_The First Deportation._
Poor, miserable Jehoiakim! He was not even given an opportunity to
meet Nebuchadrezzar on the battlefield in a single engagement. The
Babylonian had hardly entered Judean territory when Jehoiakim died and
was buried with his ancestors.
Of course, Jeremiah's prophecy, at the moment of his anger, that
Jehoiakim's body would be thrown to the dogs, did not come true; but
the king's death did not in any way put off the calamity that was to
befall Jerusalem and its people. Upon hearing of Jehoiakim's death,
Nebuchadrezzar, at Riblah, hastened his preparations to besiege
Jerusalem.
An eighteen-year-old boy, Coniah, also known as Jehoiachin, succeeded
his incapable father to the throne.
Jeremiah's advice to the young king was to submit to Nebuchadrezzar
and remain in peace. The policy of Nebuchadrezzar, with regard to his
dependencies, was that of peace. As long as they did not rebel and
paid their tribute, he left them entirely undisturbed to work out
their own futures.
So Jeremiah hoped that if Jehoiachin would at once show his
willingness to be honest with Nebuchadrezzar, there would still be a
chance for the country. Therefore he sent this message to the king:
"Say to the king and to the queen mother, 'Sit ye down low,
For from the head hath fallen your fair crown.'"
Urged on by the queen mother and his father's counselors, however,
Jehoiachin proposed to hold out against the Babylonian siege.
Jeremiah, therefore, delivered the following oration in Jerusalem:
"As I live, saith the Lord, though Coniah (Jehoiachin), the
son of Jehioakim, wore the signet ring upon my right hand,
I would pluck him thence. And I will give thee into the hand
of them that seek thy life, whom thou dreadest, into the
hands of the Chaldeans, and I will hurl thee forth, and thy
mother who bore thee, into a land where ye were not born,
and there ye shall die. But to the land for which they long
they shall not return.
"Is Coniah despised as a broken vessel and thrown forth into
a land which he knoweth not? O land, land, hear the word of
the Lord! Write down this man as childless! For no man of
his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David and
ruling any more in Judah."
But Jehoiachin continued his stubborn defense until, driven by the
horrors of famine, he
"together with his mother and his servants, his princes and
his chamberlains went to meet Nebuchadrezzar."
On this unconditional surrender, Nebuchadrezzar determined never again
to be troubled by stiff-necked, rebellious Judah. To that end he
thoroughly ransacked the treasuries of the Temple and of the royal
palace. He took away all the gold vessels that belonged to the worship
of the Temple and, in addition, carried away
"as captives, all Jerusalem and all the princes and all the
mighty warriors, even ten thousand, and all the craftsmen
and the smiths; none remained, except the poorest people of
the land.
"And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon; and the king's
mother and the king's wives, and his chamberlains, and the
chief men of the land he carried into captivity from
Jerusalem to Babylon.
"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, God vouchsafed to him
a new message for his people--a message of hope and of promise.