Jeremiah 37

CHAPTER 37

Jeremiah Warns Against Trust in Pharaoh

¹Now ^aZedekiah the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had ^bmade king in the land of Judah, reigned as king in place of ^cConiah the son of Jehoiakim.

²But ^aneither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of Yahweh which He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.

³Yet ^aKing Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and ^bZephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “^cPlease pray to Yahweh our God on our behalf.”

⁴Now Jeremiah was still coming in and going out among the people; they had not yet ^aput him in the prison.

⁵Meanwhile, ^aPharaoh’s military force had come out from Egypt; and the Chaldeans who had been besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them. So they ^bwithdrew from Jerusalem.

⁶Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying,

⁷“Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘^aThus you are to say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Behold, ^bthe military force of Pharaoh which has come out for your assistance is going to return to its own land of Egypt.

⁸“The Chaldeans will also ^areturn and fight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire.” ’

⁹“Thus says Yahweh, ‘Do not ^adeceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go.

¹⁰‘For ^aeven if you had struck down the entire military force of the Chaldeans who were fighting against you, and there were only wounded men remaining among them, each man in his tent, they would rise up and ^bburn this city with fire.’”

Jeremiah Imprisoned

¹¹Now it happened when the military force of the Chaldeans had withdrawn from Jerusalem because of the military force of Pharaoh,

¹²that Jeremiah went out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin in order to ^aobtain his portion of some property there among the people.

¹³Now it happened that while he was at the ^aGate of Benjamin, the master of the guard whose name was Irijah the son of Shelemiah the son of Hananiah was there; and he ^bseized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are ¹going over to the Chaldeans!”

¹⁴But Jeremiah said, “^aA lie! I am not ¹going over to the Chaldeans”; yet he would not listen to him. So Irijah seized Jeremiah and brought him to the officials.

¹⁵Then the officials were ^aangry at Jeremiah and struck him, and they ^bput him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe because they had made that house into the prison.

¹⁶For Jeremiah had come into the ^1apit, that is, the vaulted cell; and Jeremiah stayed there many days.

¹⁷Then King Zedekiah sent and took him out; and in his palace the king ^asecretly asked him and said, “Is there a ^bword from Yahweh?” And Jeremiah said, “There is!” Then he said, “You will be ^cgiven into the hand of the king of Babylon!”

¹⁸Moreover, Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “^aIn what way have I sinned against you or against your servants or against this people, that you have put me in prison?

¹⁹“^aWhere then are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The ^bking of Babylon will not come against you or against this land’?

²⁰“But now, please listen, O my lord the king; please let my ^asupplication ¹come before you, and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, that I may not die there.”

²¹Then King Zedekiah gave commandment, and they committed Jeremiah to the ^acourt of the guard and gave him a loaf of ^bbread daily from the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city had ^ccome to an end. So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.