Jeremiah 37:6-16

New International Version

⁶ Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet: ⁷ “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire^(A) of me, ‘Pharaoh’s army, which has marched^(B) out to support you, will go back to its own land, to Egypt.^{(C) 8} Then the Babylonians will return and attack this city; they will capture^(D) it and burn^(E) it down.’

⁹ “This is what the Lord says: Do not deceive^(F) yourselves, thinking, ‘The Babylonians will surely leave us.’ They will not! ¹⁰ Even if you were to defeat the entire Babylonian^[a] army that is attacking you and only wounded men were left in their tents, they would come out and burn^(G) this city down.”

¹¹ After the Babylonian army had withdrawn^(H) from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh’s army, ¹² Jeremiah started to leave the city to go to the territory of Benjamin to get his share of the property^(I) among the people there. ¹³ But when he reached the Benjamin Gate,^(J) the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, arrested him and said, “You are deserting to the Babylonians!”^(K)

¹⁴ “That’s not true!” Jeremiah said. “I am not deserting to the Babylonians.” But Irijah would not listen to him; instead, he arrested^(L) Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. ¹⁵ They were angry with Jeremiah and had him beaten^(M) and imprisoned^(N) in the house^(O) of Jonathan the secretary, which they had made into a prison.

¹⁶ Jeremiah was put into a vaulted cell in a dungeon, where he remained a long time.