he bondage which his predictions were
threatening. Hananiah took this yoke from his neck and broke it,
saying that, as he had thus broken Jeremiah's wooden yoke, so God
would break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar from all nations within two
years; and then, even those of the Jews who had already been taken
captive to Babylon should return again in peace. Jeremiah replied that
Hananiah's predictions were false, and that, though the wooden yoke
was broken, God would make for Nebuchadnezzar a yoke of iron, with
which he should bend the Jewish nation in a bondage more cruel than
ever. Still, Jeremiah himself predicted that after seventy years from
the time when the last great captivity should come, the Jews should
all be restored again to their native land.

He expressed this certain restoration of the Jews, on one occasion, by
a sort of symbol, by means of which he made a much stronger impression
on the minds of the people than could have been done by simple words.
There was a piece of land in the country of Benjamin, one of the
provinces of Judea, which belonged to the family of Jeremiah, and
it was held in such a way that, by paying a certain sum of money,
Jeremiah himself might possess it, the right of redemption being in
him. Jeremiah was in prison at this time. His uncle's son came into
the court of the prison, and proposed to him to purchase the land.
Jeremiah did so in the most public and formal manner. The title deeds
were drawn up and subscribed, witnesses were summoned, the money
weighed and paid over, the whole transaction being regularly completed
according to the forms and usages then common for the conveyance of
landed property. When all was finished, Jeremiah gave the papers into
the hands of his scribe, directing him to put them safely away and
preserve them with care, for after a certain period the country of
Judea would again be restored to the peaceable possession of the Jews,
and such titles to land would possess once more their full and
original value.

On one occasion, when Jeremiah's personal liberty was restricted so
that he could not utter publicly, himself, his prophetical warnings,
he employed Baruch, his scribe, to write them from his dictation, with
a view of reading them to the people from some public and frequented
part of the city. The prophecy thus dictated was inscribed upon a roll
of parchment. Baruch waited, when he had completed the writing, until
a favorable opportunity occurred for readi