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Jeremiah 37-38
Chapter 37: The Princes and Chief Men Imprison Jeremiah
Chapter 37 takes place in 588 BC, when Pharaoh Hophra (ruled from 589 to 569) sent an Egyptian army to come to Zedekiah's aid against the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar temporarily lifted the first siege of Jerusalem to take his army to meet the advancing Egyptian threat. In this chapter, Zedekiah receives two short oracles confirming the return of the Babylonian army and the destruction of Jerusalem:
- Oracle #1: The Egyptians marching to Judah's aid will withdraw back to Egypt, and the Babylonians will return to attack and capture Jerusalem (verse 7).
- Oracle #2: The destruction of Jerusalem is inevitable (verses 9-10).
Jeremiah 37:1-5 ~ Zedekiah Consults Jeremiah
The Babylonians besieged Jerusalem and deposed King Jehoiakim for treason in 598 BC. They also deposed his eighteen year old son, Jehoiachin (Coniah), and made Zedekiah king of Judah in his place (2 Kng 24:1-18). However, like his predecessors, Zedekiah did not believe the oracles of Yahweh through His prophet Jeremiah. This passage took place in 588 BC when the Babylonians temporarily broke off the siege of Jerusalem to deal with the Egyptian threat.
Jeremiah 37:6-10 ~ Yahweh's Reply to King Zedekiah
The prophet Ezekiel made the same prophecy about the Egyptians in Ezekiel 17:15-17, which is later supplemented by oracles in Ezekiel 29:1-12; 30:20-26; and 31:1-18. The Egyptians are a weak and worthless ally, a fact that Jeremiah expressed in 2:18-19, 36. It is also a warning given a century earlier by Isaiah in 30:1-7, and the same warning is later remembered in Lamentations 4:17. The prophecy of the Babylonian army's return to the city was already made in 34:21-22.
Jeremiah in Prison
Jeremiah 37:11-16 ~ The Arrest of Jeremiah
The Babylonian's lifted the siege of Jerusalem, and Jeremiah took the opportunity to travel to his hometown of Anathoth to see about a piece of his property among the people there. It is possible there was a death and the nearest kinsmen needed to determine ownership of the ancestral property or, if it was a Jubilee year when the land returned to the original families, he may have need to see about the division of the property within his family. We have already heard about the issue of the property and the resolution in Jeremiah 32:1-15. The town of Anathoth was north of Jerusalem within the tribal lands of Benjamin; therefore, it is reasonable that Jeremiah should leave the city by the northern Benjamin Gate.
Jeremiah 37:17-21 ~ King Zedekiah Sends for Jeremiah
The Babylonians returned to resume the siege of the city, just as Jeremiah prophesied in 37:8. Zedekiah is a weak king who fears the power of his ministers (38:5); therefore he sends for Jeremiah in secret. It is possible that King Zedekiah now suspects that Jeremiah is a true prophet of Yahweh while the other prophets spoke falsely. You may recall that in 17:15 Jeremiah's enemies taunted him, saying "Where is Yahweh's word? Let it come true then!" Zedekiah could not have missed the fact that Jeremiah's oracles are all coming true and Jeremiah reminds him of this fact (verse 19).
Chapter 38: Jeremiah's Enemies Seek His Death
The year is 587 BC. The princes and royal officials supported Jeremiah in the reign of King Jehoiakim (26:16-24), but the princes and royal officials in power during the reign of King Zedekiah are his enemies and want him executed for sedition against the government. This chapter has three oracles:
- Oracle #1: Yahweh's warning that those who stay in Jerusalem will die and His promise that those who surrender to the Babylonians will live (verse 2).
- Oracle #2: Yahweh's assurance that the Babylonians will capture Jerusalem (verse 3).
- Oracle #3: Yahweh's final oracle to King Zedekiah (verses 17-18).
The third oracle concludes with Jeremiah telling Zedekiah about the vision Yahweh gave him of the king's wives as they are led out of the palace to the Babylonian generals (verses 21-23). His vision is the only poetry passage since the last poetic prophecy of the Messianic Davidic king in 33:15-16.
Jeremiah 38:1-3 ~ Yahweh's Oracle Concerning the Fall of Jerusalem
Jeremiah is still giving Yahweh's oracles in the palace Court of the Guard. There are two short oracles in this passage that are a summary of Yahweh's oracles to the people during the 35 years of Jeremiah's ministry.
