Jeremiah 37:11-21

Complete Jewish Bible

¹¹ Then, at the time when the army of the Kasdim had lifted the siege of Yerushalayim out of fear of Pharaoh’s army, ¹² Yirmeyahu left Yerushalayim to go to the territory of Binyamin to receive his share of an inheritance there. He was passing through the crowds ¹³ and had reached the gate leading toward Binyamin when a guard commander there named Yir’iyah the son of Shelemyah, the son of Hananyah, seized Yirmeyahu the prophet, shouting, “You’re deserting to the Kasdim!” ¹⁴ Yirmeyahu answered, “That is a lie! I am not deserting to the Kasdim”; but Yir’iyah wouldn’t listen to him. So he arrested Yirmeyahu and brought him to the officials. ¹⁵ The officials, furious with Yirmeyahu, had him beaten and jailed in the house of Y’honatan the secretary, which had been made over into a prison. ¹⁶ The cistern had been made into a dungeon, and Yirmeyahu was put in one of its cells; there he remained for a long time.

¹⁷ Then Tzidkiyahu the king sent and had him brought; and the king asked him secretly, in his palace, “Is there any word from Adonai?” “There is,” Yirmeyahu said. “You will be handed over to the king of Bavel.” ¹⁸ Yirmeyahu asked King Tzidkiyahu, “In what way have I sinned against you or against your officials or against this people, that has caused you to put me in prison? ¹⁹ Where are your prophets now, the ones who prophesied to you that the king of Bavel wouldn’t attack you or this land? ²⁰ So now, please listen, my lord king! I beg you, approve my request — don’t make me return to the house of Y’honatan the secretary, or I will die there.” ²¹ At that, Tzidkiyahu the king gave the order, at which they committed Yirmeyahu to the guards’ quarters and gave him daily a loaf of bread from the Bakers’ Street, until all the bread in the city had been used up. Thus Yirmeyahu remained in the guards’ quarters.