AND it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.

He took a potter's bottle into the valley of Hinnom, assembled the elders, and breaking the vessel in their sight, declared that so Jerusalem should be destroyed on account of their sins (chapter 19).

He used two baskets of figs, one of very good ones, the other of very bad, as an object lesson (chapter 24).

He brought the Rechabites, who were driven into the city to escape from being plundered and murdered by the Babylonian army, before the people and had them openly refuse to drink the wine which he offered them, out of obedience to their father or ancestor (chapter 35).

Perhaps we will understand Jeremiah better if we realize the noble superiority of spiritual to physical courage. Some one reported to Napoleon that one of his officers turned pale when ordered to a dangerous duty. "That officer," replied Napoleon, "is one of the bravest in the whole army; he sees most clearly the danger, but will do his duty in spite of it."

Note God's Warning Mercies, making the way of transgressors hard, very hard, to keep the nation from rushing on to their own destruction. (1) He suffered them to endure various lesser evils as warnings. These were devastations of the country from which a few years would suffice to recover. Then Jerusalem was captured and part of its treasure removed; but the city was not destroyed, and the temple stood. Kings were made captive as a warning to coming kings; but new kings were chosen, and the kingdom remained. These were warnings, not destruction.

(2) The doom came slowly, and in mercy, to give time for thought and repentance. (3) Prophets were sent to warn and entreat. Jeremiah had been speaking God's word to them for forty years in Jerusalem. For nearly ten years Ezekiel, also, from the land of captivity in Babylonia, had been uttering earnest words to the Jews in Palestine.

III. THE AVALANCHE. JERUSALEM DESTROYED. THE THIRD CAPTIVITY, 2 Kings 25 1-21. Nearly 12 years after the second captivity. The siege lasted a year and a half, 588586. "The siege began near the close of December 588 B.C., and the city was captured in June, 586 B.C., and burned a month later (2 Kings 251, 3, 8; Jer. 39: 1-2; 52: I, 4, 6; Ezek. 24: 1)."

Date of Commencement. 1. In the ninth year of his (Zedekiah's) reign, in the tenth month, of the Jewish year, the month Thebet, corresponding to parts of our December and January, varying with the new moon. The author of Kings says the siege began in the tenth day of this month. The time may be judged from the fact that, in 1916-17, the tenth day of the tenth month, Thebet, is January 4. Nebuchadnezzar, more correctly "Nebuchadrezzar," King of Babylon in the eighteenth year of his reign, came, he, and all his host against Jerusalem, and built forts against it round about. "These forts were probably movable wooden towers, sometimes provided with battering-rams, which the besiegers advanced against the walls, thus bringing their fighting men on a level with their antagonists. Such towers are seen in the Assyrian sculptures (Layard, Monuments of Nineveh)." - Cook. Thus the city was surrounded by the Babylonian armies to prevent all provisions from entering, in order to starve the inhabitants into submission, if they could not break down the walls.

Ancient Battering Ram.

2. And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 3. And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

4. And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.

2. And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, from the tenth month of the ninth year of his reign, B.C. 588, to June, B.C. 586, almost exactly a year and six months. "The thud of the battering-rams shook the walls day and night; archers made the defence increasingly hard, by constant showers of arrows from the high wooden forts; catapults of all sizes hurled stones into the town with a force as deadly as that of modern bullets, and darts tipped with fire kindled the roofs of houses; mines were dug under the walls, and attempts at escalade by ladders were renewed at every favorable opportunity." Geikie.

3. The famine prevailed (Am. R., was sore") . . . and there was no bread. For the horrors of this siege see Lamentations. Mothers were at last driven to murder and eat their children. The richest citizens, even ladies in their magnificent crimson robes, wandered about searching for scraps in the dunghills (Lam. 4:510). The houses were full of the sick and wounded; bloody fights between contending parties, as to surrendering or holding out, crowded the streets with fresh horrors; the roar of the siege night and day filled the air. Geikie. "Their tongues cleaved to the roof of their mouths. All that happened six centuries later, during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, happened now. Then Martha, the daughter of Nicodemus ben-Gorion, once a lady of enormous wealth, was seen picking the grains of corn from the offal of the streets; now the women who had fed delicately and been brought up in scarlet were seen sitting desolate on heaps of dung."

