King Zedekiah sends messengers to Jeremiah
1King Zedekiah, son of Josiah, ruled after Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, was king. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon made Zedekiah king of the land_of_Judah. 2Zedekiah and his officials and the people of the land did not listen to the message of the Lord that He gave to Jeremiah to tell them. 3But King Zedekiah sent Jehukal, the son of Shelemiah, and the priest Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah, to ask Jeremiah: ‘Please pray for us to the Lord our God.’
4At that time Jeremiah was not in jail yet and he could walk anywhere he wanted.
5The soldiers of Pharaoh came from Egypt to attack Judah while the Babylonian soldiers attacked Jerusalem. When they told the Babylonian soldiers that the Egyptians were coming, they went away from Jerusalem.
6Then the Lord said to the prophet Jeremiah: 7‘I, the Lord, the God of Israel, say: You must tell the messengers of the king that they must tell the king_of_Judah who has sent them to listen to what the Lord says: “The soldiers of Pharaoh came to help you, but they have turned_around and gone back to their land of Egypt. 8The Babylonians will come back again and they will attack this city. They will defeat and burn it.” 9The Lord says: “Do not deceive yourselves. Do not think that the Babylonians are gone and they will leave you alone. No, they have not gone away. They are coming back. 10Even if you could defeat all the soldiers of the Babylonians that are going to fight against you, the few soldiers who were wounded and lay in their tents would get up and they would burn down this city.” ’
Jeremiah is put in jail
11The Babylonian soldiers went away from Jerusalem to fight the Egyptian soldiers of Pharaoh. 12Jeremiah wanted to go from Jerusalem to the land of Benjamin to get his part of land from his family. 13But at the Benjamin Gate an officer of the guards arrested him. The name of the officer was Irijah, son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah. Irijah said: ‘Now you want to go to the Babylonians to fight with them.’
14But Jeremiah said: ‘No, that is not_true. I am not going to the Babylonians.’
But Irijah did not believe Jeremiah. He arrested Jeremiah and took him to the officials of Jerusalem. 15The officials were angry with Jeremiah. They beat him and put him in jail. It was the house of Jonathan, the secretary, but they had changed his house into a jail. 16Then they put Jeremiah into a prison room under the ground, like a water-well that also had other rooms. Jeremiah stayed there for a long time.
King Zedekiah speaks to Jeremiah
17Later King Zedekiah told the guards to bring Jeremiah to the palace. When the 2 of them were alone, he asked Jeremiah: ‘Do you have a message from the Lord?’
Jeremiah said: ‘Yes, the Lord did send a message. He says the king of Babylon will defeat you and he will catch you.’
18Jeremiah then asked King Zedekiah: ‘What have I done wrong against you and your officials and all these people? Why did you put me in jail? 19And where are your prophets now who said that the king of Babylon would not come to war_against you and this land? 20Your_Majesty, please listen to what I ask: Don't let me go back to jail in the house of Jonathan the secretary. I will die there.’
21The king then told the guards to keep Jeremiah in the courtyard of the guards. He also told them to give Jeremiah bread from the bakers every day. And Jeremiah got bread until there was no more bread in the city. Jeremiah stayed in the courtyard of the guards.
