semblance between the names of Hezekiah and that of Hiskia, from whom the prophet professes himself to have been a descendant: the period which intervened between king Hezekiah and the time in which Zephaniah flourished, being scarce sufficient to admit of three intermediate ancestors to the prophet. Zephaniah begins with denouncing God's wrath against the remnant of Baal, and the name of the Chemarims: against them that worshipped the host of heaven, and swore by Malcham; and therefore probably he addressed those idolatrous priests who were not yet extirpated by the religious zeal of Josiah; he foretold, also, the destruction of

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Nineveh, which happened A. M. 3392. And upon these considerations, he may be supposed to have prophesied before the last reformation made by Josiah, A. M. 3381. He may be conceived also to have entered on his office towards the commencement of the reign of that monarch, who ascended the throne A. M. 3364, since he preceded Jeremiah, who began his prophetic ministry in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign. Epiphanius relates, that Zephaniah was born at Mount Sarabatha, or Baratha.

HAGGAI.

HAGGAI is generally reputed to have been born in the captivity, and to

have returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel. He appears to have been raised up by God to exhort Zerubbabel, and Joshua the high-priest, the son of Josedech, to resume the work of the temple, which had been interrupted near fourteen years, in consequence of the intrigues of the Samaritans, and other obstructions excited to defeat the edict of Cyrus. He began to prophesy in the second year of Darius Hystaspas, A. M. 3484, about fifteen years after the foundation of the temple had been laid. The prophets, after the captivity, sometimes reckon by the dates of those sovereigns to whom their country was subjected. Haggai begins with re

presenting to the people, who delayed by evasive procrastinations the work of the temple, that they were more solicitous to build and to adorn their own houses than to labour in the service of God; and informs them, that the scarcity and unfruitful seasons which they experienced, were designed as a punishment for their selfish disregard to the glory of the Lord. His earnest remonstrance and exhortations appear to have produced their effect; and the prophet, in order to encourage those who, fondly remembering the magnificence of that glorious structure which had been reared by Solomon, and who, perhaps, impressed with the description fur

nished by Ezekiel, must have lamented the comparative meanness of the present building, declares to them, in the name of the Lord, that the glory of this latter house, though it might appear as nothing in their eyes, yet should be greater than that of the former;" For thus saith the Lord of Hosts, yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts, with a greater glory," with a glory more apparent and manifest than was that clouded and symbolical representa