Sefer Yirmiyahu, chapter 26. "In the beginning of the reign of Yehoyakim son of Yoshiyahu, king of Yehudah, this word came from Hashem, saying." Rashi comments: "In the beginning of the reign of Yehoyakim" - this passage precedes the previous one by four years.
"Thus said Hashem: Stand in the court of the House of Hashem and speak to all the cities of Yehudah who come to bow down in the House of Hashem all the words that I commanded you to speak to them, do not withhold a word. Perhaps they will listen and turn back, each man from his evil way, and I will relent from the evil that I intend to do to them because of their evil deeds." The Holy One, blessed be He, said, "Thus said Hashem: Stand in the court of the House of Hashem," where the people would gather, "and speak to all the cities of Yehudah who come to bow down in the House of Hashem," meaning to the whole public that comes there for the service in the House of Hashem, "all the words that I commanded you to speak to them," these are the prophecies, prophecies of calamity, the prophecies in which He tells them to return in teshuvah. "Perhaps they will listen and turn back, each man from his evil way," and through this, after they turn back from their evil way, "and I will relent from the evil that I intend to do to them," for the evil that I intend to do to them is because of their evil deeds, and if they will regret and turn back from their evil deeds, says the Holy One, blessed be He, I will relent through this from the evil, and then that trouble will not come upon them.
"And you shall say to them: Thus said Hashem: If you will not listen to Me, to walk in My Torah that I have set before you." The condition is that they listen to the words of the Torah and listen to the words of the prophets, and if not, the Beit HaMikdash will be destroyed. "To heed the words of My servants the prophets whom I send to you, sending them early and often, but you did not listen." "To heed the words of My servants the prophets" means "and to heed." "Thus said Hashem: If you will not listen to Me, to walk in My Torah that I have set before you, and to heed the words of My servants the prophets," as it were, all in one breath, whom I sent to you early and often, that is, each time anew, and despite all this you did not listen. If you intend to continue in that corrupt way, "then I will make this House like Shiloh, and this city I will make a curse for all the nations of the earth."
"I will make this House like Shiloh," Shiloh, which the Pelishtim captured in war, and then the Mishkan of Shiloh was destroyed, so this House will be like Shiloh. "And this land and this city I will make a curse for all the nations of the earth," what does it mean, a curse for all the nations of the earth? That when the nations of the earth want to curse a city, they will say, may your city be like Yerushalayim, this will be the curse. So this city, from it a curse will be taken for all the nations of the earth. This is an expression that appears in several other examples, also concerning names of people, that so-and-so will become a curse and a curse will be taken from him for all the peoples of the earth. Just as, by contrast, "By you shall Yisrael bless," that through my life Yisrael will bless, when they want to bless they will say, may God make you like Ephraim and like Menashe, so when they want to curse they will say, like Kolayah and like his companion there, whom the false prophets used to invoke, yes? So in fact there is here some great calamity or something that has acquired for itself such a reputation that whenever people want to say something is bad, they say, like this thing. So too He will make the whole land such that when people want to utter a curse, He will make it a curse for all the nations of the earth.
"And the Kohanim and the prophets and all the people heard Yirmiyahu speaking these words in the House of Hashem." The Kohanim, who are the priests of the Baal, and the prophets, who are the false prophets, hear Yirmiyahu speaking these words in the House of Hashem, and these words provoke a reaction. "And it was, when Yirmiyahu finished speaking all that Hashem had commanded to speak to all the people, that the Kohanim and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying: You shall surely die." When he finishes his words, they grab hold of him firmly and say, we will put you to death.
The Malbim asks here a series of questions. Truthfully, it will be quite difficult for us to fully understand them since we have not yet seen the chapter, but we will read them briefly and the matters will clarify themselves as we proceed. He says: at first it is written that all the people say, you shall surely die, and they gather against him, and afterward we see that suddenly they say, he has no sentence of death, so do you want to put him to death or does he not deserve a death sentence? Afterward, seizing him - we see that at first the people seized him to put him to death, and afterward, when the officers came, the people together with the officers became like judges, and the Kohanim and the prophets said to the officers and to all the people. After the officers and the people decided that he has no sentence of death, then what do people want from the elders of the people? Afterward it seems they bring the story of Michah the Morashtite after he was acquitted in his case, and how can you tell a story that contradicts what you wanted to say before? Afterward you bring a story of Uriyah, that Uriyah was killed, and how does it conclude with the matter of Achikam son of Shafan not giving him into the hand of the people to put him to death, implying that the people do want to put him to death, but earlier you said the people spoke in his favor? Let us explain the matters and they will clarify themselves.
