David, les Rois & les Prophètes
The Davidic Kingdom and the Temple
The establishment of the Davidic dynasty and the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem serve as a sacred foundation for the history of God's people.
David, the kings, and the prophets. Here, the people of God take on a more majestic form. The kingship is firmly established in the house of David. This house begins with two kings of different character, yet both are admirable. David, warlike and a conqueror, subdues the enemies of God's people and makes their arms feared throughout the East; and Solomon, renowned for his wisdom at home and abroad, makes this people happy through a deep peace. However, the course of religion requires us to make a few specific observations here regarding the lives of these two great kings.1 David reigned first over Judah, powerful and victorious, and afterward he was acknowledged by all Israel. He took from the Jebusites the fortress of Zion, which was the citadel of Jerusalem.✦ Master of this city, he established there, by God's order, the seat of the kingship and that of religion. Zion was his home; he built around it and named it the City of David.✦ Joab, his sister's son, built the rest of the city, and Jerusalem took on a new shape.✦ The people of Judah occupied the whole country, and Benjamin, few in number, stayed mixed in among them. The ark of the covenant built by Moses—where God rested upon the cherubim and where the two tablets of the Decalogue were kept—had no fixed place.✦ David brought it in triumph into Zion, which he had conquered with God's almighty help, so that God might reign in Zion and be recognized there as the protector of David, of Jerusalem, and of the whole kingdom. But the tabernacle where the people had served God in the desert was still at Gibeon, and it was there that sacrifices were offered on the altar Moses had raised.✦ This was only while they waited for a temple where the altar would be reunited with the ark, and where the entire service would be carried out. Once David had defeated all his enemies and pushed the conquests of God's people as far as the Euphrates, he turned his thoughts, peaceful and victorious, to establishing divine worship. On the same mountain where Abraham, about to sacrifice his only son, was held back by an angel's hand, he designated the place for the temple by God's command.✦ He made all the plans for it; he gathered the rich and precious materials for it; and he set aside for it the spoils of the conquered peoples and kings. But this temple, which was to be planned by the conqueror, was to be built by the Peaceful One.✦2 Solomon built it based on the model of the tabernacle. The altar of burnt offerings, the altar of incense, the golden lampstand, the tables of the bread of the Presence, and all the rest of the temple’s sacred furnishings were patterned after the similar pieces Moses had had made in the wilderness. Solomon only added magnificence and grandeur to it. The ark that the man of God had built was placed in the Holy of Holies—an inaccessible place, a symbol of God’s impenetrable majesty and of the heaven closed to human beings until Jesus Christ opened the way into it for them by his blood.✦3 On the day of the temple’s dedication, God appeared there in his majesty.✦ He chose this place to establish his name and his worship there.✦ It was forbidden to offer sacrifice anywhere else. The unity of God was demonstrated by the unity of his temple. Jerusalem became a holy city—an image of the Church, where God was to dwell as in his true temple, and of heaven, where he will make us forever happy by the manifestation of his glory. After Solomon built the temple, he also constructed a royal palace with architecture worthy of such a great prince. His pleasure house, known as the House of the Forest of Lebanon, was just as magnificent and delightful.✦4 The palace he built for the queen was a new ornament to Jerusalem.✦ Everything about these buildings was grand: the halls, vestibules, galleries, walkways, the king's throne, and the tribunal where he dispensed justice. He used only cedar wood for these projects.5 Everything there gleamed with gold and precious stones. Citizens and foreigners alike admired the majesty of the kings of Israel. Everything else matched this magnificence: the cities, the arsenals, the horses, the chariots, and the prince's guard.✦ Trade, navigation, and good order, combined with a deep peace, had made Jerusalem the richest city in the East. The kingdom was peaceful and abundant: everything in it represented the glory of heaven. In David’s battles, you could see the hard work required to earn that glory, and in Solomon’s reign, you could see how peaceful it was to enjoy it.6
The Promise of the Messiah
The Davidic line is chosen by God to be the vessel for the coming Messiah, whose eternal reign and suffering are foretold in the Psalms.
Furthermore, the rise of these two great kings and their royal family was the result of a specific election. David himself celebrates the wonder of this election in these words:7 .8 .9 etc.10 This divine election had a higher purpose than what first appears.11 This Messiah, so often promised as the son of Abraham, was also to be the son of David and of all the kings of Judah.✦ It was with the Messiah and his eternal reign in view that God promised David that his throne would stand forever. Solomon, chosen to succeed him, was destined to represent the person of the Messiah. That's why God says of him: I will be his father, and he will be my son—something he has never said with such force of any king, or of any man. So in the time of David, and under the kings who were his sons, the mystery of the Messiah is declared more than ever through magnificent prophecies, clearer than the sun. David saw him from afar and sang of him in his psalms with a magnificence that nothing will ever equal. He was often thinking only of celebrating the glory of his son Solomon, but all at once, carried out of himself and borne far beyond, he saw the one who is greater than Solomon in both glory and wisdom. [Ps.12 LXXI, 5, 14] The Messiah appeared to him seated on a throne more lasting than the sun and the moon.13 He saw at his feet all the nations conquered, and at the same time blessed in him, in keeping with the promise made to Abraham. He raised his gaze still higher: he saw him in the splendors of the holy ones, and before the dawn, [Ps.✦14 CIX] going forth eternally from his Father's bosom, an eternal high priest, and without a successor, himself succeeding no one either, appointed in an extraordinary way, not according to the order of Aaron, but according to the order of Melchizedek—a new order that the Law did not know.1516 He saw him seated at the right hand of God, looking down from the highest heavens on his enemies laid low.✦ He is astonished by such a great spectacle; and, enraptured by his son's glory, he calls him his Lord. He has seen him as God—the one God had anointed [Ps. XLIV, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. to make him reign over the whole earth by his gentleness, by his truth, and by his justice. In the spirit he has been present at God's counsel, and from the eternal Father's own mouth he has heard this word that the Father addresses to his only Son: "I have begotten you today," [Ps.✦ II, v. 7, 3.] To this, God adds the promise of an eternal empire that will extend over all the Gentiles and will have no bounds but those of the world itself. The peoples rage in vain; the kings and princes hatch useless plots [Ibid. v. 1, 2, through 9.]✦ . From the height of the heavens the Lord laughs at their senseless schemes, and despite them he establishes the empire of his Christ.✦✦ [Ibid. 10, etc.]✦ He establishes it over them themselves, and they must be the first subjects of this Christ whose yoke they wanted to throw off.✦ And even though the reign of this great Messiah is often foretold in the Scriptures using magnificent imagery, God did not hide from David the humiliations of this blessed fruit of his body.17 This instruction was necessary for the people of God. If this people, still weak, needed to be drawn by temporal promises, they still shouldn't have been left to view human greatness as their highest happiness and only reward; that is why God shows from afar this Messiah, so long promised and desired—the model of perfection and the object of His delight—plunged into sorrow. The cross appears to David as the true throne of this new king. . . etc. David, who had seen these things, recognized in seeing them that the kingdom of his son was not of this world.✦ He isn't astonished by this, for he knows that the world passes away; and a prince who was always so humble on the throne could see clearly that a throne was not a good in which his hopes ought to end.✦
The Prophetic Witness
The prophets of Israel provide a clear and detailed portrait of the Messiah's life, passion, and universal mission to the Gentiles.
The other prophets saw the mystery of the Messiah no less. There is nothing great or glorious that they haven't said about his reign. One sees Bethlehem, the smallest town of Judah, made illustrious by his birth; at the same time, looking higher, one sees another birth by which, from all eternity, he comes forth from his Father's bosom. Another sees the virginity of his mother, an Emmanuel—a God-with-us coming from that virginal womb—and a wonderful child whom he calls God. One person sees him enter his temple; another sees him glorious in his tomb, where death has been conquered. While they proclaim his magnificence, they don't stay silent about his disgrace. They saw him sold to his people; they knew the number and the use of the thirty pieces of silver for which he was bought. At the very moment they saw him great and exalted, they saw him despised and unrecognizable among men—the astonishment of the world as much for his lowliness as for his greatness; the last of men; the man of sorrows, laden with all our sins; doing good, yet unrecognized; disfigured by his wounds, and by them healing ours; treated as a criminal; led to execution with the wicked, and giving himself up, like an innocent lamb, peacefully to death: a long posterity born from him by this means, and vengeance poured out on his unbelieving people. So that nothing would be missing from the prophecy, they counted the years until his coming; and unless you deliberately blind yourself, there is no longer any way not to recognize him. The prophets didn't just see Jesus Christ; they were also his figure, and they represented his mysteries—above all the mystery of the cross. Almost all of them faced persecution for the sake of righteousness, and in their suffering, they showed us a picture of the innocence and truth that were persecuted in our Lord. We see Elijah and Elisha constantly under threat. How many times was Isaiah the laughingstock of the people and the kings, who, as the long-standing tradition of the Jews tells us, ultimately sacrificed him to their fury?✦18 Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, is stoned; Ezekiel is always seen in affliction; Jeremiah's sufferings are constant and beyond explanation; Daniel finds himself twice in the midst of lions. All of them were contradicted and mistreated; and all showed us by their example that if the weakness of the ancient people generally needed to be upheld by temporal blessings, still the strong of Israel, and men of extraordinary holiness, were already being fed the bread of affliction, and were drinking in advance—to sanctify themselves—from the cup prepared for the Son of God, a cup all the more filled with bitterness because the person of Jesus Christ was holier. But what the prophets saw most clearly, and what they declared in the most magnificent terms, is the blessing poured out on the Gentiles through the Messiah. . . Etc. He is described here even more clearly, with a distinctive character. A man of wonderful gentleness, uniquely chosen by God.✦19 . . Etc. That is how the Hebrews refer to Europe and the distant lands.20 He won't make any noise; people will barely hear him, he'll be so gentle and peaceful.✦ He will not trample a broken reed underfoot, nor snuff out a smoking remnant of burned flax.✦ Far from crushing the weak and sinners, his voice of charity will call to them, and his kind hand will support them. He will open the eyes of the blind and lead captives out of their prison.✦ His power will be no less than his goodness. It is his nature to combine gentleness with power; that is why this voice, so gentle, will travel in a moment from one end of the world to the other, and without stirring any unrest among people, it will rouse the whole earth.21 He is neither forbidding nor violent; and the one people barely knew when he was in Judea will not only be the foundation of the people's covenant, but also the light of all the Gentiles.✦ Under his wonderful reign, the Assyrians and the Egyptians will join the Israelites to form one single people of God.✦ Everything becomes Israel; everything becomes holy. Jerusalem is no longer a particular city: it is the image of a new society where all the peoples gather. Europe, Africa, and Asia receive preachers in whom God has set his sign, so that they may reveal his glory to the Gentiles.✦✦ The elect, previously called by the name of Israel, will have a new name marking the fulfillment of the promises, along with a blessed Amen.✦✦22 The priests and the Levites who until then came from Aaron will from then on come from among the Gentiles.✦ A new sacrifice, purer and more pleasing than the old ones, will be put in their place, and people will know why David had celebrated a high priest of a new order. .23 .24 etc.25 Heaven and earth will unite to bring forth, as by a shared giving birth, the one who will be at once heavenly and earthly. New ideas of virtue will appear to the world in his examples and in his teaching; and the grace he pours out will imprint them on hearts.✦ Everything changes with his coming, and God swears by himself that every knee will bow before him and every tongue will acknowledge his sovereign power. Here is part of the wonders God showed the prophets under the kings who were children of David, and to David before all the others. They all wrote in advance the history of the Son of God, who was also to be made the son of Abraham and of David. That is how everything is carried out in the order of the divine counsels. This Messiah, shown from afar as the son of Abraham, is shown still more nearly as the son of David. An eternal empire is promised to him: the knowledge of God spread throughout the universe is marked as the sure sign, and as the fruit, of his coming; the conversion of the Gentiles, and the blessing of all the peoples of the world promised so long ago to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, is confirmed once more, and the whole people of God lives in this expectation.✦✦
Judgment and Exile
God's justice is manifested through the division of the kingdom and the eventual destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Chaldeans.
