Summaries of Zedekiah’s Reign, Explanatory of these Chapters from Jeremiah.

ZEDEKIAH, the last king of Judah, was a weak prince, who lived in dependence upon the upstarts who had now seized upon power. He had sworn fealty to Nebuchadnezzar (2 Chron. 36: 13), and had testified his submission to him, both by an embassy in the beginning of his reign (Jer. 29: 3) and a personal visit to Babylon lon in the fourth year (51: 59). It was then that Jeremiah wrote his prophecy of the future destruction of Babylon (chaps. 50, 51), when, as is therein declared, the hammer of the world should be broken in pieces by a mightier, and delivered it to the royal courier to read it in Babylon, and then to cast the roll, after binding a stone to it, into the river Euphrates. But the king’s party was meditating a revolt from Babylon, and a consultation with the ambassadors of certain neighboring States took place at Jerusalem at this very time (Jer. 27:3). In vain did Jeremiah warn them, by repeatedly declaring the Divine appointment of Nebuchadnezzar to be the instrument of judgment to Judah and the surrounding nations. The lying prophets, who both in Jerusalem and among the Jews already in captivity predicted the speedily approaching end of the Babylonian servitude, found more willing listeners (Jer. 27-29). In the ninth year of his reign, Zedekiah at last openly broke his oath, and concluded an alliance with the Egyptian king, Hophra (elsewhere called Apries). Then Ezekiel uttered from his captivity his threatening words concerning Jerusalem, chaps. 17 and 21 belonging to this period. Before the Egyptian monarch had yet completed his preparations, Nebuchadnezzar appeared with an army in Palestine (Jer. 34:1-7); the country towns were destroyed, the fortresses surrounded, and Jerusalem prepared for an obstinate resistance. Jeremiah counselled the surrender of the city. But when the Chaldean army marched against the now advancing Hophra, the newly awakened arrogance of the ruling party no longer heeded any warning. Jeremiah was cast into prison, but secretly released by the king, and kept in the court of the prison (chap. 37). When, on the return of the Chaldean army, he renewed his threatening announcements, he was cast by the princes into a dungeon, that he might there perish with hunger. Being again delivered by the king, he in vain entreated him to surrender to the Chaldees (chap. 38). While, however, notwithstanding the heroic defence of the city, its danger was daily increasing, and famine was raging terribly among the besieged (cf. Lam. 2:20; 4:9 sqq.), the voice of the prophet was lifted up in the midst of the misery that surrounded him, to proclaim with exulting confidence the glorious future awaiting the chosen people and the city of God, and to prophesy, while the ancient form of the theocracy was being destroyed and the throne of David trampled under foot, concerning the new covenant and the righteous branch of David (Jer. 30-33). After a siege of eighteen months, a breach was made in the fortifications. Zedekiah with a portion of his forces endeavored to escape, but was brought back to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, and, after his sons had been executed before his eyes, was deprived of his sight and taken in chains to Babylon (39:1-7; 2 K. 25:1-7; cf. also Ezek. 12:13). Oehler.

