While in the prisoners' camp, Jeremiah could not get out of his mind's eye the picture of devastation that he had beheld while passing through Jerusalem. He kept entirely away from his fellow prisoners. He wanted, and needed, to be alone. It was during these days he composed his Lamentations on Jerusalem:
"How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people?
She is become as a widow, that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces is become a tributary!
She weepeth sore in the night and her tears are on her cheeks;
Among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her:
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they are
become her enemies.
All that pass by clap their hands at thee:
They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying,
Is this the city that men called
The perfection of beauty,
The joy of the whole earth?
All thine enemies have opened their mouth wide against thee:
They hiss and gnash the teeth: they say,
'We have swallowed her up:
Certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found,
we have seen it.'"
But Jeremiah, even in this great extremity, was not a man without hope for the future. He knew his God and understood that His anger with the worst of men or nations does not last forever:
"This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope.
It is of the Lord's loving-kindnesses that we are not consumed,
because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in Him.
The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that
seeketh Him.
It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the
salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth;
Let him sit alone and keep silence, because He hath laid it
upon him;
Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.
Let him give his cheek to him that smiteth him; let him be
filled full with reproach.
For the Lord will not cast off forever."
Jeremiah was not particularly interested when he was ordered to appear before Nebuzaradan. It did not really matter to him any longer what would happen to him. He had fought a brave fight—and had lost. Life or death made no difference now. In fact, he would rather have died at the hands of the Babylonians than at the hands of his own people. So, he replied listlessly that he was ready.
Even when given clean garments and ordered to bathe and told to brighten up and be cheerful, because all would be well with him, he could not figure out what it all meant until he was in the tent of Nebuzaradan. Then, hope was born anew in his heart, as he listened to what the commander had to say to him:
"The Lord your God pronounced evil upon this place; you have sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come to you.
"And now behold, I loose you this day from the chains which are upon your hand. If it seem good to you to come with me to Babylon, come and I will look out for you. But if it seem undesirable to you to come with me to Babylon, do not come; but go back to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wherever it seems right to you to go."
Jeremiah replied, shortly, that he preferred to remain in Judah. A clear look again came to his eyes; his shoulders straightened up; he carried his head erect once more; he had new work, on the old lines, to do.
He also asked a favor—that Baruch, son of Neriah, and Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian freedman of the royal house, if alive, should be permitted to remain with him.