In Exile and in the Homeland.
Stripped of all its best people the country was in a sorry plight when, in the year 596, Nebuchadrezzar, on departing for Babylon, raised Zedekiah to the throne of Judah.
Zedekiah was an uncle of the ill-fated Jehoiachin. He was the third son of Josiah, and, like his brothers, Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, he was to see the fortunes of Judah ebb to their lowest point, and finally to witness the destruction of the capital and the end of Judah.
The king had to surround himself with a vulgar, arrogant and uncouth set of people. All of the princes and leading Judeans who were taken to Babylon had been forced to sell their estates and properties at whatever price they would bring. These were bought up by anyone that came along and created a class of newly-rich that the country had never had before.
The court was now, therefore, composed of these newly-rich, who knew nothing about affairs of state, but who prided themselves on the fact that because they were spared in Judah, they were the choice remnant of God.
Zedekiah himself was feeble, slow to make up his mind and to come to adecision. He went to everybody for suggestions and help, includingJeremiah and the horde of false prophets that swarmed in Jerusalem.Unfortunately, he always took the wrong advice.
Notwithstanding these unpromising conditions, Jeremiah was filled with new hope for his land and people. He believed that now they would understand his position regarding them and the meaning of his constant preaching and teaching.
One day he was walking through a fig orchard near Anathoth. It was harvest time and everywhere there were baskets laden with figs. Under a particularly fine tree he noticed two baskets. One was filled with very good figs; the other with very bad ones. Immediately he saw in them a symbol for his people.
He compared Zedekiah, his upstart courtiers and the remnant in Jerusalem to the basket of bad figs. The princes, elders, mechanics and artisans, whom Nebuchadrezzar had carried away, he compared to the basket of good figs. There was no message of hope in the "bad figs" now ruling the country; there was hope, however, in the exiles. Therefore Jeremiah sent the following letter to the Jews in Babylonia:
"Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them. Take ye wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply ye there, and be not diminished.
"And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray unto the Lord for it; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
"For, thus saith the Lord: 'After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,' saith the Lord, 'thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end.
"'And ye shall call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
"'And I will be found of you,' saith the Lord, 'and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you,' saith the Lord; 'and I will bring you again unto the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.'"
Jerusalem, however, swarmed with false prophets who took themselves seriously. They prophesied the immediate fall of Babylonia; they promised the people that within two years the very Temple vessels that Nebuchadrezzar had carried away would be restored and Judah rejuvenated in its ancient glory.
Politicians, too, became active. Zedekiah, urged on by them, was making alliances with the little countries about Judah, with Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon, for the purpose of rebellion against Babylon; and behind them all was Pharaoh Hophrah, who came to the throne of Egypt in 589, and who immediately turned his eyes to Babylon, hoping to accomplish what Pharaoh Necho had failed to do.
Jeremiah denounced both prophets and politicians most bitterly. When ambassadors from the neighboring states came to Jerusalem, to consult with Zedekiah and to receive a message from the Egyptian king that he was ready to send an army to assist them against Babylon, Jeremiah appeared in the Market Place with thongs and yokes around his neck and on his arms. He sent a yoke to each of the foreign ambassadors, with a message to all of them advising that they permit the yoke of Babylon to remain around their necks, resting assured that the rebellion was doomed to failure.
In the Market Place Jeremiah was met by Hananiah, one of the false prophets. Hananiah tore the yoke from Jeremiah's neck, broke it over his knee and exclaimed:
"Thus saith the Lord:
"'So will I break the yoke of the king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations.'"
Jeremiah answered:
"Thus saith the Lord:
"'Thou hast broken the yoke of wood, but I will make a yoke of iron. I will put a yoke of iron on the necks of all these peoples that they may serve the king of Babylon.'"
And to Zedekiah he sent the following message:
"Bring your neck into his yoke and serve the king of Babylon; for these prophets prophesy a lie to you. 'I have not sent them,' saith the Lord, 'and they prophesy in My name falsely, that they might drive you out, and that ye might perish, together with the prophets who have prophesied falsely to you.'"
But Jeremiah's efforts were all in vain. That same year, 589, the rebellion broke out. Nebuchadrezzar did not delay long. He poured his trained veterans into Palestine. They marched through the country with the ease and assurance of a brook running along in its smooth course. Within a few months they were before Jerusalem and, in 588, besieged it.
A Friend in Need.
Zedekiah sent messenger after messenger into Egypt, urging, pleading, begging Hophrah to come to his assistance.
