Jeremiah 38

Chapter 38

Jeremiah Thrown into the Cistern

¹Now 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 the Lord, ‘He who ^astays in this city will die by the ^bsword and by famine and by pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live and have his own ^clife as booty and stay alive.’

³“Thus says the Lord, ‘This city will certainly be ^agiven into the hand of the army 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 ^1bdiscouraging the men of war who are left in this city and ²all the people, by speaking such words to them; for this man ^cis not seeking the well-being of this people but rather their harm.”

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 ^acistern of Malchijah the king’s son, which was in the court of the guardhouse; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only ^bmud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.

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 palace and spoke to the king, saying,

⁹“My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly 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 thirty men from here ¹under your authority and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies.”

¹¹So Ebed-melech took the men under his ¹authority 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 lifted him out of the cistern, and Jeremiah stayed in the ^acourt of the guardhouse.

¹⁴Then King Zedekiah ^asent and ¹had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance that is in the house of the Lord; 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 advice, you will not listen to me.”

¹⁶But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah in ^asecret saying, “As the Lord 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 life.”

Interview with Zedekiah

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

¹⁸‘But if you will ^anot go out to the officers 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 ^adread the Jews who have ^1bgone over to the Chaldeans, for they may give me over into their hand and they will ^cabuse me.”

²⁰But Jeremiah said, “They will not give you over. Please ^1aobey the Lord in what I am saying to you, that it may go ^bwell with you and ^2cyou may live.

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

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

“²Your close friends

Have misled and overpowered you;

While your feet were sunk in the mire,

They turned back.”

²³‘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 this 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 reported to 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 guardhouse until the day that Jerusalem was captured.