Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? did he not fear the LORD, and besought the LORD, and the LORD repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls.
Did King Hezekiah of Judah and all the people kill him? No! Instead, Hezekiah feared the LORD and pleaded with the LORD, and the LORD changed his mind about the disaster he had planned to bring on them. If we kill Jeremiah, we might bring terrible consequences on ourselves.
The writer is arguing that killing God's prophet would be a terrible mistake, pointing to how King Hezekiah listened to a prophet instead of killing him and was blessed for it.
📚 Historical Context
In the time of the prophet Jeremiah, the people of Judah were under threat of judgment from God due to their persistent idolatry and disobedience, and Jeremiah was boldly warning them of impending destruction. The religious leaders wanted to execute Jeremiah for his prophecies, but some elders pointed to the earlier example of King Hezekiah, who had responded to a similar warning from the prophet Micah by repenting and seeking God. This historical reference was used to argue that killing Jeremiah could bring greater harm upon the nation.
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