and announced that the Chaldæans would return and capture Jerusalem; and that fire, war, hunger, and pestilence would rage amongst the people.
The princes of Judah had been greatly incensed against Jeremiah for his former opposition; but his last address excited a deadly hatred against him. As he was one day leaving the city to go to his birthplace, Anathoth, he was seized by a sentinel under the pretext that he was deserting to the Chaldæans. In spite of his assurance that he had no thought of flight, he was delivered up to the princes. Glad of an opportunity to revenge themselves on him, they treated him as a traitor and spy, beat him, and put him into a cistern (Adar, 586) in the house of Jonathan, the Keeper of the Lists (Sopher), a hard, heartless man who was made his jailor. In this narrow, dirty, unhealthy place Jeremiah remained for many days.
The frenzied joy did not last long in Jerusalem. The Chaldæan army, which had marched against the Egyptian forces, under Apries, utterly routed the enemy and put them to flight. The power of Egypt was broken, and Judah was now again left entirely to its own resources. The Chaldæans returned to the siege of Jerusalem, and surrounded it more closely than before, so as to bring the siege to a speedy end. The courage of those who were shut up in the capital now began to fail. Many, anxious for their own safety, left the besieged city at unguarded places, and went over to the Chaldæans, or fled to Egypt. King Zedekiah himself was fearful about the result, and saw too late that he had been guilty of folly in attempting to cope with the Babylonian power, without the support of a liberty-loving people.
Not alone had the war killed off many, but famine and pestilence now increased the number of deaths. The number of warriors continued to decrease, and at last so few remained that they were unable to defend the walls. At length the last hour of Jerusalem struck, of that city which even the heathen had considered impregnable. On the 9th of Tamuz (June, 586) there was no more bread in the city, and in consequence of the utter exhaustion of the garrison, the Chaldæans succeeded in making a wide breach in the wall, by which they penetrated into the city. Nebuchadnezzar was not present; he was at Riblah, in Syria. His generals and the elders of the Magi proceeded to the very heart of Jerusalem unmolested, in order to pass judgment on the inhabitants. The Chaldæan warriors probably met with no opposition, as the inhabitants, enfeebled by famine, could scarcely drag themselves along. They overran all parts of the city, killing youths and men who appeared capable of resistance, making prisoners of others and loading them with chains. The barbarous soldiers, rendered savage by the long siege, violated women and maidens irrespective of age. They also entered the Temple and massacred the Aaronides and prophets who had sought safety in the Sanctuary, amidst cries of rage, as if they wished to wage war with the God of Israel. The Chaldæans were accompanied by many of the neighbouring nations, the Philistines, Idumæans, and Moabites, who had joined Nebuchadnezzar. They stole the treasures and desecrated the Sanctuary.
Zedekiah, with the remnant of the defenders, meanwhile succeeded in escaping at night through the royal gardens and by a subterranean passage in the north-eastern part of the city. He sought in haste to reach the Jordan, but Chaldæan horsemen hurried after the fugitives, and blocked their way in the narrow passes. Weakened as they were, crawling along rather than walking, they could be easily overtaken and made captive. In the city, the only dignitaries whom the troops found were the High Priest (Seraiah), the Captain of the Temple (Zephaniah), the Eunuch who had conducted the war, the Keeper of the Lists (Sopher), the confidants of the king, the door-keepers, and about sixty others. They were all taken to Riblah, and there beheaded at Nebuchadnezzar's command. No one could remain in Jerusalem or its neighbourhood, as the air was rendered pestilential by the numerous corpses which lay unburied. Amongst the prisoners was the prophet Jeremiah. He was found in the court Mattara, in the king's palace, and the Chaldæan soldiers, believing him to be a servant of the palace, made him prisoner. His disciple Baruch no doubt shared his fate. The generals appointed Gedaliah, a Judæan of noble birth, son of Ahikam, of the family of Shaphan, as overseer of the prisoners and fugitives.
