Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah
Zedekiah son of Josiah reigns in place of Jeconiah, but neither he nor his servants nor the people listen to the LORD's words spoken through Jeremiah. Still, the king sends Jehucal and Zephaniah to Jeremiah asking for prayer, while Jeremiah remains free to move about and the Babylonian siege is temporarily lifted because Pharaoh's army has come out of Egypt.
N1ebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made Zedekiah son of Josiah the king of Judah, and he reigned in place of Coniah son of Jehoiakim. 2But he and his officers and the people of the land refused to obey the words that the LORD had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet. 3Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, to Jeremiah the prophet with the message, “Please pray to the LORD our God for us!” 4Now Jeremiah was free to come and go among the people, for they had not yet put him in prison. 5Pharaoh’s army had left Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report, they withdrew from Jerusalem.
The word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah forbidding Judah to deceive itself with the thought that the Chaldeans will depart for good. The LORD declares that Egypt's army will retreat, Babylon will return, fight against the city, capture it, and burn it, and even if Judah somehow struck down the whole Chaldean army so that only wounded men remained, they would still rise and burn Jerusalem.
6Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet: 7“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says that you are to tell the king of Judah, who sent you to Me: Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has marched out to help you, will go back to its own land of Egypt. 8Then the Chaldeans will return and fight against this city. They will capture it and burn it down. 9This is what the LORD says: Do not deceive yourselves by saying, ‘The Chaldeans will go away for good,’ for they will not! 10Indeed, if you were to strike down the entire army of the Chaldeans that is fighting against you, and only wounded men remained in their tents, they would still get up and burn this city down.”