BOOK 24 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Jeremiah 26

Jeremiah book home•Chapter 26 of 52•24 verses

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Jeremiah 26 Overview

Jeremiah preaches at the temple that Jerusalem can become like Shiloh if the people refuse to repent; priests and prophets demand his death, but officials and elders defend him by recalling Micah and another prophet, Urijah, who was killed.

JeremiahBook

26Chapter

24Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Jeremiah 26

Coming from

Jeremiah marks twenty-three years of ignored warning, announces seventy years of Babylonian domination, promises Babylon’s later punishment, and symbolically makes the nations drink the cup of the LORD’s wrath.

In this chapter

Leads into

Jeremiah wears yokes and sends them to surrounding kings, declaring that the LORD has given their lands to Nebuchadnezzar for a time; Judah is told not to believe prophets promising quick freedom but to submit to Babylon and preserve life.

Key understandingExplore deeper

This chapter narrates the reaction to the temple-sermon message heard in chapter 7. It shows how close Jeremiah comes to execution.

The interpretive center of Jeremiah 26 is the chapter’s own movement: prophetic warning aims at repentance. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Prophetic warning aims at repentance

God explicitly says that if the people turn, He may relent from the announced disaster.

Religious opposition can be deadly

Priests and prophets accuse Jeremiah of deserving death for speaking against the city and temple.

Historical precedent can protect faithful speech

Elders remember that Hezekiah did not kill Micah when he prophesied judgment.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Jeremiah 7

The temple sermon gives the theological content behind the controversy narrated here.

Micah 3:12

The elders quote Micah’s prophecy that Zion would be plowed like a field.

Acts 5:33-39

Gamaliel’s appeal to precedent differs in detail but similarly slows a rush toward killing God’s messengers.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not think Jeremiah’s death threat proves the prophecy was false.

The chapter presents persecution as the response of hostile leaders.

Do not overlook Urijah’s death.

The contrast shows that faithful prophets did not all receive miraculous temporal deliverance.

Read Jeremiah 26 watching for…

the conditional warning

the demand for Jeremiah’s death

Jeremiah’s fearless defense

Micah cited as precedent

Urijah’s contrasting fate

Chapter outline3 sections

1-6Jeremiah warns in the temple court that Shiloh’s fate can come upon Jerusalem 7-15Priests and prophets demand Jeremiah’s death, but he defends his message as from the LORD 16-24Princes and people spare Jeremiah, recalling Micah, while Uriah’s death shows the danger

In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word from the LORD, saying,

Thus saith the LORD; Stand in the court of the LORD's house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD's house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word:

If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings.

And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you,

To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened;

Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.

So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD.

Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die.

Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.

When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king's house unto the house of the LORD, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the LORD's house.

Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears.

Then spake Jeremiah unto 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 ye have heard.

Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.

As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you.

But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears.

Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he hath spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.

Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all the assembly of the people, saying,

Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? did he not fear the LORD, and besought the LORD, and the LORD repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls.

And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the LORD, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjathjearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah:

And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death: but when Urijah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt;

And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him into Egypt.

And they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king; who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.

Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.