And, on the other hand, we have the manifest sympathy and even admiration of Ezekiel. The two estimates stand side by side in the sacred record to remind us that God neither tolerates man's sins because there is a better side to his nature, nor yet ignores his virtues on account of his vices. For ourselves we may be content to leave the last word on this matter with Jeremiah. When he declares God's sentence on Jehoiachin, he does not suggest that it was undeserved, but he refrains from any explicit reproach. Probably if he had known how entirely his prediction would be fulfilled, if he had foreseen the seven-and-thirty weary years which the young lion was to spend in his Babylonian cage, Jeremiah would have spoken more tenderly and pitifully even of the son of Jehoiakim. FOOTNOTES: [86] Also called Coniah and Jeconiah. [87] Considerable portions of chaps. i.-xx. are referred to the reigns of Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin: see previous volume on Jeremiah. [88] i. 18. [89] The Chronicler's account of Jehoiakim's end (2 Chron. xxviii. 6-8) is due to a misunderstanding of the older records. According to Chronicles Jehoiachin was only eight, but all our data indicate that Kings is right. [90] In LXX. of 2 Chron. xxxvi. 8, Jehoiakim, like Manasseh and Amon, was "buried in the garden of Uzza": B, Ganozæ; A, Ganozan. Cheyne is inclined to accept this statement, which he regards as derived from tradition. [91] xxxvi. 30. [92] So A. B. Davidson in Cambridge Bible, etc., by a slight conjectural emendation; there have been many other suggested corrections of the text. The Hebrew text as it stands would mean literally "he knew their widows" (R.V. margin); A.V., R.V., by a slight change, "he knew their (A.V. desolate) palaces." [93] Ezek. xix. 5-7. [94] 2 Kings xxiv. 8-17. [95] 2 Kings xxv. 27-30; Jer. lii. 31-34. [96] The Hebrew verbs are in 2 s. fem.; the person addressed is not named, but from analogy she can only be the "Daughter of Zion," _i.e._ Jerusalem personified. [97] Identified with the mountains of Moab. [98] R.V. margin, with LXX., Vulg., and Syr. [99] Milman's _Latin Christianity_, vi. 392. [100] 1 Chron. iii. 17 mentions the "sons" of Jeconiah, and in Matt. i. 12 Shealtiel is called his "son," but in Luke iii. 27 Shealtiel is called the son of Neri. CHAPTER VIII _BAD SHEPHERDS AND FALSE PROPHETS_ xxiii., xxiv. "Woe unto the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!"--JER. xxiii. 1. "Of what avail is straw instead of grain?... Is not My word like fire, ... like a hammer that shattereth the rocks?"--JER. xxiii. 28, 29.