Jeremiah’s great prophecy against Babylon, for the consolation of the exiles, was rendered the more impressive by the sign which followed it. Seraiah, the son of Neriah, who carried this prophecy to Babylon, was directed, after reading it, to tie a stone to the volume and to sink it in the Euphrates, saying, “Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her” (50, 51). The occasion found for executing this commission was a visit which Zedekiah paid to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign (n.c. 594-93), probably to pay his tribute to Nebuchadnezzar, or perhaps to defend himself against the first suspicions of treasonable dealings with Egypt. For in the same year Pharaoh-Necho, who seems never to have ventured to meet Nebuchadnezzar after the defeat of Carchemish, was succeeded by his son Psammetichus II. (the Psammis of Herodotus). From the Book of Ezekiel, who began in this year to enforce upon the exiles at Babylon the same lessons that Jeremiah was teaching at Jerusalem, we learn that Zedekiah entered into a treasonable correspondence with the new king of Egypt, which the prophet denounces as a gross violation of his plighted faith, destined to end in the king’s being brought to Babylon for punishment, while his people should fall by the sword or be scattered to the winds (Ezek. 17:11-21). The terms of the agreement with Egypt are expressly stated by the prophet: “He rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people;” and we are forbidden to give Zedekiah credit for a patriotic resistance by the declaration of the historian: “He rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God; but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto Jehovah, God of Israel” (2 Chron. 36:13). At Jerusalem the plot appeared so far ripe that the false prophet Hananiah promised the return of Jehoiachin within two years, and publicly broke off the neck of Jeremiah the yoke which he wore, as a sign of the hopeless subjection of Judah and the surrounding nations, who seem to have joined the Egyptian league. Jeremiah replied that the yoke of wood (the present vassalage of Babylon) should be replaced by a yoke of iron (the final destruction of the nation), and predicted the death of Hananiah, which happened within the year (Jer. 27, 28). We find further evidence of the progress of the conspiracy in the Book of Ezekiel. His vision of the Temple at Jerusalem, in the fifth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of the Captivity (n.c. 594-93), reveals the idol abominations which would soon be punished by the destruction of all but a small chosen remnant, and other visions and types follow to the like effect (chaps. 8-12). The plainer language of Ezekiel, about a year later (on the tenth of the fifth month of the seventh year of Zedekiah), when the elders of Judah came to him to inquire of Jehovah concerning the state of Jerusalem, serves to show that the rebellion had broken out (chaps. 20, 22, 23). The utter corruption of the people at this time, their persecution of God’s prophets and rejection of His word, so that His wrath came upon them “till there was no remedy;” the wickedness of Zedekiah in not humbling himself before the word of God by Jeremiah; his faithlessness to the oath he had sworn to Nebuchadnezzar, and that not from religious patriotism, for “he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto Jehovah God of Israel;” and the result in the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people till the time of the Persian Empire, so that the land kept her Sabbaths for seventy years, as Jeremiah had foretold—these outlines of the catastrophe are drawn by the writer of the Chronicles (36: 11-21).

It was still two years before Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem, with the resolution to destroy it utterly for Zedekiah’s treason. From this point the dates of Ezekiel’s prophecies accompany the events at Jerusalem. The city was invested in the ninth year of Zedekiah, on the tenth day of the tenth month; and on the same day Ezekiel was commissioned to foretell its utter destruction, by striking images, to the exiles at Babylon (chap. 24). The forces marshalled against Jerusalem comprised Nebuchadnezzar’s whole army, all the vassal kings of his empire, and all the nations around, Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites and others, who came up to avenge the quarrels of a thousand years. All the fortified cities of Judah had already been taken except Lachish and Azekah (Jer. 34: 1, 7). In this extremity Zedekiah proclaimed freedom to all Hebrew slaves, and sent Zephaniah the priest, with another messenger, to entreat the prayers of Jeremiah. In reply, he announced the coming destruction of the city and the fate of the king himself. The king now attempted to silence him by a mild confinement in the court of the prison in the palace, where he had the society of Baruch. While thus shut up, and that in a city environed by a mighty enemy, Jeremiah purchased, as the “Goël,” a field at his native village of Anathoth in Benjamin, as a sign of that return which he went on to prophesy, together with the glories of Messiah’s kingdom. This act of faith has been compared to that of the Roman who bought, at its full value, the ground on which Hannibal was encamped.

