Ver. 15. But know ye for certain, that if ye put me
to death, &c.] Take this along with you, and then do
as you will; that if ye take away my life on this ac-
count, you may depend upon it; nothing is more cer-
tain than this: ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon
yourselves, and upon th.is city, and upon the inhabitants
thereof; that is, the guilt of innocent blood, which
would cry for vengeance upon them that brought the
accusation, and insisted upon his being brought in
guilty; and upon those that sat in judgment, and con-
demned him; and upon all the inhabitants of the city
of Jerusalem, who should agree to the putting him to
death: for of a truth the Lord hath sent me unto you to
speak all these words in your ears; and therefore I am
no false prophet, and am clear of the charge brought
against me; and have said nothing but what I had a
mission and an order from the Lord for, of which-you
may assure yourselves; and therefore he will avenge
my blood, should it be shed on that account; so that
you will only increase your guilt, and add to thatgreat
load that lies upon you, and will be your ruin, unless
you repent and reform.
Vet. 16. Then said the princes and all the people unto
the priests and to the prophets, &c.] Hearing Jere-
miah's apology for himself, by which it appeared that
he was to be justified in what he had done, took his
part, and acquitted him; and the people, who before
were on the side of the priests and false prophets; yet
hearing what Jeremiah had to say for himserf, and also
the judgment of the princes, took his part also, and
joined with the court in an address to the priests and
prophets, who were the chief scot:sets, and who would
fain have had him brought in guilty of death: this man
is not worthy to die; or, the judgm ent oJ' death is not for
this man; we can't give judgment against him; he is
not guilty of any crime deserving death; see the note
on yet. 11: for he hath spoken to us in the name of the
Lord our God; not in his own name, and of his own
head; but in the name of the Lord, and by his order;
and therefore was not a false, but a true prophet: what
methods they took to know this, and to make it appear
to the people, is not said; very probably the settled
character of the prophet; their long acquaintance with
him, and knowledge of him ;.his integrity and firmness
of mind; the plain marks of seriousness and humility,
and a disinterested view, made them conclude it/his
favour.
Ver. 17. Then rose up certain of the eslder8 of the land,
&c.] 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:
Ver. 18. Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days
of Hezekiah king of Judah, &c.] Or, Micah of Ma-
vesha, as the Targum. Mareshah was a city of the
tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 44. the native pla.ce, of this
prophet; who appears, by the following quotation, to
be the same Micah that stands among the minor pro-
phets; and who is also so called, and lived in the
times of Hezekiah, Mic. i. 1: and spalee to all the
people ofJudah; very openly and publicly, and just as
Jeremiah had done, ver. 2, 7, 8: saying, thus saith the
Lord of hosts, Zion shall be ploughed like afield, and Je-
rusalem shall become heaps; Mount Zion, on part of
which the temple was built, and on the other the city
of David, together with the city of Jerusalem, should
be so demolished, as that they might be ploughed, and
become a tillage; as the Jews say they were by Te-
rentins, or Turnus Rufus, hs they call him, after their
lhst destruction by the Romans: and the mountain of
the house as the high places of the forest ; covered with
grass and shrubs, and thorns and briers; even Mount
Moriah, on which the temple stood, which is designed
by the house ; and so the Targum calls it the house of
the sanctuary. Now this was saying as much against
the city and temple as Jeremiah did; and was said in
the days of a good king too, who encouraged a refor-
mation, and carried it to a great pitch. See Mic. iii. 12.
Vet. 19. .l)id Hezekiah Icing of Judah and all 3udah
put him at all to death ? &c.] No, they did not: neither
the king, by his own authority; nor the sanhedrim,
the great court of judicature, for the nation; they
never sought to take away his life, nor sat in council
about it; they never arraigned him, and much less
condemned him: did he not fear the Lord, ann besought
the Lord; that is, Hezekiah; he did, as knowing that
Micah was a prophet of the Lord, and sent by him; 
wherefore he received his prophecy with great awe and
reverence, as coming from the Lord, and made his sup-
plications to him that he would avert the judgments
threatened: and the Lord repented of the evil which he
had pronounced against them ? the king and his people,
the city and the temple; and so the threatened evil
came not upon them in their days: thus might we pro-
cure great evil against our souls; should we put Je-
remiah to death: it is therefore much more ad-
visable to do as Hezekiah did, pray unto the Lord to
avert the threatened evil, or otherwise it will be worse
with us. This precedent is urged to strengthen the
decree of the council in favour of Jeremiah.
Ver. o.0. And there was also a man that prophe'sied in
the name of the Lord, &c.] These are not the w. ords
of the same persons continued; because the following
instance is against them; but of some other persons in
the sanhedrim, who were on the side of the priests and
prophets; who in effect said, why tell you us of an in-
stance in Hezekiah's time, when there is so recent an
one in the present reign, of a man that prophesied just
as Jeremiah has done, and was put to death, and so
ought he ? after this manner Kimchi interprets it; and
so Jarchi, who adds, that it is so explained in an an-
cient book of theirs, called Siphri; though some think
they are the words of the same persons that espoused
the prophet's cause; and observe the following in-
stance with this view; that whereas there had been
one prophet of the Lord lately put to death for 'the
same thing, should they take away the life of another,
it would be adding sin to sin, and bring great evil upon
their souls; and it might be observed, that Hezekiah
prevented much evil by the steps he took; whereas,
should they proceed as they had begun in the present
reign, they might expect nothing but ruin, which
they might easily see with their own eyes was coming
upon them: others are of opinion that this instance
is added by the penman of this hook, either the pro-
phet himself or Baruch, to shaw the wonderful pre-