16. Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets, “This man does not deserve a sentence of death, for in the name of Yahweh our God, he has spoken to us.”
17. Then men from the elders of the land arose and said to all the assembly of the people, saying,
18. “Micah the Morashtite was prophesying in the days of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and he said to all the people of Judah, saying: ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Zion will be plowed, and Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the temple as high places of wood.” ’
19. Did Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and all Judah actually put him to death? Was he not in fear of Yahweh? And he entreated the face of Yahweh, and Yahweh relented of the disaster that he had spoken against them. But we are about to do great disaster to ourselves.”
20. Indeed, there also was a man prophesying in the name of Yahweh, Uriah, the son of Shemaiah, from Kiriath-Jearim, and he prophesied against this city and against this land like all the words of Jeremiah.
21. And when King Jehoiakim, and all his warriors, and all the officials heard his words, then the king sought to put him to death. But Uriah heard, and he was afraid, and he fled and went to Egypt.
22. Then King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt. Elnathan, the son of Achbor, and men with him went to Egypt.
23. And they brought out Uriah from Egypt and they brought him to King Jehoiakim, and he struck him down with the sword, and he threw his dead body into the burial sites of the sons of the people.
24. However, the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not given into the hand of the people to put him to death.