and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servants the prophets.

Surely at the commandment of the LORD came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did;

And also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the LORD would not pardon.

Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.

And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land: for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt.

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And his mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of El-nathan of Jerusalem.

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father had done.

At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.

And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, and his servants did besiege it.

And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.

:

And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said.

And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of tle land.

And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.

And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all that were strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.

And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father's brother king in, his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

COMMENT. For three years Jehoiakim obeyed Nebuchadnezzar, but his heart was always inclined to Egypt, and in spite of repeated

warnings from Jeremiah he carried on underhand negotiations with Pharaoh-Necho, and the King of Babylon resolved on punishing him. Roving bands of the old enemies of the Jews, the Moabites, Ammonites, and Syrians, laid waste the villages and brought them to great misery, and in the meantime Nebuchadnezzar himself marched to besiege Tyre, but finding this would be a long and arduous undertaking, he left part of his army there, and with the rest went to chastise Jerusalem. In the midst of all this dismay and confusion, the bloodthirsty, unfaithful Jehoiakim perished— how is not exactly known, whether killed in battle, or by his own subjects, or simply dying of misery and despair. At any rate, none mourned him; all hated him, and there was no time for mere state lamentations. His dead body lay neglected, “buried with the burial of an ass," and he was thought of as the worst of all Josiah's sons.

His son Jehoiachin, called also Jeconiah and Coniah, was either eighteen or eight years old, it is uncertain which; probably eighteen, or he would hardly be so strongly blamed as he is by Jeremiah. He had reigned but three months when Nebuchadnezzar was at his gates, and with his mother Nehushta he went out to make his submission to the conqueror. His life was spared, and he was carried away to captivity at Babylon with all the principal persons in the kingdom, all who were deemed likely to stir up a fresh insurrection, and all who could make weapons of war. Among the captives was the future prophet Ezekiel, of a priestly family—as indeed many of the priests were led away among the 10,000 prisoners whom Nebuchadnezzar carried off.

It is said by Jewish writers that Bethlehem, which was in the high road to Babylon, was the place where the Assyrian captain was wont to collect his droves of prisoners, and that this either at Jehoiachin's captivity in 599, or at Daniel's, seven years earlier, in 606-was the occasion of Jeremiah's beautiful lament, consolation, and prophecy all in one (chap. xxxi.) :

Thus saith the LORD:

A voice was heard in Ramah,
Lamentation, and bitter weeping;
Rahel weeping for her children,

Refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
Thus saith the LORD:

Refrain thy voice from weeping,

And thine eyes from tears:

For thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD;

And they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD,

That thy children shall come again to their own border.

Rachel, whose tomb stood at Ramah (the Faithful), close to Bethlehem, represents the mothers of the Benjamites and all the rest of those youths whom they saw borne away to the strange land. Perhaps Daniel's mother was among these Rachels, weeping and using the very words once uttered of Rachel's own son-" One is not." But as Rachel's son had come to glory and hope in the strange land, so was there hope and blessing for these-nay, they should come again. After the seventy years, the children of Bethlehem should return to their own border !

So was the song first fulfilled, but it was to have another fulfilment when the mothers of Bethlehem wept again for their babes (Matt. ii. 16-18):—

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.

Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

Then the words of promise and hope in their end had to be spoken in another sense :

Oh, weep not o'er thy children's tomb ;

Oh, Rachel, weep not so:

The bud is cropt by martyrdom,

The flower in heaven shall grow.

Though feeble were their days and few,
Baptized in blood and pain;

He knows them, whom they never knew,
And they shall live again.

LESSON CII.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S DREAM OF THE IMAGE.
DAN. ii. 27-49.

B.C. 603.―Just as the four young princes of Judah were completing their course of study in the wisdom of the Chaldeans, Nebuchadnezzar, whom God had already called His servant, was visited by Him with a dream, which dwelt on his mind so much that he caused all the wise men of his court to be called on to explain it. He commanded them not only to explain the dream, but to tell him what it had been, and when they declared this to be impossible, he decreed that all should be put to death. Daniel and his companions would have shared the general fate; but Daniel, knowing that God could make the dream known to him, entreated for time, and Hananiah, Azariak, and Mishael joined with him in prayer until the dream and its meaning were made known. Then behold the young captive prince, only fifteen years old, standing before the great Babylonian, and saying

The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king;

But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these:

As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.

But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.

Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.

This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,

His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.

Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.

And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.

And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.

And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter's clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.

And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.

The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.

Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.

Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king.

COMMENT.-Nebuchadnezzar, the first king who subdued the chosen people and held rule over the East, had thus revealed to him the whole history of the power of the world, and its four great Empires. The mighty image of which he had dreamt had a head of fine gold. This was his own Assyrian Empire. When we look at the wondrous remains, we can see that there was a certain grandeur and glory which rendered this the superior of all. Next came the breast and arms of silver. This was the Empire of the