Prosperity and happiness of Josiah--Accession of the great Pharaoh Necho II.--His excursion against Carchemish--Josiah determines to bar his path--Warnings of Pharaoh Necho--Disaster at Megiddo and death of Josiah--Mistaken hopes--God's dealings with men and nations--Distress among Josiah's subjects--The king's burial--Misgivings respecting the future--Sorrow of Jeremiah--Ultimate fulfilments.
Four sons of Josiah--Shallum chosen by the people of the land--Elegy of Ezekiel--Change of name from Shallum to Jehoahaz--Conquests of Pharaoh Necho II.--Jehoahaz summoned to Riblah--Carried captive by Pharaoh to Egypt--Tribute imposed on Judæa.
Eliakim--His change of name--Ignored by Ezekiel--Evil influences--Æsthetic selfishness and oppressive greed--Denunciation by Habakkuk--Denunciation by Jeremiah--Murder of Urijah--Threatened murder of Jeremiah averted by Ahikam--Fall of Nineveh--Utterances of the prophets--Rise of the Chaldæans--Nabopolassar--Defeat of Pharaoh Necho by Nebuchadrezzar--His return to Babylon--His invasion of Judæa--Beginning of the Babylonian captivity--Jehoiakim revolts to Egypt in spite of Jeremiah's warnings--Imprisonment of Jeremiah--Baruch--The menacing roll--Alarm of the princes--Rage of the king--He cuts the scroll to pieces and burns it--Wretchedness of the times--A great drought--Captives of Jerusalem--Miserable death of Jehoiakim--"That which was found in him."
Bad influence over him--His brief reign--Allusions to him by Jeremiah at Jerusalem--Second captivity--Regret felt for Jehoiachin--Did he die childless?
His oath to the King of Assyria--Ezekiel's prophecies--The exiles and the remnant--Weakness of Zedekiah--Continuance of idolatry as described by Ezekiel--The king breaks his oath with Assyria--Indignation and warnings of Jeremiah--The false prophet Hananiah--The wooden and iron yokes--Death of Hananiah--False prophets--The broken covenant--Advance of Nebuchadrezzar--Belomancy and Babylonian divinations--Siege of Jerusalem--Gloom of Jeremiah's prophecies.
Pathos of Jeremiah's lot--The sad epoch in which he lived--Religious changes--Arrest of Jeremiah--Progress of the siege--Zedekiah sends for the prophet--His hardships alleviated--Horrors of famine--Wicked defiance--A sudden death--Anger of the priests and nobles against Jeremiah--He is thrust into a miry pit--Compassion of Ebed-Melech--Purchase of a field at Anathoth--Secret interview with Zedekiah--It becomes known--Distress of Zedekiah.