Chronological
Chapter 38
Jeremiah in the Muddy Cistern. 1 Shephatiah, the son of Mattan, Gedaliah, the son of Pashhur, Jucal, the son of Shemaliah, and Pashhur, the son of Malchiah, heard Jeremiah speaking these words to all the people, 2 “Thus says the Lord: Whoever remains in this city will die by the sword, or famine, or pestilence. However, anyone who leaves it and surrenders to the Chaldeans will live; his life will be spared and he will live. 3 Thus says the Lord: Without any doubt this city will be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon who will capture it.
4 Then the officials said to the king, “This man should be put to death. There is no question that he is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city as well as all the people by saying such things to them. For this man is not interested in the welfare of these people but rather is seeking their ruin.”
5 King Zedekiah replied, “He is in your power.” For the king was powerless to oppose them. 6 Therefore, they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting him down with ropes. There was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.
7 However, it so happened that an Ethiopian, Ebed-melech,[a] who was a eunuch in the king’s palace, heard that Jeremiah had been put into the cistern. Therefore, he decided to report this to the king, 8 and he left the palace to speak to the king who at that moment was seated at the Benjamin Gate. 9 “My lord king,” he said, “these men have acted wickedly in their treatment of the prophet Jeremiah. They threw him into a cistern and left him there to die of hunger, for there is no more bread left in the city.”
10 The king instructed Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, to take three men along with him and lift the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern before he perished. 11 Ebed-melech went to the palace with the men after first taking from a storage closet in the palace some old tattered rags and worn-out clothes which he lowered with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. 12 Then Ebed-melech the Ethiopian called down to Jeremiah, “Put those old rags and clothes under your armpits to pad the ropes.” Jeremiah did so, 13 and then they pulled him up with the ropes out of the cistern. But Jeremiah continued to remain in the court of the guard.
14 King Zedekiah summoned the prophet Jeremiah and received him at the third entrance to the temple of the Lord. “I have something to ask you,” the king said to Jeremiah. “Do not conceal anything from me.” 15 Jeremiah replied to Zedekiah, “If I speak in a straightforward manner, you will have me put to death, won’t you? And if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.” 16 But King Zedekiah then swore this oath secretly to Jeremiah, “As the Lord lives who gave us the breath of life, I will not put you to death, nor will I hand you over to those who seek your life.”
17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: If you surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared, and this city will not be burned to the ground, and you and your family will live. 18 However, if you do not surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, this city will fall into the hands of the Chaldeans, who will destroy it with fire, and you yourself will not be able to escape their clutches.”
19 King Zedekiah then said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Judeans who have deserted to the Chaldeans. It very well might be that I will be handed over to them and they will be ruthless in their treatment of me.” 20 Jeremiah replied, “You will not be handed over to them. If you obey the Lord by doing everything I tell you, all will go well with you, and your life will be spared. 21 But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the Lord has shown me. 22 He has given me a vision of all the women left in the palace of the king of Judah being led off to the officials of the king of Babylon and saying,
‘They have misled you and triumphed over you,
your trusted friends.
Now that your feet are stuck in the mud,
they have deserted you.’
23 “All your wives and your children will be led off to the Chaldeans, and you yourself will not escape their clutches. Rather, you will be handed over to the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned to the ground.”
24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Do not let anyone know of this conversation, or you will die. 25 If the officials learn that I have spoken with you, and they say to you, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what he said to you; do not hold anything back from us or we will put you to death,’ 26 give them this answer, ‘I was simply pleading with the king not to send me back to the house of Jonathan to die there.’ ”
27 All the officials did come to Jeremiah to interrogate him, and he replied to them in the very same words that the king had commanded. Therefore, they ceased to question him, for no one had heard their conversation. 28 And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was captured.
Chapter 39
Jeremiah and Gedaliah. 1 In the tenth month of the ninth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, marched into battle against Jerusalem with his entire army and laid siege to it. 2 Then, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, on the ninth day of the fourth month, a breach was made in the wall of the city. 3 Thereupon, all of the officials of the king of Babylon came forward and took their seats at the middle gate: Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim, who was a high dignitary, another Nergal-sharezer, who was the chief astrologer, and all of the other dignitaries in the king’s service.
