Jeremiah 37:1–39:18

Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah

37^uZedekiah the son of Josiah, ^vwhom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah, reigned instead of ^wConiah the son of Jehoiakim. ^2xBut neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the Lord that he spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.

³King Zedekiah sent ^yJehucal the son of ^zShelemiah, and ^aZephaniah the priest, the son of ^bMaaseiah, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Please ^cpray for us to the Lord our God.” ^4dNow Jeremiah was still going in and out among the people, ^efor he had not yet been put in prison. ^5fThe army of Pharaoh had come out of Egypt. And when ^gthe Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news about them, ^hthey withdrew from Jerusalem.

⁶Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet: ⁷“Thus says the Lord, God of Israel: Thus shall you say to the king of Judah who ⁱsent you to me to inquire of me, ‘Behold, ^jPharaoh’s army that came to help you is about to ^kreturn to Egypt, to its own land. ⁸And ^lthe Chaldeans shall come back and fight against this city. ^lThey shall capture it and burn it with fire. ⁹Thus says the Lord, Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go away. ^10mFor even if you should defeat the whole army of Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and there remained of them only wounded men, every man in his tent, they would rise up and ^lburn this city with fire.’ ”

Jeremiah Imprisoned

¹¹Now when ⁿthe Chaldean army had withdrawn from Jerusalem at the approach of Pharaoh’s army, ¹²Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem to go to ^othe land of Benjamin ^pto receive his portion there ^qamong the people. ¹³When he was at ^rthe Benjamin Gate, a sentry there named Irijah the son of ^sShelemiah, son of Hananiah, seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ^t“You are deserting to the Chaldeans.” ¹⁴And Jeremiah said, “It is a lie; I am not deserting to the Chaldeans.” But Irijah would not listen to him, and seized Jeremiah and brought him to ^uthe officials. ¹⁵And the officials were enraged at Jeremiah, and they beat him ^vand imprisoned him in the house of Jonathan the secretary, for it had been made a prison.

^16wWhen Jeremiah had come to the dungeon cells and remained there many days, ¹⁷King Zedekiah sent for him and received him. The king questioned him ^xsecretly in his house and said, “Is there any word from the Lord?” Jeremiah said, “There is.” Then he said, ^y“You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.” ¹⁸Jeremiah also said to King Zedekiah, “What wrong have I done to you or your servants or this people, ^vthat you have put me in prison? ^19zWhere are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you and against this land’? ²⁰Now hear, please, O my lord the king: ^alet my humble plea come before you and ^bdo not send me back to the house of Jonathan the secretary, lest I die there.” ²¹So King Zedekiah gave orders, and they committed Jeremiah to ^cthe court of the guard. And a loaf of bread was given him daily from the bakers’ street, ^duntil all the bread of the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in ^cthe court of the guard.

Jeremiah Cast into the Cistern

38Now Shephatiah the son of Mattan, Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, ^eJucal the son of Shelemiah, and ^fPashhur the son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah was saying to all the people: ²“Thus says the Lord: ^gHe who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, ^gbut he who goes out to the Chaldeans shall live. He shall have his life as a prize of war, and live. ³Thus says the Lord: ^hThis city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon and be taken.” ⁴Then the officials said to the king, ⁱ“Let this man be put to death, ^jfor he is weakening the hands of the soldiers who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking such words to them. For this man is not seeking ^kthe welfare of this people, but their harm.” ⁵King Zedekiah said, “Behold, he is in your hands, ^lfor the king can do nothing against you.” ⁶So they took Jeremiah ^mand cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in ⁿthe court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down ^oby ropes. ^pAnd there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and ^qJeremiah sank in the mud.