Jeremiah cried that it was too late; that Hophrah would not come.
"Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise; he hath let the appointed time pass by."
Hophrah, however, did finally bestir himself. Word came to Jerusalem, and it reached the besieging forces, that a vast army of Egyptians was on the march northward. To the surprise of all, Nebuchadrezzar withdrew from Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem prophets were jubilant. They saw their hopeful forecasts all fulfilled and Judah once more independent. But Jeremiah knew better. He held out no such false hopes:
"Behold, Pharaoh's army, which has come out to help you, shall return to Egypt. Then the Chaldeans shall come back and fight against the city and shall take it and burn it with fire.
"Do not deceive yourselves with the idea that the Chaldeans will depart from you; for they shall not depart. For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men, yet would these arise up each in his tent, and burn this city with fire."
Although this sounds like a trumpet call of doom, Jeremiah was not without hope. The course of events, as he saw it, included the fall of Judah at the hands of Nebuchadrezzar; but he hoped also for a later rehabilitation of the land and rebuilding of the capital.
Jeremiah pinned his faith on the exiles in Babylonia and the certainty of their return to Judah. To picture his hope vividly, he determined to purchase his family estate in Anathoth. While Jerusalem was celebrating the withdrawal of the Babylonian troops and awaiting the coming of Hophrah's army, Jeremiah, with this in mind, started for Anathoth.
At the gates of the town, however, he was arrested and brought back to Jerusalem in chains. He was accused of high treason, of having spied out Jerusalem, and of attempting to escape to the Babylonians with the secrets. Without trial he was sentenced to prison and jailed in the guard house of the Temple garrison.
But this was not sufficient for the princes who had trumped up this charge against Jeremiah. They came to Zedekiah and charged that, by his speeches and actions, he was undermining discipline in the army and weakening the spirit of the people. They demanded that he be put to death.
Zedekiah, always weak and uncertain, replied, "Behold, he is in your hands." But they dared not kill Jeremiah outright.
"Then took they Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern that was in the Court of the Guard; and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the cistern there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire."
There was one person in the Court of the Guard who might have drawn Jeremiah right up out of the cistern where he had been left to die, had he not feared the wrath of the princes. It was Ebed-melech, the old, faithful friend. The Ethiopian was not afraid to die; but he felt that it would be useless to attempt to spirit Jeremiah away, for both would surely be caught. He cast about for some other means to save him whom he loved only as he had loved Josiah, the friend of his youth.
Had Ebed-melech known, however, that Jeremiah was sunk thigh-deep in mud, and that he had given himself up to die, he would have acted more quickly. It was on the second evening that he stole quietly out of the palace and up to the Court of the Guards. With great care, so as not to be discovered, he crawled to the cistern prison and leaned his gray head on the rim to listen. Jeremiah was praying:
"O Lord, Thou knowest.Remember me and visit me.Know that for Thy sake I have suffered reproach.Thy words were found, and I did eat them,And Thy words were unto me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart;For I am called by Thy name.O Lord, God of hosts, why is my pain perpetual?"
Yes! There was no mistake about it—Jeremiah wanted to die! Hot tears coursed down Ebed-melech's cheeks as he listened. Then he whispered a hurried word of hope to the prisoner and was off for the palace as fast as his old legs could carry him.
Twice he was stopped by the guards, but each time quickly released. Everyone knew Ebed-melech, his story of Josiah's escape, his privileges in the palace. He was a fixture at the court, and people said that he would never die.
Arrived at the palace, he demanded to see the king. Brought into the presence of Zedekiah he asked to speak to him alone. When both were left alone, he fell at Zedekiah's feet. Pointing to the door through which several princes had just gone out, he said:
"My Lord, the King!
"These men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah, the prophet, whom they have cast into the pit. He is like to die in the place where he is."
Raising his head and looking straight into the king's eyes, he pleaded for the life of Jeremiah. He spoke very fast, his grey head shaking and his lips trembling. At last he finished his impassioned speech, prostrated himself before Zedekiah and kissed the hem of his robe.
Zedekiah graciously yielded to Ebed-melech's pleading and sent three men with him to raise Jeremiah out of the cistern. More dead than alive, Jeremiah was again taken to the guard house. Ebed-melech was given free access to his cell at all times.