And now there broke forth a deceptive ray of hope. Pharaoh-Hophra, who had just succeeded to the throne of Egypt, led the forces which his father had collected to the relief of Zedekiah. His capture of Gaza (Jer. 47: 1-7) caused Nebuchadnezzar to suspend the siege of Jerusalem, and to march against him. And now Jerusalem exulted with the joy of a city delivered from a hopeless siege. But Jeremiah forbade them to deceive themselves, while, on the distant banks of the Euphrates, Ezekiel also foretold the ruin of Egypt (Jer. 37: 6-10). The princes of Judah now broke their solemn covenant to release their Hebrew slaves; and Jeremiah, having denounced their conduct, left the city for his home in Benjamin. He was detained by one of his enemies, who happened to be captain of the gate. The princes accused him of deserting to the Chaldeans, a course which had now become common; and he was imprisoned in the house of Jonathan the scribe, where he remained for some time (chaps. 34: 11-22; 37: 11-15). Meanwhile his warnings were fulfilled by the return of the army of Nebuchadnezzar, who, according to Josephus, had defeated the Egyptians; though more probably the enemy retired without a battle. Zedekiah now sent secretly for Jeremiah, and asked him, “Is there any word from Jehovah?” “There is,” replied the prophet; “thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.” Hoping, it would seem, for a more favorable answer, the king sent him back to the court of the prison, and ordered him to be fed while any bread was left in the city. In reply to another request which the king sent to him by Pashur and Zephaniah to inquire of Jehovah, the prophet pointed out a surrender as the only hope of safety (chap. 21). Upon this the princes demanded his death as a traitor, and the king confessed himself too weak to withstand them. They threw Jeremiah to perish in a hideous pit of the prison, where he sank into the mire; but the better feelings of the king came to his rescue at the intercession of the Ethiopian eunuch Ebed-melech, to whom he promised his life “for a prey” in the destruction of the city. Once more adjured by Zedekiah, in private, to give him counsel from God, the prophet pressed him to surrender; but the king was afraid of falling into the hands of the Jews who had revolted to Nebuchadnezzar, and who had doubtless many a wrong to avenge. So he entreated Jeremiah to keep the interview a secret, and sent him back to the court of the prison, where he remained till Jerusalem was taken (37:14-28). That catastrophe was now at hand; the ruin foreseen by Moses from the very birth of the nation, foretold by the prophets, and postponed for the sake of pious kings, as often as it was provoked by their degenerate successors; held in suspense in remembrance of God’s oath to David, but brought down at last by the shameless, persistent, inveterate violation of His covenant of piety and purity by the chosen people. Jehovah had done all He could by His prophets, whose words they despised and misused their persons, “until the wrath of Jehovah arose against His people till there was no remedy.” P. S.

The Yokes and Hananiah.

27:1 In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Thus saith the LORD to me: Make thee bands and bars, and put them upon thy neck; and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the children of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah; and give them a charge unto their masters, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Thus shall ye say unto your masters; I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the face of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I give it unto whom it seemeth right unto me. And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field also have I given him to serve him. And all the nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the time of his own land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. And it shall come to pass, that the nation and the kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. But as for you, hearken ye not to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreams, nor to your soothsayers, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out and ye should perish. But the nation that shall bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, that nation will I let remain in their own land, saith the LORD; and they shall till it, and dwell therein. And I spake to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live. Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? And hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon; for they prophesy a lie unto you. For I have not sent them, saith the LORD, but they prophesy falsely in my name; that I might drive you out, and that ye might perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you. Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD: Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’s house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you. Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city become a desolation? But if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD be with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon. For thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that are left in this city, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem; yea, thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem: They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be, until the day that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place. 28:1 And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azzur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD’s house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon: and I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went to Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD, even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD’s house, and all them of the captivity, from Babylon unto this place. Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people: The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence. The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him. Then Hananiah the prophet took the bar from off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, and brake it. And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD: Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon within two full years from off the neck of all the nations. And the prophet Jeremiah went his way. Then the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the bar from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Go, and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD: Thou hast broken the bars of wood; but thou shalt make in their stead bars of iron. For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also. Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; the LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will send thee away from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast spoken rebellion against the LORD. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

