Jeremiah 26

26:1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word from the LORD, saying, Thus saith the LORD: Stand in the court of the LORD’s house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD’s house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; keep not back a word. It may be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way; that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings. And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD: If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you, to hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send unto you, even rising up early and sending them, but ye have not hearkened; then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. And the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. And it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying, Thou shalt surely die. Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant? And all the people were gathered unto Jeremiah in the house of the LORD. 10 And when the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house unto the house of the LORD; and they sat in the entry of the new gate of the LORD’s house. Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy of death; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears. Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard.

13. Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; 14 and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you. But as for 15 me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as is good and right in your eyes. Only know ye for certain that, if ye put me to death, ye shall bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto 16 you to speak all these words in your ears. Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets: This man is not worthy of death; for he hath spoken to us in 17 the name of the LORD our God. Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to 18 all the assembly of the people, saying, Micaiah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the 19 mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? did he not fear the LORD, and intreat the favour of the LORD, and the LORD repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus should 20 we commit great evil against our own souls. And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the LORD, Uriah the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-Jearim; and he prophesied 21 against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah: and when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Uriah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into 22 Egypt: and Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, 23 and certain men with him, into Egypt: and they fetched forth Uriah out of Egypt, and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king; who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body 24 into the graves of the common people. But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death. 36:1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, 2 that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even 3 unto this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their 4 iniquity and their sin. Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon 5 a roll of a book. And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into 6 the house of the LORD: therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD’s house upon the fast day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities. 7 It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced 8 against this people. And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the LORD in the LORD’s house. 9 Now it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that all the people in Jerusalem, and all the people that came from the cities of 10 Judah unto Jerusalem, proclaimed a fast before the LORD. Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD’s house, in 11 the ears of all the people. And when Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had 12 heard out of the book all the words of the LORD, he went down into the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber: and, lo, all the princes sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and 13 Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes. Then Micaiah declared unto them all the 14 words that he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people. Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, unto Baruch, saying, Take in thine hand the roll wherein thou hast read in the ears of the people, 15 and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his hand, and came unto them. And they said unto him, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears. 16 Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one toward 17 another, and said unto Baruch, We will surely tell the king of all these words. And they asked Baruch, saying, Tell us now, How didst thou write all these words at his mouth? 18 Then Baruch answered them, He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I 19 wrote them with ink in the book. Then said the princes unto Baruch, Go, hide thee, thou 20 and Jeremiah; and let no man know where ye be. And they went in to the king into the court; but they had laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe; and they told all 21 the words in the ears of the king. So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and 22 in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king. Now the king sat in the winter 23 house in the ninth month: and there was a fire in the brasier burning before him. And it came to pass, when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, that the king cut it with the pen- knife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brasier, until all the roll was consumed in the 24 fire that was in the brasier. And they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the 25 king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words. Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll; but he 26 would not hear them. And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet: but the LORD hid them.

27. Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and 28 the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king 29 of Judah hath burned. And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD: Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from 30 thence man and beast? Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in 31 the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jeru- salem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but 32 they hearkened not. Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.

45: 1 The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch the son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the 2 son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto thee, O 3 Baruch: Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for the LORD hath added sorrow to my pain; I 4 am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest. Thus shalt thou say unto him, Thus saith the LORD: Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted 5 I will pluck up; and this in the whole land. And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.

In the early part of the reign of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah is directed to foretell the destruction of the Temple and city of Jerusalem, without a speedy repentance and reformation (verses 1-6). On this account he is apprehended and accused before the council of a capital offence; he enters on his defence, and is acquitted, his advocates urging the precedent of Micah in the reign of Hezekiah (verses 7-19). But from a contrary precedent it appears that his life would have been in great danger had he not met with a powerful protector. Blayney.—This chapter should be read in connection with chaps. 7-9. It is manifest that this chapter is only a renewed mention of the prophecy, drawn out there much more fully, and renewed here for the sake of recording the persecution against Jeremiah, of which that signal prophecy in the Temple was the occasion. H. C.—Read also the messages to the king and people in chap. 25. B.

In the weakness and disorder which characterized this reign, the work of Jeremiah became daily more prominent. The king had come to the throne as the vassal of Egypt, and for a time the Egyptian party was dominant in Jerusalem. Others, however, held that the only way of safety lay in accepting the supremacy of the Chaldeans. Jeremiah appeared as the chief representative of this party. He had learned to discern the signs of the times; the evils of the nation were not to be cured by any half-measures of reform, or by foreign alliances. The king of Babylon was God’s servant, doing His work, and was for a time to prevail over all resistance. Hard as it was for one who sympathized so deeply with all the sufferings of his country, this was the conviction to which he had to bring himself. He had to expose himself to the suspicion of treachery by declaring it. Men claiming to be prophets had their “word of Jehovah” to set against his (14 : 13 ; 23 : 7), and all that he could do was to commit his cause to God, and wait for the result. Some of the most striking scenes in this conflict are brought before us here with great vividness. If Jeremiah was not at once hunted to death, like Urijah (verse 23), it was because his friend Ahikam was powerful enough to protect him. Die. B.

7. The “prophets” here associated with the priests in opposition to Jeremiah were the false prophets—utterly bad men.

9. The verb rendered “took” means, they seized him violently; they made a forcible arrest. The main point of their indictment would be exciting sedition against the government. Very probably they gave it the form of constructive blasphemy, as spoken against the sacred Temple. If the prophet had been without defence and justification, the charge must have been grave and serious.

10. It is noticeable that Jeremiah’s friends were among the princes, indicating that under the reign of Josiah he had powerful friends at court, stood high with that king, and that some, at least, of those friends still lived, and were in power to befriend him.

11. The priests and prophets now bring the case before these princes and before the people—the latter, as appears here, not being in the prosecution, but rather in the capacity of judges in the case. The priests and the prophets are his persecutors and accusers. There is no intimation thus far, in this chapter, of the part taken by Jehoiakim in this transaction.

12-15. Jeremiah’s defence is straightforward, outspoken, fearless and every way appropriate to his circumstances. He pleads, “I have said only what the Lord bade me say, with a special and solemn injunction not to lessen a word of it.”

18,19. This Micah was the same whose prophecies we have. The passage here referred to is Micah 3:12. This case shows clearly that the writings of the earlier prophets were now in the hands of the people. The example was every way in point. H. C.

20. Urijah who prophesied.** The process against Jeremiah is finished at the nineteenth verse, and the case of Urijah is next brought on, for he was also to be tried for his life; but, hearing of it, he fled to Egypt. He was, however, condemned in his absence; and the king sent to Egypt, and brought him thence and slew him, and caused him to have an ignominious burial (verses 21-23).

24. The hand of Ahikam was with Jeremiah.** And it was probably by his influence that Jeremiah did not share the same fate with Urijah. Ahikam mentioned here was father of Gedaliah, who, after the capture of Jerusalem, was appointed governor by Nebuchadnezzar. A. C.—Both he and his father Shaphan were chief ministers under Josiah (2 K. 22:12, 14). And the brothers of Ahikam, Gemariah, Elasah and Jaazaniah, were considerable men in those days with Ahikam, and members of the great council (chap. 29:3; Ezek. 8:11). So Ahikam made use of his interest with them to deliver Jeremiah from the danger that threatened him. W. Lowth.