Yet God continues to govern his people in a wonderful way. He makes a new covenant with David and binds himself to protect him and the kings who descend from him, provided they follow the precepts he gave them through Moses; otherwise, he warns them of severe punishment. David, who forgets himself for a little while, is the first to feel them: but having repaired his fault by his repentance, he is filled with blessings and held up as the model of a complete king.26 The throne is made firm in his house. As long as Solomon his son imitates his piety, he is prosperous; he goes astray in his old age, and God, who spares him for the love of his servant David, warns him that he will punish him in the person of his son. In this way, he shows fathers that, according to the secret order of his judgments, he makes their rewards or punishments last even after their death; he keeps them subject to his laws through their dearest interest—the interest of their family. In carrying out his decrees, Rehoboam, rash by his own nature, is given over to senseless counsel: his kingdom is reduced by ten tribes. While these ten rebellious and schismatic tribes separate themselves from their God and their king, the children of Judah, faithful to God and to David whom he had chosen, remain in the covenant and in the faith of Abraham. The Levites join them, along with Benjamin: the kingdom of God's people continues through their union under the name of the kingdom of Judah; and the law of Moses is upheld there in all its observances. Despite the idolatries and the dreadful corruption of the ten separated tribes, God remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. His law is not extinguished among these rebels: he never stops calling them back to repentance through countless miracles, and through the continual warnings he sends them by his prophets. Hardened in their crime, he can no longer bear them, and he drives them from the promised land, with no hope of ever being restored to it. Yet the story of Tobit, which took place in that same period and during the beginnings of the Israelites' captivity, shows us the conduct of God's elect who remained in the separated tribes.27 This holy man, while living among them before the captivity, managed not only to keep himself pure from his brothers' idolatries, but also to practice the law and worship God publicly in the temple of Jerusalem, without bad examples or fear stopping him. Captive and persecuted in Nineveh, he persisted in piety with his family; and the wonderful way he and his son are rewarded for their faith, even on earth, shows that despite captivity and persecution, God had secret means of making his servants feel the blessings of the law, while still raising them, through the evils they had to suffer, to higher thoughts. By Tobit's examples and by his holy warnings, those of Israel were stirred to recognize, at least under the rod, the hand of God who was chastising them; but almost all remained in their obstinacy: those of Judah, far from learning from Israel's punishments, imitate their bad examples.28 God never stops warning them through his prophets, whom he sends them one after another, waking in the night and rising early in the morning, as he himself says, to mark his fatherly care.✦ Rebuffed by their ingratitude, he is stirred against them and threatens to treat them just as he treated their rebellious brothers. There is nothing more remarkable in the history of God's people than this ministry of the prophets. You see men set apart from the rest of the people by a withdrawn life and by a distinctive dress: they have dwellings where they can be seen living in a kind of community, under a superior God gave them. Their poor and penitent life was the figure of the mortification that was to be announced under the Gospel. God communicated himself to them in a special way and made this marvelous communication blaze before the eyes of the people—but it never blazed with such force as in times of disorder, when it seemed idolatry was about to abolish God's law. During those unhappy times, the prophets made God's threats and their witness to his truth resound on every side, both aloud and in writing. The writings they produced were in the hands of all the people and carefully preserved for perpetual remembrance in ages to come. Those of the people who remained faithful to God joined themselves to them; and we even see that in Israel, where idolatry reigned, the faithful who were left celebrated with the prophets the Sabbath and the feasts established by the law of Moses. They were the ones who encouraged good people to stay firm in the covenant. Many of them suffered death; and, following their example, in the worst times—that is, even in the reign of Manasseh—a vast number of the faithful were seen to shed their blood for the truth, so that it was never without a witness for a single moment.✦ So the community of God's people always endured: the prophets remained in it; a great number of the faithful openly held firm to the law of God with them and with the priests, the sons of Zadok, who, as Ezekiel says, in times of going astray had always observed the ceremonies of the sanctuary.✦ Yet despite the prophets, despite the faithful priests, and the people united with them in observing the law, the idolatry that had ruined Israel often dragged into Judah itself both the princes and the bulk of the people.29 Though the kings forgot the God of their fathers, He long bore with their iniquities for the sake of His servant David.✦ David is always present before His eyes. When the kings who are sons of David follow their father's good examples, God works astonishing miracles in their favor; but when they degenerate, they feel the invincible force of His hand weighing upon them.✦ The kings of Egypt, the kings of Syria, and above all the kings of Assyria and Babylon serve as instruments of his vengeance. Impiety increases, and God raises up in the East a king prouder and more formidable than any who had appeared until then: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the most terrible of conquerors. He shows him from afar to the peoples and the kings as the avenger destined to punish them. He draws near, and terror marches before him. He takes Jerusalem a first time and carries part of its inhabitants off to Babylon. Neither those who remain in the land nor those who are carried away—though some are warned by Jeremiah and the others by Ezekiel—repent. They prefer other prophets to these holy ones—prophets who preach illusions to them and flatter them in their crimes. The avenger returns to Judea, and Jerusalem’s yoke is made heavier; but she isn't completely destroyed. Eventually, iniquity reaches its height; pride grows alongside weakness, and Nebuchadnezzar reduces everything to dust.✦ God did not spare his sanctuary. This beautiful temple, the ornament of the world, which was meant to last forever if the children of Israel had persevered in piety, was consumed by the fire of the Assyrians.30 It was in vain that the Jews kept repeating, "The temple of God, the temple of God, the temple of God is among us," as if that sacred temple alone should have protected them. God had resolved to show them that he wasn't bound to a building of stone, but that he wanted to find faithful hearts. So he destroyed the temple of Jerusalem; he gave its treasure over to plunder, and many rich vessels consecrated by pious kings were handed over to an impious king. But the fall of God's people was meant to be a lesson for the whole world. In the person of this king—impious and at the same time victorious—we see what conquerors really are. For the most part, they are nothing but instruments of divine vengeance. God carries out his justice through them, and then he carries it out on them as well. Nebuchadnezzar, clothed with divine power and made invincible by this office, punishes all the enemies of God's people. He ravages the Edomites, the Ammonites, and the Moabites; he overthrows the kings of Syria: Egypt, under whose power Judea had so often groaned, becomes the prey of this proud king and is made tributary to him: his power is no less fatal to Judea itself, which does not know how to make use of the delays God gives it. Everything falls; everything is struck down by divine justice, of which Nebuchadnezzar is the minister. He will fall in his turn, and God, who uses this prince's hand to chastise his children and strike down his enemies, reserves him for his own almighty hand. He didn't leave his children ignorant of the destiny of this king who was chastising them, or of the empire of the Chaldeans, under which they were to be captives. For fear that they would be taken aback by the glory of the wicked and their proud reign, the prophets announced to them how short it would last. Isaiah, who saw Nebuchadnezzar's glory and his mad pride long before his birth, predicted his sudden fall and that of his empire. Babylon was almost nothing when this prophet saw its power, and a little later, its ruin.
The Fall of Babylon and Restoration
The rise and fall of Babylon, as foretold by the prophets, leads to the liberation of the Jews and the restoration of the Temple under Cyrus.
So the upheavals of cities and empires that tormented God’s people, or profited from their ruin, were written in his prophecies. These oracles were followed by prompt fulfillment. The Jews, so harshly chastised, saw fall before them, or with them, or shortly afterward—just as their prophets predicted—not only Samaria, Idumea, Gaza, Ascalon, Damascus, and the cities of the Ammonites and Moabites, their perpetual enemies, but also the capitals of the great empires: Tyre, mistress of the sea; Tanis; Memphis; Thebes of a hundred gates, with all the riches of her Sesostris; Nineveh itself, the seat of the kings of Assyria, their persecutors; and proud Babylon, victorious over all the others and rich with their spoils.31 It's true that Jerusalem perished at the same time through her sins: but God did not leave her without hope. Isaiah, who had foretold her ruin, had seen her glorious restoration, and had even named Cyrus as her liberator two hundred years before he was born. Jeremiah, whose predictions had been so precise in marking out the certain ruin of that ungrateful people, had promised them their return after seventy years of captivity. During those years, this crushed people were still held in honor through their prophets, who pronounced terrible destinies to kings and nations.32 Nebuchadnezzar, who wanted to be worshipped himself, ended up worshipping Daniel, astonished by the divine secrets Daniel revealed to him; he learned from him the sentence that was soon followed by its execution.33 This victorious prince was triumphant in Babylon, which he turned into the greatest, strongest, and most beautiful city the sun had ever seen. It was there that God was waiting for him, to strike his pride with a thunderbolt. Happy and invulnerable, so to speak, at the head of his armies, and through the whole course of his conquests, he was to perish in his own house, according to Ezekiel's oracle. When he admires his own greatness and the beauty of Babylon, lifting himself above humanity, God strikes him, takes away his reason, and ranks him among the beasts. He returns at the time Daniel had marked and acknowledges the God of heaven who made him feel His power, but his successors don't learn from his example. Babylon’s affairs fall into confusion, and the time marked by the prophecies for the restoration of Judah arrives amid all these troubles. Cyrus appears at the head of the Medes and the Persians; everything yields to this formidable conqueror. He advances slowly toward the Chaldeans, and his march is often interrupted. News of his coming arrives from far off at long intervals, just as Jeremiah had predicted; at last, he resolves to act.34 Babylon, often threatened by the prophets and always proud and impenitent, sees its conqueror arrive—and scorns him. Its riches, its high walls, its countless people, its prodigious circuit—which enclosed a whole great country, as all the ancients attest—and its endless stores swell its heart with pride. Besieged for a long time without feeling any hardship, she laughs at her enemies and at the trenches Cyrus was digging around her: inside, people talk of nothing but feasts and celebrations. Her king, Belshazzar—grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, just as proud but less capable—throws a formal feast for all his lords. The feast is celebrated with unprecedented excess. Belshazzar has the sacred vessels taken from the temple of Jerusalem brought in, mixing profanation with luxury. The wrath of God breaks out: a heavenly hand writes terrible words on the wall of the hall where the feast was being held. Daniel interprets their meaning; and this prophet, who had foretold the grandfather's fatal fall, again shows the grandson the thunderbolt about to strike and crush him. Carrying out God's decree, Cyrus suddenly opens a way into Babylon. The Euphrates, diverted into the trenches he had been preparing for so long, lays bare its immense bed to him, and he enters by that unforeseen passage. So this proud Babylon was handed over as prey to the Medes, the Persians, and Cyrus, just as the prophets had said. With her, the kingdom of the Chaldeans perished, the very kingdom that had destroyed so many others, and the hammer that had shattered the whole world was itself shattered.✦ Jeremiah had indeed foretold this. The Lord broke the rod with which He had struck so many nations.✦ Isaiah had foreseen this. The peoples, long accustomed to the yoke of the Chaldean kings, now see them under the yoke themselves: 'There you are,' they said, 'wounded just like us.'✦ . . And so on.35 That is what Isaiah himself had declared. She falls, she falls—as the prophet said—this great Babylon, and her idols are smashed.✦ Bel is overthrown, and Nebo, his great god—from whom the kings took their name—falls to the ground: for the Persians, their enemies, worshipers of the sun, would not put up with either the idols or the kings who had been made into gods.✦36 But how did this Babylon perish? Just as the prophets had declared. Her waters were dried up, as Jeremiah had foretold, to open a path for her conqueror; drunk, asleep, and betrayed by her own joy—as the same prophet said—she found herself in her enemies’ power, caught in a net without even knowing it.✦✦ All her inhabitants are put to the sword: for the Medes, her conquerors, as Isaiah had said, sought neither gold nor silver, but vengeance—sought only to glut their hatred by the ruin of a cruel people whose pride had made them the enemy of every nation on earth.✦ Messengers came one after another to tell the king that the enemy was entering the city: Jeremiah had marked it out just so. Her astrologers, whom she trusted and who promised her an everlasting empire, couldn't save her from her conqueror. It is Isaiah and Jeremiah who announce it with one voice. In that dreadful slaughter, only the Jews, who had been warned long beforehand, escaped the victor’s sword. Cyrus, who had become master of the entire East through this conquest, recognized something divine—I don't know what—in this people who had been defeated so often.37 Struck with wonder by the oracles that had foretold his victories, he acknowledges that he owes his empire to the God of heaven whom the Jews served, and marks the first year of his reign by the restoration of His temple and His people.✦38 Who wouldn't marvel here at divine providence so clearly shown upon the Jews and the Chaldeans, upon Jerusalem and Babylon? God means to punish them both; and so that no one may fail to see that it is He alone who does it, He is pleased to declare it through a hundred prophecies. Jerusalem and Babylon, both threatened at the same time and by the same prophets, fall one after the other at the appointed time. But here God reveals the great secret of the two chastisements he uses: a severe chastisement on the Chaldeans; a fatherly chastisement on the Jews, who are his children.39 The pride of the Chaldeans (it was the character of the nation and the spirit of that whole empire) is cast down without return. .40 .41 etc.42 It is not so with the Jews: God has chastised them as disobedient children whom he brings back to their duty by chastisement, and then, moved by their tears, he forgets their faults. “Do not fear, Jacob,” says the Lord, “because I am with you.”✦ I will punish you with justice, and I won't pardon you as though you were innocent; but I will not destroy you as I will destroy the nations among whom I have scattered you.✦ That is why Babylon, taken forever from the Chaldeans, is handed over to another people; and Jerusalem, restored by a marvelous change, sees her children return from every side. It was Zerubbabel, from the tribe of Judah and of royal blood, who led them back from captivity. The people of Judah come back in crowds and fill the whole country. The ten dispersed tribes are lost among the Gentiles, except for those who, under the name of Judah and reunited under its banners, return to the land of their fathers. Meanwhile the altar is raised again, the temple is rebuilt, and the walls of Jerusalem are restored. The jealousy of the neighboring peoples is held in check by the kings of Persia, who have become the protectors of the people of God. The high priest returns to office with all the priests who proved their descent from the public registers; the others are rejected. Ezra, himself a priest and a teacher of the Law, and Nehemiah the governor reform all the abuses the captivity had introduced, and they see to it that the Law is kept in its purity. The people weep with them over the transgressions that had brought these great chastisements upon them, and they recognize that Moses had foretold them. Together, they all read the man of God’s warnings in the holy books; they see them fulfilled. Jeremiah’s oracle and the long-promised return after seventy years of captivity both astonish and console them. They revere God’s judgments, and, reconciled with Him, they live in peace.✦
The Final Prophecies
The final prophets, including Daniel, Zechariah, and Malachi, provide the concluding revelations regarding the timeline of the Messiah and the end of the prophetic age.
