⁴ Then the officials said to the king, ‘This man ought to be put to death, because he is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, and all the people, by speaking such words to them. For this man is not seeking the welfare of this people, but their harm.’ ⁵ King Zedekiah said, ‘Here he is; he is in your hands; for the king is powerless against you.’ ⁶ So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. Now there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.

⁸ So Ebed-melech left the king’s house and spoke to the king, ⁹ ‘My lord king, these men have acted wickedly in all they did to the prophet Jeremiah by throwing him into the cistern to die there of hunger, for there is no bread left in the city.’ ¹⁰ Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian,^[a] ‘Take three men with you from here, and pull the prophet Jeremiah up from the cistern before he dies.’