1   At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah ^note from the Lord: 2   These are the words of the Lord: Stand in the court of the Lord's house and speak to the inhabitants of all the cities of Judah who come to worship there. You shall tell them everything that I command you to say to them, keeping nothing back. 3   Perhaps they may listen, and every man may turn back from his evil courses. Then I will relent, and give up my purpose to bring disaster on them for their evil deeds. 4   You shall say to them, These are the words of the Lord: If you do not obey me, if you do not follow the law I have set before you, 5   and listen to the words of my servants the prophets, the prophets whom I have taken pains to send to you, 6   but you have never listened to them, then I will make this house like Shiloh and this city an object of ridicule to all nations on earth.

7   The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah say this in the Lord's house and, 8   when he came to the end of what the Lord had commanded him to say to them, priests, prophets, and people seized him and threatened him with death. 9   ‘Why’, they demanded, ‘have you prophesied in the Lord's name that this house shall become like Shiloh and this city waste and uninhabited?’ The people all gathered against Jeremiah in the Lord's house. 10   The officers of Judah heard what was happening, and they went up from the royal palace to the Lord's house and took their places there at the entrance of the new gate. 11   Then the priests and the prophets said to the officers and all the people, ‘Condemn this fellow to death. He has prophesied against this city: you have heard it with your own ears.’ 12   Then Jeremiah said to the officers and the people, ‘The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all that you have heard. 13   If you now mend your ways and your doings and obey the Lord your God, then he may relent and revoke the disaster with which he has threatened you. 14   But I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think right and proper. 15   Only you may be certain that, if you put me to death, you and this city and all who live in

Jerusalem laid under a curse it will be guilty of murdering an innocent man; for in very truth the Lord has sent me to you to say all this in your hearing.’

16   Then the officers and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, ‘This man ought not to be condemned to death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.’ 17   Some of the elders of the land also stood up and said to the assembled people, 18   ‘In the time of Hezekiah king of Judah, Micah of Moresheth was prophesying and said to all the people of Judah: “These are the words of the Lord of Hosts:

  Zion shall become a ploughed field,
  Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
  and the temple-hill rough heath.”

19   Did King Hezekiah and all Judah put him to death? Did not the king show reverence for the Lord and seek to placate him? Then the Lord relented and revoked the disaster with which he had threatened them. Are we to bring great disaster on ourselves?’

20   There was another man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah son of Shemaiah, from Kiriath-jearim. He also prophesied against this city and this land, just as Jeremiah had done. 21   King Jehoiakim with all his officers and his bodyguard heard what he said and sought to put him to death. When Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled to Egypt. 22    23   King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan son of Akbor with others to fetch Uriah from Egypt, and they brought him to the king. He had him put to death by the sword, and his body flung into the burial-place of the common people. 24   But Ahikam son of Shaphan used his influence on Jeremiah's behalf to save him from death at the hands of the people.

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