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"Drop down, ye heavens, from above,

And let the skies pour down righteousness:
Let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation,
And let righteousness spring up together;
I the Lord have created it."-Isa. xlv. 8.

As might be expected, the magi in Persia were the guardians of all ceremonies relating to divine worship. It was to them that the people had recourse in order to be instructed therein, and to know on what day, to what gods, and after what manner, they were to offer their sacrifices. As the magi were all of one tribe, and as none but the son of a priest could pretend to the honour of the priesthood, they monopolized all knowledge and all learning, whether in religious or political concerns, to themselves and families. It was unlawful for them to instruct any stranger in these matters, without the king's permission. Hence, when the favour was granted to Themistocles, it was, says Plutarch, the effect of the monarch's peculiar favour.

The magi were divided into three classes. The first class consisted of inferior priests, who conducted the ordinary ceremonies of religion; the second presided over the sacred fire; the third was the archimagus, or high priest, who possessed authority over the whole order. They had three kinds of temples. First, common oratories, in which the people performed their devotions, and where the sacred fire was preserved in lamps; second, public temples, with altars, on which the fire was kept constantly burning, where the higher order of the magi directed the public devotions, and the people assembled to perform magical incantations, hear interpretations of dreams, and practise various superstitions; and thirdly, the grand seat of the archimagus, which was visited by the people at certain seasons with peculiar solemnity, and to which it was deemed an indispensable duty that every one should repair at least once during his life. This leads to a notice of the religious rites and ceremonies practised and sanctioned by the magi.

Religious rites and ceremonies.-The ancient magi were bound to discharge their sacerdotal offices with exactness and devotion. Their public worship was thus performed:-In every pyreum, or fire temple, there was an altar, on which the sacred fire was preserved. When the people assembled to worship, the priest put on a white habit and a mitre, with a gauze, or cloth, passing before his mouth, that he might not breathe on the holy element. He then read certain prayers in a mumbling tone, holding in his left hand some small twigs of a sacred tree, probably the rose tzeh, which, when the service was ended, he threw into the fire. When prayers were finished, the priest and people withdrew silently, and with other tokens of solemnity. These rites are still observed among the parsees; but according to Hyde, the priests now inform the people on their departure, whence it is they worship before the fire, and why they are called upon to regard it with reverence. This, he says, is to preserve them from idolatry.

According to Lord, the duty of the priesthood of Persia is comprised in the eleven following rules: 1. The observance of the rites prescribed in the liturgy of Zoroaster. 2. To keep his

eyes from coveting that which belongs to another. 3. To have a care always to speak the truth. 4. To attend closely to his sacerdotal functions, and not meddle with worldly matters. 5. To con the book of the law by heart, that he may be always able to instruct the multitude therein. 6. To keep himself pure and undefiled. 7. To be ready to forgive injuries, showing himself a pattern of meekness. 8. To teach the common people to pray according to the law, and to pray with them. 9. To give licenses for marriage, and to take care that parents do not marry children without his approbation. 10. To spend the greatest part of his time in the temple, that he may be ready to assist all who come to him. 11. To believe no other law than that given by Zoroaster; to add nothing thereto, nor to take aught therefrom.

Many of these precepts are evidently derived from the Hebrew Scriptures.

It would appear that the ancient Persians kept six festivals annually, in memory of the six seasons, wherein they believed all things were created. After each of these feasts, they kept a fast of five days, in memory of God's resting five days, as they believed, at each of those seasons. When they ate flesh, fowl, or fish, they carried a small portion of it to the temple as an offering to God, beseeching him that he would pardon them for taking away the lives of his creatures, in order to their own subsistence.

Concerning the dignity and sanctity of the matrimonial institution, the Persians entertained similar degrading notions with the Babylonians. Polygamy and incest were carried to a fearful extent among them; such having the sanction of the religion of Zoroaster. These facts teach us from what an abyss of iniquity the gospel has delivered us, and how weak a barrier human wisdom is of itself against the most extravagant and abominable crimes. The ceremony of marriage was in unison with their notions of its institution.

