When the siege of Jerusalem had lasted nearly a year, during which there had been many engagements with varying success, a change suddenly took place. King Apries (Hophra) of Egypt at length determined to fulfil his oft-repeated promise, and sent an army against Nebuchadnezzar. This Egyptian army must have been a mighty one, for the Chaldæans, hearing of its approach, raised the siege of Jerusalem, and marched to oppose it (February or March, 586). The joy in Jerusalem was unbounded; as the gates were at length opened, after being so long closed, the inhabitants hurried out to enjoy a sense of freedom. Hardly had the terrors of the siege abated, when many of the nobility and the opulent returned to their former wickedness. The slaves who had been recently released were, notwithstanding a solemn covenant and oath, compelled to return to their former bondage and former degradation. Jeremiah was deeply angered at this cruelty and selfishness; he delivered a scathing address to the nobles and the king, in which he reproached them with their perjury, and announced that the Chaldæans would return and capture Jerusalem; and that fire, war, hunger, and pestilence would rage amongst the people. The princes of Judah had been greatly incensed against Jeremiah for his former opposition; but his last address excited a deadly hatred against him. As he was one day leaving the city to go to his birthplace, Anathoth, he was seized by a sentinel under the pretext that he was deserting to the Chaldæans. In spite of his assurance that he had no thought of flight, he was delivered up to the princes. Glad of an opportunity to revenge themselves on him, they treated him as a traitor and spy, beat him, and put him into a cistern (Adar, 586) in the house of Jonathan, the Keeper of the Lists (Sopher), a hard, heartless man who was made his jailor. In this narrow, dirty, unhealthy place Jeremiah remained for many days. The frenzied joy did not last long in Jerusalem. The Chaldæan army, which had marched against the Egyptian forces, under Apries, utterly routed the enemy and put them to flight. The power of Egypt was broken, and Judah was now again left entirely to its own resources. The Chaldæans returned to the siege of Jerusalem, and surrounded it more closely than before, so as to bring the siege to a speedy end. The courage of those who were shut up in the capital now began to fail. Many, anxious for their own safety, left the besieged city at unguarded places, and went over to the Chaldæans, or fled to Egypt. King Zedekiah himself was fearful about the result, and saw too late that he had been guilty of folly in attempting to cope with the Babylonian power, without the support of a liberty-loving people.