round whom gathered all that was ungodly, which, under
Josiah, had timorously withdrawn into concealment. Soon it became a
power, a torrent overflowing the whole country; and that the more
easily, the weaker were the dams which still existed from the time of
Josiah. One of the first victims for truth who fell, was the prophet
Urijah. The king, imagining that he was able to kill truth itself in
those who proclaimed it, could not bear the thought that he was still
living, although it was in distant Egypt, and caused him to be brought
thence (see l. c). The fact that Jeremiah escaped every danger of death
during the eleven years of this king's reign, although he ever anew
threatened death to the king and destruction to the people, was a
constant miracle, a glorious fulfilment of the divine promise given to
him when he was called (i. 19): "They shall fight against thee, and
they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith _the
Lord_, to deliver thee." The threatened divine punishment advanced,
under Jehoiakim, several steps towards its completion. In the fourth
year of his reign, Jerusalem was, for the first time, taken by the
Chaldeans (compare "_Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel_," p.
45 ff.), after the power of the Egyptian Empire had been for ever
broken by the battle at Carchemish on the Euphrates. The victor this
time acted with tolerable mildness; the sin of the people was to appear
in its full light by the circumstance, that God gave them time for
repentance, and did not at once proceed to the utmost rigour, but
advanced, step by step, in His judgments. But here too it was seen that
crime, in its highest degree, becomes madness; the more nearly that
people and king approached the abyss, the greater became the speed with
which they hastened towards it. It is true that they [Pg 367] did not
remain altogether insensible when the threatenings of the Prophet began
to be fulfilled. This is seen from the day of fasting and repentance
which was appointed in remembrance of the first capture by the
Chaldeans (compare "_Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel_," p.
49); but fleeting emotions cannot stop the course of sin. Soon it
became worse than it had been before; and therefore the divine
judgments also reached a new station. Even political wisdom advised the
king quietly to submit to dependence on the Chaldeans, which was,
comparatively, little oppressive. It was obvious that, unsupported, he
could