CHAPTER X

THE PROPHET'S RELATION TO THE

TH

STATE

III. JEREMIAH TO ZECHARIAH

HREE-QUARTERS of a century elapsed between the close of Isaiah's career and the beginning of Jeremiah's. Our knowledge of that period is very slight, and the little we know does not make an attractive picture. So far as our information goes, prophecy was silent. But we may easily infer the actual conditions. The prophets who saw visions according to the pleasure of the ruling kings were doubtless numerous, but their worthless effusions have found no record. Those who saw according to the visions of God were put to silence, even though the tomb alone could stop their mouths. We read that "Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other."1

Doubtless the faithful prophets furnished their full quota of martyrs. We can easily comprehend from this condition the fact that the prophets as a class in 1 2 Kings xxi. 16.

2 See Jer. ii. 30. It is by no means impossible that Isaiah was a victim of Manasseh's bloody sword (see chap. ix.). Even Herod dared not put John to death openly, because the people esteemed him a prophet (Matt. xiv. 5; cf. xxi. 26, 46). Manasseh did not heed the natural protection which belonged to the office of prophet.

Jeremiah's time were leagued with the priests in subserviency to the civil power, and the further fact that Jeremiah assumed the prophetic office with great reluctance, and stood to his task only from an overwhelming conviction that it was God's will. The seer who proposed to see straight and tell what he saw was engaging in an extra hazardous task.

Yet Jeremiah began to prophesy in the peaceful days of Josiah, when the power of the State was on the side of righteousness and truth. He might well rejoice in that day, for it did not last long, and the rest of the prophet's life was strenuous and stormy. What part our prophet played in Josiah's reformation it is not easy to say. If we could be sure of the accuracy of such passages as Jeremiah xi. 1-8 and xvii. 19 ff., we should know that Jeremiah was an enthusiastic supporter of the king's efforts. Both of these passages are rejected by Duhm and others, and not without some reason. There is the most convincing evidence that Jeremiah took little interest in Josiah's reforms. For when the book of the law was found, and the puzzled king in doubt as to his course of action, he sought counsel of the otherwise unknown prophetess Huldah,1 rather than of the already well-established seer of Anathoth. The choice of Huldah is not explained by her being the wife of a temple officer ("the keeper of the wardrobe"), nor by Kittel's suggestion that Jeremiah was "still relatively young, and only later attained greater authority." 2

1 2 Kings xxii. 14. The office was freely open to women; as Huldah had a husband, marriage was no impediment.

2 Die Bücher der Könige, 1900, p. 299.

Jeremiah may have uttered his earliest oracles in Anathoth, as Duhm supposes; but the world is quick to hear a fresh voice, and after five years of prophesying this seer could scarcely be unknown.

Josiah's reform was largely external and destructive. Such methods as he adopted were necessary doubtless; but a young prophet, inspired with great ethical ideals, longing passionately for purity in the State, would naturally not be greatly interested in the smashing of images.1

In his earliest utterances Jeremiah reveals a clear idea of a state policy which was necessary, not merely for the welfare, but for the existence, of the nation. Israel was destined of God to be high among the peoples of the earth, not a servant, nor a home-born slave. Why, then, had he become a prey over whom the young lions roared? The answer was that he had forsaken Jahveh his God, and was at one moment consorting with Egypt, at another with Assyria.2 Judah might have profited by the example of its sister kingdom, whose sins had brought it to destruction. Notwithstanding the ruin of Israel and the low estate of Judah, the prophet in the eager years of his youth looked for a new national unity— Israel and Judah walking together in the land which God had given to their fathers.1

1 Yet Jeremiah had a high opinion of the general beneficence of Josiah's reign; see Jer. xxii. 15 f.

2 Jer. ii. 14 ff.

3 Jer. iii. 6 ff.

4 Jer. iii. 18. The last two passages are rejected by Duhm. They are, however, explicable on the generally received theory that these passages, belonging originally to the Scythian invasion, were adapted to conditions of a later time.

R

Jeremiah's chief concern was the State as such. In his call he was set over nations and over kingdoms, not over individuals.1 The grave peril of Judah was the subject of one of his inaugural visions, and his mission was to seek to avert the impending calamity.2 The ground of his contention with the priests and prophets was not directly their deadly formal religion, but their blindness to the true interests of the State.3 The ideas of our prophet about the State may be easily gathered from his arraignment of the various kings in whose reigns his lot was cast. The oracle concerning Jehoahaz affords us little light, but the contrast pointed out between the shameless Jehoiakim and his righteous father shows clearly what a king should be. Jehoiakim had ruled by harsh measures : he had followed the bad example of Solomon in his employment of forced labour; he had devoted his time to the building of palaces; he was addicted to covetousness, oppression, violence, and even murder. In God's kingdom no man could rule by such means. The result of his administration was that on the day of his death he would not be lamented as a king, but would "be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem." 4 These words are very bold, if we follow Duhm in placing them at the beginning of the king's reign, even though we agree with him that the last part was added after the burning of the roll. But the judgment was just, and the true prophet of God has only one measure for his words, not expediency, but truth.

The judgment of Coniah, or Jehoiachin, who reigned but three months before he was deposed by the Babylonian king2 and Zedekiah put in his place, is equally severe. His fate is portrayed in the darkest colours, and it is quite inconceivable that Jeremiah could have expected anything good from his rule. He represents this king as utterly repugnant to Jahveh, and such repugnance could only be due to the king's failure to inaugurate his reign in righteousness.

It was inevitable that Jeremiah should come into conflict with the State. Men are not generally tolerant of plain speaking about their vices. During the main part of his prophetic life, Jeremiah was persecuted by State and Church alike. We shall follow him through some of those perilous days, when, with his life in his hand, he was leading a forlorn hope.

Jeremiah early found, like a much greater Seer of a later age, that " a prophet was not without honour save in his own country." The first attempt upon his life was made by his fellow-townsmen of Anathoth. They were incensed at his bold rebukes, and had no notion of stopping with such half-way measures as a mere command to cease from prophesying. Their plan was to "destroy the tree with the fruit thereof." In some way, so notable as to be regarded by him as a special providence, the prophet had been apprised of the murderous plot,

1 Jer. xxii. 24-30.

• Babylonia is now the great empire of the East, Assyria having fallen. 8 Jer. xi. 18 ff.