⁹ “My lord the king, these men have been evil in all they have done to the prophet Jeremiah. They have dropped him into the cistern where he will die from hunger, because there is no more bread in the city.”^(A)

¹⁰ So the king commanded Ebed-melech, the Cushite, “Take from here thirty men under your authority^[a] and pull the prophet Jeremiah up from the cistern before he dies.”

¹¹ So Ebed-melech took the men under his authority^[b] and went to the king’s palace to a place below the storehouse.^[c] From there he took old rags and worn-out clothes and lowered them by ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern.