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,
`If ye at all turn back -- you and your sons -- from after Me, and keep not My commands -- My statutes, that I have set before you, and ye have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them,
They have not been humbled unto this day, nor have they been afraid, nor have they walked in My law, and in My statutes, that I have set before you and before your fathers.
And Jeshurun waxeth fat, and doth kick: Thou hast been fat -- thou hast been thick, Thou hast been covered. And he leaveth God who made him, And dishonoureth the Rock of his salvation. They make Him zealous with strangers, With abominations they make Him angry. They sacrifice to demons -- no god! Gods they have not known -- New ones -- from the vicinity they came; Not feared them have your fathers! The Rock that begat thee thou forgettest, And neglectest God who formeth thee. And Jehovah seeth and despiseth -- For the provocation of His sons and His daughters. And He saith: I hide My face from them, I see what `is' their latter end; For a froward generation `are' they, Sons in whom is no stedfastness. They have made Me zealous by `no-god,' They made Me angry by their vanities; And I make them zealous by `no-people,' By a foolish nation I make them angry. For a fire hath been kindled in Mine anger, And it burneth unto Sheol -- the lowest, And consumeth earth and its increase, And setteth on fire foundations of mountains. I gather upon them evils, Mine arrows I consume upon them. Exhausted by famine, And consumed by heat, and bitter destruction. And the teeth of beasts I send upon them, With poison of fearful things of the dust. Without bereave doth the sword, And at the inner-chambers -- fear, Both youth and virgin, Suckling with man of grey hair.
that through two immutable things, in which `it is' impossible for God to lie, a strong comfort we may have who did flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before `us',
Who among you giveth ear `to' this? Attendeth, and heareth afterwards. Who hath given Jacob for a spoil, And Israel to the spoilers? Is it not Jehovah -- He against whom we sinned? Yea, they have not been willing in His ways to walk, Nor have they hearkened to His law. And He poureth on him fury, His anger, and the strength of battle, And it setteth him on fire round about, And he hath not known, And it burneth against him, and he layeth it not to heart!
`And they are disobedient, and rebel against Thee, and cast Thy law behind their back, and Thy prophets they have slain, who testified against them, to bring them back unto Thee, and they do great despisings, and Thou givest them into the hand of their adversaries, and they distress them, and in the time of their distress they cry unto Thee, and Thou, from the heavens, dost hear, and, according to Thine abundant mercies, dost give to them saviours, and they save them out of the hand of their adversaries. `And when they have rest, they turn back to do evil before Thee, and Thou dost leave them in the hand of their enemies, and they rule over them; and they turn back, and call Thee, and Thou from the heavens dost hear, and dost deliver them, according to Thy mercies, many times, and dost testify against them, to bring them back unto Thy law; and they -- they have acted proudly, and have not hearkened to Thy commands, and against Thy judgments have sinned, -- which man doth and hath lived in them -- and they give a refractory shoulder, and their neck have hardened, and have not hearkened. `And Thou drawest over them many years, and testifiest against them by Thy Spirit, by the hand of Thy prophets, and they have not given ear, and Thou dost give them into the hand of peoples of the lands,
and if ye turn back -- ye -- and have forsaken My statutes, and My commands, that I have placed before you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them -- then I have plucked them from off My ground that I have given to them, and this house that I have sanctified for My name, I cast from before My face, and make it for a proverb, and for a byword, among all the peoples.
`And it hath been, as there hath come upon you all the good thing which Jehovah your God hath spoken unto you, so doth Jehovah bring upon you the whole of the evil thing, till His destroying you from off this good ground which Jehovah your God hath given to you; in your transgressing the covenant of Jehovah your God which He commanded you, and ye have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them, then hath the anger of Jehovah burned against you, and ye have perished hastily from off the good land which He hath given to you.'
