The prophet's life

B. C. 607.

CHAPTER XXVI.

B. C. 607.

in great jeopardy, A. M. 3397. princes, and to all the people, saying, || upon yourselves, and upon this city, A. M. 3397. The LORD sent me to prophesy and upon the inhabitants thercof: for against this house and against this city all the of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto you to words that ye have heard. speak all these words in your ears.

1

13 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.

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

you:

15 But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood

Chap. vii. 3.- m Verses 3, 19.- -n Ch. xxxviii. 5.-3 Heb. reader will observe a great similarity between the conduct of these priests and false prophets toward Jeremiah, and that of the priests, the scribes, and Pharisees toward Jesus Christ, of whom Jeremiah was a type: see particularly Mark xiv. 58; Matt. xxvi. 61.

16

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.

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

18 P Micah the Morasthite prophe- B. C. 607. sied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah,

as it is good and right in your eyes.- o Acts v. 34.- -p Mic. i. 1. 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, the wisdom of our predecessors The case referred to is that being a direction to us. of Micah, the book of whose prophecies we have among those of the minor prophets. Was it thought Verses 13-16. Amend your ways, and the Lord strange that Jeremiah prophesied against this city will repent, &c.-It appears here again that God's and the temple? Micah did so before him, even in determination to give up Jerusalem to destruction the reign of Hezekiah, that reign of reformation, was conditional: see note on chap. xviii. 7-10. If verse 18. Micah said as publicly, as Jeremiah had the people had repented of their sins, and reformed now spoken to the same purpose, Zion shall be their conduct, their ruin would have been prevented, ploughed like a field-The buildings shall be all deand they would have enjoyed a continuance of peace stroyed, so that nothing shall hinder but it may be and prosperity. As for me, behold I am in your ploughed; Jerusalem shall become heaps-Of ruins; hand—I have neither any power, nor can make any and the mountain of the house-On which the teminterest to oppose you; do with me as seemeth good ple is built; shall be as the high places of the forest in your sight—I am content even to lose my life, if-Overrun with briers and thorns. This Micah not God be pleased to permit you to take it. But know only spoke, but wrote, and left it upon record, chap. ye for certain, &c.-Be fully assured; if you put iii. 12. Now did Hezekiah and all Judah put him me to death-Who, as you well know, am not guilty to death?-Did the people come together in a body of any crime; ye shall surely bring innocent blood to accuse Micah, and demand sentence against him, upon yourselves, and upon this city, &c.-You may as they had now done in the case of Jeremiah? Did think that by killing the prophet you will defeat the they and their king make an act to silence him, or accomplishment of the prophecy, but you will find take away his life? No: on the contrary, they took yourselves wretchedly deceived: such an act will at the warning he gave them. Hezekiah, that renowned once greatly add to your guilt, and aggravate your prince, set a good example before his successors; ruin. Their own consciences could not but tell for he feared the Lord, as Noah, who, being warned them that if Jeremiah was (as certainly he was) sent of God of things not seen as yet, was moved with of God to bring them this message, it was at their fear. He besought the Lord-To turn away the utmost peril if they treated him for it as a malefac- judgment threatened, and to be reconciled to them; tor. For of a truth the Lord hath sent me unto you, and he found it was not in vain to do so; for the &c.-Such is Jeremiah's justification of himself. He Lord repented him of the evil-Returned in mercy reduces all to this, that God had sent him; and his to them, and even sent an angel, who routed the adversaries were able to make no reply. "If God army of the Assyrians that then threatened to dehath sent me, you can have nothing to say against stroy Jerusalem. These elders conclude, that it me." It is upon this that he is declared innocent in would be of dangerous consequence to the state if the following verse, This man is not worthy to die they should gratify the importunity of the priests -Which was the sentence pronounced by the and prophets in putting Jeremiah to death; saying, princes and all the people: for the people, who be- Thus we might procure great evil against our souls fore were forward to condemn him, now, upon hear--Observe, reader, it is well to deter ourselves from ing his apology, were as forward to acquit him. sin, with the consideration of the mischief we should Verses 17-19. Then rose up certain of the elders certainly do to ourselves by it, and the irreparable -Either the princes before mentioned, or the more || damage we should thereby bring upon our own souls.

