1Na počátku vlády judského krále Jehojakima, syna Jošíjáhova, Hospodin mě oslovil: 2Tak praví Hospodin: Postav se do nádvoří Hospodinova domu a mluv ke všem judským městům, ze kterých přicházejí lidé, aby se klaněli v Hospodinově domě, všecky řeči, které jsem ti přikázal, abys jim řekl; nevynech ani slovo! 3Snad poslechnou a odvrátí se každý od svého zlého chování, takže mi bude líto seslat neštěstí, kterým je hodlám stihnout pro jejich zlé skutky. 4Řekni jim: Tak praví Hospodin: Jestliže mě neposlechnete a nebudete jednat podle mého zákona, který jsem vám dal, 5nebudete-li poslouchat slova mých služebníků proroků, které k vám ustavičně a usilovně posílám, ale vy je neposloucháte: 6naložím s tímto domem jako se Silem a toto město vydám jako kletbu všem národům země. 7Kněží, proroci a všichni lidé slyšeli Jeremiáše, když mluvil tato slova v Hospodinově domě. 8Když pak Jeremiáš domluvil vše, co mu přikázal Hospodin oznámit všemu lidu, chopili ho kněží, proroci a všechen lid s křikem: Ted musíš umřít! 9Proč jsi prorokoval v Hospodinově jménu: Jako Silo bude tento dům a město zpustne, že v něm nebude ani jeden obyvatel! Všichni lidé v Hospodinově domě se srotili proti Jeremiášovi. 10Když uslyšeli nejvyšší judští úředníci o této věci, odebrali se z královského paláce do Hospodinova domu a posadili se k soudu u vchodu Nové brány Hospodinova domu. 11Kněží a proroci pravili nejvyšším úředníkům a všemu lidu: Tento muž zasluhuje, aby byl odsouzen na smrt, neboť prorokoval proti tomuto městu, jak jste slyšeli na své uši. 12Jeremiáš řekl úředníkům a všemu lidu: Hospodin mě poslal, abych prorokoval proti tomuto domu a proti tomuto městu všechna slova, která jste slyšeli. 13Proto nyní napravte své mravy, své skutky a poslouchejte hlas Hospodina, vašeho Boha, a Hospodinovi bude líto seslat neštěstí, kterým vám hrozil. 14já sám jsem ve vašich rukou; naložte se mnou, jak za dobré a za správné uznáváte; 15vězte však, že zabijete-li mě, nevinnou krví zatížíte sami sebe, toto město i jeho obyvatelstvo, neboť mne k vám opravdu poslal Hospodin, abych mluvil do vašich uší všechna tato slova. 16Tu řekli úředníci a všechen lid kněžím a prorokům: Tento muž nezasluhuje, aby byl odsouzen na smrt, protože k nám mluvil ve jménu Hospodina, našeho Boha. 17Povstali také někteří z předních mužů země a řekli všemu shromážděnému lidu: 18Micheáš z Morešet byl prorokem za dnů judského krále Ezechiáše a pravil všemu judskému lidu: Tak praví Hospodin zástupů: Sión bude orán jako pole, Jeruzalém se změní v trosky a chrámová hora ve výšinu porostlou lesem. 19Odsoudil ho judský král Ezechiáš a všichni Judovci na smrt? Nebáli se spíš Hospodina a neprosili ho za milost, a tak bylo Hospodinovi líto seslat neštěstí, kterým jim hrozil? A my bychom se chtěli dopustit ke své škodě tak velikého zla? 20Také Uriáš, syn Šemanjáhův z Kirjat Jearimu, prorokoval v Hospodinově jménu; prorokoval proti tomuto městu i proti této zemi totéž, co Jeremiáš. 21Když král Jehojakim a všichni důstojníci i jeho hodnostáři uslyšeli ta slova, král ho chtěl dát usmrtit. Uriáš, když se o tom dověděl, z bázně utekl a uchýlil se do Egypta. 22Král Jehojakim poslal do Egypta své muže a s nimi Elnatana, syna Achborova. 23Vyvedli Uriáše z Egypta a přivedli ho ke králi Jehojakimovi; ten ho dal popravit mečem a jeho mrtvolu vhodit do společného hrobu chudých lidí. 24Avšak Jeremiáše chránil Achikam, syn Šafanův, aby nebyl vydán do rukou lidu k zabití.
