JEREMIAH FORETELLING THE FALL OF JERUSALEM.

In the seventh year of his reign, Zedekiah, king of Judah, entered into a confederacy with Hophra, king of Egypt, who marched to the relief of Jerusalem, which Nebuchadnezzar was then besieging. The Chaldean king immediately raised the siege to meet and give him battle. Zedekiah conceiving that the hostile army, having left his capital, would be too much engaged with his new allies to renew the siege of Jerusalem, recalled the proclamation of manumission to all Hebrew slaves which he had issued throughout his dominions, when subdued by the terrors of another captivity under a stern and unrelenting conqueror, and issued a counter proclamation, commanding all persons under bondage to con tinue in their odious servitude. Anxious, however, to know how far he might trust to the future security of his capital, upon the retreat of the Chaldean army, he sent two messengers to Jeremiah, Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Masaeiah the priest, to ascertain the events of the war, and if he was likely again to be molested by the enemy. The messengers repaired to the prophet, and laid before him the demands of their king. "Then said Jeremiah unto them, thus shall ye say to Zedekiah: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city. And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath. And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence. And afterwards, saith the Lord, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city, from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy."