Bible Strands
Jeremiah 37:19
Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, claiming, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or this land’?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jeremiah speaks to King Zedekiah while confined, directly challenging the king’s earlier trust in unfulfilled predictions. The confrontation occurs during Jeremiah’s own imprisonment, immediately after he questions the basis of his detention and before he petitions to avoid Jonathan the scribe’s house.
The words — `וְ/אַיֵּה֙` (ve./'ai.yov) literally renders “and/where?” and `נִבְּא֥וּ` (ni.be.'U) means “they prophesied.” These terms structure the verse as a factual inquiry into the location and reliability of the messengers.
The thread — Jeremiah 2:28 asks where the people’s self-made gods are when trouble arrives, while Jeremiah 28:10 records Hananiah breaking a yoke to falsely promise Babylonian retreat. 2 Kings 3:13 similarly rejects prophets whose words do not align with reality, establishing a consistent scriptural test for prophetic claims.
Why it lands — The text states that a prophet’s authority depends on the fulfillment of their specific predictions. It requires readers to measure spiritual claims against observable outcomes rather than accepting them based on initial delivery or royal endorsement.
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
Where are now your prophets which prophesied unto you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land?
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 2:28 But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up in your time of trouble and save you if they can; for your gods are as numerous as your cities, O Judah.
- Jeremiah 28:10 Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it.
- 2 Kings 3:13 Elisha, however, said to the king of Israel, “What have we to do with each other? Go to the prophets of your father and of your mother!” “No,” replied the king of Israel, “for it is the LORD who has summoned these three kings to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”
- Jeremiah 6:14 They dress the wound of My people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all.
- Jeremiah 8:11 They dress the wound of the daughter of My people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all.
- Jeremiah 14:13 “Ah, Lord GOD!” I replied, “Look, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see the sword or suffer famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.’”
- Jeremiah 23:17 They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD says that you will have peace,’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, ‘No harm will come to you.’
- Jeremiah 27:14 Do not listen to the words of the prophets who say, ‘You must not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they are prophesying to you a lie.
- Jeremiah 28:1 In the fifth month of that same year, the fourth year, near the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, who was from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and all the people:
- Jeremiah 29:31 “Send a message telling all the exiles what the LORD says concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite. Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you—though I did not send him—and has made you trust in a lie,