²⁰ Therefore please hear now, O my lord the king. Please, let my petition be accepted before you, and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.”

⁷ It may be that they will present their supplication before the Lord, and everyone will turn from his evil way. For great is the anger and the fury that the Lord has pronounced against this people.”

¹⁸ who, ^(A)when they had examined me, wanted to let me go, because there was no cause for putting me to death. ¹⁹ But when the ^[a]Jews spoke against it, ^(B)I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, not that I had anything of which to accuse my nation.

¹⁰ So Paul said, “I stand at Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews I have done no wrong, as you very well know. ^11 (A)For if I am an offender, or have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying; but if there is nothing in these things of which these men accuse me, no one can deliver me to them. ^(B)I appeal to Caesar.”

¹⁶ So when Paul’s sister’s son heard of their ambush, he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. ¹⁷ Then Paul called one of the centurions to him and said, “Take this young man to the commander, for he has something to tell him.” ¹⁸ So he took him and brought him to the commander and said, “Paul the prisoner called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to say to you.”

¹⁹ Then the commander took him by the hand, went aside, and asked privately, “What is it that you have to tell me?”

²⁰ And he said, ^(A)“The Jews have agreed to ask that you bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire more fully about him. ²¹ But do not yield to them, for more than forty of them lie in wait for him, men who have bound themselves by an oath that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him; and now they are ready, waiting for the promise from you.”

²² So the commander let the young man depart, and commanded him, “Tell no one that you have revealed these things to me.”

²⁶ then you shall say to them, ^(A)‘I presented my request before the king, that he would not make me return ^(B)to Jonathan’s house to die there.’ ”

^6 (A)So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah ^[a]the king’s son, which was in the court of the prison, and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire. So Jeremiah sank in the mire.

^7 (B)Now Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, one of the ^[b]eunuchs, who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon. When the king was sitting at the Gate of Benjamin, ⁸ Ebed-Melech went out of 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 dungeon, and he is likely to die from hunger in the place where he is. For there is ^(C)no more bread in the city.”

¹⁵ But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will surely bring innocent blood on yourselves, on this city, and on its inhabitants; for truly the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.”