Jeremiah 38
New Living Translation
Jeremiah in a Cistern
38 Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal[a] son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah had been telling the people. He had been saying, 2 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war, famine, or disease, but those who surrender to the Babylonians[b] will live. Their reward will be life. They will live!’ 3 The Lord also says: ‘The city of Jerusalem will certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it.’”
4 So these officials went to the king and said, “Sir, this man must die! That kind of talk will undermine the morale of the few fighting men we have left, as well as that of all the people. This man is a traitor!”
5 King Zedekiah agreed. “All right,” he said. “Do as you like. I can’t stop you.”
6 So the officials took Jeremiah from his cell and lowered him by ropes into an empty cistern in the prison yard. It belonged to Malkijah, a member of the royal family. There was no water in the cistern, but there was a thick layer of mud at the bottom, and Jeremiah sank down into it.
7 But Ebed-melech the Ethiopian,[c] an important court official, heard that Jeremiah was in the cistern. At that time the king was holding court at the Benjamin Gate, 8 so Ebed-melech rushed from the palace to speak with him. 9 “My lord the king,” he said, “these men have done a very evil thing in putting Jeremiah the prophet into the cistern. He will soon die of hunger, for almost all the bread in the city is gone.”
10 So the king told Ebed-melech, “Take thirty of my men with you, and pull Jeremiah out of the cistern before he dies.”
11 So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went to a room in the palace beneath the treasury, where he found some old rags and discarded clothing. He carried these to the cistern and lowered them to Jeremiah on a rope. 12 Ebed-melech called down to Jeremiah, “Put these rags under your armpits to protect you from the ropes.” Then when Jeremiah was ready, 13 they pulled him out. So Jeremiah was returned to the courtyard of the guard—the palace prison—where he remained.
Zedekiah Questions Jeremiah
14 One day King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and had him brought to the third entrance of the Lord’s Temple. “I want to ask you something,” the king said. “And don’t try to hide the truth.”
15 Jeremiah said, “If I tell you the truth, you will kill me. And if I give you advice, you won’t listen to me anyway.”
16 So King Zedekiah secretly promised him, “As surely as the Lord our Creator lives, I will not kill you or hand you over to the men who want you dead.”
17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you surrender to the Babylonian officers, you and your family will live, and the city will not be burned down. 18 But if you refuse to surrender, you will not escape! This city will be handed over to the Babylonians, and they will burn it to the ground.’”
19 “But I am afraid to surrender,” the king said, “for the Babylonians may hand me over to the Judeans who have defected to them. And who knows what they will do to me!”
20 Jeremiah replied, “You won’t be handed over to them if you choose to obey the Lord. Your life will be spared, and all will go well for you. 21 But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the Lord has revealed to me: 22 All the women left in your palace will be brought out and given to the officers of the Babylonian army. Then the women will taunt you, saying,
‘What fine friends you have!
They have betrayed and misled you.
When your feet sank in the mud,
they left you to your fate!’
23 All your wives and children will be led out to the Babylonians, and you will not escape. You will be seized by the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned down.”
24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Don’t tell anyone you told me this, or you will die! 25 My officials may hear that I spoke to you, and they may say, ‘Tell us what you and the king were talking about. If you don’t tell us, we will kill you.’ 26 If this happens, just tell them you begged me not to send you back to Jonathan’s dungeon, for fear you would die there.”
27 Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the king’s officials came to Jeremiah and asked him why the king had called for him. But Jeremiah followed the king’s instructions, and they left without finding out the truth. No one had overheard the conversation between Jeremiah and the king. 28 And Jeremiah remained a prisoner in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.
Jeremiah 38
Lexham English Bible
Jeremiah is Thrown into the Pit of Malchiah
38 Now Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah was saying to all the people, saying,[a] 2 “Thus says Yahweh, ‘The one who stays in this city will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague. But the one who goes out to the Chaldeans will live. And his life will be for him as booty, and he will live.’ 3 Thus says Yahweh, ‘Surely this city will be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.’”
4 Then the officials said to the king, “Please, this man must be killed, because[b] he is making slack the hands of the soldiers[c] who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking to them words like these, for this man is not seeking for welfare[d] to this people, but only[e] for harm.” 5 And Zedekiah the king said, “Look, he is in your hand, for the king is not able to do a thing against you.” 6 So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the pit[f] of Malchiah, the son of the king, which was in the courtyard of the guard. And they let Jeremiah down by ropes. Now in the pit[g] there was no water,[h] but only[i] mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.
7 When Ebed-melech the Cushite, a eunuch[j] who was in the house of the king, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the pit[k]—now the king was sitting at the Gate of Benjamin— 8 Ebed-melech went out from the house of the king and spoke to the king, saying,[l] 9 “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, in that they have thrown him into the pit,[m] and he will die there[n] because of[o] starvation, for there is no longer any bread in the city.” 10 Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Cushite, saying,[p] “Take with you[q] these thirty men and pull Jeremiah the prophet up from the pit[r] before[s] he dies.”
