Jeremiah 26:18, commentary and pictures

Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah that Zion would be plowed like a field and Jerusalem would become heaps and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest, a complete ruin of the city and the temple mount. When Jeremiah was tried for announcing judgment on the city, the elders cited that earlier prophecy as precedent to protest the priests' demand for his death, showing that a true prophet could foretell the city's doom without deserving death. Hezekiah and all Judah did not put Micah to death for his warning but feared the Lord and sought Him and pleaded with Him.

The Lord turned from the evil He had pronounced and relented from the threatened disaster and withheld it, showing that a warning of judgment can lead to repentance and avert calamity. The elders argued that putting Jeremiah to death for a like message would bring great evil and guilt and harm upon themselves. Through that appeal Jeremiah's life was spared, showing that God raised up defenders for His servant when priests and false prophets wanted him killed for sedition.

Its image of ground plowed like a field was fulfilled when the Romans razed the city and temple to their foundations, leaving the ground where the temple had stood plowed like a field.