captives, and bound the king in fetters. He died in shame, and was denied a burial. His young son

JEHOIACHIN, Who was also called Jeconiah, or Coniah, was made king in room of his father. He reigned only three months and ten days, doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. In those days came Nebuchadnezzar and took the city of Jerusalem, and carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, together with the king, and ten thousand captives; these he took into Babylon-Jer. xxii. 24–30,—and made

ZEDEKIAH, his father's brother, king over Judah and Jerusalem. Twenty and one years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. He rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, to whom he had sworn subjection by the name of the true God; whereupon Nebuchadnezzar came up and took the city of Jerusalem, after a siege of eighteen months, slew the sons of Zedekiah before his face, put out his own eyes, bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon. burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, brake down the walls of the city, carried away the people captive, with all the vessels of gold, silver, and brass, that belonged to the temple. -2 Kings xxv. 1–17.

He

As for the people that remained in the land of Judah, even over them Nebuchadnezzar made Gedaliah ruler, who, in a short time, was slain by a faction under Ishmael, one of the seed-royal. After this one Johanan, a captain under Gedaliah, routed Ishmael, and drove him out of the land; yet, being afraid of the anger of the king of Babylon, and his resentment of the murder of Gedaliah, his governor, he fled into Egypt, and carried with him most of the people that were then in the land, when, and where, they were dispersed into several cities.Jer. xli. 13-18, and xlii. xliii. This was done directly against the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, whom they also carried with them into Egypt, where they practised idolatry in opposition to his reproofs. There Jeremiah was ordered by the LORD to foretell the destruction of Egypt by the king of Babylon, and to denounce fearful calamities, and death, by sword and famine, upon the Jews, who sojourned there; yet, at the same time, he foretold the return of their brethren from their captivity in Babylon.-Jer. xliii. 9, xliv. 28, &c. Thus we have seen, "the time had arrived in the counsels of the Almighty for the remainder of his once favoured people to pay the penalty of their repeated and long-continued transgressions. Palestine was now, indeed, a widowed and a mourning land.

Utterly depopulated, except as tribes of wandering Arabs passed through it, its beautiful hills and fertile valleys untilled, its vines and fig-trees dropping their ungathered fruits, its deserted habitations and ruined monuments a lair for wild beasts, it became one scene of desolation-an awful manifestation of the consequences of man's wickedness, and of the severity of God's judgments."*

Having, in this and the preceding chapter, given a brief account of the reign of no fewer than nineteen of the kings of Israel, and twenty of the kings of Judah, it may not be unprofitable to reflect for a little upon the variety and influence of the conduct of these kings upon the prosperity and happiness of the country and people over whom they reigned. Would it be too much to say, that in every country, and in every age of the world, the irreligious and voluptuous example of the rulers has had malign and withering influence upon the mental, moral, civil, and religious habits of the governed? It has been well said, that reformation must begin at home. Ill practices will never be suppressed in any country while they are supported in the court. We ought to be very grateful to " HIM by whom kings reign, and princes decree justice," for His having given us one of the best queens that ever sat upon a throne; being truly exemplary in the discharge of all her relative duties as a woman, a sovereign, a wife, a mother, and a Christian!

It may not be out of place to state here, that the books of the Old Testament are not placed in the order of time in which they were written, but rather according to their size than their seniority-the longest first, not the eldest. It will be profitable for the scholar, or student of Scripture, when reading the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah, at the same time carefully to consult the Chronological Table in regard of the dates of the prophecies; there, for example, we find that Isaiah, who wrote so much of Christ, that he has justly been styled the Evangelical Prophet, prophesied in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Jeremiah began to prophesy in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, king of Judah, and continued until the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, being forty years. We shall conclude this chapter with a brief biographical sketch of the weeping prophet :

"The prophet wept for Israel; wished his eyes
Were fountains fed with infinite supplies;
Wept till all Israel heard his bitter cry,
Stamped with his foot, and smote upon his thigh:

*Rev. J. M. Wainwright, D.D.

But wept, and stamped, and smote his thigh in vain.
Pleasure is deaf when told of future pain,
And sounds prophetic are too rough to suit
Ears long accustomed to the pleasing lute:
They scorned his inspiration and his theme,
Pronounced him frantic, and his fears a dream;
With self-indulgence winged the fleeting hours,

Till the foe found them, and down fell the towers."*

In this servant of the LORD, there is a wonderful combination of character. In him is to be found all the sanctity of the prophet, the heroism of the patriot, and the pathos of the poet; yet we find him with the humility and docility of a child, saying, "Ah, LORD God! behold, I cannot speak." To dispel his fears, and to inspire him with confidence, the LORD put forth his hand, and touched his mouth, and said unto him, "Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, to build, and to plant.

Therefore, gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. They shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee."

