THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE
EDITED BY THE REV.
W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.
_Editor of "The Expositor"_
THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH
CHAPTERS XXI.-LII.
BY
W. H. BENNETT, M.A.
=London=
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
27, PATERNOSTER ROW
MDCCCXCV
THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.
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Daniel.
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The Book of Jeremiah.
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Deuteronomy.
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The Song of Solomon and
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Ezekiel.
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The Minor Prophets.
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Two Vols.
THE
BOOK OF JEREMIAH
CHAPTERS XXI.-LII.
BY
W. H. BENNETT, M.A.
PROFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE
HACKNEY AND NEW COLLEGES
=London=
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
27, PATERNOSTER ROW
MDCCCXCV
_Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._
PREFACE
The present work deals primarily with Jeremiah xxi.-lii., thus forming
a supplement to the volume of the _Expositor's Bible_ on Jeremiah by
the Rev. C. J. Ball, M.A. References to the earlier chapters are only
introduced where they are necessary to illustrate and explain the
later sections.
I regret that two important works, Prof. Skinner's _Ezekiel_ in this
series, and Cornill's _Jeremiah_ in Dr. Haupt's _Sacred Books of the
Old Testament_, were published too late to be used in the preparation
of this volume.
I have again to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Rev. T. H. Darlow,
M.A., for a careful reading and much valuable criticism of my MS.
INDEX
(_The larger figures in black type are the chief references. Passages
in i.-xx. are only noticed by way of illustration of later sections_)
CHAP. PAGE
i. 7 295
10 295, 308
10-12 340
15 295
18 82
ii. 10, 11 51
27 290
34 272
iii. 14 352
15 324
iv. 19 327
21 302
v. 31 15
vi. 28 275
vii. 4 20
5-9 272
12-14 14
ix. 11, x. 22 306
xi. 19 6
xii. 14 323
xiii. 18 90
xiv. 8 308
xv. 1 296
1-4 240
4 202
xvi. 1 6
10 274
13 308
14, 15 320
xvii. 1 353
23 291
xix. 4 272
15 304
xx. 2 272
xxi. 1-10 141
3-6 303
xxii. 1-9 295
10-12 3
13-19 63
17 272
20-30 80
xxiii., xxiv. 96
xxiii. 3-8 319
12 299, 302
14 272
25-27 288
25-32 340
33, 34 304
40 307
xxiv. 99
6, 7 319
xxv. 5 297
9 215
10 306, 307
12 316
15-38 211
34-38 101
xxvi. 10
3 298
6 307
xxvii., xxviii. 115
xxvii. 9 340
xxix. 131
8 340
10 316
4-14 259
23 273
xxx., xxxi. 319
xxxi. 31-38 346
xxxii. 308
26-35 274
34, 35 285
xxxiii. 319
xxxiv. 141
2 305
21 304
22 305
xxxv. 44
15 297
17 304
xxxvi. 28
2 298
30, 31 63
31 83, 304
xxxvii. 1-10 141
8 305
11-21 155
12 309
xxxviii. 155
xxxix. 172
15-18 155
xl. 172
xli. 172
xlii., xliii. 187
8-13 220
xliv. 197
30 220, 229
xlv. 54
xlvi. 220
25 229
xlvii. 230
xlviii. 234
xlix. 1-6 242
7-22 243
23-27 248
28-33 251
34-39 255
l., li. 258
lii. 172
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
In the present stage of investigation of Old Testament Chronology,
absolute accuracy cannot be claimed for such a table as the following.
Hardly any, if any, of these dates are supported by a general
consensus of opinion. On the other hand, the range of variation is,
for the most part, not more than three or four years, and the table
will furnish an approximately accurate idea of sequences and
synchronisms. In other respects also the data admit of alternative
interpretations, and the course of events is partly a matter of
theory--hence the occasional insertion of (?).
