King of Judah's houſe, ſha/l be brought forth to the King of Babylon's princes z,, and thoſe Womez ſhall ſay, + Thy friends have ſet thee on, and have pre- vailed againſt thee, thy feet are ſunk in the mire a,
and they are turned away back 6.
Thou that art afraid of the Inlultings of Men that are thy Subjeas,ſhalt fall under the Inſulcings and Taunts of the Women ; either the Court Ladies who were lett when. Jehoiachim was car- ried away, or the Women belonging to thine own Court ſhal be taken and brought forth to the King of Babyl1n's Princes, to be diſpoſed of at their pleaſure, and theſe Women ſhall deride thee. 2 Andtell thee, for this thou mayſt thank thy hearkening to the Prielts, and falſe Prophets called in the Hebrew, the Men of thy pexce, becauſe they ſoothed up the King with the promiſes of Peace. 4 Now they have lett thee in evils out of which thou canſt not eſcape. b And as tor them whom thou believedſt and truſtedſt to, and by whoſe words thou art brought into theſe Snares, they have forſaken thee, every one ſhitting for himſelf.
23 So they ſhall briag out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans, and thou ſhalt not eſcape out of their hands, but ſhalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon : and + thou ſhalt cauſe this city to be burnt with fire c.
c This 15 no more than what was ſaid before,on!y here repeated, as an Argument to perſwade his Obedience in furrendring himſelf, ifnot tor the City's ſake,vet for his own ſake,and for his Childrens lake, for he affures the King that not himlelf only, but his Wives and Children allo woul | otherwiſe fall into the hands of the Baby- lon'1ns, and their Reitections upon him tor the Miſery he had
| City % burnt, and the Chief of the People. carried Cafpiive,
18,
11,—14. God's Promiſe to Ebed-melech, 15,
1 FN the ninth year of Zedekiah Kinz of Judah, in
the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar Kin:;
of Babylon 2, and all his Army, again{t feruſalens and they belieged ir.
a This exactly agreeth with the Hiſtorical part of Scripture, 2 Kings 25.1, and with the repetition of it, Chap. 52. 4. Tins Month was called Tebeth, Eſther 2 16. andanſwers to p1rt of o:r December and Fanuary. Princes are laid to do that which is done by their great Officers by their Order, yet ſome think Nebuchad- rex3.4r came firſt in Perſon, though he quickly lefc his Army, and was not there at the taking of the City.
2 And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the City
was broken up 6.
b The Siege laſted a year and half, for it was the fourth Monti of Z:dekiah's eleventh year before it was taxen, 17 15 laid here to be broken up, becaule their way ot takinz torcified places then, was by beating down the Walls of the Beſieged with Iron Rams and Engines, as we now Jo with great Guns, This Kingdom had now held 38 Years, from Kebobozm their tirit King, in whicathey had had twenty Kings ( beſides Athatiah. ) The Ten Tribes had been now in Captivity 130 Years, fo asthe Kinadom of [-7-itood but 250 years after the diviſion, in which time ther hid had 19 Princes, but of ſeveral Families ; all the Kings o1 Fuda2 were of che Houſe of David, lineally deicended froum Mm.
3 Andallthe Princes of the E11g of Babylon came in, and ſate inthe middls gatec; eve, Nergal-thare- zer, Samgar-nebo, Sar-ſechimz Rab-faris, Nergal- ſharezer, Rab-mag, with all the relidue of the Prin- ces of the Ring of Bal
Vol. Il.
»1 =. A T ' GVi0O:!1 &. E — * x2 ? T | A 2 T [| 2 , { T k =)
Chap. XXNXIZ,
F Heb.
Tr ” In>p f C/ - , -
£ As the Kiag ſuſpeted fo it came to paſs ; the. King's private /ilent jrom? Diſcourſe with the Prophet took wind, þ and all the Pcinces then þ1m»
I, — 10, Neouchadrezzar's Charge concerning Jeremiah,
PR” I}
ere oo. 4 HH aan
Chap. XXXIX.
c All the great Men of Babylon that were imployed inthe _ du& of the Babylonian Army ( the Gity being taken by Storm, ar ſurprize ) entred intoir, bur refted at the middle Gate, The City they ſay was incompaiſed with two Walls before they came to the Wall of the Temple ; the Gare in the inner Wall is ſuppo- ſed ro have been that which 1s called rhe middle Gate, they would not at firſt adventure infurcher,the Ciry being large and well for- tified,chere might have been ſome Traps latd for them;they would theretore have their Soldiers fuſt clear the Streets, and ſcarch al places,that chey mighr enter further into the Ciry withont hazard- ing their Perſons. 4 Some Interpreters have examined the iigniti- cation of the Names of thcſe Princes, bur I know of no uſe 1t can be to us whether they were the Names of the rertons, or fignitt- cative of rhe Offices they bare, ;
4 © And itcame to paſs, that when Zedextah the kins of Judah ſaw them, and all the men of war e, then they fled, and went forth ont ofthe city by mot f, by the wayof the king's garden, by the gate betwixt the rwo walls, and he weat out the way of the plan g. |
e lt ſhould ſeem that the City was taken by a Surprize, the Chaldeans battering rhe Walls ince Jantly with their Rams and En- #ines of War, on a ſudden made {ich a breach as gave them a |1- berry to enter in. f The King cicher heard of ir, or poſſibly might be in ſoine place where he might ſee it, then he begins to think of eſcaping, bur for greater privacy ſtayeth till he had the covert of the Night, g and then goeth our rowards the plains of Fericho,for there the Chaldeans overtook him, as we read in the nexr Verſe, he Is (aid Fere t9 have gone by the way of the King's Garden by the Gate bitwixt the twoWalls. Tris very hard for us at this diftance of rime, to pretend ro any certainty in determining the way by whici1 he made his eſcape, They ſeem to judge moſt probably, that rhink rhar rhe King had prepared for himſelf a privare paſſage our of his Garden berwixr two Walls, leading to the Wall of the Citv, which they had before ſo weakned, as on a ſudden they
b——
#EREMIAH
Chap. XXXIX
! Still 1r is obſervable, how punQual the Holy Ghoſt is in re- cording the fulfillings of the words of the Lord. This Propher, had ar leaft four rimes forerold,that this would be one conſequent of the Bings and Nobvles ſtubbornneſs, in not ſubmitting to the Ring of Babylon, See Chap. 37.8. and 38.18, 23.