Jeremiah 38

38 ¹Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchijah heard Jeremiah telling all the people:

²"This is what our Father says: Whoever stays in this city will die by sword, famine, and plague, but whoever surrenders to the Babylonians will live and keep his life as plunder. ³This is what our Father says: This city will surely be handed to the army of Babylon's king, and he will capture it."

⁴The officials told the king, "Put this man to death. Such words weaken the hands of the soldiers left in this city and all the people. He seeks not their good but their harm."

⁵King Zedekiah said, "Look, he is in your hands; the king can do nothing to oppose you."

⁶They took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malchiah the king's son, in the guard's courtyard, lowering him by ropes. It had no water, only mud, and Jeremiah sank in.

⁷But Ebed-Melech the Cushite, a palace official, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the cistern. While the king was sitting at the Benjamin Gate, ⁸Ebed-Melech went out from the palace and spoke to the king: ⁹"My lord the king, these men have done evil in all they did to Jeremiah the prophet, throwing him in the cistern to die of hunger, since there's no more bread in the city."

¹⁰The king ordered Ebed-Melech the Cushite, "Take thirty men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies."

¹¹Ebed-Melech took the men, went to the palace, to a room under the treasury, took old rags and worn-out clothes, and let them down by ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. ¹²Ebed-Melech the Cushite told Jeremiah, "Put these worn-out rags and clothes under your armpits, below the ropes." Jeremiah did. ¹³They pulled Jeremiah up out of the cistern with ropes; Jeremiah stayed in the guard's courtyard.

The King Hears the Father's Word

¹⁴Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to the third entrance of our Father's house. The king said to Jeremiah, "I'll ask you something; hide nothing from me."

¹⁵Jeremiah told Zedekiah, "If I tell you, won't you kill me? And if I advise you, you won't listen."

¹⁶King Zedekiah secretly swore to Jeremiah, "As our Father lives, who made us this life, I won't kill you or hand you to these men seeking your life."

¹⁷Jeremiah told Zedekiah, "This is what the Father of heaven's armies, the Father of Israel says: If you surrender to the king of Babylon's officials, your life will be spared, this city won't be burned with fire, and you and your household will live. ¹⁸But if you refuse to surrender to the king of Babylon's officials, this city will be given to the Babylonians, who will burn it, and you won't escape them."

¹⁹King Zedekiah told Jeremiah, "I fear the Judeans who deserted to the Babylonians; I may be handed over for them to abuse."

²⁰Jeremiah said, "They won't hand you over. Obey our Father's voice as I tell you, so it goes well and your life is spared. ²¹But if you refuse to surrender, this is the word that our Father has shown me:

²²"Look! All the women left in the palace of Judah's king will be brought out to the officials of Babylon's king, and they'll say: 'Your trusted friends misled and overpowered you; your feet sank in the mud, and they have turned their backs on you.'"

²³"All your wives and children will be taken to the Babylonians, and you will not escape their hand but be seized by Babylon's king, and this city burned with fire."

²⁴Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "Let no one know about this conversation, or you may die. ²⁵If the officials hear I spoke with you and come saying, 'Tell us what you said to the king and what he said to you; hide nothing from us, or we will put you to death,' ²⁶then tell them, 'I was begging the king not to send me back to Jonathan's house to die.'"

²⁷All the officials came and questioned Jeremiah, and he answered exactly as the king had ordered. So they stopped, for the conversation had not been overheard. ²⁸Jeremiah stayed in the guard's courtyard until the day Jerusalem was captured. And this was the situation when Jerusalem fell.