Jeremiah 38:4-6 ~ The Royal Officials Conspire Against Jeremiah
Question: What reason do the king's chief ministers give for wanting to execute Jeremiah?
Answer: Jeremiah is preaching sedition and is weakening the resolve of the soldiers and the people to resist the Babylonians.
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he came to the throne, and it is now a decade later; therefore, Malchiah could not have been Zedekiah's son. This prince was either a younger brother or a royal cousin of the king and an enemy of Jeremiah. The princes and royal officials put Jeremiah into an empty cistern.
Question: In addition to keeping Jeremiah from speaking to the people, what was the darker motive for confining Jeremiah in the empty cistern? See verse 6b, 9, and 38:4.
Answer: Their intention was to leave him to die without water and food.
If he dies of "natural causes," they probably think they will not incur the "blood guilt" of executing Jeremiah. However, Yahweh who sees and knows all, including the evil intentions of every man and woman, knows the evil they planned for Jeremiah. One can only imagine the suffering Jeremiah endured, sinking into the mud, which the historian Flavius Josephus records came up to his neck (Antiquities of the Jews, 10.5.120-121; see the quote at the beginning of this lesson).
Jeremiah 38:7-13 ~ The Eunuch Ebed-melech Saves Jeremiah's Life
Question: What promise did Yahweh make to Jeremiah when He first called him to his prophetic ministry in 1:17-18?
Answer: God promised to make Jeremiah fearless before his enemies, and that He will be with Jeremiah to rescue him.
True to the oath Yahweh made Jeremiah, He sent a very unlikely savior in the person of a Cushite (generally understood to be an Ethiopian), Gentile palace eunuch, and we may not even know his name. Ebed-melech [ebed = servant; melech = king] means "servant [of the] king" or more literally, "king's servant." It is more likely that this is not his name but describes his position within the palace as a eunuch who served in the women's quarters. The Ethiopian eunuch heard about Jeremiah's desperate condition because he worked in the palace. Jeremiah's condition may have been kept a secret from his friends the scribes and the common people.
Jeremiah 38:14-23 ~ Oracle #2: Jeremiah's Last Conversation with the King
Zedekiah summons Jeremiah for what will be their final meeting. There will be one final request and one final answer. The location of the meeting is unknown. It was a private entrance from the palace to the Temple that suited the purpose of a clandestine meeting.
Jeremiah 38:24-28 ~ Zechariah Cautions Jeremiah not to Reveal Their Conversation
After hearing the final oracle, the king's only response is to command Jeremiah not to repeat their private conversation or the oracle. Zedekiah says if the princes/chief men hear about their meeting and demand an account, he is to only tell them that he petitioned the king not to send him back to Jonathan's prison where he would die. This is exactly what he did in verse 27, and without any information to the contrary, the ministers sent him back to the Court of the Guard where Jeremiah stayed until the Babylonians captured the city.
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A Daily Defense
DAY 249 Paul’s Conversion
CHALLENGE: “Accounts of Paul’s conversion in the New Testament contradict each other.”
DEFENSE: The passages are easily harmonized.
At the time of his conversion, Paul (aka Saul) was traveling to Damascus when a great light from heaven shone around him and Jesus spoke to him. A contradiction is alleged between two verses describing the reaction of the men who were with Paul:
The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing (akouontes) the voice (phōnēs) but seeing no one (Acts 9:7).
Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear (ēkousan) the voice (phōnēn) of the one who was speaking to me (Acts 22:9).
Both verses have forms of the Greek verb akouō for “hear” and the noun phōnē for “voice.” One seems to say the men with Paul heard the voice and the other that they didn’t.
However, both texts were written by the same author (Luke), who got the information from the same source (Paul). Luke was Paul’s traveling companion (see Day 26; cf. Col. 4:14, 2 Tim. 4:11, Philem. 24), and both accounts are based on Paul’s reminiscences to Luke. Consequently, if the passages can be read in harmony with each other, they should be. And, although it is not obvious from the above English translation, they can.
The verb akouō doesn’t just mean “hear.” It can also mean “understand.” Further, the noun phōnē doesn’t just mean “voice.” It also means “sound.” These are not controversial translations.
They are found in any standard Greek lexicon. Since the texts were written by the same author, relying on the same source, it is natural and straightforward to read the passages as saying that the men with Paul heard the sound but did not understand what the voice was saying to him.
This would be similar to John 12:28–29—when God speaks from heaven and some bystanders perceive it as thunder—indicating an objective experience only incompletely perceived by those who were not its primary recipients. There is thus no contradiction.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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