God, who does everything in his own time, chose this moment to end extraordinary means—the prophecies—among his people, who by then were sufficiently taught. About five hundred years still remained until the days of the Messiah. God gave it to the majesty of his Son to silence the prophets throughout this whole time, so as to keep his people waiting for the one who was to be the fulfillment of all their oracles.43 But toward the end of the times when God had resolved to put an end to the prophecies, it seemed he wanted to pour out all his light and uncover all the designs of his providence: so clearly did he express the secrets of the times to come. During the captivity, and especially toward the time when it was about to end, Daniel—revered for his piety even by the unbelieving kings, and employed for his prudence in the greatest affairs of their state—saw in succession, on several occasions and under different figures, four monarchies under which the Israelites were to live. He identifies them by their own distinctive traits. You see the empire of a Greek king rush past like a torrent: it was Alexander’s.✦ Through his fall you see another empire established, lesser than his and weakened by its divisions.✦ It is that of his successors, four of whom are highlighted in the prophecy.✦ Antipater, Seleucus, Ptolemy, and Antigonus are clearly designated. History confirms that they were more powerful than the others, and the only ones whose power was passed down to their children. You see their wars, their jealousies, and their deceitful alliances; the harshness and ambition of the kings of Syria; the pride and other marks that identify Antiochus the Illustrious, the implacable enemy of God's people; the brevity of his reign, and the swift punishment of his excesses.✦✦44 At last, toward the end and as if in the very bosom of these monarchies, one sees the reign of the Son of Man come to birth. You recognize Jesus Christ by that name; but this reign of the Son of Man is also called the reign of the saints of the Most High. All the peoples are subject to this great and peaceful kingdom: eternity is promised to it, and it is to be the only one whose power will not pass to another empire. When this Son of Man will come, and this long-desired Christ, and how he will accomplish the work entrusted to him—that is, the redemption of the human race—God makes plain to Daniel. While he is occupied with his people's captivity in Babylon and the seventy years God had set for it, he is suddenly lifted up to higher mysteries in the midst of his prayers for his brothers' deliverance. He sees another span of years and a far more important deliverance. Instead of the seventy years foretold by Jeremiah, he sees seventy weeks, beginning from the decree issued by Artaxerxes Longimanus in the twentieth year of his reign to rebuild the city of Jerusalem.45 At the end of these weeks, the remission of sins, the eternal reign of justice, the full fulfillment of the prophecies, and the anointing of the Most Holy are marked out in precise terms.✦46 The Christ must take up his charge and appear as leader of the people after sixty-nine weeks.✦ After sixty-nine weeks (as the prophet repeats), the Christ must be put to death; he must die a violent death and be sacrificed to accomplish the mysteries.✦ One week is set apart from the others—the last, the seventieth. It is the week in which the Christ will be sacrificed, the covenant will be confirmed, and in the middle of which the offering and the sacrifices will be abolished—no doubt by the death of the Christ, as this change is a direct consequence of his death.✦47 After the death of Christ and the end of the sacrifices, there is nothing to see but horror and confusion: the ruin of the holy city and the sanctuary; a people and a leader arriving to destroy everything; the abomination in the temple; and the final, irreparable desolation of a people ungrateful toward their Savior.✦ We have seen that these weeks, reduced to weeks of years according to the usage of Scripture, make 490 years, and lead us precisely from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes to the last week—a week full of mysteries in which Jesus Christ, offered in sacrifice, puts an end by his death to the sacrifices of the Law and fulfills their figures. Scholars use various calculations to make this time period fit exactly. The one I have proposed to you is free of difficulty. Far from obscuring the sequence of the history of the kings of Persia, it clarifies it; though there would be nothing very surprising if some uncertainty turned up in the dates of those princes, and eight or nine years at most that one might dispute over a reckoning of 490 years will never make an important question. But why discuss it any further? God has settled the difficulty, if there was one, with a decision that admits no argument. A plain event puts us above all the refinements of the chronologists; and the total ruin of the Jews, which followed so closely on the death of Our Lord, makes even the least clear-sighted grasp the fulfillment of the prophecy. All that remains is to bring one further circumstance to your attention. Daniel reveals a new mystery to us. Jacob's oracle had taught us that the kingdom of Judah was to end at the coming of the Messiah; but it did not tell us that this death would be the cause of that kingdom's fall.48 God revealed this important secret to Daniel, and as you see, he declares to him that the ruin of the Jews will follow from the death of Christ and from their failure to acknowledge him.4950 Please mark this passage carefully: the course of events will soon provide a fine commentary on it. You see what God showed the prophet Daniel shortly before Cyrus's victories and the restoration of the temple. While it was being built, he raised up the prophets Haggai and Zechariah; immediately afterward, he sent Malachi, who was to conclude the prophecies of the ancient people.51 What hasn't Zechariah seen? You'd think the book of divine decrees had been opened to this prophet, and that he'd read there the entire history of God's people since the captivity. The persecutions of the kings of Syria, and the wars they wage against Judah, are revealed to him in their whole course. He sees Jerusalem taken and sacked; a dreadful plundering and endless disorder; the people fleeing into the desert, uncertain of their condition, between death and life; and on the eve of their final desolation, a new light suddenly appears to him.52 The enemies are defeated; the idols are overthrown throughout the Holy Land; you see peace and abundance in the city and the country, and the temple is revered throughout the East. One memorable circumstance of these wars is revealed to the prophet: that Jerusalem was to be betrayed by her own children, and that among her enemies there would be many Jews. Sometimes he sees a long stretch of prosperity: Judah is filled with strength; the kingdoms that oppressed it are humbled; the neighbors who never stopped tormenting it are punished; some are converted and brought into the people of God. The prophet sees this people loaded with divine blessings, among which he counts for them the triumph—as modest as it is glorious—of the poor king.✦53 . . And so on.54 After recounting the prosperities, he takes up again from the beginning the whole succession of evils. Suddenly, he sees fire in the temple; the whole country ruined along with the capital city; murders, violence, and a king who authorizes them. God takes pity on his abandoned people: he becomes their shepherd himself, and his protection sustains them. In the end civil wars break out, and affairs go into decline. The time of this change is marked by a clear sign, and the deposition of three princes in the same month marks its beginning.55 In the midst of these disasters, an even greater one appears. A little after these divisions, and in the time of the decline, God is bought for thirty pieces of silver by his ungrateful people; and the prophet sees it all, down to the potter's—or sculptor's—field for which this money is spent.56 Extreme disorder among the shepherds of the people follows from this; eventually they are blinded, and their power is destroyed. What can I say about Zechariah's marvelous vision, which sees the shepherd struck and the sheep scattered?✦ What can I say of the look the people cast on their God, whom they have pierced, and of the tears a death more grievous than that of an only son—and more grievous even than Josiah's—makes them shed?✦✦ Zechariah saw all these things; but the greatest thing he saw is the Lord sent by the Lord. . . etc. Haggai says less, but what he does say is astonishing. While the second temple is being built, and the old men who had seen the first dissolve in tears as they compare the poverty of this later building with the magnificence of the other, the prophet, who sees farther, proclaims the glory of the second temple and prefers it to the first. He explains where the glory of this new house will come from: the Desired of the nations will arrive; this Messiah, promised for two thousand years—and from the beginning of the world as the Savior of the nations—will appear in this new temple.✦57 Peace will be established there; the whole universe, stirred, will bear witness to the coming of its Redeemer; there is only a little time left to wait for him, and the times appointed for that waiting are in their final period. At last the temple is finished and the victims are sacrificed there, but the greedy Jews offer defective offerings.58 Malachi, who rebukes them for it, is raised to a higher vision; and because of the Jews' unclean offerings, he sees the offering that is always pure and never defiled that will be presented to God—no longer only as formerly in the temple of Jerusalem, but from the rising of the sun to its setting; no longer by the Jews, but by the Gentiles, among whom he predicts that the name of God will be great.✦59 Like Haggai, he also sees the glory of the second temple and the Messiah who honors it with his presence—but at the same time, he sees that the Messiah is the God to whom this temple is dedicated. “I send my messenger,” says the Lord,✦60 .61 .62 and so on.✦63 An angel is a messenger, but this is a messenger of marvelous dignity: a messenger who has a temple; a messenger who is God, and who enters the temple as his own dwelling; a messenger desired by all the people, who comes to make a new covenant, and who for that reason is called the angel of the covenant, or of the testament.✦✦64 So it was in the second temple that this god sent from God was to appear; but another messenger goes before him and prepares his ways.✦65 There we see the Messiah preceded by his forerunner. The character of this forerunner is still revealed to the prophet. He is to be a new Elijah, marked by his holiness, the austerity of his life, his authority, and his zeal. So the last prophet of the ancient people identifies the first prophet who was to come after him—that is, this Elijah, the forerunner of the Lord who was to appear. Until that time, God’s people had no prophet left to wait for; the law of Moses was to be enough for them—and that is why Malachi ends with these words:66 .67 .68 Etc. To this law of Moses God had joined the prophets, who had spoken in agreement with it, and the history of God's people written by those same prophets, in which the promises and the threats of the law were confirmed by visible experiences. Everything was carefully written down and arranged chronologically; this is what God left for his people's instruction when he brought the prophecies to an end.
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David, les Rois, & les Prophètes.
Icy le peuple de Dieu prend une forme plus auguste. La royauté est affermie dans la maison de David. Cette maison commence par deux rois de caractere different, mais admirables tous deux. David belliqueux et conquerant subjugue les ennemis du peuple de Dieu, dont il fait craindre les armes par tout l’Orient ; et Salomon renommé par sa sagesse au dedans et au dehors, rend ce peuple heureux par une paix profonde. Mais la suite de la religion nous demande icy quelques remarques particulieres sur la vie de ces deux grands rois. David regna d’abord sur Juda, puissant et victorieux, et en suite il fut reconnu par tout Israël. Il prit sur les jebuséens la forteresse de Sion, qui estoit la citadelle de Jerusalem. Maistre de cette ville, il y établit par ordre de Dieu le siége de la royauté et celuy de la religion.
Sion fut sa demeure : il bastit autour, et la nomma la cité de David. Joab fils de sa soeur bastit le reste de la ville, et Jerusalem prit une nouvelle forme. Ceux de Juda occuperent tout le païs, et Benjamin petit en nombre, y demeura meslé avec eux. L’arche d’alliance bastie par Moïse, où Dieu reposoit sur les cherubins, et où les deux tables du décalogue estoient gardées, n’avoit point de place fixe. David la mena en triomphe dans Sion, qu’il avoit conquise par le tout-puissant secours de Dieu, afin que Dieu regnast dans Sion, et qu’il y fust reconnu comme le protecteur de David, de Jerusalem, et de tout le royaume. Mais le tabernacle où le peuple avoit servi Dieu dans le desert, estoit encore à Gabaon ; et c’estoit là que s’offroient les sacrifices sur l’autel que Moïse avoit élevé. Ce n’estoit qu’en attendant qu’il y eust un temple où l’autel fust réüni avec l’arche, et où se fist tout le service. Quand David eût défait tous ses ennemis, et qu’il eût poussé les conquestes du peuple de Dieu jusqu’à l’Euphrate : paisible et victorieux, il tourna toutes ses pensées à l’établissement du culte divin ; et sur la mesme montagne où Abraham prest à immoler son fils unique fut retenu par la main d’un ange, il désigna par ordre de Dieu le lieu du temple.
Il en fit tous les desseins ; il en amassa les riches et précieux materiaux ; il y destina les dépouïlles des peuples et des rois vaincus. Mais ce temple qui devoit estre disposé par le conquerant, devoit estre construit par le Pacifique. Salomon le bastit sur le modele du tabernacle. L’autel des holocaustes, l’autel des parfums, le chandelier d’or, les tables des pains de proposition, tout le reste des meubles sacrez du temple, fut pris sur des pieces semblables que Moïse avoit fait faire dans le desert. Salomon n’y ajousta que la magnificence et la grandeur. L’arche que l’homme de Dieu avoit construite fut posée dans le saint des saints, lieu inaccessible, symbole de l’impénetrable majesté de Dieu et du ciel interdit aux hommes jusqu’à ce que Jesus-Christ leur en eust ouvert l’entrée par son sang. Au jour de la dédicace du temple, Dieu y parut dans sa majesté. Il choisit ce lieu, pour y établir son nom et son culte.
Il y eût défense de sacrifier ailleurs. L’unité de Dieu fut démontrée par l’unité de son temple. Jérusalem devint une cité sainte, image de l’eglise, où Dieu devoit habiter comme dans son veritable temple, et du ciel, où il nous rendra éternellement heureux par la manifestation de sa gloire.
Aprés que Salomon eût basti le temple, il bastit encore le palais des rois dont l’architecture estoit digne d’un si grand prince. Sa maison de plaisance qu’on appella le bois du Liban estoit également superbe et délicieuse. Le palais qu’il éleva pour la reine fut une nouvelle décoration à Jérusalem. Tout estoit grand dans ces édifices ; les sales, les vestibules, les galeries, les promenoirs, le trône du roy, et le tribunal où il rendoit la justice : le cedre fut le seul bois qu’il employa dans ces ouvrages. Tout y reluisoit d’or et de pierreries. Les citoyens et les etrangers admiroient la majesté des rois d’Israël. Le reste répondoit à cette magnificence, les villes, les arsenaux, les chevaux, les chariots, la garde du prince. Le commerce, la navigation, et le bon ordre, avec une paix profonde, avoit rendu Jérusalem la plus riche ville de l’Orient.
Le royaume estoit tranquille et abondant : tout y representoit la gloire celeste. Dans les combats de David, on voyoit les travaux par lesquels il la falloit meriter ; et on voyoit dans le regne de Salomon combien la joûïssance en estoit paisible.
Au reste l’élevation de ces deux grands rois et de la famille royale fut l’effet d’une élection particuliere. David célebre luy-mesme la merveille de cette élection par ces paroles : . . . etc. Cette élection divine avoit un objet plus haut que celuy qui paroist d’abord. Ce messie tant de fois promis comme le fils d’Abraham, devoit aussi estre le fils de David et de tous les rois de Juda. Ce fut en veûë du messie et de son regne éternel que Dieu promit à David que son trône subsisteroit éternellement.
Salomon choisi pour luy succeder, estoit destiné à representer la personne du messie. C’est pourquoy Dieu dit de luy : je seray son pere, et il sera mon fils ; chose qu’il n’a jamais dite avec cette force d’aucun roy, ni d’aucun homme.
Aussi du temps de David, et sous les rois ses enfans, le mystere du messie se déclare-t-il plus que jamais par des propheties magnifiques et plus claires que le soleil.
