Jeremiah 37:2-17

2Neither he nor his attendants nor the people of the land paid any attention to the words the LORD had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet.

3King Zedekiah, however, sent Jehukal son of Shelemiah with the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to Jeremiah the prophet with this message: “Please pray to the LORD our God for us.” 4Now Jeremiah was free to come and go among the people, for he had not yet been put in prison.

5Pharaoh’s army had marched out of Egypt, and when the Babylonians Or Chaldeans; also in verses 8, 9, 13 and 14 who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem. 6Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet: 7“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of me, ‘Pharaoh’s army, which has marched out to support you, will go back to its own land, to Egypt.

8Then the Babylonians will return and attack this city; they will capture it and burn it down.’ 9“This is what the LORD says: Do not deceive yourselves, thinking, ‘The Babylonians will surely leave us.’ They will not!

10Even if you were to defeat the entire Babylonian Or Chaldean; also in verse 11 army that is attacking you and only wounded men were left in their tents, they would come out and burn this city down.” 11After the Babylonian army had withdrawn from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh’s army, 12Jeremiah started to leave the city to go to the territory of Benjamin to get his share of the property among the people there.

13But when he reached the Benjamin Gate, the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, arrested him and said, “You are deserting to the Babylonians!” 14“That’s not true!” Jeremiah said. “I am not deserting to the Babylonians.” But Irijah would not listen to him; instead, he arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials.

15They were angry with Jeremiah and had him beaten and imprisoned in the house of Jonathan the secretary, which they had made into a prison. 16Jeremiah was put into a vaulted cell in a dungeon, where he remained a long time.

17Then King Zedekiah sent for him and had him brought to the palace, where he asked him privately, “Is there any word from the LORD ?” “Yes,” Jeremiah replied, “you will be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon.”