Equally abominable and revolting was the disposal of the dead by the Persians. The ancients, generally, had great horror at the idea of not receiving the rites of burial. Hence, when Ulysses visited the infernal regions, he is made to say:

"There, wandering through the gloom, I first survey'd, New to the realms of death, Elpenor's shade; His cold remains, all naked to the sky, On distant shores unwept, unburied, lie." The ghost is represented as imploring of Ulysses the rites of sepulture in these strains: "But lend me aid, I now conjure thee, lend, By the soft tie, and sacred name of friend, By thy fond consort, by thy father's cares, By loved Telemachus's blooming years.

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The tribute of a tear is all I crave,
And the possession of a peaceful grave."

In Holy Writ, also, we meet with many affecting instances of the care with which the ancient orientals buried their dead. But it was not so with the Persians. Their kings, indeed, had the privilege of having their bodies deposited in rocky vaults, as in the tombs at Nakshi-Rustam and Naksh-i-Rejob. But this was not, properly speaking, inhumation, or putting them

within the surface of the earth; it was simply a deposition of them in a rocky excavation. The common manner of disposing of their dead was far different from this. As, in their religion, the four elements, fire, earth, air, and water, symbolized, though not in equal degrees, the Divine Being, great care was taken to preserve them from coming into contact with each other. Hence, as they held also that all bodies were composed of these elements, they would not suffer them to be buried, for fear of contaminating the earth. On the contrary, they exposed the body on a high tower, that each of the four elements, by its gradual decay, might obtain its own. Some affirm that separate towers were erected for the good and the evil; others say, that men, women, and children were placed on different towers. This was adopted to preserve the purity of the elements; but wild beasts, dogs, and birds of prey, were suffered to devour them, as they considered that, the bodies being thus entombed in the bowels of those animals, the earth was not defiled nor the air polluted.

This custom of exposing their dead to be devoured by beasts or birds, was a great barrier in the way of people's becoming proselytes to the magian religion. After the Armenians had received the Christian faith, it rendered the magian name and religion odious to them, and it was a frequent cause of revolt in that country against the authority of the Persians. This custom was, indeed, anciently esteemed so barbarous by other nations, that Theodoret, speaking of the good effect Christianity had on men's minds, in reforming them from brutal and wicked habits, mentions expressly that the Persians, since they had received its doctrines, no more exposed the bodies of their dead, but gave them a decent burial.

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Similar practices, with reference to the dead, common among the modern parsees or Ghabrs to this day. When a person is dead, the priest does not approach the body, but the corpse is put on an iron bier, and carried to the place of exposure. The body is placed on the tower; the priest standing at a distance, performs the funeral service, which concludes in these words: "This, our brother, while he lived, consisted of the four elements; now he is dead, let each take his own: earth to earth, air to air, water to water, fire to fire." They suppose that the spirit wanders about three days after its departure from the body, and that it is during that time pursued and tormented by Ahriman, till it is able to reach their sacred fire, near which he cannot approach. Accordingly, they pray morning, noon, and night, during these three days, for the soul of their deceased brother, beseeching God to blot out his sins and cancel his offences. On the fourth day, supposing his fate determined, they make a great feast, which closes the ceremonies used on that occasion.

A late writer, who witnessed a parsee funeral at Surat, says, that "as soon as the corpse was laid down in the open field near the burial place, or rather cemetery, some friend of the dead person hunted about in the neighbouring villages till he found a dog, whom with a cake he enticed to come near the corpse; for the nearer the dog approaches, the better hope they have of the

state of the deceased's future felicity; and if he can be allured to take a bit out of the dead man's mouth, it is an infallible sign of his going to heaven; but in case the dog be not hungry, or loathes the object, or refuses the morsel, the case of the deceased is then considered past all hope." He adds, that the dog, in the instance before us, could not be induced to come near the corpse.

