Upon the approach of Johanan, all the captives and companions of Ishmael forsook him and fled to Johanan, except eight men, who, with Ishmael, made good their retreat, and escaped to the Ammonites. After this, Johanan and all the remnant of the people took up a temporary residence at Geruth-Chimham, near Bethlehem; with the intention of proceeding into Egypt, because of the Chaldeans, of whom they were afraid, on account of the murder of Gedaliah, which they apprehended might be visited upon them.† By some circumstance which is not related, Jeremiah had not suffered in the massacre at Mizpah, but had been carried voluntarily or coercively by Johanan, and his partizans to Chimham; and to him they now applied with all seeming reverence, all the people approaching him from the least even to the greatest, and saying, Let we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto Jehovah, thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:) that Jehovah, thy God, may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do.‡ The prophet replied, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto Jehovah, your God, according to your words; and it shall come to pass, that whatsoever thing Jehovah shall answer you, I will declare it unto you, I will keep nothing back from you. And to assure the prophet they were sincere in their inquiries, they voluntarily proffered an oath, as a test of their sincerity. "Jehovah be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which Jehovah, thy God, shall send thee to us. Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of * Jer. xli. 11–15. + Jer. xli. 16-18. Jer. xlii. 1-3. Jehovah, our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of Jehovah, our God."* After ten days, Jehovah condescended to vouchsafe them a message, when Jeremiah declared, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him, if ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you. Be not afraid of the King of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith Jehovah : for I am with you, to save you, and to deliver you from his hand. And I will shew mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land. But if ye say, we will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of Jehovah, your God, saying, no; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell;-now, therefore, hear the word of Jehovah, ye remnant of Judah, Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel; if ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there; then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die. So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there, they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; and none of them shall remain, or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them. For thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel: As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt; and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more. Jehovah hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah: Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day. For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto Jehovah, your God, saying, pray for us unto Jehovah, our God; and according unto all that Jehovah, our God, shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it. And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah, your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you. Now, therefore, know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn.* Notwithstanding their late oath, Johanan and the other officers no sooner heard the declaration of the prophet, than they declared he had spoken falsely, and that Jehovah had not sent any such message; but charged him with being instigated by Baruch to deliver them into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they might put them to death, and carry them captives to Babylon.† In direct violation, therefore, of the command of Jehovah, did Johanan and all his party take the whole remnant of Judah, including the king's daughters, Jeremiah, and Baruch with them into Egypt, and settled at Tahpanhes+ and other neighbouring cities.§ Still the prophet was permitted to warn this infatuated remnant; for whilst at Tahpanhes, Jehovah said to him, Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in the clay, The Hanes of Isaiah, (xxx. 4).—The Taphnas of the Septuagint, and the Daphnæ Pelusiæ of Herodotus, (Euterpe); it was situated near Pelusium. Wells, i. 233. Gray's Key, 375. in the brick-kiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house, in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah; and say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones, that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them. And when he cometh, he shall smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death; and such as are for captivity to captivity; and such as are for the sword to the sword. And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away captives: and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment; and he shall go forth from thence in peace. He shall break also the images of Beth-shemesh,* that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.† Again he addressed all the Jews which dwelt at Migdol,+ Tahpanhes, and Noph,§ and in the country of Pathros,|| saying; Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel; ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth therein, because of their wickedness which they have committed, to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other gods, whom they knew not, neither they, ye, nor your fathers. Howbeit, I sent unto you all my servants, the pro "Literally the house or temple of the sun, which was worshipped here; and whose images are said to have been of solid gold. Bethshemesh is the same as Heliopolis." A. CLARKE. Jer. xliii. 8-13. A city of Lower Egypt, not far from Pelusium. The Thebais. * phets, rising early and sending them, saying; Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods. Wherefore, my fury and mine anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as at this day. Therefore, now thus saith Jehovah, the God of Hosts, the God of Israel; Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to leave you none to remain; in that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye be gone to dwell, that ye might cut yourselves off, and that ye might be a curse, and a reproach, among all the nations of the earth? Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of your wives, which they have committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem? They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you, and before your fathers. Therefore, thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah. And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt, to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt; they shall even be consumed by the sword, and by the famine; they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword, and by the famine: and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach. For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: so that none of the remnant of Judah, which "A fine anthropopathia." A. CLARKE. |