The Malbim says: "And the Kohanim and the prophets and the people seized him," at first the people too took part with the Kohanim in the aim of putting Yirmiyahu to death. Now pay attention, says the Malbim, their intentions or their reasons for putting him to death were different. The people did not think Yirmiyahu was a false prophet, they knew that Yirmiyahu prophesied words of truth, but the words were not pleasant to them. And since this is so, according to the essential law he does not deserve a death sentence as a false prophet does, for we hold that what he says is true, but in any case we hold that he should be killed, because Yirmiyahu is presently an obstacle, Yirmiyahu is presently causing us harm. He is here, telling us harsh things, things that are unpleasant to us, we do not want to hear this, and nevertheless he tells us these things, so we want him to die. Not according to the law and halachah, but in order to remove that one who tells us things unpleasant to our ears.
"Why have you prophesied in the name of Hashem, saying: This House shall be like Shiloh and this city shall be desolate without inhabitant? And all the people gathered against Yirmiyahu in the House of Hashem." Here pay attention, the question is why have you prophesied in the name of Hashem, saying - even though the prophecy is true, but you need not prophesy against our will, we do not want such a prophecy even though it is from Hashem. So the question is not why have you prophesied in the name of Hashem when Hashem did not say it, but rather why have you prophesied in the name of Hashem things we do not want to hear.
"And the officers of Yehudah heard these things, and they came up from the king's house to the House of Hashem and sat at the entrance of the New Gate of Hashem." The officers of Yehudah hear the words, they come up from the king's house to the House of Hashem, and there they sit at the entrance of the New Gate of Hashem. The officers of Yehudah are the officials, they are the rulers, they are the ones who are supposed to examine whether there is here a liability of death according to the law. That is to say, the officers cannot put someone to death for nothing, this is something where the people might say he is an obstacle and want to kill him, but the officers who want to put someone to death need what are called documents, they need papers, they need evidence, proofs of why he should be put to death, they need judgment and law. And therefore the people here, pay attention, take a step back. Since the people believe he is a true prophet, then they know there is no law to put him to death. One who is a true prophet, there is no law to kill him, only if he were a false prophet would there be a reason to kill him, but if he is a true prophet there is no reason to kill him. And therefore the people here do not speak up, since according to the people there is really no legal case to kill Yirmiyahu.
Rashi explains that "the officers of Yehudah heard... and sat at the entrance of the New Gate of Hashem," what is the entrance of the New Gate of Hashem? In Rashi it is brought "others have explained," that is to say, there are explanations in Rashi that are not from Rashi himself but are additions inserted over the years, so this appears under the name "others have explained," there are such cases in several places in Rashi. And they explain, what is the New Gate of Hashem? When Yehoyachin was exiled and some of the vessels of the House of our God with him, the forces of Nevuchadnetzar broke the eastern gate. The forces of Nevuchadnetzar destroyed the eastern gate, and then Tzidkiyahu rebuilt it, and therefore it is called the New Gate of Hashem, a gate that Tzidkiyahu renewed. The Radak also says the New Gate of Hashem is the eastern gate, as the Targum says "of the east," and he explains, based on Chazal, that it is called new because there the Soferim renewed the halachah. So "new" does not come to say that the gate was new, but rather they renewed the halachah there and so on that account it is called new. And he brings another explanation, that it means it itself was renewed, as we saw in the words of others who explained in Rashi. But in any case these are two explanations.