The place of sepulture at Surat may probably illustrate some of the ancient raised places whereon the dead were exposed. It is described as enclosed with a wall twelve feet high, and 100 in circumference. In the middle, was a stone door, six feet from the ground, which was opened to receive the corpse. The ground within the walls is raised four feet, and made shelving towards the centre, where there is a sink for receiving the. moisture which continually falls from the carcases. Here the body is left to be devoured by vultures. After it has been there for a day or two, some of the nearest relations come to see the state of the body, and if the vultures have first plucked out the right eye, it is taken as an indication of the felicity of the departed; if the left, they are assured he is miserable. The scene within is described as revolting and offensive to the last degree: mangled bodies, and gorged vultures, still feeding on their fetid prey, compose the horrid picture. To such revolting customs has the false religion of Zoroaster given birth.

Truly there is no religion to be compared with that of the Bible; for it not only teaches man the true way of salvation, but his duties toward both the dead and the living. Carry your thoughts back, reader, to the patriarchal age, and witness the conduct of the faithful Abraham, when his beloved Sarah was torn by death from his arms. Did he barbarously expose her remains to the wild beasts of the field, and to the cruel birds of prey? Oh no! He earnestly sought a burying place of Ephron, the son of Zohar, that he might, to use his own beautiful and tender expression, "bury the dead out of his sight." His desire was gratified, and he acted accordingly. Carry your thoughts further down into time, and see with what tenderness that faithful friend of the Saviour, Joseph of Arimathea, assisted by others, buried him in his own "new sepulchre." To use the idea supplied by the poet

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The heavenly earth; there let it softly sleep, The fairest Shepherd of the fairest sheep: And all the body kiss'd, then homeward went to weep." GILES FLETCHER.

Look into our own burying places, and see there what Christian affection does for those once tenderly loved on earth. There they rest in peace, till the last trumpet shall sound, and call them back to life again. As we wept over our Christian friends, and committed their bodies to the earth, we felt that we could lie down with them in their graves, and be at peace. And yet, not sorrowing as those without hope, we exclaimed, as we turned from the mournful scene, with the apostle, "If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him," 1 Thess. iv. 14.

Forbear, then, ye learned, to compare the religion of Zoroaster with that of the Bible.

ARTIFICERS.

which he endeavoured to dissuade Cræsus from invading Persia: "If you conquer them," he asks pertinently, "What can you take from such as have nothing?" After the Lydian conquest, B. C. 548, the Persians, becoming masters of so many rich provinces, it is probable that they applied their minds to trade and navigation, to supply themselves with commodities which their country wanted, and to dispose of their own superabundance. On this subject, however, no

Concerning this caste of Persia, very little is known. It would appear, however, that they worked by rule, and that the rule was fixed by the monarch himself; at least the poet says that it was so fixed by Jemshid. They were undoubtedly an oppressed class of people, as may be seen from the annexed quotation from Fer-authentic information has been handed down to dusi.

"The Ahmenshuhi class combined

Men of ingenious hand, and active mind;
Laborious, staid, who crafts of skill espouse,

While care and want deep grave their wrinkled brows.
In fifty years the monarch (Jemshid) fixed the place
Of this, the artist and mechanic race;
Selecting one from each, the task to guide
By rules of art-himself the rules applied."

To what perfection architecture was brought among the Persians, may be seen in the description of the ruins of Persepolis. It is not so certain, however, that the vast structures in Asia were as remarkable for their beauty and symmetry, as they were for their magnitude and

extent.

HUSBANDMEN.

By Ferdusi this class of people among the Persians is called, "The full of wisdom," and it would appear from him, that they were superior to the order of artificers.

