31 And I will 'punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not.

32

Then took Jeremiah another roll, and 7 Heb. visit upon.

gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many "like words.

8 Heb. as they.

Verse 7. They will present their supplication,' etc.Literally, Peradventure their supplication may fall down before the face of JEHOVAH.' In this and some other passages of the poetical Scriptures it seems as if a figure is drawn from the demeanour of the petitioner, and prayer is represented as coming, like a thing of life, and taking the posture of a suppliant, poor and humble, in the Lord's presence. Something of the same personification occurs in the old heathen writers, particularly in Homer's famous allegory, which, as Cowper observes, considering when and where it was composed, forms a very striking passage:

'Prayers are Jove's daughters, wrinkled, lame,

slant-eyed,

Which, though far distant, yet with constant pace Follow Offence,' etc.-Il. ix. COWPER.

10. In the higher court, at the entry of the new gate.'— The higher court is generally believed, on what seems very good grounds, not to have been the court of the priests, but the court of Israel, which was open to the male population in general. The new gate is stated by the Rabbins to have been on the east side. It is possible that the chamber from which Baruch read the prophecies was over the gateway leading to this court, or elevated near it; and that he read it from a window or balcony, looking into the court, so that he could be heard by the people assembled there, and by those who passed in and out at the gate.

18. Ink.'-Some writers have doubted whether ink can be intended by the word here employed (i” deyo); and Blayney, instead of 'I wrote them with ink in a book,' has I wrote in a book after him.' The Chaldee, Syriac, and Vulgate, however, agree with our version, which is also supported by the use of a similar word in Arabic and Persian. One objection supposes that ink was not at this time known to the Jews, and that they exclusively engraved their writing upon tablets. But a kind of ink is clearly mentioned even in the time of Moses (see Num. v. 23, and the note there); and Ezekiel (ix. 2, 3, 11) repeatedly speaks of the inkhorn' which writers employed. From the word (uéλav), by which 'ink' is expressed in the New Testament, it appears that the ink was usually black, as in other nations; but it seems that they had also coloured inks; and Josephus (Antiq. xii. 2) states that the seventy elders who made the Greek translation, brought from Jerusalem parchments on which the law was written in letters of gold. From the particulars collected by Wincklemann and others concerning the ink of the ancients, it would seem that it differed very little from that which the Orientals still employ; and which is really better adapted than our own thin vitriolic inks to the formation of their written characters; and this is also true of the Hebrew, the letters of which are more easily and properly formed with this ink than with our own, and with reeds than with quill pens. The ink is usually composed of lampblack, or powdered charcoal, prepared with gum and water, and sold in small particles or grains, like gunpowder. The writer who wants to replenish his inkhorn puts some of this into it, and adds a little water, but not enough to render the ink much thinner than that of our printers. Those who use much of it, work up the

ink-grains with water-in nearly the same way that artists prepare their colours, and then put it into their inkstand. In the manuscripts written with this ink, the characters appear of a most intense and glossy black, which never changes its hue, never eats into the paper, nor ever becomes indistinct or obliterated, except from the action of water, by which it is even more easily spoiled than our own manuscripts. The Eastern scribes also write in gold, and with inks of various brilliant colours-particularly red and blue-their diversified applications of which often give a very rich and beautiful appearance to the page in the higher class of manuscripts. These details respecting modern Oriental ink will be found to agree remarkably with what has been said concerning the ink of the ancients; and this concurrence may be taken to furnish a very satisfactory conclusion with regard to the ink or inks used by the ancient Hebrews.

22. There was a fire on the hearth burning before him.' -Dr. Blayney's translation is, 'There was set before him a hearth with burning coals.' The word ( akh), rendered hearth, may mean anything on which a fire was placed, without determining that it was the hearth of a chimney; and that it was not such, but a moveable brazier or fire-pan, will appear from the turn of the original, lost in the common translation, which says not that the king was sitting before the fire on the hearth,' but that the hearth' containing the fire was brought or set before the king. This is corroborated by the existing usages, as well as by those which anciently prevailed. Chimneys are indeed found in some parts, as in the north of Persia; but in Asia generally, apartments are warmed in cold weather by means of pans or braziers of various kinds, and either of metal or earthenware, which are set in the middle of

EASTERN BRAZIERS, ETC.

www

the room after the fire of wood which it contains has been allowed to burn for some time in the open air, till the flame and smoke have passed away. Wood previously charred is also employed for this purpose. The fire is commonly left open in the apartment, as was clearly the case in the present instance; but in Western Asia, when the inmates wish to sit comfortably warm in their rooms, they often cover the brazier with a low table, over which is laid a carpet or thickly padded counterpane, of such

ample dimensions, that the parts which overlap the table can be drawn over their persons, as they sit or recline upon their sofas or cushions, which are arranged properly around this centre of warmth. They usually sit covered to the waist by the counterpane, which they sometimes draw up to their shoulders, and then present an appearance which would suggest the idea of a family sitting up in a large bed with their feet turned towards a common centre. The quilt, with the surrounding cushions, of course detains much warmth around their persons; but the plan appears unwholesome, and could only exist among an indolent people who have no active in-door occupations. In cottages, a fire of wood or animal dung is frequently burnt upon the floor, either in the middle of the room or against one of the side walls, with an opening above for the escape of the smoke. It is also common to have a fire in a pit sunk in the floor: and, when travelling in winter, we have, on entering some rooms, been sensible of a

CHAPTER XXXVII.

1 The Egyptians having raised the siege of the Chaldeans, king Zedekiah sendeth to Jeremiah to pray for the people. 6 Jeremiah prophesieth the Chaldeans' certain return and victory. 11 He is taken for a fugitive, beaten, and put in prison. 16 He assureth Zedekiah of the captivity. 18 Intreating for his liberty, he obtaineth some favour.

AND king 'Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah.

2 But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did hearken unto the words of the LORD, which he spake 'by the prophet Jeremiah.

3 And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now unto the LORD our God for us.

4 Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people: for they had not put him into prison.

5 Then Pharaoh's army was come forth out of Egypt: and when the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they departed from Jerusalem.

6 Then came the word of the LORD unto the prophet Jeremiah, saying,

7 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me to enquire of me; Behold, Pharaoh's army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land.

8 And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.

9 Thus saith the LORD; Deceive not your

grateful and equable warmth, without being able to discover its source, until apprised that it proceeded from oue of these pits covered over with a mat or carpet so as not to be distinguished from any other portion of the floor These are the common methods by which apartments are warmed in the East, under different circumstances and in dwellings of different pretensions; and most of which were probably in use among the ancient Hebrews. Most of them furnish a comfortable warmth at but a very small expense of fuel; and the greater quantity required, as well as other considerations arising from the manner in which the Orientals like to sit in their rooms, probably operate to prevent them from regarding the use of chimneys with much favour. Grates are not known even where chimneys are found; but the fuel is burnt on the hearth, on which, if wood is employed, the pieces are set on end, leaning against the back of the chimney.

selves, saying, The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us: for they shall not depart.

10 For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there remained but 'wounded men among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.

11 And it came to pass, that when the army of the Chaldeans was 'broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army,

12 Then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to separate himself thence in the midst of the people.

13 And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans.

14 Then said Jeremiah, It is "false; I fall not away to the Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him: so Irijah took Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes.

15 Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the prison.

16 When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon, and into the "cabins, and Jeremiah had remained there many days;

17 Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took him out and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from the LORD? And Jeremiah said, There is: for, said he, thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.

18 Moreover Jeremiah said unto king Zedekiah, What have I offended against thee, 3 Heb. souls. 4 Heb. thrust through.

or against thy servants, or against this people, that ye have put me in prison?

19 Where are now your prophets which prophesied unto you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land?

20 Therefore hear now, I pray thee, O my lord the king: 'let my supplication, I pray thee, be accepted before thee; that thou

cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.

21 Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city were spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.

