Thirteen years after his reform Josiah ventured to oppose Necho the king of Egypt, and fell at Megiddo. His servants carried his body in a chariot to Jerusalem, where he was buried, and the people of the land raised his son Jehoahaz to the throne. The prince, induced or compelled to repair to Necho's headquarters at Riblah, was thrown into fetters, and after a reign of three months carried to Egypt, where he died. Jeremiah makes a pathetic reference to his father Josiah and him : ' Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him ; but weep sore for him that goeth away : for he sliall return no more, nor see his native land ' (22'"). In another passage he con- trasts Josiah with Jehoiakira (22"°^-), l^nt he makes no other reference to the pious king ; the statement of 2 Ch 35^ that Jeremiah ' lamented for Josiah ' seems founded on the tradition that ha was the author of Lamentations. Jehoiakim,
jere:\iiah
JEREiUAH
57J
whom Necho raised to the throne, was the ideal of k bad ruler. Frivolous and superiicial in regard to the higliest things of lite, despotic in temper, and brutal in the measures lie used to rid himself of those who crossed his humours (Jer 20*'"**), he became the detestation of all serious-minded men. Jeremiah probably rellects the common sentiment regarding him when he says, 'Tliey shall not lament him, saying. Ah my brother ! Ah lord ! or. Ah his glory ! He shall be buried with the burial of an a.ss, dragged and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem ' (ii'^- '"). It was easy to be a prophet under Josiah, but in Jehoiakim Manasseh had come to life again. The early years of this reigni were the period of the prophet's conflicts. The conflict was twofold : external persecution, from the priests and prophets because of his threats against the temple, lor to blaspheme the temple was to blaspheme Him that dwelt therein, and was worthy of death (chs. 7. 26) ; from his townsmen of Anathoth (11'*") ; from the people (18"*); and from Pashhur the overseer of the temple, who struck Jeremiah and put him in the .stocks (ch. 20). But these external trials reflected them- Belves in a tumult of contending emotions in his own breast, forming one of the strangest episodes in religious history (11"-12« 14-20).
Meanwhile the hand of ' God who hidetb him- self was operating in the north in unexpected events, which seemed again to bring the prophet's early anticipations near. These anticipations in- deed, seemed to have failed. The wind from the desert which was to wither up the land, whose hot breath he had already felt upon his face (4"), appeared to have been arrested. The storm-cloud of Scythian invasion, like other storms, followed the line of the sea, leaving Jerusalem unscathed, and was dissipated on the borders of Egypt. But in 607 Nineveh fell, and Babylon became heir of all the countries washed by the Mediterranean, the realm which had just been added by Necho to his dominions. A coimict between the rivals could not long be deferred. In 605-4 the two armies met near Carchemish, where Nebuchadnezzar in- flicted a decisive defeat on Necho, and Judah exchanged the yoke of Egypt for that of Babylon. Carchemish was an epoch in Jeremiah's life. It was his justification in the eyes of others, for his foe from the north was seen to be no spectre ; per- haps it made him feel more deeply himself than ever he had felt before how truly his prophetic presenti- ments were of God. God had set llis seal on his f)ast, and it was this reinvigorated assurance that lis prophecies were the word of God that made him commit them to writing and lay them before the people, as is told in ch. 36. Carchemish was to Jeremiah what the appeal of Ahaz to Tiglath- pileser was to Isaiah : like a flash of lightning in the darkness, it lighted up to him the whole lina of God's purposes on to tne end. He foresaw his past anticipations pas.sing into history. The con- viction seized his mind that it was the will of J" that all nations should serve the king of Babylon ; to refuse his yoke, whether for Israel or another people, was to resist the decree of God. But the Btrungest and most unaccountable of all his pre- sentiments or certainties was his rea<ling before- hand the line of God's government of the world for two generations (ch. 25).
Jehoiakim observed his oath of allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar for three years, when he refused his yearly tribute, an act e(iuivalent to a declara- tion of independence. By and by the Babylonian armies were put in motion, but, hy the time they fiat l>efore Jerusalem, Jehoiakim liiid been removed
by death, and his successor Ji-holacliin, after a reign of 100 days, was compclleil to surrender.
He was carried to Babylon, where be lay in pri.son
seven and thirty years, tUI he was released by the son of Nebuchadnezzjir (2 K 2o-'"'-) His fate awoke the liveliest sorrow in his people's minds (Jer 28*), and the projihet had to crush their hopes of his return in the most peremptory manner (2224"f. 1318). Zedekiah, who succeeded him on the throne, was a prince of good intentions, but weak and irresolute. He frequently consulted Jeremiah, and would have listened to liis counsels had not terror of the stronger wills around him deterred him. With the first captivity under Jeboiachin and the accession of Zedekiah the period of Jere- miah's conflicts was over. God had conquered him, and he act^uiesced in His will. He no more intercedes tor the people, but bends his whole energies to induce them to yield to tlie decree of God, and subject themselves to the king of Babylon. This was his attitude both before the siege (chs. 27-29) and during it (21'-"' 37. 38). This attitude exposed him to many hardships — he was arrested, beaten, and Uun^ into a dungeon and left to die ; but the hardships no more, as in the days of Jehoiakim, reflect themselves in a conflict in his own heart. Like one whose vital energies have exhausted themselves in a struggle with sickness, he lies in quietness, calmly awaiting the end. He awaits it with the more composure that he sees beyond the end (chs. 30-33). After a sie"e of a year and a half the city fell, and the Chald.neans appointed Gedaliah as their viceroy over the people whom thej' left in the land. Jeremiah had been found in the city and doomed along with the rest of the inhabitants to deportation, and in company of a band of exiles had been carried nortn to Kaniah. The part he had played in the siege, however, became known to the Chaldxans, and orders came from the highest quarters to show him consideration,and allow him hischoice to go to Baby- lon or remain at home. He chose to remain in the land, and repaired to Gedaliah at Mizpah. When, after a rule of no more than two months, the governor was assassinated, the men of war, with Johanan, son of Kareah, at their head, resolved to flee to Egypt to escape the dreaded vengeance of the Chaldoians. Jeremiah earnestly sou^'ht to dissuade them from their purpose, but in vain, and he and Baruch were carried down with them. It was the last and the bitterest cup be had to drink. Failure was written over his life. He had preached re- pentance to his people, and they would not repent. He counselled submis.sion to Babylon, and they refused to submit. He besought tuem to abide in the land, and become the seed of a new nation serving tlie Lord, and they answered by dragging him with them to Egypt. Over the people and their history, and over his hopes, the inscription might be read, 'A full end.' Nothing is known of the manner of his death, though a tradition says that he died at the hands of his own peo[)le.