was the only true God, and had all power. He had also Daniel in very
great esteem, and made him the principal of his friends. Now when Daniel
was become so illustrious and famous, on account of the opinion men had
that he was beloved of God, he built a tower at Ecbatana, in Media: it
was a most elegant building, and wonderfully made, and it is still
remaining, and preserved to this day; and to such as see it, it appears
to have been lately built, and to have been no older than that very day
when any one looks upon it, it is so fresh 26 flourishing, and
beautiful, and no way grown old in so long time; for buildings suffer
the same as men do, they grow old as well as they, and by numbers of
years their strength is dissolved, and their beauty withered. Now they
bury the kings of Media, of Persia, and Parthia in this tower to this
day, and he who was entrusted with the care of it was a Jewish priest;
which thing is also observed to this day. But it is fit to give an
account of what this man did, which is most admirable to hear, for he
was so happy as to have strange revelations made to him, and those as to
one of the greatest of the prophets, insomuch, that while he was alive
he had the esteem and applause both of the kings and of the multitude;
and now he is dead, he retains a remembrance that will never fail, for
the several books that he wrote and left behind him are still read by us
till this time; and from them we believe that Daniel conversed with God;
for he did not only prophesy of future events, as did the other
prophets, but he also determined the time of their accomplishment. And
while prophets used to foretell misfortunes, and on that account were
disagreeable both to the kings and to the multitude, Daniel was to them
a prophet of good things, and this to such a degree, that by the
agreeable nature of his predictions, he procured the goodwill of all
men; and by the accomplishment of them, he procured the belief of their
truth, and the opinion of [a sort of] divinity for himself, among the
multitude. He also wrote and left behind him what made manifest the
accuracy and undeniable veracity of his predictions; for he saith, that
when he was in Susa, the metropolis of Persia, and went out into the
field with his companions, there was, on the sudden, a motion and
concussion of the earth, and that he was left alone by himself, his
friends fleeing away from him, and that he was disturbed, and fell on
his face, and on his two hands, and that a certain person touched him,
and, at the same time, bid him rise, and see what would befall his
countrymen after many generations. He also related, that when he stood
up, he was shown a great ram, with many horns growing out of his head,
and that the last was higher than the rest: that after this he looked to
the west, and saw a he-goat carried through the air from that quarter;
that he rushed upon the ram with violence, and smote him twice with his
horns, and overthrew him to the ground, and trampled upon him: that
afterward he saw a very great horn growing out of the head of the he-
goat, and that when it was broken off, four horns grew up that were
exposed to each of the four winds, and he wrote that out of them arose
another lesser horn, which, as he said, waxed great; and that God showed
to him that it should fight against his nation, and take their city by
force, and bring the temple worship to confusion, and forbid the
sacrifices to be offered for one thousand two hundred and ninety-six
days. Daniel wrote that he saw these visions in the Plain of Susa; and
he hath informed us that God interpreted the appearance of this vision
after the following manner: He said that the ram signified the kingdoms
of the Medes and Persians, and the horns those kings that were to reign
in them; and that the last horn signified the last king, and that he
should exceed all the kings in riches and glory: that the he-goat
signified that one should come and reign from the Greeks, who should
twice fight with the Persian, and overcome him in battle, and should
receive his entire dominion: that by the great horn which sprang out of
the forehead of the he-goat was meant the first king; and that the
springing up of four horns upon its falling off, and the conversion of
every one of them to the four quarters of the earth, signified the
successors that should arise after the death of the first king, and the
partition of the kingdom among them, and that they should be neither his
children, nor of his kindred, that should reign over the habitable earth
for many years; and that from among them there should arise a certain
king that should overcome our nation and their laws, and should take
away their political government, and should spoil the temple, and forbid
the sacrifices to be offered for three years' time. And indeed it so
came to pass, that our nation suffered these things under Antiochus
Epiphanes, according to Daniel's vision, and what he wrote many years
before they came to pass. In the very same manner Daniel also wrote
concerning the Roman government, and that our country should be made
desolate by them. All these things did this man leave in writing, as God
had showed them to him, insomuch that such as read his prophecies, and
see how they have been fulfilled, would wonder at the honor wherewith
God honored Daniel; and may thence discover how the Epicureans are in an
error, who cast Providence out of human life, and do not believe that
God takes care of the affairs of the world, nor that the universe is
governed and continued in being by that blessed and immortal nature, but
say that the world is carried along of its own accord, without a ruler
and a curator; which, were it destitute of a guide to conduct it, as
they imagine, it would be like ships without pilots, which we see
drowned by the winds, or like chariots without drivers, which are
overturned; so would the world be dashed to pieces by its being carried
without a Providence, and so perish, and come to nought. So that, by the
forementioned predictions of Daniel, those men seem to me very much to
err from the truth, who determine that God exercises no providence over
human affairs; for if that were the case, that the world went on by
mechanical necessity, we should not see that all things would come to
pass according to his prophecy. Now as to myself, I have so described
these matters as I have found them and read them; but if any one is
inclined to another opinion about them, let him enjoy his different
sentiments without any blame from me.