------------+----------------------+-----------------+---------------+
CLASSICAL | JUDAH AND JEREMIAH | ASSYRIA | EGYPT |
SYNCHRONISMS| | | |
------------+----------------------+-----------------+---------------+
Traditional | | | |
date of the | MANASSEH (?) | | |
foundation | |=Esarhaddon=, 681| |
of Rome, 753| |=Assurbanipal=, | |
| | 668 |XXVIth Dynasty |
| | | Psammetichus |
| Jeremiah born, | | I., 666 |
| probably between 655 | | |
| and 645 | | |
| AMON, 640 | | |
| JOSIAH, 638 | | |
| |Last kings of | |
|Jeremiah's call in the| Assyria, number | =Psammetichus=|
| 13th year of Josiah, | and names |besieges Ashdod|
| 626 | uncertain, |for twenty-nine|
| Scythian inroad| 626-607-6 |years |
| into Western Asia| | |
|Habakkuk |-----------------| |
|Zephaniah | BABYLON. | |
| Publication of |=Nabopolassar=, | |
| Deuteronomy, 621 | 626 | |
|Josiah slain at | | =Necho=, |
| Megiddo, 608 | | 612 |
|JEHOAHAZ, 608 |_FALL OF | |
|(xxii. 10-12, Ch. I.) | NINEVEH,_ | |
| | 607-6 | |
|Deposed by Necho, who | | |
| appoints | | |
|JEHOIAKIM, | | |
| 608 | | |
|(xxii. 13-19, xxxvi. | | |
| 30, 31, VI.) | | |
|Jeremiah predicts ruin| | |
| of Judah and is | | |
| tried for blasphemy | | |
| (xxvi., II.) | | |
| | | |
|_FOURTH YEAR OF_ | _BATTLE OF CARCHEMISH_ |
|_JEHOIAKIM_, 605-4 | (xlvi., XVII.) |
| | | |
|Nebuchadnezzar[1] | | |
| advances into Syria,| | |
| is suddenly recalled|=Nebuchadnezzar,=| |
| to Babylon-- | 604 | |
| _before_ | | |
| subduing Judah (?) | | |
| | | |
|Baruch writes | | |
| Jeremiah's prophecies| | |
| in a roll, which is | | |
| read successively to | | |
| the people, the | | |
| nobles, and | | |
| Jehoiakim, and | | |
| destroyed by the king| | |
| (xxxvi., III.; xlv., | | |
| V.) | | |
| | | |
|Nebuchadnezzar invades| | |
| Judah (?), the | | |
| Rechabites take | | |
| refuge in | | |
| Jerusalem (?), the | | |
| Jews rebuked by their| | |
| example (xxxv., IV.) | | |
| | | |
|Jehoiakim submits to | | |
| Nebuchadnezzar, | | |
| revolts after three | | |
| years, is attacked by| | |
| various "bands," but | | |
| dies before | | |
| Nebuchadnezzar | | |
| arrives | | |
|JEHOIACHIN, 597 | | |
| (xxii. 20-30, VII.)| | |
| | | |
|Continues revolt, but | | |
| surrenders to | | |
| Nebuchadnezzar on his| | |
| arrival; is deposed | | |
| and carried to | | |
| Babylon with many of | | |
| his subjects. | | |
| Nebuchadnezzar | | |
| appoints | | |
| | | |
|ZEDEKIAH, 596 | |=Psammetichus= |
| | |=II.=, 596 |
|Jeremiah attempts to | | |
| keep Zedekiah loyal | | |
| to Nebuchadnezzar, | Ezekiel | |
| and contends with | | |
| priests and prophets | | |
| who support Egyptian | | |
| party (xxiii., xxiv.,| | |
| VIII.) | | |
| | | |
Solon's |Proposed confederation| | |
legislation,| against | | |
594 | Nebuchadnezzar | | |
| denounced by | |=Hophra=, |
| Jeremiah, but | | 591 |
| supported by | | |
| Hananiah; proposal | | |
| abandoned; Hananiah | | |
| dies (xxvii., | | |
| xxviii., IX.), 593-2 | | |
| | | |
|Controversy by letter | | |
| with hostile prophets| | |
| at Babylon (xxix., | | |
| X.) | | |
| | | |
|Judah revolts, | | |
| encouraged by Hophra.| | |
| Jerusalem is besieged| | |
| by Chaldeans. There | | |
| being no prospect of | | |
| relief by Egypt, | | |
| Jeremiah regains his | | |
| influence and pledges| | |
| the people by | | |
| covenant to release | | |
| their slaves. | | |
| | | |
|On the news of | | |
