Jeremiahchapter 37
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Key verse
And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now unto the Lord our God for us.
It stands in scene A of the chapter, verses 1 to 10.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Pharaoh's army marches out and the Chaldeans lift the siege; Jerusalem exhales. Jeremiah punctures it: the Egyptians will go home, the Chaldeans will return and burn this city, do not deceive yourselves. Leaving town to claim a portion in Benjamin, he is seized at the gate of Benjamin by Irijah, charged with defecting, beaten by the princes, and put in the dungeon cells of Jonathan's house for many days. Zedekiah sends for him secretly and asks, Is there any word from Jehovah? The answer is unchanged: thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon. Jeremiah pleads not to be sent back to die there, and is moved to the court of the guard with a daily loaf while bread lasts.
Context
Prophecy · Jeremiah · Jeremiah overview
Where the chapter sits
Jeremiah 37 falls in Jerusalem's fall narrated (chapters 34–45). Zedekiah's vacillation; Jehoiakim burns the scroll (36); siege and fall (39); assassination of Gedaliah; flight to Egypt with the remnant.
Before it: Book of consolation, chapters 30–33. After it: Oracles against the nations, chapters 46–51.
The whole shape of Jeremiah→The world behind this chapter
Jeremiah 37The history
The event driving this chapter is a real military manoeuvre. Pharaoh Hophra brought an army out of Egypt, and the Babylonians lifted the siege of Jerusalem to deal with it. Inside the walls it looked like deliverance. Jeremiah says the Egyptians will go home and the Babylonians will come back and burn the city, and adds that even if the whole attacking army were reduced to wounded men in their tents, they would rise and do it.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
In the lull he goes out through the Benjamin Gate to attend to property in his home territory. This is probably the Anathoth land business, which is why the chapter mentions it at all. At the gate a sentry officer named Irijah arrests him on a charge that made perfect sense in context: you are deserting to the Chaldeans. He had, after all, been publicly advising people to do exactly that.
He is beaten and imprisoned in the house of Jonathan the secretary, which had been converted into a prison, in the cells of a vaulted cellar. Private houses pressed into use as jails, with underground storage rooms as holding cells, are exactly what a besieged city improvises.
The king then sends for him secretly. Zedekiah's question, is there any word from the LORD, gets a one-line answer: there is, you shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon. Jeremiah then negotiates his own transfer out of the cellar, and is given a loaf of bread a day from the bakers' street until all the bread in the city was gone.
What it meant to them
That last clause was the whole siege in eight words for the first hearers. A daily loaf from the bakers' street, until there was no bread in the city.
The chapter also shows a king who believed the prophet in private and could not act on it in public. He asks in secret, protects him a little, and keeps doing what his officials want. That was Judah's last government.
Sources cited
- Walton, Matthews and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings
A. Pharaoh's Army Departs, but the Chaldeans Will Return
1. (vv. 1-5)
a.whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king: Zedekiah reigns as Nebuchadnezzar's own appointment in Coniah's place, and the chapter states the verdict on him before any scene begins: neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did hearken unto the words of the Lord. Yet this same king sends Jehucal and Zephaniah to ask Jeremiah, pray now unto the Lord our God for us, wanting the prophet's intercession while refusing the prophet's word, a contradiction the bench reads as the whole character of the reign. Jeremiah still moves freely among the people at this point, not yet imprisoned, and the lifting of the siege by Pharaoh's advancing army supplies the false hope the next oracle will correct.
Jeremiah 37:1, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
Jeremiah 37:1
“And King Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned,.... The brother of Jehoiakim, whose untimely death, and want of burial, are prophesied of in the preceding chapter.”
Jeremiah 37:1
“It is evident that Zedekiah was well affected toward Jeremiah. In Jer. 37–38, dealing with events during the siege of Jerusalem, we have an account of his relations with Jeremiah and of the prophet’s personal history up to the capture of the city.”
Jeremiah 37:3, 4 voices
Jeremiah 37:3
“And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest,.... That is, Zephaniah the priest, as the accents shaw; though his father Maaseiah was doubtless a priest too; according to the Syriac version, both Jehucal, called Jucal, Jer 38:1; and Zephaniah, were priests; since it reads in the plural number, "priests": these the king sent as messengers to the Prophet Jeremiah, saying, pray now unto the Lord our God for us.”
