¹And King Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had made king in the land of Judah. ²But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land heeded the words of the Lord which he spoke through the intermediacy of Jeremiah the prophet. ³And King Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to Jeremiah the prophet to say, “Please pray to the Lord our God for us.” ⁴Meanwhile Jeremiah was going in and out among the people, for they had not put him in prison. ⁵And Pharaoh's forces came out from Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they raised the siege on Jerusalem. ⁶Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ⁷“This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘This is what you will say to the king of Judah who sent you to me to inquire of me: «Look, Pharaoh's forces which came out as help for you will return to their land, Egypt, ⁸and the Chaldeans will return, and they will fight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire. ⁹This is what the Lord says: ‹Do not deceive yourselves, saying, "The Chaldeans will certainly go away from us", for they will not go. ¹⁰For even if you were to strike down all the forces of the Chaldeans who are fighting you, and there remained among them men thrusted through, each one in his tent would arise and burn this city with fire.› » ’ ” ¹¹And it came to pass, when the Chaldeans raised the siege on Jerusalem, because of Pharaoh's forces, ¹²that Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to have land apportioned to him there among the people. ¹³And it came to pass, when he was at Benjamin's Gate, that an officer of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, and he seized Jeremiah the prophet and said, “You are a defector to the Chaldeans.” ¹⁴And Jeremiah said, “That is false. I am not a defector to the Chaldeans.” But Irijah did not take any notice of him, and he seized Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. ¹⁵And the officials were angry with Jeremiah, and they beat him and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made that the prison. ¹⁶So Jeremiah went into the dungeon, and into the vaults. And Jeremiah remained there for many days. ¹⁷Then King Zedekiah sent for him and took him out, and the king questioned him in his house in secret and asked, “Is there any word from the Lord?” And Jeremiah said, “There is.” And he said, “You will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.” ¹⁸Then Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “In what way have I sinned against you, or against your servants, or against this people, that you should have put me in prison? ¹⁹And where are your prophets who prophesied to you and said, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land’? ²⁰So now, my lord the king, please listen; do let my appeal be welcomed, and do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, so that I do not die there.” ²¹But King Zedekiah gave command that they consign Jeremiah to the prison enclosure and give him a round loaf of bread per day from the bakers' street until all the bread in the city was used up. So Jeremiah remained in the prison enclosure.