Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah
And King Zedekiah son of Josiah reigned in place of Coniah son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah.
And he did not listen — he and his servants and the people of the land — to the words of the LORD that he spoke by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet.
And King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah son of Maaseiah the priest to Jeremiah the prophet, saying: Pray now for us to the LORD our God.
And Jeremiah was coming in and going out among the people, for they had not put him in the house of confinement.
And the army of Pharaoh had come out from Egypt, and the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report of them and went up from Jerusalem.
And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying:
Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Thus you will say to the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire of me: See, the army of Pharaoh that has come out to help you is returning to its land, Egypt.
And the Chaldeans will return and fight against this city and capture it and burn it with fire.
Thus says the LORD: Do not deceive your souls, saying: The Chaldeans will surely go from us — for they will not go.
For even if you struck the whole army of the Chaldeans who are fighting with you, and there remained among them men pierced through, they would rise up, each in his tent, and burn this city with fire.
Jeremiah Imprisoned
And it was, when the army of the Chaldeans had gone up from Jerusalem before the army of Pharaoh,
that Jeremiah went out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin, to take his portion from there among the people.
And he was in the Gate of Benjamin, and there was a master of the guard whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah son of Hananiah; and he seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying: You are falling away to the Chaldeans!
And Jeremiah said: Falsehood! I am not falling away to the Chaldeans. But he did not listen to him. And Irijah seized Jeremiah and brought him to the princes.
And the princes raged at Jeremiah and struck him, and they put him in the house of confinement, the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the house of imprisonment.
For Jeremiah came into the house of the pit and into the cells, and Jeremiah stayed there many days.
And King Zedekiah sent and took him, and the king asked him in his house in secret and said: Is there a word from the LORD? And Jeremiah said: There is. And he said: Into the hand of the king of Babylon you will be given.
And Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah: How have I sinned against you and against your servants and against this people, that you have put me in the house of imprisonment?
And where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying: The king of Babylon will not come against you and against this land?
And now, hear now, my lord the king: let my plea fall before you, and do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.
And King Zedekiah commanded, and they committed Jeremiah to the court of the guard, and they gave him a loaf of bread a day from the street of the bakers, until all the bread from the city was finished. And Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guard.