PERIOD VI.]

JOSIAH IS SLAIN IN BATTLE.

which awaited them--and to exhort them to repentance. He spoke of the desolations which should come on Judah from the north, and of the ingratitude of the people to God, for defiling with idolatry, the good and plentiful land he had given them.

LESSON 115. 2 CHRON. XXXV. 20-24; 2 KINGS xxiii. 29-35. . Josiah is Slain.

When Josiah had completed the repairs of the temple, Necho, king of Egypt, came up to fight against Charchemish, by the Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him. But Necho sent ambassadors to him, saying, "What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war; forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not." Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, "Have me away; for I am sore wounded." His servants therefore took him to Jerusalem, where he died. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him for there was no king before him nor after him that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, as he did, according to the law of Moses.

The people made Jehoahaz, a younger son of Josiah, king after his father; he reigned only three months, and did evil. PharaohNecho deposed and imprisoned him; he also exacted tribute of onehundred talents of silver and a talent of gold from the kingdom; he made Eliakim king, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. The king procured the tribute from the people, and paid it to PharaohNecho.

At this time Habakkuk prophesied; he lamented the iniquity of

HABAKKUK PROPHESIES.

[975-606 B.C.

the land; after which he described the Chaldeans as a bitter and hasty nation, which should march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling-places that were not theirs. The prophet then humbly prayed that God would look upon Judah while under the debasing tyranny of the Chaldeans; he foretold the overthrow of the Babylonish kingdom; prayed that the Lord would revive his work in the midst of the years, and in wrath remember mercy. He also thus expressed his own confidence in God, "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation."

Charchemish-a town of Assyria on the Euphrates which Pharaoh-Necho took and fortified. His garrison was taken and destroyed by Nebuchad

nezzar.

Euphrates the great river of Asia which flowed through the garden of Eden; it rises in the mountains of Armenia, flows by Syria, Mesopotamia, and the ruins of the great city Babylon, and falls into the Persian Gulf.

LESSON 116.

JEREMIAH.

Predictions of Jeremiah. The Rechabites.

Jeremiah declared God's judgments against Judah for their sins; he mourned over the impenitence of the nation, and bewailed the punishments which God threatened to inflict upon them. He thus spoke, "Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." Having pointed out some of their transgressions, he proceeded thus:-"Shall I not visit them

PERIOD VI.]

JEREMIAH PUT IN THE STOCKS.

for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone. And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.” Before delivering this prediction, Jeremiah felt deeply distressed for his countrymen, and he exclaimed, "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!" ~ The Lord commanded him to declare that the Jews should be utterly cast forth, and if they asked, "Whither"? he was to tell them, "Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to the captivity." He also predicted the speedy captivity of the Jews, and the desolation of their country. Pashur smote Jeremiah, and put him in the stocks, when he heard that he prophesied these things. On the morrow, when he brought him forth, Jeremiah denounced him, and in the words of the Lord, said he should be a terror to himself, and his eyes should see Judah given to the king of Babylon, and the people taken captive. Of Jehoiakim he predicted, that the people should not lament for him, but that he should be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. He repeated the sentence of God against Jerusalem and the temple to the assembled people, and they said he should surely die. The princes then came from the king's house to the house of the Lord, and the priests and people accused Jeremiah to them of prophesying against the city. He called on them to repent, and said the Lord had sent him thus to prophesy. The princes said he was not worthy to die, and some of the elders asked if former prophets

THE RECHABITES.

PROPHECIES.

[975-606 B.C. who had prophesied against Jerusalem had been put to death, and as they were not, they would not consent to the death of Jeremiah. The Rechabites were descendants of Jonadab the son of Rechab, who charged them and their children to drink no wine all their days, nor to build houses, nor to sow seeds, nor to plant vineyards, but to dwell in tents. When Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came against Judah they left their tents for fear of the Syrians, and came to dwell at Jerusalem. They were taken into one of the chambers in the house of the Lord, and wine was set before them, but they refused to drink, saying, that Jonadab their father had commanded them to drink no wine. Jeremiah was then ordered to condemn the men of Judah for their disobedience to God, and to bless the Rechabites for their obedience to their father's injunction.

LESSON 117. JER. XXV. 11, 12-xxxvi; 2 CHRON. Xxxvi. 5-7.

Of Nebuchadnezzar and Jehoiakim.

Jeremiah was again sent to reprove the people of Judah for their idolatry and disobedience, and to say that God would bring Nebuchadnezzar against the land and its inhabitants, and against all the nations round about. He said, "This whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." But at the end of the seventy years God would punish the king of Babylon, and make the land of the Chaldeans perpetual desolations.

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, "Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return

PERIOD VI.] THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH WRITTEN.

every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin." Then Jeremiah called Baruch, who wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book. And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, "I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the LORD therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD's house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities. It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people." And Baruch did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet had commanded him, reading in the book the words of the Lord in the Lord's house. Michaiah declared unto the princes of Judah all that he had heard Baruch read; and they sent for him, and commanded him to sit down, and read it in their ears. The princes said they would inform the king of the words which he had read, and told him and Jeremiah to go and hide themselves. The king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll, and he began to read it in the ears of the king and the princes. And when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, the king cut it with a pen-knife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed. Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words. He sent men to take Jeremiah and Baruch, but the Lord hid them.

When Jehoiakim had reigned three years, Nebuchadnezzar came up to Jerusalem, and he bound Jehoiakim in fetters, and took him to Babylon, with many of the nobles and their children. He also took away the vessels of the house of the Lord, and put them in his temple at Babylon.