great drama of humanity. Jeremiah predicted this chastisement. The
chosen people were to suffer a seventy years' captivity, and then city
and Temple were to be destroyed. But Jeremiah, sad as he was over the
fate of his nation, and terribly severe as he was in his denunciations
of the national sins, knew that his people would repent by the river of
Babylon, and be finally restored to their old inheritance. Yet nothing
could avert their punishment.

In less than three months after Jehoiachin became king of Judah, its
capital was unconditionally surrendered to the Chaldean hosts, since
resistance was vain. No pity was shown to the rebels, though the king
and nobles had appeared before Nebuchadnezzar with every mark and emblem
of humiliation and submission. The king and his court and his wives, and
all the principal people of the nation, were sent to Babylon as captives
and slaves. The prompt capitulation saved the city for a time from
complete destruction; but its glory was turned to shame and grief. All
that was of any value in the Temple and city was carried to the banks of
the Euphrates, nearly one hundred and fifty years after Samaria had
fallen from a protracted siege, and its inhabitants finally dispersed
among the nations that were subject to Nineveh.

One would suppose that after so great a calamity the few remaining
people in Jerusalem and in the desolate villages of Judah would have
given no further molestation to their powerful and triumphant enemies.
The land was exhausted; the towns were stripped of their fighting
population, and only the shadow of a kingdom remained. Instead of
appointing a governor from his own court over the conquered province,
Nebuchadnezzar gave the government into the hands of Mattaniah, the
third son of Josiah, a youth of twenty, changing his name to Zedekiah.
He was for a time faithful to his allegiance, and took much pains to
quiet the mind of the powerful sovereign who ruled the Eastern world,
and even made a journey to Babylon to pay his homage. He was a weak
prince, however, alternately swayed by the different parties,--those
that counselled resistance to Babylon, and those, like Jeremiah, that
advised submission. This long-headed statesman saw clearly that
rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, flushed with victory, and with the
whole Eastern world at his feet, was absurd; but that the time would
come when Babylon in turn should be humbled, and then the captive
Hebrews would probably