Jeremiah 37:3-5

I. THE PROPHET CONSULTED Jeremiah 37:3-10

In 589 B.C. Zedekiah foolishly rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar his overlord. Jerusalem had to pay the inevitable consequences. In 588 B.C. the armies of Babylon besieged the city (Jeremiah 32:1-2). Things looked very bleak for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. As for Jeremiah, he had been arrested and confined during that first part of the siege (Jeremiah 32:1-5). In the summer of 588 B.C. things took a turn for the better. Pharaoh Hophra came marching northward with a relief expedition. The Chaldeans were forced temporarily to suspend siege conditions to deal with this new development. This withdrawal of Chaldean troops afforded Jerusalem a breathing spell of a few weeks.

A. Zedekiah's Request Jeremiah 37:3-5

TRANSLATION

(3) And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Pray please on our behalf unto the LORD our God. (4) Now Jeremiah came and went among the people for they had not yet put him in prison. (5) Meanwhile the army of Pharaoh had gone out from Egypt. When the Chaldeans who were besieging the city heard this report they lifted the siege of the city.

COMMENTS

When the Chaldeans shifted their forces to counter the invasion of Pharaoh Hophra (Jeremiah 37:5) new hope was kindled in the hearts of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. For nine months they had been shut up in the city watching the strangle-hold slowly doing its deadly work. But now the enemy was gone! Perhaps the Egyptian allies would be able to defeat the accursed Chaldeans! Seeking prophetic confirmation of the prevailing optimism, king Zedekiah sent a delegation to Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord. The two-man delegation consisted of Zephaniah the deputy high priest[324] and a prince by the name of Jehucal (or Jucal). The latter would shortly join other princes in demanding the death penalty for Jeremiah (Jeremiah 38:4). But at the moment no animosity is apparent. Though the princes were violently resentful of the threats and warnings which Jeremiah had been uttering, yet the prophet was a powerful figure. They coveted his support for the national leadership. Let bygones be bygones. After all the Chaldeans had withdrawn from the city. Surely Jeremiah would jump on the bandwagon with all the nationalistic prophets now that circumstances had proven his earlier predictions to be inaccurate. As Hezekiah many years earlier had sent an embassy to Isaiah requesting prayer for besieged Jerusalem (Isaiah 37:6), so now they come and ask Jeremiah to pray unto the Lord for us (Jeremiah 37:3). Perhaps they hoped that God would miraculously intervene and overthrow the invading Chaldeans even as He had done many years earlier in the time of the invasion of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:35).

[324] See Jeremiah 21:1; Jeremiah 29:25; Jeremiah 52:24; Jeremiah 52:26-27; 2 Kings 25:18; 2 Kings 25:20-21.

Jeremiah 37:4 is a somewhat parenthetical note indicating the personal circumstances of Jeremiah at the time the deputation from Zedekiah arrived. The prophet was still free i.e., he had not suffered arrest. This verse is not to be interpreted in the absolute sense that Jeremiah had never yet been arrested for most certainly he had been (see chapter 26). Nor should this verse be pressed to mean that Jeremiah had not yet been arrested during the reign of Zedekiah. On the basis of this verse most all commentators place the episode in chapter 32 after the events of chapter 37. While this is not an impossible arrangement, it certainly is unnecessary. Jeremiah might well have been in custody during the initial phase of the Chaldean siege and then have been released once the attacking armies withdrew. In this case the present verse would mean only that Jeremiah had not yet experienced the final arrest which was to keep him in custody until after the fall of the city. This arrest is recorded in Jeremiah 37:11 ff.