David l’a veû de loin, et l’a chanté dans ses pseaumes avec une magnificence que rien n’égalera jamais. Souvent il ne pensoit qu’à célebrer la gloire de Salomon son fils ; et tout d’un coup ravi hors de luy-mesme, et transporté bien loin au-delà, il a veû celuy qui est plus que Salomon en gloire aussi-bien qu’en sagesse. [Psal. LXXI, 5, 14] Le messie luy a paru assis sur un trosne plus durable que le soleil et que la lune. Il a veû à ses pieds toutes les nations vaincuës, et ensemble benites en luy, conformément à la promesse faite à Abraham. Il a élevé sa veûë plus haut encore : il l’a veû dans les lumiéres des saints, et devant l’aurore, [Psal. CIX]sortant éternellement du sein de son pere, pontife éternel, et sans successeur, ne succedant aussi à personne, créé extraordinairement, non selon l’ordre d’Aaron, mais selon l’ordre de Meschisedec, ordre nouveau, que la loy ne connoissoit pas. Il l’a veû assis à la droite de Dieu, regardant du plus haut des cieux ses ennemis abbatus.
Il est étonné d’un si grand spectacle ; et ravi de la gloire de son fils, il l’appelle son Seigneur.
Il l’a veû Dieu, que Dieu avoit oint [Psal XLIV, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.] pour le faire regner sur toute la terre par sa douceur, par sa verité, et par sa justice. Il a assisté en esprit au conseil de Dieu, et a oûï de la propre bouche du pere eternel cette parole qu’il adresse à son fils unique, je t’ay engendré aujourd’huy, [Psal. II, v. 7, 3.] à laquelle Dieu joint la promesse d’un empire perpetuel, qui s’étendra sur tous les gentils, et n’aura point d’autres bornes que celles du monde. les peuples fremissent en vain : les rois et les princes font des complots inutiles [Ibid. v.
1, 2, à 9.] . le Seigneur se rit du haut des cieux de leurs projets insensez, et établit malgré eux l’empire de son Christ. [Ibid. 10, &c.] Il l’établit sur eux-mesmes, et il faut qu’ils soient les premiers sujets de ce Christ dont ils vouloient secoûër le joug. Et encore que le regne de ce grand messie soit souvent prédit dans les ecritures sous des idées magnifiques, Dieu n’a point caché à David les ignominies de ce beni fruit de ses entrailles. Cette instruction estoit necessaire au peuple de Dieu.
Si ce peuple encore infirme avoit besoin d’estre attiré par des promesses temporelles, il ne falloit pourtant pas luy laisser regarder les grandeurs humaines comme sa souveraine felicité, et comme son unique récompense : c’est pourquoy Dieu montre de loin ce messie tant promis et tant desiré, le modele de la perfection, et l’objet de ses complaisances, abismé dans la douleur. La croix paroist à David comme le trosne veritable de ce nouveau roy. . . etc. David qui a veû ces choses, a reconnu en les voyant, que le royaume de son fils n’estoit pas de ce monde. Il ne s’en étonne pas, car il sçait que le monde passe ; et un prince toûjours si humble sur le trosne voyoit bien qu’un trosne n’estoit pas un bien où se deussent terminer ses esperances. Les autres prophetes n’ont pas moins veû le mystere du messie.
Il n’y a rien de grand ni de glorieux qu’ils n’ayent dit de son regne. L’un voit Béthléem la plus petite ville de Juda illustrée par sa naissance ; et en mesme temps élevé plus haut, il voit une autre naissance par laquelle il sort de toute eternité du sein de son pere : l’autre voit la virginité de sa mere, un Emanuël, un Dieu avec nous sortir de ce sein virginal, et un enfant admirable qu’il appelle Dieu . Celuy-cy le voit entrer dans son temple , cét autre le voit glorieux dans son tombeau où la mort a esté vaincuë. En publiant ses magnificences, ils ne taisent pas ses opprobres. Ils l’ont veû vendu à son peuple , ils ont sceû le nombre et l’employ des trente pieces d’argent dont il a esté acheté . En mesme temps qu’ils l’ont veû grand et élevé , ils l’ont veû méprisé et méconnoissable au milieu des hommes ; l’étonnement du monde, autant par sa bassesse que par sa grandeur ; le dernier des hommes ; l’homme de douleurs chargé de tous nos pechez ; bien faisant, et méconnu ; défiguré par ses playes, et par là guerissant les nostres ; traité comme un criminel ; mené au supplice avec des méchans, et se livrant, comme un agneau innocent, paisiblement à la mort : une longue posterité naistre de luy par ce moyen, et la vengeance déployée sur son peuple incredule. Afin que rien ne manquast à la prophetie, ils ont compté les années jusqu’à sa venuë ; et à moins que de s’aveugler, il n’y a plus moyen de le méconnoistre. Non seulement les prophetes voyoient Jesus-Christ, mais encore ils en estoient la figure, et representoient ses mysteres, principalement celuy de la croix.
Presque tous, ils ont souffert persecution pour la justice, et nous ont figuré dans leurs souffrances l’innocence et la verité persecutée en nostre Seigneur. On voit Elie et Elisée toûjours menacez. Combien de fois Isaïe a-t-il esté la risée du peuple et des rois, qui à la fin, comme porte la tradition constante des juifs, l’ont immolé à leur fureur ? Zacharie fils de Joïada est lapidé : Ezechiel paroist toûjours dans l’affliction : les maux de Jéremie sont continuels, et inexplicables : Daniel se voit deux fois au milieu des lions. Tous ont esté contredits et maltraitez ; et tous nous ont fait voir par leur exemple, que si l’infirmité de l’ancien peuple demandoit en général d’estre soustenuë par des benedictions temporelles, néanmoins les forts d’Israël, et les hommes d’une sainteté extraordinaire estoient nourris deslors du pain d’affliction, et beuvoient par avance, pour se sanctifier, dans le calice préparé au fils de Dieu, calice d’autant plus rempli d’amertume, que la personne de Jesus-Christ estoit plus sainte. Mais ce que les prophetes ont veû le plus clairement, et ce qu’ils ont aussi déclaré dans les termes les plus magnifiques, c’est la benediction répanduë sur les gentils par le messie. . .
etc. Le voicy mieux décrit encore, et avec un caractere particulier. Un homme d’une douceur admirable, singulierement choisi de Dieu,. . . etc. c’est ainsi que les hebreux appellent l’Europe et les païs éloignez. il ne fera aucun bruit : à peine l’entendra-t-on, tant il sera doux et paisible.
il ne foulera pas aux pieds un roseau brisé, ni n’éteindra un reste fumant de toile brûlée . Loin d’accabler les infirmes et les pecheurs, sa voix charitable les appellera, et sa main bienfaisante sera leur soustien. il ouvrira les yeux des aveugles, et tirera les captifs de leur prison. sa puissance ne sera pas moindre que sa bonté. Son caractere essentiel est de joindre ensemble la douceur avec l’efficace : c’est pourquoy cette voix si douce passera en un moment d’une extrémité du monde à l’autre, et sans causer aucune sedition parmi les hommes, elle excitera toute la terre. il n’est ni rebutant, ni impetueux ; et celuy que l’on connoissoit à peine quand il estoit dans la Judée, ne sera pas seulement le fondement de l’alliance du peuple , mais encore la lumiere de tous les gentils . Sous son regne admirable les assyriens et les egyptiens ne seront plus avec les israëlites qu’un mesme peuple de Dieu . Tout devient Israël, tout devient saint.
Jerusalem n’est plus une ville particuliere : c’est l’image d’une nouvelle societé où tous les peuples se rassemblent : l’Europe, l’Afrique, et l’Asie reçoivent des prédicateurs dans lesquels Dieu a mis son signe, afin qu’ils découvrent sa gloire aux gentils . Les elûs jusques alors appellez du nom d’Israël, auront un autre nom où sera marqué l’accomplissement des promesses, et un amen bienheureux. les prestres et les levites qui jusqu’alors sortoient d’Aaron, sortiront doresnavant du milieu de la gentilité . Un nouveau sacrifice plus pur et plus agreable que les anciens sera substitué à leur place, et on sçaura pourquoy David avoit célebré un pontife d’un nouvel ordre. . . etc. Le ciel et la terre s’uniront pour produire comme par un commun enfantement celuy qui sera tout ensemble celeste et terrestre : de nouvelles idées de vertu paroistront au monde dans ses exemples et dans sa doctrine ; et la grace qu’il répandra les imprimera dans les coeurs.
Tout change par sa venuë, et Dieu jure par luy-mesme, que tout genouïl fléchira devant luy, et que toute langue reconnoistra sa souveraine puissance .
Voilà une partie des merveilles que Dieu a montrées aux prophetes sous les rois enfans de David, et à David avant tous les autres. Tous ont écrit par avance l’histoire du fils de Dieu, qui devoit aussi estre fait le fils d’Abraham et de David. C’est ainsi que tout est suivi dans l’ordre des conseils divins. Ce messie montré de loin, comme le fils d’Abraham, est encore montré de plus prés comme le fils de David. Un empire éternel luy est promis : la connoissance de Dieu répanduë par tout l’univers est marquée comme le signe certain, et comme le fruit de sa venuë : la conversion des gentils, et la benediction de tous les peuples du monde promise depuis si long-temps à Abraham, à Isaac, et à Jacob, est de nouveau confirmée, et tout le peuple de Dieu vit dans cette attente.
Cependant Dieu continuë à le gouverner d’une maniere admirable. Il fait un nouveau pacte avec David, et s’oblige de le proteger luy et les rois ses descendans, s’ils marchent dans les préceptes qu’il leur a donnez par Moïse ; sinon, il leur dénonce de rigoureux chastimens. David qui s’oublie pour un peu de temps, les éprouve le premier : mais ayant réparé sa faute par sa penitence, il est comblé de biens, et proposé comme le modele d’un roy accompli. Le trosne est affermi dans sa maison. Tant que Salomon son fils imite sa pieté, il est heureux : il s’égare dans sa vieillesse, et Dieu qui l’épargne pour l’amour de son serviteur David, luy dénonce qu’il le punira en la personne de son fils. Ainsi il fait voir aux peres, que selon l’ordre secret de ses jugemens, il fait durer aprés leur mort leurs récompenses ou leurs chastimens ; et il les tient soumis à ses loix par leur interest le plus cher, c’est à dire par l’interest de leur famille. En exécution de ses decrets, Roboam temeraire par luy-mesme, est livré à un conseil insensé : son royaume est diminué de dix tribus. Pendant que ces dix tribus rebelles et schismatiques se separent de leur Dieu et de leur roy, les enfans de Juda fideles à Dieu et à David qu’il avoit choisi, demeurent dans l’alliance et dans la foy d’Abraham.
Les levites se joignent à eux avec Benjamin : le royaume du peuple de Dieu subsiste par leur union sous le nom de royaume de Juda ; et la loy de Moïse s’y maintient dans toutes ses observances. Malgré les idolatries et la corruption effroyable des dix tribus separées, Dieu se souvient de son alliance avec Abraham, Isaac, et Jacob. Sa loy ne s’éteint pas parmi ces rebelles : il ne cesse de les rappeller à la penitence par des miracles innombrables, et par les continuels avertissemens qu’il leur envoye par ses prophetes. Endurcis dans leur crime, il ne les peut plus supporter, et les chasse de la terre promise, sans esperance d’y estre jamais rétablis. Cependant l’histoire de Tobie arrivée en ce mesme temps, et durant les commencemens de la captivité des israëlites, nous fait voir la conduite des eleûs de Dieu qui resterent dans les tribus separées. Ce saint homme, en demeurant parmi eux avant la captivité, sceût non seulement se conserver pur des idolatries de ses freres, mais encore pratiquer la loy, et adorer Dieu publiquement dans le temple de Jerusalem, sans que les mauvais exemples, ni la crainte l’en empeschassent. Captif et persecuté à Ninive, il persista dans la pieté avec sa famille ; et la maniere admirable dont luy et son fils sont récompensez de leur foy, mesme sur la terre, montre que malgré la captivité et la persecution, Dieu avoit des moyens secrets de faire sentir à ses serviteurs les benedictions de la loy, en les élevant toutefois par les maux qu’ils avoient à souffrir à de plus hautes pensées. Par les exemples de Tobie et par ses saints avertissemens, ceux d’Israël estoient excitez à reconnoistre du moins sous la verge la main de Dieu qui les chastioit ; mais presque tous demeuroient dans l’obstination : ceux de Juda, loin de profiter des chastimens d’Israël, en imitent les mauvais exemples.
Dieu ne cesse de les avertir par ses prophetes, qu’il leur envoye coup sur coup, s’éveillant la nuit, et se levant dés le matin, comme il dit luy-mesme, pour marquer ses soins paternels. Rebuté de leur ingratitude, il s’émeut contre eux, et les menace de les traiter comme leurs freres rebelles. Il n’y a rien de plus remarquable dans l’histoire du peuple de Dieu, que ce ministere des prophetes. On voit des hommes separez du reste du peuple par une vie retirée, et par un habit particulier : ils ont des demeures, où on les voit vivre dans une espece de communauté, sous un superieur que Dieu leur donnoit. Leur vie pauvre et penitente estoit la figure de la mortification, qui devoit estre annoncée sous l’evangile. Dieu se communiquoit à eux d’une façon particuliere, et faisoit éclater aux yeux du peuple cette merveilleuse communication : mais jamais elle n’éclatoit avec tant de force que durant les temps de desordre où il sembloit que l’idolatrie alloit abolir la loy de Dieu. Durant ces temps malheureux les prophetes faisoient retentir de tous costez, et de vive voix, et par écrit, les menaces de Dieu, et le témoignage qu’ils rendoient à sa verité. Les écrits qu’ils faisoient estoient entre les mains de tout le peuple, et soigneusement conservez en memoire perpetuelle aux siécles futurs.
