the fighting men, and insisted that he should be silenced. The miserable king had not the courage to defend the prophet, and told them to do as they pleased, and though they durst not put him to death, they acted even more cruelly. Jerusalem, being on a rock, is honey-combed below with cisterns and reservoirs for water, and into one of these, half filled with mud and slime, these savage men let the holy inspired priest down into the horrible darkness, suffocation, and mire.

But while these wicked sons of Judah were thus treating the prophet, pity and faith were stirred in the heart of a stranger, no other than a black slave from Ethiopia, employed in the service of the palace. He, like Naaman, or like the Ethiopian of after ages, was true and faithful; and, indignant at this treatment of the holy man, he went to the king, as a household slave could easily do, and told him what had been done. Zedekiah was shocked, and sent thirty men of his body-guard at once, to save Jeremiah from this horrible death, if not too late. Nor was it; God had upheld His servant from the stifling air, and the kind care of the good Ebedmelech was shown, in throwing down soft rags of linen to put between his arms and the ropes that were to draw him up, to save them from being hurt. No doubt the prophet was very thin, with starvation and suffering, and the precaution must have been much needed.

Jeremiah in the pit must have prayed in the words used by David long before (Ps. lxix.) :—

Save me, O God;

For the waters are come in unto my soul.

I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing;

I am come into deep waters,

Where the floods overflow me.

I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried;

Mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head:

They that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully,

Are mighty;

Then I restored that which I took not away.

And again, after his release, the 40th Psalm must have risen to his

lips, as written almost for himself:—

I waited patiently for the LORD:

And he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay,

And set my feet upon a rock,

And established my goings.

Already had Joseph been in a living grave, and Jonah had carried on the type, which Jeremiah now again was made to act, they being, as it were, buried and raised again. Indeed, Jeremiah is the especial likeness of the Man of Sorrows, and` his persecution has many resemblances to that of the Christ, especially where Zedekiah's weakness foreshowed that of Pontius Pilate, and where Ebed-melech's mercy showed how many shall come from the east and from the west, and sit down in the kingdom of God.

LESSON CXIII.

THE LAST ADVICE TO ZEDEKIAH.

B.C. 587-JER. xxxviii. 14—28.

Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the third entry that is in the house of the LORD: and the king said unto Jeremiah, I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me.

Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, wilt thou not hearken unto me?

So Zedekiah the king sware secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As the LORD liveth, that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life.

Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house :

But if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.

And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they

mock me.

But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee,

the voice of the LORD, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.

But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that the LORD hath shewed me:

And, behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes, and those women shall say, Thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee: thy feet are sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back.

So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans : and thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon: and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire.

Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, Let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not die.

But if the princes hear that I have talked with thee, and they come unto thee, and say unto thee, Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king, hide it not from us, and we will not put thee to death; also what the king said unto thee.

Then thou shalt say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house, to die there. Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, and asked him: and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived.

So Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken and he was there when Jerusalem was taken.

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COMMENT.-Now that Jeremiah was under the charge of Ebedmelech, a slave of the royal household, Zedekiah could contrive another secret interview with him. He sent for him to the third entry of the Temple, most likely the innermost gate of that glorious entrance which Solomon had built for the kings to go up to the House of the Lord.

Here the king and prophet met. It was the last time we hear of a king of Judah being in the Temple that Solomon had built and, alas, how unlike is the scene! Then the dominion of Judah reached even to the Euphrates. Now the king of the borders of Euphrates was besieging Jerusalem. Then the king knelt on his brazen platform and prayed before kneeling thousands to JEHOVAH to bless this house that he had builded. Now the king dares not openly inquire of the Lord's messenger, but only sends for him secretly; nay, when he asks counsel of the prophet, Jeremiah is forced to demand a promise not to be punished, however unpalatable that advice may be. And sad it was. If Zedekiah would surrender willingly, owning himself the perjured truce-breaker he

was, and asking the mercy of Nebuchadnezzar, his life should be saved and the lives of his children, and the city would not be burned and laid waste; but if he persisted in his obstinate defence, utter destruction would be the result.

Then the weak, cowardly Zedekiah confessed his fear that his factious subjects would buy their own pardon by delivering him up a prisoner to the Chaldeans; but this Jeremiah assured him should not happen. One last choice of obedience was offered to him. If he would submit according to God's command, he might trust God to move his enemies to have mercy on him. If not, he should be reproached and reviled by his own wives when all had fallen into the hands of the enemy together, and he and his city should perish!

No, there was no faith, no decision in the wretched Zedekiah. He did not trust the princes around him, but he would not trust to God. All he thought of was how to prevent these jealous princes from suspecting that he had consulted the prophet; and he instructed Jeremiah to say that the interview had been about his own imprisonment. This was no falsehood, and Jeremiah, though not set at liberty, was better treated in the prison till the end of the siege.

And the good Ebed-melech was rewarded with the following promise, almost the same that had been made to Baruch :

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Now the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, while he was shut up in the court of the prison, saying,

Go and speak to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee.

But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the LORD: and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid.

For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the LORD.

LESSON CXIV.

THE DEATH OF ZEDEKIAH.

B.C. 586.--2 KINGS xxv.; JER. xxxix.

And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, even Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim, Rab-saris, Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon.

And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain.

But the Chaldeans' army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him.

Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.

Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.

And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem :

And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire.

And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about.

Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carry away.

But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen.

And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the LORD, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon.

Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard, saying,

Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee.

And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door :