Old/New Testament
Imprisoned for the Word
37 Now Zedekiah son of Josiah reigned as king, instead of Coniah son of Jehoiakim, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon made king in the land of Judah. 2 But neither he nor his servants, nor the people of the land, paid attention to the words of Adonai which He spoke by the prophet Jeremiah.
3 Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying: “Pray now to Adonai our God for us.”
4 Now Jeremiah was coming in and going out among the people, for they had not put him into prison. 5 Meanwhile Pharaoh’s army had set out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they lifted the siege from Jerusalem.
6 Then came the word of Adonai to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, 7 thus says Adonai, the God of Israel, thus will you say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Now, Pharaoh’s army, which is come forth to help you, will return to Egypt into their own land. 8 The Chaldeans will return and fight against this city. Then they will capture it and burn it with fire.”
9 Thus says Adonai: “Do not deceive yourselves, saying: ‘The Chaldeans will surely depart from us’—for they will not depart. 10 For even if you had struck down the entire Chaldean army fighting against you, and there were left among them only wounded men, each in his tent, they would get up and burn this city down with fire.”
11 So it came to pass, when the army of the Chaldeans went up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army, 12 that Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to claim his property there among the people. 13 But when he was at the Benjamin Gate, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah son of Hananiah, who arrested the prophet Jeremiah, saying: “You are deserting to the Chaldeans!”
14 But Jeremiah said, “That’s a lie! I am not deserting to the Chaldeans!” But Irijah would not listen to him, but arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. 15 The officials were angry with Jeremiah, had him beaten, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made that the prison.
16 For Jeremiah went into a vaulted cell in the dungeon pit, and Jeremiah remained there many days. 17 Then King Zedekiah sent for him and received him in his palace secretly, and the king asked him: “Is there any word from Adonai?”
“There is,” Jeremiah said, and he also said, “You shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon.” 18 Moreover Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah: “How have I sinned against you or against your servants or against this people, that you have put me in prison? 19 Where now are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying: ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land?’ 20 So now please listen, my lord the king! Please let my petition come before you and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, so I will not die there.”
21 Then Zedekiah the king gave a command, and they committed Jeremiah into the courtyard of the guard. They gave him a loaf of bread from the bakers’ street daily, until all the bread in the city was spent. So Jeremiah stayed in the guard’s courtyard.
In a Miry Cistern-Pit
38 Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah spoke to all the people, saying, 2 thus says Adonai: “He that remains in this city will die by the sword, by famine, and by plague, but anyone who goes out to the Chaldeans will live—so he will keep his life like the spoils of war, and will live.” 3 Thus says Adonai: “This city will surely 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: “This man should now be put to death, since he demoralizes the men of war remaining in this city as well as all the people, by speaking such words to them. For this man is not seeking the shalom of this people, but calamity.”
5 Then King Zedekiah said: “Here he is in your hand. For the king cannot do anything against you.”
6 So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern-pit of Malchiah the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard, lowering Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the pit there was no water, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.
7 Now Ebed-melech[a]—an Ethiopian official in the king’s palace—heard they had put Jeremiah in the pit. While the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate, 8 Ebed-melech went out from the king’s palace 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 cast into the pit. He is likely to die right where he is from hunger, for there is no more bread in the city.”
10 Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying: “Take thirty men from here with you, and bring the prophet Jeremiah up out of the cistern, before he dies.”
11 So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went into the king’s palace under the storehouse, from there he took worn-out clothes and worn-out rags, and lowered them by ropes into the cistern-pit to Jeremiah. 12 And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah: “Now put these worn-out clothes and rags under your armpits under the ropes.”
Jeremiah did so. 13 Then they pulled Jeremiah up with the ropes, and lifted him up out of the pit. But Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.
14 Then Zedekiah the king sent for the prophet Jeremiah and received him at the third entrance in the House of Adonai. The king said to Jeremiah: “I am going to ask you something—hide nothing from me.”
15 Jeremiah said to Zedekiah: “If I tell you, won’t you surely put me to death? Besides, if I give you counsel, you won’t listen to me.”
16 So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying: “As Adonai lives, that gave us life, I will not put you to death, nor will I give you into the hand of these men seeking your life.”
17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah: Thus says Adonai, Elohim-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “If you will go out to the officers of the king of Babylon, then your soul will live, this city will not be burned with fire; and you and your household will survive. 18 But if you do not go out to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be handed over to the Chaldeans; they will burn it with fire, and you will not escape out of their hand.”
