Jeremiah 32:2
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At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard, which was in the palace of the king of Judah.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
In this chapter we have, I. Jeremiah imprisoned for foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of king Zedekiah (Jer 32:1-5). II. We have him buying land, by divine appointment, as an assurance that in due time a happy end should be put to the present troubles (Jer 32:6-15). III. We have his prayer, which he offered up to God upon that occasion (Jer 32:16-25). IV. We have a message which God thereupon entrusted him to deliver to the people. 1. He must foretell the utter destruction of Judah and Jerusalem for their sins (Jer 32:26-35). But, 2. At the same time he must assure them that, though the destruction was total, it should not be final, but that at length their posterity should recover the peaceable possession of their own land (Jer 32:36-44). The predictions of this chapter, both threatenings and promises, are much the same with what we have already met with again and again, but here are some circumstances that are very particular and remarkable.
Open source ↗32:2 Jerusalem had been under siege since January 588 BC (2 Kgs 25:1). • Jeremiah favored surrender to the Babylonians, but the thought angered many who believed that they could successfully defy the foreign army. To protect Jeremiah, Zedekiah imprisoned him in the courtyard of the guard (Jer 37:21).
Open source ↗Cross-references
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So King Zedekiah gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread daily from the street of the bakers, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.
and Palal son of Uzai made repairs opposite the angle and the tower that juts out from the upper palace of the king near the courtyard of the guard. Next to him, Pedaiah son of Parosh
So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern, which had no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.
While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the LORD came to him a second time:
Then, as the LORD had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and urged me, ‘Please buy my field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for you own the right of inheritance and redemption. Buy it for yourself.’” Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.
Then Jeremiah commanded Baruch, “I am restricted; I cannot enter the house of the LORD;
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.
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.