Jeremiah Threatened with Death
The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah and he was told to go and stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all of the cities of Judah that would come to worship. He was told to tell the people all that the Lord commanded and not to hold back a word of it.
It may be that they would listen, and every one would turn from his evil ways, so that the Lord could relent of the disaster that was intended for them because of their evil deeds.
Jeremiah was to say to them, “Thus says the Lord: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, and to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently, though you have not listened, then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.”
The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking those words and clearly did not like it. They took hold of him and said, “You shall die!” They questioned why he had prophesied these things, and they all gathered around him in the house of the Lord.
When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came from the king’s house to the house of the Lord and to their seats in the entry of the New Gate. Then all the people told them that Jeremiah deserved to die because he had prophesied against the city.
Jeremiah spoke to the officials saying how the Lord had sent him to prophesy against the house and the city all the words that he had spoken. He told them again to mend their ways and their deeds, and to obey the voice of the Lord and the Lord would relent of the disaster that was pronounced against them.
But as for Jeremiah, he was in their hands. He told them to do with him “as what seems good and right to you.” They had to know for certain though that if they put him to death, they would be bringing innocent blood upon themselves and upon the city and its inhabitants, because the Lord had sent him to speak those words.
Jeremiah Spared from Death
Then all the people decided that Jeremiah did not deserve the sentence of death, for he had spoken in the name of the Lord their God. Then the elders arose and spoke to the assembly reminding them of other prophets and what they had said.
They spoke of Micah of Moresheth who prophesied in the days of Hezekiah the king of Judah who said, “Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.”
Hezekiah had not put him to death, instead they feared the Lord and entreated the favor of the Lord, and the Lord relented of the disaster that he had pronounced against them.
Then they spoke of Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He too prophesied against the city and the land in words like those of Jeremiah. When King Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and officials, heard of his words, the king sought to put him to death.
But when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt. But the king sent men to find him and brought Uriah back to him. King Jehoiakim struck him with the sword and dumped his dead body into the burial place of the common people.
But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah so that he was not given over to the people to be put to death.
The Yoke of Nebuchadnezzar
In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. He was told to make for himself straps and yoke-bars, and put them on his neck.
He was told to speak to all the people the words of the Lord saying, “It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me.” The Lord had given it all to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, His servant.
All the nations would serve Nebuchadnezzar and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land would come. Then many nations and great kings would make him their slave.
If any nation or kingdom would not serve Nebuchadnezzar, and put their necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, they would be punished with the sword, famine, and pestilence until the Lord had consumed it by His hand.
The people should not listen to their prophets, diviners, dreamers, fortune-tellers, or sorcerers who were saying not to serve the king of Babylon. They were lying, and as a result if they listened they would be removed from their land. They would be driven out until and would perish.
Any nation that would bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, would be left on their own land, to work it and dwell there.