UST JER Chapter 37

King Zedekiah asks Jeremiah to pray

37 Zedekiah son of Josiah became the king of Judah, ruling in place of Coniah son of Jehoiakim. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, was the one who made Zedekiah king over the land of Judah. 2 But King Zedekiah, his palace officials, and the other people in the land refused to pay attention to the messages that Yahweh had given them through me, Jeremiah the prophet. 3 King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to me, Jeremiah the prophet with this request: “Please pray to Yahweh our God for us.” 4 At that time I, Jeremiah was still moving about freely among the people, because no one had yet put me in prison. 5 At that time the army of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt had marched out from Egypt. When the army of Babylonia who were surrounding Jerusalem, heard the report about that army, they stopped surrounding Jerusalem and marched away.

6 Then Yahweh gave this message to me, Jeremiah, the prophet. He said, 7 “I, Yahweh, the God of Israel say this: The king of Judah who sent messengers to you to ask me what is going to happen. Tell the king that even though the army of the king of Egypt, came to help him, they are about to return to their own land. 8 Then the Babylonian army will come back, attack this city, capture it, and burn it down. 9 I also say this to you Israelites: You should not deceive yourselves by thinking, ‘The Babylonian army has certainly left us for good.’ For they will not stay away. 10 Because even if you could defeat the entire Babylonian army that is fighting against you, so that only wounded men remained lying in their tents, those wounded men would get up and burn this city down.”

Officials put Jeremiah in prison

11 When the Babylonian army withdrew from Jerusalem because the army of Pharaoh was approaching, 12 then, I, Jeremiah left Jerusalem to go to the territory of Benjamin, in order to claim there the share of family property that belonged to me among my people. 13 However, when I reached the Gate of Benjamin, the officer in charge there, a man named Irijah son of Shelemiah son of Hananiah, arrested me, Jeremiah the prophet and accused me, saying, “You are deserting us and going to the soldiers of the Babylonian army!” 14 I, Jeremiah replied, “That is a lie! I am not deserting to the soldiers of the Babylonian army.” However, Irijah refused to pay attention to me. He arrested me and took me to the officials. 15 The officials were furious with me, Jeremiah. They beat me and locked me up in the house of Jonathan the royal secretary, which they had turned into a prison. 16 They put me, Jeremiah into a cell that people had dug out underground like a water cistern, and I stayed there for a long time.

17 Then King Zedekiah sent men who brought me to the palace. There the king questioned me privately, “Is there any message from Yahweh?” I, Jeremiah answered, “Yes, there is a message. Yahweh will hand you over to the king of Babylon.” 18 Then Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “I have not done anything wrong to you, or to your officials, or to these people. You had no reason to put me in prison. 19 Consider also your prophets, the ones who prophesied to you that the king of Babylon would not attack you or this land. Now those prophets have disappeared. 20 So now, Your Majesty, please listen to me. Please grant the request that I am making to you: do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the royal secretary, so that I will not die there.” 21 So King Zedekiah gave orders, and his men placed Jeremiah in the courtyard of the guard. Every day they gave him a loaf of bread from the street where the bakers worked, until there was no more bread anywhere in the city because the Chaldeans besieged the city again. So Jeremiah stayed in the courtyard of the guard.