Chapter 37—Carried Captive Into Babylon
In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign “Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem,” to besiege the
city.
2 Kings 25:1
. The outlook for Judah was hopeless. “Behold, I
am against thee,” the Lord Himself declared through Ezekiel. “I the
Lord have drawn forth My sword out of his sheath” it shall not return
any more.... Every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and
every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water.” “I will
pour out Mine indignation upon thee, I will blow against thee in the
fire of My wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, and
skillful to destroy.”
Ezekiel 21:3, 5-7, 31
.
The Egyptians endeavored to come to the rescue of the beleaguered
city; and the Chaldeans, in order to keep them back, abandoned for a
time their siege of the Judean capital. Hope sprang up in the heart of
Zedekiah, and he sent a messenger to Jeremiah, asking him to pray to
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God in behalf of the Hebrew nation.
The prophet’s fearful answer was that the Chaldeans would return
and destroy the city. The fiat had gone forth; no longer could the im-
penitent nation avert the divine judgments. “Deceive not yourselves,”
the Lord warned His people. “The Chaldeans ... shall not depart. For
though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight
against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet
should they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.”
Jeremiah 37:9, 10
. The remnant of Judah were to go into captivity,
to learn through adversity the lessons they had refused to learn under
circumstances more favorable. From this decree of the holy Watcher
there could be no appeal.
Among the righteous still in Jerusalem, to whom had been made
plain the divine purpose, were some who determined to place beyond
the reach of ruthless hands the sacred ark containing the tables of stone
on which had been traced the precepts of the Decalogue. This they did.
With mourning and sadness they secreted the ark in a cave, where it
was to be hidden from the people of Israel and Judah because of their
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