Bible Strands
Jeremiah 32:5
He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, where he will stay until I attend to him, declares the LORD. If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed.’”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks through Jeremiah to King Zedekiah during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. The declaration follows the prior statement that Zedekiah will not escape the Chaldeans but will be delivered to the Babylonian king.
The words — The Hebrew יוֹלִ֤ךְ (yo.Likh) means "he will take," and פָּקְדִ֥/י (pa.ke.D/i) translates to "I will attend to." These terms frame the king’s captivity as a directed movement rather than a random military outcome.
The thread — The pattern of remaining in Babylon until God attends to the captives reappears in Jeremiah 27:22. It aligns with the divine turning of weapons in Jeremiah 21:4 and the Chaldean advance described in Jeremiah 33:5.
Why it lands — The text commands Zedekiah to cease resistance and accept captivity as the only path forward. It requires the reader to acknowledge that opposing the Chaldeans guarantees failure because the outcome rests on divine decree.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the Lord: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 21:4 this 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.
- Jeremiah 27:22 ‘They will be carried to Babylon and will remain there until the day I attend to them again,’ declares the LORD. ‘Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.’”
- Jeremiah 33:5 The Chaldeans are coming to fight and to fill those places with the corpses of the men I will strike down in My anger and in My wrath. I have hidden My face from this city because of all its wickedness.
- Jeremiah 39:7 Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze chains to take him to Babylon.
- Ezekiel 17:9 So you are to tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Will it flourish? Will it not be uprooted and stripped of its fruit so that it shrivels? All its foliage will wither! It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it up by its roots.
- Ezekiel 17:15 But this king rebelled against Babylon by sending his envoys to Egypt to ask for horses and a large army. Will he flourish? Will the one who does such things escape? Can he break a covenant and yet escape?’
- Numbers 14:41 But Moses said, “Why are you transgressing the commandment of the LORD? This will not succeed!
- 2 Chronicles 13:12 Now behold, God Himself is with us as our head, and His priests with their trumpets sound the battle call against you. O children of Israel, do not fight against the LORD, the God of your fathers, for you will not succeed.”
- 2 Chronicles 24:20 Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood up before the people and said to them, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, He has forsaken you.’”
- Proverbs 21:30 There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel that can prevail against the LORD.