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary 1 We have here the sermon that Jeremiah preached, which gave such offence that he was in danger of losing his life for it. It is here left upon record, as it were, by way of appeal to the judgment of impartial men in all ages, whether Jeremiah was worthy to die for delivering such a message as this from God, and whether his persecutors were not very wicked and unreasonable men.
I. God directed him where to preach this sermon, and when, and to what auditory, v. 2. Let not any censure Jeremiah as indiscreet in the choice of place and time, nor say that he might have delivered his message more privately, in a corner, among his friends that he could confide in, and that he deserved to smart for not acting more cautiously; for God gave him orders to preach
in the court of the Lord's house, which was within the peculiar jurisdiction of his sworn enemies the priests, and who would therefore take themselves to be in a particular manner affronted. He must preach this, as it should seem, at the time of one of the most solemn festivals, when persons had come from all the
cities of Judah to
worship in the Lord's house. These worshippers, we may suppose, had a great veneration for their priests, would credit the character they gave of men, and be exasperated against those whom they defamed, and would, consequently, side with them and strengthen their hands against Jeremiah. But none of these things must move him or daunt him; in the face of all this danger he must preach this sermon, which, if it were not convincing, would be very provoking. And because the prophet might be in some temptation to palliate the matter, and make it better to his hearers than God had made it to him, to exchange an offensive expression for one more plausible, therefore God charges him particularly
not to diminish a word, but to speak all the things, nay,
all the words, that he had commanded him. Note, God's ambassadors must keep closely to their instructions, and not in the least vary from them, either to please men or to save themselves from harm. They must neither
add nor
diminish, Deut 4:2.
II. God directed him what to preach, and it is that which could not give offence to any but such as were resolved to go on still in their trespasses. 1. He must assure them that if they would
repent of their sins, and turn from them, though they were in imminent danger of ruin and desolating judgments were just at the door, yet a stop should be put to them, and God would proceed no further in his controversy with them,
Jer 26:3. This was the main thing God intended in sending him to them, to try if they would return from their sins, that so God might turn from his anger and turn away the judgments that threatened them, which he was not only willing, but very desirous to do, as soon as he could do it without prejudice to the honour of his justice and holiness. See how God
waits to be gracious, waits till we are duly qualified, till we are fit for him to be gracious to, and in the mean time tries a variety of methods to bring us to be so. 2. He must, on the other hand, assure them that if they continued obstinate to all the calls God gave them, and would persist in their disobedience, it would certainly end in the ruin of their city and temple,
Jer 26:4-
Jer 26:6. (1.) That which God required of them was that they should be observant of what he had said to them, both by the written word and by his ministers, that they should
walk in all his law which he set before them, the law of Moses and the ordinances and commandments of it, and that they should
hearken to the words of his servants the prophets, who pressed nothing upon them but what was agreeable to the law of Moses, which was
set before them as a touchstone to try the spirits by; and by this they were distinguished from the false prophets, who drew them from the law, instead of drawing them to it. The law was what God himself set before them. The prophets were his own servants, and were immediately sent by him to them, and sent with a great deal of care and concern,
rising early to send them, lest they should come too late, when their prejudices had got possession and become invincible. They had hitherto been deaf both to the law and to the prophets:
You have not hearkened. All he expects now is that at length they should heed what he said, and make his word their rule - a reasonable demand. (2.) That which is threatened in case of refusal is that this city, and the temple in it, shall fare as their predecessors did, Shiloh and the tabernacle there, for a like refusal to walk in God's law and hearken to his prophets, then when the present dispensation of prophecy just began in Samuel. Now could a sentence be expressed more unexceptionably? Is it not a rule of justice
ut parium par sit ratio -
that those whose cases are the same be dealt with alike? If Jerusalem be like Shiloh in respect of sin, why should it not be like Shiloh in respect of punishment? Can any other be expected? This was not the first time he had given them warning to this effect; see
Jer 7:12-
Jer 7:14. When the temple, which was the glory of Jerusalem, was destroyed, the city was thereby
made a curse; for the temple was that which made it a blessing.
