Bible Strands
Jeremiah 37:21
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — King Zedekiah responds to Jeremiah’s direct petition by ordering the prophet’s confinement. The command places Jeremiah in the courtyard of the guard during the ongoing Babylonian siege of Jerusalem.
The words — וַ/יְצַוֶּ֞ה (va/y.tza.Veh) means “and he commanded,” marking royal action. וַ/יַּפְקִ֣דוּ (va/i.yaf.Ki.du) translates as “and they deposited,” describing the physical placement of Jeremiah in the courtyard of the guard (הַ/מַּטָּרָה).
The thread — This confinement narrative continues in Jeremiah 38:13 and 38:28, where Jeremiah remains in the courtyard of the guard until Jerusalem’s capture. The same location is noted in Jeremiah 32:2 as the site of his earlier imprisonment.
Why it lands — The text records a conditional provision of daily bread tied to the city’s dwindling supplies, demanding recognition of judgment through historical circumstance. It requires the reader to observe how prophetic endurance operates within enforced political and logistical limits.
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
Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city were spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 38:13 and they pulled him up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.
- Jeremiah 38:28 And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.
- Jeremiah 32:2 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.
- Jeremiah 38:9 “My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have dropped him into the cistern, where he will starve to death, for there is no more bread in the city.”
- Jeremiah 52:6 By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.
- 2 Kings 25:3 By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.
- Isaiah 33:16 he will dwell on the heights; the mountain fortress will be his refuge; his food will be provided and his water assured.
- Job 5:20 In famine He will redeem you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword.
- Psalms 33:18 Surely the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His loving devotion
- Deuteronomy 28:52 They will besiege all the cities throughout your land, until the high and fortified walls in which you trust have fallen. They will besiege all your cities throughout the land that the LORD your God has given you.