A few days later Zedekiah requested Ebed-melech to bring Jeremiah to him, secretly. Rumor had it that Pharaoh Hophrah had halted in his march northward, because the Babylonians had lifted the siege, and was returning to Egypt. Zedekiah, therefore, wanted to know from Jeremiah:
"Is there any word from the Lord? Conceal nothing from me."
Jeremiah answered him:
"If I declare it to you, will you promise not to put me to death? And if I give you counsel, you will not hearken to me."
But Zedekiah wanted to hear. Vacillating as he was, he hoped that perhaps this time Jeremiah would bring him a message of assurance. So, he swore to him, saying:
"As the Lord liveth, who hath given us this life, I will not put you to death; neither will I give you into the hands of these men."
Thereupon Jeremiah fearlessly delivered his final message to the king:
"They have betrayed thee; they have overcome thee, thyfamiliar friends!They have caused thy feet to sink in the mire; they turn back!They shall also bring out all your sons to the Chaldeans.You yourself shall not escape out of their hands,But shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon;And this city shall be burned."
Zedekiah did not tear and rage as his brother, Jehoiakim, would have done at such a message. He did not possess enough energy or determination for that. In a hopeless sort of voice he simply sent Jeremiah back to the guard house, where Ebed-melech continued looking after him.
Once more Jeremiah proceeded to give practical evidence of his faith in the future of Judah, if the country would only submit to Babylonian rule; or, if king and princes and false prophets persisted in pushing the country to its fall, of his faith in the Babylonian exiles, who, he truly believed, would return and build up Judah again.
Therefore, with the assistance of Ebed-melech and Baruch, who was a frequent visitor to his master, Jeremiah arranged for and purchased the family property near Anathoth from his uncle, Hananel, and turning the deed over to Baruch, said to him:
"Take this purchase deed and put it in an earthen vessel, that it may remain for years to come. For, thus saith the lord, 'Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land.'"
Events that followed, however, seemed to mock his enthusiasm and his hope. The rumor of Hophrah's return to Egypt was verified—and Nebuchadrezzar was still encamped at Riblah.
In the Midst of Despair.
The year 586!
What a terrible year it was for Jerusalem and Judah—and Jeremiah!
Oh, the famine, the misery, the horrors within Jerusalem when theBabylonians besieged the city for the second time.
Oh, the carnage, the massacre, the hopeless destruction when theBabylonians finally captured Jerusalem and burned the Temple!
On the ninth day of the fourth month the first breach was made in the outer walls of Jerusalem by Nebuzaradan, the commander of Nebuchadrezzar's body guard, who led the besieging forces.
True to his character of weakling, Zedekiah, with his nobles, at this first sign of danger to the city, fled from Jerusalem through the king's gardens and the south gate, by night. When the news of the king's departure reached the Babylonians, Nebuzaradan, with a chosen troop, followed immediately in hot pursuit. The whole renegade lot were captured in the plains of Jericho. Thrown into chains, they were sent to Riblah, to Nebuchadrezzar, while Nebuzaradan returned to his command, to push the final capture of Jerusalem with an energy equal to that with which his master had destroyed Nineveh.
Two terrible tragedies were being enacted at about the same time, inJerusalem and at Riblah. Nebuchadrezzar timed his performances atRiblah with the news that was brought to him from the doomed Jerusalem.
On the day when the report of the capture of the second defenses reached Riblah, Nebuchadrezzar gathered all his court in the market place, which had been transformed into a festive arena. Zedekiah, his sons and the Judean princes of the blood, in full regalia, were enthroned on platforms, on one side of the arena. Nebuchadrezzar and his courtiers were enthroned in full state on the other.
Zedekiah and his people, who had heard no news from the besieged capital, were greatly astonished at this whole procedure. They were soon to understand, however. At a given signal heralds entered and announced the report from the front. Following this came Nebuchadrezzar's body guard leading the lesser Judean nobles in chains; and, at a command given by a Babylonian officer from Nebuchadrezzar's platform, these were slaughtered before the eyes of Zedekiah, and of his sons and princes, in cold blood.
When the news was brought that Jerusalem had finally fallen, a second festival was held in Riblah in the same way. To all appearances, Zedekiah and his sons were the royal guests of the royal Nebuchadrezzar at a great royal celebration. It was noticeable, however, that the Judean princes of the blood were missing from the side of their king and his sons.
At the proper time the heralds announced the tidings from before Jerusalem, the Judean princes were marched into the center of the festive throng—and beheaded.
Finally, on the eighth day of the fifth month, the month of Ab, news came to Riblah that on the day before, the seventh of Ab, the destruction of the city had begun. The report stated that the little garrison in the Temple was holding out, but that Nebuzaradan hoped to finish up his work and burn the Temple on the day after; that is, on the ninth day of Ab.
Nebuchadrezzar took it for granted that Nebuzaradan's estimate of events was correct. Just at about the time, therefore, that Nebuchadrezzar calculated the Temple ought to be burning, on the ninth day of Ab, the final horror in Riblah began.
This time Zedekiah sat alone on his platform, a hopeless, shrunken figure, the mockery of a king. His heart told him the tragedy that he was about to behold; but he did not know what terrible thing the Babylonian had prepared for the climax.
Zedekiah's sons, mere boys, were brought into the open space beforeNebuchadrezzar. Rings had been pierced through their noses and theywere led by chains, like animals. A loud fanfare announced their coming.The trumpet notes were like so many sword points in Zedekiah's heart.
The young princes, too, knew what awaited them. Innocent of any crime, they marched bravely to their fate. One after another they laid their heads on the block, brave descendants of King David.
Zedekiah saw the executioner's axe rise—and fall; and again; and again!
His heart stopped beating. His brain was numb. His body was without feeling. He never knew just when he was led from his mock throne, nor by whom, nor where he was led to. He did not hear the jeers and howling of the blood-infuriated Chaldeans, nor the commands given him by his captors, nor the words addressed to him by Nebuchadrezzar himself.
All at once he felt a severe pain in his head, a shock through his entire nervous system, a red-fire-like blur before his eyes—and he was blind forever. The eyes that, for the last time, had looked upon the writhing bodies of his headless children had been pierced out by the royal spear in Nebuchadrezzar's hand!
In Jerusalem the tragedy was less studied and, therefore, the carnage was much greater. Imprisoned in the guard house, Jeremiah did not know the worst; but he surmised it.
He had not seen Ebed-melech or Baruch for several days. He did not know what progress the siege was making. No one had time to stop and speak with him. Even food was no longer brought to him. In his loneliness and helplessness, he turned to God:
"There is none like unto Thee, O Lord!Thou art great and Thy name is great in might.Who should not fear Thee, O King of the nations?The Lord is the true God.He is the living God and an everlasting King.He hath made the earth by His power;He hath established the world by His wisdom;By His understanding hath He stretched out the heavens.O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself;It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.O Lord God, correct me, but in judgment,Not in Thine anger, lest Thou bring me to nothing."
Finally came the seventh day, and then the ninth day of Ab! He heard the shouts and the clang of hand-to-hand fighting. The thick prison walls could not shut out the curses of hating, contending men, the shrieks of the wounded, the prayers and moans of the dying.
On the night of the seventh day of Ab he knew that the Babylonian had entered Jerusalem. The red sky told him that the city was burning. On the next day, he judged from the noises and commands within the garrison that preparations were being made for the last stand.
All that day and all that night long he heard the fighting on the Temple Mount. He pictured to himself every step of the retreating, beaten Judeans and the oncoming, victorious Babylonians.
On the morning of the next day, the fatal ninth of Ab, the oppressive heat told him that the Temple was on fire. Through the day, the shouting and the fighting died slowly away. Jeremiah knew that the end had come for his beloved fatherland—and for himself. His presence in the guard house had been accidentally or purposely forgotten!
At sunrise the next day, he was suddenly aroused from his aimless, mental wanderings by the noisy marching of troops. They passed his prison without stopping. He shouted, but they did not hear him. He could not see who they were, but surmised that they must be Babylonians.
Several hours passed and once more he heard the heavy steps of troops. This time he shouted at the top of his feeble voice and pounded the iron bars. They halted. Several were dispatched to the guard house. They broke open the door and brought forth a gray-headed, gray-bearded, unkempt little man, whose face and bearing showed the horrors he had been through.
The soldiers made sport of him, but the commander did not permit them to kill a helpless old man. Instead, he sent Jeremiah, through the ruins of the Temple and the city, with hundreds of others, to the prisoners' camp at Ramah, five miles north of Jerusalem.
Lamentations and a Vain Hope.
It is said that ties of true friendship are often stronger than ties of blood. Of such stuff were the ties made that bound together the families of Hilkiah, the priest, and Shaphan, the scribe. Hilkiah and Shaphan labored hand in hand with King Josiah in his reforms. Shaphan's sons, Ahikam and Gemariah, came to the assistance of Hilkiah's son, Jeremiah, when the latter was in sorest need. Now a grandson of Shaphan, Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, was to give a temporary haven to the weary Jeremiah.