"Remote from haughtier sway, and lust of fame, Tillage and harvest-toils their simple, aim; No cries of hunger rise, nor famines come To stint their meals, or scare their humble home; From cold, from want secure, their peaceful ear Rings not of doom, nor sounds of death and fear. Yes! these are blest; but mark this maxim grave, 'Sloth turns the happy freeman to a slave.' Agriculture was one of the objects on which the Persians principally bestowed their care and attention. One of the chief cares of their monarchs was to make husbandry flourish; and those satraps whose provinces were the best cultivated, enjoyed his highest favour. Agriculture was, also, encouraged by the precepts of Zoroaster. By that sagacious but interested teacher, they were recommended to plant useful trees, to convey water to the dry lands, and to work out their salvation by pursuing all the labours of agriculture. By thus connecting the temporal and future interests of his followers, agriculture flourished exceedingly. Hence it was that the Persians, under the Sassanian dynasty, rose to as great a pitch of prosperity as could be expected under a despotic government, and the physical disadvantages of a dry and parched soil, the want of navigable rivers, and commercial ports.

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us by ancient historians; yet it is probable that commerce obtained increased attention, from their luxurious mode of living in later ages, which will be seen in the succeeding section of the kingdom of Persia; and which was one of the chief causes of the declension of their empire.

CHAPTER IV.

THE KINGDOM OF PERSIA.

PERSIAN KINGS.

Dr.

THE early history of Persia is involved in impenetrable obscurity. The Persian writers have so surrounded it with romance, with tales of griffins, monsters, giants, and fairies, that no sober account can be collected from their writings. According to them, some of the kings of the first Persian dynasty, called the Pischdadian, reigned from 500 to 1000 years each. Hales has, indeed, corrected these extravagant reigns, by the soberer accounts of other oriental writers, so as to reduce the length of the dynasty to a moderate compass; that is, from B.C. 2190 to B.C. 1661. But still, no authentic accounts have reached us of the actions of these monarchs; and the reader can only be referred to the table of dynasties at the close of this history, for their probable names.

At the close of this dynasty, it would appear that a long period succeeded, of more than 1,000 years, during which Iran, or Persia, was subject to the empire of Turan, and afterwards of Assyria, until the revival of the second Persian dynasty of the Kaianites, B.C. 641, when Cyaxares began to reign over Media, under the ancient title kai, or king, and Persia became subject to the Median power.

the Persians, according to the Greek writers, During the Assyrian and Median dominations, were still governed by their native princes, as was the usage throughout the east. Thus Xenophon traces the pedigree of Cyrus up to Perses, who gave name to the country; and Herodotus notices his ancestors, Achemenes, the ath er of Teipses, the father of Cambyses, the father of Cyrus. Concerning the sovereigns of dian empire, nothing can be recorded; and the Persia, however, before the downfal of the Meproper history of the empire of the Persians

commences with

CYRUS.

According to Xenophon, this prince, whose name is equally celebrated both in sacred and profane history, was the son of Cambyses, king of Persia, and of Mandane, daughter of Astyages, king of the Medes. He was born about B.C. 599.

In early life, Cyrus appears to have given promise of future greatness, whence the marvellous tales recorded of him by both Persian and Greek writers. His childhood was spent with his parents in Persia, where he was trained in the Persian simplicity of manners, and inured to fatigue and hardship till he was twelve years old. At this date, he went on a visit with his mother to his grandfather, Astyages, to whom he much endeared himself. He also gained the affections of the grandees, and of the Medes in general, by his courteous behaviour. Nature, who usually makes a very pleasing discovery of herself in children, exhibited her charms in Cyrus in an extraordinary degree.

When about fifteen or sixteen years of age, B.C. 584, Cyrus attended his grandfather in an expedition against Evil Merodach, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who made a predatory excursion into the Median territories. Chiefly by the valour of young Cyrus, the Babylonians were repulsed, which raised his fame still more among the Medes. The next year Cyrus returned to Persia, where he continued till the death of his grandfather, Astyages, and the accession of his uncle, Cyaxares, B.C. 566.

In the year B.C. 559, Cyrus succeeded to the throne of Persia. His first act after his accession was, to wage war with Evil Merodach, who, two years before, had succeeded his father, Nebuchadnezzar, at Babylon.

