Antiquities of the Jews — Book 10, Chapter 7

1. But a terror seized on the king of Babylon, who had given the kingdom
to Jehoiachin, and that immediately; he was afraid that he should bear
him a grudge, because of his killing his father, and thereupon should
make the country revolt from him; wherefore he sent an army, and
besieged Jehoiachin in Jerusalem; but because he was of a gentle and
just disposition, he did not desire to see the city endangered on his
account, but he took his mother and kindred, and delivered them to the
commanders sent by the king of Babylon, and accepted of their oaths,
that neither should they suffer any harm, nor the city; which agreement
they did not observe for a single year, for the king of Babylon did not
keep it, but gave orders to his generals to take all that were in the
city captives, both the youth and the handicraftsmen, and bring them
bound to him; their number was ten thousand eight hundred and thirty-
two; as also Jehoiachin, and his mother and friends. And when these were
brought to him, he kept them in custody, and appointed Jehoiachin's
uncle, Zedekiah, to be king; and made him take an oath, that he would
certainly keep the kingdom for him, and make no innovation, nor have any
league of friendship with the Egyptians.

2. Now Zedekiah was twenty and one year's old when he took the
government; and had the same mother with his brother Jehoiakim, but was
a despiser of justice and of his duty, for truly those of the same age
with him were wicked about him, and the whole multitude did what unjust
and insolent things they pleased; for which reason the prophet Jeremiah
came often to him, and protested to him, and insisted, that he must
leave off his impieties and transgressions, and take care of what was
right, and neither give ear to the rulers, [among whom were wicked men,]
nor give credit to their false prophets, who deluded them, as if the
king of Babylon would make no more war against them, and as if the
Egyptians would make war against him, and conquer him, since what they
said was not true, and the events would not prove such [as they
expected]. Now as to Zedekiah himself, while he heard the prophet speak,
he believed him, and agreed to every thing as true, and supposed it was
for his advantage; but then his friends perverted him, and dissuaded him
from what the prophet advised, and obliged him to do what they pleased.
Ezekiel also foretold in Babylon what calamities were coming upon the
people, which when he heard, he sent accounts of them unto Jerusalem.
But Zedekiah did not believe their prophecies, for the reason following:
It happened that the two prophets agreed with one another in what they
said as in all other things, that the city should be taken, and Zedekiah
himself should be taken captive; but Ezekiel disagreed with him, and
said that Zedekiah should not see Babylon, while Jeremiah said to him,
that the king of Babylon should carry him away thither in bonds....

3. Now when Zedekiah had preserved the league of mutual assistance he
had made with the Babylonians for eight years, he brake it, and revolted
to the Egyptians, in hopes, by their assistance, of overcoming the
Babylonians. When the king of Babylon knew this, he made war against
him: he laid his country waste, and took his fortified towns, and came
to the city Jerusalem itself to besiege it. But when the king of Egypt
heard what circumstances Zedekiah his ally was in, he took a great army
with him, and came into Judea, as if he would raise the siege; upon
which the king of Babylon departed from Jerusalem, and met the
Egyptians, and joined battle with them, and beat them; and when he had
put them to flight, he pursued them, and drove them out of all Syria.
Now as soon as the king of Babylon was departed from Jerusalem, the
false prophets deceived Zedekiah, and said that the king of Babylon
would not any more make war against him or his people, nor remove them
out of their own country into Babylon; and that those then in captivity
would return, with all those vessels of the temple of which the king of
Babylon had despoiled that temple. But Jeremiah came among them, and
prophesied what contradicted those predictions, and what proved to be
true, that they did ill, and deluded the king; that the Egyptians would
be of no advantage to them, but that the king of Babylon would renew the
war against Jerusalem, and besiege it again, and would destroy the
people by famine, and carry away those that remained into captivity, and
would take away what they had as spoils, and would carry off those
riches that were in the temple; nay, that, besides this, he would burn
it, and utterly overthrow the city, and that they should serve him and
his posterity seventy years; that then the Persians and the Medes should
put an end to their servitude, and overthrow the Babylonians; "and that
we shall be dismissed, and return to this land, and rebuild the temple,
and restore Jerusalem." When Jeremiah said this, the greater part
believed him; but the rulers, and those that were wicked, despised him,
as one disordered in his senses. Now he had resolved to go elsewhere, to
his own country, which was called Anathoth, and was twenty furlongs
distant from Jerusalem; 12 and as he was going, one of the rulers met
him, and seized upon him, and accused him falsely, as though he were
going as a deserter to the Babylonians; but Jeremiah said that he
accused him falsely, and added, that he was only going to his own
country; but the other would not believe him, but seized upon him, and
led him away to the rulers, and laid an accusation against him, under
whom he endured all sorts of torments and tortures, and was reserved to
be punished; and this was the condition he was in for some time, while
he suffered what I have already described unjustly.