The last hope left the unfortunate remnant of the nation when the news reached them that the king was captured. Zedekiah and his followers were overtaken near Jericho by the Chaldæan horsemen. The warriors who were with him scattered at the approach of the enemy, and crossed the Jordan or took refuge in some hiding-place, but Zedekiah, his sons, and some of his nobles were taken prisoners by the Chaldæans, and led to Riblah, before Nebuchadnezzar. The latter poured out all his justified anger on the king for his faithlessness and perjury, and the punishment he decreed upon him was terrible. Nebuchadnezzar caused all the sons and relations of Zedekiah to be executed before his eyes, and then had him blinded. Deprived of his sight and loaded with chains, he was taken to Babylon. He did not long survive his sufferings.
What was to be done with the city of Jerusalem? She had become a charnel-house, but was still standing. The generals who had captured her had no instructions as to her fate. Nebuchadnezzar himself appears at first to have been undecided about it, but at last he sent Nebuzaradan, the chief of his guard, with orders to destroy the city. The Idumæan nobles, filled with hate, immediately sought to make him complete the destruction without mercy (Psalm cxxxvii. 7). Nebuzaradan gave orders to raze the walls, to burn the Temple, palace, and all the beautiful houses, and this order was conscientiously fulfilled (10th Ab—August, 586). The treasures still remaining in the Temple, the artistically worked brazen pillars, the molten sea, the lavers of brass, the gold and silver bowls and the musical instruments, were all broken to pieces or conveyed to Babylon.
Jerusalem had become a heap of ruins, the Temple-mount a wilderness, but not one of the great capitals which fell from the height of glory into the dust has been so honoured in its destruction as Jerusalem. Poetry recorded her mournful fate in lamentations, psalms and prayers, in such touching tones that every tender heart must feel compassion with her even at this day. Poetry has wound about her head a martyr's crown, which has become transformed into a halo.
Jeremiah and probably two or three other poets composed four lamentations corresponding to the four stages of the trouble which befell the city. The first lamentation was written immediately after the capture of Jerusalem. The city still stood, the walls, palaces, and Temple were not yet destroyed, but it was deprived of its inhabitants and its joys. This lamentation chiefly deplores the friendlessness of Jerusalem; her greatest sorrow lies in the faithlessness of her allies, who now delight in her fall. The second lamentation deplores the destruction of the city and its walls, and especially the fall of the Sanctuary. The third lamentation bemoans the destruction of all that was noble by the lingering famine, and the despair which fell upon the survivors on the capture of the king. The fourth lamentation describes the utter desolation of Jerusalem after its complete destruction by the enemy.
CHAPTER XVII. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE DESTRUCTION.
The National Decay—The Fugitives—Enmity of the Idumæans—Johanan, Son of Kareah—The Lamentation—Nebuchadnezzar appoints Gedaliah as Governor—Jeremiah Encourages the People—Mizpah—Ishmael Murders Gedaliah—The Flight to Egypt—Jeremiah's Counsel Disregarded—Depopulation of Judah—The Idumæans make Settlements in the Country—Obadiah—Condition of the Judæans in Egypt—Defeat of Hophra—Egypt under Amasis—Jeremiah's Last Days.
586–572 B. C. E.
About a thousand years had passed since the tribes of Israel had so courageously and hopefully crossed the Jordan under their brave leader, and half that interval had elapsed since the first two kings of the house of David had raised the nation to a commanding position. After such a career, what an ending! The greater part of the Ten Tribes had been scattered for more than a century in unknown countries. Of the remaining tribes, composing the kingdom of Judah, the greater part had been destroyed by war, famine and pestilence; a small number had been led away into captivity, and an insignificant few had emigrated to Egypt or fled elsewhere, or lived in their own country, in constant terror of the fate which the victors might have reserved for them. Manifold enemies, in fact, let loose their anger against these few, in order to bring about their