`And if ye do not hearken to Me, and do not all these commands; and if at My statutes ye kick, and if My judgments your soul loathe, so as not to do all My commands -- to your breaking My covenant -- I also do this to you, and I have appointed over you trouble, the consumption, and the burning fever, consuming eyes, and causing pain of soul; and your seed in vain ye have sowed, and your enemies have eaten it; and I have set My face against you, and ye have been smitten before your enemies; and those hating you have ruled over you, and ye have fled, and there is none pursuing you. `And if unto these ye hearken not to Me, -- then I have added to chastise you seven times for your sins; and I have broken the pride of your strength, and have made your heavens as iron, and your earth as brass; and consumed hath been your strength in vain, and your land doth not give her produce, and the tree of the land doth not give its fruit. `And if ye walk with Me `in' opposition, and are not willing to hearken to Me, then I have added to you a plague seven times, according to your sins, and sent against you the beast of the field, and it hath bereaved you; and I have cut off your cattle, and have made you few, and your ways have been desolate. `And if by these ye are not instructed by Me, and have walked with Me `in' opposition, then I have walked -- I also -- with you in opposition, and have smitten you, even I, seven times for your sins; and I have brought in on you a sword, executing the vengeance of a covenant; and ye have been gathered unto your cities, and I have sent pestilence into your midst, and ye have been given into the hand of an enemy. `In My breaking to you the staff of bread, then ten women have baked your bread in one oven, and have given back your bread by weight; and ye have eaten, and are not satisfied. `And if for this ye hearken not to Me, and have walked with Me in opposition, then I have walked with you in the fury of opposition, and have chastised you, even I, seven times for your sins. `And ye have eaten the flesh of your sons; even flesh of your daughters ye do eat. And I have destroyed your high places, and cut down your images, and have put your carcases on the carcases of your idols, and My soul hath loathed you; and I have made your cities a waste, and have made desolate your sanctuaries, and I smell not at your sweet fragrances; and I have made desolate the land, and your enemies, who are dwelling in it, have been astonished at it. And you I scatter among nations, and have drawn out after you a sword, and your land hath been a desolation, and your cities are a waste. `Then doth the land enjoy its sabbaths -- all the days of the desolation, and ye in the land of your enemies -- then doth the land rest, and hath enjoyed its sabbaths; all the days of the desolation it resteth that which it hath not rested in your sabbaths in your dwelling on it. `And those who are left of you -- I have also brought a faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies, and the sound of a leaf driven away hath pursued them, and they have fled -- flight from a sword -- and they have fallen, and there is none pursuing. And they have stumbled one on another, as from the face of a sword, and there is none pursuing, and ye have no standing before your enemies, and ye have perished among the nations, and the land of your enemies hath consumed you. `And those who are left of you -- they consume away in their iniquity, in the lands of your enemies; and also in the iniquities of their fathers, with them they consume away. `And -- they have confessed their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they have trespassed against Me, and also, that they have walked with Me, in opposition, also I walk to them in opposition, and have brought them into the land of their enemies -- or then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and then they accept the punishment of their iniquity, -- then I have remembered My covenant `with' Jacob, and also My covenant `with' Isaac, and also My covenant `with' Abraham I remember, and the land I remember. `And -- the land is left of them, and doth enjoy its sabbaths, in the desolation without them, and they accept the punishment of their iniquity, because, even because, against My judgments they have kicked, and My statutes hath their soul loathed, and also even this, in their being in the land of their enemies, I have not rejected them, nor have I loathed them, to consume them, to break My covenant with them; for I `am' Jehovah their God; -- then I have remembered for them the covenant of the ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations to become their God; I `am' Jehovah.' These `are' the statutes, and the judgments, and the laws, which Jehovah hath given between Him and the sons of Israel, in mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.
and I bring them in unto the ground which I have sworn to their fathers -- flowing with milk and honey, and they have eaten, and been satisfied, and been fat, and have turned unto other gods, and they have served them, and despised Me, and broken My covenant.