Jeremiah 37:3
“This embassy is not to be confounded with that Jer 21:1 which took place when Nebuchadnezzar was just marching upon Jerusalem; this was in the brief interval of hope occasioned by the approach of an Egyptian army to raise the siege. The Jews were elated by this temporary relief, and miserably abused it Jer 34:11. Zedekiah seems to some extent to have shared their hopes, and to have expected that the prophet would intercede for the city as successfully as Isaiah had done Isa 37:”
Jeremiah 37:3
“But, as Pashur and Jehucal are both mentioned in Jer 38:1, 2, as hearing Jeremiah's reply, which is identical with that in Jer 21:9, it is probable the two messages followed one another at a short interval; that in this Jer 37:3, and the answer, Jer 37:7-10, being the earlier of the two.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 37:3
“Note, When we are in distress we ought to desire the prayers of our ministers and Christian friends, for thereby we put an honour upon prayer, and an esteem upon our brethren.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 37:4, 2 voices
Jeremiah 37:4
“Now Jeremiah came in and went out - After the siege was raised, he had a measure of liberty; he was not closely confined, as he afterwards was. See Jer 37:16.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 37:4
“Jeremiah . . . not put . . . into prison--He was no longer in the prison court, as he had been (Jer 32:2; 33:1), which passages refer to the beginning of the siege, not to the time when the Chaldeans renewed the siege, after having withdrawn for a time to meet Pharaoh.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 37:5, 1 voice
Jeremiah 37:5
“Then - And. Pharaoh-Hophra Jer 44:30, the Apries of Herodotus, probably withdrew without giving Nebuchadnezzar battle. After a reign of 25 years, he was dethroned by Amasis, but allowed to inhabit his palace at Sais, where finally he was strangled.”
2. (vv. 6-10)
a.Then came the word of the Lord unto the prophet Jeremiah: The word to the delegation refuses the comfort it was sent to fetch: Pharaoh's army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land, and the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire. Deceive not yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us: for they shall not depart answers the relief already spreading through Jerusalem at the siege's lifting, the bench noting how precisely Jeremiah names the self-deception rather than merely predicting against it. Verse 10's image, that even wounded men rising from their tents could still burn the city, states the judgment as fixed by divine decree rather than by Babylon's military strength, so that no partial defeat of the besiegers could avert it.
Jeremiah 37:7, 1 voice
Jeremiah 37:7
“Jeremiah’s answer here is even more unfavorable than that which is given in Jer 21:4-7. So hopeless is resistance that the disabled men among the Chaldaeans would alone suffice to capture the city and burn it to the ground.”
Jeremiah 37:8, 1 voice
Jeremiah 37:8
“And the Chaldeans shall come again,.... To Jerusalem, after they have defeated or drove back the Egyptian army: and fight against this city; with fresh rigour and resolution; being exasperated by the methods taken to oblige them to raise the siege: and take it, and burn it with fire; as they did, Jer 39:8.”
Jeremiah 37:10, 1 voice
Jeremiah 37:10
“Note, Whatever instruments God has determined to make use of in any service for him, whether or mercy or judgment, they shall accomplish that for which they are designed, whatever incapacity or disability they may lie under or be reduced to.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
B. Seized at the Gate of Benjamin; a Loaf of Bread Each Day
1. (vv. 11-15)
a.the army of the Chaldeans was broken up from Jerusalem: With the Chaldean army withdrawn to meet Pharaoh, Jeremiah tries to leave the city for Benjamin, to separate himself thence in the midst of the people, on business the text does not further specify. Irijah, a captain of the ward, arrests him at the gate on the charge thou fallest away to the Chaldeans, reading an innocent departure as treason, and Jeremiah's flat denial, it is false, changes nothing: he is beaten and shut in the house of Jonathan the scribe, made into a prison for the purpose. The commentators note the irony that the prophet who had just told the princes Babylon would surely return is arrested as Babylon's own defector.
Jeremiah 37:11, 1 voice
Jeremiah 37:11
“And it came to pass, that when the army of the Chaldeans were broken up from Jerusalem,.... When the siege of the city was broken up and raised: or, when they "went up from Jerusalem" (c); were gone from it; for fear of Pharaoh's army; or rather "because of Pharaoh's army" (d).”