4 When King Zedekiah of Judah beheld them, he and all of his soldiers fled, departing from the city during the night by way of the king’s garden through the gate between the two walls, and they set off in the direction of the Arabah. 5 However, the army of the Chaldeans set off in pursuit of them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. After they had captured him, they took him to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, at Riblah in the land of Hamath, who passed sentence on him.
6 The king of Babylon ordered the sons of Zedekiah to be slaughtered at Riblah before their father’s eyes, and he also sentenced all the nobles of Judah to be put to death. 7 Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah and ordered him to be taken to Babylon bound in chains.
8 The Chaldeans burned to the ground the royal palace and the houses of the people, and they demolished the walls of Jerusa-lem. 9 Then Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guard, deported to Babylon the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the remaining workmen. 10 However Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guard, left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing, and at the same time, he gave them vineyards and fields.
11 Concerning Jeremiah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon gave the following orders to Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guard, 12 “Take him and look after him. Do him no harm, but grant him whatever he requests.” 13 Then Nebuzaradan, the commander, the commander of the guard, and Nebushazban, a high-ranking dignitary, and Nergal-sharezer, an important official, and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon 14 ordered Jeremiah to be taken from the court of the guard and entrusted to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to be brought safely home. Thus he remained among his own people.
15 A Blessing for Ebed-melech. While Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard, the word of the Lord came to him. 16 “Go and tell Ebed-melech the Ethiopian: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am now going to fulfill the words I have spoken against this city for its ruin and not for its prosperity, and those promises will be fulfilled before your very eyes.
17 “However, I will rescue you on that day, says the Lord. You will not be handed over to those whom you so greatly fear. 18 For I will save you. You will not fall by the sword, but you will escape with your life because you have placed your trust in me, says the Lord.”
Chapter 40
Jeremiah Remains in Judah. 1 This word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guard, had released him at Ramah, where he had found him imprisoned in chains with all the other captives from Jerusalem and Judah who were being deported to Babylon.
2 The commander of the guard took Jeremiah aside and said to him, “The Lord, your God, foretold the disaster that would overwhelm this place. 3 Now he has brought about what he threatened to do to your people because they sinned against the Lord and refused to obey him. 4 But today I am removing the chains from your hands. If you so wish, you can come with me to Babylon, and I will take good care of you. However, if you do not wish to come with me to Babylon, you need not do so. Endless stretches of land lie before you. Go wherever you think it is best for you.”
5 Then, before Jeremiah could reply, Nebuzaradan added, “You can also go back to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed governor of the towns of Judah, and stay with him among your people, or go anywhere else you please.” Then the commander of the guard gave him food and gifts and let him go. 6 Jeremiah thereupon went to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, in Mizpah, and he stayed with him among the people who were left in the land.
7 [b]When all the military leaders of the forces still in the open country heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, as governor over the land and had placed in his care the men, women, and children who were the most destitute of all the people there who had not been carried off into exile to Babylon, 8 they went with their forces to Gedaliah in Mizpah: Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah; Johanan and Jonathan, the sons of Kareah; Seraiah, the son of Tanhumeth; the sons of Ephai of Netophah; Jezaniah, the son of Beth-maacah.
9 Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore an oath to reassure them and their men, saying, “Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Settle down in the land, serve the king of Babylon, and all will go well with you. 10 I myself will remain in Mizpah to represent you before the Chaldeans who come to us. As for you, harvest the wine, the summer fruits, and the oil. Store them in your vessels and settle in the towns that you have seized.”
11 When all the Judeans who were living in Moab with the Ammonites, in Edom, and elsewhere heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as governor over them, 12 they all returned to Judah from the places to which they had been driven. They presented themselves to Gedaliah at Mizpah and gathered a rich harvest of wine and summer fruits.
