and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the
goodly vessels thereof. 20. And them that had escaped from the sword
carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his
sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: 21. To fulfil the word
of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her
sabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil
threescore and ten years.'--2 CHRON. xxxvi 11-21.


Bigness is not greatness, nor littleness smallness. Nebuchadnezzar's
conquest of Judah was, in his eyes, one of the least important of his
many victories, but it is the only one of them which survives in the
world's memory and keeps his name as a household word. The Jews were a
mere handful, and their country a narrow strip of land between the
desert and the sea; but little Judaea, like little Greece, has taught
the world. The tragedy of its fall has importance quite
disproportioned to its apparent magnitude. Our passage brings together
Judah's sin and Judah's punishment, and we shall best gather the
lessons of its fall by following the order of the text.

Consider the sin. There is nothing more remarkable than the tone in
which the chronicler, like all the Old Testament writers, deals with
the national sin. Patriotic historians make it a point of pride and
duty to gloss over their country's faults, but these singular
narrators paint them as strongly as they can. Their love of their
country impels them to 'make known to Israel its transgression and to
Judah its sin.' There are tears in their eyes, as who can doubt? But
there is no faltering in their voices as they speak. A higher feeling
than misguided 'patriotism' moves them. Loyalty to Israel's God forces
them to deal honestly with Israel's sin. That is the highest kind of