| Hophra's advance, the| | |
| Chaldeans raise the | | |
| siege; the Egyptian | | |
| party again become | | |
| supreme and annul the| | |
| covenant (xxi. 1-10, | | |
| xxxiv., xxxvii. 1-10,| | |
| XI.) | | |
| | | |
|Jeremiah attempts to | | |
| leave the city, is | | |
| arrested and | | |
| imprisoned | | |
|Hophra retreats into | | |
| Egypt and the | | |
| Chaldeans renew the | | |
| siege (xxxvii. 11-21,| | |
| xxxviii., xxxix. | | |
| 15-18, XII.) | | |
| | | |
|While imprisoned | | |
| Jeremiah buys his | | |
| kinsman's inheritance| | |
| (xxxii., XXX.) | | |
| | | |
|_DESTRUCTION OF | Siege of Tyre | |
| JERUSALEM_, 586 | | |
| | | |
|Jeremiah remains for a| | |
| month a prisoner | | |
| amongst the other | | |
| captives. Nebuzaradan| | |
| arrives; arranges for| | |
| deportation of bulk | | |
| of population; | | |
| appoints Gedaliah | | |
| governor of residue; | | |
| releases Jeremiah, | | |
| who elects to join | | |
| Gedaliah at Mizpah. | | |
| Gedaliah murdered. | | |
| Jeremiah carried off,| | |
| but rescued by | | |
| Johanan (xxxix.-xli.,| | |
| lii., XIII.) | | |
| | | |
|Johanan, in spite of | | |
| Jeremiah's protest, | | |
| goes down to Egypt | | |
| and takes Jeremiah | | |
| with him (xlii., | | |
| xliii., XIV.) | | |
| | | |
|Jews in Egypt hold | | |
| festival in honour of| | |
| Queen of Heaven. | |=Amasis=, |
| Ineffectual protest | | 570 |
| of Jeremiah (xliv., | | |
| XV.) | | |
| |Nebuchadnezzar invades Egypt, (?)|
| | 568 |
Pistratus, | |=Evil-Merodach=, | |
560-527 |Release of Jehoiachin | 561 | |
| | | |
|_CYRUS CONQUERS BABYLON AND GIVES_ | |
|_THE JEWS PERMISSION TO RETURN,_ | |
|_538_ | |
FOOTNOTE:
[1] For spelling see note, page 4
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v
INDEX OF CHAPTERS vii
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE ix
BOOK I
_PERSONAL UTTERANCES AND
NARRATIVES_
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY: JEHOAHAZ. xxii. 10-12 3
"Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for
him that goeth away: for he shall return no more."--xxii, 10
CHAPTER II
A TRIAL FOR HERESY. xxvi.: cf. vii.-x. 10
"When Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that Jehovah had
commanded him to speak unto all the people, the priests and the
prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying, Thou shalt
surely die."--xxvi. 8
CHAPTER III
THE ROLL. xxxvi. 28
"Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that
I have spoken unto thee."--xxxvi. 2
CHAPTER IV
THE RECHABITES. xxxv. 44
"Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before Me
for ever."--xxxv. 19
CHAPTER V
BARUCH. xlv. 54
"Thy life will I give unto thee for a prey."--xlv. 5
CHAPTER VI
THE JUDGMENT ON JEHOIAKIM. xxii. 13-19, xxxvi. 30, 31 63
"Jehoiakim ... slew him (Uriah) with the sword, and cast his dead
body into the graves of the common people."--xxvi. 23
"Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim, ... He shall
be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond
the gates of Jerusalem."--xxii. 18, 19
Jehoiakim ... did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah,
according to all that his fathers had done.--2 KINGS xxiii. 36, 37
CHAPTER VII
JEHOIACHIN. xxii. 20-30 80
"A despised broken vessel."--xxii. 28
"A young lion. And he went up and down among the lions, he became
a young lion and he learned to catch the prey, he devoured
men."--EZEK. xix. 5, 6
