Jeremiah 37:3-21

King Zedekiah sent two men to me with a request, Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah. They said to me, “Please intercede to YAHWEH our God that he would help us.” (Now I was still moving about freely among the people, for I had not yet been put in prison. Meanwhile, Pharaoh and his Egyptian army were on the move. And when the Babylonians who had besieged Jerusalem heard that the Egyptians were on the move against them, they withdrew from the city.) Then YAHWEH, the God of Israel, spoke to me: “This is what you are to say to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, who asked you to consult with me: ‘Pharaoh’s army that you thought was coming to help you is about to return to Egypt. And the Babylonians will come back and attack this city. They will capture it and burn it down. I, YAHWEH, warn you, do not deceive yourselves into thinking, “The Babylonians won’t come back to attack us,” because they surely will. For even if you were to defeat the entire army of Chaldeans who are fighting against you and only severely wounded men were left lying in their tents, they still would rise up and burn this city to the ground!’ ” Now, the Babylonian army had withdrawn from Jerusalem at the approach of Pharaoh’s army. So I set out from Jerusalem to go to Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin to settle some affairs regarding my share of an inheritance among my people. But when I arrived at the Benjamin Gate, the captain of the guard named Irijah, son of Shelemiah, grandson of Hananiah, seized me and accused me of trying to desert to the Babylonians. “You’re wrong,” I replied. “I’m not a traitor.” But Irijah refused to listen to me. He arrested me and brought me to the officials. The officials were furious with me, and they beat me and locked me up in the house of Jonathan, the court secretary, which they had made into a prison. After I had been put into the dungeon for a long time, King Zedekiah had me secretly brought to his palace. He asked me, “Has YAHWEH given you a word for me?” “Yes,” I answered. “YAHWEH is going to let you be captured by the king of Babylon. But please tell me, what crime have I committed against you, your officials, or these people that you have thrown me in prison? Your ‘prophets’ who told you that the king of Babylonia would not attack you or invade the land, where are they now? So now, please hear me, my lord the king. Let my humble plea come before you. Do not send me back to the dungeon at the court secretary Jonathan’s house. That would be my certain death!” So King Zedekiah gave orders to confine me to the palace guardhouse. Each day a loaf of bread from the bakery was given to me until all the bread of the city was gone. So I remained there in the palace courtyard.