Jeremiah 26
PATJeremiah denouncing destruction to the city and temple, unless the people repented, is apprehended and arraigned before the great council, or Sanhedrin: upon which he makes his apology, and, after the debating the * case by the judges of that court, he is acquitted. Vcr. 3. If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, &c] See the note onxxxvi. 3. Vcr. 5. To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets.] See xxv. 4. Ibid, and Ver. G. Rising np early and sending them — then will I make this home like Shiloh.] See the notes on vii. 12, 13. Ver. G. And I will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.’] See the note on xxiv. 9.
Jeremiah 26:1
JLN the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim. See< the note on ver. 3. Vcr. 2. Stand in the court of the Lord’s house.] See the note on xix. 4. The great court was the place where both men and women did ordinarily worship, when they brought no sacrifice, saith Dr. Lightfoot, in his Description of the Temple, chap. 18. for when they offered a sacrifice, they were to bring it into the inner court, otherwise called the court of Israel, or of the priests, as the same learned author hath observed in his treatise concerning the Temple Service, chap. 8. sect. 1. And speak unto all the cities ofJudah, which come to worship in the Lord’s house.] Archbishop Usher, in his Annals ad A. M. 3395. conjectures, that this was at the feast of tabernacles, when all the males were obliged to appear before the Lord, (Deut. xvi. 16.) Diminish not a word.] Either out of fear, favour, or flattery..;
Jeremiah 26:7
So the priests and the prophets. The Septuagint rightly understand the word of the false prophets, such as was Hananiah, mentioned chap, xxvii. (Compare xxix. 1. xxxvii. ID.) So the word prophet is taken, Hos. ix. 8. In the house of the Lord.] That is, in the court before the house of the Lord, ver. 2. (Compare vii. 10.) The outer courts being holy ground, and dedicated to God’s worship, are called by the name of tho temple. So the treasury, where Christ preached, is called the temple, John viii. 20. though it stood in the outer court of it. St. Paul is said to have entered into the temple, that is, into the court before the temple, and tho Jews to have laid hold on him there, Acts xxi. 2G, 27.
Jeremiah 26:8
Thou shalt surely die. As a disturber of the government, and a discourager of the people, from defending their country against the enemy. (Compare xxxviii.4. and sco the note on ver. 14. of this chapter.)
Jeremiah 26:10
When the princes ofJudah heard these things. These are the same who are called the princes of the land, ver. 17. The king’s counsellors, or chief officers of state, who were likewise members of the great Sanhedrin. It is uncertain when the great council, called the Sanhedrin, was instituted. Selden,and most other writers from the Jewish authors, date the rise of it from Moses’s appointing the seventy elders, Numb. xi. 1G. (See Selden, lib. ii. de Synedriis, cap. 4. 16. Grotius in Matt. v. 22.) After several intermissions of this authority, which was sometimes laid aside by the calamities or corruptions of the times, or else superseded by that sovereign power which was invested in the judges and kings, Jehoshaphat, when he set about a general reformation, restored this ancient tribunal. (See 2 Chron. xix. 8.) This being the supreme court of the nation, the persons that sat in it are called here the princes of Judah: (compare xxix. 2. xxxiv. 19.) and the elders of the land, ver. 17. of this chapter; and the elders of the people, xix. 1. and in the evangelists, (see Matt, xxvii. 1. Luke xxii.GG.) and the senate of the children of Israel, Acts v. 21. (Compare 1 Mac. xii. G. Judith xi. 14.) The same are probably meant by the seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, mentioned Ezek. viii. 11. The word Sanhedrin is, without doubt, of Greek original, derived from *2wl$piov, which often signifies this great council in the New Testament; and from thence is adopted into the Jewish langnagc by the rabbinical writers, as many other Greek words are; but the council may still have been of much ancientcr date, and expressed in the Old Testament by riders, princes, or elders, or senate of the people. The new gate of the Lord’s house.] Tho Chaldce calls it the east gate of the sanctuary of the Lord. It was called the new gate, because it was repaired by Jotham. (See 2 Kings xv. 35.)
Jeremiah 26:14
As for me, behold, lam in your hand, &c. Comparo xxx viii. 5. It was. the proper business of the Sanhedrin to pass sentence upon prophets. And if they found them guilty, of making false pretences to prophecy, to put them to death, tho punishment which the law had provided in that case, (Deut. xviii. 20.) To this sense those words of Christ are to be understood, Luke xiii. 33. It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem, where the Sanhedrin sat, whose office it was fust to try, and to condemn him. Ver. 1G. Then said the princes.] The Sanhedrin; (sec ver. 17.) or at least some considerable men among them. (Compare ver. 21. xxxvi. 12. xxxvii. 15. xxxviii. 4.) And all the people,] They who before were forward to condemn him, (ver. 8.) now, upon hearing his apology, were as ready to acquit him.
Jeremiah 26:17
Tlien rose up certain of the elders of the land. See ver. 10. 16. From ver. 17. to the end of the chapter, are rehearsed the debates that passed in the Sanhedrin upon this subject, and the arguments offered on both sides; as St. Luko gives an account of a like conference with relation to the apostles, Acts v. 33, 34.
Jeremiah 26:18
Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, &c. They allege this precedent, taken from the practice of a good king, in favour of Jeremiah. Zion shall be ploughed like a field.] The Jews suppose this prophecy to be fulfilled in the utter destruction of the second temple by Titus; when Terentius, or, as some of the modern Jews call him, Turnus Rufus, razed the very foundations of the city and temple, and so fulfilled the prediction of our Saviour, that there should not be left one stone upon another. (See Joseph. Bell. Jud. lib. vii. cap. 7.) When conquerors would signify their purpose, that a city should never be rebuilt, they used to break up the ground where it stood. (See Judg. ix. 45.) Horace alludfcs to this custom, " Imprimeretque muris Hostile aratrum exercitus insolcns." — Lib. i. Od. 1G. And the mountain of the house.] The temple stood upon Mount Moriah. (See 2 Chron. iv. 1. and xvii. 3. of this prophecy.)
Jeremiah 26:19
Did Hezekiah and all Judah put him to death?. Did the people come together in a body to accuse Micah, and demand sentence against him, as they had now done in the case of Jeremiah? Did he not fear the Lord, &c] See 2 Chron. xxxii- 25.
Jeremiah 26:20
And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the Lord, Urijah, &c. This seems to be an instance alleged by others of the Sanhedrin, in favour of the priests and prophets, who were for condemning Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 26:22
And Jehoiakim sent men into Egypt, &c. There was a strict alliance between him and Pharaoh-Nechoh king of Egypt. (See 2 Kings xxiii. 24.)
Jeremiah 26:23
And cast his dead body into the graves of the common people. Thereby to put a mark of infamy upon him after his death, by burying him among tho common people; for persons of quality and character had sepulchres belonging to their own families. (See 2 Sam. xvii. 23.1 Kings ii. 24.)
Jeremiah 26:24
Nevertheless the hand of Ahikim, the son ofShaphan, was with Jeremiah. Both he and his father Shaphan were chief ministers under Josiah, (2 Kings xxii. 12. 14.)