Evil Merodach, ambitious of adding Media to his empire, which comprehended Syria, and Assyria, Hyrcania, Bactria, and Arabia, formed a powerful confederacy of the neighbouring states, the Lydians, Cappadocians, Phrygians, Carians, Paphlagonians, and Cilicians, westwards; and the Indians, or Turanians, eastwards, against the Medes and Persians; alleging, that by their junction and intermarriages, they were grown so great and powerful, that unless they were opposed with their united forces, the confederates would be reduced by them separately. The Medes and Persians combined their forces, and Cyrus was appointed general.

The king of Armenia, who was a vassal of the Medes, looking upon them as destroyed by the confederacy, deemed this a favourable opportunity of shaking off their yoke. Accordingly, he refused to pay Cyaxares the usual tribute, and to provide him with the number of troops which, as a vassal, he should furnish in time of war. This greatly embarrassed the Median king; but Cyrus, by a rapid expedition into Armenia, surprised the king and his family, obliged him to pay the usual tribute, and to send his quota of auxiliary troops, after which he restored to him his kingdom.

Before Cyrus quitted Armenia, he rendered the king some essential service. At this time, he was at war with the Chaldeans, who dwelt in the north of Armenia, and who being a warlike people, continually harassed his country by their inroads, thereby hindering a great part of his lands from being cultivated. Cyrus marched against, and defeated them, and after making a treaty with them to the effect that they should no more invade Armenia, he returned to Media. The next year, B.C. 558, due preparations being made, Cyrus anticipated the threatened in

vasion of Media and Persia. His reasons for this were, that he deemed it more prudent his army should eat up the enemy's country than their own; that so bold a step would strike terror in the forces of the enemy, and inspire his own with confidence; and that it was a maxim with him, as it had been with Cambyses, his father, that victory did not so much depend upon the number as the valour of troops. As soon, therefore, as the customary sacrifices were offered to the tutelary gods of the Medes and Persians, Cyrus marched forward with his hosts, in search of the confederates. He found them encamped in the open country of Assyria, where he attacked and routed them, and stormed their camp. Evil Merodach, the king of Babylon, was slain in the engagement. The rest of the confederates, among whom was Croesus, king of Lydia, being greatly dispirited, retreated homewards, pursued by Cyrus.

The next notable act of Cyrus was, his invasion of Assyria. In this enterprise, he received great assistance from Gobryas and Gadatas, two noblemen, who had been grievously injured by Belshazzar, the son and successor of Evil Merodach. Acting upon the principle of revenge, which is ever sweet to an unregenerate heart, they surrendered to Cyrus_the provinces and castles intrusted to them. Belshazzar took the field in order to punish Gadatas for his rebellion. He was encountered and defeated by Cyrus, who forced him to return with great loss to Babylon. This defeat is dated by Dr. Hales, B.C. 554. The next year he was slain by conspirators, and Cyaxares, or Darius the Mede, took possession of his kingdom, appointing Nabonadius king, or viceroy, as before recorded. (See the History of the Assyrians and Chaldeans, page 46.)

After the death of Cyaxares, B.C. 551, Cyrus succeeded to the inheritance of the empire of Media and Babylonia by right, according to sacred history, and confirmed by the poet schylus, who fought at Marathon against the Persians, and was acquainted with Persian affairs.*

The accession of Cyrus was followed by the capture of many cities, and the reduction of several provinces, which so alarmed Crœsus, king of Lydia, that he assembled his forces, and commenced hostilities: the particulars may be seen in the History of the Lydians. See page 70, etc.

These events occurred B. c. 548. The next year Cyrus reduced some revolted cities of Media, namely, Larissa and Mespila; while Harpagus, his general, was engaged in subduing Asia Minor, Ionia, and Halicarnassus, the native city of Herodotus.

