destructive criticism, for it proves the fact of divine revelation. We have followed step by step the different judgment messages and visions which the Prophet received and delivered, how Jerusalem was facing its certain doom and now Zedekiah and his fate in trying to escape from Jerusalem is especially mentioned. All these visions are closely connected and were all given before the city fell. And what the Lord predicted here, not alone about Zedekiah, but also about the people and their dispersion came true. They were scattered among the nations, but a full end of them was not made, a remnant was to be left and to declare their abominations among the nations. Scattered in all countries they witness by their condition as a homeless nation to their own disobedience and shame. Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and with carefulness; And say unto the people of the land, Thus saith the Lord God of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel; They shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment, that her land may be desolate from all that is therein because of the violence of all them that dwell therein. And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and ye shall know that I am the Lord (verses 17-20). An additional message is given. Ezekiel was to eat his bread with quaking and drink his water with dread and anxious care. It was another sign of the affliction which was to come upon them. The land also should become desolate and the cities be laid waste. Thus the Lord continued to warn and plead with His people. Judgment is always his strange work (Is. xxxiii:21). "For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men? (Lam. iii:33). The unheeded warnings were repeated over and over again by Ezekiel and the other prophets; He waited in His infinite patience for the return of His people and, as we learn from the Book of Judges, if there is but a cry from the heart of His people, He is ready to respond. But Israel heard not. They made light of all the predictions of the rapidly nearing judgment. When we think of our own times and generation, and remember the deliberate rejection of God's Word, the impenitence and worldliness prevalent in Christendom, and the judgments which are threatened and which must come some day, these opening messages of Ezekiel and their fulfilment in the judgment of Jerusalem and the nation take on an additional meaning. God must needs do His strange work, the work of judgment upon those who reject the best He has given, the Gospel of His Grace. The condition of the people is now more fully seen in the second part of this chapter. II. The False Hope. The Judgment not to be Delayed.