If the salt lose that
savour, it is thenceforth good for nothing. It shall be
a curse, that is, it shall be the pattern of a curse; if a man would curse any city, he would say,
God make it like Jerusalem! Note, Those that will not be subject to the commands of God make themselves subject to the curse of God.
7 One would have hoped that such a sermon as that in the foregoing verses, so plain and practical, so rational and pathetic, and delivered in God's name, would work upon even this people, especially meeting them now at their devotions, and would prevail with them to repent and reform; but, instead of awakening their convictions, it did but exasperate their corruptions, as appears by this account of the effect of it.
I. Jeremiah is charged with it as a crime that he had preached such a sermon, and is apprehended for it as a criminal. The
priests, and
false prophets, and
people, heard him speak these words, Jer 26:7. They had patience, it seems, to hear him out, did not disturb him when he was preaching, nor give him any interruption till he had
made an end of speaking all that the Lord commanded him to speak, Jer 26:8. So far they dealt more fairly with him than some of the persecutors of God's ministers have done; they let him say all he had to say, and yet perhaps with a bad design, in hopes to have something worse yet to lay to his charge; but, having no worse, this shall suffice to ground an indictment upon: He hath said,
This house shall be like Shiloh, Jer 26:9. See how unfair they are in representing his words. He had said, in God's name,
If you will not hearken to me, then will I make this house like Shiloh; but they leave out God's hand in the desolation (
I will make it so) and their own hand in it in not hearkening to the voice of God, and charge it upon him that he
blasphemed this holy place, the crime charged both on our Lord Jesus and on Stephen: He said,
This house shall be like Shiloh. Well might he complain, as David does (
Pss 56:5),
Every day they wrest my words; and we must not think it strange if we, and what we say and do, be thus misrepresented. When the accusation was so weakly grounded, no marvel that the sentence passed upon it was unjust:
Thou shalt surely die. What he had said agreed with what God had said when he took possession of the temple (1Kgs:9:6-8),
If you shall at all turn from following after me, then this house shall be abandoned; and yet he is condemned to die for saying it. It is not out of any concern for the honour of the temple that they appear thus warm, but because they are resolved not to part with their sins, in which they flatter themselves with a conceit that the
temple of the Lord will protect them; therefore, right or wrong,
Thou shalt surely die. This outcry of the priests and prophets raised the mob, and
all the people were gathered together against Jeremiah in a popular tumult, ready to pull him to pieces, were
gathered about him (so some read it); they flocked together, some crying one thing and some another.
The people that were at first present were hot against him (v. 8), but their clamours drew more together, only to see what the matter was.
