Jeremiah 37–38

CHAPTER 37

Jeremiah Warns Against Trust in Pharaoh

¹Now ^aZedekiah the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had ^bmade king in the land of Judah, reigned as king in place of ^cConiah the son of Jehoiakim.

²But ^aneither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of Yahweh which He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.

³Yet ^aKing Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and ^bZephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “^cPlease pray to Yahweh our God on our behalf.”

⁴Now Jeremiah was still coming in and going out among the people; they had not yet ^aput him in the prison.

⁵Meanwhile, ^aPharaoh’s military force had come out from Egypt; and the Chaldeans who had been besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them. So they ^bwithdrew from Jerusalem.

⁶Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying,

⁷“Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘^aThus you are to say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Behold, ^bthe military force of Pharaoh which has come out for your assistance is going to return to its own land of Egypt.

⁸“The Chaldeans will also ^areturn and fight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire.” ’

⁹“Thus says Yahweh, ‘Do not ^adeceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go.

¹⁰‘For ^aeven if you had struck down the entire military force of the Chaldeans who were fighting against you, and there were only wounded men remaining among them, each man in his tent, they would rise up and ^bburn this city with fire.’”

Jeremiah Imprisoned

¹¹Now it happened when the military force of the Chaldeans had withdrawn from Jerusalem because of the military force of Pharaoh,

¹²that Jeremiah went out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin in order to ^aobtain his portion of some property there among the people.

¹³Now it happened that while he was at the ^aGate of Benjamin, the master of the guard whose name was Irijah the son of Shelemiah the son of Hananiah was there; and he ^bseized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are ¹going over to the Chaldeans!”

¹⁴But Jeremiah said, “^aA lie! I am not ¹going over to the Chaldeans”; yet he would not listen to him. So Irijah seized Jeremiah and brought him to the officials.

¹⁵Then the officials were ^aangry at Jeremiah and struck him, and they ^bput him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe because they had made that house into the prison.

¹⁶For Jeremiah had come into the ^1apit, that is, the vaulted cell; and Jeremiah stayed there many days.

¹⁷Then King Zedekiah sent and took him out; and in his palace the king ^asecretly asked him and said, “Is there a ^bword from Yahweh?” And Jeremiah said, “There is!” Then he said, “You will be ^cgiven into the hand of the king of Babylon!”

¹⁸Moreover, Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “^aIn what way have I sinned against you or against your servants or against this people, that you have put me in prison?

¹⁹“^aWhere then are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The ^bking of Babylon will not come against you or against this land’?

²⁰“But now, please listen, O my lord the king; please let my ^asupplication ¹come before you, and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, that I may not die there.”

²¹Then King Zedekiah gave commandment, and they committed Jeremiah to the ^acourt of the guard and gave him a loaf of ^bbread daily from the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city had ^ccome to an end. So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

CHAPTER 38

Jeremiah Brought Up from the Cistern

¹And Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jucal the ^ason of Shelemiah, and ^bPashhur the son of Malchijah heard the words that Jeremiah was speaking to all the people, saying,

²“Thus says Yahweh, ‘He who ^astays in this city will die by the ^bsword and by the famine and by the pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live and have his own ^clife as spoil and stay alive.’

³“Thus says Yahweh, ‘This city will certainly be ^agiven into the hand of the military force of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.’”

⁴Then the ^aofficials said to the king, “Now let this man be put to death, inasmuch as he is ^bmaking the hands of the men of war who remain in this city as well as the hands of all the people limp, by speaking such words to them; for this man ^cis not seeking peace for this people but rather calamity.”

⁵So King Zedekiah said, “Behold, he is in your ¹hands; for the king ^acan do nothing against you.”

⁶Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the ^1acistern of Malchijah the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only ^bmire, and Jeremiah sank into the mire.

⁷But ^aEbed-melech the Ethiopian, ¹a ^beunuch, while he was in the king’s palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. Now the king was sitting in the ^cGate of Benjamin;

⁸and Ebed-melech went out from the king’s house and spoke to the king, saying,

⁹“My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet whom they have cast into the cistern; and he ¹will die right where he is because of the famine, for there is ^ano more bread in the city.”

¹⁰Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, “Take in your hand thirty men from here and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies.”

¹¹So Ebed-melech took the men in his hand and went into the king’s palace to a place beneath the storeroom and took from there worn-out clothes and worn-out rags and let them down by ropes into the cistern to Jeremiah.

¹²Then Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, “Now put these worn-out clothes and rags under your armpits under the ropes”; and Jeremiah did so.

¹³So they pulled Jeremiah up with the ropes and brought him up from the cistern, and Jeremiah stayed in the ^acourt of the guard.

Zedekiah Sends for Jeremiah

¹⁴Then King Zedekiah ^asent and ¹had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance that is in the house of Yahweh; and the king said to Jeremiah, “I am going to ^bask you something; do not hide anything from me.”

¹⁵Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “^aIf I tell you, will you not certainly put me to death? Besides, if I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.”

¹⁶But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah in ^asecret saying, “As Yahweh lives, who made this ^1blife for us, surely I will not put you to death, nor will I give you over to the hand of ^cthese men who are seeking your ²life.”

¹⁷Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says Yahweh ^aGod of hosts, the ^bGod of Israel, ‘If you will indeed ^cgo out to the ¹officers of the king of Babylon, then ²you will live, this city will not be burned with fire, and you and your household will live.

¹⁸‘But if you will ^anot go out to the ¹officers of the king of Babylon, then this city ^bwill be given over to the hand of the Chaldeans; and they will burn it with fire, and ^cyou yourself will not escape from their hand.’”

¹⁹Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I ^aam anxious because of the Jews who have ^1bgone over to the Chaldeans, lest they give me over into their hand and they ^cdeal severely with me.”

²⁰But Jeremiah said, “They will not give you over. Please ^alisten to the voice of Yahweh in what I am saying to you, that it may go ^bwell with you and ^1cyou may live.

²¹“But if you keep refusing to go out, this is the word which Yahweh has shown me:

²²‘And behold, all of the ^awomen who have remained in the house of the king of Judah are going to be brought out to the ¹officers of the king of Babylon; and behold, those women will say,

“²Your close friends

Have misled and overpowered you;

While your feet were sunk in the mud,

They turned back.”

²³‘And they will also bring out all your wives and your ^asons to the Chaldeans, and ^byou yourself will not escape from their hand, but will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and ^cthis city will be burned with fire.’”

²⁴Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no man know about these words and you will not die.

²⁵“But if the ^aofficials hear that I have talked with you and come to you and say to you, ‘Tell us now what you said to the king and what the king said to you; do not hide it from us, and we will not put you to death,’

²⁶then you are to say to them, ‘I was ^apresenting my petition before the king, not to make me return to the house of Jonathan to die there.’”

²⁷Then all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him. So he told them in accordance with all these words which the king had commanded; and they ceased speaking with him since the ¹conversation had not been overheard.

²⁸So Jeremiah ^astayed in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was captured.