"Jehoiachin ... did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all
that his father had done."--2 KINGS xxiv. 8, 9
CHAPTER VIII
BAD SHEPHERDS AND FALSE PROPHETS. xxiii.; xxiv. 96
"Woe unto the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of My
pasture!"--xxii. 1
"Of what avail is straw instead of grain?... Is not My word like
fire, ... like a hammer that shattereth the rocks?"--xxiii. 28, 29
CHAPTER IX
HANANIAH. xxvii., xxviii. 115
"Hear now, Hananiah; Jehovah hath not sent thee, but thou makest
this people to trust in a lie."--xxviii. 15
CHAPTER X
CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE EXILES. xxix. 131
"Jehovah make thee like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of
Babylon roasted in the fire."--xxix. 22
CHAPTER XI
A BROKEN COVENANT. xxi. 1-10, xxxiv.; xxxvii. 1-10 141
"All the princes and people ... changed their minds and reduced to
bondage again all the slaves whom they had set free."--xxxiv. 10,
11
CHAPTER XII
JEREMIAH'S IMPRISONMENT. xxxvii. 11-21, xxxviii.,
xxxix. 15-18 155
"Jeremiah abode in the court of the guard until the day that
Jerusalem was taken."--xxxviii. 28
CHAPTER XIII
GEDALIAH. xxxix.-xli., lii. 172
"Then arose Ishmael ben Nethaniah, and the ten men that were with
him, and smote with the sword and slew Gedaliah ben Ahikam ben
Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon had made king over the
land."--xli. 2
CHAPTER XIV
THE DESCENT INTO EGYPT. xlii., xliii. 187
"They came into the land of Egypt, for they obeyed not the voice
of Jehovah."--xliii. 7
CHAPTER XV
THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN. xliv. 197
"Since we left off burning incense and offering libations to the
Queen of Heaven, we have been in want of everything, and have been
consumed by the sword and the famine."--xliv. 18
BOOK II
_PROPHECIES CONCERNING FOREIGN
NATIONS_
CHAPTER XVI
JEHOVAH AND THE NATIONS. xxv. 15-38 211
"Jehovah hath a controversy with the nations."--xxv. 31
CHAPTER XVII
EGYPT. xliii. 8-13, xliv. 30, xlvi. 220
"I will visit Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods
and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in
him."--xlvi. 25
CHAPTER XVIII
THE PHILISTINES. xlvii. 230
"O sword of Jehovah, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up
thyself into thy scabbard; rest, and be still."--xlvii. 6
CHAPTER XIX
MOAB. xlviii. 234
"Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath
magnified himself against Jehovah."--xlviii. 42
"Chemosh said to me, Go, take Nebo against Israel ... and I took
it ... and I took from it the vessels of Jehovah, and offered them
before Chemosh."--MOABITE STONE.
"Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter
days."--xlviii. 47
CHAPTER XX
AMMON. xlix. 1-6 242
"Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why then doth Moloch
possess Gad, and his people dwell in the cities thereof?"--xlix. 1
CHAPTER XXI
EDOM. xlix. 7-22 243
"Bozrah shall become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a
curse."--xlix. 13
CHAPTER XXII
DAMASCUS. xlix. 23-27 248
"I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour
the palaces of Benhadad."--xlix. 27
CHAPTER XXIII
KEDAR AND HAZOR. xlix. 28-33 251
"Concerning Kedar, and the kingdoms of Hazor which Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon smote."--xlix. 28
CHAPTER XXIV
ELAM. xlix. 34-39 255
"I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might."--xlix.