Jeremiah 37:12, 2 voices
Jeremiah 37:12
“Jeremiah went forth - At the time that Nebuchadnezzar had raised the siege, and gone to meet the Egyptian army. Go into the land of Benjamin - To Anathoth, his native city. To separate himself thence - “To receive a portion thereof among the people;” - Blayney: who supposes that Jeremiah went to receive a portion of the proceeds of his patrimony at Anathoth, which had, previously to the siege, been in the hands of the Chaldeans. The siege being now raised, he thought of looking thus after his own affairs.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 37:12
“Benjamin--to his own town, Anathoth. to separate himself--Margin translates, "to slip away," from a Hebrew root, "to be smooth," so, to slip away as a slippery thing that cannot be held.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 37:13, 1 voice
Jeremiah 37:13
“A captain of the ward - Captain of the watch, whose business was to examine all who went in and out. The gate of Benjamin - The northern gate, also called the gate of Ephraim. Thou fallest away ... - His well-known views made Jeremiah a suspected person, though the charge was groundless.”
Jeremiah 37:14, 1 voice
Jeremiah 37:14
“The princes - Not the noblemen trained in the days of Josiah and Jeremiah’s friends Jer 26:16, but those described in Jer 24:8. They assumed that the accusation was true; they first scourged and then imprisoned Jeremiah.”
Jeremiah 37:15, 2 voices
Jeremiah 37:15
“Thus there is the expression in Exodus: "From the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the captive woman who was in the pit." But they even threw Jeremiah also into a pit. His brothers through jealousy confined Joseph in a pit without water. Each act, therefore, either draws us downward by oppressing us with sin or lifts us upward by raising us on wings toward God. Therefore, you have saved me, I who formerly lived a wicked life, and have separated me from those who go down to the dark and frigid region.”
Basil of Caesarea· written before 379· HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 14:3 (PS 29)patristic
Jeremiah 37:15
“And smote him - Without any proof of the alleged treachery, without any form of justice. In prison to the house of Jonathan - In Asiatic countries there is an apartment in the houses of the officers of the law, to confine all the accused that are brought before them. Jonathan was a scribe or secretary, and had a prison of this kind in his house.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2. (vv. 16-21)
a.entered into the dungeon, and into the cabins: Jeremiah is left in the dungeon and its cabins many days before Zedekiah sends secretly for him, and the king's question, is there any word from the Lord?, is put privately, away from the princes who wanted him dead. Jeremiah answers without softening it, there is: for, said he, thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, refusing to trade the message for his own relief even while asking the king directly not to be sent back to Jonathan's house to die. Zedekiah grants the smaller mercy and withholds the larger: he moves Jeremiah to the court of the prison with a daily ration of bread, a king who fears the prophet's God enough to spare his life and fears his own princes too much to set him free, as the bench reads the scene's whole pathos.
Jeremiah 37:16, 1 voice
Jeremiah 37:16
“Entered into the dungeon, and into the cabins - The dungeon was probably a deep pit; and the cabins or cells, niches in the sides, where different malefactors were confined. See Blayney.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 37:17, 1 voice
Jeremiah 37:17
“Is there any word from the Lord? - Is there any farther revelation? There is: - thou shalt be delivered - What bold faithfulness! And to a king, in whose hands his life now lay.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 37:18, 1 voice
Jeremiah 37:18-20
“It was not in Jeremiah's power to reverse the sentence God had passed upon Zedekiah, but it was in Zedekiah's power to reverse the sentence which the princes had given against him; and therefore, since he thought him fit to be used as a prophet, he would not think him fit to be abused as the worst of malefactors.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 37:19, 1 voice
Jeremiah 37:19-20
“Jeremiah said, "Now that matters have proven the truthfulness of my prophecy and the falsehood of your prophets, you must now judge rightly and punish those who lied, not him who warned you of the truth beforehand." Then he asked to be released from the …”
Theodoret of Cyrus· written before 458· ON JEREMIAH 8:37patristic
Jeremiah 37:20, 2 voices
Jeremiah 37:20
“Cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan - He had been ill used in this man’s custody, so as to endanger his life, the place being cold, and probably unhealthy.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 37:20
“Zedekiah ought to have released him, to have made him a privy-counsellor, as Joseph was taken from prison to be the second man in the kingdom. But he had not courage to do that; it was well he did as he did, and it is an instance of the care God takes of his suffering servants that are faithful to him.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 37:21, 1 voice
Jeremiah 37:21
“The prison - the watch (marginal reference). Piece - literally, a circle, i. e., a round cake. The bakers’ street - It is usual in oriental towns for each trade to have a special place set apart for it. Compare Act 10:6.”
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Jeremiah 37. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826); Albert Barnes; Basil of Caesarea, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 14:3 (PS 29); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Gill; Matthew Henry and Theodoret of Cyrus, ON JEREMIAH 8:37.
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