Jeremiah 38–39

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.

CHAPTER 39

The Walls of Jerusalem Torn Down

¹¹Now when Jerusalem was captured ^2ain the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his military force came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it;

²in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the city was ^abreached.

³Then all the ^aofficials of the king of Babylon came in and sat down at the ^bMiddle Gate: Nergal-sar-ezer, Samgar-nebu, Sar-sekim the ¹Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the ²Rab-mag, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.

⁴Now it happened that when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, they ^afled and went out of the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate ^bbetween the two walls; and he went out toward the ¹Arabah.

⁵But the military force of the ^aChaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the ^1bplains of Jericho; and they took him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at ^cRiblah in the land of Hamath, and he spoke judgment on him.

⁶Then the ^aking of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah ^bbefore his eyes at Riblah; the king of Babylon also slaughtered all the ^cnobles of Judah.

⁷He then ^ablinded Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in ^bfetters of bronze to bring him to ^cBabylon.

⁸The Chaldeans also ^aburned with fire the house of the king and the houses of the people, and they ^btore down the walls of Jerusalem.

⁹And as for the rest of the people who remained in the city, the ^1adefectors who had gone over to him and ^bthe rest of the people who remained, ^cNebuzaradan the ^dcaptain of the bodyguard took them away into exile in Babylon.

¹⁰But some of the ^apoorest people who had nothing, ^bNebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had them remain in the land of Judah and gave them vineyards and fields ¹at that time.

Jeremiah Delivered

¹¹Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave a command about ^aJeremiah through Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, saying,

¹²“Take him and set your eyes to look after him and ^ado nothing harmful to him, but rather deal with him just as he speaks to you.”

¹³So Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard sent word, along with Nebushazban the ¹Rab-saris and Nergal-sar-ezer the ²Rab-mag and all the leading officers of the king of Babylon;

¹⁴they even sent and ^atook Jeremiah out of the court of the guard and gave him over to ^bGedaliah, the son of ^cAhikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him home. So he stayed among the people.

¹⁵Now the word of Yahweh had come to Jeremiah while he was ^aconfined in the court of the guard, saying,

¹⁶“Go and speak to ^aEbed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am about to bring My words on this city ^bfor ¹calamity and not for ²prosperity; and they will ^ctake place before you on that day.

¹⁷“But I will ^adeliver you on that day,” declares Yahweh, “and you will not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are terrified.

¹⁸“For I will certainly provide you escape, and you will not fall by the sword; but you will have your own ^alife as spoil because you have ^btrusted in Me,” declares Yahweh.’”