37Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylonia, appointed Zedekiah to be king of Judah. He was the son of Josiah. Zedekiah ruled in place of Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim. ²Zedekiah and his attendants didn’t pay any attention to what the Lord had said through me. And the people of the land didn’t pay any attention either.

³But King Zedekiah sent Jehucal to me. He sent the priest Zephaniah along with him. Jehucal was the son of Shelemiah. Zephaniah was the son of Maaseiah. Jehucal and Zephaniah brought the king’s message to me. It said, “Please pray to the Lord our God for us.”

⁴At that time I was free to come and go among the people. I had not yet been put in prison. ⁵The armies of Babylonia were attacking Jerusalem. They received a report that Pharaoh’s army had marched out of Egypt to help Zedekiah. So they pulled back from Jerusalem.

⁶A message came to me from the Lord. ⁷The Lord is the God of Israel. He says, “The king of Judah has sent you to ask me for advice. Tell him, ‘Pharaoh’s army has marched out to help you. But it will go back to its own land. It will return to Egypt. ⁸Then the armies of Babylonia will come back here. They will attack this city. They will capture it. Then they will burn it down.’

⁹“The Lord says, ‘Do not fool yourselves. You think, “The Babylonians will leave us alone.” But they will not! ¹⁰Suppose you destroy all of the armies of Babylonia that are attacking you. Suppose only wounded men are left in their tents. Even then they will come out and burn this city down.’ ”

¹¹The armies of Babylonia had pulled back from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh’s army. ¹²So I started to leave the city. I was planning to go to the territory of Benjamin. I wanted to get my share of the property among the people there. ¹³I got as far as the Benjamin Gate. But the captain of the guard arrested me. He said, “You are going over to the side of the Babylonians!” The captain’s name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah. Shelemiah was the son of Hananiah.

¹⁴I said to Irijah, “That isn’t true! I’m not going to the side of the Babylonians.”

But Irijah wouldn’t listen to me. Instead, he arrested me. He brought me to the officials. ¹⁵They were angry with me. So they had me beaten. Then they took me to the house of the secretary Jonathan. It had been made into a prison. That’s where they put me.

¹⁶I was put into a prison cell that was below ground level. I remained there a long time. ¹⁷Then King Zedekiah sent for me. He had me brought to the palace. There he spoke to me in private. He asked, “Do you have a message from the Lord for me?”

“Yes,” I replied. “You will be handed over to the king of Babylonia.”

¹⁸Then I continued, “Why have you put me in prison? What crime have I committed against you? What have I done to your officials or these people? ¹⁹Where are your prophets who prophesied to you? They said, ‘The king of Babylonia won’t attack you. He won’t march into this land.’

²⁰“But now please listen, my king and master. Let me make my appeal to you. Please don’t send me back to the house of the secretary Jonathan. If you do, I’ll die there.”

²¹Then King Zedekiah gave the order. His men put me in the courtyard of the guard. They gave me bread from the street of the bakers. They did it every day until all of the bread in the city was gone. So I remained in the courtyard of the guard.

Jeremiah Is Thrown Into an Empty Well

38Shephatiah, Gedaliah, Jehucal and Pashhur heard what I was telling all of the people. Shephatiah was the son of Mattan. Gedaliah was the son of Pashhur. Jehucal was the son of Shelemiah. And Pashhur was the son of Malkijah. Those four men heard me say, ²“The Lord says, ‘Those who stay in this city will die of war, hunger or plague. But those who go over to the side of the Babylonians will live. They will escape with their lives. They will remain alive.’ ³The Lord also says, ‘This city will certainly be handed over to the armies of the king of Babylonia. They will capture it.’ ”

⁴Then those officials said to the king, “That man should be put to death. What he says is making the soldiers who are left in this city lose hope. It’s making all of the people lose hope too. He isn’t interested in what is best for the people. In fact, he’s trying to destroy them.”

