In this message on Israel's stubbornness in their sinning against Jehovah and Jeremiah's firmness in his speaking for Him before the fall of Jerusalem, we will cover chapters thirty-seven and thirty-eight and a part of chapter thirty-nine.
Chapter thirty-seven concerns the first step of Jeremiah's imprisonment. Zedekiah the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had made king in the land of Judah, reigned as king instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim. Neither Zedekiah nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of Jehovah spoken through Jeremiah the prophet. Zedekiah sent someone with a priest to Jeremiah, asking him to pray to Jehovah their God for them.
At that time Jeremiah came in and went out among the people, not having been put in prison yet. The army of Pharaoh had come out of Egypt, and when the besieging Chaldeans heard the news, they withdrew from Jerusalem. Then Jehovah charged Jeremiah to tell the king of Judah that Pharaoh's army, which had come out to help Judah, was returning to its own land of Egypt, and the Chaldeans would return and fight against the city of Jerusalem, capture it, and burn it. Jehovah said, "Do not deceive yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans will surely go away from us; for they will not go away. For even if you had struck down the whole army of the Chaldeans, who are fighting against you, and only wounded men remained among them, they would rise up each one in his tent and burn this city with fire" (vv. 9-10).
When the Chaldeans had withdrawn from Jerusalem, Jeremiah went out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to receive his portion there. But he was seized by the captain of the guard at the Gate of Benjamin and falsely accused of trying to desert to the Chaldeans. When he was accused Jeremiah said, "It is false! I am not deserting to the Chaldeans" (v. 14a). However, the captain of the guard did not listen to him but seized him and brought him to the princes. The princes were angry with Jeremiah, struck him, and put him in prison, where he remained many days.
Later, Zedekiah the king sent and took him out; and the king questioned him in the king's house secretly, asking, "Is there any word from Jehovah?" Jeremiah answered, "There is," and then he said, "You will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon" (v. 17). He also said to Zedekiah the king, "In what have I sinned against you or against your servants or against this people, that you have put me in prison? And where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land?" (vv. 18-19). Then he asked the king not to send him back to prison, lest he die there. So Zedekiah the king commanded that Jeremiah be placed into the court of the guard and gave him a loaf of bread daily from the bakers' street until all the bread was gone from the city. So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.