Ceux du peuple qui demeuroient fideles à Dieu, s’unissoient à eux ; et nous voyons mesme qu’en Israël où regnoit l’idolatrie, ce qu’il y avoit de fideles célebroit avec les prophetes le sabat et les festes établies par la loy de Moïse. C’estoit eux qui encourageoient les gens de bien à demeurer fermes dans l’alliance. Plusieurs d’eux ont souffert la mort ; et on a veû à leur exemple dans les temps les plus mauvais, c’est à dire dans le regne mesme de Manasses, une infinité de fideles répandre leur sang pour la verité, en sorte qu’elle n’a pas esté un seul moment sans témoignage. Ainsi la societé du peuple de Dieu subsistoit toûjours : les prophetes y demeuroient : un grand nombre de fideles persistoit hautement dans la loy de Dieu avec eux et avec les prestres enfans de Sadoc, qui , comme dit Ezéchiel, dans les temps d’égarement avoient toûjours observé les cérémonies du sanctuaire . Cependant, malgré les prophetes, malgré les prestres fideles, et le peuple uni avec eux dans l’observance de la loy, l’idolatrie qui avoit ruiné Israël entraisnoit souvent dans Juda mesme et les princes et le gros du peuple. Quoy-que les rois oubliassent le Dieu de leurs peres, il supporta long-temps leurs iniquitez à cause de David son serviteur. David est toûjours present à ses yeux. Quand les rois enfans de David suivent les bons exemples de leur pere, Dieu fait des miracles surprenans en leur faveur : mais ils sentent, quand ils dégénerent, la force invincible de sa main, qui s’appesantit sur eux.
Les rois d’Egypte, les rois de Syrie, et sur tout les rois d’Assyrie et de Babylone servent d’instrument à sa vengeance. L’impieté s’augmente, et Dieu suscite en Orient un roy plus superbe et plus redoutable que tous ceux qui avoient paru jusqu’alors : c’est Nabuchodonosor roy de Babylone, le plus terrible des conquerans. Il le montre de loin aux peuples et aux rois comme le vengeur destiné à les punir. Il approche, et la frayeur marche devant luy. Il prend une premiere fois Jérusalem, et transporte à Babylone une partie de ses habitans. Ni ceux qui restent dans le païs, ni ceux qui sont transportez, quoy-qu’avertis les uns par Jéremie, et les autres par Ezechiel, ne font penitence. Ils préferent à ces saints prophetes des prophetes qui leur preschoient des illusions , et les flatoient dans leurs crimes. Le vengeur revient en Judée, et le joug de Jérusalem est aggravé ; mais elle n’est pas tout-à-fait détruite.
Enfin l’iniquité vient à son comble ; l’orgueïl croist avec la foiblesse ; et Nabuchodonosor met tout en poudre.
Dieu n’épargna pas son sanctuaire. Ce beau temple, l’ornement du monde, qui devoit estre éternel si les enfans d’Israël eussent perseveré dans la pieté, fut consumé par le feu des assyriens. C’estoit en vain que les juifs disoient sans cesse, le temple de Dieu, le temple de Dieu, le temple de Dieu est parmi nous, comme si ce temple sacré eust deû les proteger tout seul. Dieu avoit résolu de leur faire voir qu’il n’estoit point attaché à un édifice de pierre, mais qu’il vouloit trouver des coeurs fideles. Ainsi il détruisit le temple de Jerusalem, il en donna le tresor au pillage ; et tant de riches vaisseaux consacrez par des rois pieux furent abandonnez à un roy impie. Mais la chute du peuple de Dieu devoit estre l’instruction de tout l’univers. Nous voyons en la personne de ce roy impie, et ensemble victorieux, ce que c’est que les conquerans. Ils ne sont pour la pluspart que des instrumens de la vengeance divine.
Dieu exerce par eux sa justice, et puis il l’exerce sur eux-mesmes. Nabuchodonosor revestu de la puissance divine, et rendu invincible par ce ministere, punit tous les ennemis du peuple de Dieu. Il ravage les iduméens, les ammonites, et les moabites ; il renverse les rois de Syrie : l’Egypte sous le pouvoir de laquelle la Judée avoit tant de fois gemi, est la proye de ce roy superbe, et luy devient tributaire : sa puissance n’est pas moins fatale à la Judée mesme, qui ne sçait pas profiter des delais que Dieu luy donne. Tout tombe, tout est abbatu par la justice divine, dont Nabuchodonosor est le ministre : il tombera à son tour, et Dieu qui employe la main de ce prince pour chastier ses enfans et abbatre ses ennemis, le réserve à sa propre main toute-puissante. Il n’a pas laissé ignorer à ses enfans la destinée de ce roy qui les chastioit, et de l’empire des chaldéens, sous lequel ils devoient estre captifs. De peur qu’ils ne fussent surpris de la gloire des impies, et de leur régne orgueïlleux, les prophetes leur en dénonçoient la courte durée. Isaïe qui a veû la gloire de Nabuchodonosor et son orgueïl insensé long-temps avant sa naissance, a prédit sa chute soudaine et celle de son empire. Babylone n’estoit presque rien, quand ce prophete a veû sa puissance, et un peu aprés, sa ruine.
Ainsi les révolutions des villes et des empires qui tourmentoient le peuple de Dieu, ou profitoient de sa perte, estoient écrites dans ses propheties. Ces oracles estoient suivis d’une prompte exécution : et les juifs si rudement chastiez, virent tomber avant eux, ou avec eux, ou un peu aprés, selon les prédictions de leurs prophetes, non seulement Samarie, Idumée, Gaza, Ascalon, Damas, les villes des ammonites et des moabites leurs perpetuels ennemis ; mais les capitales des grands empires, mais Tyr la maistresse de la mer, mais Tanis, mais Memphis, mais Thebe à cent portes avec toutes les richesses de son Sesostris, mais Ninive mesme le siége des rois d’Assyrie ses persecuteurs, mais la superbe Babylone victorieuse de toutes les autres, et riche de leurs dépouïlles.
Il est vray que Jérusalem perit en mesme temps par ses pechez : mais Dieu ne la laissa pas sans esperance. Isaïe qui avoit prédit sa perte, avoit veû son glorieux rétablissement, et luy avoit mesme nommé Cyrus son liberateur, deux cens ans avant qu’il fust né. Jéremie, dont les prédictions avoient esté si précises pour marquer à ce peuple ingrat sa perte certaine, luy avoit promis son retour aprés soixante et dix ans de captivité. Durant ces années ce peuple abbatu estoit respecté dans ses prophetes : ces captifs prononçoient aux rois, et aux peuples leurs terribles destinées. Nabuchodonosor, qui vouloit se faire adorer, adore luy-mesme Daniel, étonné des secrets divins qu’il luy découvroit : il apprend de luy sa sentence bientost suivie de l’exécution. Ce prince victorieux triomphoit dans Babylone, dont il fit la plus grande ville, la plus forte, et la plus belle que le soleil eust jamais veûë. C’estoit là que Dieu l’attendoit pour foudroyer son orgueïl. Heureux et invulnerable, pour ainsi parler, à la teste de ses armées, et durant tout le cours de ses conquestes, il devoit perir dans sa maison, selon l’oracle d’Ezechiel.
Lors qu’admirant sa grandeur, et la beauté de Babylone, il s’éleve au dessus de l’humanité, Dieu le frape, luy oste l’esprit, et le range parmi les bestes. Il revient au temps marqué par Daniel, et reconnoist le Dieu du ciel qui luy avoit fait sentir sa puissance : mais ses successeurs ne profitent pas de son exemple. Les affaires de Babylone se brouïllent, et le temps marqué par les propheties pour le rétablissement de Juda arrive parmi tous ces troubles. Cyrus paroist à la teste des medes, et des perses : tout cede à ce redoutable conquerant. Il s’avance lentement vers les chaldéens, et sa marche est souvent interrompuë. Les nouvelles de sa venuë viennent de loin à loin, comme avoit prédit Jéremie : enfin il se détermine. Babylone souvent menacée par les prophetes, et toûjours superbe et impenitente, voit arriver son vainqueur qu’elle méprise. Ses richesses, ses hautes murailles, son peuple innombrable, sa prodigieuse enceinte, qui enfermoit tout un grand païs, comme l’attestent tous les anciens, et ses provisions infinies luy enflent le coeur.
Assiégée durant un long-temps sans sentir aucune incommodité, elle se rit de ses ennemis, et des fossez que Cyrus creusoit autour d’elle : on n’y parle que de festins et de rejoûïssances. Son roy Baltazar petit-fils de Nabuchodonosor, aussi superbe que luy, mais moins habile, fait une feste solennelle à tous les seigneurs. Cette feste est célebrée avec des excés inoûïs. Baltazar fait apporter les vaisseaux sacrez enlevez du temple de Jerusalem, et mesle la profanation avec le luxe. La colere de Dieu se déclare : une main celeste écrit des paroles terribles sur la muraille de la salle où se faisoit le festin. Daniel en interprete le sens ; et ce prophete qui avoit prédit la chute funeste de l’ayeul, fait voir encore au petit-fils la foudre qui va partir pour l’accabler. En exécution du decret de Dieu, Cyrus se fait tout à coup une ouverture dans Babylone. L’Euphrate détourné dans les fossez qu’il luy préparoit depuis si long-temps, luy découvre son lit immense : il entre par ce passage impréveû.
Ainsi fut livrée en proye aux medes, et aux perses, et à Cyrus, comme avoient dit les prophetes, cette superbe Babylone . Ainsi perit avec elle le royaume des chaldéens, qui avoit détruit tant d’autres royaumes, et le marteau qui avoit brisé tout l’univers, fut brisé luy-mesme . Jéremie l’avoit bien prédit. Le Seigneur rompit la verge dont il avoit frapé tant de nations . Isaïe l’avoit préveû. Les peuples accoustumez au joug des rois chaldéens les voyent eux-mesmes sous le joug : vous voilà, dirent-ils, blessez comme nous ; . . .
etc. c’est ce qu’avoit prononcé le mesme Isaïe. elle tombe, elle tombe, comme l’avoit dit ce prophete, cette grande Babylone, et ses idoles sont brisées. Bel est renversé, et Nabo son grand dieu, d’où les rois prenoient leur nom, tombe par terre : car les perses leurs ennemis, adorateurs du soleil, ne souffroient point les idoles ni les rois qu’on avoit fait dieux. Mais comment perit cette Babylone ? Comme les prophetes l’avoient declaré. ses eaux furent dessechées, comme avoit prédit Jéremie, pour donner passage à son vainqueur : enyvrée, endormie, trahie par sa propre joye, selon le mesme prophete, elle se trouva au pouvoir de ses ennemis, et prise comme dans un filet sans le sçavoir . On passe tous ses habitans au fil de l’épée : car les medes ses vainqueurs, comme avoit dit Isaïe, ne cherchoient ni l’or, ni l’argent, mais la vengeance, mais à assouvir leur haine par la perte d’un peuple cruel, que son orgueïl faisoit l’ennemi de tous les peuples du monde.
les couriers venoient l’un sur l’autre annoncer au roy que l’ennemi entroit dans la ville : Jéremie l’avoit ainsi marqué. Ses astrologues, en qui elle croyoit, et qui luy promettoient un empire éternel, ne purent la sauver de son vainqueur . C’est Isaïe et Jéremie qui l’annoncent d’un commun accord. Dans cét effroyable carnage, les juifs avertis de loin échaperent seuls au glaive du victorieux. Cyrus devenu par cette conqueste le maistre de tout l’Orient, reconnoist dans ce peuple tant de fois vaincu je ne sçay quoy de divin. Ravi des oracles qui avoient prédit ses victoires, il avoûë qu’il doit son empire au dieu du ciel que les juifs servoient, et signale la premiere année de son regne par le rétablissement de son temple et de son peuple. Qui n’admireroit icy la providence divine si évidemment déclarée sur les juifs et sur les chaldéens, sur Jérusalem et sur Babylone ? Dieu les veut punir toutes deux ; et afin qu’on n’ignore pas que c’est luy seul qui le fait, il se plaist à le déclarer par cent propheties.
Jérusalem et Babylone, toutes deux menacées dans le mesme temps et par les mesmes prophetes, tombent l’une aprés l’autre dans le temps marqué. Mais Dieu découvre icy le grand secret des deux chastimens dont il se sert : un chastiment de rigueur sur les chaldéens ; un chastiment paternel sur les juifs qui sont ses enfans. L’orgueïl des chaldéens (c’estoit le caractere de la nation et l’esprit de tout cét empire) est abbatu sans retour. . . etc. Il n’en est pas ainsi des juifs : Dieu les a chastïez comme des enfans desobéïssans qu’il remet dans leur devoir par le chastiment, et puis touché de leurs larmes il oublie leurs fautes. ne crains point, ô Jacob, dit le Seigneur, parce que je suis avec toy.
Je te chastieray avec justice, et ne te pardonneray pas comme si tu estois innocent : mais je ne te détruiray pas comme je détruiray les nations parmi lesquelles je t’ay dispersé. c’est pourquoy Babylone ostée pour jamais aux chaldéens, est livrée à un autre peuple ; et Jérusalem rétablie par un changement merveilleux, voit revenir ses enfans de tous costez.
Ce fut Zorobabel de la tribu de Juda et du sang des rois qui les ramena de captivité. Ceux de Juda reviennent en foule, et remplissent tout le païs. Les dix tribus dispersées se perdent parmi les gentils, à la réserve de ceux qui sous le nom de Juda, et réünis sous ses étendars, rentrent dans la terre de leurs peres. Cependant l’autel se redresse, le temple se rebastit, les murailles de Jérusalem sont relevées. La jalousie des peuples voisins est réprimée par les rois de Perse devenus les protecteurs du peuple de Dieu. Le pontife rentre en exercice avec tous les prestres qui prouverent leur descendance par les registres publics : les autres sont rejettez. Esdras prestre luy-mesme et docteur de la loy, et Nehemias gouverneur réforment tous les abus que la captivité avoit introduits, et font garder la loy dans sa pureté. Le peuple pleure avec eux les transgressions qui luy avoient attiré ces grands chastimens, et reconnoist que Moïse les avoit prédits.