And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Lo, thou art lying down with thy fathers, and this people hath risen, and gone a-whoring after the gods of the stranger of the land into the midst of which it hath entered, and forsaken Me, and broken My covenant which I made with it; and Mine anger hath burned against it in that day, and I have forsaken them, and hidden My face from them, and it hath been for consumption, and many evils and distresses have found it, and it hath said in that day, Is it not because that my God is not in my midst -- these evils have found me? and I certainly hide My face in that day for all the evil which it hath done, for it hath turned unto other gods.
lest there be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart is turning to-day from Jehovah our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations, lest there be in you a root fruitful of gall and wormwood: `And it hath been, in his hearing the words of this oath, and he hath blessed himself in his heart, saying, I have peace, though in the stubbornness of my heart I go on, in order to end the fulness with the thirst. Jehovah is not willing to be propitious to him, for then doth the anger of Jehovah smoke, also His zeal, against that man, and lain down on him hath all the oath which is written in this book, and Jehovah hath blotted out his name from under the heavens, and Jehovah hath separated him for evil, out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the oaths of the covenant which is written in this book of the law. `And the latter generation of your sons who rise after you, and the stranger who cometh in from a land afar off, have said when they have seen the strokes of that land, and its sicknesses which Jehovah hath sent into it, -- (`with' brimstone and salt is the whole land burnt, it is not sown, nor doth it shoot up, nor doth there go up on it any herb, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which Jehovah overturned in His anger, and in His fury,) -- yea, all the nations have said, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus to this land? what the heat of this great anger? `And they have said, Because that they have forsaken the covenant of Jehovah, God of their fathers, which He made with them in His bringing them out of the land of Egypt, and they go and serve other gods, and bow themselves to them -- gods which they have not known, and which He hath not apportioned to them; and the anger of Jehovah burneth against that land, to bring in on it all the reviling that is written in this book, and Jehovah doth pluck them from off their ground in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath, and doth cast them unto another land, as `at' this day.
`And it hath been, if thou dost not hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God to observe to do all His commands, and His statutes, which I am commanding thee to-day, that all these revilings have come upon thee, and overtaken thee: `Cursed `art' thou in the city, and cursed `art' thou in the field. `Cursed `is' thy basket and thy kneading-trough. `Cursed `is' the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, increase of thine oxen, and wealth of thy flock. `Cursed `art' thou in thy coming in, and cursed `art' thou in thy going out. `Jehovah doth send on thee the curse, the trouble, and the rebuke, in every putting forth of thy hand which thou dost, till thou art destroyed, and till thou perish hastily, because of the evil of thy doings `by' which thou hast forsaken Me. `Jehovah doth cause to cleave to thee the pestilence, till He consume thee from off the ground whither thou art going in to possess it. `Jehovah doth smite thee with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with extreme burning, and with sword, and with blasting, and with mildew, and they have pursued thee till thou perish `And thy heavens which `are' over thy head have been brass, and the earth which `is' under thee iron; Jehovah giveth the rain of thy land -- dust and ashes; from the heavens it cometh down on thee till thou art destroyed. `Jehovah giveth thee smitten before thine enemies; in one way thou goest out unto them, and in seven ways dost flee before them, and thou hast been for a trembling to all kingdoms of the earth; and thy carcase hath been for food to every fowl of the heavens, and to the beast of the earth, and there is none causing trembling. `Jehovah doth smite thee with the ulcer of Egypt, and with emerods, and with scurvy, and with itch, of which thou art not able to be healed. `Jehovah doth smite thee with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart; and thou hast been gropling at noon, as the blind gropeth in darkness; and thou dost not cause thy ways to prosper; and thou hast been only oppressed and plundered all the days, and there is no saviour. `A woman thou dost betroth, and another man doth lie with her; a house thou dost build, and dost not dwell in it; a vineyard thou dost plant, and dost not make it common; thine ox `is' slaughtered before thine eyes, and thou dost not eat of it; thine ass `is' taken violently away from before thee, and it is not given back to thee; thy sheep `are' given to thine enemies, and there is no saviour for thee. `Thy sons and thy daughters `are' given to another people, and thine eyes are looking and consuming for them all the day, and thy hand is not to God! The fruit of thy ground, and all thy labour, eat up doth a people whom thou hast not known; and thou hast been only oppressed and bruised all the days; and thou hast been mad, because of the sight of thine eyes which thou dost see. `Jehovah doth smite thee with an evil ulcer, on