Jeremiah 26-27

Common English Bible

Jeremiah arrested and sentenced to death

26 Early in the rule of Judah’s King Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son, this word came from the Lord: ² The Lord proclaims: Stand in the temple courtyard and speak to all the people of the towns of Judah who have come to the temple to worship. Tell them everything I command you; leave nothing out. ³ Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from their evil ways. If they do, I will relent and not carry out the harm I have in mind for them because of the wrong they have done. ⁴ So tell them, The Lord proclaims: If you don’t listen to me or follow the Instruction I have set before you— ⁵ if you don’t listen to the words of the prophets that I have sent to you time and again, though you haven’t listened, ⁶ then I will make this temple a ruin like Shiloh, and this city I will make a curse before all nations on earth.

⁷ The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah declare these words in the Lord’s temple. ⁸ And when Jeremiah finished saying everything the Lord told him to say, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him and said, “You must die! ⁹ Why do you prophesy in the Lord’s name that ‘this temple will become a ruin like Shiloh, and this city will be destroyed and left without inhabitant’?” Then all the people joined ranks against Jeremiah in the Lord’s temple.

¹⁰ When the officials of Judah heard these things, they went up from the royal palace to the Lord’s temple and took their places at the entrance of the New Gate of the Lord’s temple. ¹¹ The priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people: “This man deserves to die for prophesying against this city as you have all heard firsthand.”

¹² Jeremiah said to all the officials and to all the people, “The Lord sent me to prophesy to this temple and this city everything you have heard. ¹³ So now transform your ways and actions. Obey the Lord your God, and the Lord may relent and not carry out the harm that he’s pronounced against you. ¹⁴ But me? I’m in your hands. Do whatever you would like to me. ¹⁵ Only know for certain that if you sentence me to death, you and the people of this city will be guilty of killing an innocent man. The Lord has in fact sent me to speak everything I have said to you.”

¹⁶ Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man doesn’t deserve to die, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.”

¹⁷ A few of the community elders got up and addressed the whole crowd: ¹⁸ “Micah of Moresheth, who prophesied during the rule of Judah’s Hezekiah, said to all the people of Judah, ‘The Lord of heavenly forces proclaims:

¹⁹ “Did King Hezekiah or anyone else in Judah execute him? Didn’t he instead fear the Lord and plead for his mercy? Then the Lord relented of the harm that he had pronounced against them. We are about to commit a huge mistake that will cost us our lives.”

²⁰ There was another man who prophesied in the Lord’s name: Uriah, Shemaiah’s son from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied the same things that Jeremiah did about this city and against this land. ²¹ When King Jehoiakim and all his warriors and officials heard his words, the king sought to kill him. Uriah heard of this and fled in fear to Egypt. ²² But King Jehoiakim dispatched Elnathan, Achbor’s son, and others to Egypt. ²³ They brought Uriah back from Egypt to the king who had him killed, and his body was thrown into the common burial ground.

²⁴ But Ahikam, Shaphan’s son, protected Jeremiah and wouldn’t let the people execute him.

Submit to the king of Babylon and live

27 Early in the rule of Judah’s King Zedekiah,^[a] Josiah’s son, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² This is what the Lord said to me: Make a yoke of straps and bars and wear it on your neck. ³ Then send word^[b] to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through their representatives who have come to Jerusalem to Judah’s King Zedekiah. ⁴ Tell them to say to their masters: The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: Say this to your masters:

⁵ By my great power and outstretched arm, I have made the earth and the people and animals that are on it. I can give it to anyone I please. ⁶ Now I hand over all these countries to my servant King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I even give him the wild animals as subjects. ⁷ All nations will serve him, his son and grandson, until the time for his land arrives; then many nations and great kings will conquer him.

⁸ As for the nation or country that won’t serve Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar and won’t put its neck under his yoke, I will punish it with sword, famine, and disease until I have destroyed it by his hand, declares the Lord. ⁹ As for you, don’t listen to your prophets, diviners, dreamers,^[c] mediums, or your sorcerers who say to you, “Don’t serve the king of Babylon.” ¹⁰ They are lying to you, and their lies will lead to banishment from your land. I will drive you out, and you will perish. ¹¹ But any nation that puts its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, I will let stay in its land to till it and live on it, declares the Lord.

¹² I delivered the same message to Judah’s King Zedekiah: If you want to live, put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people. ¹³ Why should you and your people die by sword, famine, and disease, as the Lord pronounced against any nation that won’t serve the king of Babylon? ¹⁴ Pay no attention to the words of the prophets who encourage you not to serve the king of Babylon, for they are lying to you. ¹⁵ I haven’t sent these prophets, declares the Lord; they are prophesying falsely in my name. If you listen to them, I will drive you out, and you will perish, both you and your prophets!

¹⁶ Then I spoke to the priests and all this people: This is what the Lord says: Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you, “In a short while, the temple equipment will be brought back from Babylon.” They are prophesying a lie to you. ¹⁷ Don’t listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Otherwise, this city will be reduced to ruin. ¹⁸ If they are really prophets and have the Lord’s word, let them intercede with the Lord of heavenly forces not to let the equipment left in the Lord’s temple and in the royal palace of Judah and Jerusalem be carted off to Babylon.

¹⁹ This is what the Lord of heavenly forces proclaims about the pillars, the Sea, the stands, and the rest of the equipment left in this city, ²⁰ which Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar didn’t plunder when he deported Jeconiah the son of Judah’s King Jehoiakim from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with all the officials of Judah and Jerusalem. ²¹ Yes, this is what the Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims about the equipment that is left in the Lord’s temple and in the royal palace in Judah, and in Jerusalem: ²² They will be carted off to Babylon where they will remain until the day I come looking for them, declares the Lord; then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.