³ King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “Please pray for us to the Lord our God.”^{(A) 4} Now Jeremiah was still going in and out among the people, for he had not yet been put in prison. ⁵ Meanwhile, the army of Pharaoh had come out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them, they withdrew from Jerusalem.^(B)

⁶ Then the word of the Lord came to the prophet Jeremiah: ⁷ Thus says the Lord, God of Israel: This is what you shall say to the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire of me: Pharaoh’s army, which set out to help you, is going to return to its own land, to Egypt.^{(C) 8} And the Chaldeans shall return and fight against this city; they shall take it and burn it with fire.^{(D) 9} Thus says the Lord: Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go away.^{(E) 10} Even if you defeated the whole army of Chaldeans who are fighting against you and there remained of them only wounded men in their tents, they would rise up and burn this city with fire.^(F)

Jeremiah Is Imprisoned

¹¹ Now when the Chaldean army had withdrawn from Jerusalem at the approach of Pharaoh’s army, ¹² Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to receive his share of property^[a] among the people there. ¹³ When he reached the Benjamin Gate, a sentinel there named Irijah son of Shelemiah son of Hananiah arrested the prophet Jeremiah saying, “You are deserting to the Chaldeans.”^{(G) 14} And Jeremiah said, “That is a lie; I am not deserting to the Chaldeans.” But Irijah would not listen to him and arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. ¹⁵ The officials were enraged at Jeremiah, and they beat him and imprisoned him in the house of the secretary Jonathan, for it had been made a prison.^{(H) 16} Thus Jeremiah was put in the cistern house, in the cells, and remained there many days.^(I)

¹⁷ Then King Zedekiah sent for him and received him. The king questioned him secretly in his house and said, “Is there any word from the Lord?” Jeremiah said, “There is!” Then he said, “You shall be handed over to the king of Babylon.”^{(J) 18} Jeremiah also said to King Zedekiah, “What wrong have I done to you or your servants or this people, that you have put me in prison?^{(K) 19} Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you and against this land’?^{(L) 20} Now please hear me, my lord king: be good enough to listen to my plea, and do not send me back to the house of the secretary Jonathan to die there.” ²¹ So King Zedekiah gave orders, and they committed Jeremiah to the court of the guard, and a loaf of bread was given him daily from the bakers’ street, until all the bread of the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.^(M)

¹³ Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret. ¹⁴ For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unproductive. ¹⁵ What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also.^{(A) 16} Otherwise, if you say a blessing with the spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say the “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since the outsider does not know what you are saying?^{(B) 17} For you may give thanks well enough, but the other person is not built up.^{(C) 18} I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you; ¹⁹ nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

²⁰ Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking; rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults.^{(D) 21} In the law it is written,

says the Lord.^{(E) 22} Tongues, then, are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers. ²³ If, therefore, the entire church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your mind?^{(F) 24} But if all prophesy, an unbeliever or outsider who enters is reproved by all and called to account by all. ²⁵ After the secrets of the unbeliever’s heart are disclosed, that person will bow down before God and worship, declaring, “God is really among you.”

²⁴ “A disciple is not above the teacher nor a slave above the master;^{(A) 25} it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!^(B)

Whom to Fear

²⁶ “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known.^{(C) 27} What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. ²⁸ Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.^{[a] 29} Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. ³⁰ And even the hairs of your head are all counted.^{(D) 31} So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

³² “Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven,^{(E) 33} but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.