Commentary - Jeremiah 26:16-24

Bird's-eye view

In this dramatic conclusion to the trial of Jeremiah, we witness the sovereign hand of God turning the hearts of a mob and using legal precedent to deliver His prophet. Having been sentenced to death by the priests and false prophets for his temple sermon, Jeremiah's fate appears sealed. But then, in a stunning reversal, the secular officials and the people overrule the religious establishment. The core of their defense is a historical case study: the prophet Micah preached a similarly harsh message to King Hezekiah, and Hezekiah responded with repentance, not murder, which resulted in national deliverance. This godly example is then immediately contrasted with the recent actions of the current king, Jehoiakim, who had hunted down and executed the prophet Uriah for preaching the same message. The passage demonstrates that the word of the Lord always forces a choice, and the response to that word reveals the heart of the man, the king, and the nation. Jeremiah is spared, not by chance, but by the direct, providential intervention of God working through the memory of some old men and the courage of one influential official, Ahikam.

This is a story about the power of God's word, the stark difference between godly and ungodly leadership, and the hidden machinery of divine providence. God is never without His instruments, and He is perfectly capable of protecting His messengers until their work is done. The contrast between Hezekiah's fear of God and Jehoiakim's fear of the truth is the central pivot upon which the entire narrative turns.

Outline

Context In Jeremiah

This passage is the resolution of the conflict that began at the start of chapter 26. In the first year of King Jehoiakim's reign (around 609 B.C.), Jeremiah stood in the temple court and delivered a blistering sermon of covenant lawsuit. He declared that unless the people repented, God would make the temple like Shiloh (a former sanctuary that God had abandoned and destroyed) and Jerusalem a curse to all nations. This was high treason and blasphemy in the ears of the religious establishment. The priests and prophets seized him and demanded his death. After Jeremiah's brief but courageous defense (vv. 12-15), this section (vv. 16-24) records the deliberation and verdict. The incident serves as a microcosm of Jeremiah's entire ministry: he faithfully speaks God's word, faces intense opposition from the corrupt leadership, and is preserved by God's sovereign hand for the sake of his mission. The mention of King Jehoiakim's brutality sets the stage for the ongoing conflict between this wicked king and God's prophet.

Key Issues

Two Kings, Two Prophets, One God

When God speaks, men must respond. There is no neutral ground. The word of God is a sword that divides, and it forces a choice. In this passage, we are presented with two case studies in how to respond to the prophetic word. The first is Hezekiah, a king who heard a message of utter destruction and humbled himself before God. The second is Jehoiakim, a king who heard a similar message and hunted the messenger down to kill him. The elders of the land bring up the first case to save Jeremiah's life. The narrator includes the second case to show us what kind of man Jehoiakim was, and to highlight the precariousness of Jeremiah's position. Both prophets spoke the truth. Both kings heard the truth. One feared God and saved his kingdom. The other feared the truth and damned his kingdom. Behind it all, the one true God is orchestrating events, turning the hearts of rulers and crowds, preserving one prophet and allowing another to be martyred, all according to His perfect and sovereign will.

Verse by Verse Commentary

16 Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets, “No judgment of death for this man! For he has spoken to us in the name of Yahweh our God.”

Here is the dramatic reversal. The very people who had initially been stirred up by the priests (v. 8) now side with Jeremiah. And it is the secular rulers, the "officials," who lead the way. This is a marvelous display of God's common grace and His sovereignty. The priests, who should have known the law of God, were blind with rage. The civil magistrates, however, rendered a just verdict. Their reasoning was simple and correct: Jeremiah spoke "in the name of Yahweh our God." They recognized the prophetic authority in his voice. You don't kill the king's messenger for delivering the king's message, no matter how unpleasant the message is. God can turn the heart of a mob in an instant, and He can make pagan rulers speak more sense than corrupt pastors.

17-18 Then some of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying, “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Thus Yahweh of hosts has said, “Zion will be plowed as a field, And Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, And the mountain of the house will become the high places of a forest.” ’

The civil officials' verdict is now supported by a legal argument from the "elders of the land." These were likely respected community leaders, men who knew their history. They appeal to precedent, which is a cornerstone of any stable legal system. They reach back over a century to the time of the good king Hezekiah and the prophet Micah. They quote Micah 3:12 almost verbatim, a prophecy of total destruction for Jerusalem and the temple mount. The point is clear: what Jeremiah just said is not new. Other true prophets of God have said the same kind of thing before.

19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear Yahweh and entreat the favor of Yahweh, and Yahweh relented of the evil demise which He had spoken against them? But we are committing a great evil against ourselves.”

