Jer 26:7-9 Jeremiah is arrested on a charge of treason:
"The priests, the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the Temple of the LORD. When Jeremiah finished speaking everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests, prophets and all the people grabbed Jeremiah. They said, 'You must die! How dare you prophesy in the name of the LORD that this Temple will be destroyed like the one at Shiloh! How dare you say that Jerusalem will become a desert without anyone to live in it!'" (Jeremiah 26:7-9) (See the feature on Shiloh.)
Jer 26:10-11 The angry mob demands his death:
“Then the priests and the prophets said to the officers and all the other people, ‘Jeremiah should be killed. He prophesied against Jerusalem, and you heard him yourselves.'" (Jeremiah 26:11)
Jer 26:12-24 Jeremiah offers his defence, and concludes: "Do to me what you think is good and right. But be sure of one thing. If you kill me, you will be guilty of killing an innocent person. You will make this city and anyone who lives in it guilty too! The LORD truly sent me to you to give you this message." (Jeremiah 26:14-15)
"Then the officers and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, 'Jeremiah must not be killed. What he told us comes from the LORD our God.'" (Jeremiah 26:16)
Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives (Wayne McLean)
Jer 27:1-21 Jeremiah - wearing a wooden ox yoke as a visual effect - appears before King Zedekiah and the foreign ambassadors of the surrounding countries. He advises Zedekiah to bow down under the yoke of submission to Nebuchadnezzar. “Put yourself under the control of the king of Babylon and serve him, and you will live. Why should you and your people die from war, hunder or disease, as the LORD said would happen to those who do not serve the king of Babylon?" (Jeremiah 27:12-13)
Jer 28:1-17 The prophet Hananiah prophesies that Nebuchadnezzar will be defeated within two years and the temple treasures he took to Babylon in 597BC will be returned. Jeremiah accuses Hananiah of being a false prophet and foretells Hananiah’s imminent death – which follows within a few months.
After Nebuchadnezzar had beseiged Jerusalem, King Jehoiachin had surrendered in March 597BC. Ten thousand Judaeans had been taken captive to Babylonia (see 9 on Map 60). Nebuchadnezzar had stripped the Temple of all the gold articles made by King Solomon, and Jehoiachin had been taken prisoner to Babylon (see 2 Kings 24:10-20).