The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 447

his heart and relieved this poor victim of tyranny. Corrupt as tbiB world is, the element of mercy is not entirely extinct. This mercy gave honour and liberty to the man who ho.d been BO long in confinement and disgrace. Let not the victims of tyranny-and they abound everywhere-despair. Mercy will ere long sound the trump of jubilee over all the land. "The Spirit of the Lord," said the great Redeemer of the race, "is upon me, because he bath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he bath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,"-D. 'l', Vere. 1-10.-Tl,e fall and destruction of J61"usalem. With this account of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar should be compare,! the narrative of its later destruction by 'fitus (A.D. 70). History does not always repeat itself; but in this instance it does so with marvellous fidelity. The close investment of the city, the desperate resistance, the horrors of famine within, the, incidents of the capture, the burning of the temple, the demolition of the walls, and the captivity of the people, present striking parallels in the two cases. By one of those rare coincidences that sometimes occur, it was on the very same month and day of the month on which the temple was burned by Nebuchadnezzar, that the sanctuary was fired by the soldiers of Titus. The earlier destruction fulfilled the predictions of the prophets; the later the predictions of our Lord (Matt. xxiv.). I. '!'HE LAST SIEGE. 1. Fatal dates. The days which mark the different stages of this terrible siege of Nebuchadnezzar are minutely recorded and carefully remembered. "The ninth year" of Zedekiah, "in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month," Nebuchadnezzar came, he and his host, against Jerusalem (ver. 1); in the eleventli year of Zedekiah "on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city" (ver. 3), and a breach was effected; "in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar," the temple and other buildings were burned by Nebuzar-adan (ver. 8). We have the same careful dating in Jer. xx..xix. 1, 2; Iii. 4, 12 (in the latter passage "tenth" for "seventh" as above). These were dates which burned themselves into the very memories of the wretched people crowded in the city, and could never be forgotten. Indirectly they testify to the intensity of misery which was endured, which made them so well remembered. 'l'hey were observed afterwards as regular days of fasting (Zeeb. vii. 3, 5; viii. 19). 2. The enemy without. Nebuchadnezzar's army came up against the city, and closely invested it, building forts against it round about. Ezek. xxi. is a vivi.<l prophecy of what was about to happen. The prophet announces the impending capture of the holy city. A sword was furbished which would work terrible destruction. Ezekiel is directed to mark off two ways along which this sword was to travel-the one leading to Jerusalem, and the other to Rabbath of Ammon. The scene changes, and we see the King of Babylon standing at tbe head of the ways, deliberating which one he shall choose. He shak~s the arrows, consulb images, looks for omens in the liver of dead beasts. 'J'he decision given is for advancing first against Jerusalem. Now he is at its gates, and has appointed captains "to open the mouth in the &laughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering-rams agaiust the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort" (Ezek. xxi. 21, 22). 3. The famine within. For a year and five months the weary siege dragged itself on, the people within well knowing that, when once it was captured, they could expect no mercy. The writings of Jeremiah give us a vivid picture of the city during this period. From the first the prophet held out no bopo. When Zedekiah, o.t the beginning of the siege entreated him, "Inquire, I pray thee, of the Lord for us," Jeremiah plainly told him that the city was delivered to the Chaldeans, and that Nebuchadnezzar would not spare them, "neither have pity, nor have mercy" (Jer. xxi. 1-7). Life wo.s promised, however, to those who should surre1' '~r themselves to the enemy (vers. 8-10). '!'his strain was kept up throughout, in spitu of imprisonment, threats, and the contrary testimony of false prophets (cf. Jer. xxxii. 1-5; xxxiv. 1-7; xxxvii. 6-21; xxxviii., etc.), At one point an Egyptian army came forth ago.inst the Chaldeans, and great hopes were raised, but Jeremiah bade the people not deceive themselves, for the Chaldeans would prevail, as indeed they did, m spite of a temporary raising of the siege (Jer. xxxvii. 5-11). By-and-by, as in the :.-evious long siege of Samaria by the Syrians (eh. vi. 24-33), the misery  600 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [ou. xxv.1-30,