35
CHAPTER XXV
BABYLON. l., li. 258
"Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in
pieces."--l. 2
BOOK III
_JEREMIAH'S TEACHING CONCERNING
ISRAEL AND JUDAH_
CHAPTER XXVI
INTRODUCTORY 267
"I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall
be My people."--xxxi. 1
CHAPTER XXVII
SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CORRUPTION 270
"Very bad figs, ... too bad to be eaten."--xxiv. 2, 8, xxix. 17
CHAPTER XXVIII
PERSISTENT APOSTASY 283
"They have forsaken the covenant of Jehovah their God, and
worshipped other gods, and served them."--xxii. 9
"Every one that walketh in the stubbornness of his heart."--xxiii.
17
CHAPTER XXIX
RUIN. xxii. 1-9, xxvi. 14 295
"The sword, the pestilence, and the famine."--xxi, 9 _and passim_.
"Terror on every side."--vi. 25, xx. 10, xlvi. 5, xlix. 29; _also
as proper name_, MAGOR-MISSABIB, xx. 3
CHAPTER XXX
RESTORATION--I. THE SYMBOL. xxxii. 308
"And I bought the field of Hanameel."--xxxii. 9
CHAPTER XXXI
RESTORATION--II. THE NEW ISRAEL. xxiii. 3-8, xxiv.
6, 7, xxx., xxxi., xxxiii. 319
"In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell
safely: and this is the name whereby she shall be called, Jehovah
our Righteousness."--xxxiii. 16
CHAPTER XXXII
RESTORATION--III. REUNION. xxxi. 329
"I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the
seed of man, and with the seed of beast."--xxxi. 27
CHAPTER XXXIII
RESTORATION--IV. THE NEW COVENANT. xxxi. 31-38:
cf. Hebrews viii. 346
"I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house
of Judah."--xxxi. 31
CHAPTER XXXIV
RESTORATION--V. REVIEW. xxx.-xxxiii. 357
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER XXXV
JEREMIAH AND CHRIST 367
"Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from amongst
thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him shall ye
hearken."--DEUT. xviii. 15
"Jesus ... asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that the
Son of Man is? And they said, Some say John the Baptist; some,
Elijah: and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets."--MATT. xvi.
13, 14
BOOK I
_PERSONAL UTTERANCES AND NARRATIVES_
CHAPTER I
_INTRODUCTORY:_[2] _JEHOAHAZ_
xxii. 10-12.
"Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for
him that goeth away: for he shall return no more."--JER. xxii. 10.
As the prophecies of Jeremiah are not arranged in the order in which
they were delivered, there is no absolute chronological division
between the first twenty chapters and those which follow. For the most
part, however, chapters xxi.-lii. fall in or after the fourth year of
Jehoiakim (B.C. 605). We will therefore briefly consider the situation
at Jerusalem in this crisis. The period immediately preceding B.C. 605
somewhat resembles the era of the dissolution of the Roman Empire or
of the Wars of the French Revolution. An old-established international
system was breaking in pieces, and men were quite uncertain what form
the new order would take. For centuries the futile assaults of the
Pharaohs had only served to illustrate the stability of the Assyrian
supremacy in Western Asia. Then in the last two decades of the seventh
century B.C. the Assyrian Empire collapsed, like the Roman Empire
under Honorius and his successors. It was as if by some swift
succession of disasters modern France or Germany were to become
suddenly and permanently annihilated as a military power. For the
moment, all the traditions and principles of European statesmanship
would lose their meaning, and the shrewdest diplomatist would be
entirely at fault. Men's reason would totter, their minds would lose
their balance at the stupendous spectacle of so unparalleled a
catastrophe. The wildest hopes would alternate with the extremity of
fear; everything would seem possible to the conqueror.
