Jeremiah 26

₁The Lord spoke to Jeremiah not long after Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, had become king_of_Judah. ₂The Lord said to Jeremiah: ‘You must go and stand in the courtyard of the temple and talk to all the people of the towns and cities of Judah who come to pray at the temple. You must tell them everything that I say to you, and don't leave out any of the words that I say to you. ₃Maybe the people will listen to Me and change their lives and stop doing bad things. If they listen to Me, I will not punish them for the bad things they have done.

₄You must tell them: “This is what the Lord says: You must listen to Me and do what I tell you. ₅You must listen to what my servants, the prophets, have told you. I have sent them to you again and again, but you did not listen to them. ₆If you don't listen to Me, I will do the same to this temple as I did to the temple in Shiloh. Then everyone on earth will use the name of this city when they want to curse other people.” ’

₇The priests and prophets and all the people of Jerusalem heard when Jeremiah said these things in the temple. ₈When he told them everything that the Lord had told him to tell the people, the priests and prophets and all the people grabbed him and said: ‘You must die, that is sure. ₉Why do you say that it was the Lord who sent you to say that this temple will be destroyed like the temple at Shiloh? Why do you say that this city will become a heap of stones where no one can live?’

The people arrested him and they came together in the temple. ₁₀They told the officials of Judah what had happened and they came from the palace to the temple. They went to the New Gate of the temple and sat down. ₁₁The priests and the prophets then said to the officials and all the people: ‘This man must die because he said that the Lord had sent him to say bad things against this city. You heard it yourselves.’

₁₂Jeremiah told the officials and all the people: ‘The Lord did send me to say all these things against this temple and this city. Everything that I said is true. ₁₃Now change your lives and live in the right way and do things that are good. Obey the Lord your God, then the Lord will not punish you as He said. ₁₄And I, here I am, you can do to me what you think is good and right. ₁₅But you must know this very well: If you kill me, you will be guilty of killing an innocent person and then the Lord will punish you and this city and its people, because it was really the Lord who sent me to tell you all these things.’

₁₆The officials and all the people then said to the priests and the prophets: ‘We may not kill this man, because the Lord our God sent him to talk to us.’

₁₇Then some of the leaders stood up and talked to all the people who were together in the meeting. They said: ₁₈‘At the time when Hezekiah was king_of_Judah, the prophet Micah from the town of Moresheth gave a message from the Lord to all the people of Judah and he said: “The Lord who rules over all says: The enemies will plough the city of Jerusalem like a farmer ploughs a land. Jerusalem will become a heap of stones and the mountain where the temple now stands will become full of bushes.”

₁₉King Hezekiah of Judah and the people of Judah did not kill Micah. No, the king served the Lord and he prayed to the Lord to be merciful. Then the Lord changed his plan and He did not punish them. And we? We are now doing something that will make us suffer very badly.’

₂₀There was another prophet with a message from God. It was Uriah, son of Shemaiah, from the town of Kiriath-Jearim. He said the same things against the city and land as Jeremiah did. ₂₁When they told King Jehoiakim and all his soldiers and his officers what he said, the king wanted to kill him. Uriah heard it and he became afraid and he ran away to Egypt. ₂₂But King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan, son of Akbor, and other men with him to Egypt. ₂₃They went to Egypt to get Uriah and they brought him back to King Jehoiakim. The king told his men to kill Uriah and to throw his body into a grave where the poor people were buried, and they did it.

₂₄But Ahikam, son of Shaphan, asked the king not to kill Jeremiah and the people did not kill him.