Jeremiah 26:17

26:16-24 When secure sinners are threatened with taking away the Spirit of God, and the kingdom of God, it is what is warranted from the word of God. Hezekiah who protected Micah, prospered. Did Jehoiakim, who slew Urijah, prosper? The examples of bad men, and the bad consequences of their sins, should deter from what is evil. Urijah was faithful in delivering his message, but faulty in leaving his work. And the Lord was pleased to permit him to lose his life, while Jeremiah was protected in danger. Those are safest who most simply trust in the Lord, whatever their outward circumstances may be; and that He has all men's hearts in his hands, encourages us to trust him in the way of duty. He will honour and recompense those who show kindness to such as are persecuted for his sake.

Then rose up certain of the elders of the land,.... The same with the princes; some of the court, who rose up as advocates for the prophet: and spake to all the assembly of the people: to justify the vote of the court, and to confirm the people in a good opinion of it, by giving them examples and instances of the like kind: saying; as follows:

Jeremiah 26:17-19 . Then rose up certain of the elders — Either the princes before mentioned, or the more 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 being a direction to us. The case referred to is that of Micah, the book of whose prophecies we have among those of the minor prophets. Was it thought strange that Jeremiah prophesied against this city and the temple? Micah did so before him, even in the reign of Hezekiah, that reign of reformation, Jeremiah 26:18 . Micah said as publicly, as Jeremiah had now spoken to the same purpose, Zion shall be ploughed like a field — The buildings shall be all destroyed, so that nothing shall hinder but it may be ploughed; Jerusalem shall become heaps — Of ruins; and the mountain of the house — On which the temple is built; shall be as the high places of the forest — Overrun with briers and thorns. This Micah not only spoke, but wrote, and left it upon record, Micah 3:12 . Now did Hezekiah and all Judah put him to death? — Did the people come together in a body to accuse Micah, and demand sentence against him, as they had now done in the case of Jeremiah? Did they and their king make an act to silence him, or take away his life? No: on the contrary, they took the warning he gave them.

Hezekiah, that renowned prince, set a good example before his successors; for he feared the Lord, as Noah, who, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, was moved with fear. He besought the Lord — To turn away the judgment threatened, and to be reconciled to them; and he found it was not in vain to do so; for the Lord repented him of the evil — Returned in mercy to them, and even sent an angel, who routed the army of the Assyrians that then threatened to destroy Jerusalem. These elders conclude, that it would be of dangerous consequence to the state if they should gratify the importunity of the priests and prophets in putting Jeremiah to death; saying, Thus we might procure great evil against our souls — Observe, reader, it is well to deter ourselves from sin, with the consideration of the mischief we should certainly do to ourselves by it, and the irreparable damage we should thereby bring upon our own souls.

Verse 17. - The elders of the land add their voice in favor of Jeremiah, not, however, without first of all consulting the people whose representatives they are. The whole verse is thoroughly technical in its phraseology. The word ( qahal ) rendered "assembly" is the traditional legal term for the "congregation of Israel" ( Deuteronomy 31:30 ); comp. ver. 9, where the verb is the corresponding one to qahal . Thus, with all the faults of the government of Judah, which Jeremiah himself reveals to us, it was very far removed from the Oriental despotisms of our day. The "elders" are still an important element in the social system, and form a link with that earlier period in which the family was the leading power in the social organization. Originally the term denoted, strictly and in the full sense, heads of families; they have their analogue in the councils of the Aryan village communities. "References to their parliamentary status (if the phrase may be used) occur in Exodus 3:16 ; 2 Samuel 19:11 ; 1 Kings 8:1 ; 1 Kings 20:7 . The institution lingered on during and after the Babylonian Exile ( Jeremiah 29:1 ; Ezekiel 14:1 ; Ezekiel 20:1 ; Ezra 5:5 ; Ezra 6:7 ; Ezra 10:14 ; Matthew 26:3, 47 ; Mark 14:43 ; Acts 4:5 , etc.)." We find another reference to their quasi-judicial authority in Deuteronomy 21:2 . Jeremiah 26:17

17 . the elders of the land ] Certain elders support this proceeding by the precedent of Micah. We find frequent mention of the employment of leading men for administrative or judicial purposes ( Deuteronomy 19:12 ; Deuteronomy 21:2 ff.; 1 Samuel 16:4 ; 1 Kings 21:8 ; 1 Kings 21:11 ), or simply as representatives of the people. See Numbers 11:16 (C.B.), also Exodus 3:16 ; Exodus 3:18 ; Exodus 4:29 ; Exodus 17:5 f., Jeremiah 18:12 .

(17) Certain of the elders of the land. —The word is probably to be taken rather in the literal than in an official sense—or, if officially, then as including the literal meaning also. The elders speaking in the time of Jehoiakim (cir. B.C. 608) remembered the tradition of what had passed, a century or so before, in the reign of Hezekiah (B.C. 726-698), and could appeal to it as a precedent in favour of the prophet. The word for “assembly” (elsewhere rendered “congregation”) corresponds to the Ecclesia of a Greek city.

To justify and confirm this sentence, certain of the elders of the land rise and point to the like sentence passed on the prophet Micah of Moresheth-Gath, who had foretold the destruction of the city and temple under King Hezekiah, but had not been put to death by the king; Hezekiah, on the contrary, turning to prayer to the Lord, and thus succeeding in averting the catastrophe. The "men of the elders of the land" are different from "all the princes," and are not to be taken, as by Graf, for representatives of the people in the capacity of assessors at judicial decisions, who had to give their voice as to guilt or innocence; nor are they necessarily to be regarded as local authorities of the land. They come before us here solely in their character as elders of the people, who possessed a high authority in the eyes of the people. The saying of the Morasthite Micah which they cite in Jeremiah 26:18 is found in Micah 3:12 , verbally agreeing with Jeremiah 26:18 ; see the exposition of that passage. The stress of what they say lies in the conclusion drawn by them from Micah's prophesy, taken in connection with Hezekiah's attitude towards the Lord, Jeremiah 26:19 : "Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear Jahveh and entreat Jahveh, and did not Jahveh repent Him of the evil which He had spoken concerning them?