When they heard Uriah’s message, King Jehoiakim and his warriors and officials wanted to put him to death. Uriah fled to Egypt, but Jehoiakim sent Elnathan the son of Achbor to bring him back from Egypt. Jehoiakim then struck him down with a sword and dumped his body into the burial place of the common people.
Elnathan ben Achbor was one of the officials who later heard Jeremiah’s scroll being read (Jeremiah 36:11–13) and even tried to stop Jehoiakim from destroying the scroll (Jeremiah 36:25). It seems that he was acting under orders from Jehoiakim in the Uriah matter.1 It is also significant that Jehoiakim plays no role in Jeremiah’s trial in Jeremiah 26:10–19; he is not mentioned at all and seems to be totally absent. Uriah, however, is not even given a trial. Jehoiakim simply calls for his execution and the officials support him. In Jeremiah’s trial the palace officials declare Jeremiah not guilty. This contradiction in response by the officials to prophets preaching the same message is an indication that they are not acting from conviction but rather from what is politically expedient.
The main point of the account of Uriah’s execution is to show the danger Jeremiah faces. Jehoiakim is nothing like King Hezekiah. The reader understands that under Jehoiakim, there is very little chance of the nation turning to the Lord in repentance. There is also a very good chance that Jeremiah could lose his life, even though he has been declared not deserving of death by the court. The final sentence of this passage makes this very clear.
21 And when King Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt.