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JEREMIAH
Though Zedekiah besmirched his career by perjury, he was
nevertheless so good and just a king that for his sake God
relinquished his purpose of returning the world to its original
chaos, as a punishment for the evil-doing of a wicked generation.
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In this depraved time, it was first and foremost Jeremiah to
whom was delegated the task of proclaiming the word of God. He
was a descendant of Joshua and Rahab, and his father was the
prophet (10) Hilkiah. He was born while his father was fleeing
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from the persecution of Jezebel, the murderess of prophets. At
his very birth he showed signs that he was destined to play a great
part. He was born circumcised, (12) and scarcely had he left his
mother's womb when he broke into wailing, and his voice was the
voice, not of a babe, but of a youth. He cried: "My bowels, my
bowels tremble, the walls of my heart they are disquieted, my
limbs quake, destruction upon destruction I bring upon earth." In
this strain he continued to moan and groan, complaining of the
faithlessness of his mother, and when she expressed her
amazement at the unseemly speech of her new-born son, Jeremiah
said: "Not thee do I mean, my mother, not to thee doth my
prophecy refer; I speak of Zion, and against Jerusalem are my
words directed. She adorns her daughters, arrays them in purple,
and puts golden crowns upon their heads. Robbers will come and
strip them of their ornaments."
As a lad he received the call to be a prophet. But he refused to
obey, saying: "O Lord, I cannot go as a prophet to Israel, for when
lived there a prophet whom Israel did not desire to kill? Moses and
Aaron they sought to stone with stones; Elijah the Tishbite they
mocked at because his hair was grown long; and they called after
Elisha, 'Go up, thou bald head' no, I cannot go to Israel, for I am
still naught but a lad." God replied: "I love youth, for it is innocent.
When I carried Israel out of Egypt, I called him a lad, and when I
think of Israel lovingly, I speak of him as a lad. Say not, therefore,
thou art only a lad, but thou shalt go on whatsoever errand I shall
send thee. Now, then," God, continued, "take the 'cup of wrath,'
and let the nations drink of it." Jeremiah put the question which
land was to drink first from the "cup of wrath," and the answer of
God was: "First Jerusalem is to drink, the head of all earthly
nations, and then the cities of Judah." When the prophet heard this,
he began to curse the day of his birth. "I am like the high priest,"
he said, "who has to administer the 'water of bitterness' to a woman
who is held under the suspicion of adultery, and when he
approaches the woman with the cup, lo, he beholds his own
mother. And I, O Mother Zion, thought, when I was called to
prophesy, that I was appointed to proclaim prosperity and salvation
to thee, but now I see that my message forebodes thee evil."
Jeremiah's first appearance in public was during the reign of
Josiah, when he announced to the people in the streets: "If ye will
give up your wicked doings, God will raise you above all nations;
if not, He will deliver His house into the hands of the enemies, and
they will deal with it as seemeth best to them."
The prophets contemporary with Jeremiah in his early years were
Zechariah and Huldah. The province of the latter was among
women, while Zechariah was active in the synagogue. (13) Later,
under Jehoiakim, Jeremiah was supported by the prophets of his
relative Uriah of Kiriathjearim, a friend of the prophet Isaiah. (14)
But Uriah was put to death by the ungodly king, the same who had
the first chapter of Lamentations burnt after obliterating the Name
of God wherever it occurs in the whole book. But Jeremiah added
four chapters. (15)
The prophet fell upon evil times under Zedekiah. He had both the
people and the court against him. Nor was that surprising in a day
when not even the high priests in the Temple bore the sign of the
covenant upon their bodies. (16) Jeremiah had called forth general
hostility by condemning the alliance with Egypt against Babylonia,
and favoring peace with Nebuchadnezzar; and this though to all
appearances the help of the Egyptians would prove of good effect
for the Jews. The hosts of Pharaoh Necho had actually set forth
from Egypt to join the Jews against Babylon. But when they were
on the high seas, God commanded the waters to cover themselves
with corpses. Astonished, the Egyptians asked each other, whence
the dead bodies. Presently the answer occurred to them: they were
the bodies of their ancestors drowned in the Red Sea on account of
the Jews, who had shaken off Egyptian rule. "What," said the
Egyptians thereupon, "shall we bring help to those who drowned
our fathers?" So they returned to their own country, justifying the
warning of Jeremiah, that no dependence could be put upon
Egyptian promises. (17)
A little while after this occurrence, when Jeremiah wanted to leave
Jerusalem to go to Anathoth and partake of his priestly portion
there, the watchman at the gate accused him of desiring to desert
to the enemy. He was delivered to his adversaries at court, and
they confined him in prison. The watchman knew full well that it
was a trumped up charge he was bringing against Jeremiah, and
the intention attributed to him was as far as possible from the mind
of the prophet, but he took this opportunity to vent an old family
grudge. For this gateman was a grandson of the false prophet
Hananiah, the enemy of Jeremiah, the one who had prophesied
complete victory over Nebuchadnezzar within two years. It were
proper to say, he calculated the victory rather than prophesied it.
