Jeremiah in Prison during the Reign of Zedekiah: Scholars are split over the relationship between chapters 37 and 38. Carroll (Jeremiah, pp. 678–79) and Fretheim (Jeremiah, p. 519) suggest that they are variants of the same story of Jeremiah’s imprisonment at the instigation of the pro-Egyptian party in Judah and eventual release. They believe that the differences are the result of variants that arose in the context of oral tradition. However, Holladay (Jeremiah 2, p. 282) argues that the differences are too great to be accounted for in this way and believes that they are different stories. Lundbom (Jeremiah 37–52, pp. 64–5) does not discuss the issue, simply assuming that they are two different accounts.

38:14–28 The second half of chapter 38 narrates the account of another private meeting…