Shelemiah
Shelemiah, a priest during King Zedekiah's reign; father of Jehucal.
Biography
Shelemiah the priest was a figure of some influence during the reign of King Zedekiah, the last king of Judah before the Babylonian exile. He is identified in Jeremiah 37:3 and 38:1 as the father of Jehucal (also called Jucal), one of the officials who petitioned King Zedekiah to put Jeremiah to death on the grounds that his prophecies of Babylonian conquest were undermining the morale of the soldiers and the people. As a priest and father of a royal courtier, Shelemiah represented the religious establishment that had aligned itself with the political opposition to Jeremiah's ministry, a collaboration between priestly authority and royal power in suppressing prophetic truth.
Significance
Shelemiah's priestly status lends particular gravity to his son Jehucal's role in the conspiracy against Jeremiah. When those appointed as mediators between God and the people instead work to silence God's prophet, it signals the deep spiritual corruption that preceded Jerusalem's fall. The priests of Zedekiah's court, rather than affirming the prophetic word, became its adversaries. Shelemiah's family thus illustrates the biblical warning that religious office offers no immunity from the temptation to prioritize institutional self-preservation over faithfulness to God's revealed word. The fall of Jerusalem (586 BC) confirmed the truth of Jeremiah's prophecies that Jehucal and others had sought to suppress.
Verse Appearances (2)
Jeremiah
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- Tyndale House, Cambridge (n.d.) Translators Individualised Proper Names with all References (TIPNR). STEPBible. Available at: https://www.stepbible.org. [CC BY 4.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]