soon undeceived when the prospect began to open on them of simply exchanging the Egyptian for the Chaldaean yoke.  The power of the Chaldaeans had been quite unsuspected, and now it was found that in them the Assyrians had suddenly returned to life.  Jeremiah was the only man who gained any credit by these events.  His much ridiculed “enemy out of the north,” of whom he had of old been wont to speak so much, now began to be talked of with respect, although his name was no longer “the Scythian” but “the Babylonian.”  It was an epoch,—­the close of an account which balanced in his favour.  Therefore it was that precisely at this moment he received the Divine command to commit to writing that which for twenty-three years he had been preaching, and which, ever pronounced impossible, had now showed itself so close at hand.

After the victory of Carchemish the Chaldaeans drove Pharaoh out of Syria, and also compelled the submission of Jehoiakim (c. 602).  For three years he continued to pay his tribute, and then he withheld it; a mad passion for liberty, kindled by religious fanaticism, had begun to rage with portentous power amongst the influential classes, the grandees, the priests, and the prophets.  Nebuchadnezzar satisfied himself in the first instance with raising against Judah several of the smaller nationalities around, especially the Edomites; not till 597 did he appear in person before Jerusalem.  The town was compelled to yield; the more important citizens were carried into exile, amongst them the young king Jechoniah, son of Jehoiakim, who had died in the interval; Zedekiah ben Josiah was made king in his stead over the remnant left behind.  The patriotic fanaticism that had led to the revolt was not broken even by this blow.  Within four years afterwards new plans of liberation began to be again set on foot; but on this occasion the influence of Jeremiah proved strong enough to avert the danger.  But when a definite prospect of help from Pharaoh Hophra (Apries) presented itself in 589, the craving for independence proved quite irrepressible.  Revolt was declared; and in a very short time the Chaldaean army, with Nebuchadnezzar at its head, lay before Jerusalem.  For a while everything seemed to move prosperously; the Egyptians came to the rescue, and the Chaleaeans were compelled to raise the siege in order to cope with them.  At this there was great joy in Jerusalem; but Jeremiah continued to express his gloomy views.  The event proved that he was right; the Egyptians were repulsed and the siege resumed.  The city was bent on obstinate resistance; in vain did Jeremiah, at continual risk of his life, endeavour to bring it to reason.  The king, who agreed with the prophet, did not venture to assert his opinion against the dominant terrorism.  The town in these circumstances was at last taken by storm, and along with the temple, reduced to ruins.  Cruel vengeance was taken on the king and grandees, and the pacification of the country was ensured by another and larger deportation of the inhabitants to Babylon.  Thus terminated in 586 the kingdom of Judah.