13 Gedaliah’s Murder. Now Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the forces still stationed in the open country came to Gedaliah at Mizpah 14 and said to him, “Are you at all aware that Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, has sent Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, to assassinate you?” But Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, refused to believe them.
15 Then Johanan, the son of Kareah, spoke privately to Gedaliah at Mizpah, saying, “Please authorize me to go and kill Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah. No one will be the wiser. Why should he be allowed to assassinate you, thus causing all the Jews who have rallied around you to be scattered and the remnant of Judah to perish?” 16 But Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, replied to Johanan, the son of Kareah, “Do not even think of doing such a thing. What you are saying about Ishmael is untrue.”
Psalm 74[a]
Prayer in Time of Calamity
1 A maskil[b] of Asaph.
Why, O God, have you cast us off forever?
Why[c] does your anger blaze forth
against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember the people that you purchased long ago,
the tribe that you redeemed as your own possession,[d]
and Mount Zion that you chose as your dwelling.
3 Direct now your steps[e] to the endless ruins,
toward the sanctuary destroyed by the enemy.
4 Your foes exulted triumphantly in the place of your assembly
and set up their memorial emblems.
5 They set upon it with their axes
as if it were a thicket of trees.
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers,
they bludgeoned all the carved work.
7 They set your sanctuary ablaze;
they razed and defiled the dwelling place of your name.[f]
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly crush them,”
and they burned every shrine of God in the land.[g]
9 Now we see no signs,
there are no longer any prophets,
and none of us knows how long this will last.[h]
10 How long, O God, will the foe mock you?
Will the enemy blaspheme your name forever?[i]
11 Why do you hold back your right hand?
Take it out from your robe and destroy them.[j]
12 Yet you, O God, are my King from of old,
working deeds of salvation throughout the earth.
13 [k]By your power you split the sea in two
and shattered the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave him as food for the wild beasts.
15 You opened up springs and torrents
and turned flowing rivers into dry land.[l]
16 [m]Yours is the day, and yours also is the night,
for you set in place both sun and moon.
17 You fixed all the boundaries of the earth
and created both summer and winter.
18 [n]Remember, O Lord, how the enemy has mocked you,
how a foolish people has blasphemed your name.
19 Do not surrender the soul of your dove[o] to wild beasts;
do not forget forever the life of your poor.
20 Have regard for your covenant!
For the land is filled with darkness,
and the pastures are haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the oppressed turn back in shame;
let the poor and needy[p] bless your name.
22 Rise up, O God, and defend your cause;
remember how fools mock you all day long.
23 Do not ignore the outbursts of your enemies,
the unceasing tumult of your foes.
Psalm 79[a]
Prayer for Restoration
1 A psalm of Asaph.[b]
[c]O God, the nations have invaded your heritage;
they have profaned your holy temple
and turned Jerusalem into a heap of ruins.
2 They have given the corpses of your servants
as food to the birds of the air,
the flesh of your saints
to the beasts of the earth.
3 They have poured out their blood like water
all around Jerusalem,
and no one is left to bury them.[d]
4 We have become the scorn of our neighbors,
mocked and derided by those around us.[e]
5 [f]How long, O Lord?[g] Will you be angry forever?
How long will your rage continue to blaze like a fire?
6 [h]Pour out your wrath on the nations
that refuse to acknowledge you,
on the kingdoms
that fail to call on your name.[i]
7 For they have devoured Jacob
and ravaged his homeland.
8 Do not hold against us the sins of our ancestors;
let your mercy come quickly to meet us,
for we are in desperate straits.[j]
9 [k]Help us, O God, our Savior,
for the glory of your name;
deliver us and wipe away our sins
for your name’s sake.[l]
10 Why should the nations ask,
“Where is their God?”
Before our eyes make it clearly known among those nations
that you avenge[m] the blood of your servants.
11 Let the groans of the captives come before you;
through your great power
save those who have been sentenced to death.[n]
12 Repay our neighbors sevenfold[o] in their breasts, O Lord,
for the insults with which they taunted you.
13 Then we, your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will offer thanks to you[p] forever;
from generation to generation
we will proclaim your praise.
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