Chapter 38

Jeremiah in the Muddy Cistern. ¹ Shephatiah, the son of Mattan, Gedaliah, the son of Pashhur, Jucal, the son of Shemaliah, and Pashhur, the son of Malchiah, heard Jeremiah speaking these words to all the people, ² “Thus says the Lord: Whoever remains in this city will die by the sword, or famine, or pestilence. However, anyone who leaves it and surrenders to the Chaldeans will live; his life will be spared and he will live. ³ Thus says the Lord: Without any doubt this city will be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon who will capture it.

⁴ Then the officials said to the king, “This man should be put to death. There is no question that he is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city as well as all the people by saying such things to them. For this man is not interested in the welfare of these people but rather is seeking their ruin.”

⁵ King Zedekiah replied, “He is in your power.” For the king was powerless to oppose them. ⁶ Therefore, they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting him down with ropes. There was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.

⁷ However, it so happened that an Ethiopian, Ebed-melech,^[a] who was a eunuch in the king’s palace, heard that Jeremiah had been put into the cistern. Therefore, he decided to report this to the king, ⁸ and he left the palace to speak to the king who at that moment was seated at the Benjamin Gate. ⁹ “My lord king,” he said, “these men have acted wickedly in their treatment of the prophet Jeremiah. They threw him into a cistern and left him there to die of hunger, for there is no more bread left in the city.”

¹⁰ The king instructed Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, to take three men along with him and lift the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern before he perished. ¹¹ Ebed-melech went to the palace with the men after first taking from a storage closet in the palace some old tattered rags and worn-out clothes which he lowered with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. ¹² Then Ebed-melech the Ethiopian called down to Jeremiah, “Put those old rags and clothes under your armpits to pad the ropes.” Jeremiah did so, ¹³ and then they pulled him up with the ropes out of the cistern. But Jeremiah continued to remain in the court of the guard.

¹⁴ King Zedekiah summoned the prophet Jeremiah and received him at the third entrance to the temple of the Lord. “I have something to ask you,” the king said to Jeremiah. “Do not conceal anything from me.” ¹⁵ Jeremiah replied to Zedekiah, “If I speak in a straightforward manner, you will have me put to death, won’t you? And if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.” ¹⁶ But King Zedekiah then swore this oath secretly to Jeremiah, “As the Lord lives who gave us the breath of life, I will not put you to death, nor will I hand you over to those who seek your life.”

¹⁷ Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: If you surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared, and this city will not be burned to the ground, and you and your family will live. ¹⁸ However, if you do not surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, this city will fall into the hands of the Chaldeans, who will destroy it with fire, and you yourself will not be able to escape their clutches.”

¹⁹ King Zedekiah then said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Judeans who have deserted to the Chaldeans. It very well might be that I will be handed over to them and they will be ruthless in their treatment of me.” ²⁰ Jeremiah replied, “You will not be handed over to them. If you obey the Lord by doing everything I tell you, all will go well with you, and your life will be spared. ²¹ But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the Lord has shown me. ²² He has given me a vision of all the women left in the palace of the king of Judah being led off to the officials of the king of Babylon and saying,

²³ “All your wives and your children will be led off to the Chaldeans, and you yourself will not escape their clutches. Rather, you will be handed over to the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned to the ground.”

²⁴ Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Do not let anyone know of this conversation, or you will die. ²⁵ If the officials learn that I have spoken with you, and they say to you, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what he said to you; do not hold anything back from us or we will put you to death,’ ²⁶ give them this answer, ‘I was simply pleading with the king not to send me back to the house of Jonathan to die there.’ ”

²⁷ All the officials did come to Jeremiah to interrogate him, and he replied to them in the very same words that the king had commanded. Therefore, they ceased to question him, for no one had heard their conversation. ²⁸ And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was captured.