The whole of the Shaphan family followed in the footsteps of their noble ancestor. Both Ahikam and Gemariah belonged to the Prophetic Party; though, unlike Jeremiah, they took the course of least resistance and continued in favor with the royal house.
Nebuchadrezzar, who kept himself informed concerning the political leanings of the leading families in Jerusalem, therefore believed that if he raised a scion of Shaphan's family to the governorship of Judah, the country would remain loyal and leave him to his peace in upbuilding Babylon.
Accordingly, Ahikam's and Gemariah's families were spared during the general slaughter in Jerusalem, and Gedaliah, Ahikam's son, was made governor of Judah when the victorious Babylonians had finished their work in the land.
There was still another person whom Nebuchadrezzar had given orders to spare—Jeremiah. Nothing would have pleased Nebuchadrezzar better than for Jehoiakim and Zedekiah to have followed the counsel of Jeremiah. Therefore, the prophet was not only to be saved from the carnage, but he was to be rewarded.
Nebuzaradan had strict orders to find Jeremiah. In fact, the troop which Jeremiah had heard in the garrison and that accidentally saved him was in search of him at the time.
Nebuzaradan knew that Jeremiah was alive, through Baruch. Baruch had been captured and thrown into chains on the seventh day of Ab. When he heard that the Babylonians were searching for Jeremiah to save him, he informed them that he was imprisoned in the garrison.
The captain of the troop had no idea that the emaciated old man was a prophet; but he thanked his stars that he had not permitted his soldiers to slay the poor fellow. He complimented himself when, at Ramah, he discovered that he had Jeremiah in his keeping and was complimented by the commander-in-chief when he brought Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan's tent.
While in the prisoners' camp, Jeremiah could not get out of his mind's eye the picture of devastation that he had beheld while passing through Jerusalem. He kept entirely away from his fellow prisoners. He wanted, and needed, to be alone. It was during these days he composed his Lamentations on Jerusalem:
"How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people?She is become as a widow, that was great among the nations!She that was a princess among the provinces is become a tributary!She weepeth sore in the night and her tears are on her cheeks;Among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her:All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they arebecome her enemies.All that pass by clap their hands at thee:They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying,Is this the city that men calledThe perfection of beauty,The joy of the whole earth?All thine enemies have opened their mouth wide against thee:They hiss and gnash the teeth: they say,'We have swallowed her up:Certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found,we have seen it.'"
But Jeremiah, even in this great extremity, was not a man without hope for the future. He knew his God and understood that His anger with the worst of men or nations does not last forever:
"This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope.It is of the Lord's loving-kindnesses that we are not consumed,because his compassions fail not.They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness.The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in Him.The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul thatseeketh Him.It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for thesalvation of the Lord.It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth;Let him sit alone and keep silence, because He hath laid itupon him;Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.Let him give his cheek to him that smiteth him; let him befilled full with reproach.For the Lord will not cast off forever."
Jeremiah was not particularly interested when he was ordered to appear before Nebuzaradan. It did not really matter to him any longer what would happen to him. He had fought a brave fight—and had lost. Life or death made no difference now. In fact, he would rather have died at the hands of the Babylonians than at the hands of his own people. So, he replied listlessly that he was ready.
Even when given clean garments and ordered to bathe and told to brighten up and be cheerful, because all would be well with him, he could not figure out what it all meant until he was in the tent of Nebuzaradan. Then, hope was born anew in his heart, as he listened to what the commander had to say to him:
"The Lord your God pronounced evil upon this place; you have sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come to you.
"And now behold, I loose you this day from the chains which are upon your hand. If it seem good to you to come with me to Babylon, come and I will look out for you. But if it seem undesirable to you to come with me to Babylon, do not come; but go back to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wherever it seems right to you to go."
Jeremiah replied, shortly, that he preferred to remain in Judah. A clear look again came to his eyes; his shoulders straightened up; he carried his head erect once more; he had new work, on the old lines, to do.
He also asked a favor—that Baruch, son of Neriah, and Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian freedman of the royal house, if alive, should be permitted to remain with him.