Verse 15. For they had made that the prison.'-It is not an unusual circumstance in the East for some part of the house of a public functionary to be employed as a prison. In Persia, where there are no large public prisons, the magistrates appropriate three or four chambers in their ample dwellings to the officers or domestics whose duty it is to keep safely those accused or suspected persons whom it is considered necessary to detain in custody. Imprisonment is by no means generally recognised in the East as a judicial punishment-but rather as a measure for the detention of accused or convicted persons:-it is an incident rather than a system; and hence the condition of prisoners is not defined by any specific regulations. It often happens that any place which seems to be sufficiently secure, is temporarily employed as a prison; and in general the situation of the prisoner is determined by the caprice, pleasure, or interest of the person to whose custody he is consigned, and who has no other charge than to keep the culprit in safe custody, and produce him when required. To this it may be added, that royal persons, governors of towns, and public functionaries, claim the right to imprison offenders in their own extensive establishments and households, and hence some place in their residences is usually appropriated or employed for the purpose. In some towns of the East even the European consuls have such prisons in their houses, where they confine such of their own nation or household as have been guilty of offences; and this by allowance from the governing powers of the town or country, who proceed upon the idea that a functionary should possess magisterial authority over those whose affairs he generally superintends. This may partly explain the existence of prisons in palaces and houses, in those countries where imprisonment being not at all, or only partially, regarded as a means of punishment and correction, no public prisons have been provided. It will be recollected that our old nobles had prisons in their own castles.

21. The bakers' street.'-We have had former occasions to observe that, in the East, every family generally grinds its own corn and bakes its own bread.-There is, however, in eastern towns, ample room for the craft of the baker. Many persons with small families, and consuming but little bread, find it cheaper to buy of the baker than to have daily grinding and baking at home. The bakers also get the custom of those loose members of society who have no households, and who buy food as they want or can afford it; under which denomination may be included strangers sojourning temporarily in the towns. They also sell much bread to the shopkeepers, artizans, and others who spend the day at a distance from their homes. Thus, upon the whole, the bakers are, in large towns, an active and flourishing body of tradesmen. But their situation is one of peculiar danger, the people being very apt to suspect them, in hard times, of conspiring to raise the price of bread. Hence popular outcries and tumults, which seldom end till one or more bakers have been sacrificed, either by the people themselves, or by their rulers, who thus endeavour to appease

them, or to divert their attention from the more real causes of public distress.

The present verse is interesting in another respect, as shewing that it was, in those early times, customary, as it is at present in the East, for persons of the same trades to carry on their business in the same streets, so that the purchaser sees at one view all the shops which offer the article he requires. This custom has also prevailed, with respect to some trades, even in Western Europe, and some very marked traces of it may still be found in London.

BAZAAR, OR STREET OF SHOPS.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

1 Jeremiah, by a false suggestion, is put into the dungeon of Malchiah. 7 Ebed-melech, by suit, getteth him some enlargement. 14 Upon secret conference he counselleth the king by yielding to save his life. 24 By the king's instructions he concealeth the conference from the princes.

THEN Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashur the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken unto all the people, saying,

2 Thus saith the LORD, 'He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live.

3 Thus saith the LORD, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which shall take it.

:

4 Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but

7 ¶ Now when Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon; the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin;

8 Ebed-melech went forth out of the king's house, and spake to the king, saying,

9 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 dungeon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is for there is no more bread in the city.

:

10 Then the king commanded Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, Take from hence thirty men with thee, and take up

Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die.

11 So Ebed-melech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took thence old cast clouts and old rotten rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah.

12 And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah, Put now these old cast clouts and rotten rags under thine armholes under the cords. And Jeremiah did so.

13 So they drew up Jeremiah with cords, and took him up out of the dungeon: and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.

14 Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the 'third entry that is in the house of the LORD: and the king said unto Jeremiah, I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me.

15 Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, wilt thou not hearken unto me?

16 So Zedekiah the king sware secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As the LORD liveth, that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life.

17 Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house:

18 But if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.

19 And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me.

20 But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the LORD, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.

21 But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that the LORD hath shewed me:

22 And, behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes,

1 Chap. 21. 9.

2 Heb. peace.

Or, of the king.

5 Heb. in thine hand.

• Or, principal.

and those women shall say, "Thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee: thy feet are sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back.

23 So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans: and thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon: and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire.

24 ¶ Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, Let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not die.