4. Now in the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah, on the tenth day of
the tenth month, the king of Babylon made a second expedition against
Jerusalem, and lay before it eighteen months, and besieged it with the
utmost application. There came upon them also two of the greatest
calamities at the same time that Jerusalem was besieged, a famine and a
pestilential distemper, and made great havoc of them. And though the
prophet Jeremiah was in prison, he did not rest, but cried out, and
proclaimed aloud, and exhorted the multitude to open their gates, and
admit the king of Babylon, for that if they did so, they should be
preserved, and their whole families; but if they did not so, they should
be destroyed; and he foretold, that if any one staid in the city, he
should certainly perish by one of these ways,—either be consumed by the
famine, or slain by the enemy's sword; but that if he would flee to the
enemy, he should escape death. Yet did not these rulers who heard
believe him, even when they were in the midst of their sore calamities;
but they came to the king, and in their anger informed him what Jeremiah
had said, and accused him, and complained of the prophet as of a madman,
and one that disheartened their minds, and by the denunciation of
miseries weakened the alacrity of the multitude, who were otherwise
ready to expose themselves to dangers for him, and for their country,
while he, in a way of threatening, warned them to flee to the enemy, and
told them that the city should certainly be taken, and be utterly
destroyed.

5. But for the king himself, he was not at all irritated against
Jeremiah, such was his gentle and righteous disposition; yet, that he
might not be engaged in a quarrel with those rulers at such a time, by
opposing what they intended, he let them do with the prophet whatsoever
they would; whereupon, when the king had granted them such a permission,
they presently came into the prison, and took him, and let him down with
a cord into a pit full of mire, that he might be suffocated, and die of
himself. So he stood up to the neck in the mire which was all about him,
and so continued; but there was one of the king's servants, who was in
esteem with him, an Ethiopian by descent, who told the king what a state
the prophet was in, and said that his friends and his rulers had done
evil in putting the prophet into the mire, and by that means contriving
against him that he should suffer a death more bitter than that by his
bonds only. When the king heard this, he repented of his having
delivered up the prophet to the rulers, and bid the Ethiopian take
thirty men of the king's guards, and cords with them, and whatsoever
else they understood to be necessary for the prophet's preservation, and
to draw him up immediately. So the Ethiopian took the men he was ordered
to take, and drew up the prophet out of the mire, and left him at
liberty [in the prison].

6. But when the king had sent to call him privately, and inquired what
he could say to him from God, which might be suitable to his present
circumstances, and desired him to inform him of it, Jeremiah replied,
that he had somewhat to say; but he said withal, he should not be
believed, nor, if he admonished them, should be hearkened to; "for,"
said he, "thy friends have determined to destroy me, as though I had
been guilty of some wickedness; and where are now those men who deceived
us, and said that the king of Babylon would not come and fight against
us any more? but I am afraid now to speak the truth, lest thou shouldst
condemn me to die." And when the king had assured him upon oath, that he
would neither himself put him to death, nor deliver him up to the
rulers, he became bold upon that assurance that was given him, and gave
him this advice: That he should deliver the city up to the Babylonians;
and he said that it was God who prophesied this by him, that [he must do
so] if he would be preserved, and escape out of the danger he was in,
and that then neither should the city fall to the ground, nor should the
temple be burned; but that [if he disobeyed] he would be the cause of
these miseries coming upon the citizens, and of the calamity that would
befall his whole house. When the king heard this, he said that he would
willingly do what he persuaded him to, and what he declared would be to
his advantage, but that he was afraid of those of his own country that
had fallen away to the Babylonians, lest he should be accused by them to
the king of Babylon, and be punished. But the prophet encouraged him,
and said he had no cause to fear such punishment, for that he should not
have the experience of any misfortune, if he would deliver all up to the
Babylonians, neither himself, nor his children, nor his wives, and that
the temple should then continue unhurt. So when Jeremiah had said this,
the king let him go, and charged him to betray what they had resolved on
to none of the citizens, nor to tell any of these matters to any of the
rulers, if they should have learned that he had been sent for, and
should inquire of him what it was that he was sent for, and what he had
said to him; but to pretend to them that he besought him that he might
not be kept in bonds and in prison. And indeed he said so to them; for
they came to the prophet, and asked him what advice it was that he came
to give the king relating to them. And thus I have finished what
concerns this matter.