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.
(PK 452.1)
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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 God in behalf of the Hebrew nation.
(PK 452.2)
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The prophet’s fearful answer was that the Chaldeans would return and destroy the city. The fiat had gone forth; no longer could the impenitent 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.
(PK 453.1)
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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 sins, and was to be no more restored to them. That sacred ark is yet hidden. It has never been disturbed since it was secreted.
(PK 453.2)
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For many years Jeremiah had stood before the people as a faithful witness for God; and now, as the fated city was about to pass into the hands of the heathen, he considered his work done and attempted to leave, but was prevented by a son of one of the false prophets, who reported that Jeremiah was about to join the Babylonians, to whom he had repeatedly urged the men of Judah to submit. The prophet denied the lying charge, but nevertheless “the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in prison.”Jeremiah 37:15.
(PK 453.3)
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