UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 91 



in some measure as supplemental to those of 

 Jacob and Balaam. He enters into many de- 

 tails of the perverseness and the corruptions of 

 the Israelites, and the consequent calamities of 

 famine, pestilence, and war, which should afflict 

 them under the government of their kings. He 

 states them almost with the simplicity of an his- 

 torical narrative ; while all other prophecies, 

 except those of our Lord, are expressed in more 

 poetical, and in far more obscure language. 



The 28th chapter of Deuteronomy contains 

 several passages which are plainly indicative of 

 the captivity of the ten tribes by the Assyrians, 

 and of the two remaining tribes of Judah and 

 Benjamin, by the Babylonians. In examin- 

 ing the books 'of Kings and Chronicles, we find 

 that most part of those predicted judgments were 

 fulfilled in the order he foretold ; as in the 

 dearths that took place, the plagues that carried 

 off numbers of the people, and the repeated 

 invasions of the country by the Moabites and 

 Philistines, and afterwards by the Ammonites, 

 Chaldees, and Syrians. The captivity of Jehoia- 

 chin by the Babylonians was a striking ac- 

 complishment of the prophetic threat in the 

 36th verse. (6 The Lord shall bring thee and 

 thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a 

 nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have 

 known:" for it was delivered long anterior to 

 the establishment of any king. The conclusion 



