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[180]
And when they were there, God signified to the prophet that the king
of Babylon was about making an expedition against the Egyptians, and commanded
him to foretell to the people that Egypt should be taken, and the king
of Babylon should slay some of them and, should take others captive, and
bring them to Babylon; which things came to pass accordingly; for on the
fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem, which was the twenty-third
of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, he made an expedition against Celesyria;
and when he had possessed himself of it, he made war against the Ammonites
and Moabites; and when he had brought all these nations under subjection,
he fell upon Egypt, in order to overthrow it; and he slew the king that
then reigned 1
and set up another; and he took those Jews that were there captives, and
led them away to Babylon. And such was the end of the nation of the Hebrews,
as it hath been delivered down to us, it having twice gone beyond Euphrates;
for the people of the ten tribes were carried out of Samaria by the Assyrians,
in the days of king Hoshea; after which the people of the two tribes that
remained after Jerusalem was taken [were carried away] by Nebuchadnezzar,
the king of Babylon and Chaldea. Now as to Shalmanezer, he removed the
Israelites out of their country, and placed therein the nation of the Cutheans,
who had formerly belonged to the inner parts of Persia and Media, but were
then called Samaritans, by taking the name of the country to which
they were removed; but the king of Babylon, who brought out the two tribes,
2
placed no other nation in their country, by which means all Judea and Jerusalem,
and the temple, continued to be a desert for seventy years; but the entire
interval of time which passed from the captivity of the Israelites, to
the carrying away of the two tribes, proved to be a hundred and thirty
years, six months, and ten days.
3
1 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.
2 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.
3 CONCERNING DANIEL AND WHAT BEFELL HIM AT BABYLON,
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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