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CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE PSALMS.

The following Table has been compiled chiefly from the valuable work of the Rev. G. Townsend, compared with the arrangement of
Calmet and others, and contains all that is known respecting the authors, occasions, and dates of the several Psalins.

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CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE PSALMS. (Continued.)

CH. XVI.-JEWISH HISTORY BETWEEN THE TIMES OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT.

MALACHI, the last of the ancient sacred prophets, foretold the advent of Jesus Christ, and the coming of his fore-runner John the Baptist, about four hundred years before those momentous events. A general idea of the state of the Jews, during the interval, from the best historical sources, must be desirable and important to every reader of the Bible: a few brief notices, therefore, of that period will be given in this chapter.

Nehemiah was contemporary with Malachi; but how long he lived at Jerusalem after his reformation of the religious and political affairs of the Jews we have no means of precisely ascertaining. After his decease, Judea appears to have been added to the prefecture of Syria, and it remained altogether subject to the Persian governor of that province, under whom the high-priest prescribed, and enforced such laws of general policy as he might think proper, or the state of things required. Even the high-priest himself, in some instances, was appointed by the governor.

Alexander the great, procuring himself to be chosen general of the Grecian forces against the Persians, defeated their army in Cilicia, under Darius their sovereign, B. c. 333. He then subdued all Syria and Phœnicia, and marched into Judea, to punish the Jews for supplying his enemies with provisions, while they refused such assistance to him. Jaddua, the high priest, hearing of his approach, called upon the people to unite with him in sacrifices and prayer, that God would avert the threatening calamity. Having humbled themselves before the Lord, it was communicated to Jaddua in a dream, that he should go and meet the conqueror, robed in his pontifical habits, and accompanied by all the priests in their sacerdotal garments. Attended by a numerous body of the people dressed in white, they thus marched in solemn procession to an eminence called Sapha, which commanded a view of the temple and of the whole city. The king approached, but was so struck

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