pray (2 Kgs 19:3–7, 14–20). Pashur confines Jeremiah, however, for too short a duration to determine if he is a false prophet. What he predicts would not have occurred overnight, the apparent length of his sentence. It is not clear what Jeremiah’s violation was, then, except that his message was unwelcome; after all, there was no notion of the right to free speech in the ancient world. The high priest of the temple at Bethel similarly tries to silence Amos when his message predicts a dire fate for
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