19 Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah: “I am afraid of the Judeans who have deserted to the Chaldeans, lest they hand me over to them and they abuse me.”
20 But Jeremiah said: “They will not hand you over. Please, obey the voice of Adonai, in what I am speaking to you, so it will go well for you, and your soul will live! 21 But if you keep refusing to go out, this is the word that Adonai has shown me: 22 ‘Soon, all the women who are left in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officers of the king of Babylon, and those women will say:
“Your close friends have misled you,
and prevailed over you.
Your feet are sunk in the mire,
and they deserted you.’”
23 “Then they will bring out all your wives and your children to the Chaldeans, and you shall not escape out of their hand, but shall be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned down with fire.”
24 Then said Zedekiah to Jeremiah: “Let no one know of these words, and you will not die.
25 “But if the officials hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you and say to you: ‘Tell us now what you have said to the king—hide nothing from us and we will not put you to death. And what did the king say to you?’ 26 Then you will tell them, ‘I was presenting my petition before the king, not to make me return to Jonathan’s house to die there.’”
27 When all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him, he told them with just these words that the king had commanded. So they stopped speaking with him, since the matter was not overheard.
28 Then Jeremiah stayed in the guard’s courtyard until the day that Jerusalem was captured.
Judgment on Zedekiah and Jerusalem
39 Now when Jerusalem was captured, in the ninth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, in the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and all his army advanced against Jerusalem, and besieged it. 2 On the ninth day of the fourth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the city wall was broken through. 3 Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came in and sat in the Middle Gate: Nergal-sarezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim the Rab-saris, Nergal-sarezer the Rab-mag, and all the rest of the officials of Babylon’s king.
4 Now when King Zedekiah of Judah and all the men of war saw them, they fled. They went out of the city at night, by way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls, heading out toward the way of the Arabah. 5 But the Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. When they captured him, they brought him up to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he passed judgment on him. 6 The king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes. Moreover, the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah. 7 Then he blinded Zedekiah’s eyes, and he bound him in shackles to carry him off to Babylon.
8 Then the Chaldeans burned the king’s palace and the houses of the people with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. 9 Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away into exile the rest of the people—those who remained in the city and also the deserters who had defected to him, and the rest of the people remaining. 10 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the people, who had nothing, behind in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields in that day.
Vindication of Jeremiah
11 Now King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon gave orders about Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying: 12 “Take him, and look after him, and do no harm to him; rather, do to him just as he tells you.”
13 So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard sent word, so Nebushazban the Rab-saris, Nergal-sarezer the Rab-mag and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon 14 sent and brought Jeremiah out of the guard’s courtyard, and gave him to Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan, to take him home. So he dwelt among the people.
15 Now the word of Adonai came to Jeremiah, while he was shut up in the guard’s courtyard, saying, 16 “Go, speak to Eved-melech the Ethiopian, saying, thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: ‘Listen, I will bring about My words on this city for evil and not for good. They will happen before you in that day. 17 But I will deliver you in that day—it is a declaration of Adonai—and you will not be given into the hand of the men whom you dread.
18 “For I will surely rescue you, so you will not fall by the sword. But you will keep your life as spoils, because you put your trust in Me.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
Yeshua Greater than Moses
3 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, partners in a heavenly calling, take notice of Yeshua—the Emissary and Kohen Gadol we affirm. 2 He was faithful to the One who appointed Him in His house—as was Moses also. [a] 3 For He has been considered worthy of more glory than Moses, even as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 5 Now Moses surely was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, for a witness of things to be spoken later. 6 But Messiah, as Son, is over God’s house—and we are His house, if we hold firm to our boldness and what we are proud to hope.
Listen and Obey, or Harden and Fall Away
7 Therefore, just as the Ruach ha-Kodesh says,
“Today if you hear His voice,
8 do not harden your hearts
as in the rebellion,[b]
on the day of testing[c] in the wilderness.
9 There your fathers put Me to the test,
though they saw My works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked by this generation,
and I said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
and they have not known My ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’”[d]
12 Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you has an evil heart of unbelief that falls away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another day by day—as long as it is called “Today”—so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partners of Messiah, if we hold our original conviction firm until the end. 15 As it is said,
“Today if you hear His voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”[e]
16 Now which ones heard and rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt with Moses? 17 And with whom was He provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest? Was it not to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter in because of lack of trust.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.