The Bible Story Part 319

Then took Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after he had slain Gedaliah the royal governor, even the men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought again from Gibeon: and they departed, and dwelt in Geruth Chimham, which is by Beth-lehem, to go to enter into Egypt, because of the Chaldeans: for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael had slain Gedaliah the royal governor, whom the king of Babylon made governor over the land.

VI

THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT

(The remnant of the people wish to take refuge in Egypt. They consult Jeremiah, who tells them that they must not desert the land.)

Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near, and said unto Jeremiah the prophet, "Let, we pray thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy G.o.d, even for all this remnant; for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do {323} behold us: that the Lord thy G.o.d may shew us the way wherein we should walk, and the thing that we should do."

Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, "I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the Lord your G.o.d according to your words; and it shall come to pa.s.s that whatsoever thing the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you."

Then they said to Jeremiah, "The Lord be a true and faithful witness amongst us, if we do not even according to all the word wherewith the Lord thy G.o.d shall send thee to us. Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our G.o.d, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the Lord our G.o.d."

And it came to pa.s.s after ten days, that the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah. Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, and said unto them, "Thus saith the Lord, the G.o.d of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him: 'If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you up, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you. Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the Lord: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand. And I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy {324} upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.'

But if ye say, 'We will not dwell in this land'; so that ye obey not the voice of the Lord your G.o.d; saying, 'No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell:' now therefore hear ye the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah: thus saith the Lord of hosts, the G.o.d of Israel, 'If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there; then it shall come to pa.s.s, that the sword, which ye fear, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye are afraid, shall follow hard after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die.

"'So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.'

"For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the G.o.d of Israel; 'As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.'

"The Lord hath spoken concerning you, O remnant of Judah, 'Go ye not into Egypt': know certainly that I have testified unto you this day.

"For ye have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; {325} for ye sent me unto the Lord your G.o.d, saying, 'Pray for us unto the Lord our G.o.d; and according unto all that the Lord our G.o.d shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it:' and I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your G.o.d in any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you. Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go to sojourn there."

(The people refuse to heed the warning of Jeremiah. They all journey to Egypt, taking the prophet with them.)

And it came to pa.s.s that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking unto all the people all the words of the Lord their G.o.d, wherewith the Lord their G.o.d had sent him to them, even all these words, then spoke Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying to Jeremiah, "Thou speakest falsely: the Lord our G.o.d hath not sent thee to say, 'Ye shall not go into Egypt to sojourn there': but Baruch the son of Neriah setteth thee on against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death, and carry us away captives to Babylon."

So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, obeyed not the voice of the Lord, to dwell in the land of Judah. But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, that were returned from all the nations whither they had been driven to sojourn in {326} the land of Judah; the men, and the women, and the children, and the king's daughters, and every person that Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the royal governor, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah; and they came into the land of Egypt; for they obeyed not the voice of the Lord: and they came even to Tahpanhes.

Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, "Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in mortar in the brickwork, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah; and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the G.o.d of Israel: 'Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them. And he shall come, and shall smite the land of Egypt; such as are for death shall be given to death, and such as are for captivity to captivity, and such as are for the sword to the sword.

"'And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the G.o.ds of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away captives: and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment; and he shall go forth from thence in peace. He shall also break the pillars of Bethshemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the G.o.ds of Egypt shall he burn with fire.'"

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the {327} Jews which dwelt in the land of Egypt, which dwelt at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the G.o.d of Israel: 'Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth therein; because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other G.o.ds, whom they knew not, neither they, nor ye, nor your fathers.'

"Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, 'Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.' But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other G.o.ds. Wherefore my fury and mine anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is this day.

"Therefore now thus saith the Lord, the G.o.d of hosts, the G.o.d of Israel: 'Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your own souls, to cut off from you man and woman, infant and suckling, out of the midst of Judah, to leave you none remaining; in that ye provoke me unto anger with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other G.o.ds in the land of Egypt, whither ye be gone to sojourn; that ye may be cut off, and that ye may be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness {328} of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?

"They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.

"Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the G.o.d of Israel: 'Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah. And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed; in the land of Egypt shall they fall; they shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine; they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.

"'For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: so that none of the remnant of Judah, which are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain, that they should return into the land of Judah, to the which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return save such as shall escape.'"

Then all the men which knew that their wives burned incense unto other G.o.ds, and all the women that stood by, a great a.s.sembly, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, "As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But {329} we will certainly perform every word that is gone forth out of our mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our husbands?"

Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, and to the women, even to all the people which had given him that answer, saying, "The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them, and came it not into his mind? so that the Lord could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which ye have committed; therefore is your land become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day.

Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinned against the Lord, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil is happened unto you, as it is this day."

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Moreover Jeremiah said unto all the people, and to all the women, "Bear the word of the Lord, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt: thus saith the Lord of hosts, the G.o.d of Israel, saying: 'Ye and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and with your hands have fulfilled it, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her: establish then your vows, and perform your vows.'

"Therefore hear ye the word of the Lord, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt: 'Behold, I have sworn by my great name, saith the Lord, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, As the Lord G.o.d liveth. Behold, I watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them. And they that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, few in number; and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose word shall stand, mine, or theirs.

"'And this shall be the sign unto you, saith the Lord, that I will punish you in this place, that ye may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil': thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life.'"

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The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke unto Baruch the son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, "Thus saith the Lord, the G.o.d of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch: 'Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for the Lord hath added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest. Thus shalt thou say unto him, Thus saith the Lord: Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up; and this in the whole land.

"'And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.'"

VII

THE LAST PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH

(The last prophecies of Jeremiah in which he predicts the doom of Babylon.)

The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations.

_The Doom of Babylon_

The word that the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.

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"Declare ye among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, 'Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed; her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed.'

"'For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they are fled, they are gone, both man and beast. In those days, and in that time,' saith the Lord, 'the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and shall seek the Lord their G.o.d. They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come ye, and join yourselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten.

"'My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place. All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.

"'Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he-goats before the flocks. For, lo, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon an a.s.sembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: {333} their arrows shall be as of an expert mighty man; none shall return in vain. And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied,' saith the Lord.

"'Because ye are glad, because ye rejoice, O ye that plunder mine heritage, because ye are wanton as an heifer that treadeth out the corn, and neigh as strong horses; your mother shall be sore ashamed; she that bare you shall be confounded: behold, she shall be the hindermost of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

Because of the wrath of the Lord it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: everyone that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all ye that bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the Lord. Shout against her round about; she hath submitted herself; her bulwarks are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the Lord; take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her. Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn everyone to his people, and they shall flee everyone to his own land.'

"Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of a.s.syria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the G.o.d of Israel: 'Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of a.s.syria. {334} And I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead. In those days, and in that time,' saith the Lord, 'the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant.