mercy on _Jerusalem_, and on the
cities of _Judah_, against which thou hast had indignation, these
threescore and ten years_, _Zech._ i. 7, 12. So then the ninth year of
_Zedekiah_, in which this indignation against _Jerusalem_ and the cities of
_Judah_ began, commenced with the month _Nisan_ in the year of _Nabonassar_
158; and the eleventh year of _Zedekiah_, and nineteenth of
_Nebuchadnezzar_, in which the city was taken and the Temple burnt,
commenced with the month _Nisan_ in the year of _Nabonassar_ 160, as above.

By all these characters the years of _Jehoiakim_, _Zedekiah_, and
_Nebuchadnezzar_, seem to be sufficiently determined, and thereby the
Chronology of the _Jews_ in the Old Testament is connected with that of
later times: for between the death of _Solomon_ and the ninth year of
_Zedekiah_ wherein _Nebuchadnezzar_ invaded _Judaea_, and began the Siege of
_Jerusalem_, there were 390 years, as is manifest both by the prophesy of
_Ezekiel_, chap. iv, and by summing up the years of the Kings of _Judah_;
and from the ninth year of _Zedekiah_ inclusively to the vulgar _AEra_ of
_Christ_, there were 590 years: and both these numbers, with half the Reign
of _Solomon_, make up a thousand years.

In the [378] end of the Reign of _Josiah_, _Anno Nabonass._ 139, _Pharaoh
Nechoh_, the successor of _Psammitichus_, came with a great army out of
_Egypt_ against the King of _Assyria_, and being denied passage through
_Judaea_, beat the _Jews_ at _Megiddo_ or _Magdolus_ before _Egypt_, slew
_Josiah_ their King, marched to _Carchemish_ or _Circutium_, a town of
_Mesopotamia_ upon _Euphrates_, and took it, possest himself of the cities
of _Syria_, sent for _Jehoahaz_ the new King of _Judah_ to _Riblah_ or
_Antioch_, deposed him there, made _Jehojakim_ King in the room of
_Josiah_, and put the Kingdom of _Judah_ to tribute: but the King of
_Assyria_ being in the mean time besieged and subdued, and _Nineveh_
destroyed by _Assuerus_ King of the _Medes_, and _Nebuchadnezzar_ King of
_Babylon_, and the conquerors being thereby entitled to the countries
belonging to the King of _Assyria_, they led their victorious armies
against the King of _Egypt_ who had seized part of them. For
_Nebuchadnezzar_, assisted [379] by _Astibares_, that is, by _Astivares_,
_Assuerus_, _Acksweres_, _Axeres_, or _Cy-Axeres_, King of the _Medes_, in
the [380] third year of _Jehoiakim_, came with an army of _Babylonians_,
_Medes_, _Syrians_, _Moabites_ a