JERUSALEM DESTROYED.



WE will now go back a little, and notice how Josiah lost his life. Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, went out with an army to fight against the king of Assyria, and as he was passing through Palestine, the country of the Jews, Josiah went out with an army to stop him, and was killed in battle at Megiddo. Josiah had promised to be a friend to the king of Assyria, and so he thought it was his duty to hinder the king of Egypt.

After Josiah was slain, the people took him to Jerusalem, and buried him there. Then they made his son Jehoahaz king in his stead.  Pharaoh went on his way; but when he came back from his warlike expedition, he stopped at Jerusalem, and took away Jehoahaz from being king, when he had reigned only three months. He then made Eliakim, a brother of Jehoahaz, king in his room. He changed Eliakim's name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz to Egypt.  Pharaoh made the Jews promise to pay a tax of many thousand dollars; but before Jehoiakim had reigned three years, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against Jerusalem and took it. He put Jehoiakim in fetters, with the intention of taking him to Babylon; but finally set him free, and allowed him still to be king in Jerusalem, with the promise that he would pay tribute, and that he would be a true friend to the king of Babylon, both in peace and in war.

Nebuchadnezzar carried away some of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes, to Babylon. He also carried away to Babylon part of the vessels of the house of God, and put them in the temple of his god. Among the captives taken at this time was Daniel, the one who was afterward cast into a den of lions.

Jehoiakim was a wicked king, and when he had reigned eleven years, he met a disgraceful death, and his son Jehoiachin reigned in his stead. But when Jehoiachin had been king three months and ten days, the king of Babylon came again to Jerusalem, and took him away to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also took away all the princes, all the mighty men of valor, and many thousands of the people, leaving only the poorer sort in the land.

Nebuchadnezzar then made Zedekiah king in place of his brother Jehoiachin. Zedekiah was a very wicked king, and the officers who helped him in ruling the nation were worse than he. 

They killed the prophet Urijah because he reproved them, and tried to kill Jeremiah, but the Lord protected him. "Moreover, all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem."

The Lord pitied the people, even in their wickedness, and continued to warn them; but they mocked and misused his prophets, until the Lord saw that it was of no use to bear with them any longer. So he allowed the king of Babylon to come against them with an army, and kill very many of the people with the sword.

The Babylonians also robbed the temple, burned it and all the palaces with fire, broke down the walls of the city, and carried away all the people that had not been killed