14. As for me, here I am in your hand. Do with me as seems good and right to you.
15. But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and upon the inhabitants. For truly the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.”
16. Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets, “This man is not worthy of death. For he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.”
17. Then certain of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying:
18. “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Zion shall be plowed like a field,and Jerusalem shall become heaps,and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.’
19. Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and entreat the Lord, and the Lord relented of the disaster which He had pronounced against them? Thus we might procure great evil against ourselves.”
20. There was also a man that prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath Jearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah.
21. And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah heard it, he was afraid and fled and went into Egypt.
22. And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt: namely, Elnathan the son of Akbor and certain men with him into Egypt.
23. They brought Uriah out of Egypt and led him to Jehoiakim the king, who slew him with the sword and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.
24. Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, with the result that he was not given into the hands of the people to put him to death.