The Bible in Basic English BBE
Good News Translation GNT
1 And Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, became king in place of Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, made king in the land of Judah.
1
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia made Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah in the place of Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim.
2 But he and his servants and the people of the land did not give ear to the words of the Lord which he said by Jeremiah the prophet.
2
But neither Zedekiah nor his officials nor the people obeyed the message which the Lord had given me.
3 And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal, the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Make prayer now to the Lord our God for us.
3
King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to ask me to pray to the Lord our God on behalf of our nation.
4 (Now Jeremiah was going about among the people, for they had not put him in prison.
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I had not yet been put in prison and was still moving about freely among the people.
5 And Pharaoh's army had come out from Egypt: and the Chaldaeans, who were attacking Jerusalem, hearing news of them, went away from Jerusalem.)
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The Babylonian army had been besieging Jerusalem, but when they heard that the Egyptian army had crossed the Egyptian border, they retreated.
6 Then the word of the Lord came to the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
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Then the Lord, the God of Israel, told me
7 The Lord, the God of Israel, has said: This is what you are to say to the king of Judah who sent you to get directions from me: See, Pharaoh's army, which has come out to your help, will go back to Egypt, to their land.
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to say to Zedekiah, "The Egyptian army is on its way to help you, but it will return home.
8 And the Chaldaeans will come back again and make war against this town and they will take it and put it on fire.
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Then the Babylonians will come back, attack the city, capture it, and burn it down.
9 The Lord has said, Have no false hopes, saying to yourselves, The Chaldaeans will go away from us: for they will not go away.
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I, the Lord, warn you not to deceive yourselves into thinking that the Babylonians will not come back, because they will.
10 For even if you had overcome all the army of the Chaldaeans fighting against you, and there were only wounded men among them, still they would get up, every man in his tent, and put this town on fire.
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Even if you defeat the whole Babylonian army, so that only wounded men are left, lying in their tents, they would still get up and burn this city to the ground."
11 And it came about that when the Chaldaean army outside Jerusalem had gone away for fear of Pharaoh's army,
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The Babylonian army retreated from Jerusalem because the Egyptian army was approaching.
12 Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, with the purpose of taking up his heritage there among the people.
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So I started to leave Jerusalem and go to the territory of Benjamin to take possession of my share of the family property.
13 But when he was at the Benjamin door, a captain of the watch named Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, who was stationed there, put his hand on Jeremiah the prophet, saying, You are going to give yourself up to the Chaldaeans.
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But when I reached the Benjamin Gate, the officer in charge of the soldiers on duty there, a man by the name of Irijah, the son of Shelemiah and grandson of Hananiah, stopped me and said, "You are deserting to the Babylonians!"
14 Then Jeremiah said, That is not true; I am not going to the Chaldaeans. But he would not give ear to him: so Irijah made him prisoner and took him to the rulers.
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I answered, "That's not so! I'm not deserting." But Irijah would not listen to me. Instead, he arrested me and took me to the officials.
15 And the rulers were angry with Jeremiah, and gave him blows and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the prison.
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They were furious with me and had me beaten and locked up in the house of Jonathan, the court secretary, whose house had been made into a prison.
16 So Jeremiah came into the hole of the prison, under the arches, and was there for a long time.
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I was put in an underground cell and kept there a long time.
17 Then King Zedekiah sent and got him out: and the king, questioning him secretly in his house, said, Is there any word from the Lord? And Jeremiah said, There is. Then he said, You will be given up into the hands of the king of Babylon.
17
Later on King Zedekiah sent for me, and there in the palace he asked me privately, "Is there any message from the Lord?" "There is," I answered, and added, "You will be handed over to the king of Babylonia."
18 Then Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, What has been my sin against you or against your servants or against this people, that you have put me in prison?
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Then I asked, "What crime have I committed against you or your officials or this people, to make you put me in prison?
19 Where now are your prophets who said to you, The king of Babylon will not come against you and against this land?
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What happened to your prophets who told you that the king of Babylonia would not attack you or the country?
20 And now be pleased to give ear, O my lord the king; let my prayer for help come before you, and do not make me go back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, for fear that I may come to my death there.
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And now, Your Majesty, I beg you to listen to me and do what I ask. Please do not send me back to the prison in Jonathan's house. If you do, I will surely die there."
21 Then by the order of Zedekiah the king, Jeremiah was put into the place of the armed watchmen, and they gave him every day a cake of bread from the street of the bread-makers, till all the bread in the town was used up. So Jeremiah was kept in the place of the armed watchmen.
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So King Zedekiah ordered me to be locked up in the palace courtyard. I stayed there, and each day I was given a loaf of bread from the bakeries until all the bread in the city was gone.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.