Jeremiah 38

¹ But Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal son of Shelemiah and Pashhur son of Malchiah heard the words which Jeremiah was saying to all the people,

² ‘Yahweh says this, “Anyone who stays in this city will die by sword, famine or plague; but anyone who leaves it and surrenders to the Chaldaeans will live; he will escape with his life.

³ Yahweh says this: This city will certainly be delivered into the power of the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it.”‘

⁴ These leading men accordingly spoke to the king. ‘Let this man be put to death: he is unquestionably disheartening the remaining soldiers in the city, and all the people too, by talking like this. The fellow does not have the welfare of this people at heart so much as its ruin.’

⁵ ‘He is in your hands as you know,’ King Zedekiah answered ‘for the king is powerless against you.’

⁶ So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the well of Prince Malchiah in the Court of the Guard, letting him down with ropes. There was no water in the well, only mud, and into the mud Jeremiah sank.

⁷ But Ebed-melech the Cushite, a eunuch attached to the palace, heard that Jeremiah had been put into the well. As the king was sitting at the Benjamin Gate,

⁸ Ebed-melech came out from the palace and spoke to the king.

⁹ ‘My lord king,’ he said ‘these men have done a wicked thing by treating the prophet Jeremiah like this: they have thrown him into the well where he will die.’

¹⁰ At this the king gave Ebed-melech the Cushite the following order: ‘Take three men with you from here and pull the prophet Jeremiah out of the well before he dies’.

¹¹ Ebed-melech took the men with him and went into the palace to the storehouse wardrobe; out of it he took some torn, worn-out rags which he lowered on ropes to Jeremiah in the well.

¹² Ebed-melech the Cushite then said to Jeremiah, ‘These torn, worn-out rags are for you to put under your armpits to pad the ropes’. Jeremiah did this.

¹³ They then hauled Jeremiah up with the ropes and pulled him out of the well. And Jeremiah stayed in the Court of the Guard.

¹⁴ King Zedekiah had the prophet Jeremiah summoned to him at the third entrance to the Temple of Yahweh. ‘I want to ask you for a word,’ the king said to Jeremiah ‘keep nothing back from me.’

¹⁵ Jeremiah answered Zedekiah, ‘If I tell you, surely you will have me put to death? And if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.’

¹⁶ King Zedekiah then swore this oath in secret to Jeremiah, ‘As Yahweh lives, giver of this life of ours, I will neither have you put to death nor handed over into the power of these men who are determined to kill you’.

¹⁷ Jeremiah then said to Zedekiah, ‘Yahweh, the God of Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, “If you go out and surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be safe and this city will not be burnt down; you and your family will survive.

¹⁸ But if you do not go out and surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be handed over into the power of the king of the Chaldaeans who will burn it down; and you yourself will not escape their hands.”‘

¹⁹ King Zedekiah then said to Jeremiah, ‘I am afraid of the Jews who have already gone over to the Chaldaeans: I might be handed over to them and they would ill-treat me’.

²⁰ ‘You will not be handed over to them,’ Jeremiah replied ‘just listen to the voice of Yahweh, in obedience to which I have spoken, and all will go well with you and your life will be safe.

²¹ But if you refuse to go, this is what Yahweh has shown me:

²² a vision of all the women left in the palace of the king of Judah being led off to the officers of the king of Babylon and singing: “They have misled you, they have overreached you, your fine friends! Are your feet sinking in the mud? They are up and away!”

²³ Yes, all your wives and children will be led off to the Chaldaeans, and you yourself will not escape their hands, but will be a prisoner in the clutches of the king of Babylon. And as for this city, it will be burnt down.’

²⁴ Zedekiah then said to Jeremiah, ‘Do not let anyone else hear these words or you will die.

²⁵ If the officials hear that I have been talking to you, and come to you and say, “Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you; keep nothing back from us, or we will put you to death”,

²⁶ you must reply, “I presented this request to the king: that he would not have me sent back to the house of Jonathan to die there”.’

²⁷ All the officials did in fact come to Jeremiah to question him. He told them exactly what the king had ordered him to say. They then left him in peace, since no part of the conversation had been overheard.

²⁸ Jeremiah stayed in the Court of the Guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.