Such was the situation in B.C. 605, to which our first great group of
prophecies belongs. Two oppressors of Israel--Assyria and Egypt--had
been struck down in rapid succession. When Nebuchadnezzar[3] was
suddenly recalled to Babylon by the death of his father, the Jews
would readily imagine that the Divine judgment had fallen upon Chaldea
and its king. Sanguine prophets announced that Jehovah was about to
deliver His people from all foreign dominion, and establish the
supremacy of the Kingdom of God. Court and people would be equally
possessed with patriotic hope and enthusiasm. Jehoiakim, it is true,
was a nominee of Pharaoh Necho; but his gratitude would be far too
slight to override the hopes and aspirations natural to a Prince of
the House of David.
In Hezekiah's time, there had been an Egyptian and an Assyrian party
at the court of Judah; the recent supremacy of Egypt had probably
increased the number of her partisans. Assyria had disappeared, but
her former adherents would retain their antipathy to Egypt, and their
personal feuds with Jews of the opposite faction; they were as tools
lying ready to any hand that cared to use them. When Babylon succeeded
Assyria in the overlordship of Asia, she doubtless inherited the
allegiance of the anti-Egyptian party in the various Syrian states.
Jeremiah, like Isaiah, steadily opposed any dependence upon Egypt; it
was probably by his advice that Josiah undertook his ill-fated
expedition against Pharaoh Necho. The partisans of Egypt would be the
prophet's enemies; and though Jeremiah never became a mere dependent
and agent of Nebuchadnezzar, yet the friends of Babylon would be his
friends, if only because her enemies were his enemies.
We are told in 2 Kings xxiii. 37 that Jehoiakim did evil in the sight
of Jehovah according to all that his father had done. Whatever other
sins may be implied by this condemnation, we certainly learn that the
king favoured a corrupt form of the religion of Jehovah in opposition
to the purer teaching which Jeremiah inherited from Isaiah.
When we turn to Jeremiah himself, the date "the fourth year of
Jehoiakim" reminds us that by this time the prophet could look back upon
a long and sad experience; he had been called in the thirteenth year of
Josiah, some twenty-four years before. With what sometimes seems to our
limited intelligence the strange irony of Providence, this lover of
peace and quietness was called to deliver a message of ruin and
condemnation, a message that could not fail to be extremely offensive
to most of his hearers, and to make him the object of bitter hostility.
Much of this Jeremiah must have anticipated, but there were some from
whose position and character the prophet expected acceptance, even of
the most unpalatable teaching of the Spirit of Jehovah. The personal
vindictiveness with which priests and prophets repaid his loyalty to
the Divine mission and his zeal for truth came to him with a shock of
surprise and bewilderment, which was all the greater because his most
determined persecutors were his sacerdotal kinsmen and neighbours at
Anathoth. "Let us destroy the tree," they said, "with the fruit
thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his
name may be no more remembered."[4]
He was not only repudiated by his clan, but also forbidden by Jehovah
to seek consolation and sympathy in the closer ties of family life:
"Thou shalt not take a wife, thou shalt have no sons or daughters."[5]
Like Paul, it was good for Jeremiah "by reason of the present
distress" to deny himself these blessings. He found some compensation
in the fellowship of kindred souls at Jerusalem. We can well believe
that, in those early days, he was acquainted with Zephaniah, and that
they were associated with Hilkiah and Shaphan and King Josiah in the
publication of Deuteronomy and its recognition as the law of Israel.
Later on Shaphan's son Ahikam protected Jeremiah when his life was in
imminent danger.
The twelve years that intervened between Josiah's Reformation and his
defeat at Megiddo were the happiest part of Jeremiah's ministry. It is
not certain that any of the extant prophecies belong to this period.
With Josiah on the throne and Deuteronomy accepted as the standard of
the national life, the prophet felt absolved for a season from his
mission to pluck up and break down, and perhaps began to indulge in
hopes that the time had come to build and to plant. Yet it is
difficult to believe that he had implicit confidence in the permanence
of the Reformation or the influence of Deuteronomy. The silence of
Isaiah and Jeremiah as to the ecclesiastical reforms of Hezekiah and
Josiah stands in glaring contrast to the great importance attached to
them by the Books of Kings and Chronicles. But, in any case, Jeremiah
must have found life brighter and easier than in the reigns that
followed. Probably, in these happier days, he was encouraged by the
sympathy and devotion of disciples like Baruch and Ezekiel.
