Jeremiah 26:18

18 "In the reign of Hezekiah king of Judah, Micah of Moresheth preached to the people of Judah this sermon: This is God-of-the-Angel-Armies' Message for you: "'Because of people like you, Zion will be turned back into farmland, Jerusalem end up as a pile of rubble, and instead of the Temple on the mountain, a few scraggly scrub pines.'

Jeremiah 26:18 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 26:18

Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king
of Judah
Or, Micah of Maresha, as the Targum. Mareshah was a city of the tribe of Judah, ( Joshua 15:44 ) ; the native place, of this prophet; who appears, by the following quotation, to be the same Micah that stands among the minor prophets; and who is also so called, and lived in the times of Hezekiah, ( Micah 1:1 ) ; and spake to all the people of Judah;
very openly and publicly, and just as Jeremiah had done, ( Jeremiah 26:2 Jeremiah 26:7 Jeremiah 26:8 ) ; saying, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Zion shall be ploughed [like] a
field, and Jerusalem 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 Terentius, or Turnus Rufus, as they call him, after their last 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 reformation, and carried it to a great pitch. See ( Micah 3:12 ) .

Jeremiah 26:18 In-Context

16 The court officials, backed by the people, then handed down their ruling to the priests and prophets: "Acquittal. No death sentence for this man. He has spoken to us with the authority of our God."
17 Then some of the respected leaders stood up and addressed the crowd:
18 "In the reign of Hezekiah king of Judah, Micah of Moresheth preached to the people of Judah this sermon: This is God-of-the-Angel-Armies' Message for you: "'Because of people like you, Zion will be turned back into farmland, Jerusalem end up as a pile of rubble, and instead of the Temple on the mountain, a few scraggly scrub pines.'
19 "Did King Hezekiah or anyone else in Judah kill Micah of Moresheth because of that sermon? Didn't Hezekiah honor him and pray for mercy from God? And then didn't God call off the disaster he had threatened? "Friends, we're at the brink of bringing a terrible calamity upon ourselves."
20 (At another time there had been a man, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim, who had preached similarly in the name of God. He preached against this same city and country just as Jeremiah did.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.