and that the moment had come when Judah, recovering at length from her trials, should once more occupy, in the sight of the sun, that place for which Jahveh had destined her.  The kings of Moab, Ammon, Edom, Tyre, and Sidon had sent envoys to Jerusalem, and there, probably at the dictation of Egypt, they had agreed on what measures to take to stir up a general insurrection against Chaldaea.** The report of their resolutions had revived the courage of the national party, and of its prophets; Hananiah, son of Azzur, had gone through the city announcing the good news to all.***

* Jer. xxix. 3 gives the names of two of these transmitters of the tribute—­Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, to whom Jeremiah had entrusted a message for those of the captivity.

** Jer. xxvii. 1-3.  The statement at the beginning of this chapter:  In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, contains a copyist’s error; the reading should be:  In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah (see ver. 12).

     *** Jer. xxvii., xxviii.

“Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the King of Babylon.  Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house .. . and Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, with all the captives of Judah that went to Babylon!” But Jeremiah had made wooden yokes and had sent them to the confederate princes, threatening them with divine punishment if they did not bow their necks to Nebuchadrezzar; the prophet himself bore one on his own neck, and showed himself in the streets on all occasions thus accoutred, as a living emblem of the slavery in which Jahveh permitted His people to remain for their spiritual good.  Hananiah, meeting the prophet by chance, wrested the yoke from him and broke it, exclaiming, “Thus saith the Lord:  Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadrezzar, King of Babylon, within two full years from off the neck of all the nations.”  The mirth of the bystanders was roused, but on the morrow Jeremiah appeared with a yoke of iron, which Jahveh had put “upon the neck of all the nations, that they may serve Nebuchadrezzar, King of Babylon.”  Moreover, to destroy in the minds of the exiled Jews any hope of speedy deliverance, he wrote to them:  “Let not your prophets that be in the midst of you, and your diviners, deceive you, neither hearken ye to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.  For they prophesy falsely unto you in My name:  I have not sent them, saith the Lord.”  The prophet exhorted them to resign themselves to their fate, at all events for the time, that the unity of their nation might be preserved until the time when it might indeed please Jahveh to restore it:  “Build ye houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them:  take ye wives and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply ye there and be not diminished.  And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray unto the Lord for it:  for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.”  Psammetichus II. died in 589,* and his reign, though short, was distinguished by the activity shown in rebuilding and embellishing the temples.