3

||

and put to death.

B. C. 607.

21 And when Jehoiakim the king, A. M. 3397. 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;

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

23 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.

24 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.

Verses 20-23. And there was also a man-There and that through the weakness of his faith: he was are three different opinions respecting the following too much under the power of that fear of man which passage. The first ascribes it to an opposite party, brings a snare, and did not sufficiently confide in the who, by a contrary precedent to the foregoing, urged power of God to protect him in the faithful execution the condemnation of Jeremiah, a precedent in which || of his office. And Jehoiakim sent men into Egypt, the speaking such words as he had spoken was ad- &c.-One would have thought Jehoiakim's malice judged treason. But against this view of the pas- || might have been satisfied with driving him out of sage it is objected that such a transition of the speakers the country; but they are blood-thirsty that hate the would have had some mark of distinction prefixed.|| upright, Prov. xxix. 10. It was the life, the precious Others suppose that this instance was alleged by the || life, that Jehoiakim hunted after, and nothing less same persons that adduced the former, and with an would satisfy him. So implacable is his revenge, intent to mark the different consequences that had that he sends a party of soldiers into Egypt, (there ensued, and to caution the people and government being a strict alliance between him and Pharaohagainst taking another step of a similar kind, and nechoh,) some hundreds of miles, and they bring thereby adding sin to sin. As if he had said, Heze-him back by force of arms unto Jehoiakim, who slew kiah, who had protected Micah, prospered; but did him with the sword-Some think, even with his own Jehoiakim, who slew Urijah, prosper? No: they hands, but this appears improbable. Neither did all saw the contrary: one prophet had been slain even this satisfy the king's insatiable malice, but he already, let them not fill up the measure of national loads the body of the good man with infamy, would iniquity by slaying another. But Blaney thinks the not allow it the decent respects usually and justly least exceptionable opinion is, "that the elders con- paid to the remains of persons of distinction, but cast cluded their speeches verse 19, and that the writer into the graves of the common people-As if he had of the narrative goes on here to observe, in his own not been a prophet of the Lord. Thus Jehoiakim person, that notwithstanding the precedent of Micah, || hoped both to ruin Urijah's reputation with the peothere had been a later precedent in the present reign, ple, that no heed might be given to his predictions, and which might have operated very unfavourably to to deter others from prophesying in like manner: the cause of Jeremiah, but for the influence and au- but in vain. Jeremiah bears the same testimony. thority of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, which was There is no contending with the word of God. Herod exerted to save him." thought he had gained his point when he had cut off John the 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; he is risen from the dead.

Who prophesied against this city, &c., according to all the words of Jeremiah-The prophets of the Lord agreed in their testimony, and one would have supposed that this circumstance should have caused their word to be regarded. And the king sought to put him to death-Being, with his courtiers, greatly || exasperated against him on account of the faithful testimony which he bore, and the true predictions of approaching judgments which God commissioned him to utter. But when Urijah heard it, he was afraid, and fled-In this, it seems, he was faulty,

it

Verse 24. Nevertheless, the hand of Ahikam, &c., was with Jeremiah-Both he and his father Shaphan were chief ministers under Josiah, 2 Kings xxii. 12-14. And the brothers of Ahikam, Gemariah, Elasah, and Jaazaniah were considerable men in those days, with Ahikam, and members of the great council; Jer. xxix. 3; Ezek. viii. 11. So Ahikam

The prophet declares

CHAPTER XXVII.

