Jeremiah 26
Jeremiah mobbed, arrested, tried
God: Stop the evil or I’ll end this town
1God gave Jeremiah a message for the people when Jehoiakim became king of Judah. He was King Josiah’s son. 2The LORD said: Go to the Temple courtyard and talk to people from cities all over Judah who come to worship at the LORD’s house. Tell them exactly what I say. Don’t dip the words in honey.3These people have the option of steering away from evil instead of running right into it. If they change their behavior, I can change my plans for them. I won’t have to punish them with disaster. 4Tell these people that this is what the LORD says: “If you don’t shape up and start obeying the laws I gave you 5and the urgent messages I send through my prophets—whom you’ve been ignoring— 6I’ll do to this Temple what I did to the worship center at Shiloh. [1] As for Jerusalem, I’ll turn its name into an international cussword.” [2]
Crowd chants “Kill him!”
7Worshipers in the Temple courtyard heard what Jeremiah said, including priests and other prophets. 8When Jeremiah finished reporting what the LORD told him to say, the crowd mobbed him, and chanted, “Kill him!”9Some demanded an explanation for such a harsh prophecy: “Why would you say something like that and attribute it to the LORD? Why would you prophesy that this Temple will be destroyed, like the tent worship center in Shiloh—that everyone abandoned?”
Jeremiah’s case goes to trial
10Officials from the king’s palace came up the hill to the Temple and sat at the New Gate [3] entrance into the courtyard. 11A group of priests and prophets presented their case against Jeremiah to the officials. A crowd watched. The prosecutors said, “This man committed treason, prophesying against our city. You’ve heard him yourselves.”12Jeremiah said, “The LORD sent me with his prophecy about what will happen to the Temple and this entire town. 13But if you straighten up, behave yourselves, and start obeying the LORD your God, then he will change his plans. He’s giving you the power to prevent the disaster I’m warning you about.
14But as far as I’m concerned, here I stand. Do to me whatever you think best. 15But hear this. If you kill me, you’ve killed an innocent man. And you and everyone else in this town will face the consequences. The LORD sent me here with every word I spoke in that prophecy.”
16The officials told the priests and prophets who were prosecuting Jeremiah that he didn’t deserve to die. The crowd agreed. Officials said, “This man simply delivered a message from the LORD. We can’t execute him for that.”
Century-old prophecy backs Jeremiah
17A group of older leaders stepped up to speak during the proceedings. They said, 18“The prophet Micah of Moresheth [4] said much the same. He prophesied back when Hezekiah [5] was king of Judah. Micah said: ‘This city is coming down,
Jerusalem will become a plowed field
Collapsing into a pile of rocky ruins.
The stately Temple Mount, abandoned,
Will grow into a wooded hilltop.’ [6]
20Another man had been prophesying—word-for-word—what Jeremiah said about Jerusalem’s coming disaster. His name was Uriah, from the town of Kiriath-Jearim. [7] Shemaiah was his father. 21King Jehoiakim heard about this when he was with his entourage of officials, protected by bodyguards. The king ordered his soldiers to arrest and execute Uriah. But Uriah found out about it. Terrified, he escaped to Egypt.
22The king sent an officer, Elnathan [8] son of Achbor, to arrest him in Egypt. 23Soldiers brought Uriah back to King Jehoiakim, who killed him with a sword and had him buried in a field of unmarked graves. 24But Ahikam [9] son of Shaphan defended Jeremiah and kept him from being executed.
Footnotes
Shiloh today is called Khirbet Seilun. It was near the center of Ephraim’s tribe, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Jerusalem. Shiloh was where the Hebrews parked their tent worship center, after which the Temple was modeled (Joshua 18:1). Some Bibles call the worship center the Tabernacle. Israelites worshiped there like they would later at the Temple in Jerusalem. Philistine soldiers apparently destroyed it after they defeated King Saul, killing him and most of his sons.
Perhaps this means that people will react with cusswords of shock when they see the ruins of Jerusalem after Babylonian invaders burn and level the city.
People often met at city gates during Bible times. They hawked products to people coming and going, caught up on gossip, and watched officials conduct public trials.
Micah’s ministry, a century before Jeremiah’s, spanned about 55 years, from about 742-687 BC. Judah had three kings during that time: Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
Hezekiah reigned as king of Judah from about 716-687 BC, about a century before Jeremiah.
Micah 3:12.
Kiriath-jearim was about 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Jerusalem. This is the community that for 20 years stored the Box of the Law, better known as the Ark of the Covenant. It was Israel’s most sacred relic. It held the tablets engraved with the Ten Commandments. Philistines had overrun the Israelite army’s camp at Ebenezer and took the Box of the Law as a war trophy. They marched on to Shiloh and apparently destroyed the worship center. All three of the top priests were dead. Philistines returned the Box because it seemed to cause disease. Israel didn’t have a worship center any longer, so they stored it until King David took it to Jerusalem.
Elnathan seemed to have been an official who would rather not arrest Uriah. Elnathan’s dad may have been the same Achbor who was the son of a prophet and who served as an official when King Josiah led a religious reform movement. He pointed the nation back to obeying God’s law (2 Kings 22:12, 14). Elnathan tried to stop King Jehoiakim from burning Jeremiah’s first edition of his collection of prophecies (Jeremiah 36:25).
Ahikam was apparently the son of a top official who convinced King Josiah to lead Judah back to God (2 Kings 22:8). The High Priest told Shaphan they found the lost laws of God stored in a Temple supply area. Shaphan, apparently a scribe, read those laws to King Josiah, father of King Jehoiakim. Perhaps this connection that spanned at least two generations built a healthy respect between the king and Shaphan. That might explain why the king didn’t kill Jeremiah.
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