6. If you continue to disobey, then I will do to this Temple what I did to Shiloh, and all the nations of the world will use the name of this city as a curse.”
7. The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard me saying these things in the Temple,
8. and as soon as I had finished all that the Lord had commanded me to speak, they seized me and shouted, “You ought to be killed for this!
9. Why have you said in the Lord's name that this Temple will become like Shiloh and that this city will be destroyed and no one will live in it?” Then the people crowded round me.
10. When the leaders of Judah heard what had happened, they hurried from the royal palace to the Temple and took their places at the New Gate.
11. Then the priests and the prophets said to the leaders and to the people, “This man deserves to be sentenced to death because he has spoken against our city. You heard him with your own ears.”
12. Then I said, “The Lord sent me to proclaim everything that you heard me say against this Temple and against this city.
13. You must change the way you are living and the things you are doing, and must obey the Lord your God. If you do, he will change his mind about the destruction that he said he would bring on you.
14. As for me, I am in your power! Do with me whatever you think is fair and right.
15. But be sure of this: if you kill me, you and the people of this city will be guilty of killing an innocent man, because it is the Lord who sent me to give you this warning.”
16. Then the leaders and the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man spoke to us in the name of the Lord our God; he should not be put to death.”
17. After that, some of the elders stood up and said to the people who had assembled,
18. “When Hezekiah was king of Judah, the prophet Micah of Moresheth told all the people that the Lord Almighty had said,‘Zion will be ploughed like a field,Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins,and the Temple hill will become a forest.’
19. King Hezekiah and the people of Judah did not put Micah to death. Instead, Hezekiah honoured the Lord and tried to win his favour. And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he said he would bring on them. Now we are about to bring a terrible disaster on ourselves.”
20. (There was another man, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath Jearim, who spoke in the name of the Lord against this city and nation just as Jeremiah did.