he other, and soon she suggested bringing Miss Wilkins to visit Nick's ranch School was off now, and the poor dear had not
pen Celia stood on the threshold, her eyes wide with alarm Lanse, lightly costumed in pink-and-whiteve occasion to _Josephus_ and the later _Jews_, who took this King for the last _Darius_, to fall into an opinion that _Sanballat, Jaddua_, and _Manasseh_ the younger brother of _Jaddua_, lived till the end of the Reign of the last _Darius_ _Joseph_ _Antiq_ l xi c 7, 8 and the said _Manasseh_ might marry _Nicaso_ the daughter of _Sanballat_, and for that offence be chased from _Nehemiah_, before the end of the Reign of _Artaxerxes Longimanus_; _Nehem_ xiii 28 _Joseph_ _Antiq_ l xi c 7, 8 and _Sanballat_ might at that time be _Satrapa_ of _Samaria_, and in the Reign of _Darius Nothus_, or soon after, build the Temple of the _Samaritans_ in _Mount Gerizim_, for his son-in-law _Manasseh_, the first High-Priest of that Temple; _Joseph_ _ib_ and _Simeon Justus_ might be High-Priest when the _Persian_ Empire was invaded by _Alexander_ the Great, as the _Jews_ represent, _Joma_ fol 69 1 _Liber Juchasis R Gedaliah_, &c and for that reason he might be taken by some of the _Jews_ for the same High-Priest with _Jaddua_, and be dead some time before the book of _Ecclesiasticus_ was writ in _Hebrew_ at _Jerusalem_, by the grandfather of him, who in the 38th year of the _Egyptian_ AEra of _Dionysius_, that is in the 77th year after the death of _Alexander_ the Great, met with a copy of it in _Egypt_, and there translated it into _Greek Ecclesiast_ ch 50 & _in Prolog_ and _Eleazar_, the younger brother and successor of _Simeon_, might cause the Law to be translated into _Greek_, in the beginning of the Reign of _Ptolemaus Philadelphus_ _Joseph_ _Antiq_ l xii c 2 and _Onias_ the son of _Simeon Justus_, who was a child at his father's death, and by consequence was born in his father's old age, might be so old in the Reign of _Ptolemaeus Euergetes_, as to have his follies excused to that King, by representing that he was then grown childish with old age _Joseph_ _Antiq_ l xii c 4 In this manner the actions of all these High-Priests suit with the Reigns of the Kings, without any straining from the course of nature and according to this reckoning the days of _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_ fall in with the Reign of the first _Artaxerxes_; for _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_ flourished in the High Priesthood of _Eliashib_, _Ezra_ x 6 _Nehem_ iii 1 & xiii 4, 28 But if _Eliashib_, _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_ be placed in the Reign of the second _Artaxerxes_, since they lived beyond the 32d year of _Artaxerxes_, _Nehem_ xiii 28, there must be at least 160 years allotted to the three first High-Priests, and but 42 to the four or five last, a division too unequal for the High Priesthoods of _Jeshua_, _Joiakim_, and _Eliashib_, were but of an ordinary length, that of _Jeshua_ fell in with one Generation of the chief Priests, and that of _Joiakim_ with the next Generation, as we have shewed already; and that of _Eliashib_ fell in with the third Generation for at the dedication of the wall, _Zechariah_ the son of _Jonathan_, the son of _Shemaiah_, was one of the Priests, _Nehem_ xii 35, and _Jonathan_ and his father _Shemaiah_, were contemporaries to _Joiakim_ and his father _Jeshua_ _Nehem_ xii 6, 18 I observe further that in the first year of _Cyrus_, _Jeshua_, and _Bani_, or _Binnui_, were chief fathers of the _Levites_, _Nehem_ vii 7 15 & _Ezra_ ii 2 10 & iii 9 and that _Jozabad_ the son of _Jeshua_, and _Noadiah_ the son of _Binnui_, were chief Levites in the seventh year of _Artaxerxes_, when _Ezra_ came to _Jerusalem_, _Ezra_ viii 33 so that this _Artaxerxes_ began his Reign before the end of the second Generation and that he Reigned in the time of the third Generation is confirmed by two instances more; for _Meshullam_ the son of _Berechiah_, the son of _Meshezabeel_, and _Azariah_ the son of _Maaseiah_, the son of _Ananiah_, were fathers of their houses at the repairing of the wall; _Nehem_ iii 4, 23 and their grandfathers, _Meshazabeel_ and _Hananiah_, subscribed the covenant in the Reign of _Cyrus_ _Nehem_ x 21, 23 Yea _Nehemiah_, this same _Nehemiah_ the son of _Hachaliah_, was the _Tirshatha_, and subscribed it, _Nehem_ x 1, & viii 9, & _Ezra_ ii 2, 63 and therefore in the 32d year of _Artaxerxes Mnemon_, he will be above 180 years old, an age surely too great The same may be said of _Ezra_, if he was that Priest and Scribe who read the Law, _Nehem_ viii for he is the son of _Serajah_, the son of _Azariah_, the son of _Hilkiah_, the son of _Shallum_, &c _Ezra_ vii 1 and this _Serajah_ went into captivity at the burning of the Temple, and was there slain, 1 _Chron_ vi 14 2 _King_ xxv 18 and from his death, to the twentieth year of _Artaxerxes Mnemon_, is above 200 years; an age too great for _Ezra_ I consider further that _Ezra_, chap iv names _Cyrus_, *, _Darius_, _Ahasuerus_, and _Artaxerxes_, in continual order, as successors to one another, and these names agree to _Cyrus_, *, _Darius Hystaspis_, _Xerxes_, and _Artaxerxes Longimanus_, and to no other Kings of _Persia_ some take this _Artaxerxes_ to be not the Successor, but the Predecessor of _Darius Hystaspis_, not considering that in his Reign the _Jews_ were busy in building the City and the Wall, _Ezra_ iv 12 and by consequence had finished the Temple before _Ezra_ describes first how the people of the land hindered the building of the Temple all the days of _Cyrus_, and further, untill the Reign of _Darius_; and after the Temple was built, how they hindered the building of the city in the Reign of _Ahasuerus_ and _Artaxerxes_, and then returns back to the story of the Temple in the Reign of _Cyrus_ and _Darius_; and this is confirmed by comparing the book of _Ezra_ with the book of _Esdras_ for if in the book of _Ezra_ you omit the story of _Ahasuerus_ and _Artaxerxes_, and in that of _Esdras_ you omit the same story of _Artaxerxes_, and that of the three wise men, the two books will agree and t