FOOTNOTES

1 (return) [ This title of great king, both in our Bibles, 2 Kings
18:19; Isaiah 36:4, and here in Josephus, is the very same that
Herodotus gives this Sennacherib, as Spanheim takes notice on this
place.]

2 (return) [ What Josephus says here, how Isaiah the prophet assured
Hezekiah that "at this time he should not be besieged by the king of
Assyria; that for the future he might be secure of being not at all
disturbed by him; and that [afterward] the people might go on peaceably,
and without fear, with their husbandry and other affairs," is more
distinct in our other copies, both of the Kings and of Isaiah, and
deserves very great consideration. The words are these: "This shall be a
sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself, and
the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year
sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof," 2
Kings 19:29; Isaiah 37:30; which seem to me plainly to design a Sabbatic
year, a year of jubilee next after it, and the succeeding usual labors
and fruits of them on the third and following years.]

3 (return) [ That this terrible calamity of the slaughter of the 185,000
Assyrians is here delivered in the words of Berosus the Chaldean, and
that it was certainly and frequently foretold by the Jewish prophets,
and that it was certainly and undeniably accomplished, see Authent. Rec.
part II. p. 858. We are here to take notice, that these two sons of
Sennacherib, that ran away into Armenia, became the heads of two famous
families there, the Arzerunii and the Genunii; of which see the
particular histories in Moses Chorenensis, p. 60.]

4 (return) [ Josephus, and all our copies, place the sickness of
Hezekiah after the destruction of Sennacherib's army, because it appears
to have been after his first assault, as he was going into Arabia and
Egypt, where he pushed his conquests as far as they would go, and in
order to despatch his story altogether; yet does no copy but this of
Josephus say it was after that destruction, but only that it happened in
those days, or about that time of Hezekiah's life. Nor will the fifteen
years' prolongation of his life after his sickness, allow that sickness
to have been later than the former part of the fifteenth year of his
reign, since chronology does not allow him in all above twenty-nine
years and a few months; whereas the first assault of Sennacherib was on
the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, but the destruction of Sennacherib's
army was not till his eighteenth year.]

5 (return) [ As to this regress of the shadow, either upon a sun-dial,
or the steps of the royal palace built by Ahaz, whether it were
physically done by the real miraculous revolution of the earth in its
diurnal motion backward from east to west for a while, and its return
again to its old natural revolution from west to east; or whether it
were not apparent only, and performed by an aerial phosphorus, which
imitated the sun's motion backward, while a cloud hid the real sun;
cannot now be determined. Philosophers and astronomers will naturally
incline to the latter hypothesis. However, it must be noted, that
Josephus seems to have understood it otherwise than we generally do,
that the shadow was accelerated as much at first forward as it was made
to go backward afterward, and so the day was neither longer nor shorter
than usual; which, it must be confessed agrees best of all to astronomy,
whose eclipses, older than the time were observed at the same times of
the day as if this miracle had never happened. After all, this wonderful
signal was not, it seems, peculiar to Judea, but either seen, or at
least heard of, at Babylon also, as appears by 2 Chronicles 32:31, where
we learn that the Babylonian ambassadors were sent to Hezekiah, among
other things, to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land.]

6 (return) [ This expression of Josephus, that the Medes, upon this
destruction of the Assyrian army, "overthrew" the Assyrian empire, seems
to be too strong; for although they immediately cast off the Assrian
yoke, and set up Deioces, a king of their own, yet it was some time
before the Medes and Babylonians overthrew Nineveh, and some generations
ere the Medes and Persians under Cyaxares and Cyrus overthrew the
Assyrian or Babylonian empire, and took Babylon.]

7 (return) [ It is hard to reconcile the account in the Second Book of
Kings [Footnote ch. 23:11: with this account in Josephus, and to
translate this passage truly in Josephus, whose copies are supposed to
be here imperfect. However, the general sense of both seems to be this:
That there were certain chariots, with their horses, dedicated to the
idol of the sun, or to Moloch; which idol might be carried about in
procession, and worshipped by the people; which chariots were now "taken
away," as Josephus says, or, as the Book of Kings says, "burnt with
fire, by Josiah."]

8 (return) [ This is a remarkable passage of chronology in Josephus,
that about the latter end of the reign of Josiah, the Medes and
Babylonians overthrew the empire of the Assyrians; or, in the words of
Tobit's continuator, that "before Tobias died, he heard of the
destruction of Nineveh, which was taken by Nebuchodonosor the
Babylonian, and Assuerus the Mede," Tob. 14:15. See Dean Prideaux's
Connexion, at the year 612.]