the knees, and on the legs (of which thou art not able to be healed), from the sole of thy foot even unto thy crown. `Jehovah doth cause thee to go, and thy king whom thou raisest up over thee, unto a nation which thou hast not known, thou and thy fathers, and thou hast served there other gods, wood and stone; and thou hast been for an astonishment, for a simile, and for a byword among all the peoples whither Jehovah doth lead thee. `Much seed thou dost take out into the field, and little thou dost gather in, for the locust doth consume it; vineyards thou dost plant, and hast laboured, and wine thou dost not drink nor gather, for the worm doth consume it; olives are to thee in all thy border, and oil thou dost not pour out, for thine olive doth fall off. `Sons and daughters thou dost beget, and they are not with thee, for they go into captivity; all thy trees and the fruit of thy ground doth the locust possess; the sojourner who `is' in thy midst goeth up above thee very high, and thou goest down very low; he doth lend `to' thee, and thou dost not lend `to' him; he is for head, and thou art for tail. `And come upon thee have all these curses, and they have pursued thee, and overtaken thee, till thou art destroyed, because thou hast not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep His commands, and His statutes, which he hath commanded thee; and they have been on thee for a sign and for a wonder, also on thy seed -- to the age. `Because that thou hast not served Jehovah thy God with joy, and with gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things -- thou hast served thine enemies, whom Jehovah sendeth against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in lack of all things; and he hath put a yoke of iron on thy neck, till He hath destroyed thee. `Jehovah doth lift up against thee a nation, from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle it flieth; a nation whose tongue thou hast not heard, a nation -- fierce of countenance -- which accepteth not the face of the aged, and the young doth not favour; and it hath eaten the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy ground, till thou art destroyed; which leaveth not to thee corn, new wine, and oil, increase of thine oxen, and wealth of thy flock, till it hath destroyed thee. `And it hath laid siege to thee in all thy gates, till thy walls come down, the high and the fenced ones in which thou art trusting, in all thy land; yea, it hath laid siege to thee in all thy gates, in all thy land, which Jehovah thy God hath given to thee; and thou hast eaten the fruit of thy body, flesh of thy sons and thy daughters (whom Jehovah thy God hath given to thee), in the siege, and in the straitness with which thine enemies do straiten thee. `The man who is tender in thee, and who `is' very delicate -- his eye is evil against his brother, and against the wife of his bosom, and against the remnant of his sons whom he leaveth, against giving to one of them of the flesh of his sons whom he eateth, because he hath nothing left to him, in the siege, and in the straitness with which thine enemy doth straiten thee in all thy gates. `The tender woman in thee, and the delicate, who hath not tried the sole of her foot to place on the ground because of delicateness and because of tenderness -- her eye is evil against the husband of her bosom, and against her son, and against her daughter, and against her seed which cometh out from between her feet, even against her sons whom she doth bear, for she doth eat them for the lacking of all things in secret, in the siege and in the straitness with which thine enemy doth straiten thee within thy gates. `If thou dost not observe to do all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honoured and fearful name -- Jehovah thy God -- then hath Jehovah made wonderful thy strokes, and the strokes of thy seed -- great strokes, and stedfast, and evil sicknesses, and stedfast. `And He hath brought back on thee all the diseases of Egypt, of the presence of which thou hast been afraid, and they have cleaved to thee; also every sickness and every stroke which is not written in the book of this law; Jehovah doth cause them to go up upon thee till thou art destroyed, and ye have been left with few men, instead of which ye have been as stars of the heavens for multitude, because thou hast not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah thy God. `And it hath been, as Jehovah hath rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so doth Jehovah rejoice over you to destroy you, and to lay you waste; and ye have been pulled away from off the ground whither thou art going in to possess it; and Jehovah hath scattered thee among all the peoples, from the end of the earth even unto the end of the earth; and thou hast served there other gods which thou hast not known, thou and thy fathers -- wood and stone. `And among those nations thou dost not rest, yea, there is no resting-place for the sole of thy foot, and Jehovah hath given to thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and grief of soul; and thy life hath been hanging in suspense before thee, and thou hast been afraid by night and by day, and dost not believe in thy life; in the morning thou sayest, O that it were evening! and in the evening thou sayest, O that it were morning! from the fear of thy heart, with which thou art afraid, and from the sight of thine eyes which thou seest. `And Jehovah hath brought thee back to Egypt with ships, by a way of which I said to thee, Thou dost not add any more to see it, and ye have sold yourselves there to thine enemies, for men-servants and for maid-servants, and there is no buyer.'
