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    that thfe lumbers abovfe-s ^ ecified are correct . There seems indeed , to be only one effectual method of clearing up . the ' difficulty , and that is , by supposing a mistake on the part of some early Jewish transcriber , which has affected alt the later copies .

    Ahaz began to reign when lie was twenty years of age , or , ( according to the Chronological Table of the Kings of Judali and Israel ; published by Dr . John Taylor in his Scheme of Scrip ture Divinity ?) B . C . 742 , which was about the time that Isaiah ' s prophecy was delivered . From the same table

    It appears that the captivity of Israel by Tiglath Pileser took place in the second year of Ahaz > B . C . 740 . But in Isaiah vii . 16 , we are told tHat during the infancy of the child whose birth was predieted > or before he would know to refuse the evil and

    choose the good , Retzin and Pekah would cease to be kings over Syria and Israel . This , then , must have teen in the year 740 B . CL , at which time the child was probably about a year old , so that he must have been born B . C . 741 , which corresponds with the second year of the reign of Ahaz . But this will make Ahaz

    twenty-one instead of eleven at the time of Hezekiah ' s birth ; and here we discover the key to the whole difficulty . If , then , we say that Hezekiah began to reign when he was fifteen instead of twenty-Jive , by adding this fifteen to tiventy-pne the supposed age of

    Ahaz at the time of Hesekiah ' s birth , we shall obtain thirty ~ si < v the exact age of Ahaz when the throne became vacant by his death . The whole difficulty , therefore , will be resolved by

    supposing that , owing to a mistake of some transcriber in 2 Kings xviii . 2 , twenty-five has been Substituted for fifteen . That this mistake is likely to have happened , will appear evident from the following considerations .

    The Jews from a very early period have been accustomed to express numbers by the letters of the Alphabet , as we now do by figures . For instance : j * signifies 1 , a 2 , j 3 , * l 4 , n 5 , 1 6 , t 7 , n 8 , to 9 , and * 10 . To

    express the numbers between 10 and 20 , they put > , CIO , ) and add to it the letter necessary to make up the number required . Thus , reading the letters backwards according to the Jewish fashion * ^» signifies 11 , n > 12 ,

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    akdt so on . Biifc when they feotne tp 15 , they depart from their usual irifre * tkod ! of notation , and substitute tD andi , ( 9 and 6 , ) in the place of ^

    and n , ( 10 and 5 , ) which latter ebmi bination they most cautiously avoid s because it forms part of the sacred a&d ineffable name mm , Jehovah . * At what precise period this venera ^ . tion for the letters composing' the name of Jehovah began to aflfeet the

    notation of the Jews , I have h (* means of decidedly ascertaining ; but it ap ~ peats to me highly probable that it commenced about the time of the Babylonish Captivity . Michaelis , indeed , says , that * ' the Jews never noted the number 15 by n * , though Jod is 10 and He is 5 . " (

    Introduction to the New Testament translated by Marsh , Vol . 111 . Pt . I . p . 173 . ) A transcriber , then , might easily mistake the ' letters ID , which correspond with our 15 , for na , the letters used to denote 25 ; and thus the error may have been extended mid perpetuated , so as to affect all the manuscripts and versions now in existence . f That

    « * When this superstitious fear of Witing or pronouncing the word Jehovah began is uncertain . It appears , however , from the following passage in Joseph us ' s Jewish Antiquities , ( Bk . II . chap . xiL Sect . 4 , ) to have been at least as early as his time . " God declared to Moses

    his holy name , which had never been discovered to rueu before , and concerning which it is not lawful for me to say any thing further . " Whiston thinks that this concealment of the name JEH 0 V 4 H was practised by the Pharisees in the time of Josephus , and . that he learnt it from

    them . " Certum est , " says Walton , ( Proleg , p . 16 , ) " apud Judaeos longe ante Christi tempora ( ante tempora 70 Interpret urn ) nomiuis hujus pronunciationem sub magna pcena interdictam fuisse

    omnibus , nisi solis Sacerdotibus , cum m teinplo populum solenniter benedicerent ; unde post templi eversionem nemini oinnino licituni fuit illud effari , et sic brevi vera pronunciatio penitus peiiit . "

    f The mistake may be still more easily accounted for , Jf we suppose it to have taken place at a time when 15 was expressed by it * . In this case we have only to change a single letter and

    substitute Yod for Kaph ; an alteration which is very allowable when it is considered that the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet ; were formerly so rude , that mauy , which are now totally dissimilar , bore the closest ' resemblance to each other .

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    * Mr . faailace ** S tt&narfo \ on Imiahixi 6 , ^ . - $ gj

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1824, page 23, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2520/page/23/