Zedekiah's sons, mere boys, were brought into the open s.p.a.ce 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 G.o.d:

"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 G.o.d.

He is the living G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sistance 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 n.o.ble 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 pa.s.sing 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 pa.s.s 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 G.o.d 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 compa.s.sions 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 G.o.d p.r.o.nounced 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.