Babylon, and serve him and his people; for thus saith the Lord, I will punish with sword, famine, and pestilence, the nation and kingdom that will not serve Nebuchadnezzar." There was a political party who gave the same advice, deeming it safest to submit to Babylon without any attempts at resistance. Another party, who were in favor of seeking aid from Egypt to oppose the invader, had also a prophet, named Hananiah. He declared, in presence of all the people: "Thus saith the Lord, I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, from the neck of all nations, within the space of two years." As a symbol that he spoke truly, "he took the yoke from off Jeremiah's neck, and brake it." To which Jeremiah replied: "Hear now, Hananiah. The Lord hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to believe a lie. Thou hast broken the yokes of wood, but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron." The king imprisoned Jeremiah, because he persisted in saying: "The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land." Rulers were well aware that such prophecies, proclaimed in the ears of the people, would tend to destroy their courage, and thus produce their own fulfilment. In common with politicians of all nations, and all times, they felt the importance of trying human means. But prophets, burning with religious zeal, despised the assistance of foreign allies, and rebuked those who relied upon such aid, for their want of faith in Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, the Great Leader of the armies of Israel. They said, "A horse is a vain thing," and spoke contemptuously of "those who put their trust in chariots."

Prophecies were by no means so clear and distinct in all cases, as were the declarations of Jeremiah and his opponent, in the court of king Zedekiah. Their language was generally indefinite; often couched in symbolic figures, hard to be understood. Their predictions might be recalled. If judgments threatened by a prophet did not come to pass, it was said God was merciful, and had forgiven the people because they had repented. If they foretold good fortune, and the prediction failed, that did not VOL. II.-4

necessarily prove the messenger a false prophet; for the people might have forfeited their promised reward by some unworthiness.

Prophecies partook of the character of the times in which they were written. Micah lived at a time when the Assyrians were formidable enemies, and he prophesied of a Messiah who would deliver Israel from the Assyrians. Ezekiel, who lived in the time of Babylonian captivity, prophesied of a new David, who was to gather Judah and Israel "from the heathen nations, whither they were gone." All prophesied of a time when the Messiah would come to destroy all nations that refused to conform to the Jewish religion. Jerusalem, restored to more than its ancient glory, would become henceforth and forever the political and spiritual centre of the world. Isaiah predicts that when the Lord comes "to plead with all flesh by fire and by his sword," the Gentile nations will bring back all the Hebrews that are sojourning among them. "They shall bring them for an offering unto the Lord, out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord. For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed remain." Zechariah says: "Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. In those days it shall come to pass that ten men, out of all languages of the nations, shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you."

Contradictions occasionally occur between the sacred prophecies of the Hebrews and their sacred history. Jeremiah foretold concerning Jehoiakim, son of Josiah: "He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. His dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost; and he shall have none to sit upon the throne of

David." But in the annals of the Hebrew Kings it is recorded that "Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, (that is, in the royal sepulchres,) and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead." Jeremiah said of Zedekiah: "He shall surely be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans. He shall go to Babylon. His eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with him mouth to mouth." But the history of Hebrew kings declares that Nebuchadnezzar's generals put out Zedekiah's eyes, before they carried him captive to Babylon. Ezekiel, who prophesied later than Jeremiah, said of the same monarch: "Thus saith the Lord, I will bring him to Babylon; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there."

In some instances, the spirit of prophecy seems to have fallen upon men quite irrespective of any holiness of character. When Moses gathered the seventy elders round about the Tabernacle, "the Lord came down in a cloud and spoke to Moses, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders; and it came to pass, that when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease." "When Saul sent messengers to take David, and they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they prophesied also. When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. And Saul sent messengers again, the third time, and they prophesied also. Then went he to Ramah; and the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he prophesied. Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?" The High Priest was supposed to be endowed with prophecy by virtue of his office; for thus was he enabled to decipher the oracle by Urim and Thummim. That prophetic inspiration was modified by individual character, is manifested by the contrast between Ezekiel's formal, circumstantial style, and the bold, fervid eloquence of Habakkuk, or the sublimity and power of Isaiah.

Private individuals often went to consult prophets con

cerning their own affairs; and the time chosen was gene rally the Sabbath, or the New Moon. In time of drought great reliance was placed on their prayers for rain. On some occasions, people resorted to them as they would to fortune-tellers, to tell of goods lost or stolen. Saul's going to consult Samuel where to find the asses of Kish indicates a popular belief that seers were useful for such matters. By the laws of Moses, magical arts and divination were forbidden; and prophets in subsequent times often reproved the people for consulting "wizards that peep and mutter." But this tendency of the public mind was exceedingly strong, at all periods. One very common species of divination was by Teraphim; a kind of images, or household gods, supposed to have been consecrated by astrologers under certain aspects of the stars. Other arts were practised by people supposed to be familiar with Evil Spirits, from whom they obtained information concerning the future. "When Saul inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets," he went to a woman at Endor, "who had a familiar spirit;" and it is recorded that she raised up the ghost of Samuel to answer his inquiries.

It was a common saying among Jews that God spake to men by Urim and Thummim during the days of the Tabernacle; that he spake by Prophets in the time of Solomon's temple; and when the temple was rebuilt, after the return from captivity, he spake by Bath Kol, which means the Daughter of a Voice. They applied this name to a voice from heaven, which they say succeeded the voice of God, that formerly proceeded from the Mercy Seat. Others say it derived its name from the fact that it came out of thunder; the thunder being heard first, and the Bath Kol afterward. The following story is told in illustration of this kind of prophecy. "Two Rabbins desiring to see the face of Rabbi Samuel, a Babylonish doctor, they said, Let us follow the hearing of Bath Kol. Passing by a school, they heard a boy reading, from the book of Samuel, the words, 'And Samuel died.' From this they inferred that the Rabbi

Samuel of Babylon was dead; and they afterward found that it was so." Many similar things are mentioned in the writings of Jews. It was very common with them to open their Sacred Writings, as they would consult an oracle; and whatever passage was glanced at first was considered prophetic. An imitation of the Urim and Thummim was made for the second temple, but no oracular answers were obtained from it. The prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, lived till forty years after the second temple was begun. With them, the spirit of prophecy departed; therefore, Malachi is called the "seal of the prophets."

Hebrew Sacred Writings abound with conflicts between true prophets and false ones, and are full of complaints concerning the consequent unbelief of rulers and people. On one occasion the altercation between two prophets proceeded to blows. Zedekiah and Micaiah, being called to prophesy before the kings of Israel and Judah, disagreed in their testimony. "And Zedekiah smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee?" It is not unlikely that such scenes as this had greatly diminished popular reverence for the prophetic character, before the time of Zechariah. That it had fallen into disrepute, from some cause or other, seems to be implied by his words: "Thus saith the Lord, I will cause the prophets and the unclean Spirit to depart out of the land. And it shall come to pass that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and mother shall say to him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord. And it shall come to pass in that day that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive. But he shall say, I am no prophet; I am an husbandman; for men taught me to keep cattle from my youth."

After the prophets had departed, Rabbis say that revelations were sometimes made to individuals; but the Spirit was imparted in small measure. Of Hyrcanus, one of the latest rulers among the Jews, Josephus declares that "God