Nebuchadnezzar's sovereignty.

made use of his interest with them to deliver Jere- || nary ministers may use ordinary means, provided miah from the danger that threatened him. Thus they be lawful ones, for their preservation; but they God wonderfully preserved Jeremiah, though he did that have an extraordinary mission may expect an not flee as Urijah did, but stood his ground. Ordi- || extraordinary protection.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Ambassadors having come to Zedekiah from the kings of Edom, Moab, and other neighbouring nations, probably to solicit him to join with them in a confederacy against the king of Babylon, Jeremiah is here ordered to put bands and yokes about his neck, and to send them afterward to the before-mentioned kings, declaring the sovereignty of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors to be of divine appointment, and promising peace and protection to such as submitted quietly, but menacing evil in case of resistance, 1–11. A like admonition is delivered to Zedekiah, advising him not to expose himself and his people to certain ruin, by listening to the suggestions of false prophets, and revolting from the service of the king of Babylon, 12-15. The priests and all the people are also warned not to give credit to the false prophets, who taught them to expect a speedy restoration of the vessels which had been carried to Babylon together with Jeconiah. Instead of which it is foretold, that the remaining vessels in the house of God, and in the king's house at Jerusalem, should be carried after the other, and should not return till the appointed period of Judah's captivity was at an end, 16–22.

e

d

6 And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, 'my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.

c Psa. cxv. 15; cxlvi. 6; Isa. xlv. 12.- d Psa. cxv. 16; Dan. iv. 17, 25, 32.-e Chap. xxviii. 14.- f Chap. xxv. 9; xliii. 10; Ezek. xxix. 18, 20. Chap. xxviii. 14; Dan. ii. 38.

Ezekiel, in like manner, was ordered to prophesy

making these yokes, putting them upon his neck, and fastening them on with bands, Jeremiah was intended to be a type both to his own people, and also to the people afterward mentioned, that they should be brought under subjection to the king of Babylon. And send them to the king of Edom, &c.-These nations were near to the Jews, and their princes had their ambassadors resident at Jerusalem. They were also some of those countries which God had declared that he had given into the hand of the king of Babylon: see chap. xxv. 21, 24. By the hand of the messengers, &c.—The business of these messengers seems to have been, to engage Zedekiah to join in a league with the nations from which they came, against the king of Babylon.

Verse 1. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoia-by signs, Ezek. iv. 1; xii. 3; and xxiv. 17-19. In kim-Instead of Jehoiakim here, Dr. Waterland, Houbigant, Blaney, and many others, read Zedekiah, because it is difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile the common reading with what follows. Lowth also, in his commentary upon the place, gives it as his opinion, that "the least forced way of solving the difficulty is, to say that Jehoiakim has crept into the text by the negligence of the scribes, (who might have their eyes fixed upon the beginning of the last chapter or section,) instead of Zedekiah. This emendation is confirmed by comparing this verse with the 3d, 12th, and 20th verses of this chapter, and with the beginning of the next. Such little verbal mistakes must be allowed by all impartial readers to have sometimes happened in transcribing the Holy Scriptures, as well as in other books, and may easily be corrected, by comparing the suspected reading with other parts of the sacred text, which admit of no difficulty or uncertainty."

Verses 2, 3. Make thee bonds and yokes, &c.-The prophets were frequently ordered to foreshow future events by actions as well as by words. Thus Isaiah was commanded to go naked and barefoot, Isa xx. 3.

||

||

Verse 6. I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar-" God is the sole lord and proprietor of the world; and, by virtue of his absolute sovereignty and dominion, has a right to give the kingdoms of the earth to whomsoever he pleases, Dan. iv. 17, and he exercises this authority by changing times and seasons, by removing kings, and setting up kings, Dan. ii. 21. The king

A prophecy of Judah's

A. M. 3408.
B. C. 596.

B. C. 596.

7 h And all nations shall serve him, || those will I let remain still in their A. M. 3408. and his son, and his son's son, until own land, saith the LORD; and they i the very time of his land come: and then shall till it, and dwell therein. many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.

12 I spake also to m Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying

8 And it shall come to pass, that the nation|| Bring your necks under the yoke of the king and kingdom which will not serve the same of Babylon, and serve him and his people, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that || and live. will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

3

9 Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your 3 dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon :

10 For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.

11 But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him,

2 Chronicles xxxvi. 20.—i Chap. xxv. 12; 1. 27; Dan. v. 26. k Chap. xxv. 14.- 3 Heb. dreams. Verse 14.

of Babylon, my servant-One whom I have made use of as an instrument to execute my purposes in inflicting punishment on many nations: see note on chap. xxv. 9. And the beasts of the field have I given him—This is a hyperbolical way of speaking, to signify the most ample authority and dominion.

13" Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon ?

14 Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon; for they prophesy a lie unto you.

15 For I have not sent them, saith the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that ye might perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you. 16 Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; m Chap. xxviii. 1; xxxviii. 17.— xiv. 14; xxiii. 21; xxix. 8, 9.

n Ezek. xviii. 31. Chap. 4 Heb. in a lie, or, lyingly.

of divination; and they, to please their patrons, flattered them with assurances that they should not be brought into subjection and servitude by the king of Babylon. By these means they designed to animate them to a vigorous resistance: and though they had no ground for such an expectation, they hoped Verses 7, 8. All nations shall serve him, his son, hereby to do them service. But Jeremiah here tells and his son's son-His son was Evil-merodach, and them, that it would prove to their destruction; for his son's son Belshazzar, in whom his kingdom end-by resisting they would provoke the conqueror to ed. Then the time of reckoning with his land came, || deal severely with them, to remove them from their when the tables were turned; and many nations and land, and to drive them out into a miserable captivigreat kings-Incorporated in the empire of the Medes ty, in which they should be buried in oblivion, and and Persians, served themselves of him. The na- perish. But the nations that bring their neck under tion, &c., that will not put their neck under the yoke the yoke, &c.-That, upon the first summons, or of the king of Babylon—That will not submit to without making any hostile opposition, shall yield that servitude, represented by the yoke, mentioned themselves subjects to the king of Babylon, shall verses 2, 3; will I punish with the sword, &c.-With || continue in their own country and possessions, being one judgment after another, until they are wasted only made tributaries to that king. and ruined. Nebuchadnezzar was very unjust and Verses 12, 13. I spake also to Zedekiah, &c.— barbarous in invading the rights and liberties of his What the prophet here says to Zedekiah has a parneighbours, and forcing them into a subjection to ticular weight in it, because he was made king of him; yet God had just and holy ends in view in per- || Judea by Nebuchadnezzar, and had taken an oath mitting it, namely, to punish those nations for their to be faithful to him, and never to resist his authoriidolatry and gross immoralities. They that would ty. Why will ye die, thou and thy people?-That not serve the God that made and preserved them, is, why wilt thou wilfully ruin, not only thyself, but were justly made to serve their enemies that sought thy people, by the sword, the famine, and the pestito ruin them. lence? by which judgments the Lord hath declared, that all nations who will not willingly yield to the king of Babylon shall be destroyed.

Verses 9-11. Hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners-These nations, it must be observed, had their prophets as well as the Jews, or - Verses 16-18. Also I spake to the priests and to al. rather persons that pretended to foretel future events || this people-The prophet, being God's true servant, by consulting the stars, by dreams, and various arts || spared none, but gave faithful warning to all sorts

A. M. 3408. Hearken not to the words of your || and concerning the bases, and con- A. M. 3408. prophets that prophesy unto you, say- cerning the residue of the vessels that ing, Behold, the vessels of the LORD's house remain in this city, shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

In the foregoing chapter Jeremiah had charged those prophets with speaking lies who foretold the speedy breaking of the yoke of the king of Babylon, and the speedy return of the vessels of the sanctury; now here we have his contest with a particular prophet upon those heads. (1,) Hananiah, in contradiction to Jeremiah, pretends to foretel that, within two years, the Babylonish yoke should be broken, and the vessels which had been carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, together with all the captives, should within that time be restored, 1-4. (2,) Jeremiah consents to allow of Hananiah's pretensions to the character of a true prophet, in case his prediction should be accomplished, 5-9. (3,) Hananiah, in confirmation of what he had foretold, breaketh off the yoke from Jeremiah's neck, 10, 11. (4,) Jeremiah is ordered to declare, that the king of Babylon's yoke, instead of wood, should be made of iron, 12–14. (5,) He foretels the death of Hananiah within the year; and he dies accordingly two months after, 15 17.