To chastise his perfidy and rebellion, Nebuchadnezzar mustered a mighty army out of all the nations and provinces subject to his power, and marched into Judea against him in person. But the angry Assyrian finding, as he approached the confines of Damascus, that not only the Jews but the Ammonites had revolted from him, he hesitated which of the nations he should first annihilate. He therefore commanded his diviners to consult by means of teraphim-by the entrails of their sacrifices-and by the arrows; which nation he should first devote to destruction: and as, by the last method of divination, the arrow which came forth was inscribed with the name of Jerusalem, he immediately marched his army into Judea.*

"For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination : he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver."-Ezek. xxi. 21.

The method of divination by arrows practised by the Babylonians, consisted in writing on a number of those feathered weapons the names of the cities they intended to invest. Having returned the arrows promiscuously into

In his progress, he took all its cities; the capital, Lachish, and Azekah, only excepted. When the knowledge of these disasters reached Jerusalem, the Jews in their affliction "sought to God,"" in their affliction they will seek me early," and made a shew of repentance, and many promises of new obedience, and even some attempts at reformation. But these things now availed them not; like the brother of Jacob they found not what they sought, though they sought it with tears.

From the Holy Scriptures we are led to estimate the character of Zedekiah as that of a weak

and timid prince, somewhat disposed to act well, but perpetually over-ruled in his good intentions by the evil advice of wicked counsellors, and the delusions of false prophets. In his vacilating and guilty conduct he acted without excuse, for he had not only the counsel and prayers of Jeremiah at home to guide and comfort, as well as to ad

the quiver, they were thence drawn out in the manner of lots, and that city whose name was written upon the arrow first drawn out, was the city which was first assaulted. -Jerome.

monish him, but the captive prophet on the banks of Chebar failed not to remonstrate with the remnant of Judah, and to warn them by his letters, of the chastisements which still hung over the devoted nation.

While Jehovah, still delighting in the exercise of his attribute of mercy, suffered not the light of prophecy to become extinct even in this night of darkness, but rather to shine with a resplendant brightness, yet this very light led him astray: For, as the predictions of these eminently gifted individuals afforded a beam of revelation which streamed, like the light of a lamp agitated by contrary airs, sometimes in one direction, and sometimes in another, the infatuated prince refused to obey the indication of either.

The two prophets mutually foretold the calamities that were impending over the Jews, the taking of the city, and the total ruin of the nation. But, as in all prophecy, the details are rarely understood till the moment of their accomplishment evolves them; so, while Ezekiel predicted that "Zedekiah should not see Babylon,"* Je

* Ezekial xii. 13.

remiah foretold that "the king of Babylon should carry him thither in bonds." Both of them were literally fulfilled; but upon this apparent, or we might almost say palable discrepancy of opinion, the king discredited their testimony altogether.

At length, in the ninth year of Zedekiah, on the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the tenth day of the month, a day still remembered by the scattered tribes of Israel, Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to the holy city, or rather to the guilty and polluted city, and hemmed it in on every side.

On this melancholy aspect of affairs, Jeremiah again assured the king that the city would fall, but Zedekiah relying on help from Egypt, not only rebuked the prophet, but shut him up in prison. The approach of Pharaoh-Hophna to the succour of the besieged indeed, encouraged their vain and infidel hopes, and called off the Babylonians for a little; but the Egyptians afraid to encounter the great armies and disciplined troops of Assyria, speedily withdrew to their own land, and left Nebuchadnezzar at liberty to resume the siege, which occupied him nearly a year

from the time of its second investment, to the conclusion of the war.

In the fourth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, Jerusalem was taken by the Chaldeans. The king, with his princes and men of war, fled; and having broken through the Assyrian camp, he endeavoured to make his escape over the Jordan. But the enemy pursued and overtook him on the plains of Jericho, where, being deserted by his friends, his army was dispersed. Zedekiah was carried prisoner to Nebuchadnezzar, at that time residing at Riblah in Syria, who having commanded the princes and sons of Zedekiah to be slain in his presence, ordered the king's eyes to be put out, and binding him in fetters of brass, the captive and sightless monarch was carried to Babylon, where he died in prison, though his quenched eye-balls never saw the spot. Thus, while his unbelief met with the bitterest reproof, the word of the Lord was fulfilled to the letter!

After the taking of the city, and the captivity of the king, Nebuzaraddan, captain of the Assyrian guard, proceeded, by order of his imperial master, to plunder all that was left in the temple,