Verse 6. The dungeon of Malchiah.....that was in the court of the prison.'-There is no book of Scripture in which so much is said of prisons and imprisonment as in this of Jeremiah. As we have not hitherto said much on the subject, we may take the opportunity now offered of explaining what appears to us to have been the practice of the ancient Hebrews in this important matter.

1. In the law of Moses there is no one crime to which imprisonment is attached as a punishment. 2. There is no instance of imprisonment mentioned in Scripture which appears to have been the result of a regular trial and judicial sentence. 3. There is no instance of imprisonment inflicted by Hebrews, in which merely the safe custody of the prisoner, for a specific purpose, does not appear to be the sole or primary object. 4. Imprisonment, as a punishment and correction, can only be traced when inflicted by foreigners, and even in such instances it is by no means clear that detention was not the primary object, and the punishment merely an incident. It is easy for the reader to test these conclusions; in explanation or support of which we shall therefore only subjoin a few remarks, which may assist the investigation.

In the patriarchal times only two instances of imprisonment occur, both of which happened in Egypt, and are therefore foreign. The imprisonment of Joseph and of the two servants of Pharaoh has already been noticed in the proper place: the other was when Joseph, acting as an Egyptian, detained Simeon in custody, probably not in a prison, as a security for the return of his brethren. Under the direction of Moses himself, only one instance of confinement occurs, and that was in a peculiar case, when the sabbath-breaker was detained in custody until the Lord's pleasure concerning him should be ascertained. (Num. xv. 34.) From that time till so late as the reign of Ahab, in Israel, no instance of imprisonment occurs among the Hebrews; but the imprisonment of Samson by the Philistines is a remarkable foreign example. He was blinded, and afterwards kept in confinement and obliged to labour at the mill, furnishing the earliest instance on record of imprisonment and hard labour. As we are not speaking of heathen practices, it is of little importance what deduction may be derived from this case: but it appears to us not to bear on any general custom; for Samson was a distinguished captive belonging to an adverse nation, and the treatment of such persons affords no evidence of the domestic usages of a people. Such transactions are extrajudicial. The imprisonment is considered necessary for the safe keeping of captive chiefs and kings; and, in the case of Samson, the labour was a superadded indignity,

suggested probably by an insulting reference to the former employment of his great strength, if not with a view to the profitable employment of that portion of it which remained to him. At a later day, we see the last kings of Judah treated in the same manner by the Egyptian and Babylonian kings, and in all these cases we may find that the conquerors had an interest in detaining them securely. The case of Zedekiah, who was blinded and kept in prison by the king of Babylon, is very similar to that of Samson, except as to the labour at the mill. Among the Hebrews, the first case of imprisonment after the time of Moses was when Micaiah, having foretold the disastrous result of an expedition on which Ahab was bent, and in which he perished, the king ordered, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.' (1 Kings xxii. 27.) This was arbitrary and extra-judicial; but although the idea of punishment is incidentally included, it is evident that the primary intention was to detain the prophet for final punishment, when his prediction should, as the king hoped, be falsified by the event; as well, probably, as to deprive him of the means of promulgating his adverse and condemnatory prophecies to the people. The case of Jeremiah himself, which is the next that occurs in point of time, seems to be precisely similar to this. He was at first put under personal restraint in the court of the prison,' a place open to the public, and where his friends had free access to him; but as his prophecies were thus made public, he was ultimately removed under a general permission from the king, to the disagreeable and dangerous dungeon mentioned in the text, by which his personal enemies added punishment to confinement; but when the king heard this, he caused him to be released, and restored to the simple confinement of the prison-court, till his sad prophecies were accomplished. The last mention of imprisonment occurs after the Captivity (Ezra vii. 26); and as read in our own and many other versions, this, more precisely than any other passage of Scripture, would describe confinement in a prison as a regular punishment. If so understood, it is, however, a foreign instance, and occurs in a Persian edict. But we find the word thus translated to be one (iD èsor) which denotes a bond or fetter, and which never means a prison unless when the word n'a 'house' is prefixed. In this text that word is not prefixed, and moreover the word is in the plural (Desurin), clearly shewing bonds or fetters, not imprisonment in the usual sense, to be intended. We have thus alluded to all the cases of imprisonment