"wonder that the Jews should have looked up "to Joel with particular reverence, or that he "should be cited as a prophet by the evangelical "writers. The work, whether historical or pro“phetical, whether it relate to a plague by locusts, "or to destruction by an invading army, or to "both, affords a proof and example of the inflic "tion of national judgments against national "sins, and the necessity of repentance to avert "them." B. C. МІСАН. MICAH was a native of the kingdom of 758. Judah, and was born in the little village of Morasthi, near Eleutheropolis, in the south of Judea: He began to prophecy rather later than Amos, Hosea, Joel, and Isaiah, with the latter of whom he was contemporary, and lived in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Pekah and Hoshea, kings of Israel. He begins by foretelling the calamities of Samaria, which should become as a heap, and its stones thrown down to its foundations. In the second and third chapters he describes, like Amos, the iniquities of the people, which had provoked these severe judgments. "Woe to them that "devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! "when the morning is light, they practise it, "because it is in the power of their hand. And “they covet fields, and take them by violence; "and houses, and take them away:" for these transgressions they are threatened with the utter destruction of both kingdoms. "Therefore shall "Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and "Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the moun"tain of the house as the high places of the "forest." This prediction was literally fulfilled, if not when Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians, at least when it was conquered by the Romans: the Roman general, Turnus Rufus, having, by command of the emperor, driven a ploughshare over the site of the city; a custom with this proud and haughty people when they desired to show the utter subjugation of a conquered town, and its being devoted henceforth to extinction, never to rise again. This prophecy is also remarkable as having saved the life of Jeremiah, in the reign of Jehoiakim,* when the princes, enraged at his having uttered a similar denunciation, desired that he should be put to death. Certain of the elders pleaded that Micah had delivered the same prophecy in the days of Hezekiah, yet did not the king or the people put that prophet to death. Besides the prophecies relating to Samaria and Jerusalem, the prophet predicts the birth of the Messiah, and the final establishment of Christ's kingdom; "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting." *Jeremiah xxvi. 18. And in the sixth chapter, is that forcible reproof to those who thought to make atonement for their flagrant sins by offering for sacrifice, 'thousands of rams, or ten thousands of rivers of oil;' "the LORD had showed thee, O man, what is good: and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”* The style of Micah is, says Bishop Lowth, "for the most part close, forcible, pointed and concise; sometimes approaching the obscurity of Hosea in many parts animated and sublime, and in general truly poetical.” Micah does not appear to have suffered martyrdom, but probably died peaceably in his native village, where, in the time of Jerome, his tomb was shown. The prophet has indeed by some writers been confounded with Micaiah, the prophet who reproved Ahab, and foretold his death in battle with the Syrians, and under this mistake he has been said to have been thrown from a precipice and killed by Jehoram, Ahab's son and successor: but the reference to the prophet Micah, already quoted in the twenty-sixth chapter of Jeremiah, proves this not to have been the case, and is a strong presumption that he was allowed to live unmolested, and to die in peace. * Bishop Lowth considers this "most elegant poem,” as cited by Micah from Baalam's answer to Balak, and thus rescued by this prophet from oblivion. See Lowth's Hebrew Poetry, 197 Page. B. C. NAHUM calls himself an Elkoshite, from 720. which it is supposed that he was a native of Elkosh, a small village in Galilee, which, if correct, affords another contradiction to the assertion of the Pharisees, that "Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." It is not certain at what time his prophecy was delivered, but Bishop Gray and other commentators assign the early part of the reign of Hezekiah as the most probable date, after the carrying away of the Ten Tribes to Nineveh, and before the invasion of Judea by Sennacherib. The prophecy of Nahum, which only occupies three short chapters, regards the final overthrow of the proud city of Nineveh, then at the height of its glory, riches, and luxury. Its repentance, on the preaching of Jonah, had been of short duration: it was again full of lies and robberies; therefore, though it had multiplied its merchants above the stars in heaven, and though its crowned tributaries were as numerous as locusts, and its captains as grasshoppers, yet they should flee away like these insects when the sun ariseth, and their place should not be known where they once A more striking commentary on this prophecy could not be written, than is undesignedly were. given by those modern travellers who have visited the banks of the Tigris, and by the labours of Layard, who, after centuries of fruitless researches, has at length brought to light some few of the marvellous wonders of this farfamed capital of the first great Assyrian empire. "She is empty, and void, and waste." A mound, a heap, is all that now meets the eye; but when their mounds are excavated, there are found sculptures, which modern art views with admiration, and remains of palaces and temples which, even in these ruins, excite astonishment by their gigantic proportions, the richness and extent of their vast chambers, and the colossal images of their idol gods. Bishop Lowth considers that Nahum is superior to all the minor prophets in boldness and sublimity. He says: "His prophecy forms a regular and perfect poem: the exordium is not merely magnificent, it is truly majestic. The preparation for the destruction of Nineveh, and the description of its downfall and desolation are expressed in the most vivid colors, and are bold and luminous in the highest degree." It has indeed been truly said that the descriptions of the prophet are so clear that one might imagine him to be an eye-witness of the event. We seem to see the furious rushing of the chariots through the crowded streets, the manning the walls, and all the preparations for a long defence. The destruction, of Nineveh was caused by a sudden inundation of the river, after it had |