27: 1. In the first verse, which purports to give the date of this prophecy, there is manifestly an error of some ancient transcriber in writing Jehoiakim for Zedekiah. That this is an error is manifest, for verse 3 assumes that Zedekiah is now king; verse 12 shows that the prophet bore this message personally to Zedekiah; verse 20 proves that the captivity of Jeconiah, son and successor of Jehoiakim, is past; and finally chap. 28: 1 states that the same year was in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah. It is then a simple matter of fact that the ancient transcribers of the sacred text were liable to mistakes, and did sometimes make them. That form of inspiration which preserved the original authors of the Scriptures from any vital error in doctrine did not reach all the transcribers to preserve them from all mistake in their transcripts. Compared with any other ancient document, the Scriptures are remarkably free from this sort of error. Where errors have occurred, the means of correction are generally, as here, at command. This chapter then dates in the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah. H. C.

The prophecies contained both in this and the following chapter belong to the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. About this time ambassadors came to Zedekiah from the kings of Edom, Moab and other neighboring nations, to solicit him to join with them in a confederacy against the king of Babylon. On this occasion Jeremiah is ordered to put bands and yokes about his neck, and to send them afterward to the before-mentioned kings, declaring the sovereignty of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors to be of Divine appointment, and promising peace and protection to those who submitted quietly, but menacing evil in case of resistance (verses

1-11). A like admonition is delivered to Zedekiah, advising him not to expose himself and his people to certain ruin, by listening to the suggestions of false prophets, and revolting from the service of the king of Babylon (verses 12-15). The priests and all the people are also warned not to give credit to the false prophets, who taught them to expect a speedy restoration of the vessels, which had been carried away to Babylon together with Jeconiah. Instead of which it is foretold that the remaining vessels in the house of God, and in the king’s house at Jerusalem, should be carried after the other, and should not be brought back till the appointed time of Judah’s captivity was at an end (verse 16 to the end). Blayney.

2. Make thee bonds and yokes.** The prophets foreshowed things by actions as well as by words. So Isaiah went “naked and barefoot” (Isa. 20: 3). Ezekiel prophesied in like manner by signs (4: 1, etc.). W. Lowth.

2,3. Can there be any question whether these bonds and yokes were merely seen in vision, or were actually made? How could yokes be sent in vision by the hand of ambassadors to the kings of Edom and Moab? How could those kings know anything about the prophet’s vision? Were the consequent transactions of the next chapter, where Hananiah takes off the yoke from Jeremiah’s neck and breaks it, also done in vision? And did his death, in judgment therefor, occur in vision only? Manifestly those events of prophetic life which were interwoven with the outward life of other men must have been transacted in the external world. And we shall not be misled if we follow the simple rule that things done in vision are said to be shown and seen only, while things done in the outward world and in actual life are plainly stated to be done, as here: “Make thee bonds and yokes.” The Bible is eminently a plain book, written for the common mind, and to be interpreted accordingly.

9-11. In those nations the word of the Lord might be gainsayed by their false prophets in the form of diviners, dreamers, soothsayers, etc., as was done by false prophets in Judah. The Lord warns them to put no confidence in those gainsayers and liars. Men claiming supernatural powers are an institution in all heathen nations, and, so far as history enables us to judge, have always been so in all ages and in every clime. If it be not precisely a demand and outgrowth of human nature, it is a law of human depravity and a perpetual adjunct of a sinning race so long as they are led captive by Satan at his will.

12,13. Here the message comes to the king and people of Judah, Why should they fall under the general doom denounced on the nations that would not serve the king of Babylon? H. C.—“Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live. Why will ye die—thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the Lord hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?” This was the purport of the message which Jeremiah delivered before King Zedekiah and his court, and of which, when once delivered, his continuing to wear the yoke in public was a standing memorial, continually reminding those who saw it of the declaration which it symbolized and embodied. He even appeared with it in the Temple, to the inner courts of which he as a priest had access. Kitto.

16,17. A portion of the sacred vessels of the Temple had been taken away to Babylon with Jehoiachin. The false prophets were assuring the people that these vessels would soon be brought back. The Lord warns them against putting any confidence in such declarations, “Serve the king of Babylon and live” means, “And so ye shall live”—the second verb being a promise.

