Jeremiah 37:14

14 Then Jeremiah said, "False! I am not defecting to the Chaldeans." But he did not listen to him. So Irijah seized Jeremiah and brought him to the princes.

Jeremiah 37:14 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 37:14

Then said Jeremiah, [it is] false
Or a "falsehood" ^F11; as undoubtedly it was; I fall not away to the Chaldeans;
for the Chaldean army was gone from the city; nor did Jeremiah like so well to be with an idolatrous people; for after the city was taken, when Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard gave him his choice, either to go with him to Babylon, where he promised to take care of him; or to go to Gedaliah, who was made governor of Judah; he chose rather to be with him, and his poor company: but he hearkened not to him;
would not hear his defence, or however would not give any credit to it, being unwilling to let slip this opportunity of doing him ill will: so Irijah took Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes;
the princes of Zedekiah's court, or the princes of the people, the civil magistrates; or it may be the great sanhedrim, who he knew had no good disposition towards the prophet.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 (rqv) "mendacium est", Vatablus; "falsitas, calumnia", Schmidt.

Jeremiah 37:14 In-Context

12 that Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin to claim his property there among the people.

13 And when he was in the Gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard was there whose name was Irijah the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, "You are defecting to the Chaldeans!"

14 Then Jeremiah said, "False! I am not defecting to the Chaldeans." But he did not listen to him. So Irijah seized Jeremiah and brought him to the princes.

15 Therefore the princes were angry with Jeremiah, and they struck him and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe. For they had made that the prison.

16 When Jeremiah entered the dungeon and the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days,