II. He is arraigned and indicted for it before the highest court of judicature they had. Here, 1. The
princes of Judah were his judges,
Jer 26:10. Those that filled the thrones of judgment,
the thrones of the house of David, the elders of Israel, they, hearing of this tumult in the temple,
came up from the king's house, where they usually sat near the court,
to the house of the Lord, to enquire into this matter, and to see that nothing was done disorderly. They
sat down in the entry of the new gate of the Lord's house, and held a court, as it were, by a special commission of
Oyer and Terminer. 2. The
priests and prophets were his prosecutors and accusers, and were violently set against him. They appealed to
the princes, and
to all the people, to the court and the jury, whether
this man were not
worthy to die, Jer 26:11. The corrupt priests and counterfeit prophets have always been the most bitter enemies of the prophets of the Lord; they had ends of their own to serve, which they thought such preaching as this would be an obstruction to. When Jeremiah prophesied in the house of the king concerning the fall of the royal family (
Jer 22:1, etc.), the court, though very corrupt, bore it patiently, and we do not find that they persecuted him for it; but when he comes into the
house of the Lord, and touches the copyhold of the priests, and contradicts the lies and flatteries of the false prophets, then he is adjudged
worthy to die. For the prophets
prophesied falsely, and the
priests bore rule by their means, Jer 5:31. Observe, When Jeremiah is indicted before the princes the stress of his accusation is laid upon what he said concerning the city, because they thought the princes would be most concerned about that. But concerning the words spoken they appeal to the people,
You have heard what he hath said; let it be given in evidence.
III. Jeremiah makes his defence before the princes and the people. He does not go about to deny the words, nor to diminish aught from them; what he has said he will stand to, though it cost him his life; he owns that he had prophesied against
this house and
this city, but, 1. He asserts that he did this by good authority, not maliciously nor seditiously, not out of any ill-will to his country nor any disaffection to the government in church or state, but,
The Lord sent me to prophesy thus: so he begins his apology (
Jer 26:12), and so he concludes it, for this is that which he resolves to abide by as sufficient to bear him out (
Jer 26:15):
Of a truth the Lord hath sent me unto you, to speak all these words. As long as ministers keep closely to the instructions they have from heaven they need not fear the opposition they may meet with from hell or earth. He pleads that he is but a messenger, and, if he faithfully deliver his message, he must bear no blame; but he is a messenger from the Lord, to whom they were accountable as well as he, and therefore might demand regard. If he speak but what God appointed him to speak, he is under the divine protection, and whatever affront they offer to the ambassador will be resented by the Prince that sent him. 2. He shows them that he did it with a good design, and that it was their fault if they did not make a good use of it. It was said, not by way of fatal sentence, but of fair warning; if they would take the warning, they might prevent the execution of the sentence,
Jer 26:13. Shall I take it ill of a man that tells me of my danger, while I have an opportunity of avoiding it, and not rather return him thanks for it, as the greatest kindness he could do me?
I have indeed (says Jeremiah) prophesied
against this city; but,
if you will now amend your ways and your doings, the threatened ruin shall be prevented, which was the thing I aimed at in giving you the warning. Those are very unjust who complain of ministers for preaching hell and damnation, when it is only to keep them from that place of torment and to bring them to heaven and salvation. 3. He therefore warns them of their danger if they proceed against him (
Jer 26:14):
As for me, the matter is not great what become of me;
behold, I am in your hand; you know I am; I neither have any power, nor can make any interest, to oppose you, nor is it so much my concern to save my own life:
do with me as seems meet unto you; if I be led to the slaughter, it shall be as a lamb. Note, It becomes God's ministers, that are warm in preaching, to be calm in suffering and to behave submissively to the powers that are over them, though they be persecuting powers. But, for themselves, he tells them that it is at their peril if they put him to death:
You shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, Jer 26:15. They might think that killing the prophet would help to defeat the prophecy, but they would prove wretchedly deceived; it would but add to their guilt and aggravate their ruin. Their own consciences could not but tell them that, if Jeremiah was (as certainly he was) sent of God to bring them this message, it was at their utmost peril if they treated him for it as a malefactor. Those that persecute God's ministers hurt not them so much as themselves.
