Jeremiah
Chapter 37
1 King Zedekiah, Josiah’s son, became king after Coniah, Jehoiakim’s son, whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had made king over Judah.
2 But he, his servants, and the people of the land did not listen to the words of God that He said through the prophet Jeremiah.
3 King Zedekiah sent Jehucal, Shelemiah’s son, and Zephaniah, Maaseiah the priest’s son, to prophet Jeremiah, saying, “Please pray to God for us.”
4 Jeremiah moved freely among the people because he was not imprisoned.
5 The Egyptian army left Egypt, and when the Chaldeans attacking Jerusalem heard about them, they left Jerusalem.
6 God spoke to the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
7 God, the God of Israel, says this: Tell the king of Judah who sent you to ask me, ‘The army of Pharaoh that came to help you will go back to Egypt, to their own country.’
8 The Chaldeans will come back, fight against this city, capture it, and set it on fire.
9 God says, “Don’t trick yourselves by thinking, ‘The Chaldeans will definitely leave us.’ They will not leave.”
10 Even if you had defeated the entire army of the Chaldeans battling you, and only injured soldiers were left, they would still get up, each in his tent, and set this city on fire.
11 When the Chaldean army left Jerusalem because they were afraid of Pharaoh’s army,
12 Jeremiah left Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin and keep himself apart from the people there.
13 While he was at Benjamin’s gate, a guard leader named Irijah, son of Shelemiah, grandson of Hananiah, was there. He arrested Jeremiah the prophet, accusing him, “You are defecting to the Chaldeans.”
14 Then Jeremiah said, “That’s not true; I am not going over to the Babylonians.” But he did not listen to him; so Irijah arrested Jeremiah and took him to the officials.
15 So the leaders were angry with Jeremiah, hit him, and put him in jail in Jonathan the writer’s house, because they had turned it into a jail.
16 When Jeremiah went into the dungeon and the cells, he stayed there for many days.
17 King Zedekiah sent for him and brought him to his house, where he asked him privately, “Has God given a message?” Jeremiah replied, “Yes, you will be captured by the king of Babylon.”
18 Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “What have I done wrong to you, to your servants, or to the people that you have locked me up?”
19 Where are your prophets now who told you, ‘The king of Babylon will not attack you or this land’?
20 Please listen, I ask you, O king: accept my urgent request not to send me back to Jonathan the scribe’s house, so I won’t die there.
21 King Zedekiah ordered that Jeremiah be put in the prison yard, and that he get a piece of bread every day from the baker’s area until all the city’s bread was gone. So Jeremiah stayed in the prison yard.