And this `is' the law which Moses hath set before the sons of Israel;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Jeremiah 26
Commentary on Jeremiah 26 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Accusation and Acquittal of Jeremiah in the Matter of His Prophesying Threatenings. The Prophet Urijah Put to Death
This chapter is separated from the discourses that precede and follow by a heading of its own, and dates from the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim; whereas the following Jer 27-29 fall into the earlier years of Zedekiah's reign. In point of matter, however, the present chapter is closely connected with these latter, though the connection between them is certainly not that held to exist by Ew. His view is, that Jer 27-29 furnish "three historical supplements regarding true and false prophethood," in each of which we are told in the first place how the prophet himself acted, the account being concluded with notices of prophets who either prophesied what was directly false, or who vindicated the truth with but insufficient stedfastness. As again this, Graf justly observes, "that this is in keeping neither with the real contents of Jer 27-29 nor with Jer 26; for Micah was far from being a false prophet, and Urijah was as little wanting in courage as was Jeremiah, who hid himself from Jehoiakim, Jeremiah 36:19, Jeremiah 36:26." - Jer 27-29 are related in the closest possible manner to Jer 25; for all that is said by Jeremiah in these chapters has manifestly for its aim to vindicate the truth of his announcement, that Judah's captivity in Chaldea would last seventy years, as against the false prophets, who foretold a speedy return of the exiles into their fatherland. To this the contents of Jer 26 form a sort of prelude, inasmuch as here we are informed of the attitude assumed by the leaders of the people, by the priests and prophets, and by King Jehoiakim towards the prophet's announcement of judgment about to fall on Judah. Thus we are put in a position to judge of the opposition on the part of the people and its leaders, with which his prophecy of the seventy years' bondage of Judah was likely to meet. For this reason Jer 26, with its historical notices, is inserted after Jer 25 and before Jer 27-29.
Accusation and Acquittal of Jeremiah. - Jeremiah 26:1-7. His prophecy that temple and city would be destroyed gave occasion to the accusation of the prophet. - Jeremiah 26:1. "In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah king of Judah, came this word from Jahveh, saying: Jeremiah 26:2. Thus said Jahveh: Stand in the court of the house of Jahveh, and speak to all the cities of Judah which come to worship in Jahveh's house, all the words that I have commanded thee to speak to them; take not a word therefrom. Jeremiah 26:3. Perchance they will hearken and turn each from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil which I purpose to do unto them for the evil of their doings. Jeremiah 26:4. And say unto them: Thus saith Jahveh: If ye hearken not to me, to walk in my law which I have set before you, Jeremiah 26:5. To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets whom I sent unto you, from early morning on sending, but ye have not hearkened. Jeremiah 26:6. Then I make this house like Shiloh, and this city a curse to all the peoples of the earth. Jeremiah 26:7. And the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of Jahveh."
