The Anselm Project

Chapter 37

¹ And King Zedekiah son of Josiah reigned in place of Coniah son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel made king in the land of Judah. ² And he did not obey, he and his servants and the people of the earth, to the words of the LORD that he spoke by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet. ³ King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, "Please intercede for us with the LORD our God." ⁴ Jeremiah came and went among the people, and they had not put him in prison. ⁵ And the army of Pharaoh went out from Egypt, and the Chaldeans besieging Jerusalem heard their report, and they went up from Jerusalem. ⁶ And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying: ⁷ The LORD God of Israel says: You shall say to the king of Judah who sent you to me to seek me: The forces of Pharaoh that went out to help you have returned to Egypt. ⁸ And the Chaldeans will return, and they will fight against this city, capture it, and burn it with fire. ⁹ Thus says the LORD: Do not lift up your souls saying, "They will go away from us, the Chaldeans"—for they will not go. ¹⁰ For if you struck down all the power of the Chaldeans fighting against you and there remained in them men stabbing a man in his tent, they will rise up and burn this city with fire. ¹¹ And it was when the army of the Chaldeans went up from Jerusalem because of the army of Pharaoh. ¹² And Jeremiah went out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to divide from there in the midst of the people. ¹³ And it was—he at the gate of Benjamin, and there the master of oversight, whose name was Irijah son of Shelomiah son of Hananiah, and he seized Jeremiah the prophet saying, "To the Chaldeans you have fallen." ¹⁴ And Jeremiah said, "Falsehood! I am not defecting to the Chaldeans." And he did not listen to him, and Irijah seized Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. ¹⁵ And the rulers were angry at Jeremiah and struck him and gave him the house of the commandment, house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made it the house of the prison. ¹⁶ Jeremiah came to the house of the pit and to the cells, and he sat there many days. ¹⁷ King Zedekiah sent and took him, and the king asked him in his house in secret, "Is there a word from the LORD?" And Jeremiah said, "There is." And he said, "You will be given into the hand of the king of Babel." ¹⁸ Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, "What sin have I committed against you, against your servants, and against this people, that you have put me in the house of the prison?" ¹⁹ Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, "No king of Babel will come upon you or upon this land"? ²⁰ Now please hear, my lord the king. Please intercede for my supplication before you, and do not deliver me into the house of Jonathan the scribe, so that I do not die there. ²¹ King Zedekiah commanded, and they appointed Jeremiah in the court of the guard. They gave him a loaf of bread daily from the bakers until all the bread was gone from the city. Jeremiah sat in the court of the guard.