The prophecy of Isaiah concerning the destruction of Babylon, for its oppression of the Jews, was in their hands, and they were looking for its speedy overthrow. This made them restless under the yoke, and excited a spirit of insubordination which only increased their miseries.

To bring them to a state of feeling more in accordance with their condition and prospects, Jeremiah assures them that the captivity would continue seventy years; and that the expectation of an earlier release, cherished by the dreams of the false prophets, was vain. He commands them, therefore, in the name of the Lord, to build houses and plant gardens and settle down quietly in the country, until the time arrived for their deliverance. They were to act as good subjects while they remained in Babylon, and pray for the peace of the city, as thus they would secure their own. They were not exiles by chance, for the Lord had caused them "to be carried away captives." He had thoughts of good towards them; and if they sought him with all their heart, he would restore them again to their own land.

To make them more contented with their lot, the prophet declares that the Lord would send upon those still remaining in Judah the sword, the famine, and the pestilence; and that, scattered among all nations, they would "be a curse and an astonishment and a hissing."

By some pious captives who had often listened to Jeremiah's voice, this judicious and affectionate epistle was no doubt received with gladness. That remote as they were from their native land, they were not forgotten by good men at home, cheered their drooping spirits. But the false prophets were offended by this message. They feared it would weaken their influence. Two of them, Ahab and Zedekiah, who seem to have been specially active in exciting disaffection among the people, Jeremiah predicted would be slain by the king of Babylon. They were soon after put to death in a cruel manner, by his order, to deter others from such seditious attempts.

Shemaiah sent back word to Jerusalem, by the embassy, to have Jeremiah put in prison for the advice given to the captives; but as a punishment for his offence, neither Shemaiah nor any of his family were permitted to return from exile.

From this letter of Jeremiah, and another prediction of the same prophet, Jer. 25:11, Daniel, in the first year of Darius, understanding that the captivity was limited to seventy years, fasted and offered supplication to God in behalf of his country.

About this time, Jeremiah was cheered with a vision not only of the return of the captives from Babylon, but of a state of prosperity among the Jews at a remote period, far greater than had

hitherto been their lot. "Fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith Jehovah; for I am with thee: when I shall make a full end of all nations whither I have dispersed thee, yet I will not make a full end of thee; but I will correct thee with moderation, and will not make thee altogether desolate." "Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling-places. And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them." No subsequent state of the Jews fulfils the expectations naturally excited by this description. On their return from Babylon, their leader was dependent on the Persian government. Under the Grecian monarchy, "they changed their masters only, but not their condition." Under the Asmonean princes, they for some time enjoyed independence; but at length they fell under the yoke of the Romans, who took away "both their place and nation." The promise in its fulness remains to be unfolded. Such was the view presented to the eye of the prophet, that it filled his soul with rapture. "Upon this I awaked, and beheld, and my sleep was sweet unto me." He had so long been weighed down with "burdens" of wrath against

his people, that it was refreshing to his spirit to bear a message of peace and prosperity and enlargement to his country.

The prophet immediately adds a promise which beyond question relates to a spiritual kingdom; for it has been directly applied to the Christian dispensation by the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews, Heb. 88-12: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my law in their inward parts, and will write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

The provision by Moses for the religious instruction of the Hebrews, though the best of the age in which he lived, was very imperfect compared with what is enjoyed in Christian lands, at the present day. Domestic oral teachings constituted, among the ancient Jews, the chief means of diffusing a

knowledge of religion. Except the reading of the law to the nation assembled at Jerusalem once in seven years, it is doubtful whether they had any stated religious instruction for ages after the time of Moses. Some of the people seem to have resorted to the prophets at certain seasons, for religious purposes, but it is generally thought that the synagogue service was not established until after the Babylonish captivity. In the early periods of their national existence, there could have been but few copies of the Pentateuch, or books of any kind, in the land. To this in part, perhaps, is to be ascribed the frequent falling of the Jews into idolatry.

With what delight would Jeremiah have seen the Bible, and scriptural truth of every form, scattered as freely among his "kinsmen according to the flesh," as among us at the present day; so that the whole nation, "from the least of them to the greatest," might have in their own houses and in their own hands the means of knowing "the true God and eternal life."

In the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah, the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Zidon, sent ambassadors to Jerusalem for the purpose, probably, of inducing him to join them in a war against Babylon. The Lord commanded Jeremiah to make bonds and yokes, and put them about his own neck, and afterwards send them to these heathen kings by their ambassadors. They were