Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the third entry that is in the house of the LORD: and the king said unto Jeremiah, "I will ask you a thing; hide nothing from me."

Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, "If I declare it unto you, will you not surely put me to death? And if I give you counsel, will you not listen unto me?"

So Zedekiah the king swore secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, "As the LORD lives, that made us this soul, I will not put you to death, nor will I give you into the hand of these men that seek your life."

Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, "This says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; ‘If you will assuredly go out unto the king of Babylon's princes, then your soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and you shall live, and your house: But if you will not go out to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape out of their hand.’"

And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, "I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me."

But Jeremiah said, "They shall not deliver you. Obey, I urge you, the voice of the LORD, which I speak unto you: so it shall be well unto you, and your soul shall live."

But neither Zedekiah, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did listen unto the words of the LORD, which he spoke by the prophet Jeremiah. "As for the word that you have spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen unto you." So Jeremiah stayed in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken: and he was there when Jerusalem was taken.

And Zedekiah also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD God of Israel.

And the LORD God of their fathers sent to Judah by his messengers, rising up before times, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the anger of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.

And the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he killed also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

-Babylon-

Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying, "Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto you." Then they sent, and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison, and committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so Jeremiah lived among the people.

Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive certain of the poor of the people, and the rest of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. Also the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the bronze sea that was in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke, and carried all the brass of them to Babylon.

And them that had escaped from the sword carried Nebuchadnezzar away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: To fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

-Jeremiah-

Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the rest of the elders, which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive…,"This says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon.

" ‘Build…houses, and live in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; Take…wives, and have sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace of it shall you have peace.

" ‘For this says the LORD…after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you," says the LORD, "thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

" ‘Then shall you call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will listen to you. And you shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, says the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place from which I caused you to be carried away captive.’ "

And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, therefore his spirit was troubled, and his sleep broke from him. Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans…to show him his dreams.

So they came and stood before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king said unto them, "I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream."

Then spoke the Chaldeans to the king Aramaic, "O king, live forever: tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation."

Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to the Chaldeans, "The thing is gone from me: if you will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation of it, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a manure heap."

The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, "There is not a man upon the earth that can show the king's matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean. And it is a rare thing that the king requires, and there is none other that can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh."

For this cause Nebuchadnezzar was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. And the decree went out that the wise men should be killed; and they looked for Daniel and his fellows to be killed. Then Daniel went in, and asked of the king that he would give him time, and then he would show the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions: That they would ask mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. And Daniel blessed the God of heaven.

Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said this unto Nebuchadnezzar, "I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation."

The king answered and said to Daniel…, "Are you able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation of it?"

Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, "The secret which the king has demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the diviners, show unto the king; But there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets, and makes known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.

"You, O king, saw, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you; and the form of it was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

"You saw till that a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

"This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings: for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wherever the children of men live, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven has he given into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold*.

"And after you shall arise another kingdom* inferior to you, and another third kingdom* of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom* shall be strong as iron: Just as iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things: and as iron that breaks all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

"And as you saw the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided*; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, just as you saw the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

"And as you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle* themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not adhere one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom*, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Just as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation of it sure."

The king answered unto Daniel, and said, "Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing you could reveal this secret."

Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.

*The accuracy of this prophecy God gave Daniel has been well documented by historians. Babylon, as the first kingdom, was indeed followed by three empires.

* Medo-Persia

* Greece

* Rome

* Roman divided into the nations of Europe some of which were strong and others of which were weak.

* History documents the attempts of individuals such as Napoleon to unite Europe through marriage and blood relation. At one time all the crown heads of Europe were related. King Christian IX of Denmark (1818-1906) and Queen Victoria of England (1819-1901) became, as it were, "grandparents" of all the crowned heads of Europe. However, as we know today, this "mingling" of seed did not unite the nations.

*The Kingdom of the God of Heaven is the last "empire" of the prophecy. This final kingdom is the only one yet to be realized.

REFERENCES

Jeremiah 38:14-20; Jeremiah 37:2; Jeremiah 44:16; Jeremiah 38:28; 2 Chronicles 36:13, 15-17; Jeremiah 52:10-11; Jeremiah 39:11-12, 14; Jeremiah 52:15, 17; 2 Chronicles 36:20-21; Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7, 10-14; Daniel 2:1-5, 10-13, 16-19, 25-28a, 31-45, 47-48.

CHAPTER 55