Jeremiah 37 Study Notes

37:1-21 Eighteen years passed between the events of chaps. 36 and 37.

37:1 In fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy in 36:30, Zedekiah (a brother of Jehoiakim) was placed on the throne in place of Coniah [aka Jehoiachin] son of Jehoiakim. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had made Zedekiah king. This is an unusual expression until we remember that Jehoiachin was deported to Babylon after only three months as king, and Zedekiah was installed in his place by the Babylonian king.

37:2 Judah’s problems were never just political; they were mostly spiritual problems shared by the newly installed king, his officers and the people of the land. They had no desire to heed the word from the Lord.

37:3 For the second time (21:1-2), Zedekiah sent messengers to Jeremiah asking for intercessory prayer.

37:4 Jeremiah was free to come and go as he pleased, but this would soon change.

37:5 The phrase Pharaoh’s army had left Egypt probably refers to Pharaoh Hophra (44:30), called “Apries” by Herodotus (2.161; 4.159). This caused Babylon to withdraw temporarily from the siege of Jerusalem in the summer of 588 BC. The Babylonians soon defeated the Egyptians, and the siege of Jerusalem resumed.

37:6-10 Jeremiah’s answer to Zedekiah’s prayer request was that the Egyptian army would return home to Egypt, and the Babylonians would resume their siege and raze Jerusalem. This was hardly a morale booster for Zedekiah and the people of Judah.

37:11-12 Jeremiah was arrested as he set out to inspect and claim his portion of the property in his native town of Anathoth (1:1; 32:8). He had just purchased this property from his cousin Hanamel (chap. 32).

37:13-14 An officer of the guard presumed Jeremiah was defecting to the enemy. After all, the prophet had encouraged others to surrender to the Babylonians (see note at 21:9). But Jeremiah denied the charge.

37:15 The house of Jonathan the scribe had been made into a prison. Officers’ homes often served as prisons in the ancient Near East.

37:16 Jeremiah was placed in a cell in the dungeon (lit “the house of a cistern-pit”). This was a vault adjoining an underground dungeon, where he could have been left to die (v. 20).

37:17 King Zedekiah called for Jeremiah a third time, but this time in secrecy. Perhaps he hoped this would encourage a good word from the Lord. But the word from the prophet was not good. He, the king of Judah, would be handed over to the king of Babylon.

37:18-20 These verses show Jeremiah’s humanity as he asked for humane treatment from Zedekiah and a bill of particulars to specify the crimes for which he had been imprisoned.

37:21 Zedekiah reversed his officials’ decision and transferred Jeremiah to the guard’s courtyard. Here he was given a loaf of bread each day from the bakers’ street. Streets of Near Eastern cities were often named after those whose businesses were on that street, hence Bakers’ Street—the only street name in ancient Jerusalem known to us.