1 And King Zedekiah son of Josiah reigns instead of Coniah son of Jehoiakim whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had caused to reign in the land of Judah, 2 and he has not listened—he, and his servants, and the people of the land—to the words of YHWH that He spoke by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet. 3 And Zedekiah the king sends Jehucal son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah son of Maaseiah the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Pray, we implore you, for us to our God YHWH.” 4 And Jeremiah is coming in and going out in the midst of the people (and they have not put him in the prison-house), 5 and the force of Pharaoh has come out of Egypt, and the Chaldeans who are laying siege against Jerusalem hear their report, and go up from off Jerusalem. 6 And there is a word of YHWH to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, 7 “Thus said YHWH, God of Israel: Thus you say to the king of Judah who is sending you to Me, to seek Me: Behold, the force of Pharaoh that is coming out to you for help has turned back to its land, to Egypt, 8 and the Chaldeans have turned back and fought against this city, and captured it, and burned it with fire. 9 Thus said YHWH: Do not lift up your souls, saying, The Chaldeans surely go from off us, for they do not go; 10 for though you had struck all the force of the Chaldeans who are fighting with you, and there were left of them wounded men—they rise, each in his tent, and have burned this city with fire.” 11 And it has come to pass, in the going up of the force of the Chaldeans from off Jerusalem, because of the force of Pharaoh, 12 that Jeremiah goes out from Jerusalem to go [to] the land of Benjamin, to receive a portion there in the midst of the people. 13 And it comes to pass, he is at the Gate of Benjamin, and there [is] a master of the ward, and his name is Irijah son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah; and he catches Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are defecting to the Chaldeans!” 14 And Jeremiah says, “Falsehood! I am not defecting to the Chaldeans”; and he has not listened to him, and Irijah lays hold on Jeremiah, and brings him to the heads, 15 and the heads are angry against Jeremiah, and have struck him, and put him in the prison-house—the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made it for a prison-house. 16 When Jeremiah has entered into the house of the dungeon, and to the cells, then Jeremiah dwells there many days, 17 and King Zedekiah sends, and takes him, and the king asks him in his house in secret, and says, “Is there a word from YHWH?” And Jeremiah says, “There is,” and he says, “You are given into the hand of the king of Babylon.” 18 And Jeremiah says to King Zedekiah, “What have I sinned against you, and against your servants, and against this people, that you have put me into a prison-house? 19 And where [are] your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, The king of Babylon does not come in against you, and against this land? 20 And now, please listen, O my lord the king; please let my supplication fall before you, and do not cause me to return [to] the house of Jonathan the scribe, that I do not die there.” 21 And King Zedekiah commands, and they commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, also to give a cake of bread to him daily from the bakers’ street, until the consumption of all the bread of the city, and Jeremiah dwells in the court of the prison.
Jeremiah · Literal Standard Version
Jeremiah 37 Literal Standard Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Hananiah
Named as the father of Shelemiah, in the ancestry of Irijah.
Cited in the guide: Jeremiah 37:13
Irijah
Captain of the guard at the Gate of Benjamin who seized Jeremiah and accused him of deserting to the Chaldeans.
Cited in the guide: Jeremiah 37:13
Jehucal
Son of Shelemiah whom King Zedekiah sent to Jeremiah to ask for prayer, and who later heard Jeremiah's words and joined in seeking his death.
Cited in the guide: Jeremiah 37:3; Jeremiah 38:1
Jonathan
A scribe in whose house Jeremiah was beaten and jailed, the house having been made into a prison.
Cited in the guide: Jeremiah 37:15; Jeremiah 37:20
Maaseiah
Named as the father of Zephaniah the priest.
Cited in the guide: Jeremiah 21:1; Jeremiah 29:25; Jeremiah 37:3
Shelemiah
Son of Hananiah and father of Irijah, the captain of the guard.
Cited in the guide: Jeremiah 37:13
Shelemiah
Named as the father of Jehucal, an envoy of Zedekiah.
Cited in the guide: Jeremiah 37:3; Jeremiah 38:1
Cross references (20)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Jeremiah 22:24; 2 Kings 24:17; 2 Kings 24:12; Ezekiel 17:12–21; Jeremiah 52:31
- 2 Proverbs 29:12; 2 Kings 24:19–20; 1 Thessalonians 4:8; 2 Chronicles 36:12–16; Exodus 4:13
- 3 Jeremiah 21:1–2; Jeremiah 29:25; Jeremiah 52:24; Jeremiah 42:2–4; Jeremiah 2:27
- 4 Jeremiah 37:15; Jeremiah 32:2–3
- 5 Ezekiel 17:15; Jeremiah 34:21; 2 Kings 24:7; Jeremiah 37:11; Jeremiah 37:7
- 7 Lamentations 4:17; 2 Kings 22:18; Isaiah 31:1–3; Ezekiel 17:17; Jeremiah 37:3
- 8 Jeremiah 39:2–8; Jeremiah 38:23; Jeremiah 34:21–22; Jeremiah 32:29
- 9 Obadiah 3; Galatians 6:7; 2 Thessalonians 2:3; James 1:22; Matthew 24:4–5
- 10 Jeremiah 50:45; Joel 2:11; Leviticus 26:36–38; Isaiah 30:17; Isaiah 13:15
- 11 Jeremiah 37:5
- 12 Jeremiah 1:1; Matthew 10:23; 1 Chronicles 6:60; Joshua 21:17–18; Nehemiah 6:11
- 13 Zechariah 14:10; Jeremiah 38:7; Acts 24:13; Luke 23:2; Jeremiah 20:10
- 14 Psalm 27:12; Matthew 5:11–12; Jeremiah 40:4–6; Psalm 52:1–2; Psalm 35:11
- 15 Jeremiah 38:26; Matthew 21:35; 2 Chronicles 16:10; Genesis 39:20; Acts 5:18
- 16 Jeremiah 38:6; Jeremiah 38:10–13; Lamentations 3:53; Genesis 40:15; Lamentations 3:55
- 17 Jeremiah 21:7; 1 Kings 22:16; Jeremiah 21:1–2; Ezekiel 12:12–13; Jeremiah 24:8
- 18 John 10:32; Acts 25:8; Acts 25:25; Acts 25:11; Daniel 6:22
- 19 Jeremiah 28:10–17; Jeremiah 2:28; Jeremiah 6:14; 2 Kings 3:13; Jeremiah 8:11
- 20 Jeremiah 36:7; Jeremiah 26:15; Jeremiah 38:6–9; Acts 25:10–11; Acts 28:18–19
- 21 Jeremiah 38:28; Jeremiah 38:13; Jeremiah 32:2; Jeremiah 52:6; Jeremiah 38:9
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences