Beacon Lights of History, Vol 2: Jewish Heroes and Prophets — Jeremiah, Part 2

Whatever may have been the malignant animosity of Pashur, he was evidently afraid to molest the awful prophet and preacher any further, for Jeremiah was no insignificant person at Jerusalem.

He was not only recognized as a prophet of Jehovah, but he had been the friend and counsellor of King Josiah, and was the leading statesman of the day in the ranks of the opposition.

But distinguished as he was, his voice was disregarded, and he was probably looked upon as an old croaker, whose gloomy views had no reason to sustain them.

Was not Jerusalem strong in her defences, and impregnable in the eyes of the people; and was she not regarded as under the special protection of the Deity?

Suppose some austere priest--say such a man as the Abbé Lacordaire--had risen from the pulpit of Notre Dame or the Madeleine, a year before the battle of Sedan, and announced to the fashionable congregation assembled to hear his eloquence, and among them the ministers of Louis Napoleon, that in a short time Paris would be surrounded by conquering armies, and would endure all the horrors of a siege, and that the famine would be so great that the city would surrender and be at the entire mercy of the conquerors,--would he have been believed?

Would not the people have regarded him as a madman, great as was his eloquence, or as the most gloomy of pessimists, for whom they would have felt contempt or bitter wrath?

And had he added to his predictions of ruin, utterly inconceivable by the giddy, pleasure-seeking, atheistic people, the most scathing denunciations of the prevailing sins of that godless city, all the more powerful because they were true, addressed to all classes alike, positive, direct, bold, without favor and without fear,--would they not have been stirred to violence, and subjected him to any chastisement in their power?

If Socrates, by provoking questions and fearless irony, drove the Athenians to such wrath that they took his life, even when everybody knew that he was the greatest and best man at Athens, how much more savage and malignant must have been the narrow-minded Jews when Jeremiah laid bare to them their sins and the impotency of their gods, and the certainty of retribution!

Yet vehement, or direct, or plain as were Jeremiah's denunciations to the idol-worshippers of Jerusalem in the seventh century before it was finally destroyed by Titus, he was no more severe than when Jesus denounced the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees, no more mournful than when he lamented over the approaching ruin of the Temple.

Therefore they sought to kill him, as the princes and priests of Judah would have sacrificed the greatest prophet that had appeared since Elisha, the greatest statesman since Samuel, the greatest poet since David, if Isaiah alone be excepted.

No wonder he was driven to a state of despondency and grief that reminds us of Job upon his ash-heap.

"Cursed be the day," he exclaims, in his lonely chamber, "on which I was born!

Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man-child is born to thee, making him very glad!

Why did I come forth from the womb that my days might be spent in shame?"

A great and good man may be urged by the sense of duty to declare truths which he knows will lead to martyrdom; but no martyr was ever insensible to suffering or shame.

All the glories of his future crown cannot sweeten the bitterness of the cup he is compelled to drain; even the greatest of martyrs prayed in his agony that the cup might pass from him.

How could a man help being sad and even bitter, if ever so exalted in soul, when he saw that his warnings were utterly disregarded, and that no mortal influence or power could avert the doom he was compelled to pronounce as an ambassador of God?

And when in addition to his grief as a patriot he was unjustly made to suffer reproach, scourgings, imprisonment, and probable death, how can we wonder that his patience was exhausted?

He felt as if a burning fire consumed his very bones, and he could refrain no longer.

He cried aloud in the intensity of his grief and pain, and Jehovah, in whom he trusted, appeared to him as a mighty champion and an everlasting support.

Jeremiah at this time, during the early years of the reign of Jehoiakim, the period of the most active part of his ministry, was about forty-five years of age.

Great events were then taking place.

Nineveh was besieged by one of its former generals,--Nabopolassar, now king of Babylon.

The siege lasted two years, and the city fell in the year 606 B. C.

, when Jehoiakim had been about four years on the throne.