But Josiah's attempt to realise a Kingdom of God was short-lived; and,
in a few months, Jeremiah saw the whole fabric swept away. The king
was defeated and slain; and his religious policy was at once reversed
either by a popular revolution or a court intrigue. The people of the
land made Josiah's son Shallum king, under the name of Jehoahaz. This
young prince of twenty-three only reigned three months, and was then
deposed and carried into captivity by Pharaoh Necho; yet it is
recorded of him, that he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according
to all that his fathers had done.[6] He--or, more probably, his
ministers, especially the queen-mother[7]--must have been in a hurry
to undo Josiah's work. Jeremiah utters no condemnation of Jehoahaz; he
merely declares that the young king will never return from his exile,
and bids the people lament over his captivity as a more grievous fate
than the death of Josiah:--
"Weep not for the dead,
Neither lament over him:
But weep sore for him that goeth into captivity;
For he shall return no more,
Neither shall he behold his native land."[8]
Ezekiel adds admiration to sympathy: Jehoahaz was a young lion skilled
to catch the prey, he devoured men, the nations heard of him, he was
taken in their pit, and they brought him with hooks into the land of
Egypt.[9] Jeremiah and Ezekiel could not but feel some tenderness
towards the son of Josiah; and probably they had faith in his personal
character, and believed that in time he would shake off the yoke of
evil counsellors and follow in his father's footsteps. But any such
hopes were promptly disappointed by Pharaoh Necho, and Jeremiah's
spirit bowed beneath a new burden as he saw his country completely
subservient to the dreaded influence of Egypt.
Thus, at the time when we take up the narrative, the government was in
the hands of the party hostile to Jeremiah, and the king, Jehoiakim,
seems to have been his personal enemy. Jeremiah himself was somewhere
between forty and fifty years old, a solitary man without wife or
child. His awful mission as the herald of ruin clouded his spirit with
inevitable gloom. Men resented the stern sadness of his words and
looks, and turned from him with aversion and dislike. His unpopularity
had made him somewhat harsh; for intolerance is twice curst, in that
it inoculates its victims with the virus of its own bitterness. His
hopes and illusions lay behind him; he could only watch with
melancholy pity the eager excitement of these stirring times. If he
came across some group busily discussing the rout of the Egyptians at
Carchemish, or the report that Nebuchadnezzar was posting in hot haste
to Babylon, and wondering as to all that this might mean for Judah,
his countrymen would turn to look with contemptuous curiosity at the
bitter, disappointed man who had had his chance and failed, and now
grudged them their prospect of renewed happiness and prosperity.
Nevertheless Jeremiah's greatest work still lay before him. Jerusalem
was past saving; but more was at stake than the existence of Judah and
its capital. But for Jeremiah the religion of Jehovah might have
perished with His Chosen People. It was his mission to save Revelation
from the wreck of Israel. Humanly speaking, the religious future of
the world depended upon this stern solitary prophet.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Cf. Preface.
[3] We know little of Nebuchadnezzar's campaigns. In 2 Kings xxiv. 1
we are told that Nebuchadnezzar "came up" in the days of Jehoiakim,
and Jehoiakim became his servant three years. It is not clear whether
Nebuchadnezzar "came up" immediately after the battle of Carchemish,
or at a later time after his return to Babylon. In either case the
impression made by his hasty departure from Syria would be the same.
Cf. Cheyne, _Jeremiah_ (Men of the Bible), p. 132. I call the Chaldean
king Nebuchadnezzar--not Nebuchadrezzar--because the former has been
an English household word for centuries.
[4] xi. 19.
[5] xvi. 2.
[6] 2 Kings xxiii. 30-32.
[7] Cf. xxii. 26.
[8] xxii. 10-12.
[9] Ezek. xix. 3, 4.