Jeremiah 26:17

ARGUMENT OF SOME OF THE ELDERS

"Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all the assembly of the people, saying, Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? did he not fear Jehovah, and entreat the favor of Jehovah, and Jehovah repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus should we commit great evil against our own souls."

"Zion shall be plowed as a field ..." (Jeremiah 26:18). This whole quotation is a verbatim account of what is written in Micah 3:12. There is hardly another instance of this same kind of an appeal anywhere else in the Old Testament. Again, we have convincing evidence of the existence of the whole corpus of Hebrew scriptures and of the knowledge of the Hebrew people of exactly what those scriptures taught; and all of this on the very eve of the captivity.

The elders who made this appeal were evidently familiar with God's Word and were of a noble and pious character.

"Thus should we commit great evil against our own souls ..." (Jeremiah 26:19). This means that by putting Jeremiah to death great guilt would accrue to their souls. Their counsel won the day for Jeremiah.