9 (return) [ This battle is justly esteemed the very same that Herodotus
[B. II. sect. 156: mentions, when he says, that "Necao joined battle
with the Syrians [or Jews] at Magdolum, [Megiddo,] and beat them," as
Dr. Hudson here observes.]

10 (return) [ Whether Josephus, from 2 Chronicles 35:25, here means the
book of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, still extant, which chiefly
belongs to the destruction of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar, or to any
other like melancholy poem now lost, but extant in the days of Josephus,
belonging peculiarly to Josiah, cannot now be determined.]

11 (return) [ This ancient city Hamath, which is joined with Arpad, or
Aradus, and with Damascus, 2 Kings 18:34; Isaiah 36:19; Jeremiah 49:23,
cities of Syria and Phoenicia, near the borders of Judea, was also
itself evidently near the same borders, though long ago utterly
destroyed.]

12 (return) [ Josephus says here that Jeremiah prophesied not only of
the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, and this under the
Persians and Medes, as in our other copies; but of cause they did not
both say the same thing as to this circumstance, he disbelieved what
they both appeared to agree in, and condemned them as not speaking truth
therein, although all the things foretold him did come to pass according
to their prophecies, as we shall show upon a fitter opportunity their
rebuilding the temple, and even the city Jerusalem, which do not appear
in our copies under his name. See the note on Antiq. B. XI. ch. 1. sect.
3.]

13 (return) [ This observation of Josephus about the seeming
disagreement of Jeremiah, ch. 32:4, and 34:3, and Ezekiel 12:13, but
real agreement at last, concerning the fate of Zedekiah, is very true
and very remarkable. See ch. 7. sect. 2. Nor is it at all unlikely that
the courtiers and false prophets might make use of this seeming
contradiction to dissuade Zedekiah from believing either of those
prophets, as Josephus here intimates he was dissuaded thereby.]

14 (return) [ I have here inserted in brackets this high priest Azarias,
though he be omitted in all Josephus's copies, out of the Jewish
chronicle, Seder Olam, of how little authority soever I generally esteem
such late Rabbinical historians, because we know from Josephus himself,
that the number of the high priests belonging to this interval was
eighteen, Antiq. B. XX. ch. 10., whereas his copies have here but
seventeen. Of this character of Baruch, the son of Neriah, and the
genuineness of his book, that stands now in our Apocrypha, and that it
is really a canonical book, and an appendix to Jeremiah, see Authent.
Rec. Part I. p. 1—11.]

15 (return) [ Herodotus says, this king of Egypt [Pharaoh Hophra, or
Apries] was slain by the Egyptians, as Jeremiah foretold his slaughter
by his enemies, Jeremiah 44:29, 30, and that as a sign of the
destruction of Egypt [by Nebuchadnezzar]. Josephus says, this king was
slain by Nebuchadnezzar himself.]

16 (return) [ We see here that Judea was left in a manner desolate after
the captivity of the two tribes and was not I with foreign colonies,
perhaps as an indication of Providence that the Jews were to repeople it
without opposition themselves. I also esteem the latter and present
desolate condition of the same country, without being repeopled by
foreign colonies, to be a like indication, that the same Jews are
hereafter to repeople it again themselves, at their so long expected
future restoration.]

17 (return) [ That Daniel was made one of these eunuchs of which Isaiah
prophesied, Isaiah 39:7, and the three children his companions also,
seems to me plain, both here in Josephus, and in our copies of Daniel,
Daniel 1:3, 6-11, 18, although it must be granted that some married
persons, that had children, were sometimes called eunuchs, in a general
acceptation for courtiers, on account that so many of the ancient
courtiers were real eunuchs. See Genesis 39:1.]

18 (return) [ Of this most remarkable passage in Josephus concerning the
"stone cut out of the mountain, and destroying the image," which he
would not explain, but intimated to be a prophecy of futurity, and
probably not safe for him to explain, as belonging to the destruction of
the Roman empire by Jesus Christ, the true Messiah of the Jews, take the
words of Hayercamp, ch. 10. sect. 4: "Nor is this to be wondered at,
that he would not now meddle with things future, for he had no mind to
provoke the Romans, by speaking of the destruction of that city which
they called the Eternal City."]