The fall of this great capital enabled the son of the king of Babylonia, Nebuchadnezzar, to advance against Necho, the king of Egypt, who had taken Carchemish about three years before.

Near that ancient capital of the Hittites, on the banks of the Euphrates, one of the most important battles of antiquity was fought,--and Necho, whose armies a few years before had so successfully invaded the Assyrian empire, was forced to retreat to Egypt.

The battle of Carchemish put an end to Egyptian conquests in the East, and enabled the young sovereign of Babylonia to attain a power and elevation such as no Oriental monarch had ever before enjoyed.

Babylon became the centre of a new empire, which embraced the countries that had bowed down to the Assyrian yoke.

Nebuchadnezzar in the pride of victory now meditated the conquest of Egypt, and must needs pass through Palestine.

But Jehoiakim was a vassal of Egypt, and had probably furnished troops for Necho at the fatal battle of Carchemish.

Of course the Babylonian monarch would invade Judah on his way to Egypt, and punish its king, whom he could only look upon as an enemy.

It was then that Jeremiah, sad and desponding over the fate of Jerusalem, which he knew was doomed, committed his precious utterances to writing by the assistance of his friend and companion Baruch.

He had lately been living in retirement, feeling that his message was delivered; possibly he feared that the king would put him to death as he had the prophet Urijah.

But he wished to make one more attempt to call the people to repentance, as the only way to escape impending calamities; and he prevailed upon his secretary to read the scroll, containing all his verbal utterances, to the assembled people in the Temple, who, in view of their political dangers, were celebrating a solemn fast.

The priests and people alike, clad in black hair-cloth mantles, with ashes on their heads, lay prostrate on the ground, and by numerous sacrifices hoped to propitiate the Deity.

But not by sacrifices and fasts were they to be saved from Nebuchadnezzar's army, as Jeremiah had foretold years before.

The recital by Baruch of the calamities he had predicted made a profound impression on the crowd.

A young man, awed by what he had heard, hastened to the hall in which the princes were assembled, and told them what had been read from the prophet's scroll.

They in their turn were alarmed, and commanded Baruch to read the contents to them also.

So intense was the excitement that the matter was laid before the king, who ordered the roll to be read to him: he would hear the words that Jeremiah had caused to be written down.

But scarcely had the reading of the roll begun before he flew into a violent rage, and seizing the manuscript he cut it to pieces with the scribe's knife, and burned it upon a brazier of coals.

Orders were instantly given to arrest both Jeremiah and Baruch; but they had been warned and fled, and the place of their concealment could not be found.

Jehoiakim thus rejected the last offer of mercy with scorn and anger, although many of his officers were filled with fear.

His heart was hardened, like that of Pharaoh before Moses.

Jeremiah having learned the fate of the roll, dictated its contents anew to his faithful secretary, and a second roll was preserved, not, however, without contriving to send to the king this awful message.

"Thus saith Jehovah of thee Jehoiakim: He shall have no son to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body will be cast out to lie in the heat by day and the frost by night; and no one shall raise a lament for him when he dies.

He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn out of Jerusalem, and cast down from its gates."

No wonder that we lose sight of Jeremiah during the remainder of the reign of Jehoiakim; it was not safe for him to appear anywhere in public.

For a time his voice was not heard; yet his predictions had such weight that the king dared not defy Nebuchadnezzar when he demanded the submission of Jerusalem.

He was forced to become the vassal of the king of Babylonia, and furnish a contingent to his army.

But this vassalage bore heavily on the arrogant soul of Jehoiakim, and he seized the first occasion to rebel, especially as Necho promised him protection.

This rebellion was suicidal and fatal, since Babylon was the stronger power.

Nebuchadnezzar, after the three years of forced submission, appeared before the gates of Jerusalem with an irresistible army.

There was no resistance, as resistance was folly.

Jehoiakim was put in chains, and avoided being carried captive to Babylon only by the most abject submission to the conqueror.

All that was valuable in the Temple and the palaces was seized as spoil.