⁵“He’s in your hands,” King Zedekiah answered. “I can’t do anything to oppose you.”

⁶So they took me and put me into an empty well. It belonged to Malkijah. He was a member of the royal court. His well was in the courtyard of the guard. Zedekiah’s men lowered me by ropes into the well. It didn’t have any water in it. All it had was mud. And I sank down into the mud.

⁷Ebed-Melech was an official in the royal palace. He was from the land of Cush. He heard that I had been put into the well. The king was sitting by the Benjamin Gate at that time. ⁸Ebed-Melech went out of the palace. He said to the king, ⁹“My king and master, everything those men have done to the prophet Jeremiah is evil. They have thrown him into an empty well. Soon there won’t be any more bread in the city. Then he’ll starve to death.”

¹⁰So the king gave an order to Ebed-Melech from Cush. He said, “Take 30 men from here with you. Lift the prophet Jeremiah out of the well before he dies.”

¹¹Then Ebed-Melech took the men with him. He went to a room under the place in the palace where the treasures were stored. He got some old rags and worn-out clothes from there. Then he let them down with ropes to me in the well.

¹²Ebed-Melech from Cush told me what to do. He said, “Put these old rags and worn-out clothes under your arms. They’ll pad the ropes.” So I did. ¹³Then the men pulled me up with the ropes. They lifted me out of the well. And I remained in the courtyard of the guard.

Zedekiah Questions Jeremiah Again

¹⁴Then King Zedekiah sent for me. He had me brought to the third entrance to the Lord’s temple. “I want to ask you something,” the king said to me. “Don’t hide anything from me.”

¹⁵I said to Zedekiah, “Suppose I give you an answer. You will kill me, won’t you? Suppose I give you good advice. You won’t listen to me, will you?”

¹⁶But King Zedekiah took an oath. He promised me secretly, “I won’t kill you. And I won’t hand you over to those who want to take your life. That’s just as sure as the Lord is alive. He’s the one who has given us breath.”

¹⁷So I said to Zedekiah, “The Lord God who rules over all is the God of Israel. He says, ‘Give yourself up to the officers of the king of Babylonia. Then your life will be spared. And this city will not be burned down. You and your family will remain alive.

¹⁸“ ‘But what if you do not give yourself up to them? Then this city will be handed over to the Babylonians. They will burn it down. And you yourself will not escape from their powerful hands.’ ”

¹⁹King Zedekiah said to me, “I’m afraid of some of the Jews. They are the ones who have gone over to the side of the Babylonians. The Babylonians might hand me over to them. And those Jews will treat me badly.”

²⁰“They won’t hand you over to them,” I replied. “Obey the Lord. Do what I tell you to do. Then things will go well with you. Your life will be spared.

²¹“Don’t refuse to give yourself up. The Lord has shown me what will happen if you do. ²²All of the women who are left in your palace will be brought out. They’ll be given to the officials of the king of Babylonia. Those women will say to you,

“ ‘Your trusted friends have tricked you.

They have gotten the best of you.

Your feet are sunk down in the mud.

Your friends have deserted you.’

²³“All of your wives and children will be brought out to the Babylonians. You yourself won’t escape from their powerful hands. You will be captured by the king of Babylonia. And this city will be burned down.”

²⁴Then Zedekiah said to me, “Don’t let anyone know about the talk we’ve had. If you do, you might die. ²⁵Suppose the officials find out that I’ve talked with you. And suppose they come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you said to the king. Tell us what the king said to you. Don’t hide it from us. If you do, we’ll kill you.’ ²⁶Then tell them, ‘I was begging the king not to send me back to Jonathan’s house. I don’t want to die there.’ ”

²⁷All of the officials came to me. And they questioned me. I told them everything the king had ordered me to say. None of them had heard what I told the king. So they didn’t say anything else to me.

²⁸I remained in the courtyard of the guard. I stayed there until the day Jerusalem was captured.

Jerusalem Is Destroyed

39Here is how Jerusalem was captured.

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