Both his preference and his request were granted. Baruch was found among the living in Riblah and Ebed-melech at the camp in Ramah. Nebuzaradan gave Jeremiah provisions and presents and sent him, with his two companions, to Gedaliah, who had established his capital at the ancient city of Mizpah, on the dividing line between the old kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
On his departure from Judah, Nebuchadrezzar had deported with him practically the entire population that was of any consequence. He left behind only the poorest of vine dressers and farmers.
Gedaliah's position as governor, therefore, seemed to be but an empty honor. The country a wilderness, the capital in hopeless ruins, the Temple a pile of smoking and smouldering ashes—it was not a picture to bring rejoicing to a governor's heart.
But Jeremiah laid a new plan for rehabilitating the land. Neither Jerusalem nor the Temple were to be rebuilt, for the present. All efforts were to be bent toward building up a new conscience in the simple farmers and vine dressers; to fit these for entering a new covenant with their God and to make them worthy, indeed, to be God's people.
In politics the land was to stand, above all, for faithfulness and loyalty to Babylonia. That was what Nebuchadrezzar expected from Gedaliah and that was what Gedaliah proposed to do. With the religion Nebuchadrezzar never did and never would interfere. Therefore, first of all, the new governor issued this proclamation to the remnant that remained in Judah:
"Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Settle down and be subject to the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you. As for me, I will dwell at Mizpah, as your representative to receive the Chaldeans who shall come to us; but you gather for yourselves wine and fruits and oil, and put them in your vessels and dwell in your cities of which you have taken possession."
The future again looked bright. Under Gedaliah there was promise of a peaceful restoration of Judah.
Jewish refugees in Moab, Ammon and Edom began to return, because they looked for a just and benevolent rule from Shaphan's grandson; and they would not have been disappointed had not scheming selfishness and hateful treachery stepped in to shatter the last possible Judean hope.
Cowardice and Treachery.
Gedaliah had governed in Mizpah seven months when he was pleased to welcome back to his fatherland, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, a Judean chieftain of the royal family, who had been driven to Ammon during the guerrilla warfare with Babylonia, under Jehoiakim.
A few days later, Johanan, son of Kareah, who was one of the governor's chief assistants, came to Gedaliah with the news that Ishmael was not sincere in his protestations of loyalty, that he was in the employ of Baalis, King of Ammon, and that his mission to Mizpah was to put Gedaliah out of the way. Baalis, Johanan reported, was contemplating rebellion some time in the future, and did not want in Judah a governor faithful to Babylonia. In addition, Johanan said, Ishmael was hoping, through the assistance of Baalis, to regain the throne of Judah for his family.
Gedaliah, nobleman that he was, refused to suspect Ishmael of treachery. On the contrary, a few days later he prepared a great banquet in Ishmael's honor and invited, in addition, all the Chaldean nobles whom Nebuchadrezzar had left behind in Judah to assist Gedaliah in restoring order and in establishing law and government.
Ishmael came with ten followers who had accompanied him from Ammon. At a given signal, Ishmael and his ten men fell upon the unsuspecting Gedaliah and his Chaldean guests and turned the banquet hall into a house of death.
On the next day, word came to Mizpah that eighty men from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria, were coming to Mizpah, on their way to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices in the Temple ruins. These men had been selected by the survivors in that section of the country to express their thanks to God, in this manner, for having been spared by the Babylonians.
Ishmael went out to meet them. With tears in his eyes he told them that he was a messenger from Gedaliah to welcome them to Mizpah. Once in Mizpah, however, these eighty men were slaughtered by the ruthless and treacherous cowards from Ammon. Under Ishmael's direction, all the dead were thrown into the great reservoir that was built by King Asa of Judah at the time when he was at war with Baasha of Israel.
His work completed, Ishmael gathered his men to return to Baalis, in Ammon.
Johanan, who had warned Gedaliah of Ishmael's treachery, did not propose to let the murderer escape. He gathered up such faithful men as he could. By a quick march of two miles to the north, his little force confronted Ishmael just outside of Gibeon, on the well-traveled road leading to Beth Horon.
Before the little armies came to an engagement, Johanan sent word to Ishmael demanding surrender. Ishmael answered with a request for a parley on the next morning, which was granted.
During the night, however, Ishmael's men deserted him and went over to Johanan. Ishmael, himself, escaped to Ammon, and Johanan did not even pursue him. On the next morning all returned to Mizpah.
In Mizpah, Johanan was confronted with a new problem. What would happen when the news reached Babylon that all the Chaldean officers in Mizpah had been slain? The entire population knew what Nebuchadrezzar's vengeance meant. They feared to remain in Judah and, at a council of elders called by Johanan, it was determined to leave the fatherland altogether and emigrate to Egypt.