Tous ensemble lisent dans les saints livres les menaces de l’homme de Dieu : ils en voyent l’accomplissement : l’oracle de Jéremie, et le retour tant promis aprés les 70 ans de captivité, les étonne, et les console : ils adorent les jugemens de Dieu, et réconciliez avec luy, ils vivent en paix.
Dieu qui fait tout en son temps, avoit choisi celuy-cy pour faire cesser les voyes extraordinaires, c’est à dire les propheties, dans son peuple desormais assez instruit. Il restoit environ cinq cens ans jusques aux jours du messie. Dieu donna à la majesté de son fils de faire taire les prophetes durant tout ce temps, pour tenir son peuple en attente de celuy qui devoit estre l’accomplissement de tous leurs oracles. Mais vers la fin des temps où Dieu avoit résolu de mettre fin aux propheties, il sembloit qu’il vouloit répandre toutes ses lumieres, et découvrir tous les conseils de sa providence : tant il exprima clairement les secrets des temps à venir.
Durant la captivité, et sur tout vers les temps qu’elle alloit finir, Daniel réveré pour sa pieté, mesme par les rois infideles, et employé pour sa prudence aux plus grandes affaires de leur estat, vit par ordre, à diverses fois, et sous des figures differentes, quatre monarchies sous lesquelles devoient vivre les israëlites. Il les marque par leurs caracteres propres. On voit passer comme un torrent l’empire d’un roy des grecs : c’estoit celuy d’Alexandre. Par sa chute on voit établir un autre empire moindre que le sien, et affoibli par ses divisions. C’est celuy de ses successeurs, parmi lesquels il y en a quatre marquez dans la prophetie. Antipater, Seleucus, Ptolomée, et Antigonus sont visiblement désignez. Il est constant par l’histoire qu’ils furent plus puissans que les autres, et les seuls dont la puissance ait passé à leurs enfans. On voit leurs guerres, leurs jalousies, et leurs alliances trompeuses ; la dureté et l’ambition des rois de Syrie ; l’orgueïl, et les autres marques qui désignent Antiochus l’illustre, implacable ennemi du peuple de Dieu ; la brieveté de son regne, et la prompte punition de ses excés.
On voit naistre enfin sur la fin, et comme dans le sein de ces monarchies, le regne du fils de l’homme . A ce nom vous reconnoissez Jesus-Christ, mais ce regne du fils de l’homme est encore appellé le regne des saints du tres-haut . Tous les peuples sont soumis à ce grand et pacifique royaume : l’eternité luy est promise, et il doit estre le seul dont la puissance ne passera pas à un autre empire .
Quand viendra ce fils de l’homme, et ce Christ tant desiré, et comment il accomplira l’ouvrage qui luy est commis, c’est à dire la rédemption du genre humain, Dieu le découvre manifestement à Daniel. Pendant qu’il est occupé de la captivité de son peuple dans Babylone, et des soixante et dix ans dans lesquels Dieu avoit voulu la renfermer, au milieu des voeux qu’il fait pour la delivrance de ses freres, il est tout à coup élevé à des mysteres plus hauts. Il voit un autre nombre d’années, et une autre delivrance bien plus importante. Au lieu des septante années prédites par Jéremie, il voit septante semaines, à commencer depuis l’ordonnance donnée par Artaxerxe à la longue main la 20 année de son regne, pour rebastir la ville de Jérusalem. Là est marquée en termes précis, sur la fin de ces semaines, la rémission des pechez, le regne éternel de la justice, l’entier accomplissement des propheties, et l’onction du saint des saints. Le Christ doit faire sa charge, et paroistre comme conducteur du peuple aprés 69 semaines. Aprés 69 semaines (car le prophete le répete encore) le Christ doit estre mis à mort : il doit mourir de mort violente ; il faut qu’il soit immolé pour accomplir les mysteres. Une semaine est marquée entre les autres, et c’est la derniere et la soixante-dixiéme : c’est celle où le Christ sera immolé, où l’alliance sera confirmée, et au milieu de laquelle l’hostie et les sacrifices seront abolis ; sans doute, par la mort du Christ, car c’est en suite de la mort du Christ que ce changement est marqué.
aprés cette mort du Christ, et l’abolition des sacrifices, on ne voit plus qu’horreur et confusion : on voit la ruine de la cité sainte, et du sanctuaire ; un peuple et un capitaine qui vient pour tout perdre ; l’abomination dans le temple ; la derniere et irremediable desolation du peuple ingrat envers son sauveur. Nous avons veû que ces semaines réduites en semaines d’années, selon l’usage de l’ecriture, font 490 ans, et nous menent précisément depuis la 20 année d’Artaxerxe à la derniere semaine ; semaine pleine de mysteres où Jesus-Christ immolé met fin par sa mort aux sacrifices de la loy, et en accomplit les figures. Les doctes font de differentes supputations pour faire quadrer ce temps au juste. Celle que je vous ay proposée est sans embarras. Loin d’obscurcir la suite de l’histoire des rois de Perse, elle l’éclaircit ; quoy-qu’il n’y auroit rien de fort surprenant, quand il se trouveroit quelque incertitude dans les dates de ces princes, et huit ou neuf ans au plus dont on pourroit disputer sur un compte de 490 ans ne feront jamais une importante question. Mais pourquoy discourir davantage ? Dieu a tranché la difficulté, s’il y en avoit, par une décision qui ne souffre aucune replique. Un évenement manifeste nous met au dessus de tous les rafinemens des chronologistes ; et la ruine totale des juifs, qui a suivi de si prés la mort de Nostre Seigneur fait entendre aux moins clairvoyans l’accomplissement de la prophetie.
Il ne reste plus qu’à vous en faire remarquer une circonstance. Daniel nous découvre un nouveau mystere. L’oracle de Jacob nous avoit appris que le royaume de Juda devoit cesser à la venuë du messie : mais il ne nous disoit pas que cette mort seroit la cause de la chute de ce royaume. Dieu à révelé ce secret important à Daniel, et il luy déclare comme vous voyez, que la ruine des juifs sera la suite de la mort du Christ et de leur méconnoissance. Marquez s’il vous plaist cét endroit : la suite des évenemens vous en fera bientost un beau commentaire. Vous voyez ce que Dieu montra au prophete Daniel un peu devant les victoires de Cyrus, et le rétablissement du temple. Du temps qu’il se bastissoit, il suscita les prophetes Aggée et Zacharie ; et incontinent aprés il envoya Malachie qui devoit fermer les propheties de l’ancien peuple.
Que n’a pas veû Zacharie ? On diroit que le livre des decrets divins ait esté ouvert à ce prophete, et qu’il y ait leû toute l’histoire du peuple de Dieu depuis la captivité. Les persecutions des rois de Syrie, et les guerres qu’ils font à Juda, luy sont découvertes dans toute leur suite. Il voit Jérusalem prise, et saccagée ; un pillage effroyable, et des desordres infinis ; le peuple en fuite dans le desert, incertain de sa condition, entre la mort et la vie ; à la veille de sa derniere desolation, une nouvelle lumiere luy paroistre tout à coup. Les ennemis sont vaincus ; les idoles sont renversées dans toute la terre sainte : on voit la paix et l’abondance dans la ville et dans le païs, et le temple est réveré dans tout l’Orient. Une circonstance mémorable de ces guerres est révelée au prophete ; c’est que Jérusalem devoit estre trahie par ses enfans, et que parmi ses ennemis il se trouveroit beaucoup de juifs. Quelquefois il voit une longue suite de prosperitez : Juda est rempli de force ; les royaumes qui l’ont oppressé sont humiliez ; les voisins qui n’ont cessé de le tourmenter sont punis ; quelques-uns sont convertis, et incorporez au peuple de Dieu. Le prophete voit ce peuple comblé des bienfaits divins, parmi lesquels il leur conte le triomphe aussi modeste que glorieux du roy pauvre,.
. . etc. aprés avoir raconté les prosperitez, il reprend dés l’origine toute la suite des maux. Il voit tout d’un coup le feu dans le temple ; tout le païs ruiné avec la ville capitale ; des meurtres, des violences, un roy qui les autorise. Dieu a pitié de son peuple abandonné : il s’en rend luy-mesme le pasteur ; et sa protection le soustient. A la fin il s’allume des guerres civiles, et les affaires vont en décadence. Le temps de ce changement est désigné par un caractere certain, et trois princes dégradez en un mesme mois en marquent le commencement.
Au milieu de ces malheurs paroist encore un plus grand malheur. Un peu aprés ces divisions et dans les temps de la décadence, Dieu est acheté trente deniers par son peuple ingrat ; et le prophete voit tout, jusques au champ du potier ou du sculpteur auquel cét argent est employé. De là suivent d’extrémes desordres parmi les pasteurs du peuple ; enfin ils sont aveuglez, et leur puissance est détruite.
Que diray-je de la merveilleuse vision de Zacharie, qui voit le pasteur frapé et les brebis dispersées ? Que diray-je du regard que jette le peuple sur son Dieu qu’il a percé , et des larmes que luy fait verser une mort plus lamentable que celle d’un fils unique, et que celle de Josias ? Zacharie a veû toutes ces choses : mais ce qu’il a veû de plus grand, c’est le Seigneur envoyé par le Seigneur. . . etc.
Aggée dit moins de choses, mais ce qu’il dit est surprenant. Pendant qu’on bastit le second temple, et que les vieillards qui avoient veû le premier fondent en larmes en comparant la pauvreté de ce dernier édifice avec la magnificence de l’autre, le prophete qui voit plus loin, publie la gloire du second temple, et le préfere au premier. Il explique d’où viendra la gloire de cette nouvelle maison ; c’est que le desiré des gentils arrivera : ce messie promis depuis deux mille ans, et dés l’origine du monde, comme le sauveur des gentils, paroistra dans ce nouveau temple. la paix y sera établie ; tout l’univers émeû rendra témoignage à la venuë de son rédempteur ; il n’y a plus qu’un peu de temps à l’attendre, et les temps destinez à cette attente sont dans leur dernier periode. Enfin le temple s’acheve ; les victimes y sont immolées ; mais les juifs avares y offrent des hosties défecteuses. Malachie qui les en reprend, est élevé à une plus haute considération ; et à l’occasion des offrandes immondes des juifs, il voit l’offrande toûjours pure et jamais soüillée qui sera presentée à Dieu , non plus seulement comme autrefois dans le temple de Jérusalem, mais depuis le soleil levant jusqu’au couchant ; non plus par les juifs, mais par les gentils , parmi lesquels il prédit que le nom de Dieu sera grand .
Il voit aussi, comme Aggée, la gloire du second temple et le messie qui l’honore de sa presence : mais il voit en mesme temps que le messie est le Dieu à qui ce temple est dédié. j’envoye mon ange, dit le Seigneur,. . . etc. Un ange est un envoyé : mais voicy un envoyé d’une dignité merveilleuse ; un envoyé qui a un temple ; un envoyé qui est Dieu, et qui entre dans le temple comme dans sa propre demeure ; un envoyé desiré par tout le peuple, qui vient faire une nouvelle alliance, et qui est appellé pour cette raison, l’ange de l’alliance, ou du testament.
C’estoit donc dans le second temple que ce dieu envoyé de Dieu devoit paroistre : mais un autre envoyé précede, et luy prépare les voyes. Là nous voyons le messie précedé par son précurseur. Le caractere de ce précurseur est encore montré au prophete. Ce doit estre un nouvel Elie, remarquable par sa sainteté, par l’austerité de sa vie, par son autorité et par son zele. Ainsi le dernier prophete de l’ancien peuple marque le premier prophete qui devoit venir aprés luy, c’est à dire cét Elie , précurseur du Seigneur qui devoit paroistre. Jusqu’à ce temps le peuple de Dieu n’avoit point à attendre de prophete ; la loy de Moïse luy devoit suffire : et c’est pourquoy Malachie finit par ces mots,. . .
etc. A cette loy de Moïse, Dieu avoit joint les prophetes qui avoient parlé en conformité, et l’histoire du peuple de Dieu faite par les mesmes prophetes, dans laquelle estoient confirmées par des experiences visibles les promesses et les menaces de la loy. Tout estoit soigneusement écrit ; tout estoit digeré par l’ordre des temps ; et voilà ce que Dieu laissa pour l’instruction de son peuple, quand il fit cesser les propheties.
Scripture echoes
- ↩2Sam.5.6-2Sam.5.9 — The king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land. And they said to David, "You shall not come in here, unless you remove the blind and the lame," thinking, "David will not come in here." 2Sam.5.7 — David captured the stronghold of Zion — that is, the City of David. 2Sam.5.8 — David said on that day, 'Whoever strikes the Jebusites and reaches through the water shaft — and the lame and the blind, who are hated by David's soul' — therefore they say, 'The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.' 2Sam.5.9 — David settled in the stronghold and called it the City of David. And David built all around, from the Millo inward.
- ↩2Sam.5.7-2Sam.5.9;1Chr.11.5-1Chr.11.7 — David captured the stronghold of Zion — that is, the City of David. 2Sam.5.8 — David said on that day, 'Whoever strikes the Jebusites and reaches through the water shaft — and the lame and the blind, who are hated by David's soul' — therefore they say, 'The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.' 2Sam.5.9 — David settled in the stronghold and called it the City of David. And David built all around, from the Millo inward. 1Chr.11.5 — The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, "You shall not come in here." But David captured the stronghold of Zion — that is, the City of David. 1Chr.11.6 — And David said, "Whoever strikes the Jebusites first shall be chief and commander." And Joab son of Zeruiah went up first, and he became chief. 1Chr.11.7 — And David dwelt in the stronghold; therefore they called it the City of David.
