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extensively used in Ethiopia; in which book it is expressly stated that Jeremiah returned to Jerusalem, and a record is made of his labors and death there. (Cf. Dillmann Chrest. Aethiop., pp. 1-15, or my translation of it in Lutheran Quarterly, July 1878, pp. 333-352.) The rebuilding of Jerusalem and the interruption as recorded Ezra iv-vi—73. The building of the temple. Table and bread, i.e. offerings; cf. vs. 50. The contempt here expressed for the second temple is no indication that the author was an Essene, as Tideman asserts, as others could have felt the same contempt. The expression here is not any stronger than we find in Mal. I. and ii; nay, the very words here seem to be taken from Mal. I. 7.—74. The reason why this second temple was unclean was because even after the captivity the Israelites were still blinded, i.e. had not returned to God. Passing over the efforts of Ezra for the strengthening of the law shows that our author was certainly no Pharisee. It is the author’s view of the religious condition and fate of Israel in the Persian period.—75. In addition to internal sinfulness, Israel forgot that it was the people of God, and sinned by mixing themselves with the wild beasts of the field, i.e. with the nations of the world. The author here refers to the beginning of the diaspora. With this another period closes. Cuap. 90. Critics are unanimous that the thirty-six, or as some MSS. have it thirty-seven, is an error for thirty-five. That this correction is not only legitimate, but is demanded by the account that follows will be seen presently. The seer sums up his vision in the words that so far thirty-five shepherds, including those that had ruled twelve hours, 89:72, had governed. Like the first; as those governing twelve hours completed their times, thus did also the rest of the thirty-five —2. Introduces a new period and new enemies. They are pictured as birds of prey to show that they are distinct from the previously mentioned enemies, from an altogether different stock or family. It is the period of the invasion of the Greeks and their allies. The eagles leading the rest are naturally the Greeks, or, more specifically, the Macedonians. The crows, according to vs. 8, 9, and 12, are the Syrians. Who the vultures and buzzards are does not appear; most probably these are general terms to designate the other nations allied with the Greeks, so that the author did not intend to designate any particular nations with these names. Pick out the eyes and devour their flesh, because they were birds. The statements of the author are so broad that it is impossible to fix them to any particular historical events, except in general that the fate of the people under Alexander the Great and his successors are portrayed —4. Who the dogs are cannot be determined; but cf. Tideman, p. 281. Above, 89:46, 47, they were the Philistines, who cannot, even with Sir. 1. 26 on hand, be meant here. He mentions the dogs, a domestic animal, hence belonging to a class of enemies of the period preceding the Grecian, since the period of the birds of prey and the eagles designate the enemies of the period just under consideration, to show that at the end of the Greek period Israel had to suffer from both their former and their present enemies, an idea well suiting the struggles between the various successors of Alexander the Great in the East and in the West; cf. Mic. iii. 2, 3—5. This Greek period was superintended by twenty-three shepherds, and thus all from the beginning, the thirty-five of vs. 1 and the twenty-three here, had completed fifty-eight times. Here we see the necessity of correcting the thirty-six or thirty-seven of vs. 1 into thirty-five. Thus, then, each shepherd completes one time, and in 89:72, then, there must have been twelve shepherds for the twelve hours. With this another period closes. It is interesting to see what martyrdom history must suffer to furnish the advocates of the heathen rulers theory with kings enough to satisfy the demands of this verse —6. The last period 0 heathen rule. This epoch is marked by the birth of small lambs, or, more literally, small male lambs, who began to open their eyes, i.e. began to return to the God of Israel. He designates by this name those in Israe who, about this time, especially in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, when the leaders of the people and the sheep themselves began to adopt Greek ideas and manners (cf. 1 Macc. I. 11-15), took a firm position for the religion and law of their fathers. In short, they are the well-known HTR, 1 Macc. vii. 13; 2 Macc. xiv. 6, the pious. They are called small on account of their small number, and lambs because they were the generation of the future, destined to grow and increase. They cried to the sheep. i.e. to the renegade Israelites; warned them, and appealed to them for help.—7. But this cry was in vain, the Greek party would not depart from its erring ways or assist the faithful—s8. The crows, i.e. the Syrians, attack these lambs and kill one. Who this one is will be seen in verse 9. But they alone are not the sufferers, the sheep too, the other unfaithful