Before making a definite move, however, Johanan and the elders sought the advice of Jeremiah. They came to the prophet with this petition:
"Permit us to bring our petition before you that you may supplicate the Lord your God for us, even for all this remnant, for we are left but a few out of many—you yourself see us here—that the Lord your God may show us the way wherein we should walk, and the thing that we should do."
Jeremiah answered them:
"I have heard you; behold I will pray to the Lord your God according to your words, and whatever the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it to you; I will keep nothing back from you:"
To which the leaders replied:
"God be a true and faithful witness against us, if we do not according to all the word with which the Lord your God shall send you to us. Whether it be good or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we send you, that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the Lord our God."
Jeremiah took ten days to consider the matter. Then the message came to him from the Lord his God and he delivered it to Johanan and his chieftains:
"If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you, up; for I am sorry for the evil that I have done to you. Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand."
Johanan and the chieftains had hoped that Jeremiah would advise them to go to Egypt. They were disappointed. They took time, therefore, to discuss the matter further among themselves.
Jeremiah had had experience enough to know what the result would be. So he backed up his advice concerning Egypt with a public discourse, every line of which breathed hope for the future in Judah.
He tried to show that the old order of things had passed; that the old covenant between God and his people had been broken, never to be renewed again; that God would enter into a new covenant with them, a spiritual covenant, not so much with the whole nation, as with each individual. This is Jeremiah's memorable address at Mizpah:
"Behold the days are coming,That I will sow Israel and Judah with the seed of man and theseed of beast,And as once I watched over them to pluck up and to afflict,So will I be watchful over them to build and to plant.
"'Behold the days are coming,' saith the Lord,'That I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel andthe house of Judah,Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers,In the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out ofthe land of Egypt,My covenant which they themselves broke and I was displeasedwith them;But this is the covenant which I will make with the houseof Israel:
"'After those days,' saith the Lord,'I will put my teaching in their breast and on their heart willI write it;And I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people.And they shall not teach any more every man his neighbor,And every man his brother, saying, "Know the Lord,"For they shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest;For I will forgive them their iniquities and remember theirsins no more.'"
On the day of the meeting to settle finally the question of emigration to Egypt, another shocking surprise awaited Jeremiah.
He was accused of being a false prophet; of not having received the message against going into Egypt from God, at all. He was accused of having conspired with Baruch, who, Jeremiah was told, being of noble family, had ambitions to become King of Judah. Finally he was warned that Baruch intended to hand all the remnant over to Nebuchadrezzar. More than that! It was determined to emigrate to Egypt at once and that both Jeremiah and Baruch must accompany the self-exiled.
Jeremiah, the Martyred.
The forcing of Jeremiah into Egyptian exile with the others was the stroke that finally broke Jeremiah's heart. Against such stiff-necked perversity he could hold out no longer. He submitted, like a lamb, this time to be led, literally, to the slaughter.
Judah was destroyed, the Temple burnt, the royal family exterminated, the last of the friends of Jeremiah's family dead, the strength and nobility of the nation in Babylonian captivity, and now, the miserable remnant that was left in Judah, self-exiled to Egypt!
The destination of the emigrants was Tehaphenes, just across the boundary from Judah. There was already a small colony of Jews there. Being a frontier city on the main road to Jerusalem, Judeans often found refuge there from the many destructive armies that swept Judah.
These gave all the emigrants a hearty welcome. Jeremiah might have settled down there to pass the remaining years of his life quietly and at peace; or, he might have gone to Babylon where Nebuzaradan had promised to look after him. The course of events however, bade him remain where he now was.
Pharaoh Hophrah still had in mind the conquest of Babylon. But Jeremiah had preached all his life that Nebuchadrezzar was God's chosen servant for smiting the nations, Egypt among them. He had, many times, dared death rather than dare be untrue to God and to his mission as a prophet. Therefore, in Tehaphenes, before Pharaoh's palace, Jeremiah delivered the following oration:
"Take great stones in thine hand and hide them in the clay of the pavement which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tehaphenes, in the sight of the men of Judah; and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, My servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them. And when he cometh, he shall smite the land of Egypt."
Both the Jews and the Egyptians who heard him were thoroughly enraged.Their rage swelled into an outcry, and the outcry into an attack uponJeremiah. The very stones of which he spoke were showered upon him bythe infuriated mob.
