God Rejects Zedekiah’s Request for Prayer: The setting of Jeremiah’s next judgment oracle is more definitively described than some of the previous ones. Zedekiah, the last Judean king (597–586 B.C.), sends two individuals, Pashhur and Zephaniah (the second is a priest, but the first may be as well) to Jeremiah to request that the prophet intercede with the Lord for them. We can get even more specific about the date because the prophet’s response to the priests’ request includes a mention of “the Babylonians who are outside the wall besieging you.” Thus, this oracle’s setting is during the relatively short period of time after the siege of Jerusalem began but before its destruction (588–586 B.C.). Other episodes within the book of Jeremiah tell us that Zedekiah tried to undermine the prophe…