"And the Kohanim and the prophets said to the officers and to all the people, saying: A sentence of death for this man, for he has prophesied against this city as you have heard with your own ears." A sentence of death for this man - note, the Kohanim and the prophets, we already explained earlier, did not believe in the prophecy, they were certain that he was saying something false, that he was fabricating things from his own heart. And therefore when the officers come to judge, the Kohanim and the prophets argue that according to the law he deserves death, for there is a law of a false prophet, and the law for a false prophet is that he is liable to death. And therefore the prophets and the Kohanim are the ones who here, so to speak, approached the trial in order to state their case. In contrast, the people hold that he is a true prophet, and therefore the people here are silent, for they know that in truth there is no place to judge him as a false prophet, since they knew his words were true. Who are these Kohanim and prophets here? The prophets here refers to the false prophets. And to the false prophets it was very inconvenient that there is a true prophet who states things plainly, without embellishment. The false prophets, we already said several times, loved to flatter the people, to tell them pleasant things, to tell them things that would encourage them to believe that they would remain in the land and there would be no exile and no troubles and the House would not be destroyed, and so on. And now comes one who ruins the celebration. The religious ones always love to ruin the celebration, telling of wars and Gog and Magog and troubles, and why? Look how nice it is, we already succeeded in convincing the people, and then suddenly one comes and ruins everything. So what do they want? To kill him for false prophecy, for the true prophets, they claim, are us. And so they come and say to the officers and to all the people, saying, a sentence of death for this man, he is liable to a death sentence according to the law. This is a sentence of death, not like the people who said to kill him because he does not suit us, but rather they say he should be killed because that is the law, for he prophesied against this city, as you heard with your own ears, a prophecy that is a false prophecy. And so, says the Malbim, in this the Kohanim and the prophets did not agree with the people, for the people did not hold that he should be killed according to the law. What does the Malbim say? But both agreed that he should be killed, each according to his approach, either according to the law or because he is unpleasant to us, but both agreed that he should be killed.
"And Yirmiyahu said to all the officers and to all the people, saying: Hashem sent me to prophesy against this House and against this city all the words that you have heard." Yirmiyahu said to them, I did not fabricate the words from my own heart. And here he in fact answers both sides, both the officers who want to kill him according to the law, and the people who want to kill him in order to remove the harm. To the side that wants to kill him according to the law he gives the answer and says, know for yourselves, I am not a false prophet, the Torah says to kill a false prophet, my prophecy is true, Hashem sent me to prophesy about this House, this is a true prophecy. The people want to kill me because it is unpleasant for them to hear the words, to them he answers in the next pasuk: "And now, better your ways and your deeds, and listen to the voice of Hashem your God, and Hashem will relent from the evil that He spoke against you." What, it is unpleasant for you that evil should come? If that is what is unpleasant for you, then there is a very simple way to remove the evil. When you kill me you will not remove the evil, you may remove the flashing warning light that tells you the engine of the car is about to burn out, but you have not saved the car nor the engine, you have only caused that no one will bother you, but in the end the trouble will come. There is a way, he tells them, to correct the trouble: better your ways and your deeds. On the contrary, the mission I was sent to you on is not to tell you bad things, to tell you things that are unpleasant to you, they came to correct you, so that it will be good for you in the future. So my prophecy is not harm, my prophecy is benefit.
"And as for me, behold, I am in your hands, do to me as is good and right in your eyes." I am in your hands, meaning if you want to put me to death, do to me as is good and right in your eyes. What is the doubling, good and right? Whether you hold that I deserve a sentence of death, and then this is in fact the good in your eyes, meaning you are certain you are doing a good thing because I deserve a death sentence according to the law, for the Torah commands to put a false prophet to death, so having put me to death you are certain this is the best thing. Or from the side where the people want to kill me only because I say things unpleasant to their ears, this is not good but it is at any rate right in your eyes, that is to say it is what you want, it is the right in your eyes. So do to me as is good and right in your eyes, something good according to the truth and something right only in your eyes, pleasing to you that there not be someone who says things unpleasant to you.
"Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you are bringing innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and upon its inhabitants, for in truth Hashem has sent me to you to speak in your ears all these words." He tells them, know for yourselves that if you think by this to remove the harm, you are mistaken. By this you will not remove the harm, innocent blood you are bringing upon yourselves and upon this city, that is to say you will add still more wrath beyond what was upon you before, since in truth Hashem sent me to you to speak in your ears all these words, and then His anger will burn against you for killing His prophet.
"And the officers and all the people said to the Kohanim and to the prophets: This man has no sentence of death, for in the name of Hashem our God he has spoken to us." And this thing is astonishing, this is what the Malbim asked above, for earlier we saw that the people demanded to put the prophet to death, how do the people suddenly now come and say, this man has no sentence of death for in the name of Hashem our God he has spoken to us? How the Malbim explained it is very wonderful. Says the Malbim: here the people did not change their opinion, they had always claimed that he has no sentence of death. According to the law the people said he has no death sentence, but we the people do not want to listen to him and therefore we want to kill him, but a sentence of death he does not have. So it emerges that the people did not change their opinion, they say to the Kohanim and to the prophets, who hold that he has a sentence of death, they say to them, this man has no sentence of death for in the name of Hashem our God he has spoken to us, and a prophet who spoke his words in the name of Hashem cannot be put to death by law and judgment. But in any case, as we said, they did want to kill him because he disturbs us, but a sentence of death he does not have. So if you the officers come to render judgment, according to the law there is no ruling to kill him.
"And men of the elders of the land arose and said to all the assembly of the people, saying: Michah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Chizkiyahu king of Yehudah and said to all the people of Yehudah, saying: Thus said Hashem of Hosts: Tzion shall be plowed like a field and Yerushalayim shall become heaps and the Temple Mount like the high places of a forest. Did Chizkiyahu king of Yehudah and all Yehudah put him to death? Did he not fear Hashem and entreat the face of Hashem, and Hashem relented from the evil that He spoke against them? And we are doing a great evil against our souls." They come and argue with them, come, see and remember history. Michah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Chizkiyahu, Michah the Morashtite means a man who came from the city of Mareshah and therefore is called Morashtite, he too prophesied in the time of Chizkiyahu words like these, like the things Yirmiyahu now prophesies to us that are unpleasant to our ears. Did they put him to death? He tells them, surely they did not put him to death. How, how did they remove the trouble? By entreating the face of Hashem, and he entreated the face of Hashem and Hashem relented from the evil. Though the trouble was great, what did he say to them? Tzion shall be plowed like a field, Yerushalayim will be plowed like a field to sow in it, meaning no building will remain there. And Yerushalayim shall become heaps, this cursed the city, it will become heaps, heaps meaning ruins. And the Temple Mount like the high places of a forest, the Temple Mount will be full of piles of stones resembling the high places found in a forest, meaning the elevated places found in a forest. So he had a very very harsh prophecy, and nevertheless did Chizkiyahu king of Yehudah put him to death? Behold, see that they did not put him to death and did not harm him, on the contrary they entreated the face of Hashem and Hashem relented from the evil that He spoke against them. And we are doing a great evil against our souls, and so, regarding what we now think, that by killing the prophet we will thereby be rid of the trouble, on this he tells them, we are doing a great evil against our souls, by this we bring an even greater evil than there was before upon our souls.
"And there was also a man prophesying in the name of Hashem, Uriyahu son of Shemayahu from Kiryat HaYearim, and he prophesied against this city and against this land like all the words of Yirmiyahu." There was another man who prophesied in the name of Hashem, his name was Uriyahu son of Shemayahu from Kiryat HaYearim, and he prophesied like the prophecy of Yirmiyahu the harsh things we heard. "And King Yehoyakim and all his mighty men and all the officers heard his words, and the king sought to put him to death, and Uriyahu heard and feared and fled and came to Egypt." There they did want to kill him, and nevertheless see that he fled and reached Egypt. "And King Yehoyakim sent men to Egypt, Elnatan son of Achbor and men with him, to Egypt, and they brought Uriyahu out of Egypt and brought him to King Yehoyakim, and he struck him with the sword and cast his corpse into the graves of the common people." There is a difficulty here, and the difficulty is that they seemingly contradict themselves. The Malbim already read, dwelt on this above in his questions, how is it possible that they tell one story after another when one contradicts the other? In the first story they come and say, behold, see, the prophet prophesied things like these and they did nothing to him, they repented and, on the contrary, were saved from trouble. Then they bring a similar story of a prophet who prophesied a harsh prophecy, the first was Michayhu the Morashtite, the second is Uriyahu son of Shemayahu, and he prophesied a harsh prophecy and fled to Egypt and in the end they killed him, cast his corpse into the graves of the common people. What is this, a historical survey? What do you want to say, that he should be killed or should not be killed? At first you brought me a story that a prophet should not be killed, that is the conclusion from it. Afterward you bring me a story that Yehoyakim did kill another prophet, so the conclusion is that a prophet should be killed. Should the prophet be killed or should the prophet not be killed?
