Why do the “priests and prophets and all the people” lay hold of Jeremiah and call for his death?

The response to Jeremiah’s sermon is immediate and extreme; they laid hold of him, saying, You shall die! Those who listened to him arrest him and call for his death. The reason for this response is made clear in Jeremiah 26:9: Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant? Jeremiah’s message that the Lord is going to destroy the temple and the city undermines the dominant belief of his audience that the Lord would forever protect the city because of the temple. So deep is this belief that anyone who says otherwise and claims to speak in the name of the Lord must obviously be a false prophet. That is the basis of their call that Jeremiah should be put to death. According to the covenant, the sentence for speaking lies in the name of the Lord is death (Deuteronomy 18:20). In their eyes Jeremiah has claimed to say something in the Lord’s name that the Lord could never say. It is significant, however, that his accusers completely ignore the first part of Jeremiah’s sermon where he calls on everyone to turn from his evil way. So deep is their confidence in the mere presence of the temple with all its rituals that they refuse to see the disobedience and unfaithfulness of the nation (see Jeremiah 7:1–4).

They take hold of Jeremiah and say, You shall die! The Hebrew expression used is mot tamut. It is very similar to mot yumat which is translated as he shall be put to death in several places in Exodus 21:1–23:33 (e.g., Exodus 21:15–17).¹ A similar phrase is used in Leviticus 24:10–16. In both Exodus and Leviticus the context for this phrase is the punishment for breaking the covenant law. It is extremely ironic therefore that the people condemn Jeremiah as a covenant breaker when his message to them is that they have broken the covenant!

All the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. The Hebrew word qahal, translated as gathered is used for any sort of gathering. The context here means that the gathering has taken on an official nature as the people demand that Jeremiah stand trial for speaking falsely against the temple and the city in the name of the Lord.²

Those calling for Jeremiah to face the death penalty are described as the priests and the prophets and all the people. The priests and the prophets are those who worked in the temple. The people are those who have come to worship at the temple. It is striking, however, that in Jeremiah 26:8b all the people form part of the group that accuses Jeremiah and calls for his death; they then form part of those hearing the case in Jeremiah 26:11 and in Jeremiah 26:16 they are part of Jeremiah’s acquittal. The shifting role of the people in this passage shows them to be a rather fickle crowd. They can go from calling for Jeremiah’s death to acquitting him and yet by the end of the passage they want to put him to death (Jeremiah 26:24).³