14. How did Israel as a nation accept the Law’s requirements as to the sanctity of life, and what indictments were God’s prophets authorized to deliver?

¹⁴ What an indictment of ancient Israel this equitable provision of Jehovah proved to be! Although the whole law of Israel laid emphasis on the sacredness of life and the sanctity of blood, from the beginning of his dealings with Israel only a small remnant responded to the repeated pleadings Jehovah found it necessary to make with his people, ‘rising up early and sending his prophets’ to warn them of the certainty of just retribution. They not only refused to heed Jehovah’s warning counsel, but they violently turned on his prophets and cruelly put them to death, thus adding the blood of these innocent ones to their guilt before Jehovah. (Jer. 26:2-8) Therefore Jehovah sent them this indictment through Jeremiah: “Also, in your skirts there have been found the blood marks of the souls of the innocent poor ones. Not in the act of breaking in have I found them, but they are upon all these.” (Jer. 2:34) And through Isaiah: “The very land has been polluted under its inhabitants, for they have bypassed the laws, changed the regulation, broken the indefinitely lasting covenant. That is why the curse itself has eaten up the land, and those inhabiting it are held guilty. This is why the inhabitants of the land have decreased in number, and very few mortal men have remained over.”​—Isa. 24:5, 6.

15. What retribution did Jehovah bring against his people Israel in Jeremiah’s day, and what added responsibility in this regard did their descendants in Jesus’ day bear?

¹⁵ Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 B.C.E. because of her many crimes against Jehovah, including her bloodguilt, and only a remnant remained uncondemned. But, in spite of this awesome retributive act of Jehovah, the false religious leaders of Jesus’ day could not deny their own bloodguiltiness any more than the religious leaders of Jeremiah’s time, for, in both instances, their skirts were crimson red with the blood of Jehovah’s faithful ones, including even that of his own dear Son.​—Matt. 23:33-36; 27:24, 25; Luke 11:49-51.

Christendom today stands in the same position as the Jews of Jesus’ day, to whom Jesus said: “Here I am sending forth to you prophets and wise men and public instructors. Some of them you will kill and impale, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city; that there may come upon you all the righteous blood spilled on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I say to you, All these things will come upon this generation. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent forth to her.”​—Matt. 23:34-37.

2. From what did Jerusalem’s bloodstained record come, and what retribution did she receive?

² Jerusalem’s bloodstained record came, not from engaging in theocratic warfare under the command of Jehovah God, but because she shed innocent blood and deliberately put to death many of God’s prophets, even Jesus, God’s Son, being condemned to death there. This was not done in innocence, for seven centuries earlier, in Jeremiah’s day, Jehovah exposed Jerusalem’s bloodguilt when he said through his prophet: “Also, in your skirts there have been found the blood marks of the souls of the innocent poor ones. Not in the act of breaking in have I found them, but they are upon all these. But you say, ‘I have remained innocent. Surely his anger has turned back from me.’ Here I am entering into controversy with you on account of your saying, ‘I have not sinned.’” (Jer. 2:34, 35) Acting directly upon these words, in 607 B.C.E. Jehovah did express his anger against Jerusalem for her wanton bloodshed, and his Babylonian executioners poured out her blood upon the ground in an appalling destruction. So, too, Jerusalem came in for another bloodbath, in fulfillment of Jesus’ words, and before it was finished in the summer of 70 C.E. 1,100,000 had died within the besieged city.