Jeremiah 26:7-19
Amplified Bible
A Plot to Murder Jeremiah
7 The priests and the [false] prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. 8 Now when Jeremiah finished proclaiming everything that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the [false] prophets and all the people seized him, saying, “You must die! 9 Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord saying, ‘This house will be like Shiloh [after the ark of the Lord had been taken by our enemies] and this city [Jerusalem] will be desolate, without inhabitant’?” And all the people were gathered around Jeremiah in the [outer area of the] house of the Lord.
10 When the [a]princes (court officials) of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the Lord and sat in the entrance of the New Gate of the house of the Lord. 11 Then the priests and the [false] prophets said to the princes and to all the people, “This man is deserving of death, for he has prophesied against this city as you have heard with your own ears.”
12 Then Jeremiah spoke to 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 you have heard. 13 Therefore, now change your ways and your deeds and obey the voice of the Lord your God; then the Lord will relent and reverse His decision concerning the misfortune which He has pronounced against you. 14 As for me, behold, I am in your hands; do with me as seems good and suitable to you. 15 But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.”
Jeremiah Is Spared
16 Then the princes and all the people said to the priests and to the [false] prophets, “This man is not deserving of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.” 17 Then some of the elders of the land stood up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying, 18 “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts,
“Zion will be [b]plowed like a field,
And Jerusalem will become [heaps of] ruins,
And the mountain of the house [of the Lord—Mount Moriah, on which stands the temple, shall become covered not with buildings, but] like a densely wooded height.”’(A)
19 “Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put Micah to death? Did he not [reverently] fear the Lord and entreat the favor of the Lord? And did not the Lord relent and reverse His decision concerning the misfortune which He had pronounced against them? But [here] we are [thinking of] committing a great evil against ourselves.”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Jeremiah 26:10 The leaders were authorized to settle legal matters.
- Jeremiah 26:18 This prophecy of Micah, made in the days of King Hezekiah, that Mount Zion would become a plowed field was fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans took Jerusalem and broke down the walls (2 Kin 25:10). That was in 586 b.c. In a.d. 1542 the present walls of Jerusalem were built by Suleiman the Magnificent, the greatest of the Turkish sultans. By some strange error, the part of the city known as Mount Zion was omitted from the enclosure and remained outside the walls; for centuries it was literally “plowed like a field” just as Micah foretold.
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