The Brave Defence. "Houses were demolished, that new walls might be built of their materials, inside each spot weakened by the battering-rams (Jer. 33: 4). The ramparts were vigorously defended by archers and slingers, equal in bravery to those of the Chaldeans. The rams were caught, when possible, by doubled chains or ropes to weaken their blows, or, if it might be, to capsize them. Lighted torches and firebrands were thrown on their roofs and on those of the catapults, to set them on fire. The gates of the town were zealously defended against the efforts of the enemy to burst them open or to burn them.' Geikie.

Jeremiah's Faith Proved by his Land Purchase. We read in Jer. 32: 6-15 that the prophet during the siege bought a piece of land on which the Chaldean army were encamped, showing

his perfect faith in the Word of God which he preached, and in the promise of a return. The deeds were written on a clay tablet as in Nineveh at that time. "Jeremiah's deed of purchase, moreover, was preserved in a jar, like the numerous clay deeds of the Egibi banking firm, which existed at Babylon from the age of Nebuchadnezzar to that of Xerxes. These jars served the purpose of our modern safes." Sayce's Fresh Light, p. 105. The whole transaction was striking at such a time. It reminds us of the Roman, who, nearly four hundred years later, bought at its full price the land on which Hannibal's camp was pitched, outside the gates of Rome. The Fate of King Zedekiah. 4. The city was broken up. Broken into; i.e. a

From an old print.

5. And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho and all his army were scattered from him. 6. So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him.

7. And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.

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breach was made in the walls, and the city was entered at midnight (Josephus ; Ezek. 122-12; in the dark," Am. R.). The entrance was effected by the northern gate (Ezek. 9 2). This part of the wall could most easily be reached by their battering-rams. And all the men of war fled. And King Zedekiah with them (Jer. 39: 4). The gate between two walls. As the invaders were entering from the north, the king naturally fled toward the south; and the path which he chose was that which wound down the Tyropoon valley, between the two walls of Moriah on his left, and Zion on his right. This path came out in the king's garden, which was laid out near Siloam in the broad space formed by the junction of the Hinnom and Kidron valleys, at the southeast corner of the city. Now the Chaldees (Chaldeans) were against the city round about. This is mentioned so as to explain how escape was possible. The " city" here mentioned is probably the lower city, as distinguished from the whole fortification.

"The Chaldeans had accumulated their forces around the northern and lower part of the city, where the walls were most vulnerable, which left the southern side comparatively free." Todd. The way toward the plain. Literally, "by the way of the Arabah," (Am. R.), the depression bounding Palestine on the east along the Jordan and the Dead Sea, and extending down to the Red Sea. "The way toward the plain' is the road leading eastward over Olivet to Bethany and Jericho.". Cook. As the king came out of the city at the southeast corner, his most natural and safest direction of flight was in this direction. 5. The Chaldees, who surrounded the city, soon discovered the flight of the king, and pursued and overtook him.

6. Brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah. Riblah was an ancient city, 70 miles north of Damascus, and about 200 miles east of north from Jerusalem. This was on the regular route to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was encamped here as a convenient center while he was conducting military operations against Tyre, as well as Jerusalem. Gave judgment upon him, i.e. brought him to trial as a common criminal, not as a king, because he had repudiated his most solemn oath of allegiance, and been a secret traitor to the king who had placed him on the throne (2 Kings 24: 20; 2 Chron. 36: 13). There is a frequent reference to this as a heinous crime in Ezekiel (17 15-19).

Old Iron Fetters.

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7. Slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, so that the last things his eyes ever saw, a perpetual memory, were the death agonies of his sons, and of his friends, the nobles of Judah (Jer.).

And put out the eyes of Zedekiah. He would have no more opportunities of conspiring against his rulers.

"The

Bound him with fetters of brass. Assyrians' captives are usually represented as bound hand and foot, the two hands secured by one chain, the two feet by another (Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, vol. II., p. 376).” — Cook. "There is in the British Museum a pair of bronze fetters, brought from Nineveh, which weigh eight pounds eleven ounces, and measure sixteen and a half inches in length. These probably resemble the fetters put on Zedekiah. The rings which enclose the ankles are thinner than the other part, so that they could be hammered smaller after the feet had passed through them." Freeman.