Jerusalem was spared for a while; and in the mean time Jehoiakim died, and so intensely was he hated and despised that no dirge was sung over his remains, while his dishonored body was thrown outside the walls of his capital like that of a dead ass, as Jeremiah had foretold.

On his death, B. C.

598, after a reign of eight years, his son Jehoiachin, at the age of eighteen, ascended his nominal throne.

He also, like his father, followed the lead of the heathen party.

The bitterness of the Babylonian rule, united with the intrigues of Egypt, led to a fresh revolt, and Jerusalem was invested by a powerful Chaldean army.

Jeremiah now appears again upon the stage, but only to reaffirm the calamities which impended over his nation,--all of which he traced to the decay of religion and morality.

The mission and the work of the Jews were to keep alive the worship of the One God amid universal idolatry.

Outside of this, they were nothing as a nation.

They numbered only four or five millions of people, and lived in a country not much larger than one of the northern counties of England and smaller than the state of New Hampshire or Vermont; they gave no impulse to art or science.

Yet as the guardians of the central theme of the only true religion and of the sacred literature of the Bible, their history is an important link in the world's history.

Take away the only thing which made them an object of divine favor, and they were of no more account than Hittites, or Moabites, or Philistines.

The chosen people had become idolatrous like the surrounding nations, hopelessly degenerate and wicked, and they were to receive a dreadful chastisement as the only way by which they would return to the One God, and thus act their appointed part in the great drama of humanity.

Jeremiah predicted this chastisement.

The chosen people were to suffer a seventy years' captivity, and then city and Temple were to be destroyed.

But Jeremiah, sad as he was over the fate of his nation, and terribly severe as he was in his denunciations of the national sins, knew that his people would repent by the river of Babylon, and be finally restored to their old inheritance.

Yet nothing could avert their punishment.

In less than three months after Jehoiachin became king of Judah, its capital was unconditionally surrendered to the Chaldean hosts, since resistance was vain.

No pity was shown to the rebels, though the king and nobles had appeared before Nebuchadnezzar with every mark and emblem of humiliation and submission.

The king and his court and his wives, and all the principal people of the nation, were sent to Babylon as captives and slaves.

The prompt capitulation saved the city for a time from complete destruction; but its glory was turned to shame and grief.

All that was of any value in the Temple and city was carried to the banks of the Euphrates, nearly one hundred and fifty years after Samaria had fallen from a protracted siege, and its inhabitants finally dispersed among the nations that were subject to Nineveh.

One would suppose that after so great a calamity the few remaining people in Jerusalem and in the desolate villages of Judah would have given no further molestation to their powerful and triumphant enemies.

The land was exhausted; the towns were stripped of their fighting population, and only the shadow of a kingdom remained.

Instead of appointing a governor from his own court over the conquered province, Nebuchadnezzar gave the government into the hands of Mattaniah, the third son of Josiah, a youth of twenty, changing his name to Zedekiah.

He was for a time faithful to his allegiance, and took much pains to quiet the mind of the powerful sovereign who ruled the Eastern world, and even made a journey to Babylon to pay his homage.

He was a weak prince, however, alternately swayed by the different parties,--those that counselled resistance to Babylon, and those, like Jeremiah, that advised submission.

This long-headed statesman saw clearly that rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, flushed with victory, and with the whole Eastern world at his feet, was absurd; but that the time would come when Babylon in turn should be humbled, and then the captive Hebrews would probably return to their own land, made wiser by their captivity of seventy years.

The other party, leagued with Moabites, Tyrians, Egyptians, and other nations, thought themselves strong enough to break their allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar; and bitter were the contentions of these parties.

Jeremiah had great influence with the king, who was weak rather than wicked, and had his counsels been consistently followed, Jerusalem would probably have been spared, and the Temple would, have remained.

He preferred vassalage to utter ruin.

With Babylon pressing on one side and Egypt on the other,--both great monarchies,--vassalage to one or the other of these powers was inevitable.