Jeremiah Rescued from the Cistern

⁷When ^rEbed-melech ^sthe Ethiopian, ^ta eunuch who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern—the king was sitting ^uin the Benjamin Gate— ^8rEbed-melech went from the king’s house and said to the king, ⁹“My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they did to Jeremiah the prophet by casting him into the cistern, and he will die there of ^vhunger, ^wfor there is no bread left in the city.” ¹⁰Then the king commanded ^rEbed-melech the Ethiopian, “Take thirty men with you from here, and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.” ¹¹So ^rEbed-melech took the men with him and went to the house of the king, to a wardrobe in the storehouse, and took from there old rags and worn-out clothes, which he let down to Jeremiah in the cistern ^xby ropes. ¹²Then ^rEbed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, “Put the rags and clothes between your armpits and ^xthe ropes.” Jeremiah did so. ¹³Then they drew Jeremiah up with ^xropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the ⁿcourt of the guard.

Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah Again

¹⁴King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and received him at the third entrance of the temple of the Lord. The king said to Jeremiah, “I will ask you a question; hide nothing from me.” ¹⁵Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I tell you, will you not surely put me to death? And if I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.” ¹⁶Then King Zedekiah swore ^ysecretly to Jeremiah, ^z“As the Lord lives, ^awho made our souls, I will not put you to death or deliver you into the hand of ^bthese men who seek your life.”

¹⁷Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: ^cIf you will surrender to ^dthe officials of the king of Babylon, ^ethen your life shall be spared, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live. ¹⁸But if you do not surrender to ^dthe officials of the king of Babylon, ^fthen this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, ^fand they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape from their hand.” ¹⁹King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Judeans ^gwho have deserted to the Chaldeans, lest I be handed over to them and they deal cruelly with me.” ²⁰Jeremiah said, “You shall not be given to them. Obey now the voice of the Lord in what I say to you, ^hand it shall be well with you, and your life shall be spared. ²¹But if you refuse to ^csurrender, this is the vision which the Lord has shown to me: ²²Behold, all the women left in the house of the king of Judah were being led out to the officials of the king of Babylon and were saying,

ⁱ“ ‘Your trusted friends have deceived you

and prevailed against you;

now that your feet are sunk in the mud,

they turn away from you.’

²³All your wives and ^jyour sons shall be led out to the Chaldeans, and you yourself shall not escape from their hand, but shall be seized by the king of Babylon, and this city shall be burned with fire.”

²⁴Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no one know of these words, and you shall not die. ²⁵If ^kthe officials hear that I have spoken with you and come to you and say to you, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you; hide nothing from us and we will not put you to death,’ ²⁶then you shall say to them, ^l‘I made a humble plea to the king that he would not send me back to the house of Jonathan to die there.’ ” ²⁷Then all the officials came to Jeremiah and asked him, and he answered them as the king had instructed him. So they stopped speaking with him, for the conversation had not been overheard. ²⁸And Jeremiah remained ^min the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken.

The Fall of Jerusalem

39ⁿIn the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and besieged it. ²In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city. ³Then all ^othe officials of the king of Babylon came ^pand sat in the middle gate: Nergal-sar-ezer of Samgar, Nebu-sar-sekim ^qthe Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, with all the rest of the officers of the king of Babylon. ⁴When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled, going out of the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate between the two walls; and they went toward ^rthe Arabah. ⁵But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in ^sthe plains of Jericho. And when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, at ^tRiblah, in the land of Hamath; ^uand he passed sentence on him. ⁶The king of Babylon ^vslaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at ^tRiblah before his eyes, and the king of Babylon ^vslaughtered all the nobles of Judah. ^7wHe put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon. ^8xThe Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the house of the people, ^yand broke down the walls of Jerusalem. ⁹Then ^zNebuzaradan, the ^acaptain of the guard, carried into exile to Babylon the rest of the people who were left in the city, ^bthose who had deserted to him, and the people who remained. ¹⁰Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, ^cleft in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

The Lord Delivers Jeremiah

¹¹Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave command concerning Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, saying, ^12d“Take him, look after him well, and do him no harm, but deal with him as he…