Jeremiah · chapter 37 of 52
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Jeremiah 37 narrates the start of Jeremiah's imprisonment under King Zedekiah. When the Babylonian army withdraws for a moment because of the Egyptian army, Jeremiah warns that it will return. As he leaves for Benjamin he is accused of going over to the Chaldeans, beaten and jailed. Zedekiah consults him in secret and lets him stay in the court of the guard.
This chapter begins the prose account of Jeremiah's suffering and the fall of Jerusalem (chapters 37-45). It no longer gives visions or separate oracles but concrete events, with names and places. King Zedekiah appears as a man who wants to hear the prophet but does not dare obey him.
Zedekiah son of Josiah reigns in place of Coniah, appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, but neither he nor his servants nor the people listen to the words of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah. The king sends Jehucal and the priest Zephaniah to ask him to pray for them. At that moment Jeremiah was still free among the people. Pharaoh's army marches out of Egypt, and the Chaldeans who had been besieging Jerusalem withdraw for a time.
Then the word of the Lord comes: Pharaoh's army will go back to Egypt, the Chaldeans will return, attack the city and burn it. They must not deceive themselves by thinking the Chaldeans have left for good; even if they defeated the whole Chaldean army and only wounded men were left in their tents, those men would rise up and burn the city.
When the Chaldean army withdraws, Jeremiah leaves Jerusalem for the land of Benjamin to receive his share among the people. At the Benjamin Gate an officer named Irijah seizes him and accuses him of deserting to the Chaldeans. Jeremiah denies it, but Irijah brings him to the officials, who beat him and put him in the house of Jonathan the secretary, which had been made a prison. Jeremiah stays in a vaulted cell for many days.
Zedekiah has him brought secretly and asks whether there is a word from the Lord. Jeremiah answers that there is, and that he will be handed over to the king of Babylon. He asks what wrong he has done to be imprisoned and begs not to be sent back to the house of Jonathan, where he would die. The king orders him put in the court of the guard and given a loaf of bread every day from the bakers' street, until the bread of the city is gone.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Neither the king nor his servants nor the people listened to the words of the Lord through Jeremiah. The narrative states the problem from the start: God's word is not lacking, but the willingness to hear it is.
The Lord warns them not to deceive themselves into thinking the Chaldeans have left for good, for they will come back. Though the relief seems real, God calls them to see reality: the withdrawal is a pause, not a pardon.
Zedekiah secretly calls Jeremiah and asks whether there is a word from the Lord. Jeremiah answers without softening it: he will be handed over to the king of Babylon. A faithful prophet says what God said, even at risk.
The king orders Jeremiah moved to the court of the guard and given bread every day while there is any in the city. It is a gesture of care, but it also shows Zedekiah's weakness: he protects the prophet without obeying him.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. — Jeremiah 37:1
Answer: Because Pharaoh's army had marched out of Egypt. — Jeremiah 37:5
Answer: That they will return, attack the city, capture it and burn it. — Jeremiah 37:8
Answer: Of deserting to the Chaldeans. — Jeremiah 37:13
Answer: In the house of Jonathan the secretary, made into a prison, in a vaulted cell. — Jeremiah 37:15-16
Answer: Not to send him back to the house of Jonathan, because he would die there. — Jeremiah 37:20
Jeremiah 37 shows that a pause in the problem is not the same as a solution. The people breathed again when the Chaldeans left and thought the worst had passed, but God said they would return. In a small group you can talk about moments of relief we use to postpone a needed change.
It also shows the cost of telling the truth. Jeremiah paid with beatings and prison for being faithful, and he drew nearer to God instead of giving up. Ask yourselves whether you are willing to be faithful when it costs you, and pray for those who suffer for their faith or for doing what is right.
Jeremiah stays faithful to his message even though it lands him in prison, and Zedekiah still does not obey. In chapter 38 the opposition to the prophet hardens: his enemies throw him into a cistern, and a foreigner rescues him.
Because he had publicly said that Jerusalem would fall and that it was better to surrender. When he left the city for Benjamin, his enemies took the chance to accuse him of treason. Jeremiah denied it, but nobody believed him.
Its march out of Egypt made the Chaldeans lift the siege for a time, and the people of Jerusalem felt hope. Jeremiah warned that Egypt would not save them, because Pharaoh's army would go back to its own land and the Chaldeans would return.