Indeed, vassalage had been the unhappy condition of Judah since the death of Josiah.

Of the two powers Jeremiah preferred the Chaldean rule, and persistently advised submission to it, as the only way to save Jerusalem from utter destruction.

Unfortunately Zedekiah temporized; he courted all parties in turn, and listened to the schemes of rebellion,--for all the nations of Palestine were either conquered or invaded by the Chaldeans, and wished to shake off the yoke.

Nebuchadnezzar lost faith in Zedekiah; and being irritated by his intrigues, he resolved to attack Jerusalem while he was conducting the siege of Tyre and fighting with Egypt, a rival power.

Jerusalem was in his way.

It was a small city, but it gave him annoyance, and he resolved to crush it.

It was to him what Tyre became to Alexander in his conquests.

It lay between him and Egypt, and might be dangerous by its alliances.

It was a strong citadel which he had unwisely spared, but determined to spare no longer.

The suspicions of the king of Babylonia were probably increased by the disaffection of the Jewish exiles themselves, who believed in the overthrow of Nebuchadnezzar and their own speedy return to their native hills.

A joint embassy was sent from Edom, from Moab, the Ammonites, and the kings of Tyre and Sidon, to Jerusalem, with the hope that Zedekiah would unite with them in shaking off the Babylonian yoke; and these intrigues were encouraged by Egypt.

Jeremiah, who foresaw the consequences of all this, earnestly protested.

And to make his protest more forcible, he procured a number of common ox-yokes, and having put one on his own neck while the embassy was in the city, he sent one to each of the envoys, with the following message to their masters: "Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel.

I have made the earth and man and the beasts on the face of the earth by my great power, and I give it to whom I see fit.

And now I have given all these lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to serve him.

And all nations shall serve him, till the time of his own land comes; and then many nations and great kings shall make him their servant.

And the nation and people that will not serve him, and that does not give its own neck to the yoke, that nation I will punish with sword, famine, and pestilence, till I have consumed them by his hand."

A similar message he sent to Zedekiah and the princes who seemed to have influenced him.

"Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, and ye shall live.

Do not listen to the words of the prophets who say to you, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon.

They prophesy a lie to you."

The same message in substance he sent to the priests and people, urging them not to listen to the voice of the false prophets, who based their opinions on the anticipated interference of God to save Jerusalem from destruction;

for that destruction would surely come if its people did not serve the king of Babylonia until the appointed time should come, when Babylon itself should fall into the hands of enemies more powerful than itself, even the Medes and Persians.

Jeremiah, thus brought into direct opposition to the false prophets, was exposed to their bitterest wrath.

But he was undaunted, although alone, and thus boldly addressed Hananiah, one of their leaders and himself a priest: "Hear the words that I speak in your ears.

Not I alone, but all the prophets who have been before me, have prophesied long ago war, captivity, and pestilence, while you prophesy peace."

On this, Hananiah snatched the ox-yoke from the neck of Jeremiah, and broke it, saying, "Thus saith Jehovah, Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar from the neck of all nations within two years."

Jeremiah in reply said to this false prophet that he had broken a wooden yoke only to prepare an iron one for the people; for thus saith Jehovah: "I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they shall serve the king of Babylon....

And further, hear this, O Hananiah!

Jehovah has not sent thee, but thou makest this people trust in a lie; therefore thou shalt die this very year, because thou hast spoken rebellion against Jehovah."

In two months the lying prophet was dead.

Zedekiah, now awe-struck by the death of his counsellor, made up his mind to resist the Egyptian party and remain true to Nebuchadnezzar, and resolved to send an embassy to Babylon to vindicate himself from any suspicion of disloyalty; and further, he sought to win the favor of Jeremiah by a special gift to the Temple of a set of silver vessels to replace the golden ones that had been carried to Babylon.

Jeremiah entered into his views, and sent with the embassy a letter to the exiles to warn them of the hopelessness of their cause.