- ↩1Chr.11.6-1Chr.11.8 — And David said, "Whoever strikes the Jebusites first shall be chief and commander." And Joab son of Zeruiah went up first, and he became chief. 1Chr.11.7 — And David dwelt in the stronghold; therefore they called it the City of David. 1Chr.11.8 — He built the city all around, from the Millo to the surrounding area, and Joab restored the rest of the city.
- ↩Exod.25.10-Exod.25.22;Deut.10.1-Deut.10.5 — They shall make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits in length, a cubit and a half in breadth, and a cubit and a half in height. Exod.25.11 — And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make on it a gold molding round about. Exod.25.12 — And you shall cast for it four rings of gold, and place them on its four feet; two rings on one side of it, and two rings on its other side. Exod.25.13 — And you shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. Exod.25.14 — And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, that the ark may be carried with them. Exod.25.15 — The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it. Exod.25.16 — You shall place into the ark the testimony that I will give you. Exod.25.17 — You shall make an atonement cover of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. Exod.25.18 — And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them, at the two ends of the mercy seat. Exod.25.19 — And make one cherub from one end and one cherub from the other end; from the mercy seat you shall make the cherubim on its two ends. Exod.25.20 — The cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall be toward one another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. Exod.25.21 — You shall place the mercy seat on top of the ark, and into the ark you shall put the testimony that I will give you. Exod.25.22 — And I will meet with you there, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the testimony, all that I will command you concerning the people of Israel. Deut.10.1 — At that time the LORD said to me, 'Cut for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones, and come up to me on the mountain, and make for yourself an ark of wood.' Deut.10.2 — And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark. Deut.10.3 — So I made an ark of acacia wood and hewn two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. Deut.10.4 — And He wrote on the tablets, according to the first writing, the ten commandments that the LORD spoke to you from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the LORD gave them to me. Deut.10.5 — Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and I placed the tablets in the ark that I had made, and they have been there, just as the LORD commanded me.
- ↩1Chr.16.39-1Chr.16.40;1Kgs.3.4 — And Zadok the priest and his brother priests served before the tabernacle of the LORD at the high place in Gibeon, 1Chr.16.40 — to offer burnt offerings to the LORD upon the altar of burnt offering continually, morning and evening, and according to all that is written in the Torah of the LORD that he commanded Israel. 1Kgs.3.4 — And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. A thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar.
- ↩Gen.22.1-Gen.22.14;2Chr.3.1 — After these things, God tested Abraham. And He said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." Gen.22.2 — And He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you." Gen.22.3 — And Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took his two young men with him, and Isaac his son, and he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and he arose and went to the place that God had told him. Gen.22.4 — On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from a distance. Gen.22.5 — Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey, while I and the lad will go over there. We will worship and then return to you." Gen.22.6 — Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took in his hand the fire and the knife. And the two of them walked on together. Gen.22.7 — And Isaac said to Abraham his father, and he said, 'My father.' And he said, 'Here I am, my son.' And he said, 'Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?' Gen.22.8 — And Abraham said, 'God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. And the two of them walked on together. Gen.22.9 — And they came to the place that God had told him about. There Abraham built the altar and arranged the wood. Then he bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Gen.22.10 — And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. Gen.22.11 — But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, 'Abraham, Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' Gen.22.12 — He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy, and do not do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, and you have not withheld your son, your only one, from Me." Gen.22.13 — And Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, a ram, afterward, caught in the thicket by its horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. Gen.22.14 — Abraham called the name of that place 'The LORD Will Be Seen,' as it is said to this day, 'On the mountain the LORD will be seen.' 2Chr.3.1 — Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had prepared at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
- ↩1Chr.22.7-1Chr.22.10 — David said to Solomon, "My son, it was in my heart to build a house for the name of the LORD my God." 1Chr.22.8 — But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 'You have shed blood in great quantities and have fought great wars; you shall not build a house for my name, for you have shed much blood on the earth before me.' 1Chr.22.9 — Behold, a son shall be born to you; he shall be a man of rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. For Solomon shall be his name, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. 1Chr.22.10 — He shall build a house for my name, and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.
- ↩Heb.9.11-Heb.9.12 — But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come, through the greater and more perfect tent—not made with hands, that is, not of this creation— Heb.9.12 — Neither through the blood of goats and bulls, but through his own blood he entered once for all into the holy places, having obtained eternal redemption.
- ↩1Kgs.8.10-1Kgs.8.11;2Chr.5.13-2Chr.5.14 — And it came to pass, when the priests went out from the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD. 1Kgs.8.11 — And the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD. 2Chr.5.13 — and when the trumpeters and singers were as one, making one voice heard to praise and give thanks to the LORD, and when they lifted up their voice with trumpets and cymbals and instruments of song, praising the LORD, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever," then the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, 2Chr.5.14 — so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.
- ↩Deut.12.5;1Kgs.8.16-1Kgs.8.20 — But only to the place that the LORD your God will choose, from among all your tribes, to set His name there as His dwelling place—you shall seek it out and go there. 1Kgs.8.16 — From the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city from all the tribes of Israel to build a house for my name to be there; but I chose David to be over my people Israel. 1Kgs.8.17 — And it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. 1Kgs.8.18 — But the LORD said to David my father, 'Because it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. 1Kgs.8.19 — But you shall not build the house; rather, your son who comes forth from your body—he shall build the house for my name. 1Kgs.8.20 — The LORD has fulfilled his promise that he spoke. I have risen up in place of my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
- ↩1Kgs.7.2 — He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon: one hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high, on four rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams on the pillars.
- ↩1Kgs.7.8 — His own house, where he dwelt, had a second court inside the portico, made like this one. And he built a house for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Solomon had taken in marriage, like this portico.
- ↩1Kgs.10.26-1Kgs.10.29 — Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. 1Kgs.10.27 — The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, and he made cedars as abundant as the sycamore trees in the lowlands. 1Kgs.10.28 — Solomon's horses were brought out of Egypt; the king's merchants received them from Kue at a price. 1Kgs.10.29 — A chariot went up and went out from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for fifty and one hundred; and so it was for all the kings of the Hittites and for the kings of Syria — through their agents they were exported.
- ↩Matt.1.1 — The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
- ↩Ps.110.3 — Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy splendor; from the womb of the dawn the dew of your youth will be yours.
- ↩Ps.110.1 — The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool."
- ↩Ps.2.7 — I will tell of the decree. The LORD said to me, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
- ↩Ps.2.1-Ps.2.9 — Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain? Ps.2.2 — The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed. Ps.2.3 — Let us break their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. Ps.2.4 — He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Ps.2.5 — Then he will speak to them in his anger, and in his burning wrath he will terrify them. Ps.2.6 — But I have installed my king on Zion, my holy hill. Ps.2.7 — I will tell of the decree. The LORD said to me, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ps.2.8 — Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. Ps.2.9 — You will shatter them with a rod of iron; like a potter's vessel you will dash them to pieces.
- ↩Ps.2.4 — He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
- ↩Ps.2.6-Ps.2.8 — But I have installed my king on Zion, my holy hill. Ps.2.7 — I will tell of the decree. The LORD said to me, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ps.2.8 — Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.
- ↩Ps.2.10 — And now, O kings, be wise; be warned, O judges of the earth.
- ↩Ps.2.3 — Let us break their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.
- ↩John.18.36 — Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from there."
- ↩1John.2.17 — And the world is passing away, and its desire; but the one who does the will of God remains forever.
- ↩Heb.11.37 — They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, mistreated—
- ↩Isa.42.1 — Behold, my servant, I uphold him; my chosen one, my soul delights in him. I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.
- ↩Isa.42.2 — He will not cry out or raise his voice, nor will he make it heard in the street.
- ↩Isa.42.3 — A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will bring forth justice to truth.
- ↩Isa.42.7;Isa.61.1 — to open eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoner from the dungeon, from the house of confinement those who sit in darkness Isa.61.1 — The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and release to prisoners.
- ↩Isa.49.6;Isa.42.6;Luke.2.32;Acts.13.47 — And he said, "It is too light a thing for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." Isa.42.6 — I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness, and I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations. Luke.2.32 — a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel. Acts.13.47 — For so the Lord has commanded us: 'I have placed you as a light for the nations, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'
- ↩Isa.19.23-Isa.19.25 — On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and Egypt will serve alongside Assyria. Isa.19.24 — On that day Israel will be a third, with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth. Isa.19.25 — whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, "Blessed be my people, Egypt, and the work of my hands, Assyria, and my inheritance, Israel."
- ↩Isa.49.6 — And he said, "It is too light a thing for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."
- ↩Isa.2.2-Isa.2.3 — And it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established at the top of the mountains, and lifted up above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. Isa.2.3 — Many peoples will go and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
- ↩Isa.62.2;Rev.2.17 — The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; and you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will designate. Rev.2.17 — The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written that no one knows except the one who receives it.
- ↩2Cor.1.20 — For all the promises of God find their Yes in him; therefore through him we also say the Amen to the glory of God through us.
- ↩Isa.66.21 — And also from among them I will take priests and Levites, says the LORD.
- ↩John.1.14;1Cor.15.47-1Cor.15.49 — And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 1Cor.15.47 — The first human was from the earth, made of dust; the second human is from heaven." This harmonizes with v.21 while preserving Adam-Christ representation. 1Cor.15.48 — As was the one made of dust, so also are those made of dust; and as is the heavenly one, so also are those who are heavenly. 1Cor.15.49 — And just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we will also bear the image of the heavenly one.
- ↩Isa.11.9;Hab.2.14 — They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. Hab.2.14 — For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
- ↩Gen.12.3 — And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
- ↩Jer.7.13 — And now, because you have done all these deeds—declares the LORD—and I spoke to you, rising early and speaking, but you did not listen; and I called you, but you did not answer.
- ↩2Kgs.21.16;Heb.11.37 — And Manasseh also shed very much innocent blood, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to end, besides his sin by which he made Judah to do evil in the sight of the LORD. Heb.11.37 — They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, mistreated—
- ↩Ezek.44.15 — But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me — they shall come near to me to minister to me, and they shall stand before me to offer me fat and blood, declares the Lord GOD.
- ↩1Kgs.11.12-1Kgs.11.13;2Kgs.8.19 — But in your days I will not do it, for the sake of David your father; from the hand of your son I will tear it away. 1Kgs.11.13 — Yet I will not tear away the whole kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. 2Kgs.8.19 — Yet the LORD was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant, just as he had promised him — to give a lamp to his sons all the days.
- ↩1Sam.5.6;Ps.32.4 — But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon the Ashdodites, and He terrified them, and He struck them with tumors—Ashdod and its territories. Ps.32.4 — For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as by the heat of summer. Selah.
- ↩Gen.15.16;Matt.23.32 — but the fourth generation will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. Matt.23.32 — And you, fill up the measure of your fathers.
- ↩Jer.50.23 — How the hammer of the whole earth is cut apart and shattered! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!
- ↩Isa.14.5-Isa.14.6 — The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers. Isa.14.6 — He who struck the peoples in wrath — a blow that did not relent — who ruled the nations in anger, pursuing without restraint.
- ↩Isa.14.10 — All of them will answer and say to you, 'You too have become weak as we are; you have become like us.'
- ↩Isa.21.9;Rev.14.8 — And behold, here comes a chariot with a rider, a pair of horsemen. And he answered and said, ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the carved images of her gods he has shattered to the ground.’ Rev.14.8 — And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality.'
- ↩Isa.46.1 — Bel bows down; Nebo stoops. Their idols are loaded onto beasts and cattle; what you carry is a burden, a weary weight.
- ↩Jer.50.38 — A drought upon her waters, and they will dry up; for it is a land of idols, and in their terrors they rave.
- ↩Jer.51.39 — When they are heated, I will set their feast and make them drunk, so that they may rejoice and sleep an eternal sleep and never wake up — declares the LORD.
- ↩Isa.13.17 — Behold, I am stirring up against them the Medes, who will not regard silver, and gold they will not desire.
- ↩Ezra.1.1-Ezra.1.3;2Chr.36.22-2Chr.36.23 — In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order that the word of the LORD might be fulfilled from the mouth of Jeremiah, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing, saying— Ezra.1.2 — Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD, the God of heaven, has given me, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Ezra.1.3 — 'Whoever among you belongs to all his people, may his God be with him. Let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the LORD, the God of Israel; he is the God who is in Jerusalem.' 2Chr.36.22 — In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, 2Chr.36.23 — Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD, the God of heaven, has given me, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people — the LORD his God be with him — let him go up.
- ↩Jer.30.10-Jer.30.11 — But as for you, do not fear, my servant Jacob, declares the LORD, and do not be dismayed, Israel, for behold, I am saving you from far away and your offspring from the land of their captivity. And Jacob will return and be quiet and at ease, and no one will make him afraid. Jer.30.11 — "For I am with you," declares the LORD, "to save you. For I will bring a complete end upon all the nations where I have scattered you, but I will not bring a complete end upon you. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will not leave you unpunished."
- ↩Jer.30.11 — "For I am with you," declares the LORD, "to save you. For I will bring a complete end upon all the nations where I have scattered you, but I will not bring a complete end upon you. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will not leave you unpunished."
- ↩Jer.25.11-Jer.25.12 — And this whole land shall become a ruin and a desolation, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Jer.25.12 — And when seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, declares the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it desolate forever.
- ↩Dan.8.5-Dan.8.8 — And I was considering, and behold, a male goat was coming from the west over the face of the whole earth, and it was not touching the ground; and the goat had a conspicuous horn between its eyes. Dan.8.6 — And it came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing before the canal, and it charged toward it in the fury of its power. Dan.8.7 — And I saw it approaching the ram, and it raged against it, and struck the ram, and broke its two horns. And there was no power in the ram to stand before it, and it threw it to the ground and trampled it, and there was no one to deliver the ram from its hand. Dan.8.8 — And the male goat grew exceedingly great; but when it had grown strong, the great horn was broken, and four notable horns came up in its place toward the four winds of heaven.
