"And all the men of ability, even seven thousand, and the craftsmen and the smiths, a thousand, all of them strong and ready for war; these the king of Babylon took captive to Babylon."

This was the first great deportation, in the year 597. The pride and strength of the country were taken away and led captive to a strange land.

Poor Jeremiah!

Now he did not glory in the fact that all that he had spoken had finally come true.

He wept bitterly. He mourned as if every one of the exiles had been his brothers and sisters. He could not be consoled.

But when his first grief had worn off and the Prophet had a chance to study the conditions and to consider the future, G.o.d vouchsafed to him a new message for his people--a message of hope and of promise.

CHAPTER XVIII.

_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 cla.s.s 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 G.o.d.

Zedekiah himself was feeble, slow to make up his mind and to come to a decision. He went to everybody for suggestions and help, including Jeremiah 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 amba.s.sadors 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 a.s.sist 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 amba.s.sadors, with a message to all of them advising that they permit the yoke of Babylon to remain around their necks, resting a.s.sured 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 a.s.surance of a brook running along in its smooth course.

Within a few months they were before Jerusalem and, in 588, besieged it.

CHAPTER XIX.

_A Friend in Need._

Zedekiah sent messenger after messenger into Egypt, urging, pleading, begging Hophrah to come to his a.s.sistance.

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 pa.s.s 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.