I am the man that hath seen affliction Under the rod of his wrath. He hath led me and brought me Into darkness and not into light. He turneth his hand against me every day. “Jeremiah did not forsake his people. He remained on the ruins of the temple, sitting and lamenting with the inferior people, when Nebuchadnezzar carried away the nobles and the princes. Gedaliah was placed over those who remained. He dwelt in Mizpah, and received those who had fled during the presence of the Chaldees. But scarcely had the hapless people begun to recover from the miseries of war, and to gather in the vintage and the summer fruits, when Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, of the royal blood, came and slew Gedaliah.[57] The people, fearing the king of Babylon, implored Jeremiah to ask counsel at the Lord on their behalf. After ten days the Lord answered by Jeremiah, that they should remain in the land and not fear the king of Babylon; nor venture, under severe penalties, to take refuge in Egypt. But they again disobeyed, and betook themselves to Egypt—our ancestors, Helon, were among the number; for what could individuals do against the stream which hurried them away. By the command of Jehovah, Jeremiah accompanied them thither, that by a symbolical action, before the door of Pharaoh’s house, he might typify the defeat of the Egyptians and the punishment of Israel. He dwelt in our house, and died there. On this pilgrimage we may well call to mind the words which he spoke; ‘Yet a small number shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose word shall stand, mine or theirs.’[58] Footnote 57: Jer. xli. Footnote 58: Jer. xliv. 28. “In the midst of these sufferings Jehovah did not wholly forsake his people. While, by the mouth of Jeremiah he spoke to those in Egypt, Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, was his messenger to the captives on the banks of Chebar. Nearly 40,000 men had been carried thither under Zedekiah; one hundred and fifty-three years before, in the days of Pekah, Israelites from Galilee and Gilead had been transferred to Assyria, and Salmanassar, one hundred and thirty-five years before, had carried those who remained into the cities of Media. In this manner they were dispersed through the east. But the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, and in bold and lofty images he announced their return, and the glory of their future days. He foretold too their union, at some future time, after their present dispersion. The prophet was commanded to take two rods, and write on one of them, ‘for Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions;’ and on the other, ‘for Joseph, the rod of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions,’ and then to join them together as a symbol of their future union.[59] Footnote 59: Ezek. xxxvii. 16.