slain by Jehovah will certainly come to be in that day from one end of the earth clear to the other end of the earth. They will not be bewailed, neither will they be gathered up or be buried. As manure on the surface of the ground they will become.’” Then, addressing himself to the political rulers, backed by the religious leaders and the commercial, industrial and financial princes, he says: “Howl, you shepherds, and cry out! And wallow about, you majestic ones of the flock! For your days for slaughtering and for your acts of scattering have been fulfilled, and you must fall like a desirable vessel. And a place to flee to has perished from the shepherds, and a means of escape from the majestic ones of the flock. Listen! The outcry of the shepherds, and the howling of the majestic ones of the flock, for Jehovah is despoiling their pasturage.” (Jer. 25:32-36) What took place long ago when Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonian world power, swept through the Middle East and down into Egypt is a small, human-scale illustration of what Jehovah’s mightier Executional Servant, Jesus Christ, will do when he sweeps round the entire globe from nation to nation and destroys the old worldly system of things.—Jer. 25:8-11.

Surviving with the New

 1. For their preaching, with what may Jehovah’s witnesses be charged, and how did Jeremiah himself escape execution for a like charge?

FOR preaching such a message as this to the nations Jehovah’s witnesses may be charged with being subversive. Jeremiah was charged that way. The religious leaders tried to have the political princes kill him. “Then the priests and the prophets and all the people proceeded to lay hold of him, saying: ‘You will positively die. Why is it that you have prophesied in the name of Jehovah, saying, “Like that in Shiloh is how this house [this temple] will become, and this very city will be devastated so as to be without an inhabitant”?’” Then they said to the princes of Jerusalem: “To this man the judgment of death belongs, because he has prophesied concerning this city just as you have heard with your own ears.” Jeremiah defended himself, saying: “It was Jehovah that sent me to prophesy concerning this house and concerning this city all the words that you have heard. . . . And as for me, here I am in your hand. Do to me according to what is good and according to what is right in your eyes. Only you should by all means know that, if you are putting me to death, it is innocent blood that you are putting upon yourselves and upon this city and upon her inhabitants, for in truth Jehovah did send me to you to speak in your ears all these words.” At that time the princes showed courage enough to stand up against the religious leaders and false prophets and refused to put Jehovah’s witness to death. (Jer. 26:1-24) That was twenty-two years before Jerusalem was destroyed.

 2, 3. (a) In spite of Egyptian aid, how did Jeremiah keep on pulling down Jerusalem? (b) Of what was Jeremiah afterward accused, and why did he come into the miry cistern and yet escape death?

² Later, in the ninth year of King Zedekiah, the Chaldean armies under King