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Jeremiah Brought Up from the Cistern

¹ And Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jucal the ^(C1)son of Shelemiah, and ^(C2)Pashhur the son of Malchijah heard the words that Jeremiah was speaking to all the people, saying,² "Thus says Yahweh, 'He who ^(C1)stays in this city will die by the ^(C2)sword and by the famine and by the pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live and have his own ^(C3)life as spoil and stay alive.'³ "Thus says Yahweh, 'This city will certainly be ^(C1)given into the hand of the military force of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.'"⁴ Then the ^(C1)officials said to the king, "Now let this man be put to death, inasmuch as he is ^(C2)making the hands of the men of war who remain in this city as well as the hands of all the people limp, by speaking such words to them; for this man ^(C3)is not seeking peace for this people but rather calamity."⁵ So King Zedekiah said, "Behold, he is in your ^(F1)hands; for the king ^(C1)can do nothing against you."⁶ Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the ^(F1)(C1)cistern of Malchijah the king's son, which was in the court of the guard; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only ^(C2)mire, and Jeremiah sank into the mire.⁷ But ^(C1)Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, ^(F1)a ^(C2)eunuch, while he was in the king's palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. Now the king was sitting in the ^(C3)Gate of Benjamin;⁸ and Ebed-melech went out from the king's house and spoke to the king, saying,⁹ "My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet whom they have cast into the cistern; and he ^(F1)will die right where he is because of the famine, for there is ^(C1)no more bread in the city."¹⁰ Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, "Take in your hand thirty men from here and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies."¹¹ So Ebed-melech took the men in his hand 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.¹² Then 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.¹³ So they pulled Jeremiah up with the ropes and brought him up from the cistern, and Jeremiah stayed in the ^(C1)court of the guard.

Zedekiah Sends for Jeremiah

¹⁴ Then King Zedekiah ^(C1)sent and ^(F1)had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance that is in the house of Yahweh; and the king said to Jeremiah, "I am going to ^(C2)ask you something; do not hide anything from me."¹⁵ Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "^(C1)If I tell you, will you not certainly put me to death? Besides, if I give you counsel, you will not listen to me."¹⁶ But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah in ^(C1)secret saying, "As Yahweh lives, who made this ^(F1)(C2)life for us, surely I will not put you to death, nor will I give you over to the hand of ^(C3)these men who are seeking your ^(F1)life."

¹⁷ Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "Thus says Yahweh ^(C1)God of hosts, the ^(C2)God of Israel, 'If you will indeed ^(C3)go out to the ^(F1)officers of the king of Babylon, then ^(F2)you will live, this city will not be burned with fire, and you and your household will live.¹⁸ 'But if you will ^(C1)not go out to the ^(F1)officers of the king of Babylon, then this city ^(C2)will be given over to the hand of the Chaldeans; and they will burn it with fire, and ^(C3)you yourself will not escape from their hand.'"¹⁹ Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "I ^(C1)am anxious because of the Jews who have ^(F1)(C2)gone over to the Chaldeans, lest they give me over into their hand and they ^(C3)deal severely with me."²⁰ But Jeremiah said, "They will not give you over. Please ^(C1)listen to the voice of Yahweh in what I am saying to you, that it may go ^(C2)well with you and ^(F1)(C3)you may live.²¹ "But if you keep refusing to go out, this is the word which Yahweh has shown me:²² 'And behold, all of the ^(C1)women who have remained in the house of the king of Judah are going to be brought out to the ^(F1)officers of the king of Babylon; and behold, those women will say,

"^(F2)Your close friends
Have misled and overpowered you;
While your feet were sunk in the mud,
They turned back."

²⁴ Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "Let no man know about these words and you will not die.²⁵ "But if the ^(C1)officials 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,'²⁶ then you are to say to them, 'I was ^(C1)presenting my petition before the king, not to make me return to the house of Jonathan to die there.'"²⁷ Then all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him. So he told them in accordance with all these words which the king had commanded; and they ceased speaking with him since the ^(F1)conversation had not been overheard.²⁸ So Jeremiah ^(C1)stayed in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was captured.