In the discourse of Jer 7, where he was combating the people's false reliance upon the temple, Jeremiah had already threatened that the temple should share the fate of Shiloh, unless the people turned from its evil ways. Now, since that discourse was also delivered in the temple, and since Jeremiah 26:2-6 of the present chapter manifestly communicate only the substance of what the prophet said, several comm. have held these discourses to be identical, and have taken it for granted that the discourse here referred to, belonging to the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign, was given in full in Jer 7, while the history of it has been given in the present chapter by way of supplement (cf. the introductory remarks to Jer 7). But considering that it is a peculiarity of Jeremiah frequently to repeat certain of the main thoughts of his message, the saying of God, that He will do to the temple as He has done to Shiloh, is not sufficient to warrant this assumption. Jeremiah frequently held discourses in the temple, and more than once foretold the destruction of Jerusalem; so that it need not be surprising if on more than one occasion he threatened the temple with the fate of Shiloh. Between the two discourses there is further this distinction: Whereas in Jer 7 the prophet speaks chiefly of the spoliation or destruction of the temple and the expulsion of the people into exile, here in brief incisive words he intimates the destruction of the city of Jerusalem as well; and the present chapter throughout gives the impression that by this, so to speak, peremptory declaration, the prophet sought to move the people finally to decide for Jahveh its God, and that he thus so exasperated the priests and prophets present, that they seized him and pronounced him worthy of death. - According to the heading, this took place in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim. The like specification in the heading of Jer 27 does not warrant us to refer the date to the fourth year of this king. "The beginning" intimates simply that the discourse belongs to the earlier period of Jehoiakim's reign, without minuter information as to year and day. "To Jeremiah" seems to have been dropped out after "came this word," Jeremiah 26:1. The court of the house of God is not necessarily the inner or priests' court of the temple; it may have been the outer one where the people assembled; cf. Jeremiah 19:14. All the "cities of Judah" for their inhabitants, as in Jeremiah 11:12. The addition: "take not a word therefrom," cf. Deuteronomy 4:2; Deuteronomy 13:1, indicates the peremptory character of the discourse. In full, without softening the threat by the omission of anything the Lord commanded him, i.e., he is to proclaim the word of the Lord in its full unconditional severity, to move the people, if possible, to repentance, acc. to Jeremiah 26:3. With Jeremiah 26:3 , cf. Jeremiah 18:8, etc. - In Jeremiah 26:4-6 we have the contents of the discourse. If they hearken not to the words of the prophet, as has hitherto been the case, the Lord will make the temple as Shiloh, and this city, i.e., Jerusalem, a curse, i.e., an object of curses (cf. Jeremiah 24:9), for all peoples. On this cf. Jeremiah 7:12. But ye have not hearkened. The Chet . הזּאתה Hitz. holds to be an error of transcription; Ew. §173, g , and Olsh. Gramm . §101, c , and 133, a paragogically lengthened form; Böttcher, Lehrb . §665. iii. and 897, 3, a toneless appended suffix, strengthening the demonstrative force: this (city) here .
