A Friend in Need.

Zedekiah sent messenger after messenger into Egypt, urging, pleading, begging Hophrah to come to his assistance.

Jeremiah cried that it was too late; that Hophrah would not come.

"Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise; he hath let the appointed time pass by."

Hophrah, however, did finally bestir himself. Word came to Jerusalem, and it reached the besieging forces, that a vast army of Egyptians was on the march northward. To the surprise of all, Nebuchadrezzar withdrew from Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem prophets were jubilant. They saw their hopeful forecasts all fulfilled and Judah once more independent. But Jeremiah knew better. He held out no such false hopes:

"Behold, Pharaoh's army, which has come out to help you, shall return to Egypt. Then the Chaldeans shall come back and fight against the city and shall take it and burn it with fire.

"Do not deceive yourselves with the idea that the Chaldeans will depart from you; for they shall not depart. For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men, yet would these arise up each in his tent, and burn this city with fire."

Although this sounds like a trumpet call of doom, Jeremiah was not without hope. The course of events, as he saw it, included the fall of Judah at the hands of Nebuchadrezzar; but he hoped also for a later rehabilitation of the land and rebuilding of the capital.

Jeremiah pinned his faith on the exiles in Babylonia and the certainty of their return to Judah. To picture his hope vividly, he determined to purchase his family estate in Anathoth. While Jerusalem was celebrating the withdrawal of the Babylonian troops and awaiting the coming of Hophrah's army, Jeremiah, with this in mind, started for Anathoth.

At the gates of the town, however, he was arrested and brought back to Jerusalem in chains. He was accused of high treason, of having spied out Jerusalem, and of attempting to escape to the Babylonians with the secrets. Without trial he was sentenced to prison and jailed in the guard house of the Temple garrison.

But this was not sufficient for the princes who had trumped up this charge against Jeremiah. They came to Zedekiah and charged that, by his speeches and actions, he was undermining discipline in the army and weakening the spirit of the people. They demanded that he be put to death.

Zedekiah, always weak and uncertain, replied, "Behold, he is in your hands." But they dared not kill Jeremiah outright.

"Then took they Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern that was in the Court of the Guard; and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the cistern there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire."

There was one person in the Court of the Guard who might have drawn Jeremiah right up out of the cistern where he had been left to die, had he not feared the wrath of the princes. It was Ebed-melech, the old, faithful friend. The Ethiopian was not afraid to die; but he felt that it would be useless to attempt to spirit Jeremiah away, for both would surely be caught. He cast about for some other means to save him whom he loved only as he had loved Josiah, the friend of his youth.

Had Ebed-melech known, however, that Jeremiah was sunk thigh-deep in mud, and that he had given himself up to die, he would have acted more quickly. It was on the second evening that he stole quietly out of the palace and up to the Court of the Guards. With great care, so as not to be discovered, he crawled to the cistern prison and leaned his gray head on the rim to listen. Jeremiah was praying:

"O Lord, Thou knowest.
Remember me and visit me.
Know that for Thy sake I have suffered reproach.
Thy words were found, and I did eat them,
And Thy words were unto me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart;
For I am called by Thy name.
O Lord, God of hosts, why is my pain perpetual?"

Yes! There was no mistake about it—Jeremiah wanted to die! Hot tears coursed down Ebed-melech's cheeks as he listened. Then he whispered a hurried word of hope to the prisoner and was off for the palace as fast as his old legs could carry him.

Twice he was stopped by the guards, but each time quickly released. Everyone knew Ebed-melech, his story of Josiah's escape, his privileges in the palace. He was a fixture at the court, and people said that he would never die.

Arrived at the palace, he demanded to see the king. Brought into the presence of Zedekiah he asked to speak to him alone. When both were left alone, he fell at Zedekiah's feet. Pointing to the door through which several princes had just gone out, he said:

"My Lord, the King!

"These men have done evil in all that they have done to
Jeremiah, the prophet, whom they have cast into the pit. He
is like to die in the place where he is."

Raising his head and looking straight into the king's eyes, he pleaded for the life of Jeremiah. He spoke very fast, his grey head shaking and his lips trembling. At last he finished his impassioned speech, prostrated himself before Zedekiah and kissed the hem of his robe.

Zedekiah graciously yielded to Ebed-melech's pleading and sent three men with him to raise Jeremiah out of the cistern. More dead than alive, Jeremiah was again taken to the guard house. Ebed-melech was given free access to his cell at all times.

A few days later Zedekiah requested Ebed-melech to bring Jeremiah to him, secretly. Rumor had it that Pharaoh Hophrah had halted in his march northward, because the Babylonians had lifted the siege, and was returning to Egypt. Zedekiah, therefore, wanted to know from Jeremiah:

"Is there any word from the Lord? Conceal nothing from me."

Jeremiah answered him:

"If I declare it to you, will you promise not to put me to death? And if I give you counsel, you will not hearken to me."

But Zedekiah wanted to hear. Vacillating as he was, he hoped that perhaps this time Jeremiah would bring him a message of assurance. So, he swore to him, saying:

"As the Lord liveth, who hath given us this life, I will not
put you to death; neither will I give you into the hands of
these men."

Thereupon Jeremiah fearlessly delivered his final message to the king:

"They have betrayed thee; they have overcome thee, thy
familiar friends!
They have caused thy feet to sink in the mire; they turn back!
They shall also bring out all your sons to the Chaldeans.
You yourself shall not escape out of their hands,
But shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon;
And this city shall be burned."

Zedekiah did not tear and rage as his brother, Jehoiakim, would have done at such a message. He did not possess enough energy or determination for that. In a hopeless sort of voice he simply sent Jeremiah back to the guard house, where Ebed-melech continued looking after him.

Once more Jeremiah proceeded to give practical evidence of his faith in the future of Judah, if the country would only submit to Babylonian rule; or, if king and princes and false prophets persisted in pushing the country to its fall, of his faith in the Babylonian exiles, who, he truly believed, would return and build up Judah again.

Therefore, with the assistance of Ebed-melech and Baruch, who was a frequent visitor to his master, Jeremiah arranged for and purchased the family property near Anathoth from his uncle, Hananel, and turning the deed over to Baruch, said to him:

"Take this purchase deed and put it in an earthen vessel, that it may remain for years to come. For, thus saith the lord, 'Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land.'"

Events that followed, however, seemed to mock his enthusiasm and his hope. The rumor of Hophrah's return to Egypt was verified—and Nebuchadrezzar was still encamped at Riblah.