11 So Ebed-melech took the men with him[t] and went to the palace of the king, to a place beneath the storehouse, and he took from there rags[u] and worn-out clothes.[v] And he let them down into the pit[w] by ropes to Jeremiah. 12 Then Ebed-melech the Cushite said to Jeremiah, “Please put the rags[x] and worn-out clothes[y] under the joints of your arms under the ropes,” and Jeremiah did so. 13 And they pulled Jeremiah by the ropes and brought him up from the pit.[z] And Jeremiah stayed in the courtyard of the guard.
14 And Zedekiah the king sent and made someone bring Jeremiah the prophet to him, to the third entrance that was at the temple[aa] of Yahweh. And the king said to Jeremiah, “I am asking you something,[ab] you must not hide anything[ac] from me.” 15 And Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I tell you, will you not surely kill me? Besides,[ad] if I advise you, you will not listen to me. 16 So Zedekiah the king swore to Jeremiah in secret, saying,[ae] “As Yahweh lives,[af] who has made for us this life, I will not kill you and I will not give you into the hand of these men who are seeking your life.”
17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘If only you will go surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then you[ag] will live, and this city will not be burned with fire, and you will live, you and your house. 18 But if you do not go surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they will burn it with fire, and you will not escape from their hand.’”
19 And Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Judeans who have deserted to the Chaldeans, lest they give me into their hand and they abuse me.” 20 And Jeremiah said, “They will not give you over. Please obey the voice of Yahweh with regard to what I am saying to you, and it will go well with you, and you[ah] will live. 21 But if you are refusing to surrender, this is the thing that Yahweh has shown me. 22 Now look, all the women who remain in the house of the king of Judah are being led out to the officials of the king of Babylon. And look, they are saying,
‘Your trusted friends[ai] have misled you,
and they have prevailed against you.
Your feet are stuck in the mud,
so they turned backward.’
23 And all your wives and your children will be led out to the Chaldeans, and you will not escape from their hand, but by the hand of the king of Babylon you will be seized, and this city will burn with fire.”
24 And Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “No man must know about these words so that you will not die. 25 And if the officials hear that I have spoken with you, and they come to you and say to you, ‘Please tell us what you said to the king. You must not conceal it from us so that we will not kill you. And what did the king say to you?’ 26 Then you shall say to them, ‘I was presenting my plea before[aj] the king, to not cause me to return to the house of Jonathan to die there.’” 27 And all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him, and he informed them like all these words that the king commanded. So they fell silent, for the conversation[ak] was not heard. 28 And Jeremiah stayed in the courtyard of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was captured. And it happened that Jerusalem was captured.[al]
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 38:1 Literally “to say”
- Jeremiah 38:4 Literally “unto thus”
- Jeremiah 38:4 Literally “the men of the war”
- Jeremiah 38:4 Or “peace”
- Jeremiah 38:4 Literally “but if”
- Jeremiah 38:6 Or “cistern”
- Jeremiah 38:6 Or “cistern”
- Jeremiah 38:6 Hebrew “waters”
- Jeremiah 38:6 Literally “but if”
- Jeremiah 38:7 Literally “a man of a eunuch”
- Jeremiah 38:7 Or “cistern”
- Jeremiah 38:8 Literally “to say”
- Jeremiah 38:9 Or “cistern”
- Jeremiah 38:9 Literally “in it”
- Jeremiah 38:9 Literally “from the face of”
- Jeremiah 38:10 Literally “to say”
- Jeremiah 38:10 Literally “in your hand”
- Jeremiah 38:10 Or “cistern”
- Jeremiah 38:10 Literally “at not yet”
- Jeremiah 38:11 Literally “in his hand”
- Jeremiah 38:11 Literally “the rags of rags”
- Jeremiah 38:11 Literally “rags of ragged clothes”
- Jeremiah 38:11 Or “cistern”
- Jeremiah 38:12 Literally “rags of the rags”
- Jeremiah 38:12 Literally “ragged clothes”
- Jeremiah 38:13 Or “cistern”
- Jeremiah 38:14 Literally “house”
- Jeremiah 38:14 Literally “a thing”
- Jeremiah 38:14 Literally “a thing”
- Jeremiah 38:15 Literally “And”
- Jeremiah 38:16 Literally “to say”
- Jeremiah 38:16 Literally “Life of Yahweh”
- Jeremiah 38:17 Literally “your life” or “your soul”
- Jeremiah 38:20 Literally “your life” or “your soul”
- Jeremiah 38:22 Literally “The men of your peace”
- Jeremiah 38:26 Literally “to the face of”
- Jeremiah 38:27 Literally “word”
- Jeremiah 38:28 Jeremiah 38:28b in the Hebrew Bible is 39:1a in the English Bible
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