the people remained in a weak and pitiable condition, "in great affliction and reproach;" their civil polity was much disorganized, and the law of Moses was openly exposed to violation in some of its most important enactments. Ezra, during the thirteen years of his administration, did all that could be done by abilities, piety, and zeal, armed too with the powers of government, toward the reformation of religion, of religious worship and discipline, of morals and civil subordination. But he seems to have been deficient in revenues; probably also in other necessary means to achieve the resuscitation of a dejected and degraded people. Indeed the melancholy aspect and defenceless condition of Jerusalem were of themselves most powerful obstacles to its own revival; and these Ezra had not obtained permission nor possessed the power to remove*. So late as the thirteenth year of his government the walls and gates of the city were described to Nehemiah, as remaining nearly in

* Ezra, in ix. 9, speaks of the Kings of Persia as giving the Jews "a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.” But the word is used in a general and metaphorical sense for a defence against the hostile designs and attempts of the neighbouring people. This is manifest from his making the wall include Judah as well as Jerusalem. For what could the "wall in Judah" be, but political safety and protection; such as was afforded by the ample powers given to Ezra in his commission, as recited vii. 25, 26? This Prideaux, who cites the passage, acknowledges, part 1, page 413.

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the state, in which they were left by the Babylonians at the time of its destruction; and lying thus exposed and open to the incursions of its hostile neighbours, as it could not afford security and comfort to its inhabitants, so neither did it offer encouragement to the dispersed of Judah to return to the home of their fathers. This picture of the desolate scene, that surrounded and enveloped his paternal city, and the place of his fathers' sepulchres, struck upon the soul of the patriotic Nehemiah with a force that impelled him to sacrifice ease, pleasure, and every flattering prospect in the court of Persia, and to encounter hardship, fatigue, and danger, for the sake of visiting his native country, and making a vigorous attempt towards its complete revival and renovation. Accordingly he took advantage of the credit, influence, and opportunity, which his high post of king's cup-bearer gave him with Artaxerxes; and prudently contriving to bring forward his petition in the most forcible, but least intrusive manner, and on a favourable occasion, he readily obtained from that monarch permission and authority, together with an allowance of sufficient means, to visit Jerusalem, to rebuild the city, to fortify it with walls and gates, to erect a palace for himself, and to act as governor with a fullness of power, that seems to have

been, so far as we can judge by its exercise and effects, for he has not given us any copy or even extract of his commission, little short of absolute, over every department of the state.

This took place in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes and in the year B. C. 445. It is however extremely improbable, that Nehemiah was indebted for the successful issue of his petition, solely or even principally, to his personal credit and interest with the king, though that might be supported and enforced by the favour, the wishes, and even the intreaties of Esther, who had then been queen about seventeen years. Indeed the personal favour of Nehemiah with Artaxerxes was itself a strong argument against a prayer, which must on that account have been contrary to the inclinations and almost offensive to the feelings of the king. But the whole difficulty did not rest there. The principal matter of Nehemiah's petition was opposite to the ruling maxims of the Persian government; it had been generally avoided or refused by the former sove, reigns; it was contrary to the interested views of a strong party in the royal councils; and when actually taken in hand at a former period, it had been forcibly suppressed in consequence of an edict issued by Artaxerxes himself in the beginning of his reign. Yet under all these disadvan

tages, it not only prevailed, but prevailed, as we collect from the narrative, without undergoing any opposition; probably without serious discussion or deliberation. There plainly appears to have been no room for such dilatory measures; for Nehemiah took occasion to bring the matter before the king in the month Nisan, and we find that he had performed his journey, fixed his measures, made his preparations, and actually finished the wall of Jerusalem, a work of fifty two days, by the twenty fifth of Elul, in the same year, the interval being a space of only five months. Now Ezra, as he himself informs us, was four months in performing the journey from Persia to Jerusalem; but allowing, that Nehemiah by greater expedition performed it in two, or even somewhat less, yet if we add that time to the fifty two days and to those which he necessarily spent at Jerusalem, before he could enter upon the work of rebuilding the wall, we find that no time will be left for the repeated and protracted consultations, that might be expected to take place on a measure, which was opposed by all the influence of settled habits and court intrigue.

It would be extremely difficult to account for this hurried mode of proceeding, as well as for the promptitude, and even suddenness, with

which Artaxerxes himself consented to a proposal so little agreeable to his own feelings, if happily we were not able to assign a strong political motive, sufficient, not only to overcome the personal repugnance of the king, the cautious hesitation of his ministers, and the crafty opposition of those counsellors, who had leagued themselves with the enemies of the Jews, but even to make them all heartily concur in granting Nehemiah's request. About four years before this time the forces of Artaxerxes, both by sea and land, had sustained a signal and almost ruinous overthrow by the Athenians under the command of Cimon, who afterwards proceeded to form the siege of Salamis in the island of Cyprus. Dispirited by so formidable a defeat, recollecting too the difficulty, which he had encountered several years before in suppressing the revolt of Inarus in Egypt, when assisted by that enterprising people, and alarmed for the fate of Salamis and Cyprus, the great king in the year following submitted to make an ignominious peace with the Greeks. By the terms of the treaty it was stipulated*; 1. That all the Grecian cities throughout Asia should be subject only to their own laws and institutes. 2. That the satraps or provincial governors of the Persians should not

* Diodorus Siculus, lib. 12. Olymp. LXXXII. 3, 4.