Bible Commentaries

CHAPTER 26

Threatened with Death and His Deliverance

1. The temple like Shiloh, and Jerusalem to be a curse (Jeremiah 26:1-7)

2. Threatened with death (Jeremiah 26:8-11)

3. Jeremiah’s defense (Jeremiah 26:12-15)

4. History remembered and the prophet’s deliverance (Jeremiah 26:16-24)

Jeremiah 26:1-7. We are now taken back to the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim. (Compare with chapter 7.) The Lord still waits in patience for their repentance. With holy boldness the prophet stands in a place where the worshippers pass to enter the temple and announces the message. The temple is to be like Shiloh, that is forsaken Psalms 78:60. Jerusalem is to be a curse.

Jeremiah 26:8-11. Then he was arrested for his faithfulness and threatened with death, “Thou shalt surely die.” The priests and the prophets were his accusers before the princes. How often this has been repeated in the history of God’s true witnesses! During pagan Rome as well as papal Rome, the false priests and false prophets hated and despised God’s witnesses and persecuted them. It is so in our times.

Jeremiah 26:12-15. He makes his defense in a few dignified words. He tells them he is Jehovah’s messenger. He tells them that he is in their hands, but warns them if they kill him they shed innocent blood. This courage was born of faith. He knows that he is in His hands.

Jeremiah 26:16-24. The princes and people were deeply impressed and declared that he was not worthy of death. This encouraged certain elders to speak, in whose heart some fear seems to have been left. They remembered the prophet Micah, the contemporary of Isaiah, who spoke similar words in the days of Hezekiah Micah 3:12. Hezekiah did not have Micah killed. They warned against so rash a deed. They also mentioned the case of the prophet Urijah, who had also prophesied, as Jeremiah did. He had fled to Egypt, but was brought back, then Jehoiakim killed him. We do not know why his case is mentioned in this connection, unless it is to show the difference between good Hezekiah and wicked Jehoiakim. Then Ahikam, the father of Gedaliah, who was governor under Nebuchadnezzar, stood by him, and he was delivered.