Of Uriah, son of Shemaiah, from the Forest City (Kirjath-Jearim), nothing is known, except his tragical death. At the commencement of the reign of King Jehoiakim (between 607-604) he had prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and of the whole land, if the people did not give up their evil ways. When Jehoiakim was informed of this prophecy of evil, he dispatched messengers to seize and kill its author. Meanwhile Uriah, having been secretly warned of his danger, fled to Egypt. Jehoiakim, however, was so enraged against him, that he sent one of his nobles to Egypt to demand his surrender. He was brought back to Jerusalem and beheaded, his body being cast on the burial-place of the common people. This murder of the prophet, instead of intimidating Jeremiah, seems to have confirmed him in his energetic action. With the accession of Jehoiakim and the relapse of the nation into its former state of sin, he began anew his work as a prophet, which had been in abeyance during the reign of Josiah. Jeremiah now, for the first time, comprehended the meaning of the words which had been addressed to him as a disciple in the first hours of his prophetic calling. "I have made thee a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land." He was to remain firm and unmoved, and to meet fearlessly the impending persecutions. Acting on this idea, he prepared to announce the inevitable destruction, though his tender heart bled, and he often had to seek fresh courage in order that he might not grow faint in his task of prophesying evil. Jeremiah, meanwhile, had grown to man's estate; but he took no wife. He could not devote himself to household joys whilst the shadow of approaching troubles darkened his soul. He went forth alone and in sadness. He could take no part in convivial pleasures, because the sins of the nation crushed in him all feelings of gladness. Through one of his first addresses in Jehoiakim's reign he drew on himself the hatred of all zealous idolaters, and especially of the priests and false prophets. When the populace, at one of the festivals, had assembled to offer up sacrifices, he called to them, "Thus saith the Lord God of Hosts: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.... Is this house, which is called by my name, to be a den of robbers? Behold even I have seen it, saith the Lord.... And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not, and I called you and ye answered not, therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done unto Shiloh." (JEREM. ch. vii.)