Jeremiah 37:1-10
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 37[a]
Jeremiah’s Arrest. 1 Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, was appointed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to be king in the land of Judah, succeeding Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim. 2 However, neither he nor his officials nor the people of the land paid any heed to the words of the Lord that he spoke through the prophet Jeremiah.
3 Even so, King Zedekiah sent Jehucal, the son of Shelamiah, and the priest Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah, to the prophet Jeremiah with this message, “Please pray to the Lord, our God, for us.” 4 At that time Jeremiah had not been imprisoned, and he was still able to move freely among the people. 5 Meanwhile, Pharaoh’s army had set forth from Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem learned of this, they withdrew from there.
6 Then the word of the Lord came to the prophet Jeremiah: 7 Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Give this reply to the king of Judah who sent you to consult me: Pharaoh’s army which has set out to help you will withdraw to its own country of Egypt, 8 and the Chaldeans will then resume their attack upon this city. They will capture it and burn it to the ground.
9 Thus says the Lord: Do not deceive yourselves with the belief that the Chaldeans will cease their attack on you, for they will not disappear. 10 Even if you managed to defeat the entire force of the Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and only those who were wounded were still left, they would rise up and burn this city to the ground.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Jeremiah 37:1 We leap ahead here to the dark years, 588–587 B.C., that would see Jerusalem besieged and sacked by the Babylonian army. Jeremiah did not cease his denunciation of the policy that led Judah to destruction. The nationalist party was enraged and sought to rid itself at any cost of this troublesome man, but neither prison nor blows silenced the prophet.
