one's government when it lifts the sword against a people who have broken
_their_ oath, and mobilises its subjects in defence of justice and of the
freedom of weaker nations, imperilled by that perjury.

But the princes seem to have honestly believed that Jeremiah was guilty of
treason, and said to the king--

XXXVIII. 4. Let this man, we pray, be put to death forasmuch as he
weakens the hands of the men of war left to the city and the hands
of all the people by speaking such words to them, for this man is
seeking not the welfare of this people but the hurt. 5. And the
king said, Behold he is in your hand; for the king was not able to
do anything against them.(593) 6. So they took Jeremiah and cast
him into the cistern of Malchiah the king's son, in the Court of
the Guard; and they let down Jeremiah with cords. In the cistern
there was no water, only mire, and Jeremiah sank in the mire.

The story which follows is one of the fairest in the Old Testament,
XXXVIII. 7-13.(594) When no others seem to have stirred to rescue the
Prophet--unless Baruch had a hand in what he tells and is
characteristically silent about it--Ebed-melech, a negro eunuch of the
palace, sought the king where he then was(595) and charged the princes
with starving Jeremiah to death.(596) The king at once ordered him to take
three(597) men and rescue the Prophet. The thoughtful negro, perhaps
prompted by the women of the palace, procured some rags and old clouts
from a lumber room, told Jeremiah to put them under his arm-pits to soften
the roughness of the ropes, and so drew him gently from the mire and he
was restored to the Guard-Court. Ebed-melech had his reward in the Lord's
promise to save him from the men whom he had made his foes by his brave
rescue of their prey.(598)

Once more, as we might expect, the restless king sent for Jeremiah.(599)
Shaken by his terrible experiences the Prophet, before he would answer,
asked if the king would put him to death for his answer or act on his
advice. The king swore not to hand him over to the princes; so Jeremiah
promised that if Sedekiah would give himself up to the Chaldeans he and
his house would be spared and the city saved. The king--it is another
credible trait in this weak character--feared that the Chaldeans would
deliver him to the mockery of those Jews who had already deserted to them.
Jeremiah sought to reassure him, again urged him to surrender, and th