18. The people might have a test of the reliability of these prophets, and one that could be applied very soon. Bid them intercede with God to prevent the vessels of the Temple and palace yet remaining from being taken to Babylon. If they had power with God, let them improve and show it in this point. The question must soon come to issue, for the final destruction of the city, Temple and palace was at hand.

19-22. All that had not been taken away with the young king, Jehoiachin, when after a three months’ reign he was borne captive to Babylon, would soon be taken away—viz., at the close of the then present reign of Zedekiah. Yet, for the comfort of those who waited humbly on the Lord, He assured them that those vessels would be brought back again and restored to their place—a sacred pledge of the restoration of a remnant of the people and of the re-establishment of Divine worship in its ancient home.

Chap. 28. The chapter is especially valuable for its minute description of the case of Hananiah, one of the false prophets, who labored zealously to counteract the influence of the true prophets of the Lord. This case may stand as a sample of the class, an illustration of the methods pursued by those mischievous and wicked men.

1. What is said to have occurred in the “beginning of the reign of Zedekiah” is more definitely set to his fourth year and fifth month. The Jews used the phrases, “the beginning” and the “latter end,” to denote in a general way the early part and the latter part. In this case, since Zedekiah reigned eleven years, events in his fourth year would be in the former, the early part, or “the beginning.” This transaction was public, in the presence of the priests, and of all the people in the Temple.

2-4. Thus did this false prophet labor directly to gainsay and deny what Jeremiah had been saying. Observe, he does not shrink from using the solemn and prophetic forms of announcement: “Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,” and this in the very face of the stern prohibition of God Himself. His special points are, that God says He has broken the yoke of the king of Babylon; that within two full years He will restore all the sacred vessels taken from the Temple to Babylon with Jeconiah, and will bring back Jeconiah himself. This indicates a degree of boldness and daring in falsehood which can scarcely be accounted for without supposing the presence and inspiration of the “father of lies.”

5,6. This first reply of Jeremiah is not to be considered as prophecy or as a message from the Lord. He does not prefix to it the formula of a Divine message, “Thus saith the Lord.” He means only this: I shall be as well pleased as yourself to see all the sacred vessels of the Temple restored and all the captives brought back.

7-9. This part of Jeremiah’s reply mildly suggests that there have been prophets in former ages, and that the test of their Divine mission has always been the fulfilment of their predictions.

10,11. Determined to be behind the true prophets in none of the methods used by them to deepen the impression of their words, Hananiah takes the yoke from Jeremiah’s neck and breaks it. This symbolic act should naturally indicate that the Lord had reversed His purpose, and would break the power of Babylon within two years. Consequently until that time this test of fulfilment could not be applied to prove him a false prophet. Jeremiah here withdraws, having no further special message from the Lord to deliver. As the case stands, there is nothing more for him to do. Two years elapsed will show Hananiah to be a lying prophet—if the Lord shall see fit to wait so long. Jeremiah had nothing to do but wait for that time, or at least for some further commission from the Lord.

15–17. The daring hardihood and blasphemy of Hananiah called for signal retribution.

Hence another solemn message from the Lord, first forewarning, then smiting. The warning was given in the fifth month (verse 1). The fatal blow fell in the seventh, with only two months’ delay, giving him time for reflection and repentance, as the usage of human courts fixes a future day for execution, to give the culprit time for thought and for preparation to die. H. C.—So Hananiah the prophet died the same year, in the seventh month. This simple record of the result has always seemed to us unequalled in that simplicity which rises to grandeur. Here is no carefulness of minute statement as to exact fulfilment; no call to admiration at the effect of the Lord’s judgment. “So Hananiah died;” that is all. There is a world of meaning in that “so”—indicating that it was simply the most natural and inevitable thing in the world that Hananiah should die—nothing at all to marvel at that he did die—when his doom had been thus denounced. Kitto.