After this, Cyrus prosecuted the war against the eastern confederates, and reduced all Syria and Arabia; and Nabonadius having rebelled against him, he at length invested Babylon, which was the only city that now held out against him. Nabonadius, or, as Herodotus terms him, Labynetus, marched out to fight him,

Dr. Hales states, however, that "the actual commencement of his full sovereignty" was B. C. 536, when he captured Babylon, and defeated Nabonadius, who had been appointed king, or viceroy, by his uncle Cyaxares. (See the History of the Assyrians, etc., page 46;) and who had rebelled against him, as described in a succeeding paragraph.

but was defeated and driven into Borsippa, the citadel of Babylon, where Cyus besieged him and the town for two years, B.C. 538.

The siege of Babylon was no easy enterprise. The walls of it were of a prodigious height; a numerous army defended it from within, and it was stored with provisions sufficient to support the inhabitants for some years. But these difficulties did not discourage Cyrus from pursuing his design. Despairing, however, of taking the place by storm or assault, he made the inhabitants believe he would try to reduce it by famine. He caused a line of circumvallation to be drawn round the city, with a large and deep ditch; and that his troops might not be worn out by labour, he divided his army into twelve bodies, and assigned each of them its month for guarding the trenches. The besieged saw his mighty labour, and laughed him to scorn, deeming themselves out of danger by reason of their ramparts and magazines.

But Babylon was founded in impious pride and rebellion against God; and many a woe was denounced against her in Scripture for her crying sins and abominations, by the Hebrew prophets.

The duration of her empire for seventy years, while she was destined to scourge the corrupt nations of the earth, and her own ensuing desolation, are thus described by Jeremiah, in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, B.c. 604:

"And this whole land [Palestine] shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at the Lord's hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me: to wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day; Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people; and all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon, and all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea, Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners, and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the

| mingled people that dwell in the desert, and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes, and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach [the drunkard' city of Babylon] shall drink after them," Jer. xxv. 11—26.

The retaliation of Divine vengeance in the invasion of Babylon by the Medes and Persians, the surprise of the city unawares, the slaughter of its inhabitants, and its final destruction, are thus described by the same prophet, in the fourth year of Zedekiah, B.C. 593:

"Declare ye among the nations,
And publish, and set up a standard;
Publish, and conceal not:
Say, Babylon is taken,
Bel is confounded,

Merodach is broken in pieces;
Her idols are confounded,

Her images are broken in pieces.

For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her,

Which shall make her land desolate,
And none shall dwell therein:
They shall remove, they shall depart,
Both man and beast."-Jer. L.2, 3.
"Remove out of the midst of Babylon,

And go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans,
And be as the he goats before the flocks.*
For, lo, I will raise

And cause to come up against Babylon

An assembly of great nations from the north country:
And they shall set themselves in array against her;
From thence she shall be taken :

Their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man;
None shall return in vain."-Jer. 8, 9.

"Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land,
As I have punished the king of Assyria."-Jer. 1. 18.
"Go up against the land of Merathaim,

Even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: Waste and utterly destroy after them, saith the Lord, And do according to all that I have commanded thee. A sound of battle is in the land,

And of great destruction.

How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken!

How is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken,

O Babylon, and thou wast not aware:
Thou art found, and also caught,
Because thou hast striven against the Lord.
The Lord hath opened his armoury,

And hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation :
For this is the work of the Lord God of hosts
In the land of the Chaldeans."-Jer. 1.21-25.
"A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the Lord,
And upon the inhabitants of Babylon,

And upon her princes, and upon her wise men.
A sword is upon the liars-and they shall dote:
A sword is upon her mighty men-and they shall be
dismayed.

A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, And upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her;

And they shall become as women:

A sword is upon her treasures-and they shall be robbed.

A drought is upon her waters-and they shall be dried up:

For it is the land of graven images,

And they are mad upon their idols."-Jer. L.35-38. The prophet describes circumstantially, in

* In the east, sheep and goats frequently mingle in the same pasture, and on these occasions the he goats always take the lead. It is to this habit that the prophet alludes in this verse, which is an exhortation to Israel to remove out of the land of the Chaldeans.

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