Rashi brings the words of Chazal, Chazal say, the one who said this did not say that. The first part up to here is the words of the righteous, for we are speaking about the elders of the people, among the people there were righteous elders and there were worthless elders, there were elders such as those who, as it were, passed idly through the world, people whose minds become foolish the older they get. The wise elders are the ones who came and told them, it is not worthwhile to kill him, come see how in history when a prophet came and said harsh things similar to these, they repented and the trouble departed. In contrast, now come elders, as we said, wicked elders, and they say, behold, there was a man who prophesied harsh things and they killed him, so let them kill Yirmiyahu too. These are other elders, wicked elders who demand to kill Yirmiyahu, so it is brought in the Sifri.
The Malbim, in contrast, explains that when the argument of the elders of the people did not help to save Yirmiyahu from death, since at that very time Uriyah too prophesied like the words of Yirmiyahu and he too prophesied in the name of Hashem and nevertheless was killed by the king, it emerges then, according to the Malbim, that "and there was also a man prophesying in the name of Hashem, Uriyahu son of Shemayahu," according to the words of the Malbim, this is not the continuation of the words of the elders, it is the words of the author of the book. That is to say, the elders said he should not be killed, and now the author of the book comes and tells, know that at that time there was another prophet who prophesied harsh things and they killed him, and this thing therefore caused a certain ferment to arise that they should kill Yirmiyahu too. Now do not say that the thing was done suddenly, without deliberation, he says, come see that he fled to Egypt and the king sent men to Egypt, Elnatan son of Achbor and men with him, to Egypt, and there they searched for him and brought him out of Egypt and brought him to King Yehoyakim and struck him with the sword and cast his corpse into the graves of the common people. So you see that there was time to consider this matter, it was not, so to speak, out of momentary passion, that he became angry and killed him. And do not say they killed him by ruling of a beit din because they held that he was a false prophet, for behold, see how they struck him? They struck him with the sword. The death of a false prophet is by strangulation, so why here did they kill him with the sword? And behold, see also that he cast his corpse into the graves of the common people. One who is killed by ruling of a beit din, there is a halachah that he is buried in a special cemetery for those liable to death by beit din, and Chazal already said that there are two types of cemeteries, there is a cemetery for those slain by the sword and those strangled, and there is a cemetery for those stoned and those burned, and here see that he did not bury him in that cemetery. What did you learn from this? That his killing was not according to law and judgment, but rather his killing was according to that whim of Yehoyakim, who did not want to hear his words. And so too it should have been for Yirmiyahu, since it was in that same time, and in that time see what they did to Uriyahu son of Shemayahu, so it is reasonable that such a thing would be done to Yirmiyahu too.
"But the hand of Achikam son of Shafan was with Yirmiyahu, so as not to give him into the hand of the people to put him to death." What in the end changed the reality and caused Yirmiyahu not to be put to death as was done to Uriyahu son of Shemayahu? So he tells us that the hand of Achikam son of Shafan was with Yirmiyahu. Meaning, the assistance was from Achikam son of Shafan, he saved him from the hand of the people, saved him from the hand of the mob. Since we already saw that according to the law he does not deserve a sentence, then the only thing that could be done to him is a lynching, since the people do not want to hear these words. And had he not stood as a shield for him, the people in their fury would have killed him, since they had already received legitimacy for this from Yehoyakim who killed Uriyahu son of Shemayahu, so that in fact there was no problem for the people to kill him too, were it not that the hand of Achikam is the one that was with Yirmiyahu, and by his strength, by the strength of his hand, he prevailed over all of them and saved him. "Yad" means exertion, yes? He gave his hand means he exerted himself. The exertion of Achikam son of Shafan is what saved Yirmiyahu from the hand of the people.