Jeremiah being thus commissioned and encouraged by God to carry His messages, and to pronounce His judgments against the people, princes, and kings of Judah, he proceeded to the discharge of his arduous duty, which he executed faithfully and fearlessly, by direct and earnest appeals, by parables, and by emblems; all this he did at the risk of his life, and under the malignant persecution of priests and false prophets, for which see the whole of his writings. "Mingled with his ardour of spirit and earnestness of appeal, there are touches of poetic grandeur. It is a true martial fire which inspirits his descriptions of carnage and desolation. In his own language, he is a lion from the swellings of Jordan, coming up against the habitations of the strong.' There is a fury in his eye which makes you wonder if aught else were ever there it is mildness maddened into a holy and fearful frenzy.

In his Lamentations, his is that figure of Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are not. His the plaintive question, 'Is there no balm in Gilead?' And his the wide wish of sorrow, 'O that my head were waters,

* Cowper.

and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!' And was not this wide wish granted, when, in the Lamentations, he poured out his heart in those deep melodies of desolation, mourning, and woe?—to use the beautiful language of that great and holy man departed.*

"The scene is Jerusalem lying in heaps; the poet, the holy child of inspiration, appears upon the ruins, and, with notes of desolation and woe, strikes his harp to the fallen fortunes of his country. It was not that the pleasant land now lay waste; it was not that the daughters of Jerusalem were slain, and her streets ran red-and they did run red;-but it was the temple— the temple of the LORD,-with its altars, its sanctuary, its holy of holies levelled to the ground-rubbish where beauty stood, ruin where strength was: its glory fled, its music ceased, its solemn assemblies no more, and its priesthood immolated, or carried far away. These had shed their glory over Israel and over all the land, and it was the destruction of these which gave its tone of woe to the heart of the 'Israelite indeed.' Over this scene Jeremiah broods with the tenderest and softest feelings, identifies himself with his country, feels Jerusalem's sword in his own heart, and lingers in fond admiration of its happier times, when the 'sons of Zion were comparable to fine gold, and her Nazarites were purer than snow.' Before closing this sketch of the sweet, sad singer of Israel, let us notice the personal interest he acquires from the minute details we have of his history. We find him smitten, put in the stocks, in the prison, in the dungeon, under bonds and yokes. Alas! 'my brother,' is our exclamation, as we witness his woes. A brother's voice, now tremulous in grief, now urgent in entreaty, now loud in anger, and now swelling into lofty poetry, sounds down upon us through the solemn centuries of the past, and we grieve that the grave denies us the blessing of a brother's presence, and the pressure of a brother's hand."+

EXERCISES.

How many kings reigned over Judah? What is said of their character in general? What was remarkable in the reign of Abijam? In that of Asa? Of what disease did he die? How did Jehoshaphat reign? In what did he give offence to God? How did he overcome the Moabites and Ammonites? Did Jehoram his son walk in the ways of his father? How did God manifest his displeasure against Jehoram? By whom was he succeeded in the kingdom? How did Ahaziah govern, and what was his end? Who next seized the kingdom? How *The Rev. Mr Jameson of Methven. "Bards of the Bible."

did she act? What was her end? How did Joash begin his reign? How did he finish it? By whom was he slain? How did Amaziah begin his reign? By whom was he slain? Where? By whom was he succeeded? For what sin was he severely punished? In what state was the kingdom of Judah in the reign of Ahaz? How long did he reign? Mention some of the good deeds of Hezekiah? How did the Lord manifest his acceptance of these? How did Hezekiah act when Sennacherib sent an army to take Jerusalem? What was the result? What of his sickness? Into what sin did he fall after his recovery? What was the character of his son Manasseh? What of his repentance and reformation? What of the reign of his son Amon? What reformations did Josiah make in his reign? How did he act when the book of the law was found? What was his end? Was he much lamented? How long did his son reign? Whom did the king of Egypt place in his stead? What was his character? Who came against Jerusalem in the reign of Jehoiachin? Who was the last king in Judah? What became of him? What became of the people who remained in the land? When did Josiah prophesy? And Jeremiah? What was his character?

CHAPTER XVI.

FROM THE CARRYING AWAY, IN THE REIGN OF JEHOIACHIN, TILL THE RESTORATION, B.C. 599–536.

Daniel-His Prophecies and Character.

Next to the life of Jeremiah, and to what has already been stated concerning the carrying away of the Jews into Babylon, we would place the life of Daniel, who was one of the captives, and of the tribe of Judah. Ezekiel, who was his contemporary, but much his senior, speaks of him as an oracle, when thus he upbraids the king of Tyre with self-conceit :—“Thou art wiser than Daniel."-Ezek. xxviii. 3. He is likewise there celebrated for success in prayer, when Noah, Daniel, and Job, are reckoned as three men who had the greatest interest in heaven of any other. -Ezek. xiv. 14. The book bearing his name naturally divides itself into two divisions. From the beginning of the first chapter to the close of the sixth, it is chiefly historical, and contains an account of a variety of most wonderful events which happened to himself, to some of his fellow-captives, to Nebuchadnezzar, and to his grandson, king Belshazzar. "The second division of the book is strictly prophetical, and comprises the visions and prophecies with which Daniel was favoured in the land of his captivity, relating to the four great monarchies of the world, to