This is the heart of the argument. The elders ask a series of rhetorical questions. What did Hezekiah do when he heard this devastating word? Did he kill Micah? No. He feared Yahweh. This is the beginning of wisdom. His fear was not slavish terror, but reverential awe that led to action. He "entreated the favor of Yahweh," which means he led the nation in repentance (2 Chron 32:26). And what was the result? "Yahweh relented." This does not mean God was caught off guard and changed His eternal decree. It means that the covenant has stated consequences for sin (curses) and for repentance (blessings). When the people met the condition of repentance, God, in faithfulness to His own covenant, withdrew the threatened judgment. He did exactly what He promised He would do. The elders conclude with a sober warning: if we kill Jeremiah, we are not just harming him; we are committing a "great evil against ourselves." We are choosing the curse when the blessing is offered.

20 Indeed, there was also a man who prophesied in the name of Yahweh, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim; and he prophesied against this city and against this land words similar to all those of Jeremiah.

The narrator, under the inspiration of the Spirit, now inserts a contrasting story. This is not part of the elders' speech; it is a historical note for our benefit. It shows us the other path, the path of folly. There was another prophet, Uriah, a contemporary of Jeremiah's, who was also faithful. He preached the same message of judgment. This confirms that Jeremiah was not some lone eccentric; he was part of God's prophetic chorus declaring the coming doom.

21-23 And King Jehoiakim and all his mighty men and all the officials heard his words. So the king sought to put him to death; but Uriah heard it, and he was afraid and fled and went to Egypt. Then King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt: Elnathan the son of Achbor and certain men with him went into Egypt. And they brought Uriah out from Egypt and led him to King Jehoiakim, who struck him down with a sword and cast his dead body into the burial place of the common people.

Here we see the character of King Jehoiakim. His response to the word of God is not fear of God, but fury against the prophet. He doesn't seek to kill the sin; he seeks to kill the man who exposed the sin. Uriah, in a moment of weakness, was afraid and fled. His fear is understandable, but it did not save him. A wicked king's reach is long. Jehoiakim dispatched a high-ranking official, Elnathan, on an extradition mission to Egypt, a nation with whom Judah had a treaty. They brought Uriah back, and the king himself acted as executioner, murdering him with a sword. The final indignity was to toss his body into a common grave, denying him an honorable burial. This story does two things: it reveals the depth of Jehoiakim's depravity, and it demonstrates just how much danger Jeremiah was truly in. This is what would have happened to him apart from God's direct intervention.

24 But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not given into the hands of the people to put him to death.

After showing us the problem (a murderous king), the text shows us God's provision. The elders' speech swayed the crowd, but there was still the matter of the king. This verse tells us how Jeremiah was protected. God used a man, Ahikam. The "hand of Ahikam" was, in reality, the hand of God. Ahikam was a man of significant influence. His father, Shaphan, had been a key official under the good king Josiah (2 Kings 22:8), and his family was clearly a force for righteousness in the corrupt court. Ahikam used his position and power to shield Jeremiah from both the popular mob and the king's wrath. God's providence is not a vague, abstract force. It works through concrete means: a remembered sermon, a courageous speech, and a well-placed official who is willing to stand for what is right.

Application

This passage lays before us the two ways. Every time the Word of God is preached faithfully, it confronts us with the same choice that confronted Hezekiah and Jehoiakim. The Word exposes our sin and calls us to repent. We can respond like Hezekiah, with the fear of the Lord, and entreat God's favor. Or we can respond like Jehoiakim, by hating the message and seeking to silence the messenger.

In our day, we don't typically execute prophets with a sword. We have more sophisticated ways of silencing them. We marginalize them, we slander them, we de-platform them, we call their faithful preaching "hate speech." But the motive is the same as Jehoiakim's: a refusal to bow the knee to God's authority. The heart of sin is the desire to be our own god, and we hate anyone who reminds us that the throne is already occupied.

The godly response is to see the preaching of the law and the warnings of judgment not as a personal attack, but as a grace. It is a mercy for God to warn us before the blow falls. Like Hezekiah, we should fear, we should repent, and we should plead for the favor of God. And we find that favor fully and freely offered to us in the gospel. The judgment that we deserve, the plowing of our souls, fell upon Jesus Christ at the cross. God did not "relent" from pouring out His wrath against sin; He poured it out completely on His Son. Because of this, He can now relent from pouring it out on all who, like Hezekiah, fear His name and take refuge in Him.

Finally, we should take courage from God's protection of Jeremiah. God has His Ahikams placed throughout the world. He rules all things, and He will protect His servants until their work is done. Some, like Uriah, He calls to glorify Him through martyrdom. Others, like Jeremiah, He calls to glorify Him through a long and difficult ministry. Our task is not to worry about the outcome, but simply to be faithful to the message we have been given.