- ↩Dan.8.8 — And the male goat grew exceedingly great; but when it had grown strong, the great horn was broken, and four notable horns came up in its place toward the four winds of heaven.
- ↩Dan.8.8 — And the male goat grew exceedingly great; but when it had grown strong, the great horn was broken, and four notable horns came up in its place toward the four winds of heaven.
- ↩Dan.8.9-Dan.8.14 — And from one of them came a small horn, and it grew exceedingly toward the south and toward the east and toward the glorious land. Dan.8.10 — And it grew great, even to the host of heaven, and it cast down to the ground some of the host and some of the stars, and trampled them. Dan.8.11 — And even to the Prince of the host it was great, and from him the continual offering was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. Dan.8.12 — And a host was given over, because of transgression, against the continual offering; and truth was cast down to the ground, and it acted and prospered. Dan.8.13 — Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who was speaking, 'How long will the vision of the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation last, when both the sanctuary and the host are given over to be trampled?' Dan.8.14 — He said to me, "Until evening and morning — two thousand three hundred — then the sanctuary will be restored to its rightful state."
- ↩Dan.8.25 — And through his cunning he shall cause deceit to prosper in his hand, and in his heart he shall magnify himself, and in security he shall destroy many; and against princes he shall stand, and he shall be broken—but not by human hand.
- ↩Dan.9.24 — Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city: to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.
- ↩Dan.9.25 — Know and understand: from the going out of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. And for sixty-two weeks it shall be rebuilt, with plaza and moat, but in a time of distress.
- ↩Dan.9.26 — And after the sixty-two weeks, the anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the city and the sanctuary shall be destroyed by the people of the prince who is to come. His end shall come in a flood, and until the end of the war, desolations are decreed.
- ↩Dan.9.27 — And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and offering to cease, and on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, and until the decreed end is poured out upon the desolator.
- ↩Dan.9.26-Dan.9.27 — And after the sixty-two weeks, the anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the city and the sanctuary shall be destroyed by the people of the prince who is to come. His end shall come in a flood, and until the end of the war, desolations are decreed. Dan.9.27 — And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and offering to cease, and on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, and until the decreed end is poured out upon the desolator.
- ↩Zech.9.9 — Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king comes to you; he is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
- ↩Zech.13.7 — Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me — declares the LORD of Hosts. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
- ↩Zech.12.10 — And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication; and they will look to me, the one they pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves bitterly for a firstborn.
- ↩Zech.12.10-Zech.12.11 — And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication; and they will look to me, the one they pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves bitterly for a firstborn. Zech.12.11 — On that day, the mourning in Jerusalem will be great, like the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo.
- ↩Hag.2.7 — I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts.
- ↩Mal.1.11 — For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.
- ↩Mal.3.1 — And See, I am sending my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight will come, says the LORD of Armies.
- ↩Mal.3.1 — And See, I am sending my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight will come, says the LORD of Armies.
- ↩Mal.3.1 — And See, I am sending my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight will come, says the LORD of Armies.
- ↩Mal.3.1 — And See, I am sending my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight will come, says the LORD of Armies.
- ↩Mal.3.1;Isa.40.3 — And See, I am sending my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight will come, says the LORD of Armies. Isa.40.3 — A voice calls: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God."
Notes
- 1 ↩« la suite de la religion » is Bossuet's program title for this part of the work (the continuing history of true religion), not 'religious life' in a monastic sense.
- 2 ↩« le Pacifique » is Solomon’s traditional title (from the root of peace / shalom), set against David as conqueror; capital P marks it as a proper epithet.
- 3 ↩« l’homme de Dieu » here is Moses, who had the ark constructed; Bossuet reads the closed sanctuary as a figure of heaven opened only by Christ’s blood (cf. Hebrews 9–10).
- 4 ↩« le bois du Liban » is the biblical House of the Forest of Lebanon (maison du Bois du Liban); rendered with the familiar scriptural name rather than a literal 'wood of Lebanon'.
- 5 ↩« sales » is the older spelling of « salles » (halls); « roy » is older spelling of « roi »; « cedre » of « cèdre ».
- 6 ↩French la / en point back to la gloire celeste in the previous sentence (heavenly glory figured in the kingdom), not merely to political prosperity.
- 7 ↩Source ends with a colon and period; the quoted words of David are missing from the supplied text (likely split into the empty s3–s5 slots).
- 8 ↩Source sentence is only a period; content appears lost (probably part of David’s missing quotation).
- 9 ↩Source sentence is only a period; content appears lost (probably part of David’s missing quotation).
- 10 ↩Source is an abbreviation closing what seems to have been a longer scriptural quotation now largely missing.
- 11 ↩French 'objet' here means the aim or end in view, not a material object; kept as 'object' for fidelity to Bossuet’s theological diction.
- 12 ↩Fragmentary parenthetical citation opener split across sentences in the source; paired with the Psalm number and verses in the next sentence.
- 13 ↩Citation continues the previous fragment: Vulgate Psalm 71 (Hebrew 72), verses 5 and 17-related durability imagery; source prints '5, 14'.
- 14 ↩'dans les lumiéres des saints' and 'devant l'aurore' track the Vulgate wording of Psalm 109 (Hebrew 110); the citation opener is again split, completed as CIX in the next sentence.
- 15 ↩French 'créé extraordinairement' is rendered as 'appointed in an extraordinary way' (office sense of créer), matching the contrast with Aaronic succession; if a stronger ontological reading is intended, prefer 'created in an extraordinary way'.
- 16 ↩Citation closer for Vulgate Psalm 109 (Hebrew 110), with Melchizedek priesthood developed in Hebrews 5–7.
- 17 ↩“Béni fruit de ses entrailles” is biblical offspring language (the blessed fruit of David’s own line); rendered as “blessed fruit of his body” rather than a flatter “descendant.”
- 18 ↩Bossuet cites Jewish tradition for Isaiah's martyrdom (often associated with being sawn asunder), not a narrative detail stated in the biblical text of Isaiah itself.
- 19 ↩French 'douceur' can mean gentleness, mildness, or sweetness; 'gentleness' best fits the quiet Messiah portrait continued in s8 and the next section.
- 20 ↩Bossuet is almost certainly glossing a Hebrew geographic term from the preceding (here ellipsed) prophecy—likely 'isles' / 'islands of the sea' as a conventional designation for far-off nations, including Europe.
- 21 ↩l'efficace is rendered as 'power' (effective force), not mere efficiency; it pairs with douceur as efficacy that actually works.
- 22 ↩« Amen bienheureux » kept as Amen (capitalized as a confessional seal of fulfilled promise), not flattened to a mere yes.
- 23 ↩Source sentence is only a bare period; no recoverable French clause to translate.
- 24 ↩Source sentence is only a bare period; no recoverable French clause to translate.
- 25 ↩Source is only the abbreviation « etc. »; likely a truncation or editorial remainder, not a full sentence.
- 26 ↩penitence rendered as repentance for modern register; the French covers the whole penitential repair of the fault, not a passing feeling of regret.
- 27 ↩French Tobie is rendered Tobit (the biblical figure/book); eleûs as elect preserves Bossuet's theological sense of God's chosen remnant.
- 28 ↩sous la verge rendered as under the rod, keeping the biblical image of corrective discipline rather than a bland under punishment.
- 29 ↩entraisnoit (modern entrainait): rendered as 'dragged into' to keep the force of being pulled along into idolatry.
- 30 ↩French 'assyriens' is retained as 'Assyrians'; in classical French usage this can loosely cover Mesopotamian imperial powers, though the destruction of Solomon's Temple is historically Babylonian (Nebuchadnezzar), as the neighboring sections also indicate.
- 31 ↩French anaphoric mais… mais… stacks a rising list after non seulement; rendered as an English dash-list after ‘but the capitals…’ to keep the cumulative force without archaic ‘yea’ or stiff parallelism.
- 32 ↩"estoit respecté dans ses prophetes" rendered as "held in honor through their prophets": the nation, though broken, still commanded respect in the persons of its captive prophets.
- 33 ↩"adore luy-mesme Daniel" keeps the deliberate irony of the French: the king who sought worship ends by bowing before the prophet (cf. Dan 2).
- 34 ↩« il se détermine » can mean he makes up his mind / finally commits to the campaign; rendered as deliberate resolve rather than mere arrival.
- 35 ↩Source is only the ellipsis marker « etc. », continuing the taunt of the nations from the previous section (1.4.35.s6).
- 36 ↩Source « Nabo » rendered as the usual English biblical form Nebo (Nabu); Bel is left as Bel.
- 37 ↩« je ne sçay quoy de divin » is kept as the author’s own hedge: an ineffable quality of the divine rather than a named doctrine.
- 38 ↩The second « son » in « son temple et de son peuple » refers to the God of heaven, not to Cyrus; rendered with capital His for clarity.
- 39 ↩chastiment de rigueur / chastiment paternel: rendered as severe vs. fatherly chastisement to preserve the contrast between judicial severity and parental discipline.
- 40 ↩Source sentence is only a bare period; no recoverable French content.
- 41 ↩Source sentence is only a bare period; no recoverable French content.
- 42 ↩Source is only the abbreviation 'etc.'; likely marks omitted continuation of a quotation or list in the print tradition.
- 43 ↩French 'donna à la majesté de son fils de faire taire' assigns the silencing of the prophets to the Son's majesty—not merely for his sake, but as an honor reserved to that majesty.
- 44 ↩«Antiochus l’illustre» is Bossuet’s designation for Antiochus Epiphanes (Greek ἐπιφανής, ‘illustrious/manifest’).
- 45 ↩« Artaxerxe à la longue main » is rendered as Artaxerxes Longimanus (Long-Handed), the conventional identification of the Persian king whose twentieth-year decree Bossuet treats as the starting point of the seventy weeks.
- 46 ↩« l'onction du saint des saints » follows Daniel 9:24 language and may mean the anointing of the Most Holy place or of the Most Holy One; rendered here as 'the anointing of the Most Holy' to keep both messianic and sanctuary resonances open.
- 47 ↩« l'hostie » here means the sacrificial victim/offering of the old cult, not the Eucharistic host; rendered as 'the offering' to keep the Danielic abolition of temple sacrifices clear.
- 48 ↩"Cette mort" (this death) continues the preceding discussion of Christ's death; the contrast is between the timing of Judah's end (known from Jacob) and its causal link to that death (not stated there).
- 49 ↩"Méconnoissance" means failure/refusal to recognize or acknowledge; rendered as "failure to acknowledge him" (Christ), not mere ignorance.
- 50 ↩Source "Dieu à révelé" read as early-modern "Dieu a révélé" (God revealed).
- 51 ↩"Il" continues God as subject from the previous sentence; "fermer les propheties" means to seal/close the line of Old Testament prophecy, not merely to silence speech.
- 52 ↩"une nouvelle lumiere luy paroistre" continues the construction of "Il voit" (he sees a new light suddenly appear to him); rendered as visionary perception rather than physical daylight.
- 53 ↩Source ends with trailing comma-period ("roy pauvre,."), suggesting possible truncation at the section boundary; sense of the clause is still clear.
- 54 ↩Source is only « etc. », almost certainly an editorial ellipsis for further details of the poor king’s triumph begun in DiscoursHistUniv.1.4.48.s8, not a full independent sentence.
- 55 ↩« dégradez » means stripped of rank / deposed; Bossuet’s « princes » renders the prophetic « shepherds » of the Hebrew/Greek tradition.
- 56 ↩Bossuet keeps both readings of the field, potier and sculpteur, reflecting the ambiguity of the Hebrew yotser (potter / worker in clay or metal) in Zechariah 11:13.
- 57 ↩"le desiré des gentils" preserves the traditional messianic title from the Vulgate reading of Haggai 2:7 (desideratus cunctis gentibus), "the Desired of the nations."
- 58 ↩"hosties" here means sacrificial victims/offerings (not the Eucharistic host); rendered "offerings" to keep the cultic sense without later sacramental coloring.
- 59 ↩"élevé à une plus haute considération" rendered as "raised to a higher vision": Malachi is lifted from rebuking local cultic abuse to foreseeing a universal pure offering.
- 60 ↩Source ends mid-quotation with a dangling comma and period (j’envoye mon ange, dit le Seigneur,.). Rendered as the opening of Mal 3:1; following clauses appear to have been lost into s3–s5.
- 61 ↩Source sentence is only a bare period; no recoverable French text. Likely a segmentation artifact for missing continuation of the Malachi quotation.
- 62 ↩Source sentence is only a bare period; no recoverable French text. Likely a segmentation artifact for missing continuation of the Malachi quotation.
- 63 ↩Source is only the abbreviation etc., almost certainly marking omitted remainder of the Malachi quotation begun in s2.
- 64 ↩French ange carries both ‘angel’ and ‘messenger’; Bossuet’s gloss Un ange est un envoyé makes the double sense explicit. Title kept as ‘angel of the covenant, or of the testament’ to mirror alliance / testament.
- 65 ↩French 'dieu envoyé de Dieu' keeps lowercase 'dieu' for the envoy who is himself divine, against 'Dieu' as the sender; rendered to preserve that double identity from the prior section on the angel of the covenant.
- 66 ↩Source trails off at 'par ces mots,' without the quoted Malachi text; following sentence slots are empty fragments.
- 67 ↩Source sentence is only a bare period; likely a stripped scripture-quote slot after Malachi’s closing words.
- 68 ↩Source sentence is only a bare period; likely a continuation of the missing Malachi quotation fragment.
Discours sur l'histoire universelle companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit