Second advent library

44 mssanrniou on 'nmshould be broken, and be not a.people.Isaiah vii. 8. Sixty-live years from thattime, in the year B. C. 677, the ten tribes,including the tribe`of Ephraim,were carriedaway, and were never afterwards known asa nation: The sameyear Manasseh, kingof Judah, was carried in fetters to Babylon,and the power of Judah and Benjamin wasbroken, and the Gentiles exercised their authorityover them, and the kings of Judahonly reigned by suiferance, paying tribute toorBabylon, the kings of the earth, afterwards.See Lamentations ii. 9: "Her gatesare sunk into the ground: he hath destroyedand broken her bars: her king and herprinces are among the Gentiles : the law is nomore: her prophets find no vision from theLord." We see, by this, that the power ofthe holy people was already scattered amongthe Gentiles when Jeremiah wrote his.lamentations.But the sameprophet has toldusplainly when' this scattering of the holypeople began. Jeremiah xv. 4: "I willcause them (my people, verse 7,)to be removedinto all kingdoms of the earth,because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah,king of Judah, for that which he did inJerusalem." Here, then, the power of theholy people began to be scattered in the daysof Manasseh.Now if' we can find a fulfilment of thesethings in the history of Manasseh, we cannoterr. 2 Chronicles xxxiii. 9--11: "So Ma-