Books: Stories of the Prophets
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Isaac Landman >> Stories of the Prophets
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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 before
Nebuchadrezzar. Rings had been pierced through their noses and they
were 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.
CHAPTER XXI.
_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 are
become 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 called
The 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 that
seeketh Him.
It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the
salvation 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 it
upon 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 be
filled 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.
CHAPTER XXII.
_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 the
seed 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 and
the 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 of
the land of Egypt,
My covenant which they themselves broke and I was displeased
with them;
But this is the covenant which I will make with the house
of Israel:
"'After those days,' saith the Lord,
'I will put my teaching in their breast and on their heart will
I 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 their
sins 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.
CHAPTER XXIII.
_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 upon
Jeremiah. The very stones of which he spoke were showered upon him by
the infuriated mob.
Death, that he had often faced but escaped, now came to Jeremiah in
this way--and Baruch, loving disciple and friend that he was, and
Ebed-melech, faithful admirer and servant that he was, stood by
Jeremiah'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:
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