Before following them into their captivity in Babylon, a short account will be given of the prophets, most of whom lived and wrote their prophecies during the reigns of the latter kings of Judah and Israel.

Note. The story of Judith in the Apocrypha, is considered to be an historical record by Dr. Hales, and other learned commentators: the events it relates happened it is thought during the minority of Joash, (though some authors place the time after the long captivity in Babylon,) we shall therefore give a brief notice of it here.

Nebuchodonozor king of Nineveh, made war upon Media, and sent ambassadors to all his tributary vassals, commanding them to send him troops: most of the subject nations complied, but the countries bordering upon Judea, and Judea itself refused, and dismissed his ambassadors with contumely. For want of sufficient succours, Nebuchodonozor was not able to invade Media until the seventeenth year of his reign, when he marched against the kingdom and subdued it. He returned in triumph to Nineveh, and feasted and took his ease, he and his army, a hundred and twenty days in honor of his victory. His courtiers now suggested, that he ought to avenge himself upon those rebellious nations who had withheld their assistance: whereupon he called his nobles and officers together, and concluded "to afflict the whole

earth," and they agreed to destroy all flesh that did not obey the commandment out of the king's mouth. Accordingly, Holofernes his general assembled a very large army, and marched towards Judah, and in obedience to the cruel orders he had received, he destroyed the towns, burnt up the fields, utterly laid waste the country, and even threw down the idols and temples in order that all nations should worship Nebuchodonozor only, and all tongues and tribes should call upon him as god. The countries round Judea quickly sent in their submission; but the Israelites prepared to resist, and Joacim, (or Hilkiah) the high priest who governed during the minority of Joash, sent troops to garrison the strong cities, and to secure the passes in the mountains, and particularly recommended the people of Bethulia, a town in the north that guarded the defiles which led into the country, to be firm and faithful, and not suffer the Assyrians to pass. Holofernes, indignant at this show of resistance, enquired haughtily, who the people were in the hill country, and wherein was their power and strength, and why they, more than all the inhabitants of the west, had not come to meet him? Then Achior, a leader of the Ammonites, gave him a history of the Israelites: how they had originally come out of Chaldea, because they would not worship the gods of their fathers, but worshipped the God whom they knew, the God of heaven; and he told how they had been brought out of Egypt, when they cried unto their God, and how the Red Sea had been dried up before them, and he ended by saying that, as they always prospered when they were obedient to their God, it would be dangerous to attack them, lest the Assyrians should themselves be defeated, and

become a reproach before the world. On hearing this, Holofernes was exceedingly angry, and threatened Achior with death, when he should have conquered the country of Judah; and to make his contempt of his advice more apparent, he commanded some soldiers to carry Achior up to Bethulia, and deliver him into the hands of the Israelites, that he might perish miserably with them, when the city should be taken by his troops. So they bound Achior, and brought him and cast him down at the foot of the hill on which the city of Bethulia stood. Then the men of the city came out, and unloosed his bonds, and led him to the governors of the town, to whom he related the extraordinary cause of his being thus treated; on learning which they received him gladly, and behaved to him with great kindness.

The next day Holofernes commenced the siege of Bethulia, or rather its blockade; for by the advice of his captains, he did not attempt to take it by assault, its situation being deemed impregnable, but he spread his army over the valleys and hills near, cut off all supplies, and set guards on the wells and fountains of water, which gushed out at the foot of the hill on which the city stood. By these means the place was soon reduced to the greatest distress: the governors were ready to endure all extremities rather than yield, but the inhabitants murmured; they assembled tumultuously and demanded of Ozias and the elders that they should submit, and they reproached them for not having bought peace of the Assyrians at any cost; "it is better," they said, "that the whole city should be for a spoil to Holofernes and all his army, than to die of thirst." Ozias with some difficulty persuaded the people to wait five days more, and then if no aid came,

he promised to yield the city to Holofernes. Now there was in Bethulia a young widow, named Judith, a woman of extreme beauty, and of irreproachable manners, who had mourned her husband's death in privacy during three years, and was looked upon as a woman of extraordinary wisdom and sanctity. When she heard of the promise made by Ozias, she sent for him and the elders, and reproached them with their want of faith in not trusting to deliverance from God, who had shown their nation such signal favour, and preserved them in yet worse calamities: and when they excused their conduct, and pleaded the distress of the people, and entreated her to pray to God for them, she replied that she would do a thing which should be spoken of through all generations; but they were not to enquire into her intended act, as she would not declare it until she should have accomplished it but that she and her waiting woman would leave the city that night, and the LORD would deliver them by her hand. She then dismissed the governors, and spent the remainder of the day in prayer.

Accordingly, when evening came, she laid aside her mourning habit, and adorned herself with her richest attire, and giving her maid a bag of parched corn and some figs, together with a bottle of wine and a cruse of oil to carry, they both left the city, and descended into the valley; the governors who had come forth to see if she executed her promise of the morning, and the common soldiers who guarded the gates, all marvelling at her extreme beauty. When she was perceived by the out-posts of the enemy, they met her, and questioned her: she declared that she had fled. from the city, because she knew that it would be taken and consumed, and that she desired to be led

to their general, as she could shew him a way by which he should win all the hill country, without losing the life of a single man. Struck with her appearance, and with a certain air of superiority, the men hastened to obey her: they chose some of their band to conduct her safely to Holofernes, assuring her that she had no cause for alarm, for that he would treat her well. When the party reached the camp, the soldiers crowded round to see her pass, and even Holofernes himself came out of his tent, with silver lamps carried before him, to receive her. Judith prostrated herself at his feet; but he raised her, and graciously promised her his protection, declaring that he hurt no one who was willing to serve his master Nebuchodonozor, and should never have lifted up a spear against her city, if they had not themselves provoked his anger.

Then Judith proceeded to give a feigned account of her having left the city because it would not long be able to defend itself. She repeated what Achior, the Ammonite, had said to Holofernes, and declared he had spoken truth; for that except the people sinned against God, no enemy could ever prevail against them. But now, she said, they were about to be given up to the Assyrians for punishment, for the people were reduced to such great distress for want of food and water, that they were resolved to eat the first fruits of the corn, and the wine, and oil which were sanctified for the temple service, and also to lay hands upon their cattle, even such as they were forbidden by their law to eat; she added that the elders had sent to Jerusalem for a licence from the senate to commit these sins, and that until that arrived, Holofernes must not attack them; but that she should