He reasoned: "If unto Elam, which is a mere ally of the
Babylonians against the Jews, destruction has been appointed by
God through Jeremiah, so much the more will the extreme penalty
fall upon the Babylonians themselves, who have inflicted vast evil
upon the Jews." (18) Jeremiah's prophecy had been the reverse: so
far from holding forth any hope that a victory would be won over
Nebuchadnezzar, the Jewish state, he said, would suffer
annihilation. Hananiah demanded a sign betokening the truth of
Jeremiah's prophecy. But Jeremiah contended there could be no
sign for such a prophecy as his, since the Divine determination to
do evil can be annulled. On the other hand, it was the duty of
Hananiah to give a sign, for he was prophesying pleasant things,
and the Divine resolution for good is executed without. (19)
Finally, Jeremiah advanced the clinching argument: "I, a priest,
may be well content with the prophecy; it is to my interest that the
Temple should continue to stand. As for thee, thou art a Gibeonite,
thou wilt have to do a slave's service in it so long as there is a
Temple. But instead of troubling thy mind with the future in store
for others, thou shouldst rather have thought of thine own future,
for this very year thou wilt die." Hananiah, in very truth, died on
the last day of the year set as his term of life, but before his death
he ordered that it should be kept secret for two days, so to give the
lie to Jeremiah's prophecy. With his last words, addressed to his
son Shelemiah, he charged him to seek every possible way of
taking revenge upon Jeremiah, to whose curse his death was to be
ascribed. Shelemiah had no opportunity of fulfilling his father's
last behest, but it did not pass from his mind, and when he, in turn,
lay upon his death-bed, he impressed the duty of revenge upon his
son Jeriah. It was the grandson of Hananiah who, when he saw
Jeremiah leaving the city, hastened to take the opportunity of
accusing the prophet of treason. His purpose prospered. The
aristocratic enemies of Jeremiah, enraged against him, welcomed
the chance to put him behind prison bars, and gave him in charge
of a jailer, Jonathan, who had been a friend of the false prophet
Hananiah. Jonathan pleased himself by mocking at his prisoner:
"See," he would say, "see what honor thy friend does thee, to put
thee in so fine a prison as this; verily, it is a royal palace."
Despite his suffering, Jeremiah did not hold back the truth. When
the king inquired of him, whether he had a revelation from God, he
replied: "Yes, the king of Babylonia will carry thee off into exile."
To avoid irritating the king, he went into no further detail. He only
prayed the king to liberate him from prison, saying: "Even wicked
men like Hananiah and his descendants at least cast about for a
pretext when they desire to take revenge, and their example ought
not to be lost upon thee who art called Zedekiah, 'just man.'" The
king granted his petition, but Jeremiah did not enjoy liberty for
long. Hardly out of prison, he again advised the people to
surrender, and the nobility seized him and cast him into a lime pit
filled with water, where they hoped he would drown. But a miracle
happened. The water sank to the bottom, and the mud rose to the
surface, and supported the prophet above the water. Help came to
him from Ebed-melech, a "white raven," the only pious man at
court. Ebed-melech hastened to the king and spoke: "Know, if
Jeremiah perishes in the lime pit, Jerusalem will surely be
captured." With the permission of the king, Ebed-melech went to
the pit, and cried out aloud several times, "O my lord Jeremiah,"
but no answer came. Jeremiah feared the words were spoken by
his former jailer Jonathan, who had not given up his practice of
mocking at the prophet. He would come to the edge of the pit and
call down jeeringly: "Do not rest thy head on the mud, and take a
little sleep, Jeremiah." To such sneers Jeremiah made no reply,
and hence it was that Ebed-melech was left unanswered. Thinking
the prophet dead, he began to lament and tear his clothes. Then
Jeremiah, realizing that it was a friend, and not Jonathan, asked:
"Who is it that is calling my name and weeps therewith?" and he
received the assurance that Ebed-melech had come to rescue him
from his perilous position. (20)
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