It was not well received, and created great excitement and indignation, since it seemed to exhort them to settle down contentedly in their slavery.

The words of Jeremiah were, however, indorsed by the prophet Ezekiel, and he addressed the exiles from the place where he lived in Chaldaea, confirming the destruction which Jeremiah prophesied to unwilling ears.

"Behold the day!

See, it comes!

The fierceness of Chaldaea has shot up into a rod to punish the wickedness of the people of Judah.

Nothing shall remain of them.

The time is come!

Forge the chains to lead off the people captive.

Destruction comes; calamity will follow calamity!"

Meanwhile, in spite of all these warnings from both Jeremiah and Ezekiel, things were passing at Jerusalem from bad to worse, until Nebuchadnezzar resolved on taking final vengeance on a rebellious city and people that refused to look on things as they were.

Never was there a more infatuated people.

One would suppose that a city already decimated, and its principal people already in bondage in Babylon, would not dare to resist the mightiest monarch who ever reigned in the East before the time of Cyrus.

But "whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad."

Every preparation was made to defend the city.

The general of Nebuchadnezzar with a great force surrounded it, and erected towers against the walls.

But so strong were the fortifications that the inhabitants were able to stand a siege of eighteen months.

At the end of this time they were driven to desperation, and fought with the energy of despair.

They could resist battering rams, but they could not resist famine and pestilence.

After dreadful sufferings, the besieged found the soldiers of Chaldaea within their Temple, a breach in the walls having been made, and the stubborn city was taken by assault.

The few who were spared were carried away captive to Babylon with what spoil could be found, and the Temple and the walls were levelled to the ground.

The predictions of the prophets were fulfilled,--the holy city was a heap of desolation.

Zedekiah, with his wives and children, had escaped through a passage made in the wall, at a corner of the city which the Chaldeans had not been able to invest, and made his way toward Jericho, but was overtaken and carried in chains to Riblah, where Nebuchadnezzar was encamped.

As he had broken a solemn oath to remain faithful, a severe judgment was pronounced upon him.

His courtiers and his sons were executed in his sight, his own eyes were put out, and then he was taken to Babylon, where he was made to work like a slave in a mill.

Thus ended the dynasty of David, in the year 588 B. C.

, about the time that Draco gave laws to Athens, and Tarquinius Priscus was king of Rome.

As for Jeremiah, during the siege of the city he fell into the power of the nobles, who beat him and imprisoned him in a dungeon.

The king was not able to release him, so low had the royal power sunk in that disastrous age; but he secretly befriended him, and asked his counsel.

The princes insisted on his removal to a place where no succor could reach him, and he was cast into a deep well from which the water was dried up, having at the bottom only slime and mud.

From this pit of misery he was rescued by one of the royal guards, and once again he had a secret interview with Zedekiah, and remained secluded in the palace until the city fell.

He was spared by the conqueror in view of his fidelity and his earnest efforts to prevent the rebellion, and perhaps also for his lofty character, the last of the great statesmen of Judah and the most distinguished man of the city.

Nebuchadnezzar gave him the choice, to accompany him to Babylon with the promise of high favor at his court, or remain at home among the few that were not deemed of sufficient importance to carry away.

Jeremiah preferred to remain amid the ruins of his country; for although Jerusalem was destroyed, the mountains and valleys remained, and the humble classes--the peasants--were left to cultivate the neglected vineyards and cornfields.

From Mizpeh, the city which he had selected as his last resting-place, Jeremiah was carried into Egypt, and his subsequent history is unknown.

According to tradition he was stoned to death by his fellow-exiles in Egypt.

He died as he had lived, a martyr for the truth, but left behind a great name and fame.

None of the prophets was more venerated in after-ages.

And no one more than he resembled, in his sufferings and life, that greater Prophet and Sage who was led as a lamb to the slaughter, that the world through him might be saved.

JUDAS MACCABAEUS.

DIED, 160 B.

C.