this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they fhall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape 19 out of their hand. And Zedekiah the king faid unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, those who according to thy directions have furrendered themselves; I am terribly afraid, left they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me. This was very unlikely, as they knew it to be the Lord's command that he should do fo: or if they should mock him, the dread of that was no fufficient reafon for his disobedience. 20 But Jeremiah faid, They fhall not deliver [thee:] Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the LORD, which I fpeak unto thee: fo it fhall be well unto thee, and thy 21 foul shall live. But if thou refufe to go forth, this [is] 22 the word that the LORD hath fhowed me: And, behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house [fhall be] brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes, and thofe [women] fhall fay, Thy friends have fet thee on, and have prevailed against thee; even the women shall mock thee for thy folly and obstinacy, (which will be worse than if men should do it) when they fee thee blind and captive; and upbraid thee with thy fally in hearkening to evil counsellors, who prevailed with thee to thy ruin; and they fhall be the first to for fake thee and go to the Chaldeans: thy feet are funk in the mire, thou art fallen into difficulties out of which thou knoweft not how to escape, [and] they are turned away back; thy friends have for23 faken thee and left thee deftitute. So they fhall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans: and thou shall not escape out of their hand, but fhalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon: and thou fhalt cause this city to be burned with fire.

24 Then faid Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, Let no man 25 know of these words, and thou fhalt not die. But if the princes hear that I have talked with thee, and they come unto thee, and fay unto thee, Declare unto us now what thou haft faid unto the king, hide it not from us, and we will not put thee to death; alfo what the 26 king faid unto thee: Then fhalt thou fay unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he

would

would not cause me to return to Jonathan's houfe, to 27 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; which no doubt was true, as he had afked this favour; fo that he told the truth, tho' not the whole truth, which he was not obliged to do. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter 28 was not perceived. So Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that Jerufalem was taken: and he was [there] when Jerufalem was taken.

I.

REFLECTIONS.

Wful

E here fee how the characters of good and useful men may be mifreprefented. Jeremiah is described as a perfon that was feeking the hurt of the city, while he was its beft friend, and fought its good above any one else, as he would have brought them to God, to duty, and to happiness. The king had a kindness for him, but was fo bafe and cowardly that he would not publickly avow it. It is no marvel if the best men are still represented as enemies to the state, and to publick peace. The reason is, that men love to go on in their fins, and are displeased with every one who would reform them, or make them uneafy in their wicked practices.

2. God can raise up friends for his people where they leaft expect it. Who would have thought of Jeremiah's finding a friend at court? and that an Ethiopian profelyte; while the Ifraelites perfecuted him. This friend acted with great zeal and courage, dealt plainly with the king, and ventured his place and head to fave the prophet. Thus can God at any time, and in any place, raife up friends to his fervants, and deliver them out of their troubles.

3. How abfurd and impious is it to disobey God, from a fear of being mocked or bantered by men. How meanly and ridiculously did Zedekiah act, in being more afraid of the jefts of a few of his fubjects, than of the displeasure of the Almighty. This fear goes a great way with many perfons now, especially with the young: they are difpofed to do their duty, and to be firm in it; but they are

afraid their acquaintance should laugh at them. Thefe fears are often groundlefs; and there is, as in the cafe of Zedekiah, a fecret reverence for those who are good in fuch as will not imitate them. How weak and childish a fpirit is that, which cannot bear to be laughed at, rather than give up faith and a good confcience. Such, as the prophet tells Zedekiah, will be worse laughed at hereafter : wicked men and devils will feverely mock them, for loving, the praise of men more than the praise of God.

4. Amidft our greatest zeal for God and religion, we ought prudently to confult our own welfare. While we are harmless as doves, as to giving offence, and bold as lions in the cause of God, we ought to be wife as ferpents. This affair was prudently concerted between the king and the prophet; there was no lie nor equivocation. He fpoke the truth, but not the whole truth; and this he was not obliged to tell. It is wrong to expofe ourselves to danger, when no good can be answered by it. We fhould walk. circumfpectly, not as fools, but as wife.

In which we have an account of Jerufalem being taken; of Zedekiah being made blind, and fent to Babylon, of the city being ruined, and the people taken captive.

"IN

N the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerufalem, and they 2 befieged it. [And] in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth [day] of the month, the city was broken up; after two years fiege a breach 3 was made, and the city was taken by storm. And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and fat in the middle gate, [even] Nergal-fharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarfechim, Rab-faris, Nergal fharezer, Rab-mag, with all the refidue of the princes of the king of Babylon. And it came to pafs, [that] when Zedekiah the king of Judah faw them, and all the men of war, then they

4

fled,

A

fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate betwixt the two 5 walls and he went out the way of the plain. But the Chaldeans army purfued 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, which lay to the north of Jerufalem, and where he waited to hear of the fuccefs of the fiege, where he gave judgment upon him; that is, called a council, by which Zedekiah was condemned as a rebellious fubject, and a traitor to 6 the king of Babylon, he having violated his oath. Then the king of Babylon flew the fons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes; who must have been young, as Zedekiah was but thirty two years old: alfo the king of Babylon flew all the nobles of Judah that were taken prisoners. 7 Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes; he first flew his children, and then put out his eyes, that no other object might thrust out the idea of that bloody fcene; and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon, where he had time to reflect on his guilt in bringing thefe calamities on his friends and himself by his obstinacy.

8

And the Chaldeans burned the king's house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake down the 9 walls of Jerufalem. Then Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to him, who took Feremiah's advice and furrendered, with the rest of the peo10 ple that remained. But Nebuzar adan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, which had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the fame time, that the land might not grow quite wild and be overrun by beafts.

ΙΙ

Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzar-adan thecaptain of the 12 guard, faying, Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall fay unto thee having been informed, by fome who had gone over to the Chaldeans of what Jeremiah had foretold, what he had

advifed

advifed Zedekiah to do, and what he had suffered on thefe 13 accounts. So Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard fent, and Nebushafban, Rab-faris, and Nergal-fharezer, 14 Rab-mag, and all the king of Babylon's princes; Even they fent, and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prifon, and committed him unto Gedaliah the fon of Ahikam the fon of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: fo he dwelt among the people; and thus, while the false prophets were destroyed by thofe judgments which they faid would never come, Jeremiah was fecured from thofe which he foretold would actually come.

15

Now the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, while he was shut up in the court of the prifon, faying, 16 Go and speak to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, faying, Thus faith the LORD of hosts, the God of Ifrael; Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they fhall be [accomplished] in 17 that day before thee; or, in thy fight. But I will deliver thee in that day, faith the LORD; and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou 18 [art] afraid. For I will furely deliver thee, and thou fhalt not fall by the sword, but thy life fhall be for a prey unto thee: because thou haft put thy truft in me, faith the LORD; having delivered my prophet, from good principles and with great courage, this act of kindness fall preferve thy life. No doubt the Chaldeans heard of this, and were thereby inclined to spare Ebed-melech amidst the general defolation.

1.

WE

REFLECTION S.

E here fee how punctual and awful God is in fulfilling his threatenings. Zedekiah and his princes would not believe them, because the falfe prophets had deceived them; but at length the direful judgment came, and the word was fulfilled in all its terrors. So finners promise themselves impunity, and harden their hearts; but God will bring his words upon them for evil, and not for good. An awful ftanding leffon of the evil of fin, and a caution to us, that we do not make light of it.