Jeremiah 37

37 ¹Zedekiah son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in Judah's land. ²But neither he, his servants, nor the land's people heeded our Father's words spoken through Jeremiah the prophet.

³King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah son of Maaseiah the priest to Jeremiah the prophet: "Please pray to our Father for us."

⁴Jeremiah was still coming and going among the people; they had not yet imprisoned him. ⁵Pharaoh's army had marched from Egypt; when the Babylonians besieging Jerusalem heard, they withdrew from Jerusalem.

⁶Then the word of our Father came to Jeremiah the prophet:

⁷This is what our Father of Israel says: Tell Judah's king who sent you to ask me: Pharaoh's army that marched out to help you is returning home to Egypt. ⁸Then the Babylonians will return and fight this city, capture it, and burn it down.

⁹This is what our Father says: Don't fool yourselves, saying, "The Babylonians will surely leave us"—they won't leave. ¹⁰Even if you struck down the whole Babylonian army fighting you, and only wounded men were left in their tents, they would rise up and burn this city down.

Jeremiah Arrested and Imprisoned

¹¹Now when the Babylonian army had withdrawn from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh's army, ¹²Jeremiah left Jerusalem for the land of Benjamin to claim his share there among the people. ¹³At the Benjamin Gate, guard captain Irijah son of Shelemiah son of Hananiah seized Jeremiah the prophet: "You're deserting to the Babylonians!"

¹⁴Jeremiah said, "A lie! I'm not deserting to the Babylonians." But Irijah ignored him, seized Jeremiah, and took him to the officials.

¹⁵The officials were angry with Jeremiah, beat him, and jailed him in the house of Jonathan the scribe, made into a prison.

¹⁶So Jeremiah went into the vaulted cells of the dungeon, and there he remained many days. ¹⁷Then King Zedekiah sent for him and had him brought out. The king questioned him privately at the palace and asked, "Is there any word from our Father?" "There is," Jeremiah said. "You will be handed to the king of Babylon."

¹⁸Jeremiah asked King Zedekiah, "How have I sinned against you, your servants, or this people, that you jailed me? ¹⁹Where now are your prophets who prophesied, 'The king of Babylon won't come against you or this land'? ²⁰Please hear me, my lord the king: let my plea reach you—don't send me back to Jonathan the scribe's house, or I'll die there."

²¹King Zedekiah gave orders, and they placed Jeremiah in the guard's courtyard, giving him a loaf of bread daily from the bakers' street until the city's bread ran out. So Jeremiah stayed in the guard's courtyard.