LECTURE L. RESIDUE OF JEREMIAH'S PROPHECIES, AND LAMENTATIONS. HISTORICAL MISCELLANY, EXTENDING THROUGH TEN CHAPTERS. TRANS- SUBSEQUENT EVENT. - Book THE portion of the Book of Jeremiah hitherto examined, we have found to consist of a collection of poems, with here and there some sentences of prose in the way of explanation and connection. The same is the character of the smaller part of the residue of the book. Two passages are of a different description; namely, the collection of disconnected narratives, extending through ten chapters from the beginning of the thirty-sixth (interspersed with which are, however, some poetical compositions), and the account of the destruction of Jerusalem in the fifty-second chapter, which closes the book. The historical miscellany beginning with the thirtysixth chapter consists of eight distinct narratives, arranged without regard to chronological order, either with reference to one another, or to the previous or succeeding parts of the book. The first relates to a collection made by the prophet, with the assistance of " Baruch, the son of Neriah," of his writings previous to the fourth year of Jehoiakim;* to its being read in the presence first of the people, by Baruch, in the hope of moving them to peni tence, then of "all the princes," and lastly of the king; to its destruction by the king's command, whose rage Jeremiah and Baruch only escaped by concealing themselves; § and to its restoration, with additions, by Jeremiah and his scribe. It may be thought to follow from this history, that the copy in our hands of any earlier compositions of Jeremiah was not committed to writing before the fifth year of the successor of that king in whose reign the earliest of them are said to have been produced. The second narrative, overleaping the space between the fifth year of Jehoiakim and the reign of Zedekiah, relates the arrest and imprisonment of Jeremiah on a charge of treachery, and because of his obstinacy in * Jer. xxxvi. 1-4. xxxvi. 11-21. † xxxvi. 5-10. || xxxvi. 27-32. For remarks on verse 30, see below, p. 392. Comp. i. 2; xxxvi. 9, 28. asserting that Jerusalem was in danger from the Chaldeans, even though the Chaldean army, on the rumor of an advance of the Egyptians, had broken up its camp before that city, and raised the siege.* After a long confinement in a dungeon, Jeremiah is said to have told the king, in a private interview, that the Babylonians would take him prisoner, and remonstrating with him for the unjust severity of the treatment which he had suffered, and pointing out the folly of the confidence which had been placed in false prophets, to have solicited a mitigation of the rigor of his imprisonment. "Then Zedekiak, the king, commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city should be consumed. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison." † The third narrative gives an account of Jeremiah's imprisonment, differing from the former in some important particulars. According to this, he was imprisoned on the charge of Shephatiah and others, and not on that of Irijah; he was confined in the dungeon of Malchiah, and not in that of Jonathan; it was by the interposition of Ebedmelech, who is not mentioned in the other account, that Jeremiah obtained an audience of the king, having been dragged up for that purpose by cords, from the vault where he was confined; § and various new particulars are given of the conference with Zedekiah, of which the principal is, that the prophet told him that it was yet in his power, by timely submission to the Babylonians, to save * Jer. xxxvii. 1-15.-"Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah "(3); comp. p. 361, note . txxxvii. 16-21. § xxxviii. 7 – 13. xxxviii. 1-6; comp. xxxvii. 1–15. himself and the city. The last verses of the chap ter record a deception on Jeremiah's part, which it seems unlikely that he would have himself wished to bequeathe to the knowledge of later times.† We next read of the proceedings of Nebuchadnezzar with Zedekiah and Jeremiah respectively, on the occasion of the capture and sack of Jerusalem. It is related, that, when the Babylonians had pushed the siege so far as to be about to take possession of the city, Zedekiah attempted to escape by night, but, being pursued and taken, was brought before Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, who, having caused his sons "and all the nobles of Judah" to be put to death before his eyes, had him deprived of sight, and conveyed in that condition to Babylon. "And the Chaldeans burned the king's house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and they broke down the walls of Jerusalem. And the residue of the people, that remained in the city, and the deserters who had come over to him, the residue of the people that remained, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried away to Babylon. But the poor of the people, who had nothing, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, left in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields." + By the command of Nebuchadnezzar to his general, Jeremiah was released from prison and conducted to his home with the distinguished attendance of the newly appointed viceroy,- his friend Ebedmelech, to whom he had been indebted for release from Malchiah's dungeon, having, it seems, shared in his exemption from the troubles of the time, agreeably * Jer. xxxviii. 14-23. — With chaps. xxxvii. and xxxviii., comp. xxi. 1-10. The three have such points of resemblance as strongly to suggest the idea of a common origin. xxxviii. 24-28; comp. xxxvii. 20, 21. xxxix. 1-10. to hopes which, in his gratitude for that service, the prophet had conceived, and perhaps expressed.* In a repetition of the statement of his release by the Chaldee officers, the circumstances of that transaction are dwelt upon with more particularity. With the rest of his countrymen, he had been conducted in chains as far as Ramah, on the way to the land of exile. There "Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard," having urged the propriety of regarding the calamity which had fallen upon the nation as the fit punishment of their disobedience to their God, gave the prophet the option of accompanying him to Babylon, and living there under his protection, of returning to Gedaliah, "made governor over the cities of Judah," or of establishing himself elsewhere. Jeremiah having elected to go to Mizpah, and dwell there under Gedaliah's government, "the captain of the guard gave him provisions, and a present, and dismissed him.” † The remainder of this historical portion relates the surrender of the scattered Jewish forces to the Babylonish governor; the return of fugitives from the neighbouring regions, and their reëstablishment in industrious pursuits under his assurance of protection; § the generous incredulity with which he listened to information of a plot of the king of the Ammonites against his life; his assassination, and that of a number of his adherents, with other acts of treacherous violence, by Ishmael, a Jew of the royal family, whom he had refused to allow to be put to death, when apprised Jer. xxxviii. 11-13. - Possibly we are to understand that that interest with the Chaldeans which caused him to be treated by them with such marked attention, and which had before made him an object of suspicion with his countrymen (comp. xxxvii. 13-15), had enabled him to repay Ebedmelech's kindness by providing for his safety. † xl. 1-6. Ó xl. 7 - 12. With xli. - xliii. 7 comp. 2 Kings xxv. 22 - 26. |