7. ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: tell the king of Judah, who sent you to enquire of me, “Pharaoh’s army, which has marched out to support you, will go back to its own land, to Egypt.
8. Then the Babylonians will return and attack this city; they will capture it and burn it down.”
9. ‘This is what the Lord says: do not deceive yourselves, thinking, “The Babylonians will surely leave us.” They will not!
10. Even if you were to defeat the entire Babylonian army that is attacking you and only wounded men were left in their tents, they would come out and burn this city down.’
11. After the Babylonian army had withdrawn from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh’s army,
12. Jeremiah started to leave the city to go to the territory of Benjamin to get his share of the property among the people there.
13. But when he reached the Benjamin Gate, the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, arrested him and said, ‘You are deserting to the Babylonians!’
14. ‘That’s not true!’ Jeremiah said. ‘I am not deserting to the Babylonians.’ But Irijah would not listen to him; instead, he arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials.