1At the beginning of the kingship of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah this word came from the LORD, saying: 2Thus said the LORD, “Stand in the court of the house of the LORD, and you shall speak concerning all the towns of Judah who come to bow down in the house of the LORD the words that I have charged you to speak to them. Omit not a word. 3Perhaps they will listen and each man will turn back from his evil way and I shall repent of the evil that I am planning to do to them because of the evil of their acts. 4And you shall say to them: Thus said the LORD, If you listen to Me to go in My teaching that I set before you, 5to listen to the words of My servants the prophets whom I have constantly sent to you—but you did not listen! 6And I will make this house like Shiloh, and this city I will make a curse for all the nations of the earth.” 7And the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking all these words in the house of the LORD. 8And it happened when Jeremiah finished speaking all that the LORD had charged him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, “You are doomed to die. 9Why did you prophesy in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘Like Shiloh shall this house be, and this city shall be destroyed with none dwelling there’?” And all the people crowded round Jeremiah in the house of the LORD. 10And the nobles of Judah heard of these things, and they went up from the king’s house to the house of the LORD and sat at the entrance of the new gate of the house of the LORD. 11And the priests and the prophets said to the nobles and to all the people, saying, “A death sentence for this man! For he has prophesied about this city as you have heard with your own ears.” 12And Jeremiah said to all the nobles and to all the people, saying, “The LORD sent me to prophesy about this house and about this city all the words that you have heard. 13And now, make your ways and your acts better and listen to the voice of the LORD, that the LORD repent of the evil that He spoke concerning you. 14As for me, here I am in your hand. Do to me what is good and what is right in your eyes. 15But you must surely know that if you put me to death, you lay innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on its dwellers, for in truth did the LORD send me to speak in your hearing all these words.” 16And the nobles and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets, “This man has no death sentence, for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD.” 17And men of the elders of the land arose and said to all the assembly of the people, saying, 18“Micah the Morashthite did prophesy in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and he said to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus said the LORD of Armies:
Zion shall be plowed like a field,
and Jerusalem shall become rubble heaps,
and the Mount of the House, high places in the forest.
19Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah really put him to death? Did he not fear the LORD and entreat the LORD, and the LORD repented of the evil that he had spoken concerning them? And should we do great evil against our own selves? 20And also there was a man prophesying in the name of the LORD, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-Jearim, and he prophesied concerning this city and concerning this land like all the words of Jeremiah. 21And King Jehoiakim heard his words, and with him all his warriors and all his nobles, and the king sought to put him to death, and Uriah heard and was afraid and fled and came to Egypt. 22And King Johaiakim sent his men to Egypt, Elnathan son of Achbor and men with him, to Egypt. 23And they took Uriah out of Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, and he struck him down with a sword, and they flung his corpse into the graves of the common people.” 24Yet the hand of Ahikam son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah not to give him into the hands of the people to put him to death.
CHAPTER 26 NOTES
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2. Stand in the court of the house of the LORD. It is likely that the occasion is one of the three pilgrim festivals, when huge crowds would flock to the Temple from all around the country. The clause “who come to bow down [that is, to worship] in the house of the LORD” suggests pilgrimage.
4. If you listen to Me. One would expect a positive clause completing this conditional statement: if you listen, I will not harm you. Instead, the statement breaks off in the middle—“but you did not listen”—because the people’s refusal to change its ways is already perceived as an accomplished fact.
6. I will make this house like Shiloh. Shiloh was a central sanctuary in the north (see the early chapters of 1 Samuel) that was destroyed by the Philistines in the eleventh century B.C.E. It appears to have become incised in the national memory as a once sacred site that was violated and laid waste, and Jeremiah invokes it in this sense as a grim precedent for Jerusalem.
8. You are doomed to die. These words (rendered by many, following the King James version, as “you shall surely die”) are the set formula for pronouncing a death sentence. Before this point, Jeremiah had repeatedly stated that his life was in danger because of his prophecies, beginning with a conspiracy against him by the people of his hometown, Anathoth. Now the threat is explicit and imminent. One should recall that at this moment toward the end of the seventh century B.C.E. Judah was gravely menaced by the Babylonian army. One might imagine a preacher in California in 1942, when there were fears of a Japanese invasion, repeatedly declaring that the land would be laid waste for the evil of its ways and that Los Angeles and San Francisco would be turned into rubble by a cruel enemy coming from across the great ocean. Such a person would surely have been arrested for treason and perhaps subjected to capital punishment. The anger against Jeremiah is scarcely surprising.
9. all the people crowded round Jeremiah. This detail suggests that they may be ready to lynch the prophet. The historicity of this entire episode seems likely.
10. the house of the LORD. The Masoretic Text lacks “the house of,” but it appears in many Hebrew manuscripts as well as in four different ancient versions. The nobles have been in the palace, a plausible location for them, but when they hear of what has happened in the temple court, they hasten there.
11. as you have heard with your own ears. This must mean, as you have heard the report of what he said.
14. As for me, here I am in your hand. Do to me what is good and what is right in your eyes. Throughout this stark confrontation, Jeremiah exhibits steady resolution. He has just reiterated the burden of his prophecy, and if the people refuse to listen, he is prepared to submit to his fate.
15. for in truth did the LORD send me. This is the crux of Jeremiah’s self-defense: he does not deserve to die because he has spoken his dire prophecies with the full authority of God. In the ancient society, this is an argument that many would have found persuasive, because they shared the assumption that God in fact had messages for the people that he conveyed through prophets (our California analogue would not have fared so well with an argument of this sort).
16. And the nobles and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets. The aristocracy and the common people rebuke the priests and the “establishment” prophets, both groups being Jeremiah’s rivals in imparting instruction to the populace.
17. men of the elders of the land. The relevant point of this designation is not their actual age but their status as recognized authorities or sages.
20. And also there was a man prophesying in the name of the LORD, Uriah son of Shemaiah. Unlike Micah, whose prophecies became part of the canon, there is no written record of Uriah’s prophesies, and all that is known of him is what is reported here. His fate proved to be the opposite of Micah’s.
23. And they took Uriah out of Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim. At this point, Judah was allied with Egypt, and consequently there was no difficulty about extradition.
and they flung his corpse into the graves of the common people. The report of this humiliating death of the prophet—“flung” suggests that the corpse was not given proper burial—is clearly invoked by the elders as a shameful act that should not be repeated.
24. Yet the hand of Ahikam son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah. Shaphan was a royal scribe, a high court position. He played an important role in the discovery of the Book of Teaching in the Temple around 622 B.C.E. Ahikam, then, would have been a well-placed official who provided support for Jeremiah within the royal court.
not to give him into the hands of the people to put him to death. First the people crowded around Jeremiah with murderous intent (verse 9). Then they appear to have accepted, together with the nobles, Jeremiah’s defense that he was truly sent by the LORD (verse 16). Now, they are again represented as a threat to the prophet. This volatility of sentiment is a realistic rendering of mob psychology.