Background
This chapter opens the account of Jerusalem's last siege. Zedekiah was put on the throne by Babylon in 597 B.C., after the second invasion. He was pledged to Nebuchadnezzar as a vassal, but a spirit of nationalism grew at home, and “a growing patriotic feeling among the people brought Zedekiah to seek the support of Egypt in rebellion against the power of the north.” Babylon returned and besieged the city. Through it all Jeremiah's counsel was to submit, which meant that “he was viewed as a traitor and a subversive.”
The chapter falls in three scenes. The king sends two officials to ask for Jeremiah's prayers, and an Egyptian army makes the Chaldeans lift the siege for a time (verses 1–10). Jeremiah starts for his home country of Benjamin and is arrested at the gate on a charge of desertion (verses 11–15). He is put in a cellar prison, then fetched out for a secret interview with the king (verses 16–21). The Church's heading puts it plainly: “Jeremiah prophesies that Egypt will not save Judah from Babylon—He is cast into a dungeon—Zedekiah transfers him to the court of the prison.”
Chapters 37–39 belong together: they tell how the prophet was treated and how his word proved true. Nephi also says that Jeremiah was cast into prison (1 Ne. 7:14); the last note of the chapter asks which imprisonment he meant.
The thread through the chapter
Jeremiah 37 is about a king who wants the Lord's help but not the Lord's word. Zedekiah reaches toward Jeremiah three times: he sends for his prayers (verse 3), has him brought out in secret (verse 17), and orders him fed (verse 21). Each time Jeremiah gives the same answer he has given all along, that Babylon will take the city. And the princes treat the man who gives it as a traitor (verses 13–15).
The chapter's turn is the lifting of the siege. For a time, it looks as if the other side's prophets were right. Jeremiah tells the king the relief is temporary (verses 7–10), and then, from his prison, asks the question that settles who spoke for the Lord: “Where are now your prophets?” (verse 19). The verses open with the king and people who “did [not] hearken unto the words of the LORD” (verse 2) and end with the prophet shut up in the court of the prison, alive but only on the city's last bread.
Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.
A king who did not listen
Zedekiah son of Josiah became king in place of Coniah son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had made king in the land of Judah. But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land listened to the words the Lord spoke by Jeremiah the prophet.
Pray for us
King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to Jeremiah, saying, “Please pray to the Lord our God for us.” (Jeremiah was still going in and out among the people, because they had not yet put him in prison. Pharaoh's army had come out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans besieging Jerusalem heard the news, they withdrew.) Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Tell the king of Judah who sent you to ask of me: Pharaoh's army, which came to help you, will go back to its own land of Egypt. The Chaldeans will come back and fight against this city. They will take it and burn it. Do not fool yourselves by saying, ‘The Chaldeans will surely leave us,’ for they will not. Even if you struck down the whole Chaldean army and only wounded men were left in their tents, they would get up and burn this city.”
3 And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now unto the LORD our God for us.
4 Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people: for they had not put him into prison.
5 Then Pharaoh’s army was come forth out of Egypt: and when the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they departed from Jerusalem.
6 Then came the word of the LORD unto the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
7 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me to inquire of me; Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land.
8 And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.
9 Thus saith the LORD; Deceive not yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us: for they shall not depart.
10 For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.
Arrested at the gate
When the Chaldean army had withdrawn from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army, Jeremiah set out to go to the land of Benjamin, to receive his share there among the people. At the Benjamin Gate the officer on duty, Irijah son of Shelemiah son of Hananiah, seized him: “You are deserting to the Chaldeans!” “That is a lie,” said Jeremiah. “I am not deserting to the Chaldeans.” Irijah would not listen, and took him to the princes. The princes were furious, beat him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, which they had made into the prison.
11 And it came to pass, that when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army,
12 Then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to separate himself thence in the midst of the people.
13 And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans.
14 Then said Jeremiah, It is false; I fall not away to the Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him: so Irijah took Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes.
15 Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the prison.
The king's secret question
Jeremiah was put in the vaulted cellars of the dungeon and stayed there many days. Then King Zedekiah had him brought out and asked him secretly in his palace, “Is there any word from the Lord?” “There is,” said Jeremiah. “You will be handed over to the king of Babylon.” Jeremiah went on: “What wrong have I done to you, your officials, or this people, that you have put me in prison? Where now are your prophets who told you the king of Babylon would not attack you or this land? Please listen, my lord the king, and grant my plea: do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, or I will die there.” Zedekiah ordered Jeremiah kept in the court of the guard and given a loaf of bread daily from the bakers' street until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guard.
16 When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon, and into the cabins, and Jeremiah had remained there many days;
17 Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took him out: and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from the LORD? And Jeremiah said, There is: for, said he, thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.
18 Moreover Jeremiah said unto king Zedekiah, What have I offended against thee, or against thy servants, or against this people, that ye have put me in prison?
19 Where are now your prophets which prophesied unto you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land?
20 Therefore hear now, I pray thee, O my lord the king: let my supplication, I pray thee, be accepted before thee; that thou cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.
21 Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city were spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.
Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 37
Jeremiah's treatment is the pattern the Savior names over the same city: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings” (Matt. 23:37). Jeremiah is beaten, jailed and left on the city's last bread for telling its king what the Lord had said. The promise made at Jeremiah's call still holds on the page: “they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee” (Jer. 1:19).
Worth exploring next
- Jeremiah's continued imprisonment in the court of the prison, and the king's second secret meeting with him: Jer. 38
- The land purchased in the court of the prison, while the siege goes on: Jer. 32
- Jeremiah's earlier arrests and trials: Jer. 20:1–6, Jer. 26
- What Nephi says of Jeremiah's imprisonment and what his brothers wanted: 1 Ne. 7:14
- Zedekiah's end, and Jeremiah's release by the Babylonians: Jer. 39
Sources & further reading
- “Zedekiah”, Bible Dictionary.
- “Jehoiachin”, Bible Dictionary.
- “Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadrezzar”, Bible Dictionary.
- Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
- Enrichment G: Babylonia and the Conquest of Judah, Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
- The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
- Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
- Jeremiah 31–33; 36–38; Lamentations 1; 3, Scripture Helps: Old Testament.
- Ezra Taft Benson, “Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet”, BYU devotional, Feb. 26, 1980.
- Scripture Central, “How Could Nephi Have Known about Jeremiah’s Imprisonment?”, KnoWhy #463.
- Kevin L. Tolley, “The Imprisonment of Jeremiah in Its Historical Context”, Religious Educator 20, no. 3 (2019): 97–113.