Jeremiah 26:24

Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam... — The family to whom the prophet’s protector belonged played a conspicuous part in the history of this period, and may be said to have furnished examples of three generations of Jewish patriotism. Shaphan, the father, was prominent as a scribe in the reformation of Josiah (cir. A.D. 624). He superintended the restoration of the Temple (2 Chronicles 34:8). To him Hilkiah the priest gave the book of the Law which had been found in the house of the Lord, and Shaphan took it to the king. He took his son Ahikam with him when he was sent to consult the prophetess Huldah (2 Kings 22:12; 2 Chronicles 34:20). Here the son meets us, true to the early lessons of his life, as the protector of the prophet, whose work rested so largely on the impression made by the Book of the Law thus discovered. A brother of Ahikam, Gemariah, appears in a like character in Jeremiah 36:12; Jeremiah 36:25. After the conquest of the land by Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah finds refuge with Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam (Jeremiah 40:6), who had been made, apparently through the prophet’s influence, satrap, or governor, of the lands under the Chaldæan king; and he, after a fruitless warning, falls a victim to the conspiracy of the princes of the royal house (Jeremiah 41:1). Here stress is laid on the fact of Ahikam’s protection, as showing how it was that Jeremiah escaped the fate which fell on Urijah.