Death, that he had often faced but escaped, now came to Jeremiah inthis way—and Baruch, loving disciple and friend that he was, andEbed-melech, faithful admirer and servant that he was, stood byJeremiah's side to the last, sharing his fate with him.
Through no fault of his own, but as God's chosen servant, speaking naught but the word of God as it was revealed to him, Jeremiah had been despised, degraded, spat upon, made to suffer for the sins of his people and, finally, he was martyred at their hands.
It is held by some that the martyrdom of Jeremiah inspired a later prophet to write the following remarkable lines, although most Jewish scholars explain these lines as personifying the people of Israel and referring to its sufferings:
"Who would have believed what now we hear?And to whom was the Lord's arm revealed?Why, he grew up like a sapling before us,Like a shoot out of dry ground!
"He was despised and forsaken of men,A man of pain and familiar with sorrow:Yea, like one from whom men hide their faces,He was despised, and we esteemed him not.
"Surely our sufferings he himself bore,And our pains he carried;Yet we esteemed him stricken,Smitten of God and afflicted.
"But he was wounded for our transgressions,Crushed because of our iniquities;The chastisement for our well-being was upon him,And through his stripes healing came to us.
"All of us, like sheep, had gone astray,We had turned each his own way;And the Lord laid upon him,The guilt of us all.
"He was sore pressed, yet he resigned himself,And open not his mouth,As a lamb is led to the slaughter,And as a sheep that before her shearers is dumb.
"Shut out from justice he was hurried away;And as for his fate, who regarded it?—That he was cut off out of the land of the living,Stricken to death for our transgressions.
"They made his grave with the wicked,And his tomb with the ungodly,Although he had done no violence,Neither was any deceit in his mouth.
"But the Lord hath pleasure in His servant;He will deliver his soul from anguish;He will let him see and be satisfied,And will vindicate him for his woes."
(Isaiah LIII.)
[Transcriber's note: the following table was presented across two pages in original text, and cannot be fit into an 80-column format. I have presented it across 160 columns. As such, it may not display properly on some screens, especially if word wrap is turned on.]
B.C.E. 12th and11th Centuries,Settlement ofCanaan by Childrenof Israel1037 United HebrewKingdom Established1037 Saul1017 David977 Solomon
937 Rehoboam 937 Jeroboam917 Asa913 Baasha887 Omri876 JehoshaphatElijah875 AhabBen Hadad II860-839 Five851 Jehoram 851 Jehoram Expeditions843 AhaziahElishaagainst Damascus842 Athaliah 842 Jehu836 Joash816 Hazael Defeats814 Jehoahaz Joash796 Amaziah 797 Jehoash782 Uzziah(Azariah)Isaiah781 Jereboam II 745 Tiglath-PileserAmosIII—TwoHoseaExpeditions735 Ahaz against IsraelMicah734 Hoshea 732 and JudahDESTRUCTION OFDAMASCUS BY 727 Shalmaneser IV727 Hezekiah 722 ASSYRIA 722 DestroysDESTRUCTION OF Kingdom ofKINGDOM OF IsraelISRAEL BY686 Manasseh ASSYRIA 722 SargonZephaniah711 ExpeditionNahumagainst JudahJeremiahHabakuk705 Sennacherib701 Expeditionagainst Judah639 Josiah and Egypt 700 Shabataka
605 Jehoiakim 681 Esarhaddon600 Conquered by 675-71 TwoBabylon Expeditions597 Zedekiah against Judah 672 Necho597 First Captivity and Egyptby BabylonEzekiel668 AshurbanipalObadiahTwo Expeditions 663586 against Judah EGPYT UNDERDESTRUCTION OF and Egypt ASSYRIAN RULE 626 NabopolassarKINGDOM OF 605 NebuchadrezzarJUDAH BY 606BABYLON DESTRUCTION OF 600 Defeats JudahIsaiah IIASSYRIA BY in Battle538 Cyrus Restores BABYLONIA 586 DestroysCaptives to Judah Kingdom of 559 CyrusHaggaiJudah 538 ConquersZachariahBabyloniaMalachi538 529 Cambyses525 CONQUEST OF445 Nehemiah EGYPT CONQUERED BAYBLONIA BY 464 Artaxerxes IGovernor of BY PERSIA PERSIAJerusalemJoel
End of Project Gutenberg's Stories of the Prophets, by Isaac Landman