For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying: “Why are you prophesying like this? You claim that the LORD says, ‘Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.
Parallel translations
- WEB For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you prophesy, and say, ‘Yahweh says, “Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;
- KJV For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;
- NKJV For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;
- NASB because Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, “Why do you prophesy, saying, ‘This is what the Lord says: “Behold, I am going to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will take it;
- NLT King Zedekiah had put him there, asking why he kept giving this prophecy: “This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will take it.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Zedekiah had imprisoned Jeremiah for prophesying that God would hand Jerusalem over to Babylon. It shows the king's resistance to God's word.
Overview
The king could not silence the truth by silencing the prophet; Jeremiah's confinement was punishment for declaring the certain Babylonian conquest. Zedekiah's hostility reflects the common human impulse to reject unwelcome divine warnings. The faithful prophet who suffers for speaking God's truth foreshadows Christ, the ultimate truth-teller rejected by the rulers of His day (John 18:37-38).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Jer 34:2–3The LORD, the God of Israel, told Jeremiah to go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him that this is what the LORD says: “Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.
- Jer 21:4–7this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will turn against you the weapons of war in your hands, with which you are fighting the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the wall, and I will assemble their forces in the center of this city.
- Jer 26:8–9and as soon as he had finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests and prophets and all the people seized him, shouting, “You must surely die!
- Jer 32:28–29Therefore this is what the LORD says: Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who will capture it.
- 2 Chr 28:22In the time of his distress, King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the LORD.
- Amos 7:13But never prophesy at Bethel again, because it is the sanctuary of the king and the temple of the kingdom.”
- Jer 37:6–10Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet:
- Jer 38:8Ebed-melech went out from the king’s palace and said to the king,
- Luke 20:2“Tell us,” they said, “by what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?”
- Acts 6:12–14So they stirred up the people, elders, and scribes and confronted Stephen. They seized him and brought him before the Sanhedrin,
- Jer 2:30“I have struck your sons in vain; they accepted no discipline. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a voracious lion.”
- Jer 38:4Then the officials said to the king, “This man ought to die, for he is discouraging the warriors who remain in this city, as well as all the people, by speaking such words to them; this man is not seeking the well-being of these people, but their ruin.”
- Jer 5:3O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.
- 2 Kgs 6:31–32He announced, “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders through this day!”
- Exod 5:4But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you draw the people away from their work? Get back to your labor!”
- Jer 27:8As for the nation or kingdom that does not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and does not place its neck under his yoke, I will punish that nation by sword and famine and plague, declares the LORD, until I have destroyed it by his hand.
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 32:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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