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of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and delivered into his hand, and thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the King of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon, yet thou shalt not die by the sword, but shalt die in peace. Then Pharaoh's army was come forth out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they departed from Jerusalem. Then came the word of the Lord unto the Prophet Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Behold Pharaoh's army which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt to their own Land. Then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the Land of Benjamin, and they' said, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans, wherefore they put him in prison, in a dungeon; then Zedekiah sent and took him out, and asked him secretly, Is there any word from the Lord? And Jeremiah said, There is, thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the King of Babylon. Moreover Jeremiah said, What have I offended against thee? Where are now your Prophets that prophesied to you, saying, The King of Babylon shall not come against you;-hear my supplication, O King, and cause me not to return to prison, lest I die there. Then Zedekiah commanded, they should commit Jeremiah to the Court of the Prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the baker's street, until all the bread in the City were spent.

And when the King of Babylon's army had returned, and again besieged Jerusalem, then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, Behold I am the Lord, the God of all flesh, is there any thing too hard for me? I will give this City into the hands of the Chaldeans; and they shall burn it with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal. Yet

concerning this City, behold, I will gather them out of all Countries whither I have driven them in my anger, and I will bring them again into this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely, and they shall be my People, and I will be their God.

And when the Princes heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken, saying, This City shall be given into the hands of the King of Babylon; they took Jeremiah and cast him into a dungeon, and let him down with cords; in the dungeon was no water but mire; so Jeremiah sunk in the mire. But Zedekiah sent and took him out of the dungeon, and asked him secretly, Counsel of the Lord. Then said Jeremiah, If thou wilt go forth unto the King of Babylon's Princes, then thy soul shall live, and this City shall not be burned with fire, but if thou wilt not, then shall this City be given into the hands of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.. So Jeremiah abode in the Court of the Prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken.

In the ninth year of Zedekiah, King of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadnezzer, King of Babylon, and all his army, against Jerusalem, and they besieged it; and in the eleventh year, in the fourth month, the City was broke up, and the Princes of Babylon came in and sat in the middle gate; and Zedekiah and all the Men of War fled by night, by the way of the Gate between two Walls, which is by the King's Garden, and the King went the way toward the Plain. And the army of the Chaldees pursued. after the King, and overtook him in the Plains of Jericho, and all his army were scattered from him.

So they took the King, and brought him up to the King of Babylon to Řiblah; and they gave judgment

upon him. And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and all the nobles of Judah, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of Brass, and carried him to Babylon: thus fulfilling what the Prophet Ezekiel had foretold, I will bring him to Babylon, yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there. And the King of Babylon sent and took Jeremiah out of Prison, and he dwelt among the people in Jerusalem.

And in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, came Nebuzaradan the Captain of the Guard, and BURNT THE HOUSE OF THE LORD, and all the Houses of Jerusalem, and every great Man's house burnt he with fire. Four hundred and thirty-six years had the Temple stood since it was built by Solomon.

And all the Army of the Chaldees brake down the Walls of Jerusalem round about. Now the rest of the People that were left in the City, did Nebuzaradan carry away, but he left of the poor of the Land to be Vine-dressers and Husbandmen.

And the Pillars of Brass that were in the House of the Lord which Solomon had made, and the Brazen Sea, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the Brass of them to Babylon. The height of the Pillars were eighteen cubits, and the Chapiter three cubits, with wreathen work, and pomegranates all of Brass.

So Judah was carried away out of their Land in the year before Christ 588, which is 468 years after David began to reign-388 years after the separation of the ten Tribes—and 134 years after the destruction of the divided Kingdom of Israel.

Thus ended the whole Kingdom of Israel, which had departed from the Commandments of God, and would take no warning until it was utterly destroyed.

And as for the People that remained in the Land of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar made Gedaliah ruler over. them, and when all the Captains that were left heard this, they came to Gedaliah,-and Gedaliah said, Fear not to be the servants of the Chaldees: dwell in the Land, and serve the King of Babylon. And it came to pass that Ishmael smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldees that were with him. And all the People arose, and came to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldees.

And in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, King of Judah, Evil-merodach, King of Babylon, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin out of prison, and spake kindly to him, and set his Throne above the Thrones of the Kings that were with him in Babylon, and changed his prison garments, and he did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life.

Thus have we followed the interesting history of this chosen People, to their end as an independent Nation, and their captivity in a foreign Land; the just punishment of their obstinate sins, and of their rejection of God. But God's purpose, that in the family of Abraham all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed, was yet to be performed, and in the fulness of time has been fulfilled, by the gracious promises made to us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ:-Ages have past away, and nations succeed each other in power and dominion, but the word of God shall endure for ever.

CHAPTER 96.

THE PROPHETS.

THE Bible contains the Books of sixteen Prophets, of whom the four greater are,-Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,

and Daniel. Of the other, the minor Prophets,Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Joel, Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, and Habakuk, prophesied during a period of two hundred years before the captivity, containing express and awful. warnings of that event, to this chosen but obstinate Nation. Jeremiah and Daniel prophesied both before and during the captivity, Ezekiel and Obadiah, in the captivity, and the three remaining Prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, after the return of the Jews from Babylon, the last about the year 400 before Christ.

THE PROPHET ISAIAH.

THE greatest of all the Prophets was Isaiah, he prophesied for about fifty years, in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, and was cruelly put to death by the wicked King Manasseh.

We have already read his prophecies and miracles in the reign of Hezekiah, and how through his intercession, God lengthened Hezekiah's life. In this his beautiful Book, which you will better understand when you are older, Isaiah laments the wickedness of his country, and shews them the judgments of the Lord that were coming upon them.-He expressly foretels, their captivity in Babylon; the subsequent destruction of that city, and the restoration of the Jews to Jerusalem by Cyrus, King of Persia. But what is most to be remembered of Isaiah is, that seven hundred years before the event, he, in the most express words, foretold the coming of Jesus Christ; the Messiah who should take on himself the sins of all the world.

ISAIAH'S PROPHECY OF THE CAPTIVITY. THE Vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Hear O heavens, and give ear O earth, for the Lord hath spoken, I have

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