16 Here is, I. The acquitting of Jeremiah from the charge exhibited against him. He had indeed spoken the words as they were laid in the indictment, but they are not looked upon to be seditious or treasonable, ill-intended or of any bad tendency, and therefore the court and country agree to find him not guilty. The priests and prophets, notwithstanding his rational plea for himself, continued to demand judgment against him; but the princes, and all the people, are clear in it that
this man is not worthy to die (
Jer 26:16); for (say they)
he hath spoken to us, not of himself, but
in the name of the Lord our God. And are they willing to own that he did indeed speak to them
in the name of the Lord and that that Lord is their God? Why then did they not amend their ways and doings, and take the method he prescribed to prevent the ruin of their country? If they say, His prophecy is
from heaven, it may justly be asked,
Why did you not then believe him? Matt 21:25. Note, It is a pity that those who are so far convinced of the divine original of gospel preaching as to protect it from the malice of others do not submit to the power and influence of it themselves.
II. A precedent quoted to justify them in acquitting Jeremiah. Some of the
elders of the land, either the princes before mentioned or the more intelligent men of the people, stood up, and put the assembly in mind of a former case, as is usual with us in giving judgment; for the wisdom of our predecessors is a direction to us. The case referred to is that of Micah. We have extant the book of his prophecy among the minor prophets. 1. Was it thought strange that Jeremiah prophesied against this city and the temple? Micah did so before him, even in the reign of Hezekiah, that reign of reformation,
Jer 26:18. Micah said it as publicly as Jeremiah had now spoken to the same purport,
Zion shall be ploughed like a field, the building shall be all destroyed, so that nothing shall hinder but it may be ploughed;
Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and
the mountain of the house on which the temple is built shall be
as the high places of the forest, overrun with briers and thorns. That prophet not only spoke this, but wrote it, and left it on record; we find it,
Mic 3:12. By this it appears that a man may be, as Micah was, a true prophet of the Lord, and yet may prophesy the destruction of Zion and Jerusalem. When we threaten secure sinners with the taking away of the Spirit of God and the kingdom of God from them, and declining churches with the removal of the candlestick, we say no more than what has been said many a time, and what we have warrant from the word of God to say. 2. Was it thought fit by the princes to justify Jeremiah in what he had done? It was what Hezekiah did before them in a like case. Did Hezekiah, and the people of Judah (that is, the representatives of the people, the commons in parliament), did they complain of Micah the prophet? Did they impeach him, or make an act to silence him and put him to death? No; on the contrary, they took the warning he gave them. Hezekiah, that renowned prince, of blessed memory, set a good example before his successors, for he
feared the Lord (
Jer 26:19), as Noah, who, being
warned of God of things not seen as yet, was
moved with fear. Micah's preaching drove him to his knees; he
besought the Lord to turn away the judgment threatened and to be reconciled to them, and he found it was not in vain to do so, for
the Lord repented him of the evil and returned in mercy to them; he sent an angel, who routed the army of the Assyrians, that threatened to plough
Zion like a field. Hezekiah got good by the preaching, and then you may be sure he would do no harm to the preacher. These elders conclude that it would be of dangerous consequence to the state if they should gratify the importunity of the priests and prophets in putting Jeremiah to death:
Thus might we procure great evil against our souls. Note, It is good to deter ourselves from sin with the consideration of the mischief we shall certainly do to ourselves by it and the irreparable damage it will be to our own souls.
