¹¹The Babylonian army retreated from Jerusalem because the Egyptian army was approaching. ¹²So I started to leave Jerusalem and go to the territory of Benjamin to take possession of my share of the family property. ¹³But when I reached the Benjamin Gate, the officer in charge of the soldiers on duty there, a man by the name of Irijah, the son of Shelemiah and grandson of Hananiah, stopped me and said, “You are deserting to the Babylonians!”

¹⁴I answered, “That’s not so! I’m not deserting.” But Irijah would not listen to me. Instead, he arrested me and took me to the officials. ¹⁵They were furious with me and ordered me to be beaten and locked up in the house of Jonathan, the court secretary, whose house had been made into a prison. ¹⁶I was put in an underground cell and kept there a long time.

¹⁷Later on King Zedekiah sent for me, and there in the palace he asked me privately, “Is there any message from the Lord?”

“There is,” I answered, and added, “You will be handed over to the king of Babylonia.” ¹⁸Then I asked, “What crime have I committed against you or your officials or this people, to make you put me in prison? ¹⁹What happened to your prophets who told you that the king of Babylonia would not attack you or the country? ²⁰And now, Your Majesty, I beg you to listen to me and do what I ask. Please do not send me back to the prison in Jonathan’s house. If you do, I will surely die there.”

²¹So King Zedekiah ordered me to be locked up in the palace courtyard. I stayed there, and each day I was given a loaf of bread from the bakeries until all the bread in the city was gone.

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