Jeremiah 26:8-9
The behaviour of the priests, prophets, and princes of the people towards Jeremiah on account of this discourse. - Jeremiah 26:7-9. When the priests and prophets and all the people present in the temple had heard this discourse, they laid hold of Jeremiah, saying, "Thou must die. Wherefore prophesiest thou in the name of Jahveh, saying, Like Shiloh shall this house become, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant? And all the people gathered to Jeremiah in the house of Jahveh." This last remark is not so to be understood, when compared with Jeremiah 26:7 and Jeremiah 26:8, as that all the people who, according to Jeremiah 26:7, had been hearing the discourse, and, according to Jeremiah 26:8, had with the priests and prophets laid hold on Jeremiah, gathered themselves to him now. It means, that after one part of the people present had, along with the priests and prophets, laid hold on him, the whole people gathered around him. "All the people," Jeremiah 26:9, is accordingly to be distinguished from "all the people," Jeremiah 26:8; and the word כּל , all, must not be pressed, in both cases meaning simply a great many. When it is thus taken, there is no reason for following Hitz., and deleting "all the people" in Jeremiah 26:8 as a gloss. Jeremiah's special opponents were the priests and prophets after their own hearts. But to them there adhered many from among the people; and these it is that are meant by "all the people," Jeremiah 26:8. But since these partisans of the priests and pseudo-prophets had no independent power of their own to pass judgment, and since, after Jeremiah was laid hold of, all the rest of the people then in the temple gathered around him, it happens that in Jeremiah 26:11 the priests and prophets are opposed to "all the people," and are mentioned as being alone the accusers of Jeremiah. - When the princes of Judah heard what had occurred, they repaired from the king's house (the palace) to the temple, and seated themselves in the entry of the new gate of Jahve, sc. to investigate and decide the case. The new gate was, according to Jeremiah 36:10, by the upper, i.e., inner court, and is doubtless the same that Jotham caused to be built (2 Kings 15:35); but whether it was identical with the upper gate of Benjamin, Jeremiah 20:2, cannot be decided. The princes of Judah, since they came up into the temple from the palace, are the judicial officers who were at that time about the palace. the judges were chosen from among the heads of the people; cf. my Bibl. Archäol . ii. §149.
Jeremiah 26:10-16
Before these princes, about whom all the people gathered, Jeremiah is accused by the priests and prophets: " This man is worthy of death ;" literally: a sentence of death (cf. Deuteronomy 19:6), condemnation to death, is due to this man; " for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears ." With these last words they appeal to the people standing round who had heard the prophecy, for the princes had not reached the temple till after Jeremiah had been apprehended. Jeremiah 26:12. To this Jeremiah answered in his own defence before the princes and all the people: " Jahveh hath sent me to prophesy against ( אל for על ) this house and against this city all the words which ye have heard. Jeremiah 26:13. And now make your ways good and your doings, and hearken to the voice of Jahveh your God, and Jahveh will repent Him of the evil that He hath spoken against you. Jeremiah 26:14. But I, behold, I am in your hand; do with me as seemeth to you good and right. Jeremiah 26:15. Only ye must know, that if ye put me to death, ye bring innocent blood upon you, and upon this city, and upon her inhabitants; for of a truth Jahveh hath sent me to you to speak in your ears all these words. " - As to "make your ways good," cf. Jeremiah 7:3. This defence made an impression on the princes and on all the people. From the intimation that by reform it was possible to avert the threatened calamity, and from the appeal to the fact that in truth Jahveh had sent him and commanded him so to speak, they see that he is a true prophet, whose violent death would bring blood-guiltiness upon the city and its inhabitants. They therefore declare to the accusers, Jeremiah 26:16 : "This man is not worthy of death, for in the name of Jahveh our God hath he spoken unto us."
