Jeremiah 37 explained: Jeremiah Arrested During a Brief Lull

A king who would not listen (vv. 1-2)

Zedekiah was put on Judah's throne by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon after the previous king, Jehoiachin, was taken away. The writer sums up the whole reign in one line: the king, his officials and the people ignored what the LORD said through Jeremiah.

A request for prayer (vv. 3-5)

Zedekiah had broken his oath of loyalty to Babylon and turned to Egypt for help, and when an Egyptian army marched out, the Babylonians lifted their siege of Jerusalem. The king asked Jeremiah to pray, likely hoping this relief would last, though he had not acted on the prophet's earlier warnings.

Do not fool yourselves (vv. 6-10)

The answer was blunt: Egypt's army would go home, and Babylon would come back, take the city and burn it. The picture of wounded men rising from their tents to do it is deliberate exaggeration, a way of saying the outcome is settled.

Arrested at the city gate (vv. 11-16)

During the lull Jeremiah set out for his home region of Benjamin to deal with family property; the Hebrew here is unclear, and some link it to the field he bought in chapter 32. A guard accused him of deserting to the enemy, a charge his calls to surrender made believable, and officials had him beaten and shut in a vaulted underground cell in an official's house.

A secret meeting with the king (vv. 17-21)

Zedekiah brought Jeremiah to the palace privately, perhaps afraid to be seen consulting him, and Jeremiah repeated that the king would fall to Babylon, then asked what crime he had committed and where the prophets were who had promised Babylon would never come. The king moved him to the courtyard of the guard with a daily loaf from the bakers' street, a ration that would last only until the city's bread ran out.

Key verse: Jeremiah 37:17

Something to think about

Why might a person keep going back to someone for advice while refusing to act on what that person keeps telling them?