Carried him to Babylon, where he was kept in prison till the day of his death (Jer. 52: 11). "With Repentance, his only companion, he lay, And a dismal companion was he.

Remarkable Prophecies Fulfilled. God spoke by the tongue of Ezekiel one of the most mysterious and most curious predictions in the entire Bible. He declared

8. And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: 9. And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire.

10. And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about.

II. Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carry away.

12. But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen.

that King Zedekiah should be led into Babylon a captive, should there live and there die, and yet he should never see the city, which of course he never did, since he was blinded before he went there. Jeremiah (12: 3-5) prophesied that Zedekiah should speak with Nebuchadnezzar mouth to mouth, and see his eyes, which was also true, for he saw the great king at Riblah before his eyes were put out.

The Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, 8-10. In the fifth month, one month later than the capture of the city, Nebuchadnezzar's captain of the guard burnt the Temple, and the King's Palace, and every great man's house, down the walls of Jerusalem round about.

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and brake

II. Now the rest of the people were carried captive to Babylon, except (v. 12) the poor of the land, who were left to be vinedressers and husbandmen.

There follows a description of the treasures of the Temple and of the city, and the houses of the richer citizens, gold and silver and brass, some of it beautifully wrought, which was carried with the captives to Babylon. Some idea of the number may be gained from the fact that Cyrus restored to the exiles on their return 5400 vessels of gold and silver.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not !

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate (Matt. 23: 37, 38).

IV. THE RAINBOW ON THE STORM. The Rainbow Token. The rainbow as a sign of God's promise is peculiarly appropriate and beautiful. (1) It is formed on the rain itself, the storm which brought the disaster from which the people were suffering.

(2) It is produced by the shining of God's mercy, his everlasting loving kindness, upon his own people.

(3) It is a promise of hope, of the passing away of the storm, an assurance of better times, times of refreshing and new life which the rain had brought to the fields. (4) The rainbow is very beautiful. It attracts the attention of every one, for it is painted on God's sky; an arch with a span as wide as the storm, a God-made, not a man-made promise, binding heaven and earth, God and man in a covenant of love. NOTE. It would not be good, nor wise, nor true to God or man, to close our lesson by looking only at the devastating storm, and not lifting up our eyes to see God's sevenfold Rainbow arch of Promise and Hope.

First Ray.

The Seventy Years. Jeremiah foretold to the Jews that God would permit them to return to Judea after 70 years of captivity.

For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil. (Jer. 29: 10, 11; 2 Chron. 36: 21; Jer. 25: 11, 12.) This was fulfilled in two ways. From the first Captivity, B.C. 605, 4, to the first Return, 536, was almost exactly 70 years. Or counting from the destruction of the Temple, 586, it was 70 years to the completion of the New Temple in 516.

Second Ray. Isaiah's Visions of the Future of the Nation should have been in the minds of the captives, where he foretold the coming of "the Wonderful, the Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace, of the

increase of whose government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom." (Isa. 9:6, 7.) "The Remnant shall return." (Isa. 10: 21.) And the prophecy of future glorious times. (II 9.)

The captives were too distressed and overwhelmed to recall these promises, and take comfort in them. Yet these made sure that the captivity was not the end of the Jewish nation nor of their home in Palestine. It would have been a great comfort to the captives could they

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"From the future borrow;

Clothe the waste with dreams of grain,
And on the midnight sky of rain

Paint the golden morrow."

Third Ray. Babylonian exile put an end to the idolatrous tendencies and practices which had been so conspicuous in the earlier history of the Jewish people. Never afterwards were the notorious high places' sought out and honored as aforetime.

"The prevailing sentiment and practice of the Jews after the exile were of outspoken opposition to all heathen fellowship. The absurdity of falling down before

Milton S. Terry, D.D.

a graven image as before a god is exposed with bitter irony." There came to be a new development of the religious life, less ritualistic and more devotional. They were true to the Lord their God in all forms of religion, especially as to the Sabbath.

Fourth Ray. The deportation of this small people has proved a world-education. "With two exceptions, no other event of the world's history has received an interpretation so laden with spiritual truth. The two exceptions are the Exodus and the Death of Jesus Christ."

Fifth Ray. The exile was an education for the Jews. "It served to give the chosen people many new and enlarged ideas of the world of mankind. They were