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Jeremiah Is Imprisoned

11 Now when the Chaldean army had withdrawn from Jerusalem at the approach of Pharaoh’s army, ¹²Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to receive his share of property^* among the people there. ¹³When he reached the Benjamin Gate, a sentinel there named Irijah son of Shelemiah son of Hananiah arrested the prophet Jeremiah, saying, ‘You are deserting to the Chaldeans.’ ¹⁴And Jeremiah said, ‘That is a lie; I am not deserting to the Chaldeans.’ But Irijah would not listen to him, and arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. ¹⁵The officials were enraged at Jeremiah, and they beat him and imprisoned him in the house of the secretary Jonathan, for it had been made a prison. ¹⁶Thus Jeremiah was put in the cistern house, in the cells, and remained there for many days.

17 Then King Zedekiah sent for him, and received him. The king questioned him secretly in his house, and said, ‘Is there any word from the Lord?’ Jeremiah said, ‘There is!’ Then he said, ‘You shall be handed over to the king of Babylon.’ ¹⁸Jeremiah also said to King Zedekiah, ‘What wrong have I done to you or your servants or this people, that you have put me in prison? ¹⁹Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, “The king of Babylon will not come against you and against this land”? ²⁰Now please hear me, my lord king: be good enough to listen to my plea, and do not send me back to the house of the secretary Jonathan to die there.’ ²¹So King Zedekiah gave orders, and they committed Jeremiah to the court of the guard; and a loaf of bread was given him daily from the bakers’ street, until all the bread of the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.