UNROLL
Morning in a walled stone courtyard: a single round loaf of coarse bread on a cloth on a stone bench, a clay water jug beside it, sunlight on the wall.

The last days of Judah

Jeremiah 37

Do you ask God for a word and hope it will be a different one?

21 verses≈ 4 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1The callJosiah’s thirteenth year (about 627 BC): a prophet to the nations
  2. 2–6Return to MeBroken cisterns, faithless Judah, disaster from the north
  3. 7–10The temple gateThe temple sermon, a weeping prophet, the living God
  4. 11–20Covenant and complaintThe broken covenant, the potter, Jeremiah’s confessions
  5. 21–29Shepherds and prophetsKings judged, the Branch, seventy years, the yoke, the letter
  6. 30–33The Book of ComfortRestoration, the new covenant, a field bought in a siege
  7. 34–39The last days of JudahThe scroll burned, the cistern, Jerusalem falls (586 BC)Chapter 37
  8. 40–45After the fallGedaliah at Mizpah, the flight to Egypt, a word for Baruch
  9. 46–51The nationsEgypt to Babylon: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
  10. 52Jerusalem fallsThe record of 586 BC, and a king released

Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made Zedekiah son of Josiah the king of Judah, and he reigned in place of Coniah son of Jehoiakim. But he and his officers and the people of the land refused to obey the words that the LORD had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet.

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Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, to Jeremiah the prophet with the message, “Please pray to the LORD our God for us!”

Now Jeremiah was free to come and go among the people, for they had not yet put him in prison. Pharaoh’s army had left Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report, they withdrew from Jerusalem.

God
The coast road of Philistia in afternoon haze: a column of Egyptian soldiers and a few chariots marching away south, their dust drifting, the land empty behind them.

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says that you are to tell the king of Judah, who sent you to Me: Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has marched out to help you, will go back to its own land of Egypt. Then the Chaldeans will return and fight against this city. They will capture it and burn it down.

God

This is what the LORD says: Do not deceive yourselves by saying, ‘The Chaldeans will go away for good,’ for they will not! Indeed, if you were to strike down the entire army of the Chaldeans that is fighting against you, and only wounded men remained in their tents, they would still get up and burn this city down.”

Question

Quick question

For a while it looked as if the danger had passed. Look at 37:5.

Why did the Babylonian army leave Jerusalem for a time?

Jeremiah Imprisoned

When the Chaldean army withdrew from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army, Jeremiah started to leave Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to claim his portion there among the people.

Irijah

But when he reached the Gate of Benjamin, the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, seized him and said, “You are deserting to the Chaldeans!”

Jeremiah

“That is a lie,” Jeremiah replied. “I am not deserting to the Chaldeans!”

But Irijah would not listen to him; instead, he arrested Jeremiah and took him to the officials.

The officials were angry with Jeremiah, and they beat him and placed him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for it had been made into a prison.

A dark vaulted cellar cut in rock beneath a house: one narrow shaft of gray light from a grate high above falls on a straw mat and a clay water jar; no one is there.

So Jeremiah went into a cell in the dungeon and remained there a long time.

Later, King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and received him in his palace, where he asked him privately, “Is there a word from the LORD?” “There is,” Jeremiah replied.

Jeremiah 37:17

Jeremiah
Jeremiah

“You will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.”

Jeremiah

Then Jeremiah asked King Zedekiah, “How have I sinned against you or your servants or these people, that you have put me in prison? Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, claiming, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or this land’?

Jeremiah

But now please listen, O my lord the king. May my petition come before you. Do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, or I will die there.”

Early morning in a narrow stepped lane of Jerusalem: domed clay bread ovens at the doorways, most of them cold, one baker setting out a short row of a few round loaves on a board, smoke from one oven.

So King Zedekiah gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread daily from the street of the bakers, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

0:14

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

Pray

Lord, I want a word from You, but too often only the one I hope for. Give me courage to hear the true word, and thank You for the daily bread You give in hard places. Amen.

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Jeremiah 37

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A verse to carry with you

Later, King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and received him in his palace, where he asked him privately, “Is there a word from the LORD?” “There is,” Jeremiah replied.

Jeremiah 37:17

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