III. Here is an instance of another prophet that was put to death by Jehoiakim for prophesying as Jeremiah had done,
Jer 26:20, etc. Some make this to be urged by the prosecutors, as a case that favoured the prosecution, a modern case, in which speaking such words as Jeremiah had spoken was adjudged treason. Others think that the elders, who were advocates for Jeremiah, alleged this to show that thus they might
procure great evil against their souls, for it would be adding sin to sin. Jehoiakim, the present king, had slain one prophet already; let them not fill up the measure by slaying another. Hezekiah, who protected Micah, prospered; but did Jehoiakim prosper who slew Urijah? No; they all saw the contrary. As good examples, and the good consequences of them, should encourage us in that which is good, so the examples of bad men, and the bad consequences of them, should deter us from that which is evil. But some good interpreters take this narrative from the historian that penned the book, Jeremiah himself, or Baruch, who, to make Jeremiah's deliverance by means of the princes the more wonderful, takes notice of this that happened about the same time; for both were in the reign of Jehoiakim, and this
in the beginning of his reign, Jer 26:1. Observe, 1. Urijah's prophecy. It was
against this city, and this land, according to all the words of Jeremiah. The prophets of the Lord agreed in their testimony, and one would have thought that out of the mouth of so many witnesses the word would be regarded. 2. The prosecution of him for it,
Jer 26:21. Jehoiakim and his courtiers were exasperated against him, and
sought to put him to death; in this wicked design the king himself was principally concerned. 3. His absconding thereupon:
When he heard that the king had become his enemy, and sought his life,
he was afraid, and fled, and went in to Egypt. This was certainly his fault, and an effect of the weakness of his faith, and it sped accordingly. He distrusted God, and his power to protect him and bear him out; he was too much under the power of that
fear of man which
brings a snare. It looked as if he durst not stand to what he had said or was ashamed of his Master. It was especially unbecoming him to flee
into Egypt, and so in effect to abandon the land of Israel and to throw himself quite out of the way of being useful. Note, There are many that have much grace, but they have little courage, that are very honest, but withal very timorous. 4. His execution notwithstanding. Jehoiakim's malice, one would think, might have contented itself with his banishment, and it might suffice to have driven him out of the country; but those are
bloodthirsty that
hate the upright, Prov 29:10. It was the life, that precious life, that he hunted after, and nothing else would satisfy him. So implacable is his revenge that he sends a party of soldiers into Egypt, some hundreds of miles, and they bring him back by force of arms. It would not sufficiently gratify him to have him slain in Egypt, but he must feed his eyes with the bloody spectacle. They
brought him to Jehoiakim, and he
slew him with the sword, for aught I know with his own hands. Yet neither did this satisfy his insatiable malice, but he loads the dead body of the good man with infamy, would not allow it the decent respects usually and justly paid to the remains of men of distinction, but cast it into
the graves of the common people, as if he had not been a prophet of the Lord; thus was the
shield of Saul vilely cast away, as though he had not been anointed with oil. Thus Jehoiakim hoped both to ruin his reputation with the people, that no heed might be given to his predictions, and to deter others from prophesying in like manner; but in vain; Jeremiah says the same. There is no contending with the word of God. Herod thought he had gained his point when he had cut off John Baptist's head, but found himself deceived when, soon after, he heard of Jesus Christ, and said, in a fright,
This is John the Baptist. IV. Here is Jeremiah's deliverance. Though Urijah was lately put to death, and persecutors, when they have tasted the blood of saints, are apt to thirst after more (as Herod,
Acts 12:2,
Acts 12:3), yet God wonderfully preserved Jeremiah, though he did not flee, as Urijah did, but stood his ground. Ordinary ministers may use ordinary means, provided they be lawful ones, for their own preservation; but those that had an extraordinary protection. God raised up a friend for Jeremiah, whose hand was with him; he took him by the hand in a friendly way, encouraged him, assisted him, appeared for him. It was
Ahikam the son of Shaphan, one that was a minister of state in Josiah's time; we read of him,
2Kgs 22:12. Some think Gedaliah was the son of this Ahikam. He had a great interest, it should seem, among the princes, and he used it in favour of Jeremiah, to prevent the further designs of the priests and prophets against him, who would have had him turned over
into the hand of the people, not those people (
Jer 26:16) that had adjudged him innocent, but the rude and insolent mob, whom they could persuade by their cursed insinuations not only to cry,
Crucify him, crucify him, but to
stone him to death in a popular tumult; for perhaps Jehoiakim had been so reproached by his own conscience for slaying Urijah that they despaired of making him the tool of their malice. Note, God can, when he pleases, raise up great men to patronize good men; and it is an encouragement to us to trust him in the way of duty that he has all men's hearts in his hands.
