the Captivity Made Complete
As the final catastrophe approaches, the historian becomes more minute in his dates, marking the month and the day. From Ezekiel 24:1 we gather that on the very day when the foe made his appearance before Jerusalem, the fact was revealed to Ezekiel in Babylon, and the fate of the city made clear. Jeremiah besought Zedekiah to submit, but to no purpose, Jeremiah 38:17. The siege lasted eighteen months, and its calamities may be gathered from Lamentations 2:20-21; Lamentations 4:3-20. Finally famine triumphed, Lamentations 4:8; Lamentations 4:10; Ezekiel 5:10. A third of the population perished of hunger and plague, Ezekiel 5:12.
Such is the divine judgment upon sin. God pleads long with man, but if man will not turn, then God whets His sword, and becomes terrible in His retribution. Amid all this catastrophe, however, we recall the tears of the book of Lamentations, like those of Jesus afterward. There is that in God which sorrows as He chastises, and causes Him to say, “How shall I make thee as Admah, and set thee as Zeboim?” Deuteronomy 29:23; Hosea 11:8. Notice how, in putting out the eyes of Zedekiah, two prophecies which appeared to be contradictory were reconciled and fulfilled, Jeremiah 32:5; Jeremiah 34:3; and Ezekiel 12:13.