Egypt was the first to bring dishonour upon the house of David, and oppression upon the land of Israel by the hand of Pharaoh Nechoh, who slew king Josiah, at Megiddo, —2 Kings 23: 29—and put his son in bonds at Riblah, and put the land to attribute of a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold, and dethroned Jehoahaz, and set up Jehoiakim in his stead, and made the land tributary. Then came Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, the fruit of the Assyrian, and laid him under tribute three more years; after which (24: 2) the Lord gathered bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and “sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servants the prophets.” The next king was Jehoiakim, against whom the Lord brought Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who took him, and his princes, and all his family, captive into Babylon, dishonoured and spoiled the temple, and otherwise vexed Jerusalem and the whole land. And, instead of the king, he set up Zedekiah, who, contrary to his treaty and oath of allegiance to the king of Babylon, made overtures unto, and entered into treaty with, the king of Egypt, and rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar his liege lord. Whereupon Nebuchadnezzar came up with force and great wrath against Jerusalem, and broke it up entirely, and demolished it, and slew the king’s son, and put out the king’s eyes, and carried him captive to Babylon, from which time until this the house of David have been captives, or tributaries, or exiles, the throne of David and his tabernacle fallen down, and woe to the uttermost, wreaked upon him, and upon his people, and upon his father’s house; first by the power of Egypt, and then by the power of Assyria, and then by the power of Persia, and then by the power of Greece, and then by the power of Rome, and then by the power of the Saracens, or Ishmaelites, and then by the power of the Turks, who, proceeding from the Euphrates, — Revelation 9— and possessing both Nineveh and Babylon, do represent the Assyrian power again; and lastly, by the power of the Russians, who is the Assyrian of “the end,” and shall invade the land, and take the Holy city.

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