BOOK 24 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Jeremiah 21

Jeremiah book home•Chapter 21 of 52•14 verses

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Jeremiah 21 Overview

King Zedekiah asks Jeremiah for divine help against Nebuchadnezzar, but the LORD announces that He Himself will fight against Jerusalem; the people are offered a way of life through surrender, and David’s house is told to practice justice.

JeremiahBook

21Chapter

14Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Jeremiah 21

Coming from

Pashur beats and imprisons Jeremiah, but the prophet renames him as a sign of terror and announces Babylonian exile; Jeremiah then pours out one of his darkest laments, saying God’s word burns within him even when he wants to stop speaking.

In this chapter

Leads into

Jeremiah addresses Judah’s kings: justice toward the oppressed could preserve the royal house, but Shallum, Jehoiakim, and Coniah are condemned for exploitation, selfish luxury, and failed rule, with Coniah barred from prospering on David’s throne.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Babylon is now at Jerusalem’s gates. The monarchy seeks a miracle like earlier deliverances, but the covenant situation is radically different.

The interpretive center of Jeremiah 21 is the chapter’s own movement: past miracles do not guarantee present deliverance. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Past miracles do not guarantee present deliverance

Zedekiah hopes the LORD will act wondrously, but persistent rebellion has reversed Jerusalem’s position.

Sometimes surrender can be obedience rather than cowardice

Because God has decreed Babylonian judgment, leaving the city is called the way of life.

Royal authority remains accountable to justice

The house of David is still charged to deliver the oppressed even in crisis.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

2 Kings 25

The final Babylonian siege shows the judgment Jeremiah announces.

Isaiah 37

Hezekiah’s Assyrian crisis ended differently because God had specifically promised Jerusalem’s deliverance then.

Jeremiah 38:17-23

Jeremiah later repeats to Zedekiah that surrender is the path to survival.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not universalize surrender to enemies as a timeless command.

It was obedience because God had specifically appointed Babylon as Judah’s judgment.

Do not assume Davidic descent made Jerusalem untouchable.

The chapter explicitly addresses David’s house while announcing judgment.

Read Jeremiah 21 watching for…

Zedekiah’s request

God fighting against Jerusalem

the way of life and way of death

surrender to Babylon

justice demanded from David’s house

Chapter outline2 sections

1-7Zedekiah asks for help against Babylon, but the LORD says the city will fall 8-14The people are given the way of life and death, and David’s house is warned to execute judgment

The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,

Inquire, I pray thee, of the LORD for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be that the LORD will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.

Then said Jeremiah unto them, Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah:

Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.

And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.

And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.

And afterward, saith the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.

And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.

He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.

For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.

And touching the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear ye the word of the LORD;

O house of David, thus saith the LORD; Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, saith the LORD; which say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?

But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the LORD: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour all things round about it.