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Person Old Testament

Irijah

Irijah, a captain, arrested Jeremiah on suspicion of desertion to the Babylonians. Mentioned in 2 verses across 1 book, first at Jeremiah 37:13.

Why it matters. Captain who arrested Jeremiah for desertion.

Last reviewed
2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team

About Irijah

Irijah was a captain of the guard who arrested the prophet Jeremiah at the Benjamin Gate in Jerusalem, as recorded in Jer.37.13-14. When Jeremiah attempted to go to the territory of Benjamin during a lull in the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, Irijah seized him and accused him of deserting to the Babylonians. Jeremiah denied the charge, but Irijah still brought him to the officials, who beat Jeremiah and imprisoned him. Irijah's name means "Yahweh sees" in Hebrew. His action reflects the tense and suspicious atmosphere in Jerusalem during the Babylonian invasion.

Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.

Connections

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Family

Family links from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0). Where the dataset marks an identification as uncertain, the mark is kept. Matthew and Luke give different genealogies for Jesus; see the Lineage page, which never merges them.

Parents
Shelemiah

Appears in Scripture

Named in 2 verses across 1 book. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.

Record type: Person. FaithGraph explanations on this page are editorial and are not Scripture.