19 (return) [ Since Josephus here explains the seven prophetic times
which were to pass over Nebuchadnezzar [Daniel 4:16: to be seven years,
we thence learn how he most probably must have understood those other
parallel phrases, of "a time, times, and a half," Antiq. B. VII. ch.
25., of so many prophetic years also, though he withal lets us know, by
his hint at the interpretation of the seventy weeks, as belonging to the
fourth monarchy, and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the
days of Josephus, ch. 2. sect. 7, that he did not think those years to
be bare years, but rather days for years; by which reckoning, and by
which alone, could seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety days, reach
to the age of Josephus. But as to the truth of those seven years'
banishment of Nebuchadnezzar from men, and his living so long among the
beasts, the very small remains we have any where else of this
Nebuchadnezzar prevent our expectation of any other full account of it.
So far we knew by Ptolemy's canon, a contemporary record, as well as by
Josephus presently, that he reigned in all forty-three years, that is,
eight years after we meet with any account of his actions; one of the
last of which was the thirteen years' siege of Tyre, Antiq. B. XI. ch.
11., where yet the Old Latin has but three years and ten months: yet
were his actions before so remarkable, both in sacred and profane
authors, that a vacuity of eight years at the least, at the latter end
of his reign, must be allowed to agree very well with Daniel's accounts;
that after a seven years' brutal life, he might return to his reason,
and to the exercise of his royal authority, for one whole year at least
before his death.]

20 (return) [ These forty-three years for the duration of the reign of
Nebuchadnezzar are, as I have just now observed, the very same number in
Ptolemy's canon. Moses Chorenensis does also confirm this captivity of
the Jews under Nebuchadnezzar, and adds, what is very remarkable, that
sale of those Jews that were carried by him into captivity got away into
Armenia, and raised the great family of the Bagratide there.]

21 (return) [ These twenty-one years here ascribed to one named
Naboulassar, in the first book against Apion, or to Nabopollassar, the
father of the great Nebuchadnezzar, are also the very same with those
given him in Ptolemy's canon. And note here, that what Dr. Prideaux
says, at the year, that Nebuchadnezzar must have been a common name of
other kings of Babylon, besides the great Nebuchadnezzar himself is a
groundless mistake of some modern chronologers rely, and destitute of
all proper original authority.]

22 (return) [ These fifteen days for finishing such vast buildings at
Babylon, in Josephus's copy of Berosus, would seem too absurd to be
supposed to be the true number, were it not for the same testimony
extant also in the first book against Apion, sect. 19, with the same
number. It thence indeed appears that Josephus's copy of Berosus had
this small number, but that it is the true number I still doubt.
Josephus assures us, that the walls of so much a smaller city as
Jerusalem were two years and four months in building by Nehemiah, who
yet hastened the work all he could, Antiq. B. XI. ch. 5. sect. 8. I
should think one hundred and fifteen days, or a year and fifteen days,
much more proportionable to so great a work.]

23 (return) [ It is here remarkable that Josephus, without the knowledge
of Ptolemy's canon, should call the same king whom he himself here [Bar.
i. 11, and Daniel 5:1, 2, 9, 12, 22, 29, 39: styles Beltazar, or
Belshazzar, from the Babylonian god Bel, Naboandelus also; and in the
first book against Apion, sect. 19, vol. iii., from the same citation
out of Berosus, Nabonnedon, from the Babylonian god Nabo or Nebo. This
last is not remote from the original pronunciation itself in Ptolemy's
canon, Nabonadius; for both the place of this king in that canon, as the
last of the Assyrian or Babylonian kings, and the number of years of his
reign, seventeen, the same in both demonstrate that it is one and the
same king that is meant by them all. It is also worth noting, that
Josephus knew that Darius, the partner of Cyrus, was the son of
Astyages, and was called by another name among the Greeks, though it
does not appear he knew what that name was, as having never seen the
best history of this period, which is Xenophon's. But then what
Josephus's present copies say presently, sect. 4, that it was only
within no long time after the hand-writing on the wall that Baltasar was
slain, does not so well agree with our copies of Daniel, which say it
was the same night, Daniel 5:30.]

24 (return) [ This grandmother, or mother of Baltasar, the queen dowager
of Babylon, [for she is distinguished from his queen, Daniel 5:10, 13,]
seems to have been the famous Nitocris, who fortified Babylon against
the Medes and Persians, and, in all probability governed under Baltasar,
who seems to be a weak and effeminate prince.]

25 (return) [ It is no way improbable that Daniel's enemies might
suggest this reason to the king why the lions did not meddle with him
and that they might suspect the king's kindness to Daniel had procured
these lions to be so filled beforehand, and that thence it was that he
encouraged Daniel to submit to this experiment, in hopes of coming off
safe; and that this was the true reason of making so terrible an
experiment upon those his enemies, and all their families, Daniel 6:21,
though our other copies do not directly take notice of it.]

26 (return) [ What Josephus here says, that the stones of the sepulchers
of the kings of Persia at this tower, or those perhaps of the same sort
that are now commonly called the ruins of Persepolis, continued so
entire and unaltered in his days, as if they were lately put there, "I
[says Reland] here can show to be true, as to those stones of the
Persian mansoleum, which Com. Brunius brake off and gave me." He
ascribed this to the hardness of the stones, which scarcely yields to
iron tools, and proves frequently too hard for cutting by the chisel,
but oftentimes breaks it to pieces.]