Jeremiah 26
26
Jeremiah's Message in the Temple
(Jeremiah 7.1-15)
1 #
2 K 23.36—24.6; 2 Ch 36.5-7. Soon after Jehoiakim#26.1 Jehoiakim: See the note at 1.3. became king of Judah, the Lord said:
2Jeremiah, I have a message for everyone who comes from the towns of Judah to worship in my temple. Go to the temple courtyard and speak every word that I tell you. 3Maybe the people will listen this time. And if they stop doing wrong, I will change my mind and not punish them for their sins. 4Tell them that I have said:
You have refused to listen to me and to obey my laws and teachings. 5Again and again I have sent my servants the prophets to preach to you, but you ignored them as well. Now I am warning you that if you don't start obeying me at once, 6#Js 18.1; Ps 78.60; Jr 7.12-14. I will destroy this temple, just as I destroyed the town of Shiloh.#26.6 Shiloh: The sacred tent had once stood at Shiloh. Then everyone on earth will use the name “Jerusalem” as a curse word.
Jeremiah on Trial
7The priests, the prophets, and everyone else in the temple heard what I said, 8-9and as soon as I finished, they all crowded around me and started shouting, “Why did you preach that the Lord will destroy this temple, just as he destroyed Shiloh? Why did you say that Jerusalem will be empty and lie in ruins? You ought to be put to death for saying such things in the Lord's name!” Then they had me arrested.
10The royal officers heard what had happened, and they came from the palace to the new gate of the temple to be the judges at my trial.#26.10 new gate … trial: Public trials were often held in an open area at a gate of a city, palace, or temple. 11While they listened, the priests and the prophets said to the crowd, “All of you have heard Jeremiah prophesy that Jerusalem will be destroyed. He deserves the death penalty.”
12-13Then I told the judges and everyone else:
The Lord himself sent me to tell you about the terrible things he will do to you, to Jerusalem, and to the temple. But if you change your ways and start obeying the Lord, he will change his mind.
14You must decide what to do with me. Just do whatever you think is right. 15But if you put me to death, you and everyone else in Jerusalem will be guilty of murdering an innocent man, because everything I preached came from the Lord.
16The judges and the other people told the priests and prophets, “Since Jeremiah only told us what the Lord our God had said, we don't think he deserves to die.”
17Then some of the leaders from other towns stepped forward. They told the crowd that 18#Mic 3.12. years ago when Hezekiah#26.18 Hezekiah: Ruled 716–687 b.c. was king of Judah, a prophet named Micah from the town of Moresheth had said:
“I, the Lord All-Powerful, say
Jerusalem will be plowed under
and left in ruins.
Thorns will cover the mountain
where the temple
now stands.”#26.18 Jerusalem … stands: See Micah 3.12.
19Then the leaders continued:
No one put Micah to death for saying that. Instead, King Hezekiah prayed to the Lord with fear and trembling and asked him to have mercy. Then the Lord decided not to destroy Jerusalem, even though he had already said he would.
People of Judah, if Jeremiah is killed, we will bring a terrible disaster on ourselves.
20-24After these leaders finished speaking, an important man named Ahikam son of Shaphan spoke up for me as well. And so, I wasn't handed over to the crowd to be killed.
Uriah the Prophet
While Jehoiakim#26.20-24 Jehoiakim: See the note at 1.3. was still king of Judah, a man named Uriah son of Shemaiah left his hometown of Kiriath-Jearim and came to Jerusalem. Uriah was one of the Lord's prophets, and he was saying the same things about Judah and Jerusalem that I had been saying. And when Jehoiakim and his officials and military officers heard what Uriah said, they tried to arrest him, but he escaped to Egypt. So Jehoiakim sent Elnathan son of Achbor and some other men after Uriah, and they brought him back. Then Jehoiakim had Uriah killed and his body dumped in a common burial pit.
Currently Selected:
Jeremiah 26: CEVDCI
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 26
26
1In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, hath this word been from Jehovah, saying:
2‘Thus said Jehovah, Stand thou in the court of the house of Jehovah, and thou hast spoken unto all [those of] the cities of Judah who are coming in to bow themselves in the house of Jehovah, all the words that I have commanded thee to speak unto them, thou dost not diminish a word.
3If so be they hearken, and turn back each from his evil way, then I have repented concerning the evil that I am thinking of doing to them, because of the evil of their doings.
4‘And thou hast said unto them: Thus said Jehovah, If ye do not hearken unto Me, to walk in My law, that I set before you,
5To hearken to the words of My servants the prophets, whom I am sending unto you, yea, rising early and sending, and ye have not hearkened,
6Then I have given up this house as Shiloh, and this city I give up for a reviling to all nations of the earth.’
7And the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, hear Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of Jehovah,
8And it cometh to pass, at the completion of Jeremiah's speaking all that Jehovah hath commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests, and the prophets, and all the people catch him, saying, Thou dost surely die,
9Wherefore hast thou prophesied in the name of Jehovah, saying, ‘As Shiloh this house shall be, and this city is wasted, without inhabitant?’ and all the people are assembled unto
10And the heads of Judah hear these things, and they go up from the house of the king [to] the house of Jehovah, and sit in the opening of the new gate of Jehovah.
11And the priests and the prophets speak unto the heads, and unto all the people, saying, ‘Judgment of death [is] for this man, for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears.’
12And Jeremiah speaketh unto all the heads, and unto all the people, saying, ‘Jehovah sent me to prophesy concerning this house, and concerning this city, all the words that ye have heard;
13And now, amend your ways, and your doings, and hearken to the voice of Jehovah your God, and Jehovah doth repent concerning the evil that He hath spoken against you.
14‘And I, lo, I [am] in your hand, do to me as is good and as is right in your eyes;
15Only, know ye certainly, that if ye are putting me to death, surely innocent blood ye are putting on yourselves, and on this city, and on its inhabitants; for truly hath Jehovah sent me unto you to speak in your ears all these words.’
16And the heads and all the people say unto the priests and unto the prophets, ‘There is not for this man a judgment of death, for in the name of Jehovah our God he hath spoken unto us.’
17And certain of the elders of the land rise up, and speak unto all the assembly of the people, saying,
18‘Micah the Morashtite hath been prophesying in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and he saith unto all the people of Judah, saying: Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Zion is a plowed field, and Jerusalem is heaps, And the mountain of the house is for high places of a forest.
19‘Put him at all to death did Hezekiah king of Judah, and all Judah? Did he not fear Jehovah? yea, he appeaseth the face of Jehovah, and Jehovah repenteth concerning the evil that He spake against them; and we are doing great evil against our souls.
20‘And also there hath been a man prophesying in the name of Jehovah, Urijah son of Shemaiah, of Kirjath-Jearim, and he prophesieth against this city, and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah,
21And the king Jehoiakim, and all his mighty ones, and all the heads, hear his words, and the king seeketh to put him to death, and Urijah heareth, and feareth, and fleeth, and goeth in to Egypt.
22And the king Jehoiakim sendeth men to Egypt — Elnathan son of Achbor, and men with him unto Egypt —
23And they bring out Urijah from Egypt, and bring him in unto the king Jehoiakim, and he smiteth him with a sword, and casteth his corpse unto the graves of the sons of the people.’
24Only, the hand of Ahikam son of Shaphan hath been with Jeremiah so as not to give him up into the hand of the people to put him to death.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society