but ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof 1-the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf-I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth. And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which are gone up from you. Behold, I will command, saith the Lord, and cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without an inhabitant.

Jeremiah's Imprisonment (Jer. xxxvii. 3-21; xxxviii.). And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying: "Pray now unto the Lord our God for us." Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people: for they had not put him into prison. And Pharaoh's army was come forth out of Egypt: and when the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they departed from Jerusalem.

3

1 See p. 23 and note. In this ceremony the two parties to the agreement passed between the divided pieces of the victim, invoking a like fate upon themselves, if they proved false to it.

2 See the next note.

8 This Pharaoh was Apries, called Hophra by the Hebrews, who began to reign 588 B. c. He had evidently encouraged the revolt of Judah and its neighbors against Babylon, in the hope of recovering them to the Egyptian rule. After operating against Tyre and Sidon, he moved south in the spring of

Then came the word of the Lord unto the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Thus shall ye say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me to enquire of me: Behold, Pharaoh's army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land. And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire. Thus saith the Lord; Deceive not yourselves, saying: "The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us: " 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 among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.

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And it came to pass, that when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army, then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to take his portion 1 thence in the midst of the people. And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying: "Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans." Then said Jeremiah: "It is false; I fall not away to the Chaldeans." But he hearkened not to him: so Irijah took Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes. Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in the house of Jonathan the scribe for they had made that the prison.

:

When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon, and into the cabins, and Jeremiah had remained there many days; then Zedekiah the king sent, and took him out: and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said: "Is there any word from the Lord?" And Jeremiah said: "There is: for, said he, thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon." Moreover Jeremiah said unto king Zedekiah: "What have I offended against thee, or against thy servants, or against this people, that ye have put me in prison? Where are now your prophets which prophesied unto you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land? Therefore hear now, I pray thee, O my lord the king: let my supplication, I pray thee, be

586 B. C., and interrupted the siege of Jerusalem. His troops, however, could not cope with the Babylonian army, so that he retired without accomplishing anything.

1 take his portion. Receive an inheritance.

accepted before thee; that thou cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there." Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the guard, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city were spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

Then Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashur the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken unto all the people, saying: "Thus saith the Lord, He that remaineth. in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live. Thus saith the Lord, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which shall take it." Therefore the princes said unto the king: "We beseech thee, let this man be put to death for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in the city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt." Then Zedekiah the king said: "Behold, he is in your hand:" for the king was not able to do any thing against them. Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the king's son, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.

Now when Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon; the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin; Ebed-melech went forth out of the king's house, and spake to the king, saying: "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 dungeon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is: for there is no more bread in the city." Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying: "Take from hence thirty men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die." So Ebed-melech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took thence torn 1 thirty. Probably a copyist's error for three.

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and tattered rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah. And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah: "Put now these old cast clouts and rotten rags under thine armholes under the cords." And Jeremiah did so. So they drew up Jeremiah with cords, and took him up out of the dungeon and Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

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Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the third entry that is in the house of the Lord: and the king said unto Jeremiah: "I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me." Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah: "If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, thou wilt not hearken unto me." So Zedekiah the king sware secretly unto Jeremiah, saying: "As the Lord liveth, that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life." Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah: "Thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house: but if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand." And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah: "I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me." But Jeremiah said: "They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live. But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that the Lord hath shewed me: Behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house were brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes, while they said,

Thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against

thee:

Thy feet are sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back.

So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans: and thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon and this city shall be burned with fire."

Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah: "Let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not die. But if the princes hear that I have talked with thee, and they come unto thee, and say unto thee, Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king, hide it not from us, and we will not put thee to death; also what the king said unto thee: then thou shalt say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house, to die there."

Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, and asked him: and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived. So Jeremiah abode in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken.

The Fall of Jerusalem (2 Kings xxv. 3-21; Jer. lii. 28-30; xxxix. 11-14). And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. Then a breach was made in the city, and the king and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden (now the Chaldees were against the city round about); and the king went the way toward the plain.' But the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho and all his army were scattered from him. So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah, where he gave judgment upon him. And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.

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And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: and he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire.

And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about. And the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the residue of the artificers, did Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carry 1 the plain. The Arabah or Jordan valley. 2 nineteenth year. 586 B. C.