Jeremiah 26:17-19
To justify and confirm this sentence, certain of the elders of the land rise and point to the like sentence passed on the prophet Micah of Moresheth-Gath, who had foretold the destruction of the city and temple under King Hezekiah, but had not been put to death by the king; Hezekiah, on the contrary, turning to prayer to the Lord, and thus succeeding in averting the catastrophe. The "men of the elders of the land" are different from "all the princes," and are not to be taken, as by Graf, for representatives of the people in the capacity of assessors at judicial decisions, who had to give their voice as to guilt or innocence; nor are they necessarily to be regarded as local authorities of the land. They come before us here solely in their character as elders of the people, who possessed a high authority in the eyes of the people. The saying of the Morasthite Micah which they cite in Jeremiah 26:18 is found in Micah 3:12, verbally agreeing with Jeremiah 26:18; see the exposition of that passage. The stress of what they say lies in the conclusion drawn by them from Micah's prophesy, taken in connection with Hezekiah's attitude towards the Lord, Jeremiah 26:19 : "Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear Jahveh and entreat Jahveh, and did not Jahveh repent Him of the evil which He had spoken concerning them? and we would commit a great evil against our souls?" Neither in the book of Micah, nor in the accounts of the books of Kings, nor in the chronicle of Hezekiah's reign are we told that, in consequence of that prophecy of Micah, Hezekiah entreated the Lord and so averted judgment from Jerusalem. There we find only that during the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians, Hezekiah besought the help of the Lord and protection from that mighty enemy. The elders have combined this fact with Micah's prophecy, and thence drawn the conclusion that the godly king succeeded by his prayer in averting the mischief. Cf. the remarks on this passage at Micah 4:10. ' חלּה , lit., stroke the face of Jahveh, i.e., entreat Him, cf. Exodus 32:11. "And we would commit," are thinking of doing, are on the point of doing a great evil against our souls; inasmuch as by putting the prophet to death they would bring blood-guiltiness upon themselves and hasten the judgment of God. - The acquittal of Jeremiah is not directly related; but it may be gathered from the decision of the princes: This man is not worthy of death.
The prophet Urijah put to death. - While the history we have just been considering gives testimony to the hostility of the priests and false prophets towards the true prophets of the Lord, the story of the prophet Urijah shows the hostility of King Jehoiakim against the proclaimers of divine truth. For this purpose, and not merely to show in how great peril Jeremiah then stood (Gr., Nהg.), this history is introduced into our book. It is not stated that the occurrence took place at the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign, nor can we infer so much from its being placed directly after the events of that time. The time is not specified, because it was irrelevant for the case in hand. Jeremiah 26:20. A man, Urijah the son of Shemaiah - both unknown - from Kirjath-Jearim, now called Kuriyet el 'Enab, about three hours to the north-west of Jerusalem, on the frontiers of the tribe of Benjamin (see on Joshua 9:17) , prophesied in the name of Jahveh against Jerusalem and Judah very much in the same terms as Jeremiah had done. When King Jehoiakim and his great men heard this, discourse, he sought after the prophet to kill him. Urijah, when he heard of it, fled to Egypt; but the king sent men after him, Elnathan the son of Achbor with some followers, and had him brought back thence, caused him to be put to death, and his body to be thrown into the graves of the common people. Hitz. takes objection to "all his mighty men," Jeremiah 26:21, because it is not found in the lxx, and is nowhere else used by Jeremiah. But these facts do not prove that the words are not genuine; the latter of the two, indeed, tells rather in favour of their genuineness, since a glossator would not readily have interpolated an expression foreign to the rest of the book. The "mighty men" are the distinguished soldiers who were about the king, the military commanders, as the "princes" are the supreme civil authorities. Elnathan the son of Achbor , according to Jeremiah 36:12, Jeremiah 36:25, one of Jehoiakim's princes, was a son of Achbor who is mentioned in 2 Kings 22:12-14 as amongst the princes of Josiah. Whether this Elnathan was the same as the Elnathan whose daughter Nehushta was Jehoiachin's mother (2 Kings 24:8), and who was therefore the king's father-in-law, must remain an undecided point, since the name Elnathan is of not unfrequent occurrence; of Levites, Ezra 8:16. בּני העם (see on Jeremiah 17:19) means the common people here, as in 2 Kings 22:6. The place of burial for the common people was in the valley of the Kidron; see on 2 Kings 22:6.
The narrative closes with a remark as to how, amid such hostility against the prophets of God on the part of king and people, Jeremiah escaped death. This was because the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with him. This person is named in 2 Kings 22:12, 2 Kings 22:14, as one of the great men sent by King Josiah to the prophetess Hulda to inquire of her concerning the book of the law recently discovered. According to Jeremiah 39:14; Jeremiah 40:5, etc., he was the father of the future Chaldean governor Gedaliah.