Jeremiah in prison
37
📚And King Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned in the place of Coniah 📖 the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah. 2 📚But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, listened to the words of the LORD, which he spoke through the prophet Jeremiah.3 📚And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “Now pray to the LORD our God for us”.
37:3 If people refuse to hear and obey God’s word to what does their request for prayer amount? or even answered prayer for them? – Ex 8:8, 28; 9:28; 10:17; Num 21:7; 1 Sam 12:19; 1 Kings 13:6; Acts 8:24. Very often people ask for prayer without a desire for repentance or a new heart because they want God to rescue them from danger or trouble. This is trifling with God.⚜
4 📚Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people, for they had not yet put him in prison. 5 📚Then Pharaoh’s army came up out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them, they departed from Jerusalem.
6 Then the word of the LORD came to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, 7 📚“Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: This is what you shall say to the king of Judah who sent you to me to inquire of me: ‘See, Pharaoh’s army, which has come out to help you, will return to Egypt to their own land. 8 📚And the Chaldeans will come back and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.
9 📚‘“Thus says the LORD: Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely depart from us”, for they will not depart. 10 📚For even though you had struck down the whole army of the Chaldeans that fights against you, and there remained only wounded men among them, every man of them would still rise up in his tent, and burn this city with fire.’ ”
11 📚And it came about when the army of the Chaldeans had withdrawn from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army,
37:4-11 No request for prayer by unrepentant, disobedient people can cause God to change what He has purposed to do.⚜
12 📚that Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin, to take possession of his assigned portion there among the people.
37:12 Jeremiah’s town, Anathoth, was located in the territory of Benjamin.⚜
13 📚And when he was at the Gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah. He was the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah. And he seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are defecting to the Chaldeans”.
14 📚Then Jeremiah said, “That is false. I am not defecting to the Chaldeans”. But he did not listen to him. So Irijah took Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. 15 📚Therefore the officials were angry with Jeremiah, and struck him, and imprisoned him in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison.
16 📚So Jeremiah went into the dungeon and into a vaulted cell, and Jeremiah remained there many days.
37:15-16 Another example of the mistreatment God’s servants often encounter in this world (Gen 39:20; Acts 4:3; 12:1-4; 16:22-24; Heb 11:36-38).⚜
17 📚Then Zedekiah the king sent and brought him out, and the king questioned him secretly in his house, and said, “Is there any word from the LORD?” And Jeremiah said, “There is. He said, ‘For you will be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon.’ ”
37:17 Evidently King Zedekiah was a weak man, afraid of His own officials. Jeremiah, as usual, told him the plain truth (Jer 21:3-7). He would not soften God’s message to escape from trouble or danger.⚜
18 📚Moreover Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “How have I offended against you, or against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison?
37:18 1 Sam 26:18. It is not wrong to appeal to rulers against unjust treatment.⚜
19 📚Where now are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you, or against this land?’ 20 📚Therefore please listen now, O my master the king. Please let my plea be acceptable to you, so that you do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there”.
21 📚Then King Zedekiah gave a command that they should commit Jeremiah into the courtyard of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread from the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the prison.
37:21 A better place than the jail in which he had been (v 16).⚜